Constance Tipper (born Constance Fligg Elam; 16 February 1894 – 14 December 1995) was an English

metallurgist Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the ...

and crystallographer. She investigated

brittle fracture Fracture is the appearance of a crack or complete separation of an object or material into two or more pieces under the action of stress. The fracture of a solid usually occurs due to the development of certain displacement discontinuity sur ...

and the ductile-brittle transition of metals used in the construction of warships, and was the first female full-time faculty member at Cambridge University Department of Engineering.

Early life and career

Constance Fligg Elam was born in

New Barnet New Barnet is a neighbourhood on the north east side of the London Borough of Barnet. It is a largely residential North London suburb located east of Chipping Barnet, west of Cockfosters, south of the village of Monken Hadley and north of Oaklei ...

, Hertfordshire, the daughter of surgeon William Henry Elam, and Lydia Coombes. She was educated at

Saint Felix School Saint Felix School is a 2–18 mixed, private, day and boarding school in Reydon, Southwold, Suffolk, England. The school was founded in 1897 as a school for girls but is now co-educational. History The school was founded in 1897 as a girls' s ...

, Southwold before studying engineering at

Newnham College, Cambridge Newnham College is a women's constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sidgwick and suffragist campaigner Millicen ...

(1912). Tipper achieved a third class in Part I of the Natural Science Tripos. In 1915 she joined the Metallurgical Department of the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington, but moved in 1916 to the

Royal School of Mines The Royal School of Mines comprises the departments of Earth Science and Engineering, and Materials at Imperial College London. The Centre for Advanced Structural Ceramics and parts of the London Centre for Nanotechnology and Department of Bioe ...

, where in 1917 she was appointed research assistant to Sir Harold Carpenter and, in 1921, elected to the Frecheville Research Fellowship. Also in 1917 she was elected a member of the Institute of Materials. It was subsequently arranged that she should work at the

Cavendish Laboratory The Cavendish Laboratory is the Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge, and is part of the School of Physical Sciences. The laboratory was opened in 1874 on the New Museums Site as a laboratory for experimental physics and is named ...

, Cambridge. In 1923, under the name C. F. Elam she received the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

's Bakerian Medal with

G. I. Taylor Sir Geoffrey Ingram Taylor Order of Merit, OM Royal Society of London, FRS FRSE (7 March 1886 – 27 June 1975) was a British physicist and mathematician, who made contributions to fluid dynamics and wave theory. Early life and education Tayl ...

. Unfortunately, the Royal Society had not realized that she was a woman and their dinner club did not allow women attendees. In 1924 she was appointed to the first Research Fellowship in Metallurgy given by the Worshipful Company of Armourers and Braziers. In 1927, Elam attended the Second (Triennial) Empire Mining and Metallurgical Congress, held in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, Canada, between 22 August and 28 September. She wrote of the congress and her impressions of her two months travelling in Canada and America for The Woman Engineer journal, published by the British

Women's Engineering Society The Women's Engineering Society is a United Kingdom professional learned society and networking body for women engineers, scientists and technologists. It was the first professional body set up for women working in all areas of engineering, pred ...

, of which she was a member. In 1928, Elam married George Tipper, a graduate of Clare College, Cambridge, and the superintendent of the Geological Survey in India. When she left the Royal School of Mines in 1929, with a DSc, she settled in Cambridge and continued her work there for over 30 years. Tipper was appointed as a lecturer in the department of engineering from 1939, as one of the first women lecturers in the university at a time when many male lecturers went off to wartime work. In 1949 Tipper was appointed as a reader at

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, becoming the only full-time woman member of the faculty of engineering. She remained at Cambridge until her retirement in 1960. Following her retirement, Tipper continued to work as a consultant in the North-West of England, advising on metallurgy in submarine construction. Her 100th birthday in 1994 was celebrated by

Newnham College Newnham College is a women's constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sidgwick and suffragist campaigner Millicen ...

with the planting of the Tipper Tree, a

sweet chestnut The sweet chestnut (''Castanea sativa''), also known as the Spanish chestnut or European chestnut, is a species of tree in the family Fagaceae, native to Southern Europe and Asia Minor, and widely cultivated throughout the temperate world. A ...

Research

Tipper specialised in the investigation of metal strength and its effect on engineering problems. Her research with

on distortion of aluminium crystals under tension received the 1923

Royal Society Bakerian Medal The Bakerian Medal is one of the premier medals of the Royal Society that recognizes exceptional and outstanding science. It comes with a medal award and a prize lecture. The medalist is required to give a lecture on any topic related to physical ...

