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:

P-Q, 1965

File

Identifier: Coll-37/A.52

Scope and Contents

Letters of condolence received on Sir Edward Appleton's death, "P-Q", 1965.

Dates: 1965

Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of Sir Edward Victor Appleton / Biographical and personal / Letters of condolence received on Sir Edward Appleton's death

Papers and drafts by Edward Appleton on the E layer, c. 1964-1966

File

Identifier: Coll-37/D.64

Scope and Contents Papers and drafts by Edward Appleton on the E layer. The material consists of 'On Seasonal and Non-Seasonal Anomalies in the E Layer', 7 page typescript for a paper; ‘A Further Note on the E Layer Seasonal Anomaly', 3 pages of manuscript notes, dated March 1965 (These notes are reproduced in facsimile in the Journal of Atmospheric and Terrestrial Physics article from 1971); notes introducing the Gifford Lecture, April 1965, 3 pages, manuscript; and ‘Some Radio...

Dates: c. 1964-1966

Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of Sir Edward Victor Appleton / Lectures, speeches, publications / 'Appleton's last note on the E-region anomaly'

Papers of Sir Edward Victor Appleton

Fonds — Box MS.2300

Identifier: Coll-37

Scope and Contents The papers, which are substantial, deal almost exclusively with Appleton's scientific work. There is little personal or private correspondence and almost no surviving material, apart from lectures, speeches and addresses, relating to his public life as scientific administrator or university principal. There are, however, a good run of diaries and engagement books and extensive folders of notes, research ideas, manuscript calculations and data from all periods of Appleton's career, as well as...

Dates: c 1918-1973

Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections

Papers presented at Brussels, 1948

File

Identifier: Coll-37/C.364

Scope and Contents

The material consists of a tagged folder, labelled 'Letters A', with list of papers 6-13 presented at Brussels stuck on the inside front cover. Not all of the papers listed are contained in the folder, however.

Dates: 1948

Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of Sir Edward Victor Appleton / Research topics / U.R.S.I [Union Radio-Scientifique Internationale/International Union of Radio Science]

Papers relating to the administration of the Ford Foundation grant I, 1960-1972

File

Identifier: Coll-1364/2/1/1

Scope and Contents

Contains: correspondence chiefly between C.H Waddington and the Ford Foundation, Solly Zuckerman, Edward Appleton and Beatty, concerning the application process, associated equipment, salary matters and building works. Also present are typescripts of annual grant reports and details of expenditure to the Foundation.

No correspondence exists between 1960 and 1963.

Dates: 1960-1972

Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of Richard Alan Beatty / Papers relating to grants from the Ford Foundation / Papers relating to Ford Foundation grant I (grant number 630-0435A)

Papers relating to the official Agricultural Research Council enquiry into the Animal Breeding and Genetics Research Organisation, 1950-1952

File

Identifier: Coll-1391/2

Scope and Contents Contains chiefly correspondence between Sang and individuals within the Agricultural Research Council (ARC); namely the chairman, Lord Victor Rothschild, the secretary, Sir William K. Slater and a senior official, W.G Alexander. Also contains correspondence with colleagues at the genetics section of the Animal Breeding and Genetics Research Organisation, chiefly Cecil Gordon and C.H Waddington as well as the Principal of the University of Edinburgh, Edward Appleton. The papers chiefly...

Dates: 1950-1952

Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of James Henderson Sang

Part of diary, September 1951- December 1951 only

File

Identifier: Coll-37/A.82

Scope and Contents

The diary consists of loose pages removed from a larger diary, covering September-December 1951 only. The pages contain mainly scientfic notes.

Dates: September 1951- December 1951 only

Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of Sir Edward Victor Appleton / Biographical and personal / Diaries and notebooks

Part of manuscript draft for a lecture on James Clerk Maxwell, 1931

File

Identifier: Coll-37/D.10

Scope and Contents

Part of manuscript draft for a lecture on James Clerk Maxwell by Edward Appleton, pages 1 and 8-10 only.

Dates: 1931

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

Personal photographs, no date

File

Identifier: Coll-37/H.36

Scope and Contents

The material consists of personal photographs which belonged to Edward Appleton. It includes a signed photographic postcard of W. Rhodes; another photographic postcard of S. Haigh, G. H. Hirst, and W. Rhodes; a photograph of children in fancy dress; a photograph of a grand building (a castle?); and a copy of a certificate (?) entitled "Pneumaticks [sic]".

Dates: no date

Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of Sir Edward Victor Appleton / Non-print material / Photographs of Edward Appleton, colleagues and friends

Photocopies of 2 letters from Sir Edward Appleton to the Master, St John's College, Cambridge (Ernest Alfred Benians), 1946

File

Identifier: Coll-37/A.16

Scope and Contents

Photocopies of 2 letters from Sir Edward Appleton to the Master, St John's College, Cambridge (Ernest Alfred Benians), dated 1946. The letters relate to Appleton's visit to Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and arrangements to meet St John's men there, etc.,

Dates: 1946

Found in: University of Edinburgh Library Heritage Collections / Papers of Sir Edward Victor Appleton / Biographical and personal / Career, honours and awards

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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