Profile of the Day: Hertha Marks Ayrton

Hertha Marks Ayrton

Today marks the 162nd birthday of British engineer and inventor Hertha Marks Ayrton. A pioneering scientist, Ayrton was the first woman to read her own paper before the British Royal Society. She presented her work on electric arcs and ripples in sand and water, and brought a scientific explanation for this simple observation, “when a wave washes over sand, ripples will appear.” She was awarded the society’s prestigious Hughes Medal for her work.

Ayrton was born Phoebe Sarah Marks on April 28, 1854 in Portsea, Portsmouth, England. She was the third child born to Levi Marks, a Polish Jewish watchmaker, and Alice Theresa Moss, a seamstress and daughter of a glass merchant in Portsea. At the age of nine, she was invited to live with her aunts who ran a school outside of London. It was there that her cousins first introduced her to science and mathematics.

An inventor, Ayrton held several patents. Her most notable invention was the Ayrton fan or flapper, which was used during World War I to dispel poison gas in the trenches. Over 100,000 were produced and used on the Western Front.

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Image: Wikimedia Commons