TLS signed “M. Curie,” one page, 5.5 x 8.5, Science Faculty at the University of Paris (Radium Institute) letterhead, September 15, 1927. Letter to physicist Alois Francis Kovarik, a professor in the Sloane Laboratory at Yale University, in full (translated): “I have just received your letter about Professor Boltwood, whose sad end I was completely unaware of. I thank you very sincerely for the kind thought that you have written to me to inform me of the circumstances in which this misfortune occurred. Please believe that I feel very keenly the loss of such a distinguished scholar and that I realize how particularly sensitive this loss is for Yale University and for yourself. My daughter joins me in expressing her regrets. Please accept, Dear Sir, the assurance of my distinguished feelings.” Matted with a small portrait and the original mailing envelope to an overall size of 21 x 17.25. In fine condition.
Bertram Borden Boltwood (1870-1927) was a pioneer of radiochemistry from New England, who attended Yale University, became a professor there, and in 1910 was appointed chair of the first academic department of radiochemistry. He established that lead was the final decay product of uranium, noted that the lead-uranium ratio was greater in older rocks, and, acting on a suggestion by Ernest Rutherford, was the first to measure the age of rocks by the decay of uranium to lead, in 1907. His work with the uranium decay series led to the discovery of the parent of radium, a new element that he named ionium. However, once the existence of isotopes was established, ionium was in actuality thorium-230. Although Boltwood did not get his element on the periodic table, he later got a mineral namesake: Boltwoodite is named after him. In his later days, Boltwood suffered from depression and committed suicide on August 15, 1927.
A colleague of Bertram B. Boltwood, Alois Francis Kovarik (1880-1965) was a professor of physics at Yale University, who was among the first scientists to gauge the age of the Earth through the ‘radioactivity clock method.’ In 1930, speaking before the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, he gave his estimate of the minimum age of the Earth to be 1,852,000,000 years, based on his study of the disintegration of uranium into lead. He also studied the ionization of gases and Alpha, Beta, and Gamma rays. During World War II, he was one of the nuclear scientists assembled for work on the atomic bomb project.
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