Applied Nuclear Physics

vii, [1], 249, [1] pages. Illustrations. Formulae, References. Author Index. Subject Index. Large unsigned bookplate inside front cover. Pencil erasure residue on fep. Cover has some wear and soiling. Dr. Pollard was an Associate Professor of Physics at Yale University and Dr. Davidson was a Research Physicists with the B. F. Goodrich Company. Applied nuclear physics is the study and application of the properties of atomic nuclei. This is a wide field. Examples of applications range from energy production in nuclear power plants to the measurements of extremely small quantities of different isotopes, as in the carbon-14 method. Ernest C. Pollard [1906-1974] did much of his work at Yale University, where he designed the university's first atom-smashing cyclotron in 1939. He was among the scientists who made the first determination of the radius of a nucleus. This is an important, even seminal, work in the mid-20th Century understanding of, and application of, nuclear physics. Ernest Charles "Ernie" Pollard (April 16, 1906 - February 24, 1997) was a professor of physics and biophysics and an author, who worked on the development of radar systems in World War II, worked on the physics of living cells, and who wrote textbooks and approximately 200 papers on nuclear physics and radiation biophysics. He studied physics at Cambridge University. He did his Ph.D. work under James Chadwick at Cavendish Laboratory, which was led by Ernest Rutherford, receiving his degree in 1932. In 1933, he joined the physics department of Yale University, where he designed the university's first cyclotron in 1939. He co-wrote the first "textbook" in the subject: Applied Nuclear Physics with William L. Davidson, Jr. then Research Physicist of the B.F. Goodrich Company, published in 1942. From 1941 to 1945 he was a member of the MIT Radiation Laboratory, working on such projects as Li'l Abner (for which he was granted a patent), MEW, the moving target indicator, and the height finder; and serving as associate head, co-head, and head of Division 10. For his work on radar development, he received the President's Certificate of Merit from President of the United States Harry S. Truman.William L. Davidson wanted his obituary to include the fact that "In 1938, when he was 23, he co-authored a book that foresaw the atomic bomb and explained how it would work, how just one would unleash enough power to wipe out a whole city. Though the book, dryly titled Applied Nuclear Physics, was intended only as a technical manual, it became a bestseller as its horrific predictions became fact. He won an assistantship at Yale. There, working toward a doctorate in physics, he met nuclear physicist Ernest C. Pollard, who was then designing Yale's first cyclotron. Pollard and Davidson began using the cyclotron to create radioactive isotopes, which have many applications in medical diagnostics. That caused Pollard to conceive a book - a guidebook - written not for physicists, but for technicians working with radioactive isotopes. He recruited Davidson to help him write it. A textbook publisher accepted the book, but warned the authors they wouldn't get rich. The publisher estimated it could sell about 3,000 books at $3 each. Pollard and Davidson would get a royalty of 45 cents per book - to split. That worked out to about 10 cents an hour for their labor. Davidson's first-quarter royalty check was $39. But in December 1942, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Enrico Fermi announced a nuclear breakthrough: Conducting experiments on a squash court in Chicago, he proved that a chain reaction could be created in natural uranium. The proof triggered an immediate expansion of the secret Manhattan Project to build an atomic bomb. It also triggered a moratorium on the publication of any material that included the words "nuclear fission" or "atomic bomb." It so happened that Pollard's and Davidson's Chapter 11 included a detailed description of nuclear fission, of a futuristic atomic bomb and.…