Ralph Bagnold
Ralph Alger Bagnold OBE, KL | |
---|---|
Born | Plymouth, Devon, England | 3 April 1896
Died | 28 May 1990 | (aged 94)
Known for | desert exploration, aeolian research, founding Long Range Desert Group Bagnold number |
Spouse | Dorothy Alice Bagnold |
Military career | |
Service/ | British Army |
Years of service | 1915−1935, 1939-1944 |
Rank | Brigadier |
Service number | 10231 |
Unit | Royal Engineers Royal Corps of Signals |
Battles/wars | First World War Second World War |
Brigadier Ralph Alger Bagnold, OBE,[1] FRS,[2] (3 April 1896 – 28 May 1990) was an English 20th-century desert explorer, geologist and soldier.
Bagnold served in the First World War as an engineer in the British Army.
In 1932, he staged the first recorded East-to-West crossing of the Libyan Desert. His work in the field of Aeolian processes was the basis for the book The Physics of Blown Sand and Desert Dunes, establishing the discipline of aeolian geomorphology, combining field work observations, experiments and physical equations.[3] His work has been used by United States' space agency NASA in its study of the terrain of the planet Mars, the Bagnold Dunes on Mars' surface were named after him by the organisation.[4][5][6][7][8]
He returned to the forces in the
Early life
Bagnold was born in
After Malvern College, he attended the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. In 1915, Ralph Bagnold followed in his father's footsteps and was commissioned into the Royal Engineers, after having graduated from the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich.[9] He spent three years in
After the war Bagnold studied engineering at
Desert exploration
Bagnold and his travelling companions were early pioneers in the use of motor vehicles to explore the desert. In 1932 Bagnold explored the
over loose sand.In addition Bagnold is credited with devising a method of driving over the large sand dunes found in the "sand seas" of the
A recently discovered silent film documents Bagnold's explorations and is available via the British Film Institute.[13]
Second World War
Bagnold wrote, "Never in our peacetime travels had we imagined that war could ever reach the enormous empty solitudes of the inner desert, walled off by sheer distance, lack of water, and impassable seas of sand dunes. Little did we dream that any of the special equipment and techniques we had evolved for very long-distance travel, and for navigation, would ever be put to serious use."[citation needed]
On 10 June 1940 Italy declared war on the United Kingdom in alliance with
In October 1941 he was promoted to the post of Deputy Signal Officer-in-Chief Middle East, with the
On 7 June 1944 Bagnold retired from the British Army with the end of military operations in North Africa after the Axis powers' defeat in that theatre.[10] and returned to his scientific interests, being elected to a Fellowship of the Royal Society in the same year.[2]
Later work
After the war Bagnold continued to work in the field of the geological science, and he published academic papers into his nineties. He made significant contributions to the understanding of desert terrain such as sand
Death
In his final years, Bagnold lived in Edenbridge in the county of Kent in England. He died at Hither Green on 28 May 1990 at the age of 94.[20]
Personal life
Bagnold married Dorothy on 8 May 1946 at Rottingdean in East Sussex, and had a son and a daughter.[10]
Honours and awards
- Founder's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society, 1935[21]
- Officer of the Order of the British Empire8 July 1941
- Mentioned in Despatches2 January 1917, 1 September 1931, 30 December 1941
- Knight, Order of Leopold with palm (Belgium), 5 April 1919, etc.
List of publications
- Bagnold, R.A. 1931. Journeys in the Libyan Desert, 1929 and 1930. The Geographical Journal 78(1):13–39; (6):524–533.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1933. A further journey through the Libyan Desert. The Geographical Journal 82(2):103–129; (3):211–213, 226–235.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1935. The movement of desert sand. The Geographical Journal 85(4):342–365.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1935. Libyan Sands. London: Travel Book Club, 351 pp.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1936. The movement of desert sand. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A 157(892):594–620.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1937. The transport of sand by wind. The Geographical Journal 89(5):409–438.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1937. The size-grading of sand by wind. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A 163(913):250–264.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1938. Grain structure of sand dunes in relation to water content. Nature 142(3591):403–404.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1938. The measurement of sand storms. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A 167(929):282–290.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1939. A lost world refound. Scientific American 161(5, November):261–263.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1939. Committee on wave pressures: interim report on wave-pressure research. Journal of the Institution of Civil Engineers 12:201–226.
