Picking winners: W. H. and W. L. Bragg at the Royal Institution

Abstract

Apart from their extraordinary skills in attracting and nurturing outstanding co-workers and technical staff, W. H. Bragg and W. L. Bragg were extremely successful, as were some of their predecessors (notably Faraday, Dewar and Rideal) in attracting Friday Evening Discourse and other speakers to the Royal Institution. An examination of the names and subjects of the talks given in the Bragg eras shows how well their programme of events reflected the intellectual life of the nation.