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Characters in Rutherford's life

Marie Curie.jpg

Marie Curie (1867-1934)

       It would not be useful to repeat the biography of Marie Curie here: there are already many of them. I would just recommend the one written by Susan Quinn and the one by Robert Reid, the most complete among the dozen I use for my novel. If you prefer French, then read Une femme honorable by Françoise Giroud or, even more touching, Madame Curie, a work by Ève Curie, the baby that appears on Marie's lap in the group photo presented here (the other child is her older sister, Irène).

I use many elements from Marie Curie's life in my work, because writing a biography of Rutherford without mentioning his French colleague would leave a lot of gray areas.

From the start of their work on radioactive bodies, the two researchers find their bearings, read and quote each other, but always from a distance.

On June 25, 1903, they met for the first time.

Marie is defending her thesis on that day. Ernest is on vacation in Europe. Back from Geneva, he stops in Paris. He wants to visit Marie in her laboratory; she is absent, occupied precisely by her defense. He returns to his hotel, disappointed.

But in the afternoon, a message arrives: his friend Langevin , whom he met in Cambridge, invites him to a dinner in honor of the new doctor of science Marie Skłodowska-Curie.

Meetings between Marie Curie and Ernest Rutherford:

1903: Paris (dinner at Langevin's )

1910: Brussels ( radiology congress )

1911: Brussels ( Solvay congress )

1912: Paris ( Radium Commission )

1913: Birmingham ( BAAS )

1913: Brussels ( Solvay congress )

1921: Brussels ( Solvay congress )

1924: Brussels ( Solvay congress )

1933: Brussels ( Solvay congress )

Pierre et Marie Curie - Mariage 1895.jpg

Pierre & Marie Curie on their wedding day in 1895

Source : Musée Curie

Ernest and May Rutherford will be part of the fifteen or so guests gathered in rue Gazan, at the home of Jeanne and Paul Langevin, to celebrate this success. Also participating in this meal are some other figures of science of the time, who appear in the "trombinoscope" below (I tried to find photos in which they are all the age they were in 1903) .

From that day on, the Polish-born physicist and her New Zealand counterpart, both expatriates, atypical, determined, quick-witted, hardworking, will feel close to each other. Admiration, respect, support in the face of adversity: it has been a true friendship and I want to bring it to life in the pages of my Rutherford biography.

Curie_Marie_-_Couverture_de_la_Thèse_pr

Cover page of the thesis presented by Marie Skłodowska-Curie on June 25, 1903.

Click on the image to access the Gallica site which offers the entire scanned document.

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Some of the guests who participated in the meal given in honor of Marie at Jeanne and Paul Langevin's, at 23 rue Gazan, in front of the Parc Montsouris (Paris XIV)

    Marie & Pierre Curie had 2 children: Irène, born on 12 september 1897, & Eve, born on 6 december 1904.

Marie Curie et ses filles Ève et Irène, 1905

Marie Curie and her daughters, Irène &t Ève, in 1905. 

Source : Musée Curie

      On 19 April 1906, Marie Curie lost her husband in a road accident on Rue Dauphine in Paris. It was a shock to the whole world.

 

    Marie was appointed lecturer and head of the laboratory in his place. She gave her first lecture at the Sorbonne on 5 November 1906.

Pierre Curie - Annonce du décès - The Age - Melbourne - 20 Apr 1906.jpeg
Marie Curie - Premier cours en novembre 1906.jpg

Front-page drawing from the magazine L'Illustration of 20 November 1906, depicting Marie Curie giving her first lecture at the Sorbonne on the 6th of that month.

Source : Curie-joliotcurie.fr

Announcement of the death of Pierre Curie in the 20 April edition of The Age, a newspaper published in Melbourne, Australia.

Source : Newspapers.com

Marie Curie and Ernest Rutherford will meet in Brussels in 1910 then in 1911, in Paris in 1912 and in Birmingham in 1913.

(Click on the name of each city to know the details of this reunion) then in 1921, 1924 and 1933, on the occasion of various Solvay Congresses.

They will maintain an irregular, but lasting, correspondence.

(1921) in Brussels, during the 3rd Solvay physics congress, seated in the first row, two seats away from Ernest Rutherford (the man placed between them is the American Robert Millikan).

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Marie Curie and her daughter Irène at the Hoogstade Hospital in Belgium, 1915..webp

Marie Curie and her daughter Irène at the Hoogstade Hospital in Belgium, 1915

Source : NobelPrize.org

marie-curie-et-ses-filles-sur-le-paquebot-olympic-1921-c-musee-curie-coll-acjc.jpg

Eve, Marie & Irène in may 1921, aboard the Olympic, linking Cherbourg to New York.

Source : La Presse de la Manche

During the two decades between the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo and her own death, Marie Curie:

 

  • ​Helped care for the wounded during the First World War, setting up X-ray units in field hospitals and travelling herself to the front line to carry out X-ray examinations  in specially equipped vehicles; Irène assisted her, before setting off alone on certain missions (1915–1918)

  • Trained nurses in radiology (1916–1919), again with Irène’s help

  • Opened the Radium Institute on Rue Pierre Curie in Paris’s 5th arrondissement (1919)

  • Travelled to the United States to receive a gram of radium, funded by donations from industrialists and women’s and scientific organisations (1921). She was accompanied by her two daughters, Irène and Eve, who were delighted with the trip. She visited numerous universities, received several honorary degrees, visited the Grand Canyon and Niagara Falls, and met President Harding and a large number of scientists, including Robert Millikan (again) and Bertram Boltwood

  • Served on the International Commission for Intellectual Cooperation (the forerunner of UNESCO), established by the League of Nations (1922–1934), alongside Albert Einstein, Hendrik Lorentz, Paul Langevin, Robert Millikan and Henri Bergson​, among others

  • Opened the Warsaw Radium Institute, under the direction of her sister Bronia (1932)

  • And, of course, continued her research until her very last breath

The Curie Pavillion at the Radium Institute in 1925.webp

The Curie Pavilion at the Radium Institute in Paris, in 1925.

Source : NobelPrize.org

Marie et Irène Curie au laboratoire 1927.jpg
Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, Robert Millikan et Gilbert Murray à la Commission Internatio

Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, Robert A. Millikan and Gilbert Murray at the International Commission for Intellectual Co-operation in Brussels, July 1922..

Source : Musée Curie

Marie & Irène Curie in their laboratory in 1927

Source : Global Citizen

Marie Curie died on 4 July 1934 at the Sancellemoz sanatorium in Passy, Haute-Savoie, from aplastic anaemia resulting from the radiation exposure she had received throughout her working life. She was 66 years old at the time.

​

She was initially buried in Sceaux, alongside Pierre Curie.

 

Their two coffins were transferred together to the Panthéon in Paris on 20 April 1995.

Marie Curie en 1934.jpg

Marie Curie en 1934

Source : NobelPrize.org

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