Horace Lamb | |
|---|---|
 Horace Lamb in 1885 | |
| Born | (1849-11-27)27 November 1849 |
| Died | 4 December 1934(1934-12-04) (aged 85) Cambridge, England |
| Alma mater | Trinity College, Cambridge |
| Known for | Lamb vector Lamb–Oseen vortex Lamb–Chaplygin dipole Lamb waves Lamb surfaces Skin effect Volume viscosity |
| Awards | Smith's Prize(1872) The William Hopkins Prize(1888) Royal Medal(1902) De Morgan Medal(1911) Copley Medal(1923) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | |
| Institutions | |
| Academic advisors | James Clerk Maxwell[1] George Gabriel Stokes[2] |
| Signature | |
 | |
Sir Horace Lamb (27 November 1849 – 4 December 1934[3]) was a Britishapplied mathematician and author of several influential texts onclassical physics, among themHydrodynamics (1895) andDynamical Theory of Sound (1910).[4] Both of these books remain in print. The wordvorticity was invented by Lamb in 1916.[5]
Lamb was born inStockport,Cheshire, the son of John Lamb and his wife Elizabeth,née Rangeley.[3] John Lamb was a foreman in a cotton mill who had gained some distinction by the invention of an improvement to spinning machines, he died when his son was a child. Lamb's mother married again, and soon afterwards Horace went to live with his strict maternal aunt, Mrs. Holland. He studied atStockport Grammar School, where he made the acquaintance of a wise and kindly headmaster in the Rev. Charles Hamilton, and a graduate of classics,Frederic Slaney Poole, who in his final year became a good friend. It was from these two tutors that Lamb acquired his interest in mathematics and, to a somewhat lesser extent, classical literature.[6]
In 1867, he gained a classical scholarship atQueens' College, Cambridge. Since Lamb's inclination, however, was to pursue a career in engineering, he chose to decline the offer, and instead worked for a year at theOwens College in nearbyManchester, as a means of developing his mathematical proficiency further.[6]
At that time, the Chair of Pure Mathematics at Owens College was held byThomas Barker, an eminent Scottish mathematician, who graduated asSenior Wrangler and firstSmith's prizeman from the CambridgeMathematical Tripos in 1862. An acknowledged lecturer of high quality, Lamb prospered under the guidance of Barker, and was elected to a minor scholarship atTrinity College, Cambridge.[6]
At Trinity, he wasSecond Wrangler in theMathematical Tripos, 2ndSmith's prizeman and elected fellow in 1872.[7] Among his professors wereJames Clerk Maxwell andGeorge Gabriel Stokes. He was soon elected both a Fellow and a tutor in the college.
By 1874, Lamb had become thoroughly invested in his work at Trinity, preparing there an innovative and original series of lectures on the subject of hydrodynamics for third-year students.Richard Glazebrook, a final-year student at the time, wrote of them that they were 'a revelation', and praised Lamb for his lucid presentation of the properties of liquids in rotational motion.[6] However, Lamb soon became romantically involved with Elizabeth Foot, sister-in-law to his former headmaster, and, since the conditions of his position at Trinity stipulated that he should hold it only so long as he was unmarried, he was compelled, in 1875, to resign and continue his work elsewhere.[3]
Lamb's acquaintance from Stockport, Frederic Slaney Poole, had by now for some years lived inSouth Australia; hearing of his engagement, Poole suggested in a letter that he should apply for the chair at the recently foundedUniversity of Adelaide. In 1875, he was appointed the first (Sir Thomas)Elder Professor of Mathematics there, and took up the chair in March, 1876. Lamb was instrumental in the establishment of the academic and administrative structure of the university, and lectured in pure and applied mathematics, also giving practical demonstrations in physics.[3] For the next ten years the average number of students enrolled in the Bachelor of Arts course at Adelaide was fewer than twelve; though Lamb also gave some public lectures in the evenings, his workload was relatively light. His deftly rendered and originalA Treatise on the Mathematical Theory of the Motions of Fluids (which would later be reprinted asHydrodynamics in 1895) was first published in 1878.
In 1883, Lamb published a paper in thePhilosophical Transactions of theRoyal Society[8] applyingMaxwell's equations to the problem of oscillatory current flow in spherical conductors, an early examination of what was later to be known as theskin effect. Lamb was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1884.
Lamb was appointed to the Chair of Mathematics atOwens College, Manchester, in 1885 and which became theBeyer Chair in 1888, a position Lamb held until retirement in 1920 (Owens College was merged with the Victoria University of Manchester in 1904). HisHydrodynamics appeared in 1895 (6th ed. 1933), and other works includedAn Elementary Course of Infinitesimal Calculus (1897, 3rd ed. 1919),Propagation of Tremors over the Surface of an Elastic Solid (1904),The Dynamical Theory of Sound (1910, 2nd ed. 1925),Statics (1912, 3rd ed. 1928),Dynamics (1914),Higher Mechanics (1920) andThe Evolution of Mathematical Physics (1924).
In 1932 Lamb, in an address to theBritish Association for the Advancement of Science, wittily expressed on the difficulty of explaining and studyingturbulence in fluids.He reportedly said, "I am an old man now, and when I die and go to heaven there are two matters on which I hope for enlightenment. One isquantum electrodynamics, and the other is the turbulent motion offluids. And about the former I am rather optimistic."[9][10]
Lamb is also known for description of special waves in thin solid layers. These are now known asLamb waves.
Lamb married Elizabeth Foot (1845−1930), his former headmaster's sister-in-law, in 1875 and had seven children, including the classicistWalter Lamb, the painterHenry Lamb and the archaeologistDorothy Lamb. His son Ernest, a professor of engineering atQueen Mary College in London, was the father of the climatologistHubert Lamb and the grandfather of theLiberal Democrat politicianNorman Lamb.
Lamb died in 1934 and was buried at theAscension Parish Burial Ground in Cambridge, with his wife.
Lamb was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1884, was twice vice-president, received itsRoyal Medal in 1902 and, its highest honour, theCopley Medal in 1924. He was president of the London Mathematical Society 1902–1904, president of theManchester Literary and Philosophical Society, and president[11] of the British Association in 1925. He was knighted in 1931. A room in theAlan Turing Building at theUniversity of Manchester is named in his honour[12] and in 2013 theSir Horace Lamb Chair was created at Manchester.[13] A building at the University of Adelaide also bears his name.[14]
His famous furniture is still located in the Horace Lamb room in the Alan Turing building
Works by or aboutHorace Lamb atWikisource| Academic offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Beyer Chair of Applied Mathematics atVictoria University of Manchester 1888 – 1920 | Succeeded by |
| Professional and academic associations | ||
| Preceded by | President of theManchester Literary and Philosophical Society 1899–1901 | Succeeded by Charles Bailey |
