Aug 07 – This is the day in Cambridgeshire history

Every day, Mike Petty and I Check out the Cambridge News archives and share some of the stories that happened that day in history.

Parched people in Pampisford Repair community pumps

1976

Old village pumps could come back into action if the drought crisis worsens.

The idea was brought up by the Pampisford Town Council, which decided to bring in experts to see if their own village pumps could be up and running.

There are probably more than 100 pumps in the district, unfortunately many of them neglected and dilapidated.

Some are around a hundred years old and almost all of them are out of order after they fell into disrepair with the introduction of the aqueduct to rural areas.

Since the local councils lost responsibility for the water supply, there has been a longstanding dispute over their property, although there is usually a huge dispute if someone wants to get rid of them.

Pye Ltd is building a revolutionary nuclear reactor

1964

A transistor nuclear reactor developed by Pye Ltd is cheap but offers immense research opportunities.

It will produce short-lived isotopes for medical diagnosis and neutron activation.

The reactor was built and modified under license to an American company to increase the output to 100 kilowatts.

In the event of overheating, boiling water in the reactor switches off the discharge of the heap.

Accidentally dropped radioactive material is more likely to lead to the use of the warning system than uncontrolled processes within the system.

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The library should open longer, workers say

1963

Minutes after the Mayor of Cambridge opened the new Cherry Hinton branch library, there were complaints that workers could not get there before it closed at 7 p.m. and that it should remain open for an extra hour.

There has been a kind of library for many years.

Originally, books were kept in a locked bookcase at the entrance to the Church of England School on High Street. The Colville School moved to the mid-1950s.

Work has now begun on the Newmarket Road library, after which another will be built on Arbury Road.

Watch “The Most Exciting Event In The History Of The Big Screen”

1953

Man in the dark poster. LMPC / Getty.

Man in the Dark, the first full-length, three-dimensional film to be shown in the eastern counties, was shown to an invited audience at Rex Cinema, Cambridge.

They left feeling like they had witnessed the most exciting event in silver screen history since The Jazz Singer was launched in 1927.

Mr. R. Halliwell, the manager, said the entrance fee only covered the cost of borrowing the Polaroid glasses.

The three-dimensional film harbors such possibilities of screen terror that the Deepies initially tend to make horror films.

To what extent Cambridge will succumb to the third dimension remains to be seen, but the preview audience had a pleasant time.

Man in the dark poster. LMPC / Getty.

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Cambridge, home of the Hiroshima bomb

[1945[1945

Left to right ES Walton, Ernest Rutherford, and JD Cockcroft who worked together at the Cavendish Laboratory. Hulton-German / Corbis / Getty.

The development of the atomic bomb is thanks to young scientists in the laboratories at Cambridge. They owned the routine peacetime research.

Responsible for the experiments in Cambridge were men who had worked in the past with the late Lord Rutherford, the man who first made the atom public in the world-famous Cavendish Laboratory.

His studies of radioactivity led to the discovery of the nucleus – the tiny body at the center of the atom that holds such enormous energy.

The work of these scientists was one of the great secrets of the war, and the men involved in it were bound to absolute secrecy.

No fewer than four members of the technical committee set up to coordinate the various parts of the work were men close to Cambridge.

Sir James Chadwick, Head of the American Scientific Team and Professor of Physics at the University of Liverpool, and Professor MLE Oliphant of the University of Birmingham both worked in the Cavendish Laboratory before taking up their current positions.

On the left the British physicist Sir James Chadwick. Keystone-France / Gamma-Keystone / Getty. Right, the Australian physicist Sir Mark Oliphant. Francis Reiss / Image Mail / Hulton / Getty.

The other two Cambridge Technical Committee members are Professor JD Cockcroft, Jackson Professor of Natural Philosophy, and Dr. Norman Feather, professor at Cavendish.

Sir Lawrence Bragg, Cavendish Professor of Experimental Physics, said the men mentioned as leading the British team were brought together here by Lord Rutherford. Both Chadwick and Oliphant were Rutherford’s sidekicks at Cambridge.

Chadwick worked with Rutherford in Manchester in the early days of radioactivity and joined him in Cambridge shortly after the end of the last war.

He later became his right-hand man as director of his research team and later moved to Liverpool.

In Cambridge, Chadwick discovered the neutron. Cockcroft also made history here by being the first person to receive detailed unequivocal evidence of the artificial fission of the atom.

