Oliver Joseph Lodge
Encyclopedia
Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge, FRS (12 June 1851 – 22 August 1940) was a British
physicist
and writer involved in the development of key patents in wireless
telegraphy. In his 1894 Royal Institution
lectures ("The Work of Hertz
and Some of His Successors"), Lodge coined the term "coherer
" for the device developed by French physicist Édouard Branly
based on the work of Italian physicist Temistocle Calzecchi Onesti. In 1898 he was awarded the "syntonic
" (or tuning) patent by the United States Patent Office. He was also credited by Lorentz
(1895) with the first published description of the length contraction
hypothesis, in 1893, though in fact Lodge's friend George Francis FitzGerald had first suggested the idea in print in 1889.
in what is now Stoke-on-Trent
, and educated at Adams' Grammar School
. He was the eldest of eight sons and a daughter of Oliver Lodge (1826–1884) - later a ball clay
merchant at Wolstanton
, Staffordshire
- and his wife, Grace, née Heath (1826–1879). Sir Oliver's siblings included Sir Richard Lodge (1855–1936), historian; Eleanor Constance Lodge
(1869–1936), historian and principal of Westfield College
, London; and Alfred Lodge (1854–1937), mathematician.
In 1865, Lodge, at the age of 14, entered his father's business (Oliver Lodge & Son) as an agent for B. Fayle & Co selling Purbeck blue clay to the potteries, travelling as far as Scotland. He continued to assist his father until he reached the age of 22. His father's wealth obtained from selling Purbeck ball clay enabled Lodge to attend physics lectures in London and attend the local Wedgwood Institute.
Lodge obtained a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of London
in 1875 and a Doctor of Science in 1877. He was appointed professor of physics and mathematics at University College, Liverpool in 1881. In 1900 Lodge moved from Liverpool back to the Midlands and became the first principal of the new Birmingham University, remaining there until his retirement in 1919. He oversaw the start of the move of the university from Edmund Street in the city centre to its present Edgbaston
campus. Lodge was awarded the Rumford Medal
of the Royal Society
in 1898 and was knighted by King Edward VII in 1902. In 1928 he was made Freeman
of his native city, Stoke-on-Trent.
Lodge married Mary Fanny Alexander Marshall at St George's church, Newcastle-under-Lyme
in 1877. They had twelve children, six boys and six girls: Oliver William Foster
(1878–1955), Francis Brodie (1880–1967), Alec
(1881–1938), Lionel (1883–1948), Noel (1885–1962), Violet (1888–1924), Raymond (1889–1915), Honor (1891–1979), Lorna (1892–1987), Norah (1894–1990), Barbara (1896–1983), and Rosalynde (1896–1983). Four of his sons went into business using Lodge's inventions. Brodie and Alec created the Lodge Plug Company, which manufactured sparking plug
s for cars and aeroplanes. Lionel and Noel founded a company that produced an electrostatic device for cleaning factory and smelter smoke in 1913, called the Lodge Fume Deposit Company Limited (changed in 1919 to Lodge Fume Company Limited and in 1922, through agreement with the International Precipitation Corporation of California, to Lodge Cottrell Ltd
). Oliver
, the eldest son, became a poet and author.
After his retirement in 1920, Sir Oliver and Lady Lodge settled in Normanton House, near Lake in Wiltshire
, just a few miles from Stonehenge
. Lodge and his wife are buried at St. Michael’s Church, Wilsford
(Lake), Wiltshire. Their eldest son Oliver
and eldest daughter Violet are buried at the same church.
"Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism" appeared in 1873 and by 1876 Lodge was studying it intently. But he was fairly limited in mathematical physics both by aptitude and training and his first two papers were a description of a mechanism (of beaded strings and pulleys) that could serve to illustrate electrical phenomena such as conduction and polarization. Indeed, Lodge is probably best known for his advocacy and elaboration of Maxwell's aether
theory - a later deprecated model postulating a wave-bearing medium filling all space. He explained his views on the aether in "Modern Views of Electricity" (1889) and continued to defend those ideas well into the twentieth century ("Ether and Reality", 1925).
As early as 1879 Lodge became interested in generating (and detecting) electromagnetic waves, something Maxwell had never considered. This interest continued throughout the 1880s but three obstacles slowed Lodge's progress. First, he thought in terms of generating light waves with their very high frequencies rather than radio waves with their much lower frequencies. Second, his good friend George FitzGerald
(on whom Lodge depended for theoretical guidance) assured him (incorrectly) that "ether waves could not be generated electromagnetically.". FitzGerald later corrected his error but by 1881 Lodge had assumed a teaching position at University College, Liverpool the demands of which limited his time and his energy for research. And so it was Heinrich Hertz in Germany who was the first to demonstrate the transmission of electromagnetic waves in 1888.
