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William Henry Bragg

the early Adelaide years
 

On his appointment in 1886, he found that, with just one assistant, he was entirely responsible for all the mathematics and physics teaching in the University, adding up to18 hours per week plus 6 hours evening FE classes.
 
In order for his students to do practical work, he apprenticed himself to a firm of instrument makers to make apparatus for his classes - and his interest in instrumentation was to prove important in later years.
 
But it  was not all hard work - he was an excellent tennis player and joined in the social life of Adelaide. He met Charles Todd, who held the posts of South Australian Government Astronomer, Postmaster-General and  Superintendent of Telegraphs. Todd had been responsible for constructing the telegraph line from Adelaide to Darwin and had named the staging post 'Alice Springs' after his wife.
 
Bragg got to know Todd's family and in 1889 he married Gwendoline Todd, with whom he had 3 children, William Lawrence, Robert and Gwendolen