| Description | Correspondence on the Industrial Distributors' 'Special Research Project in England'.
This project was the funding by Industrial Distributors of areas of Solid State research in the UK. The project was instigated by Simon following Industrial Distributors request for Simon to aid their research into new 'abrasives' formed by the neutron bombardment of diamonds. Simon instead suggested Industrial Distributors fund areas of Solid State research in the UK, to build up relations which could later be used for more direct research into areas of interest for Industrial Distributors.
Simon's role in the project was to suggest laboratories and scientists to support and direct funds towards them. Initial beneficiaries were to be Prof NF Mott and Dr Franck, Bristol University; Dr Bowden, Cambridge University; Dr Berman, Oxford University and Prof Max Born, Edinburgh University.
This correspondence was kept secret, the reason given that Industrial Distributors need not be innundated with requests for funding from other institutions.
The papers are arranged alphabetically by name of correspondent. Those papers are preceeded by a short section of setting out the grounds of the relationship between Industrial Distributors and the scientists, including the minutes of the first meeting of the London Supervisory Committee of the Special Research Project (8 November 1949) and a Report setting out the work to be undertaken by the funded institutions. |