On 14 August 1894, at a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science
at Oxford University, Lodge gave a lecture on the work of Hertz (recently deceased) and transmitted radio signals to demonstrate their potential for communication. This was one year before Marconi
but one year after Tesla
did the same thing. On June 25, 1995, the Royal Society recognized this scientific achievement at a special ceremony at Oxford University. In 1894 he attempted to detect radio emission from the Sun
, but his apparatus was not sensitive enough and the experiment would have been ruined by electrical interference from Liverpool
in any case.
Lodge improved Edouard Branly
's coherer radio wave detector by adding a "trembler" which dislodged clumped filings, thus restoring the device's sensitivity. He worked with Alexander Muirhead
on the development of wireless telegraphy, selling their patents to Marconi
in 1912. Lodge also carried out scientific investigations on lightning
, the source of the electromotive force in the voltaic cell, electrolysis
, and the application of electricity
to the dispersal of fog and smoke.
Lodge also made a major contribution to motoring when he patented a form of electric spark ignition for the internal combustion engine (the Lodge Igniter). Later, two of his sons developed his ideas and in 1903 founded Lodge Bros, which eventually became known as Lodge Plugs Ltd. He also made discoveries in the field of wireless transmission. In 1898, Lodge gained a patent on the moving-coil loudspeaker
, utilizing a coil connected to a diaphragm, suspended in a strong magnetic field. His "syntonic" tuner patent allowed the frequency of transmitter and receiver to be "verified with ease and certainty". This was a basic patent in the industry, unusually recognized as such when extended, and purchased and used by the Marconi Company.
In political life, Lodge was an active member of the Fabian Society
and published two Fabian Tracts: Socialism & Individualism (1905) and co-authored Public Service versus Private Expenditure with Sidney Webb, George Bernard Shaw
and Sidney Ball. They invited him several times to lecture at the London School of Economics
.
Lodge is also remembered for his studies of life after death. He first began to study psychical phenomena (chiefly telepathy
) in the late 1880s, was a member of the Ghost Club and served as president of the London-based Society for Psychical Research
from 1901 to 1903. After his son, Raymond, was killed in World War I
in 1915, Lodge visited several mediums and wrote about the experience in a number of books, including the best-selling "Raymond, or Life and Death" (1916). The parallel with fellow Ghost Club member Arthur Conan Doyle
, who also lost a son in World War I and turned to spiritualism is striking. Altogether, Lodge wrote more than 40 books, about the afterlife
, aether
, relativity
, and electromagnetic
theory.
In 1889 Lodge was appointed President of the Liverpool Physical Society
, a position he held until 1893. The society still runs to this day, though under a student body.
wrote:
Always an impressive figure, tall and slender with a pleasing voice and charming manner, he enjoyed the affection and respect of a very large circle…
Lodge’s gifts as an expounder of knowledge were of a high order, and few scientific men have been able to set forth abstruse facts in a more lucid or engaging form… Those who heard him on a great occasion, as when he gave his Romanes lecture
at Oxford or his British Association presidential address at Birmingham, were charmed by his alluring personality as well as impressed by the orderly development of his thesis
. But he was even better in informal debate, and when he rose, the audience, however perplexed or jaded, settled down in a pleased expectation that was never disappointed.
Oliver Lodge Primary School in Vanderbijlpark, South Africa
is named in his honour.
and University of Liverpool
and others at the Society for Psychical Research
and the University College London
. Lodge was long-lived and a prolific letter writer and other letters of his survive in the personal papers of other individuals and several other universities and other institutions. Among the known collections of his papers are the following:
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
physicist
Physicist
A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
and writer involved in the development of key patents in wireless
Wireless
Wireless telecommunications is the transfer of information between two or more points that are not physically connected. Distances can be short, such as a few meters for television remote control, or as far as thousands or even millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications...
telegraphy. In his 1894 Royal Institution
Royal Institution
The Royal Institution of Great Britain is an organization devoted to scientific education and research, based in London.-Overview:...
lectures ("The Work of Hertz
Heinrich Rudolf Hertz
Heinrich Rudolf Hertz was a German physicist who clarified and expanded the electromagnetic theory of light that had been put forth by Maxwell...
and Some of His Successors"), Lodge coined the term "coherer
Coherer
The coherer was a primitive form of radio signal detector used in the first radio receivers during the wireless telegraphy era at the beginning of the twentieth century. Invented around 1890 by French scientist Édouard Branly, it consisted of a tube or capsule containing two electrodes spaced a...
