Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge

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Born:	June 12, 1851 Penkhull, Staffordshire
Died:	August 22, 1940 Lake, Wiltshire
Occupation:	Physicist and inventor

Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge (June 12, 1851 - August 22, 1940), born at Penkhull in Stoke-on-Trent and educated at Adams' Grammar School, was a physicist and writer involved in the development of the wireless telegraph. Lodge, in his Royal Institution lectures ("The Work of Hertz and Some of His Successors") coined the term "coherer" and gained the "syntonic" (or tuning) patent from the United States Patent Office. Download high resolution version (1000x1657, 89 KB) This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... June 12 is the 163rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (164th in leap years), with 202 days remaining. ... 1851 (MDCCCLI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Penkhull is a township within Stoke-upon-Trent in the city of Stoke-on-Trent in the English county of Staffordshire. ... Staffordshire (abbreviated Staffs) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. ... August 22 is the 234th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (235th in leap years), with 131 days remaining. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Wilsford is a village in the Vale of Pewsey in the English county of Wiltshire. ... Wiltshire (abbreviated Wilts) is a large southern English county. ... ... For other uses, see Inventor (disambiguation). ... June 12 is the 163rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (164th in leap years), with 202 days remaining. ... 1851 (MDCCCLI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... August 22 is the 234th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (235th in leap years), with 131 days remaining. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Penkhull is a township within Stoke-upon-Trent in the city of Stoke-on-Trent in the English county of Staffordshire. ... This page is about Stoke-on-Trent in England. ... Adams Grammar School is a state grammar school in Newport, Shropshire. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Telegraphy (from the Greek words tele = far away and grapho = write) is the long distance transmission of written messages without physical transport of letters, originally over wire. ... The Royal Institution of Great Britain was set up in 1799 by the leading British scientists of the age, including Henry Cavendish and its first president George Finch, the 9th Earl of Winchilsea, for diffusing the knowledge, and facilitating the general introduction, of useful mechanical inventions and improvements; and for... Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (February 22, 1857 - January 1, 1894) was the German physicist and mechanician for whom the hertz, an SI unit, is named. ... The coherer was the first device used to detect radio signals in wireless telegraphy. ... A tuner is a device to adjust the resonant frequency of an antenna or transmission line to work most efficiently at one frequency or band of frequencies. ...

Career

Lodge obtained a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of London in 1875. He was appointed professor of physics and mathematics at University College, Liverpool, in 1881. Lodge received the Doctor of Science degree in 1887. In 1900 he moved from Liverpool back to the Midlands and became the first principal of the new Birmingham University, remaining there until his retirement in 1919, overseeing the start of the move from Edmund Street in the city centre to the present Edgbaston campus. Lodge was awarded the Rumford Medal of the Royal Society in 1898 and was knighted by King Edward VII in 1902. The University of London is a university based primarily in London. ... The University of Liverpool is a leading university in the city of Liverpool, England. ... Year 1900 (MCM) was an exceptional common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar, but a leap year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. ... The University of Birmingham is the oldest of three universities in the English city of Birmingham. ... Year 1919 (MCMXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar). ... Edgbaston constituency shown within Birmingham Edgbaston is an area and ward in the city of Birmingham in England. ... In 1796, Benjamin Thompson, known as Count Rumford, gave $5000 separately to the Royal Society of London and the other by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences to give awards every two years for outstanding scientific research on heat or light. ... The premises of The Royal Society in London (first four properties only). ... Edward VII King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Emperor of India His Majesty King Edward VII (9 November 1841–6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, King of the Commonwealth realms, and the Emperor of India. ...

