Emile Armet de Lisle

This is some bold text on the sandbox.

Article evaluation

Article on Hermann Vogel:

Most everything in the article seems relevant from a biographical point of view. I did, however, find the mention of his trips to the US in the "other activities" section a bit awkward; without any sort of additional details concerning why he made the trips or explaining how the trips were significant in any way to his career, mentioning them just seems like an unimportant and unnecessary aside.

The section describing his academic career sadly lacks references.

One of the notes has a link to what seems to be a biographical account of Vogel... on "photoseed.com." It would certainly be preferable to have an official academic journal of history to refer to, though on closer inspection the photoseed page for Vogel does at least contain some citations. Since photoseed seems to mostly be a small online site attempting to archive some information on early figures in photography, it goes without saying that the information presented will not be as robust, comprehensive or critical as a formal academic study could be.

The article's treatment of Vogel differs from what we have discussed in class of him in that it emphasizes the more scientific aspects of his work and career; that is, his experimental procedures and the intrinsic value, scientifically and practically, of his results. This is as opposed to our discussion in class, which more closely scrutinized the various ways Vogel attempted to commercialize his work. In a word, the article examines Vogel as a scientist whereas our class examined him as an academic entrepreneur (and more broadly, examined how his own entrepreneurial efforts help to shed light on a larger overall trend of 19th century scientists aiming to extract financial and social gains from their scientific work).

Ideas for article editing

George de Hevesy

The lead section could be fleshed out a bit more, with some information on why he is a significant figure in the history radiochemical techniques.

From source in Springer: Niese, S. J Radioanal Nucl Chem (2017) 311: 1035. https://doi-org.proxy1.library.jhu.edu/10.1007/s10967-016-4922-2 :

Hevesy regarded as the founder of radionanalytical chemistry -> lead section can mention this, as a result of his pioneering work on radioactive tracer techniques. Also noteworthy is his work on X-ray fluorescence analysis.

Hevesy had done noteworthy work in physical chemistry during the first two decades of the 20th century, yet very little about this time in Hevesy's career is discussed in the article. During this time, Hevesy - who was in contact with Niels Bohr, among other notable scientists - worked on the problem of "self-diffusion of atoms in molten and solid lead," and towards the end of 1912 proposed the idea of labeling lead nitrate with a radioactive substance.

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=62168207&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Some of the information in Hevesy's current article, upon a close comparison, appears to be almost directly lifted from this particular source, without citation, so citation should be added.

A Century of Chemical Dynamics Traced through the Nobel Prizes 1943: George de Hevesy, Journal of Chemical Education

Source notes that much of Hevesy's own emphasis was on biological and physiological processes and samples, but nevertheless approaches Hevesy's work and career from a physical chemistry perspective, bringing to light his pioneering use of important techniques such as neutron activation analysis. Also notes that Hevesy was particularly satisfied with his discovery of the element hafnium, which provided important empirical input for understanding the organization of the periodic table of the elements.

Emile Armet de Lisle

This article needs to be created from scratch, so a good place to start would probably be to collect some basic information for a broader range of biographical topics, including early and personal life, professional work, legacy, and so on.

From source http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=35756837&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Armet de Lisle was the son of a chemical industrialist. Eventually, de Lisle assumed control of the family business and, believing that a new industry was taking form around the refinement and purification of radium ore, expanded the business in this direction, taking charge of the development and production of radium salts with the establishment of a factory on the outskirts of Paris.

Armet de Lisle's involvement in the radium industry had brought him into close ties with the Curies. This relationship gave him access to not only their laboratories, but also additional resources for pursuing his own industrial ventures. Armet de Lisle's impact on the early radium industry in France cannot be understated: as written by Soraya Boudia, "he became one of the most important protagonists of radium therapy in France." de Lisle was also responsible for overseeing the publication of a periodical journal on radioactivity, called "Le Radium."

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=6197083&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Contains additional info on Armet de Lisle, including what was produced by his factory. In particular, de Lisle's factory was responsible for providing the materials for important early work on therapeutic uses of radium, and de Lisle would later fund the development of the Laboratory of Radium Biology.

http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=13588781&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Soraya Boudia: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hia&AN=6197059&site=ehost-live&scope=site

John H. Lawrence

This page is lacking in volume of content. The background section could be expanded somewhat with additional information concerning Lawrence's education and early work following his successful completion of the MD program at Harvard Medical School.

