Sir Oliver Lodge Collection
30 research notebooks and associated correspondence, 1874-1913 of Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge, FRS (1851-1940), with published works written or owned by him.
Lodge was appointed first Professor of Physics at University College, Liverpool, 1881-1900 and Principal of Birmingham University, 1900-1919. He also served as President of a range of societies including the Society for Psychical Research, 1901-1904 and 1932, and the British Association, 1913-1914.
Lodge's scientific research included the development of wireless and telegraphy and experiments on the relative motion of matter and ether. His many publications include The Ether of Space (1909); Making of Man (1924); Advancing Science (1931) and Past Years, an autobiography (1931).
The Oliver Lodge Papers contain 30 of Lodge's research notebooks up to 1900 (including some from his student days) and letters from correspondents including Lodge, Davies, Larmor and Fitzgerald. The notebooks include notes taken as a student from lectures by W.K.Clifford and O.M.F.E. Henrici , notes for his own lectures, research notes, graph plottings, and an index of papers for references and for students. With 303ff of manuscript notes and 44 printed items, chiefly examination papers and articles by Lodge in offprint and proof; also one press cutting and 30 letters or postcards from a variety of correspondents and two photographs of the Ether Machine at Liverpool: with Lodge, George Hall and Benjamin Davies .
The library holds more than 150 works published by Oliver Lodge in his lifetime, and Lodge's own annotated copy of Maxwell's An Elementary treatise on electricity (1881).
There is related material in the Rathbone Papers and the University Archives.
Some highlights of the Oliver Lodge collections
- Oliver Lodge's copy of Maxwell, An Elementary treatise on electricity (1881)
- Oliver Lodge on Radio-Craft magazine