William (W.) Gregory Marley was a British physicist and photography expert, who was part of the British Mission to Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project. Marley also headed a section at Los Alamos.
In traveling to the United States with the British Mission of physicists, electronics experts, and explosives specialists, Marley brought two cameras that would play an important role in improving the American high-speed photography initiatives. One of the cameras weighed 322 pounds, while the other was 135 pounds. At this point in time, the British cameras were more sophisticated than their American counterparts.
Marley also invented the camera that bears his name, the Marley Camera. The Marley Camera was capable of taking 100,000 pictures per second. The high-speed photography achieved by this camera was greatly beneficial to implosion research and recording of the blast wave at Los Alamos.
Later Years
After World War II, Marley returned to England. Arriving at Harwell in 1946, Marley became involved in the growing field of health physics. In 1948, he formed the Health Physics Division of Harwell.
Later, Marley became the head of the Radiological Protection Division of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority Health and Safety Branch. He also became Harwell’s chief radiological expert.
Through his work in radiology and health physics, Marley helped to establish radiological protection standards around the world. In 1966, Marley was awarded the Elda E. Anderson Award from the American Health Physics Society.
William Gregory Marley died in 1980.
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