The admission of the first women to the Royal Society of London

1992 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-300 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Vice President ◽  
Chemical Society ◽  
Physical Sciences ◽  
Solicitor General ◽  
Learned Societies ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Will ◽  
The Government ◽  
Legal Barriers

An early skirmish in the history of women and the Royal Society was the proposal for the Fellowship of the physicist and engineer Hertha Ayrton, in 1902. This was not accepted, following Counsel’s opinion that she could not be a Fellow because she was a married woman (and the position of unmarried women was very doubtful). If the Society wished to admit women it should apply for a supplemental charter, which would be granted, given the support of a sufficient proportion of the Fellows. In 1906 Hertha Ayrton received the Hughes medal for original discovery in the physical sciences, 50 years ahead of the Society’s next award of a medal to a woman. In 1919 the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act removed legal barriers to the admission of women by bodies governed by charter. In the debate on the Bill, Martin Conway, Member of Parliament for the United Universities and a Vice-President of the Society of Antiquaries, raised an amendment specifying membership of the learned societies. This was opposed by the Solicitor-General, who declared that learned societies refusing to elect qualified women members would be acting in opposition to the will of the House of Commons and the intentions of the Government, and could be dealt with when their subsidies came before Parliament under the Civil Service Vote (not that they were). The Antiquaries elected women Fellows from 1920, as did the Chemical Society. At the Royal Society, no woman was proposed again until 1943.

scholarly journals Address of the President, Sir Archibald Geikie, K. C. B., at the Anniversary Meeting on December 1, 1913

1914 ◽  
Vol 89 (613) ◽  
pp. 451-468
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Scientific Progress ◽  
Vice President ◽  
International Organisations ◽  
Physical Sciences ◽  
Fatal Disease ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Many ◽  
Special Studies ◽  
Made In

On these annual occasions it is usual to begin the retrospect of the year by discharging the melancholy duty of taking note of the losses which death has inflicted on our Society since the last Anniversary. On the present occasion we are fortunate in not having to deplore the passing away of any of the distinguished men who form the remarkable band of our Foreign Members. But on the other hand, the blanks which have been made in our Home List are exceptionally heavy, for no fewer than twenty of our Fellows have died, and among these some whose places it will for many years be hard to fill. Especially numerous and serious have been the losses among those who represent the various departments of the Physical Sciences. In George Howard Darwin we mourn the departure of one of the most brilliant and most estimable of our colleagues, who by the originality and distinction of his researches amply sustained the scientific renown of our publications and enhanced the prestige of the Society. He was elected a Fellow in 1879, served repeatedly on the Council, and was Vice-President during the last year of his presence there. He was awarded a Royal Medal in 1884, and only two years ago received as the crowning mark of our appreciation of his achievements in science the award of the Copley Medal. There was a widespread hope among the Fellows that he would this year be elected to the Presidential Chair of the Royal Society. But, while still with the promise of further years of fruitful work before him, he was attacked by a fatal disease which carried him off on December 7 last in the 68th year of his age. With admiration and pride we recall the keen insight and the laborious but brilliant calculations which culminated in the production of George Darwin's memorable essays on the history of our planet and its satellite. We remember the long years during which he devoted his mind to the study of the Tides, thereby elucidating that complicated subject, and at the same time rendering valuable service to the art of navigation. We think, too, of the many hours which, first and last, he cheerfully gave up to the furtherance of scientific progress by attendance on committees, boards, and congresses, not in this country only but also abroad, as representative of the Royal Society in international organisations. On this Anniversary, however, our thoughts turn more tenderly to the man himself as he lived and moved among us. Long shall we cherish the remembrance of the example of his gentle and studious nature, his unfailing courtesy and kindly cheerfulness, his ardour in the cause of scientific research, his large-minded tolerance towards those who differed from him, and that helpful sympathy, inherited from his illustrious father, which led him to take interest in each fresh advance of knowledge in every department of Nature, even in those furthest removed from his own special studies.

Edward Meryon (1807–80) and Charles Darwin's (1809–82) On the Origin of Species

2009 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 199-201
Author(s):  
Alan E H Emery ◽  
Marcia L H Emery
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Vice President ◽  
Chemical Society ◽  
Geological Society ◽  
Royal Astronomical Society ◽  
Clear Identification ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
First Time ◽  
Medical Interest ◽  
Royal Medical

London in the first half of the 19th century was a centre of scientific and medical interest. For example, the Royal Society, the Linnean Society, the Geological Society, the Chemical Society and the Royal Astronomical Society were all centred on Burlington House and, not far away, in Berner's Street was the Medical and Chirurgical Society, which in 1834 became the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society and later the Royal Society of Medicine. It was also in this period that Edward Meryon became a member of the latter society and subsequently a Council Member, Librarian and Vice-President. His research led to the clear identification for the first time of the disease Duchenne muscular dystrophy and he published his results in the Transactions of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society in 1852.

