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{{short description|English engineer, mathematician and inventor}}
{{EngvarB|date=May 2016}} {{EngvarB|date=May 2016}}
{{Infobox scientist
{{Google Doodle}}
| name = Hertha Ayrton
{{Infobox person
| image = Helena_Arsène_Darmesteter_-_Portrait_of_Hertha_Ayrton.jpg
| name = Hertha Marks Ayrton
| image = Ayrton Hertha bw painting.jpg
| image_size = | image_size =
| caption = Hertha Ayrton | alt =
| caption =
| birth_name = Phoebe Sarah Marks | birth_name = Phoebe Sarah Marks
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1854|4|28}} | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1854|4|28}}
| birth_place = ], Hampshire, United Kingdom | birth_place = ], Hampshire, England
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1923|8|23|1854|4|28}} | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1923|8|26|1854|4|28}}
| death_place = ], Sussex, United Kingdom | death_place = ], Sussex, England
| fields = Engineer, mathematician, ], ]
| death_cause =
| residence = | workplaces =
| patrons =
| other_names =
| known_for = | education =
| education = ] | alma_mater = ]<br />]
| thesis_title = <!--(or | thesis1_title = and | thesis2_title = )-->
| occupation = Engineer, mathematician, ], ]
| thesis_url = <!--(or | thesis1_url = and | thesis2_url = )-->
| ethnicity =
| thesis_year = <!--(or | thesis1_year = and | thesis2_year = )-->
| nationality = British
| doctoral_advisor = <!--(or | doctoral_advisors = )-->
| title =
| academic_advisors =
| salary =
| doctoral_students =
| networth =
| height = | notable_students =
| known_for = Work with the electric arc, discovery with waves and ripple
| weight =
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| awards = ] (1906)
| successor =
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}} }}
'''Phoebe Sarah Hertha Ayrton''' (28 April 1854 – 23 August 1923), was a British engineer, mathematician, ], and ]. Known in adult life as '''Hertha Ayrton''', born Phoebe Sarah Marks, she was awarded the ] by the ] for her work on ]s and ripples in sand and water.


'''Phoebe Sarah Hertha Ayrton''' (28 April 1854 – 26 August 1923<ref name="oxdnb" />) was a British electrical engineer, mathematician, physicist and inventor, and ]. Known in adult life as '''Hertha Ayrton''', born '''Phoebe Sarah Marks''', she was awarded the ] by the ] for her work on ]s and ] in sand and water.
== Early life and education ==


== Early life and education ==
Hertha Ayrton was born Phoebe Sarah Marks in ], Hampshire, England, on 28 April 1854. She was the third child of a ] watchmaker named Levi Marks, an immigrant from ]; and Alice Theresa Moss, a ], the daughter of Joseph Moss, a glass merchant of Portsea.<ref name="JWA Encyc Ayrton">{{Cite encyclopedia
Hertha Ayrton was born '''Phoebe Sarah Marks''' in ], 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 ]; and Alice Theresa Moss, a seamstress, the daughter of Joseph Moss, a glass merchant of Portsea.<ref name="JWA Encyc Ayrton">{{Cite encyclopedia
|url=http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/ayrton-hertha-marks |url=http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/ayrton-hertha-marks
|title=Hertha Ayrton |title=Hertha Ayrton
Line 52: Line 52:
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.<ref name=oxdnb>{{cite ODNB 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.<ref name=oxdnb>{{cite ODNB
|last=Mason|first=Joan |last=Mason|first=Joan
|title=Sarah Ayrton |id=37136}}</ref> She was known to her peers and teachers as a fiery, occasionally crude personality.<ref name=Ogilvie>{{cite book |title= Ayrton , (Phoebe) Sarah |id=37136 |freearticle=y}}</ref> She was known to her peers and teachers as a fiery, occasionally crude personality.<ref name=Ogilvie>{{cite book
|last=Ogilvie|first=Marilyn Bailey |last=Ogilvie
|first=Marilyn Bailey
|title=Women in Science: Antiquity Through the Nineteenth Century |title=Women in Science: Antiquity Through the Nineteenth Century
|date=1986 |date=1986
|pages=–34
|pages=32–34
|publisher=MIT Press|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |publisher=MIT Press
|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts
|isbn=978-0-262-15031-6
|isbn=0-262-15031-X|edition=3rd}}</ref> Her cousins introduced Ayrton to science and mathematics. By age 16, she was working as a ].
|edition=3rd
|url-access=registration
|url=https://archive.org/details/womeninscience00mari
}}</ref> Her cousins introduced Ayrton to science and mathematics. By age 16, she was working as a governess, but she had not renounced her ambitions.<ref>When the census of England was taken in April 1871, she was described as a governess, living and working in the household of Maurice Gabriel, a dental surgeon, at No 56, ], Marylebone in London (The National Archives of the UK, ref. RG10; Piece: 157; Folio: 87; Page: 27).</ref>


