Oliver Lodge | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 1st Principal of theUniversity of Birmingham | |
| In office 1900–1919 | |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Charles Grant Robertson |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Oliver Joseph Lodge (1851-06-12)12 June 1851 |
| Died | 22 August 1940(1940-08-22) (aged 89) Wilsford cum Lake, England, UK |
| Education | Adams Grammar School |
| Alma mater | University of London (BSc,DSc) |
| Known for | |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 12, includingOliver andAlexander |
| Relatives | See below |
| Awards |
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | |
| Institutions |
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| Notable students | Charles Barkla |
Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge (12 June 1851 – 22 August 1940) was a Britishphysicist whose investigations intoelectromagnetic radiation (EMR) contributed to the development ofradio. He identified EMR independent ofHeinrich Hertz's proof. In his 1894Royal Institution lecture,The Work of Hertz and Some of His Successors, Lodge's demonstrations on methods to transmit and detectradio waves included an improved earlyradio receiver he named thecoherer. His work led to him holding key patents in early radio communication, his "syntonic" (or tuning) patents.
Lodge became Assistant Professor of Applied Mathematics atBedford College, London, in 1879, was appointed Professor of Physics atUniversity College Liverpool in 1881, and served as Principal of theUniversity of Birmingham from 1900 to 1919.
Lodge was also a pioneer ofspiritualism; hispseudoscientific research into life after death was a topic on which he wrote many books, including the best-sellingRaymond; or, Life and Death (1916), which detailed messages he received from amedium, which he believed came from his son who was killed in theFirst World War.
Oliver Joseph Lodge was born on 12 June 1851 at The Views inPenkhull,Staffordshire,[2] and was educated atAdams Grammar School inNewport, Shropshire. His parents were Oliver Lodge (1826–1884)—later aball clay merchant[note 1] atWolstanton, Staffordshire—and his wife, Grace Heath (1826–1879).[citation needed] Lodge was their first child, and altogether they had eight sons and a daughter. Lodge's siblings includedSir Richard Lodge (1855–1936), historian;Eleanor Constance Lodge (1869–1936), historian and principal ofWestfield College, London; andAlfred Lodge (1854–1937), mathematician.
When Lodge was 12-years-old, the family moved house to Wolstanton. At Moreton House on the southern tip of Wolstanton Marsh, he took over a large outbuilding for his first scientific experiments during the long school holidays.
In 1865, the 14-year-old Lodge left his schooling and joined his father's business (Oliver Lodge & Son) as an agent for B. Fayle & Co sellingPurbeck blue clay to the pottery manufacturers. This work sometimes entailed him travelling as far as Scotland. He continued to assist his father until he reached the age of 22.
By the age of 18, Lodge's father's growing wealth had enabled him to move his family to Chatterley House,Hanley. From there Lodge attended physics lectures in London, and also attended theWedgwood Institute in nearbyBurslem. At Chatterley House, just a mile south ofEtruria Hall whereWedgwood had experimented, Lodge'sAutobiography recalled that "something like real experimentation" began for him around 1869. His family moved again in 1875, this time to the nearby Watlands Hall at the top of Porthill Bank betweenMiddleport andWolstanton (demolished in 1951).
Lodge obtainedB.Sc. andD.Sc. degrees from theUniversity of London in 1875 and 1877, respectively.
In Wolstanton, Lodge experimented with producing a wholly new "electromagnetic light" in 1879 and 1880, paving the way for later experimental success. During this time, he also lectured atBedford College, London.[3] Lodge left the Potteries in 1881 to up take the post of Professor of Physics and Mathematics at the newly-establishedUniversity College Liverpool.
In 1900, Lodge moved from Liverpool back to theMidlands and became the first Principal of the newly-foundedUniversity of Birmingham, where he remained until his retirement in 1919. He oversaw the start of the move of the University from Edmund Street in the city centre to its presentEdgbaston campus. Lodge was awarded theRumford Medal of theRoyal Society in 1898, and wasknighted in the1902 Coronation Honours,[4] receiving the accolade from KingEdward VII atBuckingham Palace on 24 October that year.[5] In 1928 he was madeFreeman of his native city,Stoke-on-Trent.
In 1873,James Clerk Maxwell publishedA Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, and by 1876 Lodge was studying it intently. But Lodge was fairly limited in mathematical physics, both by aptitude and training—and his first two papers were a description of a mechanism (of beaded strings and pulleys) that could serve to illustrate electrical phenomena such as conduction and polarisation. Indeed, Lodge is probably best known for his advocacy and elaboration of Maxwell'saether theory, a later deprecated model postulating a wave-bearing medium filling all space. He explained his views on the aether in "Modern Views of Electricity" (1889) and continued to defend those ideas well into the twentieth century ("Ether and Reality", 1925).
