CATALOGUE OF THE PAPERS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF SIR (FREDERICK) CHARLES FRANK FRS (1911-1998)....

The archives in this collection (NCUACS catalogue no. 127/13/03) are supplementary to those previously catalogued for Bristol University Library as NCUACS catalogue no. 15/8/89, in conjunction with which this catalogue should be used. The material, which spans the period 1911-2001, is presented in the order given in the List of Contents. The arrangement of the material into sections and the numbering of folders follows on from that in the previous catalogue. There is supplementary material for all ten sections and although much of the material is additional to partial documentation existing in the earlier collection, in some important cases material listed here covers events and activities not previously documented - including, of course, events occurring subsequent to the completion of the previous catalogue.

Section A, Biographical, forms a particularly valuable addition to the material in the previous collection. There is good coverage of Frank's education with schoolwork and undergraduate notes as well as documentation of his extracurricular interests at Oxford University in the 1930s, including the Film Unit, fascinating material relating to his time in Germany 1936-1937 and a little wartime memorabilia. There is additional material relating to Frank's career, honours and awards, 1935-1994 including a number of honorary degrees and the award of the Royal Society's Copley Medal in 1994. A significant component of the section is a virtually complete sequence of Frank's pocket diaries 1926-1994, recording - in varying detail - appointments, social activities, meetings etc and reflecting Frank's breadth of interests across the arts, humanities and sciences. There is also family and personal correspondence. The section includes many photographs of Frank at various occasions, from infancy to shortly before his death, and also photographs of colleagues and family members. As the present catalogue was compiled after Frank's death, the section also includes obituaries and memorial material.

Section B, University of Bristol, is divided into Department of Physics and general University papers. Departmental material includes documentation of ICI support of research activity through its Research Fellowships and Loan Purchase Schemes, Frank's manuscript notes on lectures, seminars and colloquia given by colleagues 1945-1957 and manuscript and duplicated typescript teaching material for undergraduate and M.Sc. courses. University material includes papers of the Art Lectures Committee from 1971 to 1997 and the Colston Research Society 1967-1996, as well as a little documentation of other committees on which Frank served and general correspondence and papers.

Section C, Research, follows the previous catalogue in covering Frank's entire research career from postgraduate studies in 1933 to post-retirement research. Pre-World War Two research is particularly well covered, including Frank's postgraduate notebooks used at Oxford 1933-1936, four pocket notebooks used during his time in Germany 1936-1937, and notebooks documenting work with O. Gatty 1939-1940 in the Department of Colloid Science, University of Cambridge. There is some documentation of wartime research at Porton on smoke generation and later work on analysis of the accuracy of German V-bombs. Post-war material is chiefly the contents of Frank's folders, often with an inscription of the topic, and subjects include ice (1940s), crystal growth (1940s-1950s) and geophysics (1960s). There is also late work on nuclear cold fusion, a field in which Frank had published a pioneering paper in 1947 and to which he returned in the late 1980s, in part through the claim of B.S. Pons and M. Fleischmann to have produced cold fusion in a test tube. The papers include notes, data, calculations, figures, rough drafts etc, with a little related correspondence.

Section D, Publications, offers significant additional coverage of Frank's published output from 1936. It includes Frank's contributions on a wide range of topics in chemistry, physics and geophysics, including some not listed in his bibliography. The section is dominated, however, by documentation of the 1993 book Operation Epsilon: the Farm Hall transcripts for which Frank wrote the introduction. Material includes drafts of Frank's introduction, proofs of the book, correspondence about the release of the transcripts and correspondence with colleagues and historians studying the German atomic programme and the contribution of German science to the Nazi war effort more generally. The section also includes editorial correspondence and some manuscript drafts of unpublished letters to The Times on a variety of subjects.

Section E, Lectures, covering 1938-1997, includes a wide range of public and invitation lectures, addresses and informal speeches. Scientific lectures include a 1945 lecture on 'Nuclear Structure and Nuclear Energy', and several lectures on Orientation Mapping delivered in the UK and overseas 1983-1991. There are also Civil Defence lectures for courses during the 1960s, and later autobiographical reminiscences.

Section F, Societies and organisations, provides further documentation on twenty-two UK and international organisations with which Frank was associated. There are few extended sequences, with the most substantial body of material relating to the Royal Society and Frank's service on the Armourers and Brasiers' Company Research Fellowship Committee and the British National Committee for the History of Science, Medicine and Technology. There is some significant further documentation of Frank's involvement with the International Organization for Crystal Growth, including the 1968 international congress, and of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs. Also of note is material relating to Frank's service as a Home Office Regional Scientific Adviser for Civil Defence.

Section G, Consultancies, documents Frank's work for commercial organisations. It covers the period 1949-1997. As in the previous catalogue, the bulk of the material relates to Frank's work for the diamond company De Beers. There is further material relating to the Diamond Research Committee, which oversaw De Beers-funded diamond research in UK universities and which organised the Diamond Research Conferences, and to the Conferences themselves 1973-1997.

Section H, Visits and conferences, covers the period 1933-1997. It includes overseas visits to South Africa, Japan, India and the continent of Europe, while UK conferences documented include Royal Society discussion meetings 1949, 1960, 1970, 1984, 1986 and 1993. There is also documentation of Frank's participation in NATO Advanced Study Institutes on the Application of Modern Physics to the Earth and Planetary Interiors (1969), Surface Effects in Crystal Plasticity (1975) and the Mechanism of Continental Drift and Plate Tectonics (1979).

Section J, Correspondence, spans Frank's whole career, from postgraduate days in the early 1930s to the late 1990s. It is presented in alphabetical order. The bulk of the correspondence is either early (1930s) or dates from the 1980s and 1990s - some of which postdates the compilation of the previous catalogue in 1989. There are few extended sequences and most of the correspondents represented are also to be found in the previous catalogue. However, there is significant additional material for R.V. Jones, F.R.N. Nabarro and K. Wirtz.

Section K, References and appointments, is chiefly material from the late 1980s and 1990s, postdating the previous catalogue.

<p>The American Institute of Physics holds an audiotape interview of Frank by M. Walker 1985.</p>

NOT ALL THE MATERIAL IN THIS COLLECTION MAY YET BE AVAILABLE FOR CONSULTATION. ENQUIRIES SHOULD BE ADDRESSED IN THE FIRST INSTANCE TO: SPECIAL COLLECTIONS ARCHIVIST, ARTS & SOCIAL SCIENCES LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL

The papers were received from Lady Frank, widow, and colleagues including J.F. Nye, via Bristol University Library, in 2003.

For an outline of Frank's life and career to 1988, see NCUACS catalogue no. 15/8/89.

Sir Charles Frank remained active in attending conferences, writing papers and corresponding with colleagues well into the 1990s. In 1994 he was awarded the Royal Society's Copley Medal, its highest honour, 'in recognition of his fundamental contribution to the theory of crystal morphology, in particular to the source of dislocations and their consequences in interfaces and crystal growth; to fundamental understanding of liquid crystals and the concept of disclination; and to the extension of crystallinity concepts to aperiodic crystals'. Frank died on 5 April 1998 and is survived by his wife Maita.