The Radium Committee of the Royal Society and the fate of the substances purchased by it

2012 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil Todd
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Research Fund ◽  
World War ◽  
Ernest Rutherford ◽  
History Of ◽  
Government Laboratory ◽  
The Government ◽  
First Time

In this article, documents relating to the history of the Radium Committee of the Royal Society are collated for the first time. Founded in 1903, the committee had its status enhanced in 1904, when the Goldsmiths' Company donated £1000 for the establishment of a Radium Research Fund. Two years later the fund was used to purchase 500 kg of pitchblende residues from the Austrian government. The French chemist Armet de Lisle was contracted to perform the first stage of extraction, and the process of purification was performed at the Government Laboratory during 1907 by the Government Analyst, T. E. Thorpe, yielding an estimated 70 mg of radium chloride. In 1914 the unexpended balance of about £500 was awarded to Ernest Rutherford, but the bulk was not used until 1921, when Rutherford had moved to Cambridge. The fund was then used to purchase radium that had been on loan to him from Austria before World War I. After Rutherford's death in 1937 the Committee was wound up, and the Society's radium was controlled on a more ad hoc basis. After Thorpe's work in 1907, the radium was lent out successively to several leading scientists until its existence was last recorded in 1953.

scholarly journals VI. Researches on the atomic weight of thallium

1873 ◽  
Vol 163 ◽  
pp. 277-330 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Chemical Properties ◽  
Chemical Society ◽  
Atomic Weight ◽  
Spare Time ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Government ◽  
Government Grant ◽  
Method Of Extraction ◽  
And Chemical Properties

In June 1862, and in February 1863, I had the honour to lay before the Royal Society communications on the subject of the then newly discovered metal, Thallium. In these I gave an account of its occurrence, distribution, and the method of extraction from the ore, together with its physical characteristics and chemical properties; also I discussed the position of thallium among elementary bodies, and gave a series of analytical notes. In the pages of the 'Journal of the Chemical Society’ for April 1, 1864, I collated all the information then extant, both from my own researches and from those of others, introducing qualitative descriptions of an extended series of the salts of the metal. I propose in the present paper to lay before the Royal Society the details and results of experiments which have engrossed much of my spare time during the last eight years, and which consist of very laborious researches on the atomic weight of thallium. In these researches I owe much to the munificence of the Royal Society for having placed at my disposal a large sum from the Government Grant. Without this supplement to my own resources it would have been difficult for me to have carried out the investi­gation with such completeness.

A Brief History of the Method of Fixing by Horizontal Angles

1972 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 528-534
Author(s):  
Charles H. Cotter
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Vice President ◽  
East India Company ◽  
New Instrument ◽  
History Of ◽  
Celestial Bodies ◽  
First Time ◽  
Royal Society Of London

John Hadley (1670–1744), Vice-President of the Royal Society of London, communicated his ‘Description of a new Instrument for taking Angles’ to the Society on 13 May 1731. Hadley's invention for the first time provided the navigator with an instrument by which he could measure altitudes of celestial bodies with ease and accuracy on board a lively ship at sea. It was not however until about 1750, when the instrument was to be found on board vessels of the East India Company, that Hadley's quadrant (or octant as it is sometimes called) rapidly came into general use.

scholarly journals From the history of the Russian province of the early XX century: experience of interaction between state administration and public structures in 1904 (on the example of the Kaluga Province)

2021 ◽  
pp. 83-93
Author(s):  
Artem Kovalev
Keyword(s):  
Public Institutions ◽  
Provincial Government ◽  
Formal Approach ◽  
State Administration ◽  
History Of ◽  
Local Initiatives ◽  
The Will ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
Historical Methods

The subject of this research is the relationship between the government and society in Russian province of the early XX century in the course of creating institutions intended to solve the problems that arose during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905. The goal of this research is to examine the establishment of public institutions in Kaluga Province in 1904, which cooperated with the government in such spheres as aid to wounded and ill soldiers and sailors, navy, and mobilized military personnel. The article leans on the unpublished materials of the State Archive of the Kaluga Oblast, namely documents of the Governor's office, and other sources; employs narrative and comparative-historical methods. The conclusion is made that the leadership of the Russian Empire made attempt, at times untoward, to interact with society, which could have alleviated the effect of activity of the radical forces in the approaching revolution. The author describes how the provincial government, following the will of the central authorities, utilized the potential for interacting with society. An overview is given to the realities of emergence of the institutions for the help the cause of war, their structure, and specificity of response of the authorities to local initiatives. An important factor in failure to establish effective dialogue between the provincial government and society was the somewhat formal approach of the authorities towards inviting persons who have power in society to the institutions. The valuable experience in organizing public institutions in 1904 indicates the inclusion of persons relevant to management, with understanding the essence of problematic, representatives of business circles. The channels of relationship between the government and society should have been established not shortly before the revolution, but in a more stable period of 1890s. The conclusions reveal the prerequisites for the revolutionary disturbances of the XX century in Russia, and are relevant at the present.

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