Barkla was born inWidnes, England, to John Martin Barkla, a secretary for the Atlas Chemical Company, and Sarah Glover, daughter of a watchmaker.
Barkla studied at theLiverpool Institute and proceeded toLiverpool University with a County Council Scholarship and a Bibby Scholarship. Barkla initially studied Mathematics but later specialised in Physics under SirOliver Lodge. During the absence of Oliver Lodge due to ill health, Barkla replaced him in lectures.[3]
After a year and a half at Trinity College, Cambridge, his love of music led him to transfer toKing's College, Cambridge, in order to sing in theirchapel choir. Barkla's voice was of remarkable beauty and his solo performances were always fully attended.[5] He completed hisBachelor of Arts degree in 1903, and then hisMaster of Arts degree in 1907.[6] He married Mary Esther Cowell in the same year,[7] with whom he had two sons and one daughter.
In 1903 he studied secondaryX-rays from gases radiated by other X-rays, developing a new experimental setup.[8] This topic was relevant to the question of whether X-rays were indeed a type ofelectromagnetic radiation as many physicists suspected, becauseLionel Wilberforce proposed to use these secondary rays to generate tertiary ones and prove the existence of polarization by rotating the detecting part of his experimental apparatus. Tertiary radiation was too feeble to measure, so Barkla assembled a slightly different setup. Using his new setup, he was able to prove that X-rays can indeed be polarized and are therefore electromagnetic.[9] He published a brief summary of his findings inNature in March 1904[10] and a more detailed account in thePhilosophical Transactions of the Royal Society in 1905.[11]
Barkla made significant progress in developing and refining the laws of X-ray scattering,X-ray spectroscopy, the principles governing the transmission of X-rays through matter, and especially the principles of the excitation of secondary X-rays. For his discovery of the characteristic X-rays of elements, Barkla was awarded theNobel Prize in Physics in 1917. He was also awarded theHughes Medal of the BritishRoyal Society that same year.
Barkla proposed the J-phenomenon as a hypothetical form ofX-ray behaviour similar toX-ray fluorescence. However, other scientists were not persuaded that this was a different mechanism from other known effects such asCompton scattering, so the theory was not successful.[12][13]
From 1922 to 1938 he lived at Hermitage of Braid in south-west Edinburgh.[14]
He died at 12 noon on 23 October 1944 at his home "Braidwood" in Corrennie Gardens in Edinburgh.[15]
A plaque exists on Barkla's house at Hermitage of Braid in Edinburgh. A commemorative plaque has been installed in the vicinity of the Canongate, near the Faculty of Education Buildings, at theUniversity of Edinburgh. Additionally, a lecture theatre at theUniversity of Liverpool's Physics department, as well as a Biophysics laboratory in the Biological science department,[19] are named after him. In 2012 agritter in Barkla's home town ofWidnes was named in his honour, following a competition run by the local newspaper.[20] In Widnes they have a Retirement housing Complex named Barkla Fields after Charles.
^Brigham Narins (2001),Notable Scientists from 1900 to the Present, vol. A–C, Gale, p. 129,ISBN0787617520,Barkla had an excellent voice (said to be either baritone or bass according to various biographers) which drew crowds for his solo performances.
