C. T. R. Wilson
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Charles Thomson Rees Wilson (14 February 1869 – 15 November 1959) was a Scottish meteorologist and physicist who shared the 1927 Nobel Prize in Physics with Arthur Compton for his invention of the cloud chamber.<ref>Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, Isaac Asimov, 2nd ed., Doubleday & C., Inc., Template:ISBN.</ref><ref name="Nobel2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Education and early lifeEdit
Wilson was born in the parish of Glencorse, Midlothian to Annie Clark Harper and John Wilson, a sheep farmer. After his father died in 1873, he moved with his family to Manchester. With financial support from his step-brother he studied biology at Owens College, now the University of Manchester, with the intent of becoming a doctor. In 1887, he graduated from the college with a BSc. He won a scholarship to attend Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he became interested in physics and chemistry. In 1892 he received 1st class honours in both parts of the Natural Science Tripos.<ref name="ODNB">Template:Cite ODNB</ref><ref>Template:Acad</ref><ref name="Nobel Laureate">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
CareerEdit
He became particularly interested in meteorology, and in 1893 he began to study clouds and their properties. Beginning in 1894, he worked for some time at the observatory on Ben Nevis,<ref name="Origin and context">Template:Cite journal</ref> where he made observations of cloud formation. He was particularly fascinated by the appearance of glories.<ref name="Brocklehurst">Template:Cite news</ref> He then tried to reproduce this effect on a smaller scale at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, expanding humid air within a sealed container.
In 1895 he discovered that at a large enough expansion ratio supersaturated water vapour condensates even without dust which he removed by previous condensations, contrary to the previous research by John Aitken.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Under J. J. Thomson's mentorship by 1896 he found out that X-rays stimulate the condensation just as well as dust.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
He later experimented with the creation of cloud trails in his chamber by condensation onto ions generated by radioactivity. Several of his cloud chambers survive.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Wilson was made Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, and University Lecturer and Demonstrator in 1900.<ref name="Nobel2" /> He was known by some as a poor lecturer, due to a pronounced stutter,<ref name="Halliday">Template:Cite journal</ref> but he did teach a course on atmospheric electricity as a visiting lecturer at Imperial College London.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
In 1906 he hypothesized that cosmic radiation might generate the ions causing condensation without apparent reasons.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
ContributionsEdit
The invention of the cloud chamber was by far Wilson's signature accomplishment, earning him the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1927.<ref name="Nobel Laureate"/> The Cavendish laboratory praised him for the creation of "a novel and striking method of investigating the properties of ionized gases".<ref name="Collotype">Template:Cite book</ref> The cloud chamber allowed huge experimental leaps forward in the study of subatomic particles and the field of particle physics, generally. Some have credited Wilson with making the study of particles possible at all.<ref name="Brocklehurst" />
Wilson published numerous papers on meteorology and physics, on topics including X-rays,<ref name="Investigations">Template:Cite journal</ref> ionization,<ref name="Making Visible">Template:Cite journal</ref> thundercloud formation,<ref name="Theory of Thundercloud" /> and other meteorological events.<ref name="Brocklehurst" /> Wilson may also have observed a sprite in 1924, 65 years before their official discovery.<ref name="Bowler">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Weather was a focus of his work throughout his career, from his early observations at Ben Nevis to his final paper, on thunderclouds.<ref name="CTR Wilson">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Theory of Thundercloud" />
MethodEdit
Retrospectively, Wilson's experimental method has received some attention from scholars.
In a period of scientific inquiry characterized by a divide between "analytical" and "morphological" scientists, Wilson's method of inquiry represented a hybrid. While some scientists believed phenomena should be observed in pure nature, others proposed laboratory-controlled experiments as the premier method for inquiry. Wilson used a combination of methods in his experiments and investigations.<ref name="Gooding">Template:Cite book</ref> Wilson's work "made things visible whose properties had only previously been deduced indirectly".<ref name="Brocklehurst" />
He has been called "almost the last of the great individual experimenters in physics".<ref name="Halliday" /> He used his cloud chamber in various ways to demonstrate the operating principles of things like subatomic particles and X-rays.<ref name="Investigations" /><ref name="Making Visible" /> But his primary interest, and the subject of the bulk of his papers, was meteorology.<ref name="Gooding" />
Awards, honours and legacyEdit
Wilson was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1900.<ref name=frs>Template:Cite journal</ref>
For the invention of the cloud chamber he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1927.<ref name=Brocklehurst/><ref name="Nobel Laureate"/> He shared this prize with the American physicist Arthur Compton, rewarded for his work on the particle nature of radiation.<ref name="CTR Wilson"/> Despite Wilson's great contribution to particle physics, he remained interested in atmospheric physics, specifically atmospheric electricity, for his entire career.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Aplin">Template:Cite journal</ref> For example, his last research paper, published in 1956 when he was in his late eighties (at that time he was the oldest FRS to publish a paper in the Royal Society's journals), was on atmospheric electricity.<ref name="Theory of Thundercloud">Template:Cite journal</ref>
The Wilson crater on the Moon is named after him, Alexander Wilson and Ralph Elmer Wilson.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Wilson Condensation Cloud formations that occur after large explosions, such as nuclear detonations, are named after him.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The Wilson Society, the scientific society of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge is named in his honour,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> as is the CTR Wilson Institute for Atmospheric Electricity, the Atmospheric Electricity Special Interest Group of the Royal Meteorological Society.
The archives of C.T.R. Wilson are maintained by the Archives of the University of Glasgow.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
in 1996, a blue plaque in Wilson's honour was installed in a specially built cairn at Flotterstone, close to his birthplace at Crosshouse Farm.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In 2012, the Royal Society of Edinburgh held a meeting in honour of Wilson, the "Great Scottish Physicist".<ref name="Aplin" />
Personal lifeEdit
In 1908, Wilson married Jessie Fraser, the daughter of a minister from Glasgow. The couple had four children. His family knew him as patient and curious, and fond of taking walks in the hills near his home.<ref name="Bowler" /> He died at his home in Carlops on 15 November 1959, surrounded by his family.<ref name="ODNB" />
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
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- The Papers of C. T. R. Wilson held at Churchill Archives Centre
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Template:Copley Medallists 1901-1950 Template:Nobel Prize in Physics Laureates 1926-1950 Template:1927 Nobel Prize winners Template:Authority control