Physics World: Hertha Ayrton: ‘An advocate for interdisciplinarity’
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Hertha Ayrton
Phoebe Sarah Hertha Ayrton, known in her adult life as Hertha Ayrton, was an English electrical engineer, mathematician, physicist and inventor, and suffragette. She was awarded the Hughes Medal by the Royal Society for her work on electric arcs and ripple marks in sand and water.
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science · English electrical engineer (1854–1923) · mathematician · electrical engineer · physicist · inventor · women's rights activist · suffragette · suffragist · writer · also Hertha Ayrton, Phoebe Sarah Hertha Ayrton, Hertha Marks Ayrton, Phoebe Sarah Hertha Marks, Phoebe Sarah Marks, Ayrton
Born 28 April 1854 · Died 23 August 1923 · Q17522
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2022· 1 entry
2017· 1 entry
Sheffield Hallam University named their new STEM centre after Ayrton
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2016· 1 entry
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
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2015· 1 entry
The British Society for the History of Science created the Ayrton Prize for web projects and digital engagement in history of science
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2010· 1 entry
A panel of female Fellows of the Royal Society and science historians selected Ayrton as one of the ten most influential British women in the history of science
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2009· 1 entry
The Panasonic Trust inaugurated the Hertha Marks Ayrton Fellowship to mark the trust's 25th anniversary
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2007· 1 entry
Commemorates Ayrton at 41 Norfolk Square in Paddington
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2001· 1 entry
Published “Role of transport proteins in drug absorption, distribution and excretion” in Xenobiotica — cited 358 times.
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1995· 1 entry
Published “Ketoconazole and sulphaphenazole as the respective selective inhibitors of P4503A and 2C9” in Xenobiotica — cited 248 times.
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1923· 2 entries
Died 1923-08-23.
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Ayrton's lifelong friend Ottilie Hancock endowed the Hertha Ayrton Research Fellowship at Girton College
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1919· 1 entry
And the National Union of Scientific Workers in 1920
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1912· 1 entry
Ayrton permitted Christabel Pankhurst to transfer sums to her bank account to avoid confiscation, and hosted Pankhurst in times of recovery from imprisonment and force feeding
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1909· 1 entry
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
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1907· 1 entry
After attending a celebration with released prisoners
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1906· 3 entries
Won Hughes Medal (1906).
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Was awarded the Royal Society's prestigious Hughes Medal "for her experimental investigations on the electric arc, and also on sand ripples
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In honour of her research on the motion of ripples in sand and water and her work on the electric arc
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1904· 1 entry
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
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1902· 1 entry
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
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1899· 2 entries
Presided over the physical science section
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Was the first woman ever to read her own paper before the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE)
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1895· 1 entry
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
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1893· 1 entry
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.
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1891· 1 entry
Ayrton was deeply affected by this and greived for years aftewards
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1886· 1 entry
Barbara Bodichon Ayrton (1886–1950)
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1885· 2 entries
Studied at Finsbury Technical College (1884–1885).
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Ayrton married the widower William Edward Ayrton, a physicist and electrical engineer who was supportive of her scientific endeavours
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1884· 2 entries
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
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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 Socie
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1881· 1 entry
Studied at Girton College (1877–1881).
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1880· 1 entry
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
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1873· 1 entry
Blind introduced Ayrton to Barbara Bodichon, who had co-founded Girton College, Cambridge four years prior
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1861· 1 entry
Leaving Sarah's mother with seven children and an eighth expected
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1854· 1 entry
Born 1854-04-28.
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