As early as 1879, Lodge became interested in generating (and detecting)electromagnetic waves, something Maxwell had never considered. This interest continued throughout the 1880s, but some obstacles slowed Lodge's progress. First, he thought in terms of generating light waves with very high frequencies rather than radio waves with their much lower frequencies. Second, his good friendGeorge Francis FitzGerald (on whom Lodge depended for theoretical guidance) assured him (incorrectly) that "ether waves could not be generated electromagnetically".[6] FitzGerald later corrected his error, but by 1881 Lodge had assumed a teaching position at University College Liverpool—the demands of which limited his time and energy for research.
In 1887, theRoyal Society of Arts asked Lodge to give a series of lectures onlightning, including whylightning rods and their conducting copper cable sometimes do not work, with lightning strikes following alternate paths, going through (and damaging) structures, instead of being conducted by the cables. Lodge took the opportunity to carry out a scientific investigation, simulating lightning by dischargingLeyden jars into a long length of copper wire. Lodge found the charge would take a shorter high resistance route jumping a spark gap, instead of taking a longer low resistance route through a loop of copper wire. Lodge presented these first results, showing what he thought was the effect ofinductance on the path lightning would take, in his May 1888 lecture.[7]
In other experiments that spring and summer, Lodge put a series of spark gaps along two 29 meter (95') long wires and noticed he was getting a very large spark in the gap near the end of the wires, which seemed to be consistent with the oscillation wavelength produced by the Leyden jar meeting with the wave being reflected at the end of the wire. In a darkened room, he also noted a glow at intervals along the wire at one half wavelength intervals. He took this as evidence that he was generating and detecting Maxwell's electromagnetic waves. While traveling on a vacation to theTyrolean Alps in July 1888, Lodge read in a copy ofAnnalen der Physik thatHeinrich Hertz in Germany had been conductinghis own electromagnetic research, and that he had published a series of papers proving the existence of electromagnetic waves and their propagation in free space.[8][9] Lodge presented his own paper on electromagnetic waves along wires in September 1888 at theBritish Science Association meeting inBath, adding a postscript acknowledging Hertz's work and saying: "The whole subject of electrical radiation seems working itself out splendidly."[7][10]
In the 1890s, Lodge carefully studied theaether drag hypothesis. He built increasingly elaborate "whirling machines"; a whirling machine has a flat metal disk rotating at high speeds, in the hope of dragging ether near its surface. This would then be detected by shining light through it and observing the shift in the interference patterns. He could find no evidence of any ether drag.[11]
On 1 June 1894, during a Friday Evening Discourse at theRoyal Institution, Lodge gave a memorial lecture on the work of Hertz (recently deceased) and the German physicist's proof of the existence ofelectromagnetic waves six years earlier. Lodge set up a demonstration on the quasi optical nature of "Hertzian waves" (radio waves) and demonstrated their similarity to light and vision including reflection and transmission.[12] Later in June he repeated his lecture, and on 14 August 1894 at the meeting for theBritish Association for the Advancement of Science at Oxford University he was able to increase the distance of transmission up to 55 meters (180').[7] Lodge used a detector called acoherer (invented byEdouard Branly), a glass tube containing metal filings between two electrodes. When the small electrical charge from waves from an antenna were applied to the electrodes, the metal particles would cling together or "cohere" causing the device to become conductive allowing the current from a battery to pass through it. In Lodge's setup the slight impulses from the coherer were picked up by amirror galvanometer which would deflect a beam of light being projected on it, giving a visual signal that the impulse was received. After receiving a signal the metal filings in the coherer were broken apart or "decohered" by a manually operated vibrator or by the vibrations of a bell placed on the table near by that rang every time a transmission was received.[12] Since this was one year beforeGuglielmo Marconi's 1895 demonstration of a system for radio wireless telegraphy and contained many of the basic elements that would be used in Marconi's later wireless systems, Lodge's lecture became the focus of priority disputes with the Marconi Company a little over a decade later over invention of wireless telegraphy (radio). At the time of the dispute some, including the physicistJohn Ambrose Fleming, pointed out that Lodge's lecture was a physics experiment, not a demonstration of telegraphic signaling.[13] Lodge would later work withAlexander Muirhead on the development of devices specifically for wireless telegraphy.