Accomplishments

Lodge is notable for his work on the aether, which had been postulated as the wave-bearing medium filling all space. He transmitted radio signals on August 14, 1894 at a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science at Oxford University,^[1] one year before Marconi but one year after Tesla. Lodge improved Edouard Branly's coherer radio wave detector by adding a "trembler" which dislodged clumped filings, thus restoring the device's sensitivity. Lodge did other scientific investigations on lightning, the source of the electromotive force in the voltaic cell, electrolysis, and the application of electricity to the dispersal of fog and smoke. Lodge, Oliver J (1932). Lodge made the first broadcast demonstration at the annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, in 1894 at Oxford University. This was two years before Marconi's first broadcast of 1896. In 1995 the Royal Society recognized this scientific break through at a special ceremony at Oxford University. Past Years: An Autobiography. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, p231.He also made a major contribution to motoring when he invented electric spark ignition for the internal combustion engine (the Lodge Igniter). Later, two of his sons developed his ideas and in 1903 founded Lodge Bros, which eventually became known as Lodge Plugs Ltd. The luminiferous aether: it was hypothesised that the Earth moves through a medium of aether that carries light In the late 19th century luminiferous aether (light-bearing aether) was the term used to describe a medium for the propagation of light. ... 1894 (MDCCCXCIV) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Guglielmo Marconi, Marchese, GCVO (25 April 1874-20 July 1937) was an Italian inventor, best known for his development of a radiotelegraph system, which served as the foundation for the establishment of numerous affiliated companies worldwide. ... Nikola Tesla (1856-1943)[1] was a world-renowned Serbian inventor, physicist, mechanical engineer and electrical engineer. ... Eugène Édouard Désiré Branly (23 October 1844 - 24 March 1940) was a French physicist. ... Double lightning. ... In chemistry and manufacturing, electrolysis is a method of separating bonded elements and compounds by passing an electric current through them. ... Lightning strikes during a night-time thunderstorm. ... This article or section should include material from Spark gap A spark plug is an electrical device that fits into the cylinder head of some internal combustion engines and ignites compressed aerosol gasoline by means of an electric spark. ...

In 1889 Lodge was appointed President of the Liverpool Physical Society, a position he held until 1893. The society still runs to this day though under a student body. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Lodge was an active member of the Fabian Society and published two Fabian Tracts: Socialism & Individualism (1905) and co-authored Public Service vesus Private Expanditure with Sidney Webb, George Bernard Shaw and Sidney Ball The Fabian Society is a British socialist intellectual movement, whose purpose is to advance the socialist cause by gradualist and reformist, rather than revolutionary means. ... Categories: UK Labour Party politicians | British MPs | Peers | Secretaries of State for the Colonies (UK) | 1859 births | 1947 deaths | People stubs ... George Bernard Shaw (born 26 July 1856, Dublin, Ireland died November 2, 1950, Hertfordshire, England) was an Irish writer. ...

Lodge is also remembered for his studies of life after death. He first began to study psychical phenomena (chiefly telepathy) in the late 1880s. After his son, Raymond, was killed in World War I in 1915, Lodge visited several psychics and wrote about the experience in a number of books, including the best-selling "Raymond, or Life and Death" (1916). Altogether, he wrote more than 40 books, about the afterlife, aether, relativity, and electromagnetic theory. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Telepathy, from the Greek τῆλε, tele, remote; and πάθεια, patheia, to be effected by, describes the hypothetical transfer of information on thoughts or feelings between individuals by means other than the five classical senses. ... “The Great War” redirects here. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Alchemy, natural philosophy, and early modern physics proposed the existance of aether (also spelled ether, from the Latin word aether, meaning upper air [1]), a space-filling substance or field, thought to be necessary as a transmission medium. ... Two-dimensional analogy of space-time curvature described in General Relativity. ... Electromagnetism is the physics of the electromagnetic field: a field, encompassing all of space, composed of the electric field and the magnetic field. ...

Besides inventing the spark plug and wireless, Lodge also invented the moving-coil loudspeaker, the vacuum tube (valve) and the variable tuner. This article or section should include material from Spark gap A spark plug is an electrical device that fits into the cylinder head of some internal combustion engines and ignites compressed aerosol gasoline by means of an electric spark. ... “Loudspeaker” redirects here. ... In electronics, a vacuum tube or (outside North America) thermionic valve or just valve, is a device generally used to amplify, switch or otherwise modify, a signal by controlling the movement of electrons in an evacuated space. ...

Family

Lodge had twelve children, six boys and six girls. Four of his sons went into business using Lodge's inventions. His sons Brodie and Alec created the Lodge Plug Company, which manufactured spark plugs for cars and aeroplanes. Lionel and Noel founded a company that produced a machine for cleaning factory smoke. Alexander Lodge (1881-1938) was an inventor who did early work and held some patents on the spark plug. ...

