Draft:Muriel Howorth

Muriel Howorth (born 1887-1971) was the English founder of the Atomic Gardening Society, author, and atomic gardening advocate.

Biography
Howorth grew up in Bishop Auckland, County Durham and graduated from the Royal Academy of Music before turning to work in the film industry. It was here that she invented an early picture and film recording device called a Talkiefone, and founded and led the Women's International Film Association.

During the Second World War, Howorth lived in Eastbourne and employed with the Ministry of Information as well as the Royal Aircraft Establishment. She reported in her personal records receiving a letter in 1948 inquiring after her interest in atomic energy. Howorth then proceeded to check out Frederick Soddy's The Interpretation of Radium and found herself a believer in atomic energy. Howorth wrote a biography of Soddy that was published in 1958.

Howorth began to explore and advocate for the use of atomic energy within the home.

In 1948 she founded the Ladies Atomic Energy Club

She also founded the Layman's Institute of Atomic Information.

One notable moment in Howorth's atomic exploration was in 1959, where she served irradiated North Carolina peanuts to multiple members of the scientific community. However, they were unimpressed with the unusually large peanuts. Howorth viewed these mutated nuts as an achievement towards feeding the undernourished with atomic energy.

Howorth then planted the remaining peanuts in her garden, where they grew quicker and larger than regular peanuts. Howorth also hoped to irradiate onion seeds.

The attention gained by the nuts motivated Muriel to self-publish her book Atomic Gardening and founded the Atomic Gardening Society to advocate for her cause of atomic power in the home, and Albert Einstein served as a patron of the organization. Members were required to buy a set of seeds that had received radiation and buy Howorth's book''. ''

She imported irradiated seeds from the United States to England.

Despite the massive spike in interest in atomic gardening, enthusiasm dwindled as the mutations were difficult to produce and generally undesirable. While Howorth's outlook on atomic gardening was unique, the idea of atomic gardening was not a new idea to the scientific community. While the possibilities of atomic gardening were explored by multiple different organizations, it was generally accepted to have little use. This, along with Howorth's dwindling health led to a decline of interest in atomic gardening and the Atomic Gardening Society remained generally inactive.

Howorth led an organization called the Atomic Energy Association of Great Britain, and as part of the organization's celebration of its second anniversary they hosted a performance called Isotopia which featured the characters labeled as proton and neutron.

Howorth also spent time as a science fiction writer, exploring the generally speculative, and therefore fictional, possibilities of atomic power. One of her more notable novels being Atom and Eve in 1955, which was aimed towards women and encouraged them to venture into the world of atomic power. Howorth's other works varied within the same theme of futuristic infrastructure and scientific advancement and their uses in the home.

Across all fields of work, Howorth consistently encouraged women to make a space for themselves within male dominated fields.

Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Fellow of the Physical Society, Royal Empire society

one source

duplicate

Selected publications