Ayrton attended ], Cambridge, where she studied mathematics and was coached by physicist ]. ] supported Ayrton's application to Girton College. Eliot was writing her novel '']'' at the time. One of the novel's characters, Mirah, was said{{by whom|date=April 2016}} to be based on Ayrton, but this is not accepted as fact.<ref name="IET Ayrton Bio"/> During her time at Cambridge, Ayrton constructed a ] (blood pressure meter), led the choral society, founded the Girton ], and, together with ], formed a mathematical club.<ref name=oxdnb/> In 1880, Ayrton passed the ], but Cambridge did not grant her an ] because, at the time, Cambridge gave only certificates and not full degrees to women. Ayrton passed an external examination at the ], which awarded her a Bachelor of Science degree in 1881.<ref name="Riddle agnesscott Ayrton">{{cite web ] supported Ayrton's application to ]. There, Ayrton studied mathematics and was coached by physicist ]. She also constructed a ] (blood pressure meter), led the choral society, founded the Girton ], and, together with ], formed a mathematical club.<ref name="oxdnb" /> In 1880, Ayrton passed the ], but Cambridge did not grant her an ] because at the time it did not award full degrees to women. Ayrton then passed an external examination at the ], which awarded her a ] degree in 1881.<ref name="mactutor">{{cite web |title=Phoebe Sarah Hertha Marks Ayrton |url=https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Ayrton/ |website=MacTutor |publisher=University of St Andrews |access-date=12 June 2024 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Riddle agnesscott Ayrton">{{cite web|url=http://www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/ayrton.htm|title=Hertha Marks Ayrton|last=Riddle|first=Larry|date=25 February 2016|work=Biographies of Women Mathematicians|publisher=Agnes Scott College|location=Atlanta, Georgia|access-date=28 April 2016}}</ref>

|last=Riddle|first=Larry
Ayrton was brought up as Jewish but was ] by her teens. She adopted the name "Hertha", first given as a nickname by her friend Ottilie Blind, after the ] heroine of a ] by ] that criticised ].<ref name="NNDB-Ayrton">{{cite web
|title=Hertha Marks Ayrton
|title=Hertha Ayrton
|url=http://www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/ayrton.htm
|url=http://www.nndb.com/people/034/000167530/
|work=Biographies of Women Mathematicians
|access-date=28 April 2016
|publisher=Agnes Scott College |location=Atlanta, Georgia
|date=25 February 2016 |date=n.d.
|work=]}}</ref><ref name="nickname Hertha">{{cite web |author=<!--Not stated--> | title=Hertha Ayrton: pioneering inventor and suffragette – Physics World | website=Physics World | date=6 September 2022 | url=https://physicsworld.com/a/hertha-ayrton-pioneering-inventor-and-suffragette/ | access-date=11 June 2024}}</ref>
|accessdate=28 April 2016}}</ref>


== Mathematics and electrical engineering work == == 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.<ref name=oxdnb/> She also put her mathematical skills to practical use – she taught at ], 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<ref>{{cite patent|country=US|number=US310450A|title=DRAFTSMANS DIVIDING INSTRUMENT.|status=Grant|pubdate=|fdate=|pridate=|gdate=1885-01-06|inventor=Marks|invent1=Marks|invent2=|inventor1-first=Phoebe|assign1=|assign2=|url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US310450A|class=}} </ref> a ], an engineering drawing instrument for dividing a line into any number of equal parts and for enlarging and reducing figures.<ref name="JWA Encyc Ayrton"/><ref name=oxdnb/> 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.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bruton|first=Elizabeth|date=2018|title=The life and material culture of Hertha Ayrton|url=http://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/browse/issue-10/the-life-and-material-culture-of-hertha-ayrton/|journal=Science Museum Group Journal|language=en|volume=10|issue=10|doi=10.15180/181002|issn=2054-5770|doi-access=free}}</ref> Ayrton's patent application was financially supported by ] and feminist ], who together advanced her enough money to take out patents; the invention was shown at the ] 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.

