The collections described in this guide have been catalogued
by the Unit and subsequently deposited in libraries and archives throughout the
New. Most of the catalogues compiled by the Unit can now be viewed online through the Access to Archives website at the National Archives (http://www.a2a.org.uk). Direct links to the catalogues are being (gradually) added from this Guide. To view the full-text catalogue, please click on the link under Finding Aid. Note, some catalogues are very extensive and may take a few moments to download. An indication of the size of the file is provided.
LACK, David Lambert (1910-1973). Ornithologist.
LENNARD-JONES, Sir John Edward (1894-1954) See JONES, Sir John Edward LENNARD-
LEWIS, Wilfrid Bennett (1908-1987), physicist.
LIDDELL, Edward George Tandy (1895-1981), physiologist.
LILLY, Malcolm Douglas (1936-1998), biochemical engineer.
LINDEMANN, Frederick Alexander, 1st Viscount Cherwell (1886-1957), physicist.
LINFOOT, Edward Hubert (1905-1982). Mathematics and optics.
LINSTEAD, Sir Reginald Patrick (1902-1966). Organic chemist.
LONDON, Heinz (1907-1970). Low-temperature physicist.
LONSDALE, Dame Kathleen (1903-1971), x-ray crystallographer.
Lack was born in
Lack was one of the leading figures in British ornithology. His scientific research was on various aspects of speciation, population control, group selection, and ecological isolation. He also wrote two widely read books of more general interest, The Life of the Robin and Swifts in a tower. Lack was converted to Christianity in 1948 and wrote Evolutionary theory and Christian belief (1958) as well as articles and papers on science and religion.
He was elected FRS in 1951.
Received in 1973-1974 from the Edward Grey Institute,
The papers include early work as a schoolboy, journals and diaries of field trips and expeditions, and notes, observations, drafts, manuscripts and correspondence on almost all areas of Lack's activities, such as Galapagos finches, speciation, clutch size, titmice, swifts, robins, migration, population studies, adaptation, island birds, and evolution and religion. There are also notebooks on radar monitoring of bird migration. There is extensive correspondence, since many collaborators including amateur ornithologists and members of the public contributed data and comments for Lack's research and published work.
By section as follows: Biographical, Diaries, albums and journals, Work on Galapagos finches, Work on speciation, Work on clutch size, Work on titmice, Work on swifts, Work on robins, Work on migration, Work for the National Regulation of Animal Numbers, population studies of birds and Enjoying Ornithology, Work for ecological adaptions for breeding in birds, Work on island birds, Work for ecological isolation in birds, Work on Jamaician birds, Work for Evolution Illustrated by Wildfowl, Work on various ornithological subjects, Work on evolution of religion, Conferences and committees, Correspondence, Radar work, Publications and broadcasts. Index of correspondents.
Lewis
was born at Castle Carrock in
Received
for cataloguing from Mr R.T. Lewis, nephew.
Placed in
There are 23 notebooks which Lewis left in the care of his
brother Mr J.A. Lewis when he emigrated to
The
material is not sectionalised. See Scope and content above.
Lewis's
papers, apart from the notebooks left in
Liddell was born in Harrogate and educated at
He was elected FRS in 1939.
Received for cataloguing in 1983 from Professor C.G.
Phillips, Liddell's Royal Society memorialist. Placed in Library for the History of
Neuroscience, University Laboratory of Physiology,
The papers reflect the great admiration which Liddell had for Sherrington. Much of the material relates to lectures and writings on Sherrington and his place in the history of physiology, which culminated in Liddell's publication in 1960 of The discovery of reflexes. There are also lesson plans and instructions for practical classes in the Physiology Department in the 1920s (some in Sherrington's hand), and a detailed record of the 1929-1930 'knee-jerk' series of experiments in which Liddell collaborated with J.F. Fulton and D.McK. Rioch.
By section as follows: Teaching and research, Writings and lectures on Sherrington, Correspondence. Index of correspondents.
Malcolm Douglas Lilly was born on 9 August 1936. He grew up in Eltham in South London and was educated at St Olave’s and St Saviour’s Grammar School and, after a period of national service in the Royal Navy, University College London where he read biochemistry and went on to research on microbial enzymes (PhD 1962). He then transferred to the Department of Chemical Engineering to work on immobilised enzymes with Eric Crook (NCUACS catalogue 147/4/06). In 1963 he was appointed Lecturer in Biochemical Engineering, joined a few years later by Peter Dunnill who became his closest collaborator.
