Auction Date:2010 Jul 14 @ 22:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Polish-born French physicist (1867-1934), she and her husband Pierre discovered two new elements, polonium and radium, in 1898. In 1911 she won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. She died of leukemia brought about by her work with radioactive material. TLS in French, signed “M. Curie,” one page, 5.25 x 8.25, Faculte Des Sciences De Paris letterhead, January 29, 1930. An untranslated letter to Yale Physics professor Alois Kovarik in which she mentions fellow chemist and physicist Bertram Boltwood who pioneered the concept of carbon dating. In fine condition, with a bit of light handling wear. Accompanied by the original mailing envelope, as well as two original postcard photos, one of the Radium Institute and one of the Hotel Radium in Jachymov, Czech Republic; one of Curie’s personal calling cards; a vintage unsigned 6.5 x 9 photo of Pierre Curie; and several clipped newspaper articles.
Boltwood, the American scientist referenced by the Polish physicist in this letter, made the original recommendation to name a measurement of uranium after its discoverer. After some consideration, Curie countered that the initial measurement of a “curie,” as proposed, was too small. In fact, Boltwood later reported that ‘at an unearthly hour the next morning, she arrived at the hotel...and informed us that after thinking the matter over she felt that the use of the name curie for so infinitesimally small [a] quantity of anything was altogether inappropriate.’ She requested that the Radium Standards Committee base the curie on a full gram of radium—a suggestion that was readily approved. Wonderful tie-in to the historical roots of what became the original definition of the curie.
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5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
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