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RefNoCD/90/40
Previous numbersCD 1230
LevelItem
TitleLetter from Frederick Soddy, Old Chemistry Department, University Museum, Oxford, to the Secretaries of the Royal Society
Date22 January 1923
DescriptionThe President had recommended that Soddy make a formal complaint to Council of the Royal Society, for the manner in which wartime volunters were being treated and for the false positions in which research organisers, such as himself, were being placed. He attended the hearing into King and Mason's claim and gave evidence, having prepared large quantities of acetal. The decision of 'no award' was made on purely legal grounds, not on technical ones. The Commission had no legal powers to compell witnesses. In the absence of testimony from the Royal Society, Counsel for the Treasury produced a memorandum purporting to show that the Royal Society's scheme was for the benefit of manufacturers and not an emergency measure to supply a wartime need. Soddy believes that a Government department made an iniquitous agreement with manufacturers behind the backs of scientific workers noting the 'inconceivable depths of degradation to which they sank in the attempt to carry out this fraudulent pact.' Soddy believes that in acting for the Royal Society he may have inadvertently deprived his voluntary workers of their intellectual property.
Extent2p.
FormatTypescript
PhysicalDescriptionOn paper
AccessStatusOpen
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