Sir James Alfred Ewing

Wikipedia Biographical Summary:

"...Sir James Alfred Ewing (27 March 1855 − 7 January 1935) was a Scottish physicist and engineer, best known for his work on the magnetic properties of metals and, in particular, for his discovery of, and coinage of the word, hysteresis..."

"... His first wife, Annie, was an American, a great great niece of George Washington..."

"...Born in Dundee, Scotland, Ewing was the third son of the Reverend James Ewing a minister of the Free Church of Scotland. He was educated at West End Academy and the High School of Dundee, Ewing showed an early interest in science and technology....

"...Ewing won a scholarship to the University of Edinburgh where he studied under William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin and Peter Guthrie Tait before graduating in engineering. During his summer vacations, he worked on telegraph cable laying expeditions, including one to Brazil, under Thomson and Fleeming Jenkin..."

"...n 1878, on Fleeming Jenkin's recommendation, Ewing was recruited to help the modernisation of Meiji Era Japan as one of the o-yatoi gaikokujin (hired foreigners). Serving as professor of mechanical engineering at the Tokyo Imperial University, he was instrumental in founding Japanese seismology.
Ewing made two special friends at Tokyo University soon after arriving: Basil Hall Chamberlain and Lieutenant Thomas Henry James R.N. who taught navigation. He was also in close contact with Henry Dyer and William Edward Ayrton at the Imperial College of Engineering (Kobu Dai Gakkō).
In Tokyo, Ewing taught courses on mechanics and on heat engines to engineering students, and on electricity and magnetism to students of physics. He carried out many research projects on magnetism and coined the word 'hysteresis'. His investigations into earthquakes led him to help T. Lomar Gray and John Milne of the Imperial College of Engineering to develop the first modern seismograph, from 1880−1895. All three men worked as a team on the invention and use of seismographs, though Milne is generally credited with the invention of the first modern horizontal-pendulum seismograph. Ewing joined Gray and Milne in founding the Seismological Society of Japan (SSJ) in 1880..."

"...In 1890, Ewing took up the post of Professor of Mechanism and Applied Mechanics at the University of Cambridge, initially at Trinity College, though he later moved to King's College. At Cambridge, Ewing's research into the magnetisation of metals led him to criticise the conventional account of Wilhelm Weber. In 1890, he observed that magnetisation lagged behind an applied alternating current. He described the characteristic hysteresis curve and speculated that individual molecules act as magnets, resisting changes in magnetising potential..."

"...Ewing also researched into the crystalline structure of metals and, in 1903, was the first to propose that fatigue failures originated in microscopic defects or slip bands in materials. In 1895 he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Society for his work on Magnetic Induction in Iron and other Metals..."

"...On 8 April 1903, The Times announced that the Board of Admiralty selected Ewing for the newly created post of Director of Naval Education (DNE) in Greenwich.

Ewing's first wife, Annie (née Washington) died in 1909 and, in 1912, he married Ellen, the surviving daughter of his old friend and patron, John Hopkinson. As reward for his services, Ewing was made Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1906 and then Knight Commander of the Bath in 1911.

During World War I, from 1914 to May 1917, Ewing managed Room 40, the Admiralty intelligence department of cryptanalysis, responsible predominantly for the decryption of intercepted German naval messages. In this capacity, he achieved considerable fame in the popular press when Room 40 deciphered the Zimmermann Telegram in 1917 (which suggested a German plot to assist Mexico in recovering the southwestern United States). The publication of the Zimmermann Telegram is generally credited as the trigger event which brought American into the Great War..."

"...In May 1916 Ewing accepted an invitation to become Principal of the University of Edinburgh, in the course of which he instituted an extensive series of effective reforms and which he held until his retirement in 1929. In 1927 he gave a lecture to the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution which contained the first semi-official disclosure of the work done by Room 40. A house in Pollock Halls of Residence is named in his honour.

Sir Alfred Ewing died in 1935 and is buried at the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground in Cambridge, with his second wife Lady Ellen Ewing..."

SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Alfred_Ewing

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Birth: Mar. 27, 1855
Dundee Dundee City, Scotland Death: Jan. 7, 1935 Cambridge Cambridgeshire, England

Professor of Mechanics; his first wife was Annie Maria Thomasina Blackburn Washington, Washington being her maiden name, not a married name. His second wife was Lady Ellen Lina Ewing, nee Hopkinson.

Biographical Summary

EWING, SIR JAMES ALFRED. 27/03/1855-07/01/1935. Ref: 506. Male.

• Titles and British Honours: CB(1907), KCB(1911).
• Place of Birth: Dundee, Angus.
• Place of Death: Cambridge.
• Profession: Physicist,Engineer.
• Appointments Held: Professor 1878-90, Engineering,Tokyo; 1890-1903, Engineering, Cambridge University; Director 1903-16, Naval Education,The Admiralty; Principal 1916-29, Edinburgh University.
• Schools and Tutors: West End Academy and Dundee High School.
• Undergraduate Studies: MA(Edinburgh).
• Postgraduate Studies: LL D(Hon Edinburgh, St Andrews, Glasgow), D Sc(Hon Oxon, Cantab, Durham, Sheffield).
• Publications: "Engineer's Outlook" 1933, " Magnetic Induction in Iron", "Thermodynamics for Engineers" 1920.
• Marital Status: Married 1st(1879) Annie Maria Thomasina Blackburn Washington d.1909,2nd(1911) Ellen Lina Hopkinson.
• Mother: Marjory Ferguson.
• Father: Rev James Ewing, Minister,St Andrews Free Church, Dundee.
• References: DNB, 1931-1940, 1949, 264-6; Obituary Notices of Fellows of The Royal Society, 1, 475-92 signed R.T.Glazebrook (Portrait); Proc Roy Soc Edinb, 55, 1934-35, 150-3; Who Was Who 3.
• Memberships: FRS (1887), FIMechE(Hon).
• Date of Election: 04/02/1878.
• Proposers: Sir W.Thomson (Lord Kelvin), H. C. Fleeming Jenkin, P. G.Tait, Alexander Crum Brown (Billet 17/12/1877, 7/1, 21/1/1878).
• Service to the RSE: Councillor 1888-91, 1919-20, Vice-President 1920-23, President 1924-9.
• Fellow Type: OF.

SOURCE: Waterston, Charles D; Macmillan Shearer, A (July 2006). Biographical index of former fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1783-2002: Biographical Index. I. Edinburgh: The Royal Society of Edinburgh. ISBN 978-0-902198-84-5. page 299

Other References

• Wikipedia contributors. "James Alfred Ewing." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.