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Hertha Marks Ayrton
Times obituary
A distinguished woman scientist.
We regret to announce that Mrs. Hertha Ayrton, the widow of Professor W. E. Ayrton, died on Sunday morning at the New Cottage, North Lancing, Sussex
Mrs. Ayrton, whom Professor Ayrton married in 1885, was associated with her husband first as a pupil and later as a co-investigator. Having assisted him in some work on the physics of the electric arc, she continued investigations into the same subject during his absence in America and became a recognized authority on the phenomena it presents, contributing papers to the British Association, Royal Society, Institution of Electrical Engineers, and other scientific bodies. Her book, The Electric Arc, was published in 1902. Another subject to which she devoted her attention was the motion of water and the formation of sand ripples. The merit of her scientific work was recognized by her election as the only woman member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, and she would probably have been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1902 had not the Council of that body decided, on legal advice, that they had no power to elect a woman. They, however, awarded her the Hughes Medal in 1906
In 1915, she invented and offered to the War Office a hand fan or flapping device for dissipating and countering poison gas attacks. She published an account of this device in an article that appeared in The Times in 1920, when she complained bitterly of official apathy towards scientific work, of delay in supplying the device to troops in the field after it had been accepted, and of failure to secure proper use of the fans when delivered. The first issue of the fans was made in April 1916, and the total number supplied was 104,000.
Mrs. Ayrton had one daughter, who is married to Mr. Gerald Gould. Her stepdaughter is the wife of Mr. Israel Zangwill
A distinguished woman scientist.
We regret to announce that Mrs. Hertha Ayrton, the widow of Professor W. E. Ayrton, died on Sunday morning at the New Cottage, North Lancing, Sussex
Mrs. Ayrton, whom Professor Ayrton married in 1885, was associated with her husband first as a pupil and later as a co-investigator. Having assisted him in some work on the physics of the electric arc, she continued investigations into the same subject during his absence in America and became a recognized authority on the phenomena it presents, contributing papers to the British Association, Royal Society, Institution of Electrical Engineers, and other scientific bodies. Her book, The Electric Arc, was published in 1902. Another subject to which she devoted her attention was the motion of water and the formation of sand ripples. The merit of her scientific work was recognized by her election as the only woman member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, and she would probably have been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1902 had not the Council of that body decided, on legal advice, that they had no power to elect a woman. They, however, awarded her the Hughes Medal in 1906
In 1915, she invented and offered to the War Office a hand fan or flapping device for dissipating and countering poison gas attacks. She published an account of this device in an article that appeared in The Times in 1920, when she complained bitterly of official apathy towards scientific work, of delay in supplying the device to troops in the field after it had been accepted, and of failure to secure proper use of the fans when delivered. The first issue of the fans was made in April 1916, and the total number supplied was 104,000.
Mrs. Ayrton had one daughter, who is married to Mr. Gerald Gould. Her stepdaughter is the wife of Mr. Israel Zangwill
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