Later life

Before he died, Sir Oliver Lodge declared that he would prove the existence of an afterlife by making public appearances to the living after his death. No such appearances have been made. Lodge is buried at St. Michael’s Church, Wilsford (Lake), Wiltshire. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Wilsford is a village in the Vale of Pewsey in the English county of Wiltshire. ...

Lodge's parents and siblings

Sir Oliver Lodge was the eldest of eight sons and a daughter of Oliver Lodge (1826-1884) - later a china clay merchant at Wolstanton, Staffordshire - and his wife, Grace (née Heath) (1826-1879). Sir Oliver's siblings included Sir Richard Lodge (1855-1936), historian; Eleanor Constance Lodge (1869-1936), historian and principal of Westfield College, London; and Alfred Lodge (1854-1937), mathematician. Kaolin Kaolinite (Aluminium Silicate Hydroxide) Kaolinite is a mineral with the chemical composition Al2Si2O5(OH)4. ... Wolstanton is a suburban area on the outskirts of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire. ... Staffordshire (abbreviated Staffs) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. ... Sir Richard Lodge was born on 20 June 1855 at Penkhull, Staffordshire. ... Eleanor Constance Lodge, CBE, was born on 18 September 1869 at Hanley, Staffordshire. ... Westfield College was a small college, based in Hampstead in North London, that was founded by Kathleen Chesney in 1882. ...

Historical Records

Sir Oliver Lodge's letters and papers were divided after his death. Some were deposited at the University of Birmingham and University of Liverpool and others at the Society for Psychical Research and the University 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. Website http://www. ... The University of Liverpool is a university in the city of Liverpool, England. ... The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) was founded in 1882 by three dons of Trinity College, Cambridge, Edmund Gurney, Frederic William Henry Myers, and Henry Sidgwick, because of their interest in spiritualism. ... University College London, commonly known as UCL, is a college of the University of London. ...

The University of Birmingham Special Collections holds over 2000 items of Sir Oliver's correspondence relating to family, co-workers at Birmingham and Liverpool Universities and also from numerous religious, political and literary figures. The collection also includes a number of Lodge's diaries, photographs and newscuttings relating to his scientific research and scripts of his published work. There are also an additional 211 letters of Sir Oliver Lodge which have been acquired over the years (1881-1939). Website http://www. ...

Devon Records Office holds Lodge's letters to Sir Thomas Acland 1907-1908

The University of Glasgow Library holds Sir Oliver's letters to William MacNeile Dixon (1900-1938). Master of Theology (MTh) Dentistry Nursing Affiliations Russell Group, Universitas 21 Website http://www. ...

The University of St Andrews has 23 letters from Sir Oliver to Wilfred Ward (1896-1908). St Marys College Bute Medical School St Leonards College[5][6] Affiliations 1994 Group Website http://www. ...

Trinity College Dublin are custodians of Lodge's correspondence with John Joly. The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin or more commonly Trinity College, Dublin (TCD) was founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I, is the only constituent college of the University of Dublin, Irelands oldest university. ...

University College London Special Collections hold 1991 items of Sir Oliver Lodge's correspondence between 1871-1938. University College London, commonly known as UCL, is a college of the University of London. ...

Imperial College, London Archives hold 19 letters written from Sir Oliver to his fellow scientist, Sylvanus Thompson. Royal School of Mines Entrance Imperial College London is a college of the University of London which focuses on science and technology, and is located in South Kensington in London. ... Silvanus Phillips Thompson (June 19, 1851 – June 12, 1916). ...

The Society for Psychical Research holds 2710 letters written to Oliver Lodge. The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) was founded in 1882 by three dons of Trinity College, Cambridge, Edmund Gurney, Frederic William Henry Myers, and Henry Sidgwick, because of their interest in spiritualism. ...

