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 13 Collections and/or Records:
Brief notes and calculations, c. 1936-1948
Brief notes and calulations by Edward Appleton.
'Conductance Effects in Ionospheric Circuits', 1948
'Conductance Effects in Ionospheric Circuits'. The material consists of a 5 page draft of a paper by Edward Appleton and W.R. Piggott, with a letter, dated 1948. Also included is a draft paper 'Electric conductivity of the ionospheric D region', 1948, author unknown.
Correspondence and data from W.R. Piggott to Edward Appleton, 1939
Correspondence and data from W.R. Piggott to Edward Appleton, dated 1939. The material includes an extensive manuscript report on experiments.
Correspondence from D.H.Johnson, A.G. Lee, R.G. Lowe and J.H.H. Merriman with Edward Appleton, 1937
The material consists of correspondence from D.H.Johnson, A.G. Lee, R.G. Lowe and J.H.H. Merriman with Edward Appleton, dated 1937. The correspondence from Lowe contains enclosed a report on the fading of television signals caused by aircraft and the correspondence from Merriman contains Post Office data.
Correspondence from F.G.W. White to Edward Appleton, 1937
Correspondence from F.G.W. White to Edward Appleton, dated 1937. The material contains a note by White on absorption.
Correspondence from H.D. Poole to Edward Appleton, 1937-1938
Correspondence from H.D. Poole to Edward Appleton, dated 1937-1938. The material includes mathematical calculations and a draft report.
Correspondence from J.A. Ratcliffe and T. Walmsley to Edward Appleton, 1930, c. 1936-1937
Correspondence from J.A. Ratcliffe to Edward Appleton, no date, c. 1936 including comments on a paper by Martyn; and correspondence from T. Walmsley to Edward Appleton, dated 1937, including a memorandum by Walmsley, dated 1930
Correspondence from N. Ashridge, S. Chapman, T.L. Eckersley, D.R. Hartree and L.Harang with Edward Appleton, 1937-1938
The material consists of correspondence from N. Ashridge, S. Chapman, T.L. Eckersley, D.R. Hartree with Edward Appleton dated 1937 and from L.Harang with Edward Appleton dated 1938.
Correspondence from W.R. Piggott to Edward Appleton, 1939-1940
Correspondence from W.R. Piggott to Edward Appleton, dated 1939-1940. Enclosed with the material is data and reports on research.
Draft on ‘Irregularities’ with additional notes by R. Naismith, c. 1937
The material consists of a 4 page manuscript draft on 'Irregularities', with 3 pages of manuscript notes on same subject by R. Naismith.
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