To keep on the scientific theme, I was one of Australia's greatest physicists, and made fundamental contributions to my speciality. My children became a mathematician and an artist.
Australian History
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Chris Wallace?
Robert (Bob) Woodhouse Crompton was born in Adelaide on 9 June, 1926. His childhood hobbies included building electric motors, and his creations included a clock, gramophone, and numerous small motors to power his toys. His hobby developed into academic success, and he graduated from Prince Alfred College in Adelaide top of the state in physics.
Crompton was awarded a cadetship at The University of Adelaide where he worked on his science degree in between making laboratory equipment for lecture demonstrations. He graduated with honours in 1949 and in 1954 he was awarded one of Adelaides earliest PhDs for his study of the collisions between slow electrons and gas molecules. Between 1950 and 1960, Crompton was a physics lecturer at The University of Adelaide. He formed a small research group, which was later invited to join the newly formed Research School of Physical Sciences at the Australian National University in Canberra. There he helped to shape a world renowned group in electron swarm physics, formed many international collaborations and took part in the creation of the Australian Journals of Scientific Research.
Crompton has received numerous prestigious awards and served in many professional organisations, including being elected to the Australian Academy of Science in 1979, the American Physical Society in 1995, and the British Institute of Physics for his work in atomic and molecular physics and low temperature plasma physics. He was appointed Member of the Order of Australia in 1999 for services to science and the community.
Crompton was awarded a cadetship at The University of Adelaide where he worked on his science degree in between making laboratory equipment for lecture demonstrations. He graduated with honours in 1949 and in 1954 he was awarded one of Adelaides earliest PhDs for his study of the collisions between slow electrons and gas molecules. Between 1950 and 1960, Crompton was a physics lecturer at The University of Adelaide. He formed a small research group, which was later invited to join the newly formed Research School of Physical Sciences at the Australian National University in Canberra. There he helped to shape a world renowned group in electron swarm physics, formed many international collaborations and took part in the creation of the Australian Journals of Scientific Research.
Crompton has received numerous prestigious awards and served in many professional organisations, including being elected to the Australian Academy of Science in 1979, the American Physical Society in 1995, and the British Institute of Physics for his work in atomic and molecular physics and low temperature plasma physics. He was appointed Member of the Order of Australia in 1999 for services to science and the community.
Nope to GT or TJ! A few more guesses before a clue!
Not William Bragg.
Time for a clue, although a physicist, my field was the same as the person in the last question (Astronomy), but a different specialty. The bit about children was significant, too.
Time for a clue, although a physicist, my field was the same as the person in the last question (Astronomy), but a different specialty. The bit about children was significant, too.
Lets keep it moving along. I am not a bloke, but the kids mother.
slowflow
Barry
Ruby Payne-Scott
Slowflow gets it. Ruby Payne Scott was a really interesting character (from Wikipedia);
One of the more outstanding physicists[11] that Australia has ever produced and one of the first people in the world to consider the possibility of radio astronomy, and thereby responsible for what is now a fundamental part of the modern lexicon of science, she was often the only woman in her classes at the University of Sydney.
In 1936 she conducted research with William H. Love at the Cancer Research Laboratory at the University of Sydney. They determined that the magnetism of the earth had little or no effect on the vital processes of beings living on the earth by cultivating chick embryos with no observable differences despite being in magnetic fields up to 5000 times as powerful as that of the earth. Some decades earlier it was a widely held belief that the earth's magnetic field produced extensive effects on human beings, and many people would sleep only with the head to the north and the body parallel to the magnetic meridian.[12]
Her career arguably reached its zenith while working for the Australian government's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (then called CSIR, now known as CSIRO) at Dover Heights, Hornsby and especially Potts Hill in Sydney. Some of her fundamental contributions to solar radio astronomy came at the end of this period. She is the discoverer of Type I and Type III bursts[13] and participated in the recognition of Type II and IV bursts. Payne-Scott played a major role in the first-ever radio astronomical interferometer observation from 26 January 1946, when the sea-cliff interferometer was used to determine the position and angular size of a solar burst. This observation occurred at either Dover Heights (ex Army shore defence radar) or at Beacon Hill, near Collaroy on Sydney's north shore (ex Royal Australian Air Force surveillance radar establishment - however this radar did not become active until early 1950).[14]
During World War II, she was engaged in top secret work investigating radar. She was the expert on the detection of aircraft using PPI (Plan Position Indicator) displays. She was also at the time a member of the Communist Party[15] and an early advocate for women's rights. The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) was interested in Payne-Scott and had a substantial file on her activities, with some distortions.[15]
Ruby Payne-Scott and William ("Bill") Holman Hall secretly married in 1944; at this time, the Commonwealth government had legislated that a married woman could not hold a permanent position within the public service. She continued to work for CSIRO while secretly married until the regulations of the new CSIRO in 1949 raised the issue of her marriage. The following year, her treatment by CSIRO resulted in hostile written exchanges with Sir Ian Clunies Ross (Chairman of CSIRO) about the status of married women in the work place. She lost her permanent position in CSIRO. However, her salary was maintained at a level comparable to that of her male colleagues. In 1951, she resigned a few months before her son Peter was born; there was no maternity leave at this time.
