Hertha Ayrton
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Phoebe Sarah Hertha Ayrton (28 April 1854 – 26 August 1923) was an English electrical engineer, mathematician, physicist and inventor, and
suffragette A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...
. Known in adult life as Hertha Ayrton, born Phoebe Sarah Marks, she was awarded the
Hughes Medal The Hughes Medal is a silver-gilt medal awarded by 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. T ...
by 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 ...
for her work on
electric arc An electric arc (or arc discharge) is an electrical breakdown of a gas that produces a prolonged electrical discharge. The electric current, current through a normally Electrical conductance, nonconductive medium such as air produces a plasma ( ...
s and
ripple marks In geology, ripple marks are sedimentary structures (i.e., bedforms of the lower flow regime) and indicate agitation by water ( current or waves) or directly by wind. Defining ripple cross-laminae and asymmetric ripples * ''Current ripple ...
in sand and water.


Early life and education

Hertha Ayrton was born Phoebe Sarah Marks in Portsea, Hampshire, England, on 28 April 1854. In her youth she went by the name Sarah. She was the third child of a Polish Jewish watchmaker named Levi Marks, an immigrant from Tsarist Poland; and Alice Theresa Moss, a seamstress, the daughter of Joseph Moss, a glass merchant of Portsea. Her father died in 1861, leaving Sarah's mother with seven children and an eighth expected. Sarah then took up some of the responsibility for caring for the younger children. At the age of nine, Sarah was invited by her aunts, who ran a school in northwest London, to live with her cousins and be educated with them. She was known to her peers and teachers as a fiery, occasionally crude personality. Her cousins introduced Ayrton to science and mathematics. By age 16, she was working as a governess, but she had not renounced her ambitions.
George Eliot Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrot ...
supported Ayrton's application to Girton College, Cambridge. There, Ayrton studied mathematics and was coached by physicist Richard Glazebrook. She also constructed a
sphygmomanometer A sphygmomanometer ( ), also known as a blood pressure monitor, blood pressure machine, or blood pressure gauge, is a device used to measure blood pressure, composed of an inflatable cuff to collapse and then release the artery under the cuff i ...
(blood pressure meter), led the choral society, founded the Girton
fire brigade A fire department (North American English) or fire brigade (Commonwealth English), also known as a fire company, fire authority, fire district, fire and rescue, or fire service in some areas, is an organization that provides fire prevention and ...
, and, together with Charlotte Scott, formed a mathematical club. In 1880, Ayrton passed the
Mathematical Tripos The Mathematical Tripos is the mathematics course that is taught in the Faculty of Mathematics, University of Cambridge, Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. Origin In its classical nineteenth-century form, the tripos was a di ...
, but Cambridge did not grant her an
academic degree An academic degree is a qualification awarded to a student upon successful completion of a course of study in higher education, usually at a college or university. These institutions often offer degrees at various levels, usually divided into und ...
because at the time it did not award full degrees to women. Ayrton then passed an external examination at the
University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...
, which awarded her a
Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...
degree in 1881. Ayrton was brought up as Jewish but was agnostic by her teens. She adopted the name "Hertha", first given as a nickname by her friend Ottilie Blind, after the
eponymous An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...
heroine of a
poem Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...
by Algernon Charles Swinburne that criticised organised religion.


