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.
Topics
Found in 833 Collections and/or Records:
Correspondence from D.F. Martyn to Edward Appleton, 1946-1948
Correspondence from D.F. Martyn to Edward Appleton, dated 1946. The correspondence is mainly regarding a paper by Martyn on Solar tides, submitted to Appleton for communication to the Royal Society. The material includes comments on Martyn's paper by W.J.G. Beynon 1947, and an enthusiastic letter by S. Chapman, 1946 and Appleton's notes on papers by Martyn on atmospheric tides, given at a meeting of the Mixed Commission on the Ionosphere, 1948.
Correspondence from D.H. McIntosh to Edward Appleton, 1953-1959
Correspondence from D.H. McIntosh to Edward Appleton, dated 1953-1959.
Correspondence from D.H. Menzel and R. Naismith to Edward Appleton, 1946-1947
Correspondence from D.H. Menzel Edward Appleton, dated 1947 and from R. Naismith to Edward Appleton, dated 1946.
Correspondence from D.H.Johnson, A.G. Lee, R.G. Lowe and J.H.H. Merriman with Edward Appleton, 1937
The material consists of correspondence from D.H.Johnson, A.G. Lee, R.G. Lowe and J.H.H. Merriman with Edward Appleton, dated 1937. The correspondence from Lowe contains enclosed a report on the fading of television signals caused by aircraft and the correspondence from Merriman contains Post Office data.
Correspondence from D.K. Bailey and R.Bailey to Edward Appleton, 1944 and 1948
The material consists of correspondence from D.K. Bailey to Edward Appleton containing comments on Appleton's 1944 papers on morphology of the F2 layer and correspondence from R. Bailey to Appleton, relating to Falkland Islands observations, dated 1948.
Correspondence from D.R. Hartree to Edward Appleton, 1930-1936
Correspondence from D.R. Hartree to Edward Appleton. The material consists of 2 letters from 1930, 3 from 1932, 1 from 1934 and 1 from 1936 and they relate to various research problems and results.
Correspondence from D.W. Heightman to Edward Appleton, 1936-1945
Correspondence from D.W. Heightman to Edward Appleton. Heightman was a radio broadcaster (G6DH) who observed the 'hissing phenomenon' in 1936 and corresponded with Appleton, and with Wireless World, on the subject. In 1945, further correspondence ensued and Heightman's letter of 6 July 1945 encloses observations noted 1936-39. Appleton acknowledged Heightman's early observations in some of his later writings on solar noise.
Correspondence from E. Eastwood, T.L. Eckersley, and K.G. Emeléus to Edward Appleton, 1946-1948
The material consists of correspondence from E. Eastwood to Edward Appleton, dated 1946; correspondence from T. L. Eckersley to Edward Appleton, dated 1948 including a draft letter for publication in Nature; and correspondence from K.G. Emeléus to Edward Appleton, dated 1947.
Correspondence from E. Eastwood to Edward Appleton, 1942, 1945-1946
Correspondence from E. Eastwood to Edward Appleton, dated 1945-1946. The material includes data and observations at various R.A.F. stations for 1942 and 1946
Correspondence from E. Marsden to Edward Appleton, 1945-1947
Correspondence from E. Marsden to Edward Appleton, dated 1945-1947. The material includes data and observations from New Zealand and correspondence on New Zealand research from J.E. Coop.
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