RT Journal Article T1 The life and material culture of Hertha Marks Ayrton (1854-1923): suffragette, physicist, mathematician and inventor A1 Elizabeth Bruton YR 2018 VO IS Autumn 2018 K1 electric lighting K1 electrical engineer K1 First World War K1 Hertha Ayrton K1 mathematics K1 scientific instruments K1 Suffragette AB Suffragette, physicist, mathematician and inventor: in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century when few women had access to opportunities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), Englishwoman Hertha Marks Ayrton held all these roles and was a strong advocate for social justice, especially suffrage for women. Using material from the Science Museum archives, this paper explores the material culture of Ayrton’s career and work and provides an insight into issues and intersections of gender, science, and technology in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The article engages with the material culture of Ayrton’s work across multiple fields in STEM. Firstly, it discusses the line-divider, a mathematical tool and engineering drawing instrument Ayrton developed while still an undergraduate at Cambridge and later patented. This was the first of twenty-six patents Ayrton was granted during her lifetime. Next, the paper turns to the electric arc. Ayrton made notable contributions to the understanding of this early and powerful form of electric lighting, and quite literally published the textbook on it. Thirdly, the paper looks at the ‘Ayrton anti-gas fan’, which was distributed in thousands and used to dissipate gas in the trenches on the Western Front during the First World War. Lastly, this paper will explore the impact of gender on Ayrton’s achievements and recognition. Ayrton was elected the first female member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE), the premier British institution of electrical and electronic engineering, in 1899. However, her nomination as a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1902 was declined because of her gender. NO Prior to the acquisition of archive material relating to Hertha Ayrton cited in this paper, the Science Museum featured Hertha Ayrton in ‘Women in Science in Europe: Exhibits from the Science Museum Library’, held between 20 November 2000 to 27 February 2001. The exhibition and text was produced by Evelyne Draper, Prabha Shah and Rosemary Smith. With thanks to my colleague Prabha Shah for sharing the details of the exhibition. NO See IET Archives, ‘Archives Biographies: Hertha Ayrton’ http://www.theiet.org/resources/library/archives/biographies/ayrtonh.cfm (accessed online on 1 June 2014) for a summarised biography of Ayrton. NO For holdings in Girton College relating to Ayrton’s time at Cambridge, see GCPP Davies 14/78 Printed circular letter compiled by Laura Archer-Hind, S Ayrton, Mary Bateson, etc. 3 copies. 22 Jan. 1896; GCPP Davies 14/105 Printed circular letter written by Laura Archer-Hind, S Ayrton, Mary Bateson and others. 2 copies. 25 Mar. 1897; GCPP Bodichon 11/24 Letter from Sarah Marks [Hertha Ayrton] to Amy Leigh Smith re Emily Davies' role as founder of Girton College; and letter from Emily Davies to Barbara Bodichon re their respective roles in founding Girton College, 1883; GCPP Bodichon 11/23 Letters and postcards from Sarah Marks [Hertha Ayrton] to Norman Moore and to Amy Leigh Smith. 1876–1883 (1876–79 and 1883; and GCPP Bodichon 1/214 Letter from Emily Davies to Barbara Bodichon. 4 January 1887. NO See Glazebrook’s Royal Society obituary: Rayleigh, F J S, 1936, ‘Richard Tetley Glazebrook, 1854–1935’, Obit. Not. Fell. R. Soc. 2 pp 28–56; DOI: 10.1098/rsbm.1936.0004 (accessed online on 1 June 2014). NO GB Patent 1884/5443 Improvements in Mathematical Dividing Instruments, granted 25 March 1884 NO US Patent 310,450 Draftsman's Dividing Instrument, filed on 3 May 1884 and granted on 6 January 1885. The patent was filed under ‘P S Marks’ and it was only in the main text where the patentee’s name, ‘Phoebe Sarah Marks’, was noted in full. Whether this slight gender obfuscation was intentional or not is unknown. See also Sharp, 1926, p 108 NO 1885, ‘A Line-Divider’, Nature 31, p 275. The article was reprinted in 1985, ‘100 Years Ago’, Nature 313, pp 268–268. NO Ibid. For details of W.F. Stanley and Company, see https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/W._F._Stanley and http://collection.sciencemuseum.org.uk/people/cp1655/w-f-stanley-and-company-limited (both accessed online on 1 May 2018). NO See 1885, Exhibition of Women's Industries, in Queens Villa, Queens Road, Bristol, 1885 (Bristol: J W Arrowsmith), http://www.bristowandgarland.co.uk/new-autographs.html and http://spartacus-educational.com/Wayrton.htm (both accessed online on 1 May 2018). NO A copy of Ayrton’s lecture notes at Finsbury Technical College can be found at IET Archives UK0108 SC MSS 051/4 Manuscripts of Ayrton's lectures at Finsbury Technical College, 1881–1882. NO 1895, Report of the Sixty-Fifth Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science held at Ipswich in September 1895 (London: John Murray), 634. URL: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/95245 (accessed online on 1 May 2018) NO 1898, Report of the Sixty-Seventh Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science held at Toronto in August 1897 (London: John Murray), pp 575–577. URL: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/95248 (accessed online on 1 May 2018) NO 1899, Report of the Sixty-Eighth Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science held at Bristol in September 1898 (London: John Murray), pp 805–806. URL: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/95459 (accessed online on 1 May 2018) NO IET Archives UK0108 SPT/P/I/13/35 Hertha Ayrton: The drop of potential at the carbons of the electric arc Proof - The Electrician. 