One of the key areas of their research ‘was the development of methods of using the high specificity of enzymes for complex reactions that were difficult to carry out by standard chemical methods. Because biological molecules, such as enzymes, are not as stable as industrial chemicals, basic research was needed to find out the best methods for maintaining their structure, and catalytic properties during purification and large-scale properties. It was also essential to develop appropriate equipment. … They investigated equipment already used in industry. For example, they found milk homogenisers used by the dairy industry could be used for disrupting micro-organisms. Later they improved the design of the fermenters in which the micro-organisms were grown. Malcolm’s early work on the properties of enzymes immobilised by attachment to resin beads had particular importance. Immobilised enzymes have increased stability and can be used in commercial bioreactors for longer periods. One of the early successes at UCL was using an immobilised bacterial enzyme for the production of semi-synthetic penicillins. He researched biotransformation throughout his career, but also worked on other topics including mammalian cell culture, nucleotide isolation and biological fuel cells’. Obituary by Patricia H. Clarke, Guardian, 18 June 1998.
Lilly’s career was closely connected to the
development of biochemical engineering at UCL.
In 1964 a Biochemical Engineering Section was established within the
Department of Chemical Engineering and in 1966 the
Outside UCL Lilly was active in supporting biochemical engineering nationally and internationally. In 1981 when the SERC set up a Biotechnology Directorate under Dr Geoffrey Potter to encourage research in the field, Lilly (and others from UCL) served on the Biotechnology Management Committee. He was involved in several new international organisations including the International Organisation for Biotechnology and Bioengineering (Chairman 1972-1980) and the European Federation of Biotechnology. With colleagues from the Polytechnic of Central London (now University of Westminster) and the University of Kent he set up the Institute for Biotechnology Studies (later International Institute of Biotechnology), to promote multidisciplinary developments in biotechnology research and teaching. He was a member of the Board of Management and Executive Committee, 1983-1989. Other public responsibilities that he undertook included membership of the Research Board of British Gas, 1982-1994 and membership of the Board of the Public Health Laboratory Service, 1988-1994.
His outstanding achievement in biochemical engineering was
widely recognised. In 1976 he was
awarded the Food, Pharmaceutical and Bioengineering Award of the American
Institute of Chemical Engineering, the first non-American to receive the
award. He was elected to the Fellowship
of Engineering (now Royal Academy of Engineering) in 1982 and of the Royal
Society in 1991, the first biochemical engineer to receive both awards. He was a visiting Professor at the
In 1959 he married Sheila Stuart with whom he had two sons. At the height of his powers he was struck by cancer, which he fought courageously for more than ten years. With the support of his wife he was able to continue research until the last days of his life. He died on 18 May 1998.
For further information on the life and work of Lilly see ‘Malcolm Douglas Lilly 9 August 1936 - 18 May 1998’ by Patricia H. Clarke, Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, vol.46 (2000), pp 317-332.
The papers were received from Mrs Sheila Lilly, widow, in
June 2004 and September 2005. Placed in Special Collections,
The archive is dominated by extensive documentation of the development of biochemical engineering at University College London and covers the period 1957-2003.
Biographical material is not extensive but includes a copy of the obituary that appeared in the Guardian newspaper, curriculum vitae, list of theses supervised and an interesting record of his lengthy efforts to secure membership of the Institution of Chemical Engineers.
There is an interesting group of notebooks and research notes including a sequence of notebooks covering an extended period, 1962-1998, in a variety of formats and used for a variety of purposes, including address book, lists of things to do, notes of meetings with UCL colleagues, European Federation of Biotechnology meetings, bibliographical references, etc. A notebook used from ‘11/10/1997’ is identified as ‘MDL’s last notebook’. The research notes cover the period, 1965-1997. Some identifiable groups of notes have titles such as ‘Control Systems’, ‘Fermentation’ and ‘Progesterone Conversion’ but many notes were found loose and in no order and are undated.
