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 45 Collections and/or Records:
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.
3 notes for speech and 2 broadcast talks by Edward Appleton, April 1957-June 1957
The material consists of 'Science and Industry', a broadcast talk for schools on the Scottish Home Service, April 1957, 9 pages, typescript and manuscript; Speech at unveiling of Syme-Lister plaque, June 1957, 3 pages, typescript; and 'The International Geophysical Year', a talk broadcast on the B.B.C. Home Service, June 1957, 3 pages, typescript.
3 notes for speeches and lecture by Edward Appleton, February 1956-September 1956
3 notes for speeches and lecture by Edward Appleton. The material consists of inner speech for Commerce Graduates, February 1956, 5 pages, typescript; Dinner speech at Pipe Band Contest, May 1956, 6 pages, typescript; and ‘Some Developments in Radio Science’, a slide lecture to Royal Society of Engineers in Antwerp, September 1956, 14 pages, typescript.
3 notes for talks and addresses by Edward Appleton, c. 1947
3 notes for talks and addresses by Edward Appleton. The material consists of 'Recent advances in radio research', a 2 page note of a talk to the Royal Dublin Society, c.1947; 'Research in the Midlands', the opening address at F.B.I. [Federation of British Industries] Conference, Birmingham, March 1947, 15 pages typescript and manuscript; 'Peace-time applications of nuclear energy', Appleton’s opening remarks at the British Association discussion, August 1947.
3 notes for talks by Edward Appleton, March 1953-June 1953
The material consists of background information for Edward Appleton's Presidential Address to the British Association, March 1953; 'The scientific method', a BBC talk to schools, April 1953, 10 pages, typescript; and Speech to Company of Merchants of Edinburgh, June 1953, 6 pages, typescript;
3 notes relating to radio noise from the stars and mesons, c. 1946
The material consists of 'Radio Noise from the Stars', an 11 page manuscript draft for a popular talk or broadcast, no date, c. 1946; a 3 page typescript note on similar subject; and a 3 page note on mesons, this one probably not by Edward Appleton.
Additional filters:
- Subject
- Physics 42
- Correspondence 12
- British Broadcasting Corporation 6
- Belgium -- Brussels 3
- Atmosphere 2
- Industry 2
- Radar 2
- Television broadcasting 2
- United States -- D.C. -- Washington 2
- Absorption 1
- America 1
- Architecture 1
- Astronomy 1
- Aurora 1
- Australia -- New South Wales -- Sydney 1
- Copenhagen, Denmark 1
- Meteors 1
- Microscopes 1
- Nuclear Energy 1
- Stars 1
- Stockholm (Sweden) 1
- Television 1
- Wave Motion, Theory of 1 + ∧ less