Upon her return to London, Ayrton earned money by teaching and embroidery, ran a club for working girls, and cared for her invalid sister.<ref name=oxdnb/> She also put her mathematical skills to practical use – she taught at ], 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.<ref name="JWA Encyc Ayrton"/><ref name=oxdnb/> 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 ] and feminist ], who together advanced her enough money to take out patents; the invention was shown at the 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 ], a pioneer in ] and ] education and a fellow of the ]. On 6 May 1885 she married her former teacher, and thereafter assisted him with experiments in physics and electricity.<ref name=oxdnb/> She also began her own investigation into the characteristics of the electric arc.<ref name="IET Ayrton Bio"/> In 1884 Ayrton began attending evening classes on electricity at Finsbury Technical College, delivered by ], a pioneer in ] and ] education and a fellow of the ]. On 6 May 1885 she married her former teacher, and thereafter assisted him with experiments in physics and electricity.<ref name=oxdnb/> She also began her own investigation into the characteristics of the electric arc.<ref name="IET Ayrton Bio"/>


In the late nineteenth century, electric ] 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 '']'', 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 ] (IEE).<ref name=oxdnb/> 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 in 1958.<ref name=oxdnb/> She petitioned to present a paper before the ] but was not allowed because of her sex and "The Mechanism of the Electric Arc" was read by ] in her stead in 1901.<ref name=Ogilvie/> Ayrton was also the first woman to win a prize from the Society, the Hughes Medal, 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.<ref name="IET Ayrton Bio"/> By the late nineteenth century, Ayrton's work in the field of ] 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 in Paris in 1900.<ref name="JWA Encyc Ayrton"/> Her success there led the ] to allow women to serve on general and sectional committees. In the late nineteenth century, electric ] 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 '']'', 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 ] (IEE).<ref name=oxdnb/> 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 ] in 1958.<ref name=oxdnb/> She petitioned to present a paper before the ] but was not allowed because of her sex and "The Mechanism of the Electric Arc" was read by ] in her stead in 1901.<ref name=Ogilvie/> Ayrton was also the first woman to win a prize from the Society, the ], 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.<ref name="IET Ayrton Bio"/> By the late nineteenth century, Ayrton's work in the field of ] 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 ] in Paris in 1900.<ref name="JWA Encyc Ayrton"/> Her success there led the ] 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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Davidson |first=Caroline |title=A Woman's Work Is Never Done: A History of Housework in the British Isles, 1650-1950 |publisher=Chatto & Windus |year=1982 |isbn=0701139013 |location=London |pages=39, 43}}</ref>


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 '']'' published between 1895 and 1896. With this publication, her contribution to the field of ] began to be cemented. However, initially at least, Ayrton was not well received by the more prestigious and traditional scientific societies such as the ]. In the aftermath of the publication of ''The Electric Arc'', Ayrton was proposed as a Fellow of the Royal Society by renowned electrical engineer ] 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.<ref name="Henderson 2012-03-08">{{cite web 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 '']'' published between 1895 and 1896. With this publication, her contribution to the field of ] began to be cemented. However, initially at least, Ayrton was not well received by the more prestigious and traditional scientific societies such as the ]. In the aftermath of the publication of ''The Electric Arc'', Ayrton was proposed as a ] by renowned electrical engineer ] 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.<ref name="Henderson 2012-03-08">{{cite web
|last=Henderson|first=Felicity |last=Henderson
|first=Felicity
|title=Hertha Ayrton and an Embarrassing Episode in the History of the Royal Society |title=Hertha Ayrton and an Embarrassing Episode in the History of the Royal Society
|url=http://blogs.royalsociety.org/history-of-science/2012/03/08/almost-a-fellow |url=http://blogs.royalsociety.org/history-of-science/2012/03/08/almost-a-fellow
|date=8 March 2012 |date=8 March 2012
|work=The Repository |work=The Repository
|publisher=Royal Society |location=London |publisher=Royal Society
|location=London
|access-date=28 April 2016
|access-date=28 April 2016}}</ref> 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 ].<ref name=Ogilvie/><ref name="Riddle agnesscott Ayrton"/><ref>{{cite journal
|archive-date=4 March 2016
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304023153/http://blogs.royalsociety.org/history-of-science/2012/03/08/almost-a-fellow/
|url-status=dead
}}</ref><ref name=":2" /> 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 ].<ref name=Ogilvie/><ref name="Riddle agnesscott Ayrton"/><ref>{{cite journal
|first=Hertha |last=Ayrton |first=Hertha |last=Ayrton
|date=21 October 1910 |date=21 October 1910
|url=http://rspa.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/84/571/285
|title=The Origin and Growth of Ripple-Mark |title=The Origin and Growth of Ripple-Mark
|journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society of London |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society of London
|series= A |volume=84 |issue=571 |pages=285–310 |DOI=10.1098/rspa.1910.0076 |jstor=93297 |volume=84 |issue=571 |pages=285–310 |doi=10.1098/rspa.1910.0076 |jstor=93297
|bibcode=1910RSPSA..84..285A
|access-date=28 April 2016}}</ref> In 1906, she was awarded the Royal Society's prestigious ] "for her experimental investigations on the electric arc, and also on sand ripples."<ref name="Riddle agnesscott Ayrton"/> 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 2015, one of only two women so honoured,<ref name="Riddle agnesscott Ayrton"/> the other being ] in 2008.<ref></ref>
|doi-access=free}}</ref> 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."<ref name="Riddle agnesscott Ayrton"/> 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,<ref name="Riddle agnesscott Ayrton"/> the other being ] in 2008.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://royalsociety.org/grants-schemes-awards/awards/hughes-medal/|title=Hughes Medal &#124; Royal Society|website=royalsociety.org}}</ref>

