Today I want to find out about Hertha Ayrton. She was a remarkable Victorian engineer, mathematician, physicist and inventor whose achievements helped to challenge attitudes towards women in science.
She was born Phoebe Sarah Marks on the 28th of April 1854 in Portsea, Portsmouth. Her father, Levi Marks, was a Jewish watchmaker who had emigrated from Poland, while her mother, Alice, worked as a seamstress.
Her father died when Sarah was only seven years old, leaving her mother to support a large family. At the age of nine, Sarah went to live with relatives in London who ran a school. There, she developed a strong interest in mathematics and science.
As a young woman, she adopted the name Hertha, inspired by a poem that questioned organised religion. She was determined to continue her education at a time when universities offered women very few opportunities.
With financial support from the campaigner Barbara Bodichon and several other supporters of women’s education, Hertha studied mathematics at Girton College, Cambridge. She passed the Mathematical Tripos examination in 1880. However, Cambridge did not award full degrees to women at the time, so she later completed an external examination through the University of London and received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1881.
Hertha supported herself by teaching, embroidery and writing mathematical problems. In 1884, she patented her first important invention: a line-divider. This instrument could divide a line into equal sections and enlarge or reduce drawings. It was useful to artists, architects and engineers.
Hertha later attended evening classes in electricity taught by Professor William Edward Ayrton. The couple married in 1885, and William encouraged her scientific work.
During the 1890s, Hertha investigated electric arc lighting, which was widely used in streets and public buildings. Arc lamps frequently flickered and produced an unpleasant hissing noise. Her research demonstrated that the problem was caused by oxygen coming into contact with the carbon rods inside the lamps.
In 1899, she became the first woman to present her own paper to the Institution of Electrical Engineers. She was later elected as its first female member.
Hertha also studied the formation of ripples in sand and water. Although the Royal Society initially refused to consider her for membership because she was married, she became the first woman to read her own scientific paper before the Society in 1904. Two years later, she received its prestigious Hughes Medal for her research into electric arcs and ripple marks.
Her achievements extended beyond the laboratory. During the First World War, she designed a hand-operated fan intended to clear poisonous gas from trenches. Although military officials initially dismissed the idea, more than 100,000 Ayrton Fans were eventually supplied to British soldiers.
Hertha was also a committed supporter of women’s suffrage. She marched with campaigners, helped women who had been imprisoned and provided support to leading suffragettes, including Christabel Pankhurst.
Hertha Ayrton died from blood poisoning following an insect bite on the 26th of August 1923. She had registered 26 patents during her lifetime and helped open scientific institutions to women.
How many other brilliant women were prevented from receiving the recognition they deserved?
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