" for the device developed by French physicist Édouard Branly
Edouard Branly
Édouard Eugène Désiré Branly was a French inventor, physicist and professor at the Institut Catholique de Paris. He is primarily known for his early involvement in wireless telegraphy and his invention of the Branly coherer around 1890.-Biography:The coherer was the first widely used detector for...
based on the work of Italian physicist Temistocle Calzecchi Onesti. In 1898 he was awarded the "syntonic
Tuner
Tuner may refer to someone or something which adjusts or configures a mechanical, electronic, or musical device.- Electronic :* Antenna tuner, a device to adjust the resonance frequency of an antenna or transmission line...
" (or tuning) patent by the United States Patent Office. He was also credited by Lorentz
Hendrik Lorentz
Hendrik Antoon Lorentz was a Dutch physicist who shared the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physics with Pieter Zeeman for the discovery and theoretical explanation of the Zeeman effect...
(1895) with the first published description of the length contraction
Length contraction
In physics, length contraction – according to Hendrik Lorentz – is the physical phenomenon of a decrease in length detected by an observer of objects that travel at any non-zero velocity relative to that observer...
hypothesis, in 1893, though in fact Lodge's friend George Francis FitzGerald had first suggested the idea in print in 1889.
Life
Oliver Lodge was born in 1851 at PenkhullPenkhull
Penkhull is a township within Stoke-upon-Trent in the city of Stoke-on-Trent in the English county of Staffordshire. The Domesday Book records it as two hides of land in the Hundred of Pirehill and that it was held by Earl Algar....
in what is now Stoke-on-Trent
Stoke-on-Trent
Stoke-on-Trent , also called The Potteries is a city in Staffordshire, England, which forms a linear conurbation almost 12 miles long, with an area of . Together with the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme Stoke forms The Potteries Urban Area...
, and educated at Adams' Grammar School
Adams' Grammar School
Adams' Grammar School is a selective state grammar school in Newport, Shropshire, rated by the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills as a Grade 1 outstanding school , the latest OFSTED report concludes "this is a truly impressive school"...
. He was the eldest of eight sons and a daughter of Oliver Lodge (1826–1884) - later a ball clay
Ball clay
Ball clays are kaolinitic sedimentary clays, that commonly consist of 20-80% kaolinite, 10-25% mica, 6-65% quartz. Localized seams in the same deposit have variations in composition, including the quantity of the major minerals, accessory minerals and carbonaceous materials such as lignite...
merchant at Wolstanton
Wolstanton
Wolstanton is a suburban area on the outskirts of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire.-History:Historically, Wolstanton was a place in its own right. It is mentioned in the Domesday book where it is listed amongst the lands belonging to the King. The land consisted of work for 2 ploughs, 14...
, Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
- and his wife, Grace, née Heath (1826–1879). Sir Oliver's siblings included Sir Richard Lodge (1855–1936), historian; Eleanor Constance Lodge
Eleanor Constance Lodge
Eleanor Constance Lodge, CBE, was born on 18 September 1869 at Hanley, Staffordshire. She was Vice-Principal of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford from 1890 to 1921 and then Principal of Westfield College, Hampstead, in the University of London from 1921 to 1931...
(1869–1936), historian and principal of Westfield College
Westfield College
Westfield College was a small college situated in Kidderpore Avenue, Hampstead, London, and was a constituent college of the University of London from 1882 to 1989. The college originally admitted only women as students and became coeducational in 1964. In 1989, Westfield College merged with Queen...
, London; and Alfred Lodge (1854–1937), mathematician.
In 1865, Lodge, at the age of 14, entered his father's business (Oliver Lodge & Son) as an agent for B. Fayle & Co selling Purbeck blue clay to the potteries, travelling as far as Scotland. He continued to assist his father until he reached the age of 22. His father's wealth obtained from selling Purbeck ball clay enabled Lodge to attend physics lectures in London and attend the local Wedgwood Institute.
Lodge obtained a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
in 1875 and a Doctor of Science in 1877. He was appointed professor of physics and mathematics at University College, Liverpool in 1881. In 1900 Lodge moved from Liverpool back to the Midlands and became the first principal of the new Birmingham University, remaining there until his retirement in 1919. He oversaw the start of the move of the university from Edmund Street in the city centre to its present Edgbaston
Edgbaston
Edgbaston is an area in the city of Birmingham in England. It is also a formal district, managed by its own district committee. The constituency includes the smaller Edgbaston ward and the wards of Bartley Green, Harborne and Quinton....
campus. Lodge was awarded the Rumford Medal
Rumford Medal
The Rumford Medal is awarded by the Royal Society every alternating year for "an outstandingly important recent discovery in the field of thermal or optical properties of matter made by a scientist working in Europe". First awarded in 1800, it was created after a 1796 donation of $5000 by the...
of the Royal Society
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
in 1898 and was knighted by King Edward VII in 1902. In 1928 he was made Freeman
Freedom of the City
Freedom of the City is an honour bestowed by some municipalities in Australia, Canada, Ireland, France, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, the United Kingdom, Gibraltar and Rhodesia to esteemed members of its community and to organisations to be honoured, often for service to the community;...
of his native city, Stoke-on-Trent.
