Abstract
SIR FRANK EDWARD SMITH will relinquish on January 31 his appointment as secretary to the Committee of the Privy Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, a post which he has held with distinction for the last ten years. Born in Birmingham in 1876, he gained a national scholarship in physics at the Royal College of Science in London. He was one of the first assistants appointed by the late Sir Richard Glazebrook when theNational Physical Laboratory began in 1899, and he was superintendent ofthe Physical Department of the Laboratory from 1901 until 1920. During this time he did a great deal of advanced original research work, introducing many novel methods, but he was never satisfied with the results obtained until he had checked them by other methods. He designed and helpedto construct many new instruments and devices, and his results on the measurement of absolute units showed an accuracy unrivalled at the time. Accounts of many of these researches, some of them written by himself, will be found in Glaze-brook's “Dictionary of Applied Physics,” vol. 2. The gradual evolution of the current balance, in which the electric attractions between currents in coils were balanced by weights, so that it became possible to measure a current in absolute measure and thus determine the ampere, was a triumph of research. The agreement now arrived at byinternational physicists as to the absolute value of the units justifiesthe great skill and time expended in measuring them, in which Smith tooka leading part. In addition to all the routine and research work he did,he was always pleased to discuss with his colleagues the problems in which they were mutually concerned. Among other important work he did at the Laboratory was his work on the‘ current weigher’ in collaboration with Ayrton and Mather. He co-operated with Duddell and Glazebrook in perfecting radio telegraphic apparatus for direction finding, and he also co-operated with some of the physicists at the Bureau of Standards, Washington, D.C., in perfecting standards of electromotive force. His work with Rosa of this laboratory on standards of inductance was also of great value.
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Sir Frank Smith, G.B.E., K.C.B., F.R.S. Nature 143, 56–57 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/143056b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/143056b0