ABSTRACT
Willard Frank Libby, the American nuclear chemist responsible for the development of the 14C dating method, noted the "invaluable contributions" of his collaborators at the University of Chicago, James Richard Arnold and his first graduate student, Ernest Carl Anderson. It turns out that some of these events were of singular importance in influencing the course of research that led to establishing the validity of using a radioactive isotope of carbon as a method of dating. Because of this, for a more complete reconstruction of the origins and initial development of the 14C method, the recollections of his colleagues and collaborators are of indispensable value. The coining of radiocarbon to designate 14C paralleled a common pre-World War II usage for a number of radioactive isotopes: radiocopper, radiocobalt, and radiocadmium. Developments in accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14C studies have been also been extensively discussed at the International Radiocarbon Conferences and at conferences called specifically to report on AMS research developments.
