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:
'The E Layer of the Ionosphere', c. 1965
The material consists of a 5 page, heavily corrected manuscript draft of an article for International Dictionary of Geophysics, unfinished at Appleton's death in 1965 and subsequently completed and edited by William John Granville Beynon.
'The electron in theory and practice', June 1948
'The electron in theory and practice'. This was given by Edward Appleton as the second Dunn Memorial Lecture, given to the Society of Chemical Industry, June 1948, 41 pages manuscript and typescript.
‘The Influence of the Earth's magnetic field on Wireless Transmission', c. 1925-1943
‘The Influence of the Earth's magnetic field on Wireless Transmission'. The material consists of manuscript draft notes for a paper by Edward Appleton with a partial typed version attached, no date, c. 1925-1943.
'The influence of the earth's magnetic field on wireless transmission', 1927, 1955
'The influence of the earth's magnetic field on wireless transmission'. The material consists of a draft of a paper presented by Edward Appleton at the U.R.S.I. [Union Radio-Scientifique International] General Assembly, Washington, 1927. It includes a typescript and published versions and the typescript draft has a manuscript note by Appleton, who lent it to A.J. Lyon for work at Edinburgh, 1955.
'The magneto-ionic Theory', 'Notes on application of Lorentz’ and ‘Results Lorentz notation’, c. 1925-1943
The material consists of draft notes for 3 papers by Edward Appleton: 'The magneto-ionic Theory', 6 pages, developing Lorentz's Theory; 'Notes on application of Lorentz’, 1 page; and ‘Results Lorentz notation’, 1 page, no date, c. 1925-1943.
The material consists of data on sunspot cycles, graphs of quiet and disturbed days, etc., 1931-1953
The material consists of data on sunspot cycles dated 1931-1953, graphs of quiet and disturbed days, etc.
'The morphology of ionospheric storms', c. 1952
'The morphology of ionospheric storms'. The material consists of a 38 page typescript draft by Edward Appleton which is different to the version published in 1952.
'The Morphology of Storms in the F2 Layer of the Ionosphere: II. The Study of Individual Ionospheric Storms' , 1951
'The Morphology of Storms in the F2 Layer of the Ionosphere: II. The Study of Individual Ionospheric Storms'. The material consists of a 49 page typescript draft of a collaborative paper between Edward Appleton and W.R. Piggott. It includes corrections by Piggott to a section of the draft, dated 1951.
‘The propagation of wireless waves through an ionized gas in a magnetic field’, c. 1925-1943
‘The propagation of wireless waves through an ionized gas in a magnetic fieId’. The material consists of section 2 of a paper by Edward Appleton, paginated 4-9, no date, c. 1925-1943.
'The Radar detection of meteor trails', c. 1946
'The Radar detection of meteor trails'. The material consists of a 3 page typescript draft and a copy of the published paper, dated 1946.
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