== Support for women's suffrage ==
As a teenager, Ayrton became deeply involved in the ], joining the ] 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.<ref name=":0" /> Ayrton was with the delegation that went with ] to see the Prime Minister and met his private secretary instead on 18 November 1910 (]). Ayrton permitted ] 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 ] (who was killed after running in front of the King's horse at the Derby).<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Rise up, women! : the remarkable lives of the suffragettes|last=Diane|first=Atkinson|publisher=Bloomsbury|year=2018|isbn=9781408844045|location=London|pages=146, 222, 314, 404, 525|oclc=1016848621}}</ref>

Ayrton was a close friend of the scientist ] and gave her daughter, ], mathematics lessons.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |title=A lab of one's own : science and suffrage in the first World War |last=Fara |first=Patricia |year=2018 |isbn=9780198794981 |edition=First |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford, United Kingdom |pages=67 |oclc=989049156}}</ref> 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{{clarify|date=October 2020}}.<ref name=":2" />

It was through suffrage activism that she met ], a fellow suffragist and a co-founder of Cambridge's ].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Out of the shadows : contributions of twentieth-century women to physics|date=2006|publisher=Cambridge University Press |editor1=Byers, Nina |editor2=Williams, Gary A. |isbn=978-0521821971|location=Cambridge, UK|oclc=62891583|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/outofshadowscont0000unse}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://cwp.library.ucla.edu/articles/ayrton/ayrtonbio.html|title=Hertha Marks Ayrton|website=cwp.library.ucla.edu|access-date=2018-05-12}}</ref>


== Later life and research == == Later life and research ==


Ayrton delivered seven papers before the Royal Society between 1901 and 1926, the last posthumously.<ref>
Ayrton delivered papers on the subject again before the Royal Society in 1908 and 1911; she also presented the results of her research before audiences at the ] and the ]. Ayrton's interest in vortices in water and air inspired the Ayrton fan, or flapper, used in the trenches in the First World War to dispel poison gas. Ayrton fought for its acceptance and organised its production, over 100,000 being used on the Western Front.<ref name=oxdnb/>
{{cite journal
| title = Primary and secondary vortices in oscillating fluids: their connection with skin friction
| last = Ayrton | first = the late Mrs. H.
| journal = Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A
| volume = 113
| issue = 763 | pages = 44–45
| doi = 10.1098/rspa.1926.0138
| date = 1 November 1926
| bibcode = 1926RSPSA.113...44A | doi-access = free
}}
</ref><ref>{{cite journal
| title = On a new method of driving off poisonous gases
| last = Ayrton | first = Mrs. Hertha
| journal = Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A
| volume = 96
| issue = 676 | pages = 249–256
| doi = 10.1098/rspa.1919.0051
| date = 9 October 1919
| bibcode = 1919RSPSA..96..249A | doi-access = free
}}
</ref><ref>{{cite journal
| title = Local difference of pressure near an obstacle in oscillating water
| last = Ayrton | first = Mrs. Hertha
| journal = Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A
| volume = 91
| issue = 631 | pages = 405–410
| doi = 10.1098/rspa.1915.0031
| date = 1 July 1915
| bibcode = 1915RSPSA..91..405A | doi-access = free
}}
</ref><ref>{{cite journal
| title = The origin and growth of ripple-mark
| last1 = Ayrton | first1 = Mrs. Hertha
| last2 = Ayrton | first2 = late Prof. W. E.
| journal = Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A
| volume = 84
| issue = 571 | pages = 285–310
| doi = 10.1098/rspa.1910.0076
| date = 21 October 1910
| bibcode = 1910RSPSA..84..285A | doi-access = free
}}
</ref><ref>{{cite journal
| title = On the non-periodic or residual motion of water moving in stationary waves
| last = Ayrton | first = Mrs. Hertha
| journal = Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A
| volume = 80
| issue = 538 | pages = 252–260
| doi = 10.1098/rspa.1908.0022
| date = 6 April 1908
| bibcode = 1908RSPSA..80..252A | doi-access = free
}}
</ref><ref>{{cite journal
| title = V. The mechanism of the electric arc
| last = Ayrton | first = (Mrs.) Hertha
| journal = Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. A
| volume = 199
| issue = 312–320 | pages = 299–336
| doi = 10.1098/rsta.1902.0016
| date = 1 January 1902
| doi-access = free
}}
</ref><ref>{{cite journal
| title = The mechanism of the electric arc
| last = Ayrton | first = (Mrs.) Hertha
| journal = Proc. R. Soc. Lond.
| volume = 68
| issue = 442–450 | pages = 410–414
| doi = 10.1098/rspl.1901.0069
| date = 1 January 1901
| doi-access = free
}}
</ref>
She also presented the results of her research before audiences at the ] and the ].<ref name=oxdnb/><ref>Imperial War Museum, </ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Hertha Marks Ayrton {{!}} Lemelson |url=https://lemelson.mit.edu/resources/hertha-marks-ayrton |access-date=2024-03-20 |website=lemelson.mit.edu}}</ref>


