Oral history of British science
Raynor, Frank (Part 7 of 18) An Oral History of British Science
- Add a note
Log in to add a note at the bottom of this page.
- All notes
- My notes
- Hide notes
- Add to playlist
Log in to add this item to one of your personal lists.
- Add to favourites
Log in to add and display this item in your personal list of favourites on the right hand side of this page.
The British Library Board acknowledges the intellectual property rights of those named as contributors to this recording and the rights of those not identified.
Legal and ethical usage »
Type
sound
Duration
01:16:25
Shelf mark
C1379/76
Subjects
Electronics
Recording date
2012-06-30
Recording locations
Interviewee's home, Abingdon
Interviewees
Raynor, Frank, 1922- (speaker, male)
Interviewers
Lean, Thomas (speaker, male)
Abstract
Part 7: [1:16:25] [Interview Three: 30 June 2012] Remarks on starting work at AWRE Aldermaston: taking job for lower salary as a change in career direction into electronics; security clearance; only realising that he would be working on nuclear matters when he started. [01:44] Remarks on AWRE nuclear instrument group: lead by 'Nobby' Clarke; anecdote about Nobby Clarke instructing FR to read literature then start fixing equipment when he started work. Description of Nobby Clarke, public school educated, REME radar experience, electrical engineering degree, supportive, went on weapons trials with FR, Ken Douglas and Bob White, experimental officer rather than scientific officer; married Heidi, a German. [07:10] Remarks on: duties servicing nuclear counting equipment; division of Aldermaston into A Area, containing Nuclear Materials Processing and Health Physics buildings; division of Health Physics into Nuclear Instrument Group and Health Physics Group, where FR was based; security around A Area within Aldermaston; maintaining radiation monitors for testing radiation on hands and feet; scalers, amplifiers, rate meters, discriminators and other equipment to count radiation emissions. [10:55] Remarks on radiation motoring equipment: valve based binary scaler counters; scaler, used to count pulses from detectors; rate meters, used to count rate of emissions; rack mountings for equipment; amplifiers; design of equipment by Harwell personnel; FR training in PDS group at Harwell with Len Kilby and Kate Knight; description of female Harwell technician Kate Knight, robust, helpful; benefits of Harwell experience for FR. [17:50] Description of rack mounted radiation counting equipment: multi purpose counters; output; use by physicists; equipment set-up by FR and colleagues; modular nature of equipment; racks to mount equipment made from thermionic valves; performance of 1008 Amplifier supplied by Angus Gillespie at Harwell. [25:15] Remarks on: Aldermaston developing oscilloscopes as commercial ones were too slow; failure of components due to heat and voltage. [pause 26:50] Remarks on work at Aldermaston: Harwell designed equipment at first; development of electronics technology; anecdote about valve reliability on FR recent trip to Bletchley Park; improved types of valves; FR knowledge of equipment use, compartmentalisation of work; Plutonium supply from Windscale, which FR visited to check equipment calibration, dummy hemispheres; build up of group; [32:25] example of developing specialised instrument for trials, using a Standard Telephones 4 gun oscilloscope. [34:10] Remarks on FR feelings about working on atomic weapons: learning about work; rapid series of events in 1952; secrecy surrounding work; FR little concerned by idea of working on nuclear weapons, knowledge of weapons from wartime and reading information; shortage of technicians at first; FR realising horror of nuclear weapons but also the horror of Japanese treatment of prisoners in wartime; FR considering atomic weapons as a way of keeping the peace; little discussion amongst colleagues; dislike of Japanese in 1950s; American McMahon Act shutting Britain out of nuclear cooperation in spite of earlier contributions to Manhattan project by individuals such as Niels Bohr and Chadwick; Ernest Bevin insisting that Britain had an atomic bomb; limited discussion of nuclear politics amongst individuals at FR's level. [42:50]
Description
Interview with technician, Frank Raynor
Related transcripts
Frank Raynor interviewed by Thomas Lean: full transcript of the interview
Related links
Visit this interviewee's page on the 'Voices of Science' web resource
Metadata record: