Lionel Robert Wilberforce (18 April 1861 – 1 April 1944) was a British physicist. He is best known for the invention of the

Wilberforce pendulum A Wilberforce pendulum, invented by British physicist Lionel Robert Wilberforce around 1896, consists of a mass suspended by a long helical spring and free to turn on its vertical axis, twisting the spring. It is an example of a coupled mechanic ...

, which exhibits a curious motion in which periods of purely rotational oscillation gradually alternate with periods of purely up and down oscillation.

Life

Lionel Robert Wilberforce was born in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

to his mother Fanny Flash and his father who was Edward Wilberforce (1834–1914). Edward was a grandson of

William Wilberforce William Wilberforce (24 August 175929 July 1833) was a British politician, philanthropist and leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade. A native of Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, he began his political career in 1780, eventually becom ...

through

Robert Wilberforce Robert Isaac Wilberforce (19 December 18023 February 1857) was an English clergyman and writer. Early life and education He was second son of abolitionist William Wilberforce, and active in the Oxford Movement. He was educated at Oriel College, ...

. He was educated in England and graduated from

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

in 1884. He worked with

J. J. Thomson Sir Joseph John Thomson (18 December 1856 – 30 August 1940) was a British physicist and Nobel Laureate in Physics, credited with the discovery of the electron, the first subatomic particle to be discovered. In 1897, Thomson showed that ...

at the Cavendish Laboratory in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

and was appointed lecturer in 1900. In the same year he became professor of physics at

University College In a number of countries, a university college is a college institution that provides tertiary education but does not have full or independent university status. A university college is often part of a larger university. The precise usage varies ...

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

(later

University of Liverpool , mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning , established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...

). He retired from this position in 1935.

Work

In 1896 he published his work on vibrations of a loaded spiral spring, today known as

. Most of Wilberforce's time at the University of Cambridge and University of Liverpool was dedicated to teaching.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilberforce, Lionel Robert 1861 births 1944 deaths British physicists Lionel