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 5 Collections and/or Records:
Army notebook, inscribed on cover 'E. V. Appleton ii Lieut [Lieutenant] R. E. Electricity Notes' , c 1914-1921
Army notebook, with only a few pages and front cover remaining, c.1914-1918
Army notebook, with only a few pages and front cover remaining, c.1914-1918. Notes on differential equations, perhaps for lectures as Instructor in R. E. Signals [check what this means] during First World War.
Black ring-bound notebook, c. 1920-1921
Black ring-bound notebook, c.1920-1921. The item contains notes and narratives of experiments on atmospherics and on Aperiodic Impulses. The work begins July 12 [1920] and continues to April 17 [1921].
Hardback drawing book of graph paper, no date
The item is a Hardback drawing book of graph paper, undated, c.1920. Both ends of the item are used. At the front there are graphs and calculations of valves and oscillators. At the rear are 12 monthly graphs, labelled January-December.
Hardback notebook, inscribed inside ‘Victor Appleton St John's College, Cambridge. Magnetism and Electricity'., undated (probably before 1919 with some later additions)
Hardback notebook, inscribed inside ‘Victor Appleton St John's College, Cambridge. Magnetism and Electricity', undated (probably before 1919 with some later additions). Both ends of the notebook are used. It contains notes and calculations, perhaps of undergraduate work (Appleton usually signed himself ‘E.V. Appleton' after 1919). Some notes on negative ions, ionisation, etc. may be of a later date.