Willoughby Smith
Willoughby Smith (born April 6, 1828 in Great Yarmouth , Norfolk , † July 17, 1891 in Eastbourne , Sussex ) was an English electrical engineer. He is considered the discoverer of the photoconductance of the element selenium and provided the basis for the development of the selenium cell .
Life
From 1848 he worked for the London Gutta Percha Company on the development of electrical insulating materials for submarine cables , in particular on the properties of gutta-percha . In 1849 he oversaw the manufacture and in the following year the experimental first laying of a 30-mile long submarine cable between Dover and Calais . He works closely with Charles Wheatstone and then played a key role in improving the insulation.
In 1854 he laid the first submarine cable in the Mediterranean between La Spezia and Corsica , Corsica and Sardinia , and later between Sardinia and Cona in Algeria . In 1859 he worked together with the technician Chatterton on the "Chatterton casting compound" for cables, named after him (British patent 2809). In 1865 he was on board the Great Eastern and assisted in laying the cable between Ireland and Newfoundland.
Smith developed a device to continuously monitor the submarine cables. To do this, he was looking for a material with high resistance, which should not be a non-conductor. In 1873 he chose selenium bars for this . The superintendent of the Valentia cable station Joseph May later noticed changes in their conductivity, which they attributed to changes in the exposure of the selenium. Smith published her observation, which was noted and investigated by Lieutenant Harry Napier Draper and Richard J. Moss.
He became a business partner at Elliott Brothers . Around 1885 he also made his first attempts at wireless telegraphy. In order to establish a telegraphic connection between the Fastnet lighthouse and the coast, where a cable could not be laid due to the dangerousness of the sea, Willoughby Smith used the following arrangement: From the lighthouse two bare wires were stretched over the rocks in the opposite direction, which were connected with two plates sunk into the sea.
His sons were William Oliver Smith (1855-1943) and Willoughby Statham Smith (1860-1946).
Publications
- Induction ; 1882
- The Rise And Extension Of Submarine Telegraphy ; 1891
- The Society of telegraph engineers and of electricians ; 1911
literature
- Mary AM Hoppus: Dr. Willoughby Smith ; 1891
Individual evidence
- ^ Adolf Glaser: Westermannsmonthshefte. G. Westermann, 1867, p. 96. limited preview in the Google book search
- ↑ Fahie: Willoughby Smith's Method (1901). In: earlyradiohistory.us. Retrieved December 30, 2014 .
- ↑ JIEE Vol. 90 Pt.I 1943
- ↑ JIEE Vol.94 Pt.I 1947
- ^ HR Bristow: MW Theiler & Sons An Early Acquisition by Elliott Brothers London
Web links
- Biography ( Memento from January 28, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) (web archive)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Smith, Willoughby |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English electrical engineer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 6, 1828 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Great Yarmouth |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 17, 1891 |
| Place of death | Eastbourne |