Mathematics and electrical engineering work

Upon her return to London, Ayrton earned money by teaching and embroidery, ran a club for working girls, and cared for her invalid sister. She also put her mathematical skills to practical use – she taught at Notting Hill and Ealing High School, and was also active in devising and solving mathematical problems, many of which were published in "Mathematical Questions and Their Solutions" from the ''Educational Times''. In 1884 Ayrton patented a line-divider, an engineering drawing instrument for dividing a line into any number of equal parts and for enlarging and reducing figures. The line-divider was her first major invention and, while its primary use was likely for artists for enlarging and diminishing, it was also useful to architects and engineers. Ayrton's patent application was financially supported by Louisa Goldsmid and feminist Barbara Bodichon, who together advanced her enough money to take out patents; the invention was shown at the Loan Exhibition of Women's Industries and received much press attention. Ayrton's 1884 patent was the first of many – from 1884 until her death, Hertha registered 26 patents: five on mathematical dividers, 13 on arc lamps and electrodes, the rest on the propulsion of air. In 1884 Ayrton began attending evening classes on electricity at Finsbury Technical College, delivered by Professor William Edward Ayrton, a pioneer in
electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...
and
physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...
education and a fellow of 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 ...
. On 6 May 1885 she married her former teacher, and thereafter assisted him with experiments in physics and electricity. She also began her own investigation into the characteristics of the electric arc. In the late nineteenth century, electric arc lighting was in wide use for public lighting. The tendency of electric arcs to flicker and hiss was a major problem. In 1895, Hertha Ayrton wrote a series of articles for '' the Electrician'', explaining that these phenomena were the result of oxygen coming into contact with the carbon rods used to create the arc. In 1899, she was the first woman ever to read her own paper before the
Institution of Electrical Engineers The Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE) was a British professional organisation of electronics, electrical, manufacturing, and information technology professionals, especially electrical engineers. It began in 1871 as the Society of Tel ...
(IEE). Her paper was entitled "The Hissing of the Electric Arc". Shortly thereafter, Ayrton was elected the first female member of the IEE; the next woman to be admitted to the IEE was Dorothy Smith in 1958. She petitioned to present a paper before 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 ...
but was not allowed because of her sex and "The Mechanism of the Electric Arc" was read by John Perry in her stead in 1901. Ayrton was also the first woman to win a prize from the Society, the
Hughes Medal The Hughes Medal is a silver-gilt medal awarded by 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. T ...
, awarded to her in 1906 in honour of her research on the motion of ripples in sand and water and her work on the electric arc. By the late nineteenth century, Ayrton's work in the field of
electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...
was recognised more widely, domestically and internationally. At the International Congress of Women held in London in 1899, she presided over the physical science section. Ayrton also spoke at the
International Electrical Congress The International Electrical Congress was a series of international meetings, from 1881 to 1904, in the then new field of applied electricity. The first meeting was initiated by the French government, including official national representatives, le ...
in Paris in 1900. Her success there led the
British Association for the Advancement of Science The British Science Association (BSA) is a Charitable organization, charity and learned society founded in 1831 to aid in the promotion and development of science. Until 2009 it was known as the British Association for the Advancement of Scienc ...
to allow women to serve on general and sectional committees. In a history of housework in the British Isles, Caroline Davidson called Ayrton one of the rare "female electrophiles" who contributed to the advancement of electricity in ways that transformed women's labor within homes. In 1902, Ayrton published ''The Electric Arc'', a summary of her research and work on the electric arc, with origins in her earlier articles from '' the Electrician'' published between 1895 and 1896. With this publication, her contribution to the field of
electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...
began to be cemented. However, initially at least, Ayrton was not well received by the more prestigious and traditional scientific societies such as 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 ...
. In the aftermath of the publication of ''The Electric Arc'', Ayrton was proposed as a
Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...
by renowned electrical engineer John Perry in 1902. Her application was turned down by the Council of the Royal Society, who decreed that married women were not eligible to be Fellows. However, in 1904, she became the first woman to read a paper before the Royal Society when she was allowed to read her paper "The Origin and Growth of Ripple Marks" and this was later published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society. In 1906, she was awarded the Royal Society's prestigious Hughes Medal "for her experimental investigations on the electric arc, and also on sand ripples." She was the fifth recipient of this prize, awarded annually since 1902, in recognition of an original discovery in the physical sciences, particularly electricity and magnetism or their applications, and as of 2018, one of only two women so honoured, the other being Michele Dougherty in 2008.