Lodge married Mary Fanny Alexander Marshall at St George's church, Newcastle-under-Lyme
Newcastle-under-Lyme
Newcastle-under-Lyme is a market town in Staffordshire, England, and is the principal town of the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme. It is part of The Potteries Urban Area and North Staffordshire. In the 2001 census the town had a population of 73,944...
in 1877. They had twelve children, six boys and six girls: Oliver William Foster
Oliver W F Lodge
Oliver William Foster Lodge , was a poet and author; he was the eldest son of Sir Oliver Lodge , the physicist, and his wife Mary , who had studied painting at the Slade...
(1878–1955), Francis Brodie (1880–1967), Alec
Alexander Lodge
Alexander Marshall Lodge was an English inventor who did early work and held some patents on the spark plug. He and his brother Brodie founded a company, Lodge Bros, in 1903 - which eventually, following a merger with the Mascot Company in 1913, was renamed Lodge Plugs Ltd; it was based in...
(1881–1938), Lionel (1883–1948), Noel (1885–1962), Violet (1888–1924), Raymond (1889–1915), Honor (1891–1979), Lorna (1892–1987), Norah (1894–1990), Barbara (1896–1983), and Rosalynde (1896–1983). Four of his sons went into business using Lodge's inventions. Brodie and Alec created the Lodge Plug Company, which manufactured sparking plug
Spark plug
A spark plug is an electrical device that fits into the cylinder head of some internal combustion engines and ignites compressed fuels such as aerosol, gasoline, ethanol, and liquefied petroleum gas by means of an electric spark.Spark plugs have an insulated central electrode which is connected by...
s for cars and aeroplanes. Lionel and Noel founded a company that produced an electrostatic device for cleaning factory and smelter smoke in 1913, called the Lodge Fume Deposit Company Limited (changed in 1919 to Lodge Fume Company Limited and in 1922, through agreement with the International Precipitation Corporation of California, to Lodge Cottrell Ltd
Lodge Cottrell Ltd
Lodge Cottrell Ltd. is a supplier of environmental air pollution control equipment for the power generation industry and other industrial process applications, with over 4,500 installations world-wide. It has facilities in Birmingham, England and Houston, Texas, United States, and operates through...
). Oliver
Oliver W F Lodge
Oliver William Foster Lodge , was a poet and author; he was the eldest son of Sir Oliver Lodge , the physicist, and his wife Mary , who had studied painting at the Slade...
, the eldest son, became a poet and author.
After his retirement in 1920, Sir Oliver and Lady Lodge settled in Normanton House, near Lake in Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
, just a few miles from Stonehenge
Stonehenge
Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument located in the English county of Wiltshire, about west of Amesbury and north of Salisbury. One of the most famous sites in the world, Stonehenge is composed of a circular setting of large standing stones set within earthworks...
. Lodge and his wife are buried at St. Michael’s Church, Wilsford
Wilsford, Wiltshire
Wilsford is a village and civil parish in the Vale of Pewsey in the English county of Wiltshire-Local government:Wilsford is grouped with nearby Charlton, Kennet, the two together have an elected parish council...
(Lake), Wiltshire. Their eldest son Oliver
Oliver W F Lodge
Oliver William Foster Lodge , was a poet and author; he was the eldest son of Sir Oliver Lodge , the physicist, and his wife Mary , who had studied painting at the Slade...
and eldest daughter Violet are buried at the same church.
Accomplishments
Maxwell'sJames Clerk Maxwell
James Clerk Maxwell of Glenlair was a Scottish physicist and mathematician. His most prominent achievement was formulating classical electromagnetic theory. This united all previously unrelated observations, experiments and equations of electricity, magnetism and optics into a consistent theory...
"Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism" appeared in 1873 and by 1876 Lodge was studying it intently. But he was fairly limited in mathematical physics both by aptitude and training and his first two papers were a description of a mechanism (of beaded strings and pulleys) that could serve to illustrate electrical phenomena such as conduction and polarization. Indeed, Lodge is probably best known for his advocacy and elaboration of Maxwell's aether
Luminiferous aether
In the late 19th century, luminiferous aether or ether, meaning light-bearing aether, was the term used to describe a medium for the propagation of light....
theory - a later deprecated model postulating a wave-bearing medium filling all space. He explained his views on the aether in "Modern Views of Electricity" (1889) and continued to defend those ideas well into the twentieth century ("Ether and Reality", 1925).
