Francis William Aston
Born	September 1, 1877 Harborne , Birmingham
Died	November 20, 1945 (aged 68) Cambridge
Residence	UK
Nationality	English
Field	Chemist and Physicist
Institutions	University of Cambridge
Alma mater	University of Birmingham University of Cambridge
Academic advisor	J. J. Thomson
Known for	mass spectrograph Whole Number Rule
Notable prizes	Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1922)

Francis William Aston (born Harborne, Birmingham, September 1, 1877; died Cambridge, November 20, 1945) was a British chemist and physicist who won the 1922 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his discovery, by means of his mass spectrograph, of isotopes, in a large number of non-radioactive elements, and for his enunciation of the whole-number rule".[1] Image File history File links Metadata No higher resolution available. ... is the 244th day of the year (245th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1877 (MDCCCLXXVII) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Harborne is an area 3 miles southwest from Birmingham city centre, England. ... This article is about the British city. ... is the 324th day of the year (325th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). ... This article is about the city in England. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_England. ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... A chemist pours from a round-bottom flask. ... Not to be confused with physician, a person who practices medicine. ... The University of Cambridge (often Cambridge University), located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world and has a reputation as one of the worlds most prestigious universities. ... Website http://www. ... The University of Cambridge (often Cambridge University), located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world and has a reputation as one of the worlds most prestigious universities. ... Sir Joseph John “J.J.” Thomson, OM, FRS (18 December 1856 – 30 August 1940) was a British physicist and Nobel laureate, credited for the discovery of the electron and of isotopes, and the invention of the mass spectrometer. ... Image File history File links Nobel_prize_medal. ... Mass spectrometry (previously called mass spectroscopy (deprecated)[1] or informally, mass-spec and MS) is an analytical technique used to measure the mass-to-charge ratio of ions. ... The Whole Number Rule states that the masses of the elements are whole number multiples of the mass of the hydrogen atom. ... Image File history File links Nobel_prize_medal. ... List of Nobel Prize laureates in Chemistry from 1901 to the present day. ... Harborne is an area 3 miles southwest from Birmingham city centre, England. ... This article is about the British city. ... is the 244th day of the year (245th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1877 (MDCCCLXXVII) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... This article is about the city in England. ... is the 324th day of the year (325th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). ... A chemist pours from a round-bottom flask. ... Not to be confused with physician, a person who practices medicine. ... This is a list of Nobel Prize laureates in Chemistry from 1901 to 2006. ... ...

Biography and work

Francis Aston was born in Harborne, now part of Greater Birmingham, on September 1, 1877. He was the third child and second son of William Aston and Fanny Charlotte Hollis. He was educated at the Harborne Vicarage School and later Malvern College in Worcestershire where he has a boarder. In 1893 Francis William Aston began his university studies at Mason College (later part of the University of Birmingham) where he was taught physics by John Henry Poynting and chemistry by Frankland and Tilden. From 1896 on he conducted additional research on organic chemistry in a private laboratory at his father’s house. In 1898 he started as a student of Frankland financed by a Forster Scholarship; his work concerned optical properties of tartaric acid compounds. He started to work on fermentation chemistry at the school of brewing in Birmingham and was employed by W. Butler & Co. Brewery in 1900. This period of employment ended in 1903 when he returned to the University of Birmingham under Poynting as an Associate. Not to be confused with Josiah Mason College, a specialist Sixth Form College (established 1983). ... Website http://www. ... Categories: People stubs | 1852 births | 1914 deaths | Physicists ... Sir William Augustus Tilden (15 August 1842 - 11 December 1926) was a British chemist. ... Organic chemistry is a specific discipline within chemistry which involves the scientific study of the structure, properties, composition, reactions, and preparation (by synthesis or by other means) of chemical compounds consisting primarily of carbon and hydrogen, which may contain any number of other elements, including nitrogen, oxygen, halogens as well... Tartaric acid is a white crystalline organic acid. ... For other uses, see Fermentation. ...

With a scholarship from the University of Birmingham he pursued resarch in physics following the discovery of X-rays and radioactivity in the mid-1890s. Aston studied the flow of current through an electronic discharge tube (a gas-filled tube with electrodes under high vacuum. The research, conducted with self-made discharge tubes, led him to the investigate the volume of the Crookes dark space now known as Aston dark space. ^[1][2][3] Website http://www. ... An X-ray picture (radiograph), taken by Wilhelm Röntgen in 1896, of his wife, Anna Bertha Ludwigs[1] hand X-rays (or Röntgen rays) are a form of electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength in the range of 10 to 0. ... Radioactivity may mean: Look up radioactivity in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The 1890s were sometimes referred to as the Mauve Decade, because William Henry Perkins aniline dye allowed the widespread use of that colour in fashion, and also as the Gay Nineties, under the then-current usage of the word gay which referred simply to merriment and frivolity, with no...

After the death of his father, and a trip around the world in 1908, he was appointed lecturer at the University of Birmingham in 1909 but moved to the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge on the invitation of Joseph John Thomson in 1910. Plaque, at old site Entrance, old site, Free School Lane The Cavendish Laboratory is the University of Cambridges Department of Physics, and is part of the universitys School of Physical Sciences. ... This article is about the city in England. ... Sir Joseph John Thomson Sir Joseph John Thomson (18 December 1856 – 30 August 1940), often known as J. J. Thomson, was an English physicist, the discoverer of the electron. ...

