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:
Folder inscribed 'E Seasonal' in A.J. Lyon's hand, no date, c. 1947-1960
Folder inscribed 'E Seasonal' in A.J. Lyon's hand. The material consists of extensive charts and graphs, almost all by Lyon, but some by Mrs Pritchard and with a few annotations by Edward Appleton.
Folder inscribed 'Eclipse' and '1937', 1936-1938
The material consists of an original folder inscribed 'Eclipse' with the date ‘1937’ added in another hand. It includes correspondence from Naismith regarding plans for observing the Solar Eclipse of 1940, bibliographies and tabulated information on eclipses from 1935 and 1936, printed reports. Also included are a letter and photographs on the 1936 eclipse, from J. A. Pierce.
Folder inscribed 'F-region Ionisation KCL (King's College London] December 1931-May 1932’ , December 1931-May 1932
Folder inscribed 'F-region Ionisation KCL (King's College London] December 1931-May 1932’ (not in Edward Appleton’ s hand). The data is written in various hands, with some loose pages inserted at the front of the folder. It includes work by Appleton, R. Naismith, Builder and others.
Folder labelled, "Paper for the Royal Society...Sunspot Cycle Influences on the Ionosphere", c. 1964
Folder labelled, "Paper for the Royal Society...Sunspot Cycle Influences on the Ionosphere". The material inside consists of 2 pages of manuscript notes and headings, with various suggested titles for a paper. No paper with this title is listed in Appleton’s writings, but he published a paper on ‘Sunspot-cycle control of ionospheric and geomagnetic variations' in Journal of Atmospheric and Terrestrial Physics, vol. 26, 1964.
Folder of material on storms, no date
Folder of material on storms. It includes some copied by Mrs Pritchard, and some annotated by Appleton, etc.
Folder of reports and offprints, etc., annotated or with intercalated notes by Edward Appleton, no date
Folder of reports and offprints, etc., annotated or with intercalated notes by Edward Appleton, no date.
Folder of unidentified notes, data and jottings, c. 1930-1965
Folder of unidentified notes, data and jottings, almost all in Edward Appleton’s hand or with annotations by him.
Folder of unidentified notes, data and jottings, c. 1930-1965
Folder of unidentified notes, data and jottings, almost all in Edward Appleton’s hand or with annotations by him.
Folder of unidentified notes, data and jottings, c. 1930-1965
Folder of unidentified notes, data and jottings, almost all in Edward Appleton’s hand or with annotations by him.
'Further notes of F2 anomaly', no date
'Further notes of F2 anomaly'. the materia consists of 1 page manuscript note listing 4 points, no date.
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