As early as 1879 Lodge became interested in generating (and detecting) electromagnetic waves, something Maxwell had never considered. This interest continued throughout the 1880s but three obstacles slowed Lodge's progress. First, he thought in terms of generating light waves with their very high frequencies rather than radio waves with their much lower frequencies. Second, his good friend George FitzGerald
George FitzGerald
George Francis FitzGerald was an Irish professor of "natural and experimental philosophy" at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, during the last quarter of the 19th century....
(on whom Lodge depended for theoretical guidance) assured him (incorrectly) that "ether waves could not be generated electromagnetically.". FitzGerald later corrected his error but by 1881 Lodge had assumed a teaching position at University College, Liverpool the demands of which limited his time and his energy for research. And so it was Heinrich Hertz in Germany who was the first to demonstrate the transmission of electromagnetic waves in 1888.
On 14 August 1894, at a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science
British Association for the Advancement of Science
frame|right|"The BA" logoThe British Association for the Advancement of Science or the British Science Association, formerly known as the BA, is a learned society with the object of promoting science, directing general attention to scientific matters, and facilitating interaction between...
at Oxford University, Lodge gave a lecture on the work of Hertz (recently deceased) and transmitted radio signals to demonstrate their potential for communication. This was one year before Marconi
Guglielmo Marconi
Guglielmo Marconi was an Italian inventor, known as the father of long distance radio transmission and for his development of Marconi's law and a radio telegraph system. Marconi is often credited as the inventor of radio, and indeed he shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand...
but one year after Tesla
Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor, mechanical engineer, and electrical engineer...
did the same thing. On June 25, 1995, the Royal Society recognized this scientific achievement at a special ceremony at Oxford University. In 1894 he attempted to detect radio emission from the Sun
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...
, but his apparatus was not sensitive enough and the experiment would have been ruined by electrical interference from Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
in any case.
Lodge improved Edouard Branly
Edouard Branly
Édouard Eugène Désiré Branly was a French inventor, physicist and professor at the Institut Catholique de Paris. He is primarily known for his early involvement in wireless telegraphy and his invention of the Branly coherer around 1890.-Biography:The coherer was the first widely used detector for...
's coherer radio wave detector by adding a "trembler" which dislodged clumped filings, thus restoring the device's sensitivity. He worked with Alexander Muirhead
Alexander Muirhead
Alexander Muirhead, FRS, born in East Saltoun, East Lothian, Scotland was an electrical engineer specialising in wireless telegraphy.-Biography:...
on the development of wireless telegraphy, selling their patents to Marconi
Guglielmo Marconi
Guglielmo Marconi was an Italian inventor, known as the father of long distance radio transmission and for his development of Marconi's law and a radio telegraph system. Marconi is often credited as the inventor of radio, and indeed he shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand...
in 1912. Lodge also carried out scientific investigations on lightning
Lightning
Lightning is an atmospheric electrostatic discharge accompanied by thunder, which typically occurs during thunderstorms, and sometimes during volcanic eruptions or dust storms...
, the source of the electromotive force in the voltaic cell, electrolysis
Electrolysis
In chemistry and manufacturing, electrolysis is a method of using a direct electric current to drive an otherwise non-spontaneous chemical reaction...
, and the application of electricity
Electricity
Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...
to the dispersal of fog and smoke.
Loudspeaker
A loudspeaker is an electroacoustic transducer that produces sound in response to an electrical audio signal input. Non-electrical loudspeakers were developed as accessories to telephone systems, but electronic amplification by vacuum tube made loudspeakers more generally useful...
, utilizing a coil connected to a diaphragm, suspended in a strong magnetic field. His "syntonic" tuner patent allowed the frequency of transmitter and receiver to be "verified with ease and certainty". This was a basic patent in the industry, unusually recognized as such when extended, and purchased and used by the Marconi Company.
In political life, Lodge was an active member of the Fabian Society
Fabian Society
The Fabian Society is a British socialist movement, whose purpose is to advance the principles of democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist, rather than revolutionary, means. It is best known for its initial ground-breaking work beginning late in the 19th century and continuing up to World...
and published two Fabian Tracts: Socialism & Individualism (1905) and co-authored Public Service versus Private Expenditure with Sidney Webb, George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
and Sidney Ball. They invited him several times to lecture at the London School of Economics
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
.
