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Alexander Muirhead

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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"ALEXANDER MUIRHEAD (1848-1920), British physicist, was born at Salton, E. Lothian, May 26 1848 and was educated at University College school, London, passing on to University College, whence he subsequently graduated B.Sc. with honours in chemistry in 1868-9, but before doing so he entered his father's works and there invented a method of testing condensers, afterwards widely accepted. In 1870 he became a fellow of the Chemical Society, and in 1872 graduated D.Sc. of London in electrical science. He was an original member of the Physical Society of London (1874) and a member of the Societe Frangaise Physique. In 1875 he invented the duplex plan for working Atlantic cables described in 26.518. His siphon recorder ( see 26.523) is now in general use. Attendance at a lecture on Hertzian waves given by Sir Oliver Lodge at the Royal Institution in 1894 resulted in the Lodge-Muirhead syntonic system ( see 26.538), which anticipated Marconi. The original idea was Lodge's but Muirhead supplied the practical science required to work it out. He started cable works of his own at Elmer's End, Kent, in 1896, and gave valuable evidence before the commission appointed to inquire into the possibility of laying a Pacific cable. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1904 and died at Shortlands, Kent, Dec. 13 1920.