Oliver Joseph Lodge

Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge
Vanity Fair cartoon.
Born	June 12, 1851 Penkhull, Staffordshire
Died	August 22, 1940 Lake, Wiltshire
Occupation	Physicist and inventor

Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge (June 12,1851 - August 22, 1940), born at Penkhull in Stoke-on-Trent, was a pioneer in the development of the science and technology that led to the development of radio. Besides his work in physics, he was also known for his interest in the paranormal, and wrote a book about communicating with his son who had died in World War II. In his later life, he lectured widely on the existence of the spiritual world.

Biography

Lodge was the eldest of nine children of Oliver Lodge, a vendor of supplies to the local pottery industry. He attended Adams' Grammar School, but his interest was sparked by a visit to London, when he was encouraged to attend lectures on scientific subjects. Some of these were given by John Tyndall, renowed physicst. When it became apparent that he excelled in scientific subjects, his father gave up the idea of having his son work for him, and Lodge was allowed to pursue science as a career. Lodge obtained a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of London in 1875. He was appointed professor of physics and mathematics at University College, Liverpool, in 1881. Lodge received the Doctor of Science degree in 1887. In 1900 he moved from Liverpool back to the Midlands and became the first principal of the new Birmingham University, remaining there until his retirement in 1919, overseeing the start of the move from Edmund Street in the city centre to the present Edgbaston campus. Lodge was awarded the Rumford Medal of the Royal Society in 1898 and was knighted by King Edward VII in 1902.

Accomplishments

Lodge improved Edouard Branly's coherer radiowave detector by adding a "trembler," which dislodged clumped filings and restored the device's sensitivity. Lodge did other 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 is notable for his work on the aether, which had been postulated as the wave-bearing medium filling all space.

On August 14, 1894, Lodge made the first demonstration of broadcasting radio signals at the annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, at Oxford University. This was two years before Marconi's first broadcast of 1896 but one year after Tesla. In 1995, the Royal Society recognized this scientific breakthrough at a special ceremony at Oxford University.

He also made a major contribution to motoring when he invented 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.

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.

Lodge was an active member of the Fabian Society and published two Fabian Tracts: Socialism & Individualism (1905) and co-authored Public Service vesus Private Expanditure with Sidney Webb, George Bernard Shaw and Sidney Ball

Lodge is also remembered for his studies of life after death. He first began to study psychical phenomena (chiefly telepathy) in the late 1880s. After his son, Raymond, was killed in World War I in 1915, Lodge visited several psychics and wrote about the experience in a number of books, including the best-selling "Raymond, or Life and Death" (1916). Altogether, he wrote more than 40 books, including topics on the afterlife, aether, relativity, and electromagnetic theory.

Besides inventing the spark plug and wireless, Lodge also invented the moving-coil loudspeaker, the vacuum tube (valve), and the variable tuner.

Family

Lodge had twelve children, six boys and six girls. Four of his sons went into business using Lodge's inventions. His sons Brodie and Alec created the Lodge Plug Company, which manufactured spark plugs for cars and aeroplanes. Lionel and Noel founded a company that produced a machine for cleaning factory smoke.

Later life

Before he died, Sir Oliver Lodge declared that he would prove the existence of an afterlife by making public appearances to the living after his death. No such appearances have been made. Lodge is buried at St. Michael’s Church, Wilsford (Lake), Wiltshire.

Lodge's parents and siblings

Sir Oliver Lodge was the eldest of eight sons and a daughter of Oliver Lodge (1826-1884) - later a china 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.

Historical Records

Sir Oliver Lodge's letters and papers were divided after his death. Some were deposited at the University of Birmingham 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.

The University of Birmingham 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 210 letters of Sir Oliver Lodge which have been acquired over the years (1881-1939).

The University of Glasgow Library holds Sir Oliver's letters to William MacNeile Dixon (1900-1938).

The University of St Andrews has 23 letters from Sir Oliver to Wilfred Ward (1896-1908).

Trinity College Dublin are custodians of Lodge's correspondence with John Joly.

University College London Special Collections hold 1991 items of Sir Oliver Lodge's correspondence between 1871-1938.

Imperial College, London Archives hold 19 letters written from Sir Oliver to his fellow scientist, Sylvanus Thompson.

The Society for Psychical Research holds 2710 letters written to Oliver Lodge.

The London Science Museum holds an early notebook of Oliver Lodge's dated 1880, correspondence dating from 1894-1913 and a paper on atomic theory.

The University of Liverpool 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.

Publications by Lodge

• Lodge, Oliver Joseph, "Electric Theory of Matter." Harper Magazine. 1904. (Oneill's Electronic Museum)
• Lodge, Oliver Joseph, and Paul Tice, "Reason and Belief." Book Tree. February 2000. ISBN 1-58509-226-6
• Lodge, Oliver Joseph, "The Work of Hertz and Some of His Successors," 1894
• Lodge, Oliver Joseph, "RELATIVITY, A very elementary Exposition," June 11th. 1925 Paperback. Methuen & Co. LTD. London.
• Lodge, Oliver Joseph, "Ether," Encyclopedia Britannica, Thirteenth Edition (1926).
• Lodge, Oliver Joseph, "The Ether of Space." ISBN 1-4021-8302-X (paperback) ISBN 1-4021-1766-3 (hardcover)
• Lodge, Oliver Joseph, "Ether and Reality." ISBN 0-7661-7865-X
• Lodge, Oliver Joseph, "Phantom Walls."
• Lodge, Oliver Joseph, "Past Years: An Autobiography." Charles Scribner's Sons, 1932.

See also

• Guglielmo Marconi
• Heinrich Hertz
• Nikola Tesla
• Telegraph

References

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External links

• U.S. Patent 609154 (PDF), "Electric Telegraphy" (wireless telegraphy using Ruhmkorff or Tesla coil for transmitter and Branly coherer for detector, the "syntonic" tuning patent) August, 1898. Sold to Marconi in 1912.
• "Oliver Joseph Lodge, Sir: 1851 - 1940." Adventures in CyberSound.
• "Sir Oliver Lodge 1851-1940." First Spiritual Temple. 2001.
• "Lodge, Sir Oliver Joseph." Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2004.
• "http://chem.ch.huji.ac.il/~eugeniik/history/lodge.html," containing further information on Lodge's life and work.
• 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.

See also

Erik Larson (author), "Thunderstruck," New York: Crown Publishers, 2006. ISBN 1-4000-8066-5 A comparison of the lives of Hawley Harvey Crippen and Marconi. Crippen was a murderer whose Transatlantic escape was foiled by the new invention of shipboard radio. Marconi does not come off as a very pleasant character, and his stormy relationship with Lodge is discussed in detail.

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