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 8 Collections and/or Records:
Correspondence from E.H. Rayner of the National Physical Laboratory to Edward Appleton with data and reports, 1926-1928
Correspondence from E.H. Rayner of the National Physical Laboratory (N.P.L.) regarding forecasting magnetic storms, dated 1926. The material includes data and reports on occurrence and prediction of magnetic storms, sent to Appleton by the N.P.L., 1926-1928. Also included is a report on a magnetic storm in Japan, 1926.
Correspondence from R. Naismith to Edward Appleton, 1940
Correspondence from R. Naismith to Edward Appleton, dated 1940. The material includes data, graphs, comments on results, two short reports on magnetic storms (April), report on 'ionospheric discussion' (November), and also a letter and data on sunspots from H.W. Newton.
Correspondence from T.W. Bennington with Edward Appleton, 1946
Correspondence from T.W. Bennington with Edward Appleton, dated 1946. The material includes reports and notes on magnetic disurbances.
File containing notes by Edward Appleton, 1932-1933 and no date
File containing 4 notes by Edward Appleton. The mnaterial consists of 'Some Conclusions by E.V.A.' [Edward Victor Appleton], manuscript notes and data using Tromsö data, 1932 and 1933; 'Note on variation of magnetic storminess'. 1 page note which refers to Tromsö, no date; 'Note on Magnetic and Ionospheric Phenomena', 1 page, no date; and 'Magnetic Storms and Ionospheric Changes', 1 page, no date.
File containing notes by Edward Appleton, 1938 and no date
File containing notes by Edward Appleton. The material consists of 'Magnetic Storms and Magnetic Activity', 1 page note, no date which refers to Tromsö; 'Remarks on Dr. Chapman 's note on radio fade-outs and the associated magnetic disturbances', a note which was published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, vol. 43, 1938; 'The Relation between Magnetic and Ionospheric Storms', a 2 page note, no date and written on wartime paper; and miscellaneous shorter notes and drafts.
Ionospheric storm calculations, c. 1943-1958
The material consists of ionospheric storm calculations, the date range is 1943-1958 though some charts are undated.
Magnetic Storms, c. 1920-1947
The material consists of files relating to magnetic storms. Edward Appleton's own notes and drafts appear at Coll-37/C.192-C.194. Data, correspondence with colleagues, etc. follow at Coll-37/C.195-C.198.
'Wilson's Theory of Thunderstorms', c. 1920
The material consists of 5 pages of manuscript notes, probably taken c.1920 and with annotations added later in blue pencil. Also included is a sequence of manuscript notes by another, on the same subject, and a reprint of C.T.R. Wilson's Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Paper 'Investigations on lightning discharges and on the electric field of thunderstorms', 1920.
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