An important Adelaide home

“The electron is not as simple as it looks…”

Laurence Bragg

For nearly fifty years after settlement, Adelaide was a pretty isolated place. In 2020 isolation has some advantages, but at the time it was a problem. Charles Todd ended this era when he oversaw the completion of the Australian Overland Telegraph in 1872. Job done he returned to this home on East Terrace. This building went on to become the home of William Bragg, the noted University of Adelaide physicist, when he married Todd’s daughter. Here was born Laurence Bragg, also a significant physicist . in 1915 when he was 25 years old, Laurence became the youngest ever recipient of a Nobel Prize. He shared the Prize with his father. Their work involved the field of X-ray crystallography, later used to decipher the structure of DNA. As a child young Laurence had a fall from his bike. To confirm a broken arm his father used the University X-ray machine. This is the first recorded use of clinical X-rays in Australia #publicschoolclub #letsmakelemonade