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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.

Topics

Found in 833 Collections and/or Records:

Correspondence from A.R. Meetham to Edward Appleton, c. 1939-1942

 File
Identifier: Coll-37/E.68
Scope and Contents

Correspondence from A.R. Meetham to Edward Appleton, c. 1939-1942. The material relates to research notes on various problems in F layer research, including comments on a theory of accretion by R.A. Lyttelton and F. Hoyle, 1942.

Dates: c. 1939-1942
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of Sir Edward Victor Appleton / Correspondence

Correspondence from B. van der Pol to Edward Appleton, 1920

 File
Identifier: Coll-37/E.139
Scope and Contents

The material consists of correspondence from B. van der Pol to Edward Appleton, 1 letter only, dated 1920.

Dates: 1920
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of Sir Edward Victor Appleton / Correspondence / Correspondence between B. van der Pol to Edward Appleton / Correspondence from B. van der Pol to Edward Appleton

Correspondence from B. van der Pol to Edward Appleton, 1921

 File
Identifier: Coll-37/E.140
Scope and Contents

The material consists of correspondence from B. van der Pol to Edward Appleton, dated 1921. It includes includes notes and calculations and an offprint of a published paper.

Dates: 1921
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of Sir Edward Victor Appleton / Correspondence / Correspondence between B. van der Pol to Edward Appleton / Correspondence from B. van der Pol to Edward Appleton

Correspondence from B. van der Pol to Edward Appleton, January 1922-April 1922

 File
Identifier: Coll-37/E.141
Scope and Contents

The material consists of correspondence from B. van der Pol to Edward Appleton, dated January-April 1922. The letter of 26 April discusses Van der Pol's career plans.

Dates: January 1922-April 1922
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of Sir Edward Victor Appleton / Correspondence / Correspondence between B. van der Pol to Edward Appleton / Correspondence from B. van der Pol to Edward Appleton

Correspondence from B. van der Pol to Edward Appleton, May 1922-c. October 1922

 File
Identifier: Coll-37/E.142
Scope and Contents

The material consists of correspondence from B. van der Pol to Edward Appleton, dated May-c. October 1922. The letter of 20 May describes Van der Pol's decision to accept a post at Philips.

Dates: May 1922-c. October 1922
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of Sir Edward Victor Appleton / Correspondence / Correspondence between B. van der Pol to Edward Appleton / Correspondence from B. van der Pol to Edward Appleton

Correspondence from B. van der Pol to Edward Appleton, 1923

 File
Identifier: Coll-37/E.143
Scope and Contents

The material consists of correspondence from B. van der Pol to Edward Appleton, dated 1923.

Dates: 1923
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of Sir Edward Victor Appleton / Correspondence / Correspondence between B. van der Pol to Edward Appleton / Correspondence from B. van der Pol to Edward Appleton

Correspondence from B. van der Pol to Edward Appleton, c. 1922-1975

 File
Identifier: Coll-37/E.144
Scope and Contents The material consists of correspondence from B. van der Pol to Edward Appleton, dated 1927 and 1948, one letter for each year only. The letter dated 1927 was in reply to Appleton's charge that van der Pol had misrepresented his work in an article, see Coll-37/E.132. Also included with the material are undated manuscript notes by van der Pol, c. 1922-1924; an offprint of a centenary article by Van der Pol on Lorentz, dated 1953; and an offprint of an article on the Appleton-van der Pol...
Dates: c. 1922-1975
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of Sir Edward Victor Appleton / Correspondence / Correspondence between B. van der Pol to Edward Appleton / Correspondence from B. van der Pol to Edward Appleton

Correspondence from B.G. Pressey and O. Pulley to Edward Appleton, 1935, 1946

 File
Identifier: Coll-37/E.100
Scope and Contents

The material consists of correspondence from B.G. Pressey to Edward Appleton, dated 1946; and from O. Pulley to Appleton, dated 1935.

Dates: 1935, 1946
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of Sir Edward Victor Appleton / Correspondence

Correspondence from B.J. Schonland to Edward Appleton, 1934

 File
Identifier: Coll-37/C.24
Scope and Contents

Correspondence from B.J. Schonland to Edward Appleton, 1934. The material includes a copy of Schonland's lecture on lightning discharge.

Dates: 1934
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of Sir Edward Victor Appleton / Research topics / Atmospherics / Correspondence

Correspondence from C. Hoffmeister and H. Spencer Jones to Edward Appleton, 1948 and 1945

 File
Identifier: Coll-37/C.231
Scope and Contents

The material consists of correspondence from C. Hoffmeister to Edward Appleton, dated 1948 and from H. Spencer Jones to Edward Appleton, dated 1945. The correspondence from Spencer Jones is possibly the 'the Astronomer Royal's letter' mentioned in Coll-37/C.226.

Dates: 1948 and 1945
Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of Sir Edward Victor Appleton / Research topics / Meteor Trails / Correspondence and data

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