Alexander Crichton Mitchell
Alexander Crichton Mitchell FRSE | |
---|---|
Born | Keith Prize | 1 July 1864
Scientific career | |
Fields | Physics |
Institutions | Royal Navy |
Alexander Crichton Mitchell
Early life
Mitchell was born in Leith on 1 July 1864 to James Mitchell and Isabella Mitchell née Crichton. He studied physics at Edinburgh University and graduated with a Bachelor of Science. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1889. His proposers were Peter Guthrie Tait, Alexander Crum Brown, George Chrystal, and Sir Thomas Clark. He was elected a Fellow of the Scottish Meteorological Society in 1891.[1]
India
In 1890, he went to
By 1893 he became a Principal of the college and also served as Director of Public instruction in the State of Travancore. The work involved inspecting schools across the region which he did on motorcycle. He once had an accident in Mavelikkara at a place later known as Mitchell Junction. Resigning from the college in 1912, he returned to Scotland and became an Honorary Research Fellow at Edinburgh University.
Later work
During the First World War, German U-Boats were operational and a strategy was proposed to destroy the British Empire by blocking key ports such as the Firth of Forth. The Royal Society of Edinburgh set up a War Committee that discussed how science could be applied to defence. Mitchell visited the West Pier at Leith in June 1915 and on 1 August he tried a loop of wire at the end of Leith Pier and found that it could detect a passing trawler through the induced current. He later placed the loop horizontally on the harbour floor and found that it was too sensitive but could detect all passing ships. He solved the sensitivity problem by placing the loop in a figure of eight pattern.[2]
In 1916, he became the superintendent of the
In the 1920s he served on the Committee for the Air Council.[4]
He made important studies in terrestrial magnetism at Eskdalemuir Observatory in 1927.[5] A major publication of Mitchell's was a review and history of the study of terrestrial magnetism published in three parts.[6][7][8] His work on the diurnal incidence of disturbance in the geomagnetic field earned him the Keith Prize for 1931–33.[3]
He died in Edinburgh on 15 April 1952.[3]
References
- ^ ISBN 0-902-198-84-X. Archived from the original(PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 17 September 2017.
- ^ Walding, Richard (2009). "Bragg and Mitchell's antisubmarine loop" (PDF). Australian Physics. 46 (5): 140–145. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 February 2017. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
- ^ a b c d Watson, R.A. (1952). "Obituary: Dr Alexander Crichton Mitchell". The Meteorological Magazine. 81 (960): 189.
- ^ Office, Great Britain Meteorological (1925). Annual Report of the Meteorological Committee to the Air Council. H.M. Stationery Office.
- ^ Aeronomy, International Association of Geomagnetism and (1931). IAGA Bulletin. Hørsholm Bogtrykkeri.
- ISSN 0096-8013.
- ISSN 0096-8013.
- ISSN 0096-8013.