Appleton, Sir Edward Victor, 1892-1965 (physicist and principal of the University of Edinburgh)

Person

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

University of Edinburgh -- Principal

Found in 833 Collections and/or Records:

'Note by E.V.A.' [Edward Victor Appleton], January 1958

File

Identifier: Coll-37/C.114

Scope and Contents

'Note by E.V.A.' [Edward Victor Appleton]. 6 page typescript, dated January 1958.

Dates: January 1958

Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of Sir Edward Victor Appleton / Research topics / General Ionospheric Topics / Drafts and ideas for research

'Note on a property of an oscillating circuit', no date

File

Identifier: Coll-37/C.238

Scope and Contents

'Note on a property of an oscillating circuit', no date. The material consists of 3 manuscript pages of notes by Edward Appleton.

Dates: no date

Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of Sir Edward Victor Appleton / Research topics / Oscillators / Drafts and notes by Edward Appleton

'Note on Dispersion Problem', c. 1925-1943

File

Identifier: Coll-37/C.205

Scope and Contents

'Note on Dispersion Problem'. The material consists of manuscript draft notes for a paper by Edward Appleton with a partial typed version attached, no date, c. 1925-1943.

Dates: c. 1925-1943

Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of Sir Edward Victor Appleton / Research topics / Magneto-Ionic Theory / Notes and drafts for papers by Edward Appleton

'Note on the difference between British and tropical thunderstorms', no date

File

Identifier: Coll-37/C.13

Scope and Contents

'Note on the difference between British and tropical thunderstorms'. The material consists of 1 p. duplicated typescript prepared by Appleton for the Atmospherics Committee, Radio Research Board, C. B. Paper no.76 and p.2 only of typescript draft paper on atmospherics, no date. The material includes photographs.

Dates: no date

Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of Sir Edward Victor Appleton / Research topics / Atmospherics / Notes and Drafts

'Note on the F₂ layer "kink"', 22 January 1942

File

Identifier: Coll-37/C.70

Scope and Contents

'Note on the F₂ layer "kink"'. The material consists of 1 page note reporting William Roy Piggott's observation and suggesting lines of investigation, typescript, signed and dated 22 January 1942.

Dates: 22 January 1942

Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of Sir Edward Victor Appleton / Research topics / F layer / Drafts and ideas for research on F layer

'Note on the Geophysical Effects of an ionospheric irruption', Dec 1941, Mar 1944 and no date

File

Identifier: Coll-37/C.4

Scope and Contents

'Note on the Geophysical Effects of an ionospheric irruption'. The material consists of 4pp. manuscript note by Appleton, no date, brief 1 page note from William Roy Piggott, on absorption, December 1941 and 2 pp. manuscript note to Piggott by Appleton, on absorption formula, March 1944.

Dates: Dec 1941, Mar 1944 and no date

Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of Sir Edward Victor Appleton / Research topics / Absorption

Note on the morphology of the F₂ layer of the ionosphere', March 1944

File

Identifier: Coll-37/D.21

Scope and Contents

Note on the morphology of the F₂ layer of the ionosphere'. The material consists of a 6 page typescript plus 2 pages of figures, with manuscript annotations, and a letter from R. L. Smith-Rose to Edward Appleton, dated March 1944, offering comments and which suggests that the work should be circulated as a Radio Research Board confidential paper.

Dates: March 1944

Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of Sir Edward Victor Appleton / Lectures, speeches, publications

Notebook, inscribed 'E. V. Appleton' on the cover, c. 1924

Item

Identifier: Coll-37/B.10

Scope and Contents

Notebook, inscribed 'E. V. Appleton' on the cover. The notebook contains notes on the literature, mainly on oscillators. It is undated but it was bought in Haarlem, where Appleton is known to have visited Van der Pol in 1924

Dates: c. 1924

Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of Sir Edward Victor Appleton / Scientific notebooks

Notes and calculations, 1935-1939

File

Identifier: Coll-37/C.396

Scope and Contents

The material consists of notes and calculations by Edward Appleton. It includes miscellaneous tabulations of data, dated 1935 and 1936, a letter from Appleton to G.F.C. Searle requesting advice, dated 1937 (see Coll-37/C.7) and a letter from R. Naismith to Appleton, dated 1939.

Dates: 1935-1939

Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of Sir Edward Victor Appleton / Research topics / Additional Material / Absorption / 'General Theory of Absorption' / 'Absorption R.R.B. [Radio Research Board] Report' / Notes and drafts by Edward Appleton

Notes and calculations by Edward Appleton, c. 1934-1965 and no date

File

Identifier: Coll-37/C.221

Scope and Contents Notes and calculations by Edward Appleton. The material is about or related to magnetoionic research but was not included in the original folder. It consists of 'Some Unsolved Ionospheric Problems', 2 pages, no date but after 1943; 'Oblique Incidence', 1 page, c. 1934; a 4 page note 'To show that, assuming perfect reflection a tilted aerial can give no information of direction of reflected wave', no date, c. 1934; 6 pages of notes on vertical and oblique incidence, no date; and...

Dates: c. 1934-1965 and no date

Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of Sir Edward Victor Appleton / Research topics / Magneto-Ionic Theory

Appleton, Sir Edward Victor, 1892-1965 (physicist and principal of the University of Edinburgh)

Dates

Biography

Topics

Found in 833 Collections and/or Records:

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