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Edinburgh
Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2021 12:01 pm
by Gerard Killoran
The following game, featuring a blunder of Nepomniachtchi proportions was introduced thus in the Bromley & West Kent Mercury - Friday 20 August 1920.
We reproduce below a game between two Cambridge graduates, the winner, Professor Cox, having gone to Cambridge as a freshman in 1870 and the loser, Mr. Dutt, in 1912! The game was the first loss credited to Mr. Dutt after five consecutive wins, and players will easily detect where he gave his opponent the chance to undermine his game.
The competitors were more interesting than the game.
The death is announced of Dr John Cox, formerly Professor of Physics in M'Gill University, Montreal. Born in 1851, he was contemporary and competitor for scholastic honours at the City of London School with his friend Mr Asquith. He encouraged the work of Rutherford and Soddy in research into radioactivity. (Aberdeen Press and Journal - Saturday 26 May 1923)
Clemens Palme Dutt was the brother of the more famous Rajani Palme Dutt a fellow founder of the Communist Party of Great Britain, also in 1920 - so his mind might have been elsewhere during the game. A biography of Clemens Palme Dutt can be found here
https://www.open.ac.uk/researchprojects ... palme-dutt. Curiously, Dutt married a daughter of Labour Leader George Lansbury, making him the uncle of Angela Lansbury aka Mrs Marple.
Re: Edinburgh
Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2021 1:16 pm
by John Saunders
Nice work, Gerard. Just one problem - I'm 99% sure Prof. Cox was White, not Black. The
crosstable at BritBase indicates Cox beat Dutt - as does your first quoted passage! I've recorded it as Cox 1-0 Dutt at BritBase.
P.S. In view of Mr Dutt's distinguished family connections, a nice title for the post might have been 'Blunder He Made'...
Re: Edinburgh
Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2021 2:38 pm
by Gerard Killoran
John Saunders wrote: ↑Tue Dec 07, 2021 1:16 pm
Nice work, Gerard. Just one problem - I'm 99% sure Prof. Cox was White, not Black. The
crosstable at BritBase indicates Cox beat Dutt - as does your first quoted passage! I've recorded it as Cox 1-0 Dutt at BritBase.
P.S. In view of Mr Dutt's distinguished family connections, a nice title for the post might have been 'Blunder He Made'...
As you worked out, I made yet another blunder of Nepomniachtchi proportions - the Professor was, of course White. I promise to take more care in future.
Professor Cox also made mistakes:
John Cox, who is 20 years older than Rutherford, had been one of the two
”head-hunters” who had interviewed Rutherford for the professorship at McGill.
Eve tells us that Cox, before arrival of Rutherford, had remarked to him that
he was feeling rather dispirited because there seemed nothing new going on in
Physics. The main things, he said, had all been found out and the work which
remained was to carry on a great number of experiments and researches into
relatively minor matters. When Rutherford got going, Cox was ready and glad
to sing another tune. Cox is now a loyal supporter of Rutherford. The scientists at
McGill are worried that Rutherford’s revolutionary ideas about the transmutation
of elements might turn out to be wrong and bring discredit on the University.
Cox, the Director of Physics, rises to defend Rutherford and predicts that ”some
day Rutherford’s experimental work would be rated as the greatest since Faraday
https://arxiv.org/pdf/0809.0857.pdf
Re: Edinburgh
Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2021 7:37 pm
by Kevin Thurlow
"The scientists at McGill are worried that Rutherford’s revolutionary ideas about the transmutation of elements might turn out to be wrong and bring discredit on the University. Cox, the Director of Physics, rises to defend Rutherford and predicts that ”some day Rutherford’s experimental work would be rated as the greatest since Faraday"
Cox was probably right. Element 93 (neptunium) was made by transmutation in 1940 and now we're on 118 confirmed elements, and work continues. Tom Lehrer needs to write another verse. Number 104 is called rutherfordium for obvious reasons.
Re: Edinburgh
Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2021 4:38 pm
by Chris Goodall
A major consideration in naming Moscovium was to make it rhyme with Flerovium. Same with Livermorium and Bohrium. True story
Re: Edinburgh
Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2021 6:52 pm
by Kevin Thurlow
"
Chris Goodall wrote: ↑Thu Dec 09, 2021 4:38 pm
A major consideration in naming Moscovium was to make it rhyme with Flerovium. Same with Livermorium and Bohrium. True story
Hmm - that wasn't passed on to the people who were commenting on the proposed names! I don't know what they were thinking with copernicium and roentgenium...