1 sheet with annotation in unknown hand. n.d. For Thompson’s own work on electric arc, see IET Archives UK0108 SPT/P/I/013 Arc Light I – Physics, 1844-1913. NO Baxter, E, ‘Civil and science unrest’ on British Science Association (BSA) blog for International Women’s Day (year unknown). URL: https://www.britishscienceassociation.org/Blog/civil-and-science-unrest (accessed online on 1 May 2018) NO IET Archives UK0108 SC MSS 118/1 Letter from Hertha Ayrton to Silvanus Phillips Thompson, dated 27 May 1899 NO Ibid NO Further evidence of correspondence between Ayrton and Thompson around this time can be found in IET Archives UK0108 SC MSS 003/B/2/172 Envelope addressed to Dr Thompson with MS note by SPT ‘Mrs Ayrton’. NO IET Archives UK0108 SPT/P/I/13/49 ‘L'intensité lumineuse de l'arc à courants continus’, by Hertha Ayrton, 1900. Paper – Congres International d'Electricite de 1900 12 pp 1900. In French. English title: ‘The luminous intensity of the direct-current arc’. References to three figures, all missing. NO See Henderson, F, 2012, ‘Almost a Fellow: Hertha Ayrton and an embarrassing episode in the history of the Royal Society (1902)’, http://blogs.royalsociety.org/history-of-science/2012/03/08/almost-a-fellow/ (accessed 17 May 2014) and Barrett, 2017, p 209 NO Hughes Medal | Royal Society, https://royalsociety.org/awards/hughes-medal/ (accessed online on 3 July 2014) NO An original 27pp draft typed manuscript of the lecture with possibly later handwritten notes of the lecture can be found at Science Museum archive MS/2168/1 Lecture “Sand ripples and oscillating water” [1911]. See also: James, 2010, p 108 NO Science Museum archive MS/2168/1 Lecture ‘Sand ripples and oscillating water’ [1911], [i] NO Science Museum archive MS/2168/1 Lecture ‘Sand ripples and oscillating water’ [1911], [27] NO IET Archives SPT Collection Theses presentees a la Faculte des Sciences de Paris pour obtenir le grade de docteur es sciences physiques, par Mme Sklodowska Curie. 1re these – Recherches sur les substances radioactives.... / Curie, Marie, 1867–1934 (1903) NO See https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1911/ and Chapter 6 ‘Honor and Dishonor’ of Goldsmith, 2006 NO See http://www.openculture.com/2017/12/read-the-dont-let-the-bastards-get-you-down-letter-that-albert-einstein-sent-to-marie-curie-during-a-time-of-personal-crisis-1911.html (accessed 1 May 2018) NO Science Museum archive MS/2168/2 Critique of [Royal Society’s reviewer’s comments on] Ayrton’s paper ‘On some new facts connected with the motion of oscillating water’ [c.1911] NO Science Museum archive MS/2168/3 [12 pp typed unpublished draft with handwritten corrections of] paper ‘Primary and residual vortices in oscillating fluids. Their Connection with Skin Friction’ [c.1915]. Bonhams catalogue at https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/22247/lot/249/?category=list gives date as c.1915 NO Valentia Project (2014), ‘Ayrton Marks Ayrton: mathematician, inventor, activist’ https://valentinaproject.wordpress.com/2014/06/28/hertha-marks-ayrton-inventor/ NO Ayrton, H, 1920, ‘Anti-Gas Fans’, The Times, 3 May 1920, p 7. See also Broadhurst, S, 2014 ‘Flapper goes to war’, http://www.imeche.org/news/blog/flapper-goes-to-war (accessed online on 17 June 2014). NO Gillespie, Major H J, 1920, ‘The Ayrton Gas Fan’, The Times, 4 May 1920, p 12 NO Sisson, Major H A, 1920, ‘Anti-Gas Fans’, The Times, 6 May 1920, p 12 NO A copy of Ayrton’s documentation (including that of her Executrix) can be found in Science Museum Archive MS/2168/6 Claim by Ayrton’s estate for an award for the Admiralty’s use of her negative carbons. [1921–1924]. This is a copy of TNA T 173/100 Ayrton, H; Gould, B A, Nature of Invention: Negative carbons for search-lights (1921–1924). NO Science Museum Archives MS/2168/4 [Two partially-filled] notebooks concerning research on Ayrton anti-gas fans. The first notebook has notes and experiments dated between 26 July 1918 and 5 June 1923, in particular experiments and notes on using motor-driven fans to apply the ‘Flapper Principle’ to tubes while the second notebook contains ‘Thoughts on Fans’ with notes and experiments dated between 25 September 1918 to later (undated) in 1918. NO Valentia Project, 2014, ‘Ayrton Marks Ayrton: mathematician, inventor, activist’ https://valentinaproject.wordpress.com/2014/06/28/hertha-marks-ayrton-inventor/ NO Fyfe, Aileen and Camilla Mørk Røstvik (2018), ‘How female fellows fared at the Royal Society’, Nature 555, 159–161. URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-02746-z NO IET Archives UK0108 IET/DEP/03/10/09 IEE Archives correspondence file concerning a Hertha Ayrton Centenary event on 25 May 1999 and IET Archives UK0108 IET/EVE/03/059 Papers related to the SET Division discussion meeting organised by professional group S7 (history of technology), held 25 May 1999, on the subject 'Hertha Ayrton Centenary'. NO For the BBC Radio 4 Great Lives episode on Ayrton, see http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09k6pn1 and https://www.bbc.com/ideas/videos/hertha-ayrton-the-woman-who-tamed-lightning/p05ww2dh (both accessed online on 1 May 2018). For details of the blue plaque put up in Portsmouth in February 2018, see https://www.flickdrummond.com/news/hertha-ayrton-recognised-blue-plaque-portsea (accessed online on 1 May 2018). PB The Science Museum Group SN 2054-5770 LA eng DO 10.15180/181002 UL https://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/article/hertha-marks-ayrton/ WT Science Museum Group Journal OL 30