Alfred Fowler
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Alfred Fowler
British astrophysicist (1868–1940)
Although born into a poor family in Bradford, Fowler gained a scholarship and in 1882 went to the Normal School of Science (later to become the Royal College of Science and now part of Imperial College, London). After graduating with a diploma in mechanics, he became assistant to Norman Lockyer at the Solar Physics Observatory in South Kensington, London. He remained there after Lockyer's retirement in 1901, being made professor of astrophysics in 1915. Finally, from 1923 to 1934 he served as Yarrow Research Professor of the Royal Society. Fowler was one of the leading figures behind the founding of the International Astronomical Union in 1919, serving as its first general secretary until 1925.
Not surprisingly Fowler worked very much in the Lockyer tradition of solar and stellar spectroscopy. He became particularly skilled in identifying difficult spectra, using his experience in producing different spectra in the laboratory. He thus detected magnesium hydride in sunspots and carbon monoxide in the tails of comets, and showed that the band spectra of cool M-type stars were due to titanium oxide. In addition, following the announcement in 1913 of the Bohr theory of the atom, Fowler was outstanding in analyzing the structure of atoms from their special characteristics.
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Alfred Fowler
For the American astrophysicist, see William Alfred Fowler.
| Alfred Fowler | |
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| Born | 22 March 1868 Yorkshire, England |
| Died | 24 June 1940 (aged 72) |
| Fields | Astronomy |
| Notable awards | Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1915) Royal Medal (1918) Henry Draper Medal (1920) Bruce Medal (1934) |
Alfred Fowler, FRS[1] (22 March 1868 Yorkshire – 24 June 1940) was an English astronomer. Not to be confused with American astrophysicist William Alfred Fowler.
He was born in Wilsden, Yorkshire and educated at London's Normal School of Science, which was later absorbed into Imperial College, London.
He was appointed Instructor (later Assistant Professor) of Astrophysics at Imperial College and worked there until his death. He was an expert in spectroscopy, being one of the first to determine that the temperature of sunspots was cooler than that of surrounding regions.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1910, when his citation read
- "Associate of the Royal College of Science. Assistant Professor of Physics (Astrophysics Department) Imperial College and Technology, South Kensington. Distinguished for his contributions to Astronomical Physics by spectroscopic observations of eclipses, solar pre-eminences, and sunspots, and by experimental researches bearing on their interpretation. Associated in observations of total eclipses of the sun with Sir Norman Lockyer in 1893, 1896, 1898, 1900, and (with Prof Callendar) in 1905. "
- He was awarded their Royal Medal in 1918 and delivered their Bakerian Lectures in 1914 and 1924.
Fowler was president of the Royal Astronomical Society from 1919 to 1921 and died in Ealing, London in 1940.
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Honours
Awards
- Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1915)
- Royal Medal (1918)
- Fellow of the Royal Society[1]
- Henry Draper Medal from the National Academy of Sciences (1920)[2]
- Bruce Medal (1934)
- Commander of the British Empire (1935)
Named after him
- The crater Fowler on the Moon (jointly with Ralph H. Fowler)
Published Papers
- The Spectra of Metallic Arcs in an Exhausted Globe (with H Page, (Proc Roy Soc, vol lxxii);
- Formulae for Spectrum Series (with H Shaw, Astrophys Journ, vols xviii, xxi);
- The Spectra of Antarian Stars in relation to the Fluted Spectrum of Titanium (Proc Roy Soc, vol lxxiii, 1904);
- Observations of the Spectra of Sunspots, Region C to D (Monthly Notices Roy Astron Soc, vol lxv, 1905);
- Spectroscopic Observations of the Great Sunspot (February, 1905) and Associated Prominences (ibid, vol lxv, 1905);
- Total Solar Eclipse, 1905, August 30 (with H L Callendar) (Proc Roy Soc, vol lxxvii, 1905);
- High Level Chromosperic Lines and their Behaviour in Sunspot Spectra (Monthly Notices Roy Astron Soc, vol lxvi, 1906);
- Observations and Discussion of the Spectra of Sunspots, Region B to E (Trans Internat Union Solar Research, vol i, 1906);
- Enhanced Lines of Iron in the Region F to C, and Note on Silicon in the Chromosphere (Monthly Notices, Roy Astron Soc vol lxvii, 1906);
- The Fluted Spectrum of Titanium Oxide (Proc Roy Soc, vol lxxx, 1907);
- The Origin of certain Bands in the Spectra of Sunspots (Monthly Notices, Roy Astron Soc, vol lxvii, 1907);
- Report of Committee on Sunspot Spectra (Trans Internat Union Solar Research, vol ii, 1908);
- 'The Spectrum of Scandium and its relation to Solar Spectra' (Phil Trans, A, 1908);
- The Reproduction of Prismatic Spectrum Photographs on a Uniform Scale of Wave-lengths (Astrophys Journ, vol xxviii, 1908).
References
- ^ a b Dingle, H. (1941). "Alfred Fowler. 1868-1940". Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society 3 (9): 483–426. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1941.0016.
- ^ "Henry Draper Medal". National Academy of Sciences. http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AWARDS_draper. Retrieved 19 February 2011.
External links
- Bruce Medal page
- Awarding of Bruce medal: PASP 46 (1934) 87
- Awarding of RAS gold medal: MNRAS 75 (1915) 355
Obituaries
- ApJ 94 (1941) 1
- MNRAS 101 (1941) 132
- Obs 63 (1940) 262
- PASP 52 (1940) 301 (one paragraph)
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