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:
Drafts and notes, c. 1932-1946
The material consists of 5 files containing material relating to Edward Appleton's research into meteors.
Drafts and notes by Edward Appleton, c. 1920-1929
This sub-subseries consists of 4 files related to Edward Appleton's research on oscillators.
Drafts and notes relating to the Agricultural Research Council enquiry and surrounding issues, c.1951
Contains Sang's handwritten notes on meetings, conversations and lines of thought regarding possible responses or actions to the preparation of the Agricultural Research Council enquiry and its aftermath. There are also annotated drafts of letters to individuals such as Edward Appleton, William K. Slater and W.G Alexander of the Agricultural Research Council, as well as Sang's 'Memorandum on the affairs of the Genetics Laboratory'.
Much material is undated.
Drafts, data and correspondence exchanged chiefly with R. Naismith, 1936
Drafts, data and correspondence exchanged chiefly with R. Naismith, 1936. The material is mainly on research, analyses of results and drafting of collaborative papers on E-layer. Naismith's material is usually dated and Appleton's notes, comments and suggestions have been tentatively assigned a place on internal evidence.
Drafts, data and correspondence exchanged chiefly with R. Naismith, 1937
Drafts, data and correspondence exchanged chiefly with R. Naismith, 1937. The material is mainly on research, analyses of results and drafting of collaborative papers on E-layer. Naismith's material is usually dated and Appleton's notes, comments and suggestions have been tentatively assigned a place on internal evidence.
Drafts, data and correspondence exchanged chiefly with R. Naismith, 1938
Drafts, data and correspondence exchanged chiefly with R. Naismith, 1938. Includes copy of a telegram from Booker. The material is mainly on research, analyses of results and drafting of collaborative papers on E-layer. Naismith's material is usually dated and Appleton's notes, comments and suggestions have been tentatively assigned a place on internal evidence.
Drafts, data and correspondence exchanged chiefly with R. Naismith, 1939
Drafts, data and correspondence exchanged chiefly with R. Naismith, 1940
Drafts, data and correspondence exchanged chiefly with R. Naismith, 1940. Includes a note by A.R. Meetham. The material is mainly on research, analyses of results and drafting of collaborative papers on the E-layer. Naismith's material is usually dated and Appleton's notes, comments and suggestions have been tentatively assigned a place on internal evidence.
Drafts for 2 slide lectures, c. 1930 and no date
Drafts for 2 slide lectures: lecture (perhaps for Royal Institution discourse) on short-wave discoveries of Störmer, Hals, etc., incomplete, no date, c. 1930; and lecture on early television, no date.
Drafts for 2 U.R.S.I. [Union Radio-Scientifique International] reports by Edward Appleton, 1926-1927, 1955
This sub-sub-sub-series contains drafts for 2 U.R.S.I. [Union Radio-Scientifique International] reports by Edward Appleton.
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