The source "Distinguished Nuclear Pioneer: John Hundale Lawrence" from the Journal of Nuclear Medicine contains a wealth of additional information on Lawrence, from his education and early career to some of the particular details of his research and pioneering work in the field of nuclear medicine. For example, while the pre-existing article for Lawrence merely mentions his use of radioactive phosphorus for leukemia treatment, there also exists information on a much wider scope of research, including his use of radioactive tracer techniques to study metabolism, his early work on developing protections against radiation sickness, and his studies of the particular effects of ionizing radiation on on living tissues.

More can also be said for Lawrence's roles as an administrator of the Donner Laboratory, which is mentioned only in passing in the article; for example, in this particular source it is noted that Lawrence played an important role in developing the Donner Laboratory into a productive hub for nuclear medicine research, which ultimately resulted in significant developments in the field that were not necessarily his own.

"Pure but Practical" - an article in Time magazine which mentions an important discovery by John Lawrence concerning the treatment of cancer with radioactive techniques.

"John H. Lawrence, M.D. receives the Enrico Fermi Award" - published in Nutrition Today, discusses Lawrence's career in recognition of him receiving the Enrico Fermi Award, presented to individuals with remarkable contributions to nuclear science and its applications.

Article drafts

Emile Armet de Lisle

Emile Armet de Lisle (1853-1928) was a French industrialist and chemist who made important contributions to the early development of the French radium industry at the turn of the 20^th century.

The son of an industrialist, de Lisle, believing that a market around radium was about to develop in France and seeking to leave his own mark on the family business, established a new factory, just outside Paris, devoted to the production of radium products in 1904. This was effectively the first radium factory in the world.

De Lisle’s business was responsible for supplying the radioactive material that was needed by local scientists and institutions working on problems and applications of radioactivity; among his partners was Marie Curie, whose laboratory received substantial material and support from de Lisle’s business.^[2] By partnering with scientists and medical professionals, de Lisle played an important role in helping to build a burgeoning commercial enterprise around the production of radium and the study and use of radioactivity in general.

Early life and Sels de Radium

Emile Armet de Lisle was born in 1853 in France, the son of a chemical industrialist who owned a quinine plant located near Paris at Nogent-sur-Marne. During his time as a student, de Lisle concentrated his studies on chemistry, and eventually he returned to work under his father in the family quinine business.

For some time, Armet de Lisle worked as a consultant for Marie and Pierre Curie. The Curies had developed a method for extracting radium compounds from pitchblende (the residual substance left behind by the harvesting of uranium ore), but the outlook of the procedure, called "fractional crystallization," was poor. Even with an abundance of pitchblende, only very minute amounts of usable radium could realistically be harvested through the tedious procedure. In 1904, de Lisle, realizing that such a process would likely benefit considerably from an industrial scale-up and believing that there was a potentially lucrative market for radium materials in light of possible applications to medicine, began his own business venture with the creation of Sels de Radium (“Radium Salts”). Sels de Radium, established near the old quinine plant at Nogent-sur-Marne, was dedicated to the manufacture of radium salts, and related products, using the Curie method. It was the first such factory in the world.

Ties with the Curies and expanding the business

Armet de Lisle’s radium business was focused on extracting and refining radium compounds from raw ore for commercial use, including the development of devices that were used to ship the radium and actually harness its radiation in a laboratory setting.

Among de Lisle’s most important clients were the Curies. The ties between de Lisle and the Curies were mutually beneficial. The Curies had affordable access to de Lisle’s products, factory floor, and organizational resources. For example, Marie Curie's 1907 measurement of the atomic weight of radium was performed with a substantial amount of radium that had been supplied directly by de Lisle's factory. In 1908, Curie herself requested laboratory space in de Lisle's factory for expanding her own chemical work, a request which de Lisle granted. The Curies also had office space inside de Lisle's factory, which allowed for closer coordination of collaborative activities between de Lisle and the Curies. Meanwhile, the Curies vouched for the quality of de Lisle’s products, and provided de Lisle with access to the intellectual and physical resources of their own laboratory in Paris, the Laboratoire Curie. Specifically, de Lisle used researchers from the Laboratoire Curie as technicians to staff and operate his factory, and, understanding the influence and fame of the Curie name, marketed his radium products as being directly certified by the Curies themselves.