She changed her name to Ruby Hall only after she left CSIRO. Ruby and Bill Hall had two children: Peter Gavin Hall, an internationally renowned mathematician working in theoretical statistics and probability theory, and Fiona Margaret Hall, one of Australia's more prominent artists, whose career is described by Julie Ewington in her 2005 book Fiona Hall.
One of the more outstanding physicists[11] that Australia has ever produced and one of the first people in the world to consider the possibility of radio astronomy, and thereby responsible for what is now a fundamental part of the modern lexicon of science, she was often the only woman in her classes at the University of Sydney.
In 1936 she conducted research with William H. Love at the Cancer Research Laboratory at the University of Sydney. They determined that the magnetism of the earth had little or no effect on the vital processes of beings living on the earth by cultivating chick embryos with no observable differences despite being in magnetic fields up to 5000 times as powerful as that of the earth. Some decades earlier it was a widely held belief that the earth's magnetic field produced extensive effects on human beings, and many people would sleep only with the head to the north and the body parallel to the magnetic meridian.[12]
Her career arguably reached its zenith while working for the Australian government's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (then called CSIR, now known as CSIRO) at Dover Heights, Hornsby and especially Potts Hill in Sydney. Some of her fundamental contributions to solar radio astronomy came at the end of this period. She is the discoverer of Type I and Type III bursts[13] and participated in the recognition of Type II and IV bursts. Payne-Scott played a major role in the first-ever radio astronomical interferometer observation from 26 January 1946, when the sea-cliff interferometer was used to determine the position and angular size of a solar burst. This observation occurred at either Dover Heights (ex Army shore defence radar) or at Beacon Hill, near Collaroy on Sydney's north shore (ex Royal Australian Air Force surveillance radar establishment - however this radar did not become active until early 1950).[14]
During World War II, she was engaged in top secret work investigating radar. She was the expert on the detection of aircraft using PPI (Plan Position Indicator) displays. She was also at the time a member of the Communist Party[15] and an early advocate for women's rights. The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) was interested in Payne-Scott and had a substantial file on her activities, with some distortions.[15]
Ruby Payne-Scott and William ("Bill") Holman Hall secretly married in 1944; at this time, the Commonwealth government had legislated that a married woman could not hold a permanent position within the public service. She continued to work for CSIRO while secretly married until the regulations of the new CSIRO in 1949 raised the issue of her marriage. The following year, her treatment by CSIRO resulted in hostile written exchanges with Sir Ian Clunies Ross (Chairman of CSIRO) about the status of married women in the work place. She lost her permanent position in CSIRO. However, her salary was maintained at a level comparable to that of her male colleagues. In 1951, she resigned a few months before her son Peter was born; there was no maternity leave at this time.
She changed her name to Ruby Hall only after she left CSIRO. Ruby and Bill Hall had two children: Peter Gavin Hall, an internationally renowned mathematician working in theoretical statistics and probability theory, and Fiona Margaret Hall, one of Australia's more prominent artists, whose career is described by Julie Ewington in her 2005 book Fiona Hall.
slowflow
Barry
Who is credited with inventing first mechanised grain stripper and where?
topaza
Keith Rogers
John Ridley (a preacher) in South Australia!!
slowflow
Barry
Topaza, not the info I have. Maybe it's disputed. John & SA are correct.
Lookung for the other gent.
"The controversy was again revived in 1875, when the University of Adelaide proposed to establish a 'Ridley' chair of agriculture."
Lookung for the other gent.
"The controversy was again revived in 1875, when the University of Adelaide proposed to establish a 'Ridley' chair of agriculture."
topaza
Keith Rogers
Hi slow flow. There has been an ongoing dispute as to whom the inventer is. My source is the SA State Library
See http://www.samemory.sa.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=323
See http://www.samemory.sa.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=323
slowflow
Barry
loamer all yours
topaza You are correct there is dispute. I've gone with loamer as he was first with JB. Hope you're not put off.
Lots of references http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wrathall_Bull
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_R...oversy_regarding_the_inventor_of_the_Stripper
http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/bull-john-wrathall-1845
topaza You are correct there is dispute. I've gone with loamer as he was first with JB. Hope you're not put off.
Lots of references http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wrathall_Bull
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_R...oversy_regarding_the_inventor_of_the_Stripper
http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/bull-john-wrathall-1845
I am Australian icon, yet I have no official status. I have been loved, abused, misused and a lot of Victorians hate the fact I am used outside my home state. My design and proportions are usually wrong but there is an unofficial guide on what I should be. In my original look I suffer from an optical illusion and have been changed to look slightly different. People think I only have two colours, I actually had two and one of the colours had a different shade thats how I looked originally. Lots of nationalities, including the English loved me. The English also hated me.
topaza
Keith Rogers
Not at all slow flow, but I think loamer's "what am I" will be around for a while.
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southern cross/ Eureka flag
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I am dead set a true Australian. I am reasonably recent history but now gone to god/
I was a catholic, smart at school in particular in French and economics.
I met and saw an American do his thing and it changed my life for ever .
I was a catholic, smart at school in particular in French and economics.
I met and saw an American do his thing and it changed my life for ever .
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