Joseph John Thomson revealed the nature of the cathode rays and the discovered the electron and he was now doing research on the positive charged "Kanalstrahlen" discovered by Eugen Goldstein in 1886. The method of deflecting particles in the "Kanalstrahlen" by magnetic fields, discovered by Wilhelm Wien in 1908, and electric fields was used to separate the different ions, by there charge and mass. The first sector field mass spectrometer was the result of these experiments. The ions followed a parabolic flight path and were recorded on photographic plates from which their exact mass could be determined by the mass spectrometer. A schematic diagram of a Crookes tube apparatus. ... Anode rays (or Canal rays) were produced in experiments by a German scientist, Eugen Goldstein, in 1886. ... Among the important early researchers in X-rays were Sir William Crookes, Johann Wilhelm Hittorf, Eugene Goldstein, Heinrich Hertz, Philipp Lenard, Hermann von Helmholtz, Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, Charles Barkla, and Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen. ... Wilhelm Carl Werner Otto Fritz Franz Wien (January 13, 1864 – August 30, 1928) was a German physicist who, in 1893, used theories about heat and electromagnetism to compose Wiens displacement law, which relates the maximum emission of a blackbody to its temperature. ... Mass spectrometry is a technique for separating ions by their mass-to-charge (m/z) ratios. ...

It was speculations about isotopy that directly gave rise to the building of a mass spectrometer capable of separating the isotopes of the chemical elements. Aston initially worked on the identification of isotopes of the element neon and later chlorine and mercury. First World War stalled and delayed his research on providing experimental proof for the existence of isotopes by mass spectroscopy and during the war Aston worked at the Royal Airforce Establishment in Farnborough as a Technical Assistant working on aeronautical coatings. An illustration of a homotopy between the two bold paths In topology, two continuous functions from one topological space to another are called homotopic (Greek homeos = identical and topos = place) if one can be continuously deformed into the other, such a deformation being called a homotopy between the two functions. ... For other uses, see Isotope (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Neon (disambiguation). ... “The Great War ” redirects here. ...

After the war he returned to research at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, and completed building his first mass spectrograph (now mass spectrometer) that he reported on 1919. Subsequent improvements in the instrument led to the development of a second and third instrument of improved mass resolving power and mass accuracy. These instruments employing electromagnetic focusing allowed him to identify 212 naturally occurring isotopes. In 1921, F. W. Aston became a fellow of the Royal Society and received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry the following year. Mass spectrometry (previously called mass spectroscopy (deprecated)[1] or informally, mass-spec and MS) is an analytical technique used to measure the mass-to-charge ratio of ions. ... For other uses, see Royal Society (disambiguation). ...

His work on isotopes also led to his formulation of the Whole Number Rule which states that "the mass of the oxygen isotope being defined, all the other isotopes have masses that are very nearly whole numbers," a rule that was used extensively in the development of nuclear energy. The exact mass of many isotopes was measured leading to the result that hydrogen has a 1% higher mass than expected by the average mass of the other elements. Aston speculated about the subatomic energy and the use of it in 1936. The Whole Number Rule states that the masses of the elements are whole number multiples of the mass of the hydrogen atom. ... This article concerns the energy stored in the nuclei of atoms; for the use of nuclear fission as a power source, see Nuclear power. ...

Aston was a skilled photographer and interested in astronomy. He joined several expeditions to study solar eclipses to Benkoeben in 1925, Sumatra in 1932; Memphri in Canada 1936 and Kamishri in Japan. He also planned to attend expeditions to South Africa in 1940 and Brazil in 1945 in later life. Aston died in Cambridge on November 20, 1945, A photographer at the Calgary Folk Music Festival Paparazzi at the Tribeca Film Festival A photographer is a person who takes a photograph using a camera. ... For other uses, see Astronomy (disambiguation). ... Sumatra (also spelled Sumatera) is the sixth largest island in the world (approximately 470,000 km²) and is the largest island entirely in Indonesia (two larger islands, Borneo and New Guinea, are partially in Indonesia). ...

Private life

In his private life he was a sportsman, cross-country skiing and skating in winter time, during his regular visits to Switzerland and Norway, deprived of this winter sports during First World War he started climbing. Between the ages of 20 and 25 he spent a large scale of his spare time cycling. The new invention of motorized vehicles he constructed a combustion engine of his own in 1902 and participated in the Gordon Bennett Race in Ireland in 1903. Not content with these sports he also engaged in swimming, golf, especially with Rutherford and other colleges in Cambridge ^[4] , tennis, winning some prizes at open tournaments in England Wales and Ireland and learning surfing in Honululu in 1909. Coming from a musical family he was capable to play piano, violine and cello at a level that he regularly was played in the concerts at Cambridge. He visited many places around the globe on extensive travel tours starting from 1908 when he visited and ending with a trip to Australia and New Zealand in 1938-1939.^{[5] [6]} Cross-Country trails are often less crowded than Alpine ski slopes. ... Look up skating in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... “The Great War ” redirects here. ... Police officer on a bicycle Cycling is a means of transport, a form of recreation and a sport. ... A colorized automobile engine The internal combustion engine is a heat engine in which the burning of a fuel occurs in a confined space called a combustion chamber. ... Swimmer redirects here. ... This article is about the sport. ... Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson, known as the father of nuclear physics. ... For other uses, see Tennis (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... This article is about the country. ... For the city and county of Honolulu, see City & County of Honolulu. ... A short grand piano, with the lid up. ... For the Anne Rice novel, see Violin (novel). ... This article is about the stringed musical instrument. ...

Isotopes (publ. in 1922) and Mass-spectra- and Isotopes (publ. in 1933) are his most well-known publications.

The lunar crater Aston was named in his honour. Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... Aston is a lunar impact crater that is located along the northwest limb of the Moon. ...

External links

• Annotated bibliography for Francis Aston from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues
• Aston biography from Nobel Prize site
• Aston biography from Cambridge

References