In 1913, with the Curies' partnership secured, de Lisle attempted an aggressive expansion of his radium business. The plan was centered around boosting production through the implementation of novel radium harvesting procedures developed and patented by Erich Ebler, a professor of chemistry in Heidelberg, as a complement to Curie's own method. De Lisle enlisted the support of Marie Curie for this project, inviting her to serve on a committee overseeing the technical aspects of the company. However, when doubts surfaced about Ebler's methods, the plan fell through.

The relationship between de Lisle's factory and the Laboratoire Curie has been examined by several historians of science and technology. Xavier Roque, for example, has written that “this relationship…was clearly advantageous to Curie,” while Maria Rentetzi has written that de Lisle’s business grew into a lucrative position at the head of the therapeutic radium industry on the strength of his connection to the Laboratoire Curie and the technical knowledge it produced. Though de Lisle ultimately failed to successfully expand his business in 1913, Marie Curie's willingness to be personally involved in the project has been argued by Roque to be evidence of the strong and lasting partnership de Lisle forged with the Curies.

De Lisle also expanded his business to interface with other scientists and medical professionals in the French community. In 1905 he sent some of his products to the French physician Louis Wickham, who used the materials to conduct studies on the possible therapeutic benefits of medical radium. Wickham’s work marked a significant contribution to the early understanding of how radium’s ability to penetrate living tissue could be used to treat illnesses. On the strength of these early discoveries, Armet de Lisle would go on to personally fund the creation of a new institution devoted to research into radiobiology, the Laboratoire biologique du radium, which officially began studies in July of 1906 and was supported by a steady stream of radium material from de Lisle’s factory.

Lasting impact on the sciences

From the establishment of Sels de Radium until his death in 1928, de Lisle remained both an active participant in the French radium industry and a facilitator for its ties to the scientific and medical communities in France. Armet de Lisle helped to bolster communication and collaboration among scientists working on the problems of radioactivity; in 1904, he began to supervise and finance the publication of a periodical journal dedicated to the topic, Le Radium. The journal eventually grew to encompass a wide variety of scientific topics broadly related to radioactivity, including radiophysics and radiochemistry, and had the support of prominent scientists including Marie Curie, Ernest Rutherford, and Henri Becquerel.

Armet de Lisle’s funding and subsequent supplying of the Laboratoire biologique du radium has been considered an important contribution to early French radio-chemistry and medicine, as the institute’s research program helped to establish the foundational understanding required for the successful application of radioactivity to medicine. His business would also develop into the dominant manufacturer of equipment for the greater French medical community; historian of science Soraya Boudia has written that “indeed he became one of the most important protagonists of radium therapy in France.”

Armet de Lisle played a significant role in helping to develop Marie Curie’s Institut du Radium (today the Curie Institute). In 1912, Curie, writing a summary of the value of her laboratory’s property, placed the value of the first gram of radium she had accumulated at one million francs. Much of this material could be accounted for by, at least in part, the contributions of de Lisle’s factory. With only a tenth of the radium’s value being lost in payments to de Lisle and other expenses associated with procuring the ore, Curie had succeeded in building up sufficient financial resources for funding the continued work and development of the Institut du Radium, which was established in collaboration between the University of Paris and Institut Pasteur in 1909. Curie envisioned the Institut as a driving force not only for the radium industry but also as a centralizing hub for French scientists carrying out bio-medical studies with radioactive substances.

John H. Lawrence

Background

Lawrence held a junior faculty position at Yale before he was brought in to the physics department of the University of California, Berkeley, as an assistant professor, by his brother Ernest.

Career

At the University of California, Berkeley and his brother’s laboratory, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence's work focused on the possibilities of applying various principles and techniques in nuclear science to medicinal purposes. Among his achievements were his innovative usage of radioactive tracer techniques to study the impact of illness on metabolic processes. He also demonstrated that neutron beams were potentially more effective at battling cancerous cells than x-rays, and, in 1949, was the first physician to use a radioactively labelled noble gas for diagnostic purposes in humans.