Lodge is also remembered for his studies of life after death. He first began to study psychical phenomena (chiefly telepathy
Telepathy
Telepathy , is the induction of mental states from one mind to another. The term was coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Fredric W. H. Myers, a founder of the Society for Psychical Research, and has remained more popular than the more-correct expression thought-transference...
) in the late 1880s, was a member of the Ghost Club and served as president of the London-based Society for Psychical Research
Society for Psychical Research
The Society for Psychical Research is a non-profit organisation in the United Kingdom. Its stated purpose is to understand "events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal by promoting and supporting important research in this area" and to "examine allegedly paranormal phenomena...
from 1901 to 1903. After his son, Raymond, was killed in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
in 1915, Lodge visited several mediums and wrote about the experience in a number of books, including the best-selling "Raymond, or Life and Death" (1916). The parallel with fellow Ghost Club member Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...
, who also lost a son in World War I and turned to spiritualism is striking. Altogether, Lodge wrote more than 40 books, about the afterlife
Afterlife
The afterlife is the belief that a part of, or essence of, or soul of an individual, which carries with it and confers personal identity, survives the death of the body of this world and this lifetime, by natural or supernatural means, in contrast to the belief in eternal...
, aether
Aether theories
Aether theories in early modern physics proposed the existence of a medium, the aether , a space-filling substance or field, thought to be necessary as a transmission medium for the propagation of electromagnetic waves...
, relativity
Theory of relativity
The theory of relativity, or simply relativity, encompasses two theories of Albert Einstein: special relativity and general relativity. However, the word relativity is sometimes used in reference to Galilean invariance....
, and electromagnetic
Electromagnetism
Electromagnetism is one of the four fundamental interactions in nature. The other three are the strong interaction, the weak interaction and gravitation...
theory.
In 1889 Lodge was appointed President of the Liverpool Physical Society
Liverpool Physical Society
The Liverpool Physical Society was founded in 1889. The society now runs under a student body through the University of Liverpool's Guild of Students....
, a position he held until 1893. The society still runs to this day, though under a student body.
Tributes
The author of his obituary in The TimesThe Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
wrote:
Always an impressive figure, tall and slender with a pleasing voice and charming manner, he enjoyed the affection and respect of a very large circle…
Lodge’s gifts as an expounder of knowledge were of a high order, and few scientific men have been able to set forth abstruse facts in a more lucid or engaging form… Those who heard him on a great occasion, as when he gave his Romanes lecture
Romanes Lecture
The Romanes Lecture is a prestigious free public lecture given annually at the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, England.The lecture series was founded by, and named after, the biologist George Romanes, and has been running since 1892. Over the years, many notable figures from the Arts and Sciences have...
at Oxford or his British Association presidential address at Birmingham, were charmed by his alluring personality as well as impressed by the orderly development of his thesis
Thesis
A dissertation or thesis is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings...
. But he was even better in informal debate, and when he rose, the audience, however perplexed or jaded, settled down in a pleased expectation that was never disappointed.
Oliver Lodge Primary School in Vanderbijlpark, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
is named in his honour.
Historical records
Sir Oliver Lodge's letters and papers were divided after his death. Some were deposited at the University of BirminghamUniversity of Birmingham
The University of Birmingham is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Birmingham Medical School and Mason Science College . Birmingham was the first Redbrick university to gain a charter and thus...
and University of Liverpool
University of Liverpool
The University of Liverpool is a teaching and research university in the city of Liverpool, England. It is a member of the Russell Group of large research-intensive universities and the N8 Group for research collaboration. Founded in 1881 , it is also one of the six original "red brick" civic...
and others at the Society for Psychical Research
Society for Psychical Research
The Society for Psychical Research is a non-profit organisation in the United Kingdom. Its stated purpose is to understand "events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal by promoting and supporting important research in this area" and to "examine allegedly paranormal phenomena...
and the University College London
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...
. Lodge was long-lived and a prolific letter writer and other letters of his survive in the personal papers of other individuals and several other universities and other institutions. Among the known collections of his papers are the following:
- The University of BirminghamUniversity of BirminghamThe University of Birmingham is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Birmingham Medical School and Mason Science College . Birmingham was the first Redbrick university to gain a charter and thus...
Special Collections holds over 2000 items of Sir Oliver's correspondence relating to family, co-workers at Birmingham and Liverpool Universities and also from numerous religious, political and literary figures. The collection also includes a number of Lodge's diaries, photographs and newscuttings relating to his scientific research and scripts of his published work. There are also an additional 212 letters of Sir Oliver Lodge which have been acquired over the years (1881–1939).