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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Hertha Marks Ayrton {{!}} Lemelson |url=https://lemelson.mit.edu/resources/hertha-marks-ayrton |access-date=2024-03-20 |website=lemelson.mit.edu}}</ref> Ayrton helped found the ] in 1919 and the ] in 1920.
Ayrton helped found the International Federation of University Women in 1919 and the National Union of Scientific Workers in 1920. She died of ] (resulting from an insect bite) on 26 August 1923 at New Cottage, North Lancing, Sussex.<ref name=oxdnb/>


She died of ] (resulting from an insect bite) on 26 August 1923 at New Cottage, North Lancing, Sussex.<ref name="oxdnb" />
== Personal life ==


== Personal life ==
Hertha Ayrton was agnostic. In her teens she adopted the name "Hertha" after the ]ous heroine of a ] by ] that criticised ].<ref name="NNDB-Ayrton">{{cite web
In 1885, Ayrton married the widower ], a physicist and electrical engineer who was supportive of her scientific endeavours. Ayrton honoured ] by naming her first child, a daughter born in 1886, ] (1886–1950). The daughter was called "Barbie", and she later became a member of Parliament for the ].<ref name=Ogilvie/> Her daughter's son was the artist ].
|title=Hertha Ayrton
|url=http://www.nndb.com/people/034/000167530/
|access-date=28 April 2016
|date=n.d.
|work=]}}</ref>


Hertha and William Ayrton acted as guardians for artist and suffragette ] after the death of Mills' mother Emily "Mynie" Ernest Bell in 1893. (Her father, writer ], 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 ], daughter of William and his first wife, doctor ]).<ref>{{Cite web|title=Celebrating the life of Hertha Ayrton|url=https://blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/celebrating-the-life-of-hertha-ayrton/|access-date=2021-12-04|website=Science Museum Blog|date=28 April 2020 |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Crawford|first=Elizabeth|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ygXwlK_mj50C&dq=Ernestine+Mills+&pg=PT84|title=The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928|date=2003-09-02|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-43401-4|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Humanist Heritage: Ernestine Mills (1871-1959)|url=https://heritage.humanists.uk/ernestine-mills/|access-date=2021-12-04|website=Humanist Heritage|language=en}}</ref>
In 1885, Ayrton married the widower ], a physicist and electrical engineer who was supportive of her scientific endeavours. Ayrton honoured ] by naming her first child, a daughter born in 1886, ] (1886–1950). The daughter was called "Barbie", and she later became a member of parliament for the ].<ref name=Ogilvie/> Her daughter's son was the artist, ].

] in Paddington received an ] in 2007.]]


== Commemoration == == Commemoration ==
* Two years after her death in 1923, Ayrton's lifelong friend ] endowed the Hertha Ayrton Research Fellowship at ].<ref name="Riddle agnesscott Ayrton"/> This fellowship continues today.<ref>{{cite web|title=Girton College – Fellows|url=http://www.girton.cam.ac.uk/contacts/people/fellows|access-date=17 April 2014}}</ref>

