Books Supplemented Pension

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30823, 7 August 1965, Page 12

Books Supplemented Pension

(Specially written for "The Press" by WALTER BROOKES) JTEW men would think of providing for their old age by investing in old scientific books. It took someone with the qualifications of a fellow of the Royal Society to embark on such a scheme—and it worked. Professor E. N. da C. Andrade, living at Chelsea, an internationally famous scientist and editor for physics for the fourteenth edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, found, at 77, that his pension of £9OO a year was not enough to live on and he has just sold his unique collection of 570 books at Sotheby’s for £70,000. “They were considered just rubbish and often cost only a few shillings each when 1 started buying them in the twenties,” he told me after the sale. Perhaps such astuteness and foresight came from working with Lord Rutherford, of whom he has just published a biography, and of whom he is obviously a great admirer. Biography Both were at the University of Manchester, where Rutherford took up an appointment in 1907 and did research work in radioactivity, and at the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge, of which Rutherford was appointed head in 1919. The biography has already appeared in the United States and will come out in England later this year. Professor Andrade was busy handing round £1 notes to the attendants in the book saleroom when I went up to him. I wanted to find out how he felt about the sale, but as soon as I told him I was a New Zealander he lost interest in the books and became much more concerned with the regret he felt at never having been in New Zealand. "From New Zealand. too?” he said to my wife as though it was really an event to meet two New Zealanders on the

same day—even on the day of his book sale. “Lord Rutherford was a • very great man,” he informed ; her emphatically in case she i did not know. “And he always remembered he was a New i Zealander —look at the title i he took: Lord Rutherford of Nelson.” i

He went on reminiscently. “Do you know," he said, “he was at one time getting only £460 a year for the expenses of his research work in his laboratory? He was getting a salary of £l6OO, but these days it would be £16,000. “There will never be another Rutherford,” he said.

mentioning how thorough he was in his work and the high standards he required from those under him. I managed to wean him off a subject which was obviously closer to his heart even than the sale of his books, about which he had very mixed feelings. “I know I’ll miss them,” he said. "They’re very old friends. But my pension is only £9OO a year, although I have a little extra too.” Rising Price He seemed well satisfied with the total amount raised, but spoke as though it were an affront to the memory and standing of Sir Isaac Newton that two copies of the first edition of the “Principia” fetched only £2400 and £2200. “A copy of the ‘Principia’ fetched about £2OOO some years ago, and prices have risen considerably since then.” On the other hand he was surprised, like everyone else interested in the sale, at the high price of £4BOO for “The Sceptical Chymist,” by Robert Boyle (1661). I pointed out that the catalogue had mentioned the rarity of Boyle’s book, but he said that the first edition of the “Principia” was rare too. There was in fact no doubt that the two copies of the “Principia” had been regarded as the highlights of the collection. Poems And Songs Professor Andrade has published a large number of books, including a history of the Royal Society, but I was surprised to note that he had once published a volume entitled “Poems and Songs.” I asked him when he brought this out, and he replied that he could not remember but “it was as a long time ago. I have given up that kind of thing now, of course.” I said that at any rate he was following in the tradition of Newton in writing on subjects other than science, pointing to “The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms.” “Yes but look how little it fetched," he said, showing me where I had written in £l4. “j have some of his books on theology

too, but I did not put ther up.” At the sale the layma might have been surprised t see that this is not the firs century in which people wer interested in what things wer like on the moon, and in th making of rockets. In 163 Bishop John Wilkins publisi ed “The Discovery of a Worl in the Moone.” Robert Andei son brought out in 1696 “Th Making of Rockets. In Tw Parts. The first Containin the Making of Rockets for tl Meanist Capacity. The Oth< Two to Make Rockets by Duplicate Proposition, to I<X Pound Weight or Higher." There was also a schem for an artificial language t Bishop Wilkins. “An Essa Towards the Making the Do< trine of Chances” (1750) i signed by the author Edwan Hoyle, leaving no doubt tha its contents are strictl; “according to Hoyle."