- The University of LiverpoolUniversity of LiverpoolThe University of Liverpool is a teaching and research university in the city of Liverpool, England. It is a member of the Russell Group of large research-intensive universities and the N8 Group for research collaboration. Founded in 1881 , it is also one of the six original "red brick" civic...
holds some notebooks and letters of Oliver Lodge and also has a laboratory named after him, the main administrative centre of the Physics Department where the majority of lecturers and researchers have their offices.
- University College LondonUniversity College LondonUniversity College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...
Special Collections hold 1991 items of Sir Oliver Lodge's correspondence between 1871 and 1938.
- The Society for Psychical ResearchSociety for Psychical ResearchThe Society for Psychical Research is a non-profit organisation in the United Kingdom. Its stated purpose is to understand "events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal by promoting and supporting important research in this area" and to "examine allegedly paranormal phenomena...
holds 2710 letters written to Oliver Lodge.
- Devon Records Office holds Lodge's letters to Sir Thomas AclandSir Thomas Dyke Acland, 12th BaronetSir Charles Thomas Dyke Acland, 12th Baronet DL, JP was a British politician and Barrister-at-Law.Born in Queen Anne Street in London, he was the son of Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, 11th Baronet and Mary Mordaunt...
(1907–1908).
- The University of GlasgowUniversity of GlasgowThe University of Glasgow is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities. Located in Glasgow, the university was founded in 1451 and is presently one of seventeen British higher education institutions ranked amongst the top 100 of the...
Library holds Sir Oliver's letters to William Macneile DixonWilliam Macneile DixonWilliam Macneile Dixon was a British author and academic.Dixon was born in India, the only son of the Reverend William Dixon. He studied at Trinity College, Dublin, where he was twice Vice-Chancellor's Prizeman in English verse, Downes' Prizeman, and Elrington Prizeman, and graduated First-Class,...
(1900–1938).
- The University of St AndrewsUniversity of St AndrewsThe University of St Andrews, informally referred to as "St Andrews", is the oldest university in Scotland and the third oldest in the English-speaking world after Oxford and Cambridge. The university is situated in the town of St Andrews, Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It was founded between...
has twenty-three letters from Sir Oliver to Wilfred Ward (1896–1908).
- Trinity College Dublin is custodian of Lodge's correspondence with John JolyJohn JolyJohn Joly FRS was an Irish physicist, famous for his development of radiotherapy in the treatment of cancer...
.
- Imperial College, London Archives hold nineteen letters Lodge wrote to his fellow scientist, Silvanus ThompsonSilvanus P. ThompsonSilvanus Phillips Thompson FRS was a professor of physics at the City and Guilds Technical College in Finsbury, England. He was elected to the Royal Society in 1891 and was known for his work as an electrical engineer and as an author...
.
- The London Science MuseumScience museumA science museum or a science centre is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, industry and industrial machinery, etc. Modern trends in museology have broadened the range of...
holds an early notebook of Oliver Lodge's dated 1880, correspondence dating from 1894–1913 and a paper on atomic theoryAtomic theoryIn chemistry and physics, atomic theory is a theory of the nature of matter, which states that matter is composed of discrete units called atoms, as opposed to the obsolete notion that matter could be divided into any arbitrarily small quantity...
.
Books
- "Pioneers of Science", 1893
- "The Work of Hertz and Some of His Successors", 1894 (after "Signalling Through Space Without Wires", 1900)
- "Electric Theory of Matter". Harper Magazine. 1904. (Oneill's Electronic Museum)
- "Life and Matter", 1905
- "The substance of faith allied with science. A catechism for parents and teachers", 1907
- Electrons, or The Nature and Properties of Negative Electricity, 1907
- "Man and the Universe", 1908
- "Survival of Man", 1909
- "The Ether of Space", May,1909. ISBN 1-4021-8302-X (paperback) , ISBN 1-4021-1766-3 (hardcover)
- "Reason and Belief", 1910. Book Tree. February 2000. ISBN 1-58509-226-6
- "Modern Problems", 1912
- "Science and Religion", 1914
- "The War and After", 1915
- "Raymond, or Life and Death", 1916
- "Christopher", 1918
- "Raymond Revised", 1922
- "The Making of Man", 1924
- "Ether and Reality", 1925. ISBN 0-7661-7865-X
- "Relativity - A very elementary exposition". Paperback. Methuen & Co. LTD. London. June 11, 1925
- "Talks About Wireless", 1925
- "EtherAether theoriesAether theories in early modern physics proposed the existence of a medium, the aether , a space-filling substance or field, thought to be necessary as a transmission medium for the propagation of electromagnetic waves...