* A ] unveiled in 2007 commemorates Ayrton at 41 ] in Paddington.<ref name='EngHet'>{{cite web
*Two years after her death in 1923, Ayrton's lifelong friend ] endowed the Hertha Ayrton Research Fellowship at ].<ref name="Riddle agnesscott Ayrton"/> This fellowship continues today.<ref>{{cite web|title=Girton College – Fellows|url=http://www.girton.cam.ac.uk/contacts/people/fellows|access-date=17 April 2014}}</ref>
*A ] unveiled in 2007 commemorates Ayrton at 41 Norfolk Square in Paddington.<ref name='EngHet'>{{cite web
|url=http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/ayrton-hertha-1854-1923 |url=http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/ayrton-hertha-1854-1923
|title=Ayrton, Hertha (1854–1923) |title=Ayrton, Hertha (1854–1923)
|work=English Heritage |date=n.d. |work=English Heritage |date=n.d.
|access-date=28 April 2016}}</ref> |access-date=28 April 2016}}</ref>
* In 2009, the ] inaugurated the ] 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.<ref>{{cite web

|title=Hertha Marks Ayrton Fellowship
*In 2009, the ] inaugurated the ] 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.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.raeng.org.uk/grants-and-prizes/schemes-for-students/panasonic-trust-fellowships/hertha-marks-ayrton-fellowship
|title=Hertha Marks Ayrton Fellowship
|work=Panasonic Trust Fellowships
|url=http://www.raeng.org.uk/grants-and-prizes/schemes-for-students/panasonic-trust-fellowships/hertha-marks-ayrton-fellowship
|work=Panasonic Trust Fellowships |date=n.d. |date=n.d.
|publisher=]|location=London}}</ref> |publisher=]
|location=London
|url-status=dead

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160328003728/http://www.raeng.org.uk/grants-and-prizes/schemes-for-students/panasonic-trust-fellowships/hertha-marks-ayrton-fellowship
*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.<ref>{{cite news
|archive-date=28 March 2016
|df=dmy-all
}}</ref>
* 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.<ref>{{cite news
|title=Most Influential British Women in the History of Science Selected by Panel of Female Fellows of the Royal Society and Science Historians |title=Most Influential British Women in the History of Science Selected by Panel of Female Fellows of the Royal Society and Science Historians
|url=https://royalsociety.org/news/2010/influential-british-women |url=https://royalsociety.org/news/2010/influential-british-women
Line 131: Line 224:
|author=Royal Society |author=Royal Society
|access-date=28 April 2016}}</ref> |access-date=28 April 2016}}</ref>
* In 2015, the ] created the Ayrton Prize for web projects and digital engagement in history of science. It awarded the inaugural prize to {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210410221910/https://www.bl.uk/voices-of-science/ |date=10 April 2021 }}, a project of the ].<ref name='BSHS'>{{cite web

*In 2015, the ] created the Ayrton Prize prize for web projects and digital engagement in history of science. It awarded the inaugural prize to ] (http://www.bl.uk/voices-of-science), a project of the ].<ref name='BSHS'>{{cite web
|url=http://www.bshs.org.uk/prizes/ayrton-prize |url=http://www.bshs.org.uk/prizes/ayrton-prize
|title=Aryton Prize |date=n.d. |title=Ayrton Prize |date=n.d.
|author=British Society for the History of Science |author=British Society for the History of Science
|access-date=28 April 2016}}</ref> |access-date=28 April 2016}}</ref>
* On 28 April 2016, ] commemorated Ayrton's 162nd birthday with a ] on its homepage.<ref>{{cite magazine