The archive presents a near comprehensive record of Lilly’s own scientific papers, 1962-2003, including a number of posthumous publications. The documentation may include manuscript and typescript drafts, correspondence and offprints. Also included here are the contents of a folder of ‘unpublished’ drafts. Publications correspondence is not extensive but there is some material relating to the journals with which Lilly was associated as author, reviewer and editor. There is significant though more patchy coverage of Lilly’s public and invitation lectures, 1966-1996. Topics include ‘Immobilised Enzyme Reactors’, ‘Developments in Biocatalysis’, ‘Two-liquid phase biocatalytic reactors’, ‘Industrial Use of Biocatalysts for Asymmetric Synthesis’ and ‘Biochemical Engineering - Its Contribution to Society’, Lilly’s 1988 Sir Harold Hartley Memorial Lecture. There are also many untitled lecture notes and drafts and some illustrative material for lectures and papers.
There is documentation of Lilly’s association with twenty-four British and international societies and organisations, 1968-1998. Amongst the best documented are the European Commission, whose programmes supported biochemical engineering developments at the European level, and the European Federation of Biotechnology (EFB) and the International Organisation for Biotechnology and Bioengineering (IOBB), both of which Lilly served in a number of capacities including for the IOBB a period as chairman. Lilly’s papers include a ‘Formation of the EFB’ file. The most comprehensively documented body is the Institute for Biotechnology Studies / International Institute of Biotechnology, including correspondence and papers relating to the formation of the Institute, trustees and management committee meetings, research programme, policy review, etc. There is documentation of consultancy relationships with twenty-one commercial organisations, 1968-1997, including Beckman Instruments Inc, Beecham Group Ltd / Smith Kline Beecham and Merck Sharp & Dohme Research Laboratories. On occasions Lilly consulted in partnership with his UCL colleague Peter Dunnill as Biotech Consultants. Also documented are visits and conferences, covering the period 1964-1998. At the end of the chronological sequence are papers relating to a number of meetings that Lilly was unable to attend because of ill health. The documentation may include programmes, lists of participants, abstracts and Lilly’s notes on proceedings.
Although there is much correspondence throughout the archive there were no files of correspondence with individual scientific and engineering colleagues apart from the ‘Personnel’ files with the UCL papers. There is, however, a sequence of correspondence presented chronologically, 1966-1998, made up of letters found loose and without context.
By
section as follows: Biographical,
Notebooks and research notes, University College London, Publications, Lectures, Societies
and organisations, Consultancies, Visits and conferences, Correspondence. Index of correspondents.
Finding aids: Printed Catalogue
of the archive of Malcolm Douglas Lilly: NCUACS no. 150/7/06, 201pp.
Copies available from NCUACS,
Correspondence and papers relating to the preparation of the
Royal Society biographical memoir of Lilly form part of the archive of
Professor Patricia Clarke catalogued for University College London Library
Special Collections (NCUACS catalogue no. 120/6/03).
Lindemann, the son of a wealthy
engineer who was a naturalised British subject of French-Alsatian origin, was
born in
Lindemann's main contributions to research were
made in his early years at
He was elected FRS in 1920.
Original material: Received in 1979-1980 from
Supplementary material: Received in 1983 from Clarendon Laboratory,
Original material: The papers are very substantial and contain much material on Lindemann's career, professorship, scientific research, publications and correspondence, and his lectures and addresses. It includes such varied material as his pilot's log-books of 1916, correspondence with H.W. Nernst, F.W. Aston, G.I. Taylor (q.v.) and Albert Einstein, as well as family letters exchanged with his father and brother, and papers relating to negotiations for funding and research at the Clarendon Laboratory, and Lindemann's initiative in identifying and encouraging Jewish scientists wishing or obliged to leave Germany when the Nazis came to power. There is extensive documentation concerned with the Second World War. It includes some preliminary material about pre-war discussions on air defence (and the 'Tizard Committee') but deals essentially with the work of the Statistical Branch, formed at Churchill's request to assemble statistics and data and present them to him in accessible form, as minutes, diagrams and graphs. The papers preserve not only the final minute or graph but also the background documentation, correspondence or research on which they were based. A large number of topics of military, scientific and economic importance are represented in this way. There are also papers relating to the Conservative Party and Lindemann's political service and an extensive personal and social correspondence including members of the Churchill family.