", "Encyclopedia Britannica", Thirteenth Edition, 1926 - "Evolution and Creation", 1926
- "Science and Human Progress", 1927
- "Modern Scientific Ideas". Benn's Sixpenny Library No. 101, 1927
- "Why I Believe in Personal Immortality", 1928
- "Phantom Walls", 1929
- "Beyond Physics, or The Idealization of Mechanism", 1930
- "The Reality of a Spiritual World", 1930
- "Conviction of Survival", 1930
- "Advancing Science", 1931
- "Past Years: An Autobiography". Charles Scribner's Sons, 1932
- "My Philosophy", 1933
Notable relatives
- Fiona GodleeFiona GodleeFiona Godlee has been editor in chief of the BMJ since 2005; she is the first female editor appointed in the journal's history.-Career:...
Physician and editor (great-granddaughter) - Percy John HeawoodPercy John HeawoodPercy John Heawood was a British mathematician educated at Queen Elizabeth's School, Ipswich, and Exeter College, Oxford....
Mathematician (cousin) - Carron O LodgeCarron O LodgeCarron Angus Cyril Oliver Lodge was an English figure and landscape painter...
Artist - Eleanor Constance LodgeEleanor Constance LodgeEleanor Constance Lodge, CBE, was born on 18 September 1869 at Hanley, Staffordshire. She was Vice-Principal of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford from 1890 to 1921 and then Principal of Westfield College, Hampstead, in the University of London from 1921 to 1931...
Historian (sister) - Francis Graham LodgeFrancis Graham LodgeFrancis Graham Lodge was a self-taught English black and white artist. He was born in Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, the son of artist Carron O Lodge, and was known by his second name Graham...
Artist - George Edward LodgeGeorge Edward LodgeGeorge Edward Lodge FZS, was a British illustrator of birds and an authority on falconry.-Early life:...
Artist (cousin) - Oliver W F LodgeOliver W F LodgeOliver William Foster Lodge , was a poet and author; he was the eldest son of Sir Oliver Lodge , the physicist, and his wife Mary , who had studied painting at the Slade...
Poet and author (son) - Sir Richard Lodge Historian (brother)
- Samuel LodgeSamuel LodgeThe Rev. Samuel Lodge was author of Scrivelsby, the Home of the Champions He was a headmaster of Horncastle Grammar School, Lincolnshire, rector for 30 years of Scrivelsby Lincolnshire, and a Canon of Lincoln Cathedral.-Life and works:Samuel Lodge was born at Barking, Essex, a son of the Rev...
Clergyman & author (uncle) - Tom LodgeTom LodgeTom Lodge is an English author and radio broadcaster.-Early life:Lodge was a figure in British radio of the 1960s. He was a disc jockey on Radio Caroline. Caroline and other pirates forced the government to deregulate radio, hitherto a monopoly of the BBC...
Author & radio broadcaster (grandson) - David TrotmanDavid TrotmanDavid John Angelo Trotman is a mathematician, with dual British and French nationality. He was born on September 27, 1951 in Plymouth, Devon, England, a grandson of the poet and author Oliver W F Lodge and a great-grandson of the physicist Sir Oliver Lodge...
Mathematician (great-grandson)
External links
- Interactive Java Tutorial - Lodge's experiment demonstrating the first tunable radio receiver National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, "Electric Telegraphy" (wireless telegraphy using Ruhmkorff or Tesla coilTesla coilA Tesla coil is a type of resonant transformer circuit invented by Nikola Tesla around 1891. It is used to produce high voltage, low current, high frequency alternating current electricity. Tesla coils produce higher current than the other source of high voltage discharges, electrostatic machines...
for transmitter and BranlyEdouard BranlyÉdouard Eugène Désiré Branly was a French inventor, physicist and professor at the Institut Catholique de Paris. He is primarily known for his early involvement in wireless telegraphy and his invention of the Branly coherer around 1890.-Biography:The coherer was the first widely used detector for...
coherer for detector, the "syntonic" tuning patent) August, 1898. Sold to Marconi in 1912. - "Oliver Joseph Lodge, Sir: 1851 - 1940". Adventures in CyberSound.
- Death of Sir Oliver Lodge - Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Vol. 34, pages 435 - 436.
- "Sir Oliver Lodge 1851-1940". First Spiritual Temple. 2001.
- University of Birmingham Staff Papers: Papers of Sir Oliver Lodge '
- The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, in Stoke-on-Trent, UK, features a display about local hero Oliver Lodge and his pioneering 1907 igniter, forerunner of the spark plug.
- A collection of portraits of Sir Oliver Lodge at the National Portrait Gallery, London
- Lodge-Cottrell Ltd