Appleton, Sir Edward Victor, 1892-1965 (physicist and principal of the University of Edinburgh)

Person

Staff Only

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 2 Collections and/or Records:

Hardback notebook, 1919-1922

Item

Identifier: Coll-37/B.3

Scope and Contents

Hardback notebook, dated 1919-1922. The item contains notes of experiments and ideas on oscillators and circuits, some with various dates, December 1919-October 1922; and notes for 'Further Experiments on Atmospherics'. There are a few notes at the rear of the notebook. See also Coll-37/B.4 which consists of loose pages of notes and calculations which were originally inserted into this notebook.

Dates: 1919-1922

Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of Sir Edward Victor Appleton / Scientific notebooks

Red softbacked notebook, inscribed inside 'E. V. Appleton. St. John's College, Cambridge', 1919

Item

Identifier: Coll-37/B.2A

Scope and Contents

Red softbacked notebook, inscribed inside 'E. V. Appleton. St. John's College, Cambridge', dated 1919. Both ends of the item are used. Contains notes (some dated 1919) of experiments on oscillating circuits; notes on glassblowing; notes of work planned, including 'Van der Pol's coils'; and Narrative of experiments conducted.

Dates: 1919