Supplementary material relates almost entirely to Lindemann's career as a physicist and date mainly from the years spent in the laboratory of H.W. Nernst, ca 1910-1914. The papers are almost all autograph manuscript notes and drafts on specific heat, early quantum theory and the movement of electrons in atoms. There are also notes taken of contributions to discussions at a conference, probably the Second Solvay Conference of 1913, when X-ray spectroscopy and its impact on atomic theory was a principal topic.
Orginal material: By section as follows: Personal and biographical, Oxford University, Scientific research, writings, conferences, Scientific correspondence, Publications, lectures and speeches, Second World War, Politics and the Conservative Party, Personal and social correspondence. Index of correspondents.
Linfoot was born in Sheffield,
South Yorkshire and educated at
Received in 1988-1989 from Mrs Joyce Linfoot, widow.
The papers document Linfoot's
research, consultancies, publications and lectures. The research material is
predominantly wartime projects, and records his work on photographic aerial
reconnaissance for the Ministry of Aircraft Production and his association with
N.F. Mott's research group which investigated urgent technical problems for the
Ministry of Supply. The most extensively documented consultancies are those on
the optical systems for the Royal Greenwich Observatory Isaac Newton telescope
and the St. Andrews University Observatory telescope. There is also material
relating to an unpublished book on almost periodic functions, a mathematics
colloquium organised at
By section as follows: Biographical, Research, Consultancies, Lectures and publications, Conferences. Index of correspondents.
Notebooks recording Linfoot's optics research formed an earlier deposit in Cambridge University Library. CUL Add. MS 8376 (2 boxes)
Notebooks recording mathematics lectures attended at Oxford
(G.H. Hardy, A.S. Besicovitch), Göttingen
(B.L. van der Waerden, E. Artin, H.A. Bohr, L.D. Landau) and Princeton (H.P.
Robertson, J. von Neumann, P.S. Aleksandrov),
1924-1932, formed an earlier deposit in the Library of Trinity College,
Cambridge (ref. Add.Ms.b.179-199).
Linstead was born in
Linstead was elected FRS in 1940 (Foreign Secretary, 1960-1965). He was knighted in 1959.
Received in 1974 from Lady Linstead, widow.
The papers contain much biographical material including
certificates of honours and awards, many letters of congratulation,
non-scientific writings, and Linstead's desk diaries
for his Rectorship of Imperial College, 1955-1966.
There is a full range of notebooks covering Linstead's
students days and early work at
By section as follows: Biographical and personal, Notebooks and working papers, Lectures, Publications, Committees and consultancies, Correspondence. Index of correspondents.
Administrative papers relating to Linstead's service as Rector of Imperial College are also held in the College Archives.
Papers relating to his service as Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society are held by the Society.
Received in 1973 from Mrs Lucie
London, widow. Placed in
The papers include laboratory notebooks of various periods
including the 'Tube Alloys' project, notes, working papers and correspondence.
There is also material on many conferences on low temperature physics and
superconductivity. There is also some correspondence, publications and other
material relating to
By section as follows: Biographical, Laboratory notebooks, Working papers, Lectures, Publications, Conference papers, Correspondence, Off-prints. Index of correspondents.
Files relating to the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning and Home Office files in the Department of Western Manuscripts, Bodleian Library, Oxford.
Dame Kathleen Lonsdale was one of the foremost
X-ray crystallographers of the twentieth century and one of the first two women
to be elected (in 1945, with Marjory Stephenson) Fellow of the Royal
Society. Born Kathleen Yardley in Newbridge,
Lonsdale, working with W.T. Astbury,
began to apply space group theories to the study of X-ray diffraction patterns
from crystals. Their important paper
‘Tabulated data for the examination of the 230 space-groups by
homogeneous X-rays’ was submitted to the Royal Society and published in Philosophical Transactions (1924). In the following years international
crystallographers recognised the need for more comprehensive tables for crystal
structure determination. Lonsdale was a
member of the editorial group concerned with the production of new tables and,
working from home in the early 1930s following the birth of her first child,
provided the structure factor formulae for each space group. The resulting International Tables, published in 1935, proved to be only the
beginning of a project to which she devoted a great amount of time and effort
during the rest of her career. In 1948
Lonsdale was made the first Chairman of the new Commission on Tables and was
the principal editor in the production of the new volumes of International Tables, the first of which
appeared in 1951.
