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The recent donation to the University of Adelaide of a small
brass microscope which once belonged to Nobel laureate William Henry
Bragg can be traced back to an item in New Scientist in May 1989.
Bragg was professor of mathematics and physics at the university from 1886 to
1909. The New Scientistarticle drew attention to an auction of science
memorabilia by the British Science and Technology Trust to raise funds for the
promotion of science. Australian physicist and science historian John
Jenkin, who happened to be in the UK at the time, saw the article. He
discovered that one of the items under the hammer was the Bragg family
microscope. The microscope was passed in at auction, but was later acquired by
Jenkin, an authority on Bragg. Jenkin has given the Bragg
microscope—cleaned and in working order—to the university, where it
is to be put on display. In 1915, after moving back to England, Bragg shared the
Nobel Prize in physics with his son Lawrence for research which led to the
first application of x-rays to determining the structure of crystals.