The city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. AFP / Getty.

Read Mike Petty’s Cambridgeshire Scrapbook for other stories.

How did Cambridge mobilize for World War I?

1914

On the first two to three days of the week, the residents of Cambridge experienced the feeling of tension that is typical of the country.

During the week, large crowds gathered outside the newspaper offices to hear the latest war news.

Until the wee hours of Wednesday morning, many people marched through the streets of Cambridge hoping to hear news of Germany’s response to the British ultimatum, and when the news of the war with Germany broke out, the tensions had been the previous few days partially relieved.

German

After the news of the German and French mobilization, there was a general emigration of students of both nationalities who took part in the summer assembly.

On Sunday morning a group of about a dozen German students stood on the platform early and waited for the first train to London.

Late on Sunday and early Monday morning, members of the Cambridge Marine Reserve received notices instructing them to report to their respective headquarters.

There were large numbers of naval reservists in Cambridge and the men immediately went to Portsmouth, Chatham and other major naval centers.

While the marines’ retreat was not as drastic as the orders in the coastal towns, it was surprising that so many ex-Marines and Marines had settled in Cambridge to farm in the inland town.

army

The drafting of the Army Reserve had an even broader impact, college clerks, railroad workers, police officers, postal workers, Vanmen, etc.

The station was a moving scene, hundreds of reservists came from all parts of the city and the district and went to their regimental commands. About 20 left the mail lane that evening.

They received a warm farewell from 250 spectators, including a cornet player from the Salisbury Club.

The train was a little late and the men had to wait a long time, which was livened up as the crowd sang patriotic songs. As the train steamed out, the crowd sang “Auld Lang Syne” and cheered until he was out of sight.

The Cambridge squadron of the Royal Suffolk Yeomanry demonstrated and was sent to their quarters at Ross Street School and County Girls School. A number of others were quartered in the grain exchange.

The streets presented themselves militarily. Uniformed territories with their bags and rifles could be seen.

Officials in cars or motorcycles and paramedics on bicycles hurried to and fro, guards with bayonets attached were posted at the grain exchange and vehicle traffic was stopped by the police.

Hospitals are preparing

Men from the First Eastern General Hospital were billeted on Corn Exchange Street.

An elaborate plan was put in place to make Cambridge a great hospital center and the various college buildings were designed to be converted into hospital wards.

But this scheme is meant to be used in the event of an invasion and will hopefully never be needed.

There is currently a need for shelter in places where the wounded are likely to land.

Horses requested

Local farmers have expressed fears that they will not be able to get their crops through because the government wants their horses for military use.

But clear instructions were given not to take horses that are needed for harvesting.

At the same time, horses are badly needed and the public will do a great and patriotic service in providing the government with everything it can spare by notifying the nearest police station.

Major Phillips of the Hussars is in Newmarket buying hacks for the government. Prices on offer are as high as £ 50 for something special. Army officers and men are similarly engaged in Cambridge

prices are increasing

The prices of food have been driven almost to starvation by the selfish actions of those who store large supplies.

The cost of all food has skyrocketed: on Tuesday, sugar and butter rose by half a penny per pound, flour by four pence per stone, and butter by one shilling and six pence. Cambridge Co-op admits there was a temporary shortage, but there is enough material on the docks and there shouldn’t be a real shortage.

Butchers decided to raise the price of meat due to the increased cost of cattle and pigs. Mt. Adkins said he was selling the bone with the meat at the same price that he had previously sold the meat alone.

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The library committee works in the dark

1908

The Cambridge Free Library never gave details of its spending, and it was wrong for a large spending board to keep its operations in the dark.

Members of the committee supplied the library with goods; a city council claimed that it was legal, but not useful.

But Mr. Bowes had been a benefactor of the library, whose advice had been invaluable and who had supplied books on the same terms as other people.

Fire department extinguishes bakery fire on King’s Parade

1906

The Cambridge Fire Brigade undoubtedly saved part of King’s Parade, St. Edward’s Passage and Peas Hill from destruction by fire.

There are numerous old houses, warehouses, sheds and outbuildings of all kinds, many of which are mainly constructed of wood.

It broke out in Mons Buol’s Bakery, 17 King’s Parade; the bakery was gutted and hundreds of pounds of chocolate, almonds and sugar damaged.

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