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 Anna Sophia Cubitt. He became interested in mathematics and studied at University College School and University College, graduating in 1867.

India (1868–1872) In 1868, Ayrton went to Bengal in the service of the Indian Government Telegraph department, where he invented a method of detecting faults in lines, which was of great benefit in the maintenance of the overland communications network. Returning to England, Ayrton married his cousin Matilda Chaplin, and assisted William Thomson and Fleeming Jenkin in engineering work for the Great Western Telegraph Cable in 1872-73. In between classes Ayrton worked closely with his mechanical engineering colleague, John Perry, in novel electrical researches However, his main role at the College was to train the first generation of Japanese telegraphic engineers, including the staff of the new government-run Telegraph Department.

Sierra Leone (1880) Ayrton worked for several months in Freetown, Sierra Leone before returning to London. He worked in an advisory role with respects to engineering in the colony.

Chaplin and Ayrton's daughter was the feminist and author Edith Ayrton, wife of Israel Zangwill and mother of Oliver Zangwill.

Ayrton married his second wife, Phoebe Sarah Marks, in 1885, and she became known as Hertha Ayrton. Following initial collaboration on the characteristics on the electric arc in Ayrton’s South Kensington laboratory to prepare for William’s lecture to the Chicago International Exhibition in 1893, by mutual agreement Hertha made research on this topic her own specialism. In 1899, Ayrton supported Hertha on her way to being elected the first woman member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers and the Royal Society awarded her a Hughes Medal in 1906. Their daughter Barbara Ayrton-Gould became a Labour MP; grandson Michael Ayrton was an artist and sculptor. William strongly supported campaigns for women’s suffrage and stood by Hertha in promoting the goals of the Women’s Social and Political Union.

Honours and awards He was elected president in 1892 of the Institution of Electrical Engineers. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1881 and awarded their Royal Medal in 1901 in recognition of his extensive researches in electrical science.