Following her marriage in 1927 Lonsdale worked
briefly at the
In 1946 Lonsdale accepted the post of Reader in
Crystallography at UCL, becoming Professor of Chemistry in 1949. She established her own research school there
and introduced two new courses in crystallography, one for undergraduates and
the other for graduates. Among a wide
diversity of interests, she studied methonium
compounds, urinary calculi and synthetic diamonds, though her work on the International Tables diverted a considerable
amount of her time away from research.
Lonsdale and her husband became Quakers in 1935
and her pacifism led to her refusal to register for civil defence duties,
although she was willing to work as a volunteer. On her refusal to pay a fine imposed for
non-registration she was imprisoned in Holloway gaol for one month in
1943. Prison was a formative experience
for her, and the insights that she gained while at Holloway prompted her to
take an active interest in penal reform.
She was made a member of the Board of Visitors, Aylesbury Prison for
Women and Borstal Institution for Girls in 1949 and later served as
Vice-Chairman of the Board of Visitors of a borstal in
Lonsdale was a member of Council and
Vice-President of the Royal Society, 1960-1961; Vice President of the
International Union of Crystallography, 1960-1966, and President in 1966;
General Secretary of the British Association, 1959-1964, President of the
Physics Section in 1967 and President of the British Association in 1968, the
first woman to hold the post. In the
years following her election to the Royal Society, Lonsdale received many other
awards in recognition of her contributions to science. She was made a Dame Commander of the Order of
the
The papers were received from Dr H.J. Milledge,
Lonsdale’s former colleague at University College London, in 1998 and
1999. Placed in the Library,
Biographical material includes correspondence
and papers relating to Lonsdale’s imprisonment in Holloway Prison, with
her own accounts of her time there.
There are also diaries and personal notebooks, 1946-1969, letters of
congratulation on her election as Fellow of the Royal Society, and various
photographs dating from school to her later years.
Research material cover the period 1924-1970 and
broadly divides into Royal Institution and UCL sub-sections. The Royal Institution papers comprise
notebooks, one dating from Lonsdale’s first period there (1923-1927),
correspondence with colleagues such as W.H. Bragg and J.M. Robertson and
Lonsdale’s notes and drafts for various research topics. Correspondence and papers dating from her UCL
years cover many different areas of research, including diffuse scattering of
X-rays, thermal vibrations in crystals, methonium
compounds and urinary calculi. The last
topic is particularly well documented, with several case studies included. There is also a large group of photographs,
mostly of X-ray diffraction patterns.
For the years at UCL there are records of Lonsdale’s teaching and
administrative work. There are papers,
some of them manuscript, relating to her teaching of undergraduate and
postgraduate courses, and significant documentation relating to laboratory
personnel, research funding, general university administration and the
‘Round Table on Peace Studies’ which proposed establishing a centre
for research into international conflict.
Publications, lectures and broadcasts material
is extensive. There are drafts of
articles, books, book reviews, obituaries, and letters to newspapers and
magazines. The articles include some on
peace and religious issues and the letters to newspapers and magazines are
principally on atomic weapons. Notes and
drafts for lectures cover an extended period from 1933-1970 and include some on
the ethics and the role of science in society.
Scripts for broadcasts date from 1945 to 1967, the topics ranging from
crystallography to religion. Lonsdale’s work on the International Tables
for Crystal Structure Determination is also extensively documented, chiefly
from 1948 when Lonsdale was made Chairman of the Commission on Tables, in the
form of drafts, notes and correspondence with colleagues and publishers.
There is significant documentation of
Lonsdale’s visits and conferences, 1943-1971. She attended many scientific conferences
around the world and delivered lectures principally on crystallography and
science ethics. On longer trips she
often combined a number of her interests and responsibilities, including work
for the Society of Friends. Of
significant interest are papers covering her visit to
By section as follows: Biographical, University College London, Research, International Tables for Crystal Structure Determination, Publications, lectures and broadcasts, Visits and conferences, Societies and organisations, Correspondence. Index of correspondents.
Last updated 18 June 2004. T.E.Powell@bath.ac.uk