Papers of Sir Edward Victor Appleton
- Reference:GB 237 Coll-37
- Dates of Creation:c 1918-1973
- Name of Creator:
- Language of Material:English
- Physical Description:100 boxes
Scope and Content
The papers, which are substantial, deal almost exclusively with Appleton's scientific work. There is little personal or private correspondence and almost no surviving material, apart from lectures, speeches and addresses, relating to his public life as scientific administrator or university principal. There are, however, a good run of diaries and engagement books and extensive folders of notes, research ideas, manuscript calculations and data from all periods of Appleton's career, as well as much additional data contributed by assistants or from observatories. The correspondence includes an extended exchange of letters with B. van der Pol, 1921-1924, on oscillations and non-linearity, and long and frequent exchanges with long-term friends and collaborators such as W.J.G. Beynon, R. Naismith and W.R. Piggott. Appleton's collection of reprints, preprints and limited circulation reports also includes some important items.
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Arrangement
By section as follows: Biographical and personal, Scientific notebooks, Research topics, Lectures and publications, Correspondence, Charts, graphs and data, Reports and printed matter, Non-print material. Index of correspondents.
Access Information
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Custodial History
Received for cataloguing in 1977-1978 by the Contemporary Scientific Archives Centre from Lady Appleton, widow. Deposited in Edinburgh University Library in 1981.
Related Material
The Institution of Electrical Engineers, London houses a film in which Appleton describes his ionospheric research, made for the Institution by British Movietone Ltd in 1962, and a typescript text of the film.
Lady Appleton retained copies of Appleton's speeches and writings to be left to Edinburgh University Library on her death. Appleton's correspondence with J.A. Ratcliffe, 1925-1936, formed an earlier deposit in Edinburgh University Library.
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