Catalogue description Catalogue of the papers and correspondence of EGON BRETSCHER CBE (1901 - 1973)

SECTION A BIOGRAPHICAL & PERSONAL A. 1-A.62

SECTION B SWITZERLAND B. 1-B.8

SECTION C CAMBRIDGE C. 1-C.18

SECTION D "TUBE ALLOYS" D. 1-D.105

SECTION E LOS ALAMOS E. 1-E.29

SECTION F ATOMIC ENERGY RESEARCH ESTABLISHMENT, HARWELL F. 1-F.180

SECTION G VISITS G. 1-G.14

SECTION H CORRESPONDENCE H. 1-H.80

The collection, though not exhaustive, includes some useful material on Bretscher's career and some of the momentous events in which he participated. Of interest in Section A (Biographical and Personal) are A.5 Bretscher's own 'Survey of activities during the war and with the A.E.R.E.', compiled in 1964 and A.6, a lecture given at Harwell in 1967 on 'Wartime nuclear physics and chemical research at the Cavendish Laboratory 1940-44 associated with atomic weapons'.

Section C (Cambridge) contains a little material on the early stages of Bretscher's atomic research (C.2-C.4) and his collaboration with D.E. Lea (C.5); the notes of a 'Private Colloquium with Fermi' (C.6) are of interest but probably belong to a later period.

Section D documents in considerable detail the work undertaken at the Cavendish Laboratory for the "Tube Alloys" project and includes contemporary research notes and reports by members of the team, reports prepared for the Maud Committee and the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, and later work relating to postwar publication of the wartime research. Bretscher's regular exchanges of correspondence with Chadwick are also included here.

Section E (Los Alamos) includes some research reports and Bretscher's account of his activities (E.10) as well as various contemporary bulletins and newsletters.

Section F (A.E.R.E. Harwell) is the fullest in the collection and is of interest in documenting Bretscher's involvement in national and international nuclear data committees, and his interest in maintaining collaboration with universities and research institutions.

There is a short Section G (Visits) which includes several visits to Russia and related background reports; the surviving correspondence is to be found in Section H.

Compiled by Jeannine Alton and Peter Harper

Bretscher, Egon, 1901-1973, scientist, chemist and nuclear physicist

The material derives from two sources. The major part was received from Mrs. Bretscher at various dates 1984-86. Some of the papers relating to research, committees, lectures and publications during Bretscher's period at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Harwell, and not required by the Public Record Office, were received from Harwell in 1984 and are included in Section F of the present catalogue.

• Nuclear physics
• Nuclear weapons
• Chemistry

OUTLINE OF THE CAREER OF EGON BRETSCHER

Bretscher was born in Zurich and educated at Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule (ETH) for which he retained a lasting affection. He obtained his diploma in chemical engineering at E.T.H. and spent 1925-27 in Edinburgh working for his doctorate in the department of chemistry (Sir James Walker). After a further period at E.T.H. he was awarded a Rockefeller Fellowship, held at the Cavendish Laboratory 1934-35; Rutherford invited him to return to Cambridge in 1936 and he remained there as Clerk Maxwell Scholar (1936-39) and Lecturer (1939-44). His work on nuclear physics led to his involvement in the British atomic bomb research project "Tube Alloys" and his membership of the British Mission to the Manhattan District Scientific Laboratory at Los Alamos from early 1944 where he worked in Fermi's Advanced Development Division. After the war, he returned to Britain and joined the newly-established A.E.R.E. at Harwell, first as head of the Chemistry Division, then from 1948 as head of the Nuclear Physics Division. He was awarded the C.B.E. in 1966, the year of his retirement from Harwell.

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