In January 1898, Lodge presented a paper on "syntonic" tuning[14][15] which he received a patent for that same year.[16] Syntonictuning allowed specific frequencies to be used by the transmitter and receiver in a wireless communication system. TheMarconi Company had a similar tuning system adding to the priority dispute over the invention of radio. When Lodge's syntonic patent was extended in 1911 for another 7 years Marconi agreed to settle the patent dispute, purchasing the syntonic patent in 1912 and giving Lodge an (honorific) position as "scientific adviser".[13]
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In 1886, Lodge developed themoving boundary method for the measurement in solution of anion transport number, which is the fraction of electric current carried by a given ionic species.[17]
Lodge carried out scientific investigations on the source of the electromotive force in theVoltaic cell,electrolysis, and the application ofelectricity to the dispersal of fog and smoke.[citation needed] He also made a major contribution to motoring when he patented a form of electricspark ignition for the internal combustion engine (the Lodge Igniter).[citation needed] Later, two of his sons developed his ideas and in 1903 founded Lodge Bros, which eventually became known as Lodge Plugs Ltd. He also made discoveries in the field of wireless transmission.[18] In 1898, Lodge gained a patent on the moving-coilloudspeaker, utilizing a coil connected to a diaphragm, suspended in a strong magnetic field.[19]
In political life, Lodge was an active member of theFabian Society, and published two Fabian Tracts:Socialism & Individualism (1905), andPublic Service versus Private Expenditure, co-authored withSidney Webb,George Bernard Shaw, and Sidney Ball. They invited him several times to lecture at theLondon School of Economics.[20]
In 1889, Lodge was appointed President of the Liverpool Physical Society, a position he held until 1893.[21] The society still runs to this day, though under a student body. In 1901, he was elected as a member of theAmerican Philosophical Society.[22]
Lodge was President of theBritish Association in 1912–1913.[23] In his 1913 Presidential Address to the Association, he affirmed his belief in the persistence of the human personality after death, the possibility of communicating with disembodied intelligent beings, and the validity of theAether theory.[24]
Lodge is remembered for his studies in psychical research andspiritualism. He began to study psychical phenomena (chieflytelepathy) in the late 1880s, was a member ofThe Ghost Club, and served as president of the London-basedSociety for Psychical Research from 1901 to 1903. After his son, Raymond, was killed inWorld War I in 1915, he visited several mediums and wrote about the experience in a number of books, including the best-sellingRaymond; or, Life and Death (1916).[25] Lodge was a friend ofArthur Conan Doyle, who also lost a son in World War I and was a Spiritualist.
Lodge was aChristian Spiritualist. In 1909, he published the bookSurvival of Man which expressed his belief thatlife after death had been demonstrated bymediumship. His most controversial book wasRaymond or Life and Death (1916). The book documented theséances that he and his wife had attended with the mediumGladys Osborne Leonard. Lodge was convinced that his son Raymond had communicated with him and the book is a description of his son's experiences in thespirit world.[26] According to the book Raymond had reported that those who had died were still the same people that they had been on earth before they "passed over". There were houses, trees and flowers in the Spirit world, which was similar to the earthly realm, although there was no disease. The book also claimed that when soldiers died in World War I they had smoked cigars and received whisky in the spirit world and because of such statements the book was criticised.[27] Walter Cook wrote a rebuttal to Lodge, titledReflections on Raymond (1917), that directly challenged Lodge's beliefs in Spiritualism.[28]
Although Lodge was convinced that Leonard's spirit control "Feda" had communicated with his son, he admitted a good deal of the information was nonsense and suggested that Feda picked it up from a séance sitter. PhilosopherPaul Carus wrote that the "story of Raymond's communications rather excels all prior tales of mediumistic lore in the silliness of its revelations. But the saddest part of it consists in the fact that a great scientist, no less a one than Sir Oliver Lodge, has published the book and so stands sponsor for it."[29]
Scientific work onelectromagnetic radiation convinced Lodge that anether existed and that it filled the entire universe. Lodge came to believe that the spirit world existed in the ether. As a Christian Spiritualist, Lodge had written that theresurrection in the Bible referred to Christ'setheric body becoming visible to his disciples after theCrucifixion.[30] By the 1920s the physics of the ether had been undermined by thetheory of relativity, however, Lodge still defended his ether theory arguing in "Ether and Reality" that it was not inconsistent with the theory of general relativity. Linked to his belief in Spiritualism, Lodge had also endorsed a theory ofspiritual evolution which he promoted inMan and the Universe (1908) andMaking of Man (1924).[31] He lectured ontheistic evolution at the Charing Cross Hospital and at Christ Church, Westminster. His lectures were published in a bookEvolution and Creation (1926).[32]
