Eddington in Cardiff 100 years ago today: the first proposal that stars are powered by fusion
Here’s a fascinating bit of astrophysics history by former Cardiff colleague Bernard Schutz: one hundred years ago today, Arthur Stanley Eddington gave a talk in Cardiff in which he, with great prescience, proposed the idea that stars might be powered by nuclear fusion.
One hundred years ago today, on 24 August 1920, with over 1000 people gathered in Cardiff for the annual meeting of the British Association, Arthur Eddington gave his address as the incoming president of the physical and mathematical sciences section. He elected to speak on the subject of the “Internal Constitution of the Stars”. When I first came across the text of the address last year (published in Nature in 1920), I was amazed to find as early as this such an insightful proposal that stars are powered by the synthesis of helium from hydrogen. But what really brought me up short was this sentence:
If, indeed, the sub-atomic energy in the stars is being freely used to maintain their great furnaces, it seems to bring a little nearer to fulfilment our dream of controlling this latent power for the well-being of the human race – or for…
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In the Dark 
August 24, 2020 at 9:33 pm
One thing I’ve never found out is where exactly Eddington gave his address. Mike Disney used to claim it was in the Reardon Smith lecture theatre in the National Library of Wales. I’ve never been able to find a location in the BAAS report of the meeting, nor in accounts in scientific journals.
August 24, 2020 at 9:35 pm
Well I’m sure Mike Disney would know because he was there. In fact it was him that gave Eddington the idea!
August 24, 2020 at 9:42 pm
Yes.
August 24, 2020 at 10:01 pm
This mentions Park Hall which was on Park Place and was later turned into a cinema. If Eddington had an audience of over a 1000 it would probably have been there as that is very large. https://www.google.com/search?q=British+Association+Cardiff+1920&client=ms-android-huawei-rev1&prmd=imnv&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwismI6m3LTrAhXrQxUIHSBrCYcQ_AUoAXoECAwQAQ&cshid=1598302401412&biw=360&bih=657#imgrc=l8ewlV5OQBY4CM
August 24, 2020 at 10:40 pm
The BAAS had many parallel sessions, so it’s difficult to know whether Section A (Mathematical and Physical Science) held its activities in the location used for the BAAS President’s address.
I don’t have access to scans of newspapers that might have reported it (the excellent Welsh Newspapers Online resource unhelpfully cuts off in 1919, while the British Newspaper Archive needs a subscription).
August 24, 2020 at 10:42 pm
Eddington’s talk might have been a plenary. I’m sure the handbook of the meeting will clarify that.
August 24, 2020 at 10:51 pm
Eddington gave the opening address for his section as its president. I’ve always interpreted this as meaning that the BAAS dispersed to the various parallel sessions after the BAAS president’s address. It’s possible that Section A stayed in the plenary hall, but I have no evidence of this.
Frustratingly, I’ve got lots of information about the BAAS’s first visit to Cardiff in 1891 from newspapers, but comparatively little about 1920.
August 24, 2020 at 10:44 pm
The text of Eddington’s lecture was printed in full in The Observatory (vol. 43, pp. 341-358, October 1920), but no building location was given. The lecture was also printed in Nature and Science, but again no location was given, which is frustrating.