Hertha Marks Ayrton
| Hertha Marks Ayrton | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
28 April 1854 Portsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland |
| Died | 23 August 1923 (aged 69) Bexhill-on-sea, Sussex, United Kingdom |
| Other names | Phoebe Sarah Marks |
| Nationality | British |
| Fields | Engineer, mathematician, physicist, inventor |
| Alma mater | Girton College, Cambridge |
| Notable awards | Hughes Medal (1906) |
| Spouse | William Edward Ayrton |
| Children | Barbara Bodichon Ayrton |
Phoebe Sarah Hertha Ayrton (28 April 1854 – 23 August 1923), was a British engineer, mathematician, physicist and inventor. Known in adult life as Hertha Ayrton, born Phoebe Sarah Marks, she was awarded the Hughes Medal by the Royal Society for her work on electric arcs and ripples in sand and water.
Hertha Ayrton was born Phoebe Sarah Marks in Portsea, Hampshire, England, on 28 April 1854. She was the third child of a Polish Jewish watchmaker named Levi Marks, an immigrant from Tsarist Poland; and Alice Theresa Moss, a seamstress, the daughter of Joseph Moss, a glass merchant of Portsea. Her father died in 1861, leaving Sarah's mother with seven children and an eighth expected. Sarah then took up some of the responsibility for caring for the younger children.
At the age of nine, Sarah was invited by her aunts, who ran a school in northwest London, to live with her cousins and be educated with them. She was known to her peers and teachers as a fiery, occasionally crude personality. Her cousins introduced Ayrton to science and mathematics. By age 16, she was working as a governess.
Ayrton attended Girton College, Cambridge, where she studied mathematics and was coached by physicist Richard Glazebrook. George Eliot supported Ayrton's application to Girton College. During her time at Cambridge, Ayrton constructed a sphygmomanometer (blood pressure meter), led the choral society, founded the Girton fire brigade, and, together with Charlotte Scott, formed a mathematical club. In 1880, Ayrton passed the Mathematical Tripos, but Cambridge did not grant her an academic degree because, at the time, Cambridge gave only certificates and not full degrees to women. Ayrton passed an external examination at the University of London, which awarded her a Bachelor of Science degree in 1881.
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