HistorianJanet Oppenheim has noted that Lodge's interest in spiritualism "prompted some of his fellow scientists to wonder if his mind, too, had not been wrecked."[33] In 1913 the biologistRay Lankester criticized the Spiritualist views of Lodge as unscientific and misleading the public.[34]
Edward Clodd criticised Lodge as being an incompetent researcher to detect fraud and claimed his Spiritualist beliefs were based onmagical thinking and primitive superstition.[35]Charles Arthur Mercier (a leading British psychiatrist) wrote in his bookSpiritualism and Sir Oliver Lodge (1917) that Lodge had been duped into believing mediumship by trickery and his Spiritualist views were based on assumptions and not scientific evidence.[36] Francis Jones in theAmerican Journal of Psychology in a review for Lodge'sThe Survival of Man wrote that his psychical claims are not scientific and the book is one-sided as it does not contain research fromexperimental psychology.[37]
MagicianJohn Booth noted that the stage mentalistDavid Devant managed to fool a number of people into believing he had genuinepsychic ability who did not realize that his feats were magic tricks. AtSt. George's Hall, London he performed a fake "clairvoyant" act where he would read a message sealed inside an envelope. Lodge who was present in the audience was duped by the trick and claimed that Devant had used psychic powers. In 1936, Devant in his bookSecrets of My Magic revealed the trick method he had used.[38]
Lodge had endorsed aclairvoyant medium known as "Annie Brittain". However, she made entirely incorrect guesses about a policeman who was disguised as a farmer. She was arrested and convicted for fraudulentfortune telling.[39]Joseph McCabe wrote a skeptical book on the Spiritualist beliefs of Lodge entitledThe Religion of Sir Oliver Lodge (1914).[40]
In 1877, Lodge married Mary Fanny Alexander Marshall at St George's Church inNewcastle-under-Lyme. They had twelve children—six boys and six girls—includingOliver,Alexander (Alec), Francis, Lionel, and Noel. Four of his sons went into business using Lodge's inventions. Brodie and Alec created theLodge Plug Company, which manufacturedspark plugs for cars and aeroplanes. Lionel and Noel founded a company that produced an electrostatic device for cleaning factory and smelter smoke in 1913, called the Lodge Fume Deposit Company Limited (changed in 1919 to Lodge Fume Company Limited and in 1922, through agreement with the International Precipitation Corporation of California, toLodge Cottrell Ltd). Oliver, the eldest son, became a poet and author.
After his retirement in 1920, Lodge and his wife settled in Normanton House, near Lake inWiltshire, a few miles fromStonehenge.
Lodge died on 22 August 1940 inWilsford cum Lake at the age of 89. His wife Mary predeceased him in 1929. They are buried together at the local parish church, St. Michael's, in Wilsford cum Lake, Wiltshire.[41] Their eldest son Oliver and eldest daughter Violet are also buried at the church.
His obituary inThe Times wrote:[42]
Always an impressive figure, tall and slender with a pleasing voice and charming manner, he enjoyed the affection and respect of a very large circle…Lodge's gifts as an expounder of knowledge were of a high order, and few scientific men have been able to set forth abstruse facts in a more lucid or engaging form… Those who heard him on a great occasion, as when he gave hisRomanes lecture at Oxford or hisBritish Association presidential address at Birmingham, were charmed by his alluring personality as well as impressed by the orderly development of histhesis. But he was even better in informal debate, and when he rose, the audience, however perplexed or jaded, settled down in a pleased expectation that was never disappointed.
Lodge's letters and papers were divided after his death. Some were deposited at theUniversity of Birmingham andUniversity of Liverpool and others at theSociety for Psychical Research and theUniversity College London. Lodge was long-lived and a prolific letter writer and other letters of his survive in the personal papers of other individuals and several other universities and other institutions. Among the known collections of his papers are the following:
Lodge wrote more than 40 books, about theafterlife,aether,relativity, andelectromagnetic theory.
Lodge received the honoraryDoctor of Laws (LL.D) from theUniversity of Glasgow in June 1901.[44]
Oliver Lodge Primary School inVanderbijlpark,South Africa is named in his honour.
Lodge is commemorated inLiverpool with a bronze figure entitledEducation, at the base of theQueen Victoria Monument and the Oliver Lodge Building which houses the physics department of theUniversity of Liverpool.[45][46]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911)."Lodge, Sir Oliver Joseph" .Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
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| New institution | Vice-Chancellor of theUniversity of Birmingham 1900–1920 | Succeeded by |
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