Appleton, Sir Edward Victor, 1892-1965 (physicist and principal of the University of Edinburgh)
Dates
- Existence: 1892 - 1965
Biography
Appleton was born in Bradford and educated at local schools and St John's College, Cambridge where he was awarded first class honours and several prizes in both parts of the Natural Sciences Tripos (1913, 1914). He began research at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge with W.L. Bragg, but during his service in the Army Signals in the First World War he developed the interest in valves and 'wireless' signals which informed his subsequent research career. He returned to the Cavendish Laboratory in 1919, continuing to work on valves and, with B. van der Pol, on non-linearity, and on atmospherics. In 1924, in collaboration with M.F. Barnett, he performed a crucial experiment which enabled a reflecting layer in the atmosphere to be identified and measured; subsequent research indicated the existence of more than one reflecting layer. From 1924 to 1936 Appleton was Wheatstone Professor of Physics at King's College, London, directing research teams and, in 1932, heading an expedition to Tromsö in northern Norway as part of the programme of observations scheduled for the Second International Polar Year
He was President of the International Union of Scientific Radio (URSI), 1934-1952. In 1936 he succeeded C.T.R. Wilson in the Jacksonian Chair of Natural Philosophy at Cambridge, where he continued collaborative research on many ionospheric problems, including solar and lunar tides in the E-layer. From September 1936 he served on the re-constituted Committee for the Scientific Survey of Air Defence (the 'Tizard Committee'), and in October 1938 was appointed successor to Sir Frank Smith as Secretary to the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR). He remained at the DSIR throughout the Second World War and until 1948 when he was appointed Principal of Edinburgh University. He took up the appointment in May 1949 and remained in office until his death in 1965. Appleton was elected FRS in 1927 (Bakerian Lecture 1937, Hughes Medal 1933, Royal Medal 1950) and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1947 for his investigations into the ionosphere. He was knighted in 1941.
Found in 827 Collections and/or Records:
1 page typescript note from Edward Appleton to William Roy Piggott on F2 equinox values, 11 January 1946
1 page typescript note from Edward Appleton to William Roy Piggott on F2 equinox values, signed and dated 11 January 1946.
1 page typescript note on solstice observations, 3 July 1941
1 page typescript note on solstice observations. The note is signed and dated 3 July 1941.
2 notes by Edward Appleton for talks relating to atomic energy and scientific collaboration, c. 1946 and no date
The material consists of; a notes for a talk on international control of atomic energy, c.1946; and 1 page of notes for a talk on scientific collaboration, no date.
2 page sequence headed 'Further Points', listing 12 points for investigation, no date, c. 1937
2 page sequence headed 'Further Points', listing 12 points for investigation (points 1-8 are in Appleton's hand and 9-12 are in that of R. Naismith). The material contains an additional page of notes on the subject by Naismith, no date, c. 1937.
2 page typescript outline for 2 papers on F layer, 'Paper I - Regularities' and 'Paper II - Irregularities', no date, c. 1937
2 page typescript outline for 2 papers on F layer, 'Paper I - Regularities' and 'Paper II - Irregularities', no date, c. 1937.
2 papers and U.R.S.I [Union Radio-Scientifique Internationale] Program of Meeting, 1927-1938
The material consists of 'The existence of more than one ionized layer in the upper atmosphere'. A published version of Appleton's paper presented at U.R.S.I. [Union Radio-Scientifique Internationale] General Assembly, October 1927, announcing his discovery of the F layer; 'Some Observations on International Research on Atmospherics'. A typescript of Appleton's paper presented at Copenhagen meeting, 1931; and U.R.S.I Program of meeting, Washington D.C., 1938.
2 papers: ‘Atmospheric Interference in Wireless Telegraph’ and 'Fading and the Heaviside layer', c. 1925-1926
2 papers: ‘Atmospheric Interference in Wireless Telegraph’, manuscript and typescript draft for a slide lecture, no date, c. 1926; and 'Fading and the Heaviside layer', a 6 page typescript, no date, c. 1926.
2 papers: 'Short Wave Wireless Transmission...' and 'Atmospheric Electricity and Wireless Transmission', no date and c. 1930
2 papers: 'Short Wave Wireless Transmission. The Discovery of the Low Attenuation of Short Waves’, the first of a series of articles, 4 pages, no date; and 'Atmospheric Electricity and Wireless Transmission', an article for a B.B.C. Handbook- a galley proof, no date , c. 1930.
2 papers: 'The Study of Wireless Signal Fading' and 'The Proof of the Existence of the Heaviside Layer', c. 1926
2 papers: 'The Study of Wireless Signal Fading', 5 pages of manuscript, probably intended for Wireless World, no date, c.1926; and 'The Proof of the Existence of the Heaviside Layer', 6 pages of manuscript probably intended for Wireless World, also no date, c.1926.
2 papers: 'Wireless Telegraphy' and 'Wireless Transmission and the Upper Atmosphere', no date
2 papers: 'Wireless Telegraphy', a 3 page manuscript draft of the first of 3 lecture, no date; and 'Wireless Transmission and the Upper Atmosphere', a 4 page manuscript draft, no date.
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