, although Tipper was prevented from attending the celebratory dinner due to being a woman. This research later inspired Taylor's explanation of plastic deformation by

dislocation In materials science, a dislocation or Taylor's dislocation is a linear crystallographic defect or irregularity within a crystal structure that contains an abrupt change in the arrangement of atoms. The movement of dislocations allow atoms to sli ...

s. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

she investigated the causes of

Liberty Ships Liberty ships were a class of cargo ship built in the United States during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Although British in concept, the design was adopted by the United States for its simple, low-cost construction. ...

. These ships were built in the US between 1941 and 1945, and were the first all-

welded Welding is a fabrication process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, primarily by using high temperature to melt the parts together and allow them to cool, causing fusion. Common alternative methods include solvent w ...

pre-fabricated Prefabrication is the practice of assembling components of a structure in a factory or other manufacturing site, and transporting complete assemblies or sub-assemblies to the construction site where the structure is to be located. Some research ...

cargo ships A cargo ship or freighter is a merchant ship that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year, handling the bulk of international trade. Cargo ships are usual ...

. Tipper established that the fractures were not caused by welding, but were due to the properties of the steel itself. She demonstrated that there is a critical temperature below which the fracture mode in steel changes from ductile to brittle. Because ships in the North Atlantic were subjected to low temperatures, they were susceptible to brittle failure. While these fatigue cracks would not propagate beyond the edges of

rivet A rivet is a permanent mechanical fastener. Before being installed, a rivet consists of a smooth cylinder (geometry), cylindrical shaft with a head on one end. The end opposite the head is called the ''tail''. On installation, the deformed e ...

ed steel plates, they were able to spread across the welded joints in the Liberty ships. She developed what is now known as the "Tipper Test" to help ensure that the metal used in ship construction was sufficiently sound. She was the first person to use a

scanning electron microscope A scanning electron microscope (SEM) is a type of electron microscope that produces images of a sample by scanning the surface with a focused beam of electrons. The electrons interact with atoms in the sample, producing various signals that ...

(SEM) to examine metallic fracture faces. She used a scanning electron microscope built by

Charles Oatley Sir Charles William Oatley (14 February 1904 – 11 March 1996) was Professor of Electrical Engineering, University of Cambridge, 1960–1971, and developer of one of the first commercial scanning electron microscopes. He was also a founder mem ...

and his team, the second SEM ever built. Dr Tipper was awarded the Thomas Lowe Gray Prize, jointly with Professor J F Baker, for their paper 'The Value of the Notch Tensile Test', read before the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in October 1955. The International Congress on Fracture awards the Constance Tipper Silver Medal to mid-career scientists and engineers who have made significant contributions in any aspect of research in the field of fracture.

Awards and honours

* 1923

* 1933

Beilby Medal and Prize The Beilby Medal and Prize is awarded annually to a scientist or engineer for work that has exceptional practical significance in chemical engineering, applied materials science, energy efficiency or a related field. The prize is jointly administe ...

* 1936–38

Leverhulme Trust The Leverhulme Trust () is a large national grant-making organisation in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1925 under the will of the 1st Viscount Leverhulme (1851–1925), with the instruction that its resources should be used to cover ...

Research Fellowship

Works

* * ''Deformation of Metal Crystals'' (Oxford University Press, 1935) * ''The Brittle Fracture Story'' (Cambridge University Press, 1962) * '' Publication: The fracture of mild steel plate. Report no. R3 '' (The Admiralty Ship welding Committee) llustr.London 1948 * ''Brittle fracture of mild steel plates '' (British Iron and Steel Research Association Procs. of a conf at the Engineering Laboratory, Cambridge University, 26 Oct 1945 p. 23–50 abstracted in Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute Oct 1947 p 300) * * * ''The distortion of metal crystals '' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1935) * Baker, J.F. and Tipper, C.F. (1956
The Value of the Notch Tensile Test
Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers 1956 170:1, 65–93 *

References

* Charles, Jim and Gerry Smith. "Constance Tipper: her life and work", ''Materials World'' (1996) * Hayes, Evelyn. "Dr. Constance Tipper: testing her mettle in a materials world", ''Advanced Materials & Processes'' (1998) ;Specific

External links

Retrieved on 27 May 2007.

Retrieved on 27 May 2007. {{DEFAULTSORT:Tipper, Constance 1894 births 1995 deaths People from Hertfordshire People educated at Saint Felix School Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge English women centenarians British metallurgists Academics of the University of Cambridge British crystallographers British women engineers Women's Engineering Society