- Bagnold, R.A., Myers, O.H., Peel, R.F. and Winkler, H.A. 1939. An expedition to the Gilf Kebir and 'Uweinat, 1938. The Geographical Journal 93(4):281–313.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1940. Beach formation by waves: some model experiments in a wave tank. Journal of the Institute of Civil Engineers 15(5237):27–53.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1941. The Physics of Blown Sand and Desert Dunes. London: Methuen, 265 pp.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1945. Early days of the Long Range Desert Group. The Geographical Journal 105(1–2):30–42.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1946. Motion of waves in shallow water. Interaction between waves and sand bottoms. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A 187:1–18.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1947. Sand movement by waves: some small-scale experiments with sand of very low density. Journal of the Institute of Civil Engineers 27(5554):447–469.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1951. Measurement of very low velocities of water flow. Nature 167:1025–1027.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1951. The movement of a cohesionless granular bed by fluid flow over it. British Journal of Applied Physics 2(2):29–34.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1951. Some problems of desert physics. Bulletin de l'Institut Fouad premier du désert 1(2):27–34.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1951. The sand formations in southern Arabia. The Geographical Journal 117(1):78–86.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1953. Navigating ashore. Journal of the Institute of Navigation 6:184–193.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1953. Forme des dunes de sable et régime des vents. In: Actions éoliennes, phénomènes d'évaporation et d'hydrologie superficielle dans les régions arides, Centre national de la Recherche scientifique (CNRS), Paris, Colloques internationaux 35, pp. 23–32.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1953. The surface movement of blown sand in relation to meteorology. In: Desert Research, Proceedings of the International Symposium, Jerusalem, 7–14 May 1952, Research Council of Israel, Special Publication 2, pp. 89–93.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1954. Physical aspects of dry deserts. In: Cloudsley-Thompson, J.L. (ed). Biology of Deserts, Proceedings of a symposium held in London, 1952, Institute of Biology, London, pp. 7–12.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1954. Experiments on a gravity-free dispersion of large solid spheres in a Newtonian fluid under shear. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A 225(1160):49–63.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1955. Some flume experiments on large grains but little denser than the transporting fluid, and their implications. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers 4(3):174–205.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1956. The flow of cohesionless grains in fluids. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London A 249(964):235–297.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1960. The re-entrainment of settled dust. International Journal of Air Pollution 2(3):357–363.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1960. Some aspects of shape of river meanders. United States Geological Survey, Professional Paper 282-E, pp. 135–144.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1960. Sediment discharge and stream power; a preliminary announcement. US geol. Surv. Circular 421.
- Leopold, L.B., Bagnold, R.A., Wollman, M.G. and Brush, L.M. 1960. Flow resistance in sinuous or irregular channels. United States Geological Survey, Professional Paper 282-D, pp. 111–134.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1962. Saltation (air and water). In: Thewlis, J. (ed), Encyclopaedic dictionary of physics, Volume 6, Oxford: Pergamon Press, pp. 370–371.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1962. Transport of sand by wind. In: Thewlis, J. (ed), Encyclopaedic dictionary of physics, Volume 7, Oxford: Pergamon Press, pp. 436–440.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1962. Auto-suspension of transported sediment; turbidity currents. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A 265:315–319.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1963. Beach and nearshore processes – Part 1, Mechanics of marine sedimentation. In: Hill, M.N. (ed.), The sea – ideas and observations on progress in the study of the sea. New York and London: Interscience Wiley, vol. 3, pp. 507–528.
- Inman, D.L. and Bagnold, R.A. 1963. Beach and nearshore processes – Part 2, Littoral processes. In: Hill, M.N. (ed), The sea – ideas and observations on progress in the study of the sea. New York and London: Interscience Wiley, vol. 3, pp. 529–553.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1966. The shearing and dilation of dry sand and the "singing" mechanism. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A 295(1442):219–232.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1966. An approach to the sediment transport problem from general physics. United States Department of the Interior, US Geological Survey, Professional Paper 422-I, 37 pp.
- Smith, W.O., Olsen, H.W., Bagnold, R.A. and Rice, J.C. 1966. Certain flows of air and water in sands during infiltrations. Soil Science 101(6):441–449.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1968. Deposition in the process of hydraulic transport. Sedimentology 10(1):45–56.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1971. Response to presentation of the 1970 Penrose Medal. Geological Society of America Bulletin 82:xiii-xvii.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1971. Singing sands. In: Thewlis, J. (ed), Encyclopaedic dictionary of physics, Volume 4, Oxford: Pergamon Press, pp. 408–410.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1973. The nature of saltation and of "bed-load" transport in water. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A 332(1591):473–504.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1974. Fluid forces on a body in shear-flow: Experimental use of 'stationary flow'. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A 340(1621):147–171.