|url=https://time.com/4310634/google-doodle-scientist-hertha-marks-ayrton-ripples-gender/
*On 28 April 2016, ] commemorated Ayrton's 162nd birthday with a ] on its homepage.<ref>{{cite news
|url=http://time.com/4310634/google-doodle-scientist-hertha-marks-ayrton-ripples-gender
|access-date=28 April 2016 |access-date=28 April 2016
|title=Google Doodle Honors Scientist Hertha Marks Ayrton |date=28 April 2016 |title=Google Doodle Honors Scientist Hertha Marks Ayrton |date=28 April 2016
|magazine=Time}}</ref>
* In 2016 the Council of the University of Cambridge approved the use of Ayrton's name to mark a physical feature of the ].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Administrator |date=29 January 2015 |title=Street Naming |url=http://www.nwcambridge.co.uk/building-north-west/consultation/street-naming |access-date=8 March 2017 |website=www.nwcambridge.co.uk |language=en-gb}}</ref>
* 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''’.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Science Meets Art at Girton |url=http://www.girton.cam.ac.uk/news/science-meets-art-girton |access-date=2022-08-06 |website=Girton College |language=en}}</ref>
* In 2017 ] named their new STEM centre after Ayrton.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www4.shu.ac.uk/mediacentre/engineering-students-get-%C2%A311m-new-home-sheffield-hallam |title=Engineering students get an £11m new home at Sheffield Hallam |publisher=Sheffield Hallam University |date=28 June 2017 |access-date=5 July 2017 |archive-date=22 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210622110400/https://www4.shu.ac.uk/mediacentre/engineering-students-get-%C2%A311m-new-home-sheffield-hallam |url-status=dead }}</ref>
*In February 2018, a ] was unveiled in Ayrton's honour on Queen Street, ].<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/politics/city-celebrates-a-true-female-inspiration-1-8368585|title=City celebrates a true female inspiration|website=www.portsmouth.co.uk|language=en|access-date=2019-04-28}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.flickdrummond.com/news/hertha-ayrton-recognised-blue-plaque-portsea|title=Hertha Ayrton recognised with a Blue Plaque in Portsea|website=Flick Drummond|date=8 February 2018 |language=en|access-date=2019-04-28}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://openplaques.org/plaques/48676|title=Hertha Ayrton blue plaque|first=Open|last=Plaques|website=openplaques.org}}</ref> The city also boasts a street named after her on The Hard, in postcode PO1 3DS.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.google.com/maps/place/The+Hard+&+Hertha+Ayrton+Way,+Portsmouth+PO1+3DS/@50.7979131,-1.1070341,20z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x48745d81db548b71:0x7237417d32eae9e!8m2!3d50.798192!4d-1.1065728|title=The Hard & Hertha Ayrton Way|website=The Hard & Hertha Ayrton Way|language=en|access-date=2019-04-28}}</ref><ref name=":1" />
*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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gov.uk/government/news/british-scientists-to-help-tackle-climate-change-through-new-1-billion-fund|title=British scientists to help tackle climate change through new £1 billion fund|website=GOV.UK|language=en|access-date=2019-09-23}}</ref>
* In September 2021 a recently extended berth at ] (UK) was given the ceremonial name of 'The Ayrton Berth'.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.portsmouth-port.co.uk/news/berth-of-a-new-era-as-ceremonial-name-announced |title=Berth of a new era as Ceremonial Name announced |website=portsmouth-port.co.uk |language=en |access-date=2021-09-24 |archive-date=23 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210923205203/https://www.portsmouth-port.co.uk/news/berth-of-a-new-era-as-ceremonial-name-announced |url-status=dead }}</ref>


== Hertha Ayrton Research Fellowship recipients ==
|work=Time}}</ref>
Recipients of the fellowship include geologist ], who held it from 1936-1938.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Varker |first=W. John |date=2005-01-01 |title=Dorothy Helen Rayner, 1912–2003 |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016787805800197 |journal=Proceedings of the Geologists' Association |language=en |volume=116 |issue=1 |pages=69–70 |doi=10.1016/S0016-7878(05)80019-7 |bibcode=2005PrGA..116...69V |issn=0016-7878}}</ref>

== See also ==
*]


== References == == References ==
Line 149: Line 251:


== Further reading == == Further reading ==
{{Library resources box |by=yes |onlinebooks=yes |others= |about= |label=Hertha Ayrton
* Reminiscences of Hertha Ayrton by A. P. Trotter in
|viaf=190851991 |lccn= |lcheading= |wikititle= }}
* {{cite journal|last=Johnson|first=James|title=Women Inventors and Discoverers|journal=]|year=1909|pages=548–553|url=http://books.google.com/?id=-5EEAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA550&dq=hertha+ayrton}}
* Reminiscences of Hertha Ayrton by A. P. Trotter in
* Joan Mason (2006) in Nina Byers and Gary Williams, ed., Cambridge University Press.
* {{cite journal|last=Johnson|first=James|title=Women Inventors and Discoverers|journal=]|year=1909|pages=548–553|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-5EEAAAAYAAJ&q=hertha+ayrton&pg=RA1-PA550}}
* Joan Mason (2006) in Nina Byers and Gary Williams, ed., Cambridge University Press.
* {{cite journal|title=Hertha Ayrton – first lady of the IEE|author=Glenis Moore|journal=Electronics and Power|year=1986|volume=32|issue=8|pages=583|doi=10.1049/ep.1986.0353}} * {{cite journal|title=Hertha Ayrton – first lady of the IEE|author=Glenis Moore|journal=Electronics and Power|year=1986|volume=32|issue=8|pages=583|doi=10.1049/ep.1986.0353}}
* Hertha Ayrton, 1854-1923, A Memoir by ], Edward Arnold & Co., 1 January 1926
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBQbKDDpX-s

== External links == == External links ==
{{commons}}
* Hertha Marks Ayrton in
{{wikisource|1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ayrton, William Edward|Hertha Ayrton}}
*
{{Cite book|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/odnb/9780192683120.013.37136|title=Ayrton, Hertha (1854–1923)|publisher=Oxford University Press|series=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|year=2017|doi=10.1093/odnb/9780192683120.013.37136}}
* Hertha Marks Ayrton in
* Hertha Ayrton's papers in the Royal Society's archives
* ]
* 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. * 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.
*
* {{MacTutor|id=Ayrton}}
*https://womenyoushouldknow.net/engineer-mathematician-physicist-inventor-hertha-marks-ayrton/ {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221023014802/https://womenyoushouldknow.net/engineer-mathematician-physicist-inventor-hertha-marks-ayrton/ |date=23 October 2022 }}


