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 196 Collections and/or Records:
Correspondence from H.G. Booker to Edward Appleton, 1948
Correspondence from H.G. Booker to Edward Appleton, dated 1948. The material includes draft papers by Booker on scattering.
Correspondence from H.J. Groenwold to Edward Appleton, 1948
The material consists of correspondence from H.J Groenwold to Edward Appleton, dated 1948.
Correspondence from H.L. Kirke and K. Kreielsheimer to Edward Appleton, 1940, 1947
The material consists of correspondence from H.L. Kirke to Edward Appleton, dated 1940, relating to the propogation of short waves (for the B.B.C.); and from K. Kreielsheimer to Appleton, dated 1947.
Correspondence from H.S.W. Massey to Edward Appleton, 1939
The material consists of correspondence from H.S.W. Massey to Edward Appleton, dated 1939.
Correspondence from H.T. Stetson to Edward Appleton, 1933, 1947, 1980
The material consists of correspondence from H.T. Stetson to Edward Appleton, dated 1933 and 1947. The letter from 1933 includes a photograph and has a note by Dr J. King, dated 1980 marked, 'letter drawing attention to the decrease of radio reception during the years 1930-1932 when the sunspot number was also decreasing'.
Correspondence from H.W. Newton to Edward Appleton, 1946
Correspondence from H.W. Newton to Edward Appleton, dated 1946. The material includes a photograph of a giant sunspot, dated July 1946, and a draft of Newton's report on 'Solar Activity’.
Correspondence from H.W. Newton to Edward Appleton, 1939, 1944, 1955
Correspondence from H.W. Newton to Edward Appleton, dated 1939, 1944, and 1955. The material from 1944 consists of 2 copies of a letter from Newton commenting on a Russian memorandum on magnetic and ionospheric storms.
Correspondence from H.W. Newton, W.R. Piggott and R.L. Smith-Rose to Edward Appleton, c. 1938-1939
The material consists of correspondence from H.W. Newton to Edward Appleton, dated 1938-1939; from W.R. Piggott to Edward Appleton, no date, c. 1939; and from R.L. Smith-Rose to Edward Appleton, dated 1938.
Correspondence from J. Bartels to Edward Appleton, 1949-1958
Correspondence from J. Bartels to Edward Appleton, dated 1949-1958. The material Includes data, graphs and printed matter relating to various research problems.
Correspondence from J. Larmor to Edward Appleton, 1925-1939
The material consists of correspondence from J. Larmor to Edward Appleton, dated 1925-1939. Some of the letters remain in their original envelopes and many include research ideas and calculations, which continue on accompanying sheets or on to the back of the envelope. All are in a very tiny hand with many afterthoughts, cancellations and marginalia, etc.
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