Robert Strutt
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The Lord Rayleigh FRS |
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|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
28 August 1875 Essex, England |
| Died | 13 December 1947 (aged 72) |
| Nationality | British |
| Fields |
Experimental physics Chemical physics |
| Institutions | Imperial College London |
| Education | Eton College |
| Alma mater | Trinity College, Cambridge |
| Known for |
Rayleigh Rayleigh scattering |
Robert John Strutt, 4th Baron Rayleigh FRS (28 August 1875 – 13 December 1947) was a British peer and physicist. He discovered "active nitrogen" and was the first to distinguish the glow of the night sky.
Strutt was born at Terling Place, the family home near Witham, Essex, the eldest son of John William Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh and his wife Evelyn Georgiana Mary (née Balfour). He was thus a nephew of Arthur Balfour and of Eleanor Mildred Sidgwick. He was educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he initially read mathematics, but changed after two terms to Natural Sciences. He became a research student in physics at the Cavendish Laboratory under J. J. Thomson, whose biography he subsequently wrote. His work at this time was on discharge of electricity through gases, including early work on x-rays and electrons. He wrote one of the first books on radioactivity, The Becquerel rays and the properties of radium (E. Arnold, 1904). He was awarded the Coutts Trotter studentship in 1898 and was a Fellow of Trinity College 1900–1906. He received his M.A. in 1901.
Strutt was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in May 1905 when his candidature citation read: "Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. As one who has made discoveries in Physics and as the author of the following papers: – 'On the Least Potential Difference required to Produce Discharge through Various Gases' (Phil Trans, vol cxciii, 1893); 'The Dispersion of the Cathode Rays by Magnetic Gases' (Phil Mag,, Nov 1899); 'The Discharge of Electricity through Argon and helium' (ibid, March 1900); 'The Behaviour of Becquerel and Rontgen Rays in a Magnetic Field' (Proc Roy Soc, vol lxvi); 'The Conductivity of Gases under Becquerel Rays' (Phil Trans, vol cxcvi, 1901); 'The Tendency of the Atomic Weights to Approximate to Whole Numbers' (Phil Mag,, March 1901); 'The Discharge of Positive Electrification by Hot Metals' (ibid, July 1902); 'Electrical Conductivity of Metals and their Vapours' (ibid, Nov 1902); 'Some Recent Investigations on Electrical Conduction' (Proc Roy Inst, April 1903); 'Preparation and Properties of an Intensely Radio-active Gas from Metallic Mercury' (Phil Mag, July 1903); 'Radio-activity of Ordinary Materials' (ibid, June 1903); 'Absorption of Light by Mercury and its Vapour' (ibid, July 1903); 'The Intensely Penetrating Rays of radium' (Proc Roy Soc, lxxii); 'Fluorescence of Crystals under Rontgen Rays' (Phil Mag, Aug 1903); 'An Experiment to Exhibit the Loss of Negative Electricity by Radium' (ibid, Nov 1903).. He delivered their Bakerian Lecture in 1911 and 1919. He was president of the British Association for the year 1937–1938.
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