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Biography of Rayleigh, 3d BaronName: Rayleigh, 3d BaronBirth Date: November 12, 1842 Death Date: June 30, 1919 Place of Birth: Maldon, Essex, England Nationality: English Gender: Male Occupations: physicist Rayleigh, 3d Baron The English physicist John William Strutt, 3d Baron Rayleigh (1842-1919), was one of the last of the great individual classical physicists whose interests spanned all disciplines.John William Strutt was born in Maldon, Essex, on Nov. 12, 1842, the eldest son of the 2d Baron Rayleigh, a prosperous Essex farmer and landowner. His talent in mathematics was recognized early, and in 1861 he entered Trinity College, Cambridge. Under the tutelage of a great teacher, E. J. Routh, he captured in 1865 the coveted position of senior wrangler and also won the Smith's Prize. At Terling Place, the family seat in Essex, he converted the stables into a laboratory. There he commenced experimental studies in photography, optics, electricity, and acoustics, working alone for the next 50 years. He remained active in his laboratory until a few days before his death on June 30, 1919.In 1870 Strutt derived theoretically, and verified experimentally, the mechanism of the scattering of light by …showed first 150 words…
…showed last 150 words…elements in the periodic table. For this Rayleigh received the Nobel Prize in physics in 1904.By his marriage to Evelyn Balfour, Rayleigh was brought close to high government circles: her uncle, the Marquis of Salisbury, was prime minister from 1885 to 1901, and her brother, Arthur Balfour, was also prime minister. Consequently, Rayleigh was influential in many government policies relative to science.Rayleigh's honors are almost too numerous to mention. He was one of the original members of the Order of Merit and was secretary and later president of the Royal Society. Further Reading Robert John Strutt, 4th Baron Rayleigh, wrote John William Strutt, Third Baron Rayleigh (1924; rev. ed., 1968, entitled Life of John William Strutt, Third Baron Rayleigh). Biographical information on Rayleigh can be found in Nobel Foundation, Physics (3 vols., 1964-1967), a collection of Nobel laureates' lectures and biographies. Rayleigh's life and contribution to science are discussed in James Gerald Crowther, Scientific Types (1970). |