The Nobel Prize in Physics 1937 Clinton Davisson, George Paget
Thomson Award Ceremony Speech Presentation Speech by Professor
H. Pleijel, Chairman of the Nobel Committee for Physics of the
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, on December 10, 1937 Your
Majesty, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies The Nobel Prize for
Physics for the year 1937 will today be delivered to Dr. C.J.
Davisson and Professor G.P. Thomson for their discovery of the
interference phenomena arising when crystals are exposed to
electronic beams. The study of the dispersion and diffraction
phenomena produced by beams of electrons impinging on crystal
surfaces was begun already in 1922 by Davisson and his
collaborator Kunsman. These investigations soon obtained special
actuality in connection with the theory of mechanical waves
pronounced in 1923 by the Nobel Prize winner Prince de Broglie.
According to this theory material particles are always linked
with a system of travelling waves, a «wave-packet», forming the
constituent parts of matter and dete