The London Science Museum holds an early notebook of Oliver Lodge's dated 1880, correspondence dating from 1894-1913 and a paper on atomic theory. Image:Science Museum bernoulli exhibit. ... Year 1880 (MDCCCLXXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar). ... In chemistry and physics, atomic theory is a theory of the nature of matter, which states that matter is composed of discrete units called atoms, as opposed to obsolete beliefs that matter could be divided into any arbitrarily small quantity. ...

The University of Liverpool holds some notebooks and letters of Oliver Lodge and also has a laboratory named after him, the main administrative centre of the Physics Department where the majority of lecturers and researchers have their offices. The University of Liverpool is a university in the city of Liverpool, England. ...

Publications

• Lodge, Oliver Joseph, "Electric Theory of Matter". Harper Magazine. 1904. (Oneill's Electronic Museum)
• Lodge, Oliver Joseph, and Paul Tice, "Reason and Belief". Book Tree. February 2000. ISBN 1-58509-226-6
• Lodge, Oliver Joseph, "The Work of Hertz and Some of His Successors", 1894
• Lodge, Oliver Joseph, "RELATIVITY, A very elementary Exposition", June 11th. 1925 Paperback. Methuen & Co. LTD. London.
• Lodge, Oliver Joseph, "Ether", Encyclopedia Britannica, Thirteenth Edition (1926).
• Lodge, Oliver Joseph, "The Ether of Space". ISBN 1-4021-8302-X (paperback) ISBN 1-4021-1766-3 (hardcover)
• Lodge, Oliver Joseph, "Ether and Reality". ISBN 0-7661-7865-X
• Lodge, Oliver Joseph, "Phantom Walls".
• Lodge, Oliver Joseph, "Past Years: An Autobiography". Charles Scribner's Sons, 1932.

Alchemy, natural philosophy, and early modern physics proposed the existance of aether (also spelled ether, from the Latin word aether, meaning upper air [1]), a space-filling substance or field, thought to be necessary as a transmission medium. ... 1913 advertisement for the 11th edition, with the slogan When in doubt — look it up in the Encyclopædia Britannica The Encyclopædia Britannica (properly spelled with æ, the ae-ligature) was first published in 1768–1771 as The Britannica was an important early English-language general encyclopedia and is still...

Notes and references

1. ^ Lodge, Oliver J (1932). This first broadcast demonstration by Lodge was two years before Marconi's first broadcast of 1896. In 1995 the Royal Society recognized this scientific break through at a special ceremony at Oxford University. Past Years: An Autobiography. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, p231.

External links

• U.S. Patent 609154 , "Electric Telegraphy" (wireless telegraphy using Ruhmkorff or Tesla coil for transmitter and Branly coherer for detector, the "syntonic" tuning patent) August, 1898. Sold to Marconi in 1912.
• "Oliver Joseph Lodge, Sir: 1851 - 1940". Adventures in CyberSound.
• "Sir Oliver Lodge 1851-1940". First Spiritual Temple. 2001.
• "Lodge, Sir Oliver Joseph". Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2004.
• "http://chem.ch.huji.ac.il/~eugeniik/history/lodge.html", containing further information on Lodge's life and work.
• University of Birmingham Staff Papers: Papers of Sir Oliver Lodge '
• The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, in Stoke-on-Trent, UK, features a display about local hero Oliver Lodge and his pioneering 1907 igniter, forerunner of the spark plug.

Heinrich Daniel Ruhmkorff (January 15, 1803 – December 20, 1887) was a German instrument maker who developed and commercialised the induction coil (often referred to as the Ruhmkorff coil. ... Tesla Coil at Questacon, the Australian National Science Centre museum A Tesla coil is a type of resonant transformer, named after its inventor, Nikola Tesla. ... Eugène Édouard Désiré Branly (23 October 1844 - 24 March 1940) was a French physicist. ...

See also

Erik Larson (author), "Thunderstruck," New York: Crown Publishers, 2006. ISBN 1-4000-8066-5 A comparison of the lives of Hawley Harvey Crippen and Marconi. Crippen was a murderer whose Transatlantic escape was foiled by the new invention of shipboard radio. Marconi does not come off as a very pleasant character, and his stormy relationship with Lodge is discussed in detail. Erik Larson (born January 1, 1954) is an American author. ... Taken pre-1910. ...