Revisiting the 100 Year Old Radioactivity Lectures of Frederick Soddy

Between 1908 and 1922, Frederick Soddy, MA., FRS (Dr. Lee`s Professor of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry, Univ. of Oxford) published four editions of a compendium of his experimental lectures delivered at the University of Glasgow, under the title ``The Interpretation of Radium, and the Structure of the Atom''. Professor Soddy taught his students about `radium writing' and the emanation of radium. He presented a radium clock designed by Professor Strutt; showed students `Pleochroic Halos'; and described the separation of `ionium' from its isotope, thorium. The process of constructing a cohesive logic to empirical observations of this newly discovered phenomenon of radioactivity was a challenging one. Some aspects did not stand the test of time. However, revisiting these lectures after 100 years gives us fascinating insight into the mental processes of the early pioneers in radioactivity.