- Sagan, C. and Bagnold, R.A. 1975. Fluid transport on Earth and aeolian transport on Mars. Icarus 26(2):209–218.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1977. Bed load transport by natural rivers. Water Resources Research 13:303–312.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1979. Sediment transport by wind and water. Nordic Hydrology 10(5):309–322.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1980. An empirical correlation of bedload transport rates in flumes and natural rivers. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A 372(1751):453–473.
- Bagnold, R.A. and Barndorff-Nielsen, O.E. 1980. The pattern of natural size distributions. Sedimentology 27(2):199–207.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1983. The nature and correlation of random distributions. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A 388(1795):273–291.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1985. Transport of granular solids by wind and water compared. In: Barndorff-Nielsen, O., Møller, J.-T., Rasmussen, K.R. and Willetts, B.B. (eds), Proceedings of the International Workshop on the Physics of Blown Sand, 28–31 May, University of Aarhus, Department of Theoretical Statistics, Institute of Mathematics, Memoir 8, pp. 1–8.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1986. Transport of solids by natural water flow: evidence for a worldwide correlation. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A 405(1829):369–374.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1988 Concluding remarks. In: Thorne, C.R., MacArthur R.C. and Bradley, J.B. (eds), The Physics of Sediment Transport, A Collection of Hallmark Papers by R. A. Bagnold. New York: American Society of Civil Engineers, Hydraulics Division, Book number 665, pp. 352–353.
- Bagnold, R.A. 1990. Sand, Wind, and War; Memoirs of a Desert Explorer. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, ISBN 978-0-8165-1211-9, 202 pp.
See also
- Aeolian processes
- Bagnold formula
- Bagnold number
- Bill Kennedy Shaw
- Guy Lenox Prendergast
- Pat Clayton
References
- ^ Documents online: Ralph Alger Bagnold's OBE, awarded 8 July 1941. The National Archives. Retrieved 22 May 2010.
- ^ S2CID 72031353.
- ISBN 978-94-009-5684-1. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
- ^ Bashir, Hira (12 December 2015). "NASA's Curiosity Rover Studies Mars Sand Dunes for the First Time". I4U News. Retrieved 21 December 2015.
- ISSN 2169-9097.
- ISSN 2169-9097.
- ISSN 0094-8276.
- ^ O'Connell-Cooper, Catherine. "Recap of the Bagnold Dune Investigation". NASA Mars Exploration. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
- ^ "No. 29063". The London Gazette. 9 February 1915. p. 1329.
- ^ a b c d e Houterman, Hans; Koppes, Jeroen. "British Army Officers – 1939–1945: Babbage, C.A.E. to Bartlett, W.J.O." World War II Unit Histories. Retrieved 12 December 2010.
- ^ Archäologie, Akademie der Wissenschaften der DDR. Zentralinstitut für Alte Geschichte und (1977). The Archaeological Map of the Sudan. Akademie-Verlag. p. 26.
- ^ "Libyan Sands". Travels in a Dead World. Eland Books. Retrieved 12 September 2016.
- ^ "Watch Libyan Desert - Bagnold". BFI Player. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
- ^ Dodds, Ruary Mackenzie (26 July 2022), The missing months of a modest man: Colonel Ralph Bagnold – October 1941 to March 1942, Churchill College, Cambridge, retrieved 22 February 2022
- ^ Diary, 1939-08 - 1944-05, The Papers of Brigadier Ralph Alger Bagnold. Churchill Archives Centre, University of Cambridge. Retrieved 22 February 2022.
- ^ "G.K. Warren Prize". Awards. National Academy of Sciences. Archived from the original on 19 August 2007. Retrieved 4 June 2007.
- ^ "Wollaston Medal". Award winners since 1831. The Geological Society. Archived from the original on 19 August 2010. Retrieved 8 March 2008.
- ^ Warren, A (1990). "Obituary: Brigadier R. A. Bagnold 1896–1990". Geographical Journal. 156 (3): 353–354.
- ^ "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter B" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 5 May 2011.
- ^ Obituary for Ralph Bagnold, 'Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society', Vol.37, November 1991.
- ^ "List of Past Gold Medal Winners" (PDF). Royal Geographical Society. Retrieved 24 August 2015.