The 'Soddy Box' finds a home at The Hunterian
Published: 2 July 2012
The Hunterian has recently become the new home to a famous box which contained radium samples, known as ‘The Soddy Box’.
The Hunterian has recently become the new home to a famous box which contained radium samples, known as ‘The Soddy Box’.
The samples were used at the University of Glasgow by illustrious Nobel-Prize winning chemist Frederick Soddy between 1904 and 1914. Professor Soddy was a pioneer in the understanding of radioactivity and the first to describe different forms of the same elements as isotopes.
The iron-bound wooded box which housed the samples is not radioactive. However, the radium samples which it contained cannot be displayed safely as they are highly radioactive. Staff at The Hunterian are currently exploring how this could be done and aim to place ‘The Soddy Box’ in pride of place in the near future.
The University of Glasgow has extensive archives relating to Soddy’s work and The Hunterian is already home to a number of innovative apparatus used or made by Soddy, including an electrometer made from a biscuit tin.
‘The Soddy Box’ will be the subject of The Hunterian Insight Talk on Tuesday 3 July at 1.00pm in the Hunterian Museum. Admission is free.
First published: 2 July 2012
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