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Latest revision as of 21:20, 30 November 2024

English engineer, mathematician and inventor

Hertha Ayrton
BornPhoebe Sarah Marks
(1854-04-28)28 April 1854
Portsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire, England
Died26 August 1923(1923-08-26) (aged 69)
Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex, England
Alma materUniversity of London
Girton College, Cambridge
Known forWork with the electric arc, discovery with waves and ripple
SpouseWilliam Edward Ayrton
ChildrenBarbara Bodichon Ayrton
AwardsHughes Medal (1906)
Scientific career
FieldsEngineer, mathematician, physicist, inventor

Phoebe Sarah Hertha Ayrton (28 April 1854 – 26 August 1923) was a British electrical engineer, mathematician, physicist and inventor, and suffragette. Known in adult life as Hertha Ayrton, born Phoebe Sarah Marks, she was awarded the Hughes Medal by the Royal Society for her work on electric arcs and ripple marks 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 supported Ayrton's application to Girton College, Cambridge. There, Ayrton studied mathematics and was coached by physicist Richard Glazebrook. She also constructed a sphygmomanometer (blood pressure meter), led the choral society, founded the Girton fire brigade, and, together with Charlotte Scott, formed a mathematical club. In 1880, Ayrton passed the Mathematical Tripos, but Cambridge did not grant her an academic degree because at the time it did not award full degrees to women. Ayrton then passed an external examination at the University of London, which awarded her a Bachelor of Science 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 heroine of a poem 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 and physics education and a fellow of the Royal Society. 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 (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 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, 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 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 in Paris in 1900. Her success there led the British Association for the Advancement of Science 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 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. In the aftermath of the publication of The Electric Arc, Ayrton was proposed as a Fellow of the Royal Society 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, 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 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 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 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, 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).

Ayrton's house at 41 Norfolk Square in Paddington received an English Heritage blue plaque in 2007.

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 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 created the Ayrton Prize for web projects and digital engagement in history of science. It awarded the inaugural prize to Voices of Science Archived 10 April 2021 at the Wayback Machine, a project of the British Library.
  • On 28 April 2016, Google 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 named their new STEM centre after Ayrton.
  • In February 2018, a Blue Plaque was unveiled in Ayrton's honour on Queen Street, Portsmouth. 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

References

  1. ^ Mason, Joan. "Ayrton , (Phoebe) Sarah ". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/37136.
  2. ^ Hirsch, Pam (1 March 2009). "Hertha Ayrton". Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. Brookline, Massachusetts: Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved 28 April 2016.
  3. ^ "Hertha Ayrton". Archives Biographies. Stevenage, Herts, United Kingdom: Institution of Engineering and Technology. n.d. Retrieved 28 April 2016.
  4. ^ Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey (1986). Women in Science: Antiquity Through the Nineteenth Century (3rd ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. pp. 32–34. ISBN 978-0-262-15031-6.
  5. When the census of England was taken in April 1871, she was described as a governess, living and working in the household of Maurice Gabriel, a dental surgeon, at No 56, Harley Street, Marylebone in London (The National Archives of the UK, ref. RG10; Piece: 157; Folio: 87; Page: 27).
  6. "Phoebe Sarah Hertha Marks Ayrton". MacTutor. University of St Andrews. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  7. ^ Riddle, Larry (25 February 2016). "Hertha Marks Ayrton". Biographies of Women Mathematicians. Atlanta, Georgia: Agnes Scott College. Retrieved 28 April 2016.
  8. "Hertha Ayrton". NNDB. n.d. Retrieved 28 April 2016.
  9. "Hertha Ayrton: pioneering inventor and suffragette – Physics World". Physics World. 6 September 2022. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
  10. US Grant US310450A, Marks, Phoebe, "DRAFTSMANS DIVIDING INSTRUMENT.", issued 1885-01-06  Entry at patents.google.com
  11. Bruton, Elizabeth (2018). "The life and material culture of Hertha Ayrton". Science Museum Group Journal. 10 (10). doi:10.15180/181002. ISSN 2054-5770.
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Further reading

Library resources about
Hertha Ayrton
By Hertha Ayrton

External links

Ayrton, Hertha (1854–1923). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. 2017. doi:10.1093/odnb/9780192683120.013.37136.

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