Support for women's suffrage

As a teenager, Ayrton became deeply involved in the
women's suffrage movement Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffra ...
, joining the WSPU in 1907 after attending a celebration with released prisoners. In 1909 Ayrton opened the second day of the Knightsbridge "Women's Exhibition and Sale of Work in the Colours" which included new model bicycles painted in purple, white and green and raised from 50 stalls and tea etc. £5,664 for the movement. Ayrton was with the delegation that went with Emily Pankhurst to see the Prime Minister and met his private secretary instead on 18 November 1910 ( Black Friday). Ayrton permitted
Christabel Pankhurst Dame Christabel Harriette Pankhurst (; 22 September 1880 – 13 February 1958) was a British suffragette born in Manchester, England. A co-founder of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), she directed Suffragette bombing and arson ca ...
to transfer sums to her bank account to avoid confiscation in 1912, and hosted Pankhurst in times of recovery from imprisonment and force feeding. One attempt to re-arrest Pankhurst on 29 April 1913 to continue her sentence was driven back by suffragettes picketing outside, but Pankhurst was eventually re-arrested outside Ayrton's home on her way to the funeral of Emily Davison (who was killed after running in front of the King's horse at the Derby). Ayrton was a close friend of the scientist
Marie Curie Maria Salomea Skłodowska-Curie (; ; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934), known simply as Marie Curie ( ; ), was a Polish and naturalised-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was List of female ...
and gave her daughter, Irène Curie, mathematics lessons. Although Curie usually chose to withhold her name from petitions, Ayrton managed to persuade her to sign a protest against the imprisonment of suffragettes through her daughter. It was through suffrage activism that she met Barbara Bodichon, a fellow suffragist and a co-founder of Cambridge's Girton College. Bodichon helped to make it financially possible for Ayrton to attend Girton and went on to support her financially throughout her education and career, including bequeathing her estate to Ayrton.


Later life and research

Ayrton delivered seven papers before the Royal Society between 1901 and 1926, the last posthumously. She also presented the results of her research before audiences at the
British Association The British Science Association (BSA) is a charity and learned society founded in 1831 to aid in the promotion and development of science. Until 2009 it was known as the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA). The current Chief ...
and the Physical Society. Ayrton also invented a hand-operated fan to get rid of poisonous gases from the trenches at the front. The device had a waterproof canvas supported by braces of a cane with two hinges and a hickory handle. The invention was dismissed by the War Office initially, until press exchanges followed, and they finally issued 104,000 “Ayrton Fans” to soldiers on the western front. Ayrton spent the rest of her career involved in research to clear noxious vapors from mines and sewers and became involved in the newly founded International Federation of University Women. Ayrton helped found the International Federation of University Women in 1919 and the National Union of Scientific Workers in 1920. She died of blood poisoning (resulting from an insect bite) on 26 August 1923 at New Cottage, North Lancing, Sussex.


Personal life

In 1885, Ayrton married the widower
William Edward Ayrton William Edward Ayrton, FRS (14 September 18478 November 1908) was an English physicist and electrical engineer. Life Early life and education Ayrton was born in London, the son of Edward Nugent Ayrton, a barrister, and educated at University ...
, a physicist and electrical engineer who was supportive of her scientific endeavours. Ayrton honoured Barbara Bodichon by naming her first child, a daughter born in 1886, Barbara Bodichon Ayrton (1886–1950). The daughter was called "Barbie", and she later became a member of Parliament for the Labour Party. Her daughter's son was the artist Michael Ayrton. Hertha and William Ayrton acted as guardians for artist and suffragette Ernestine Mills after the death of Mills' mother Emily "Mynie" Ernest Bell in 1893. (Her father, writer Thomas Evans Bell, had died in 1887.) They stayed close and in May 1915, Hertha Ayrton tested an 'anti-gas fan’ in Mills' back garden in Kensington. It was later adopted as a device to clear poisonous chemical gases from British frontline trenches during the First World War. The story was transmuted into a scene in the 1924 novel ''The Call'' written by Ayrton's step-daughter Edith Zangwill, daughter of William and his first wife, doctor Matilda Chaplin Ayrton).


Commemoration

* Two years after her death in 1923, Ayrton's lifelong friend Ottilie Hancock endowed the Hertha Ayrton Research Fellowship at Girton College. This fellowship continues today. * A
blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom, and certain other countries and territories, to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving a ...
unveiled in 2007 commemorates Ayrton at 41 Norfolk Square in Paddington. * In 2009, the Panasonic Trust inaugurated the Hertha Marks Ayrton Fellowship to mark the trust's 25th anniversary. Its purpose is to promote the further education of under-represented groups in the engineering profession by supporting a suitably qualified engineer to study a full-time master's degree course specifically related to sustainable development or some other environmental technology. * In 2010, a panel of female Fellows of the Royal Society and science historians selected Ayrton as voted one of the ten most influential British women in the history of science. * In 2015, the
British Society for the History of Science The British Society for the History of Science (BSHS) was founded in 1947 by Francis Butler, Joan Eyles and Victor Eyles. Overview It is Britain's largest learned society devoted to the history of science, technology, and medicine. The society' ...
created the Ayrton Prize for web projects and digital engagement in history of science. It awarded the inaugural prize t
Voices of Science
, a project of the
British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...
. * On 28 April 2016,
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commemorated Ayrton's 162nd birthday with a Google Doodle on its homepage. * In 2016 the Council of the University of Cambridge approved the use of Ayrton's name to mark a physical feature of the North West Cambridge Development. * Ayrton’s paper on ‘The Origin and Growth of Ripple Marks’ inspired a tapestry by Artist in Residence at Girton College 2016-2017, Yelena Popova ‘''Ripple-Marked Radiance''’. * In 2017
Sheffield Hallam University Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) is a public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The university is based on two sites; the City Campus is located in the city centre near Sheffield station, Sheffield railway station, whil ...
named their new STEM centre after Ayrton. *In February 2018, a
Blue Plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom, and certain other countries and territories, to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving a ...
was unveiled in Ayrton's honour on Queen Street,
Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...
. The city also boasts a street named after her on The Hard, in postcode PO1 3DS. *In September 2019, The UK government launched the Hertha Ayrton Fund (up to £1 billion of aid funding) to give developing countries access to the latest cutting-edge technology to help reduce their emissions and meet global climate change targets. * In September 2021 a recently extended berth at Portsmouth International Port (UK) was given the ceremonial name of 'The Ayrton Berth'.


Hertha Ayrton Research Fellowship recipients

Recipients of the fellowship include geologist Dorothy Helen Rayer, who held it from 1936-1938.


See also

* Timeline of women in science


References


Further reading

* Reminiscences of Hertha Ayrton by A. P. Trotter i
CWP at UCLA
* * Joan Mason (2006
"Hertha Ayrton"
i
''OUT OF THE SHADOWS: Contributions of 20th Century Women to Physics''
Nina Byers and Gary Williams, ed., Cambridge University Press. * * Hertha Ayrton, 1854-1923, A Memoir by Evelyn Sharp, Edward Arnold & Co., 1 January 1926


External links

* Hertha Marks Ayrton i
CWP at UCLA

Science in the Making
Hertha Ayrton's papers in the Royal Society's archives * Digital copy of ''the Electric Arc'' (1902)
Project Continua: Biography of Hertha Ayrton
Project Continua is a web-based multimedia resource dedicated to the creation and preservation of women's intellectual history from the earliest surviving evidence into the 21st Century.
In a time of depression and isolation, Curie is rescued by a friend, English scientist Hertha Ayrton
* *https://womenyoushouldknow.net/engineer-mathematician-physicist-inventor-hertha-marks-ayrton/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Ayrton, Hertha 1854 births 1923 deaths 19th-century English engineers 19th-century British physicists 20th-century English engineers 20th-century British physicists 19th-century British women engineers 20th-century English women engineers Alumni of University of London Worldwide Alumni of the University of London Alumni of Girton College, Cambridge Hertha British people of Polish-Jewish descent 19th-century English mathematicians 19th-century British women mathematicians 20th-century English mathematicians 20th-century British women mathematicians British agnostics English electrical engineers English engineers English inventors People from Portsea, Portsmouth 20th-century women inventors Women's Social and Political Union Jewish British physicists 20th-century English women scientists