Background
Hopkinson was born in Birmingham, in 1874, the son of John Hopkinson an electrical engineer
Hopkinson was born in Birmingham, in 1874, the son of John Hopkinson an electrical engineer
Trinity College.
In this position he researched flames, explosions and metallurgy and became a pioneer designer of the internal combustion engine. He read law at Trinity College, Cambridge, and became a lawyer after his graduation. In 1903, Hopkinson was elected to the Cambridge chair in mechanism and applied mechanics, and in 1910 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
During World War I he was commissioned into the Royal Engineers, and opened a research establishment at Orford Ness where he and his team researched weapons, sights, and ammunition.
In 1915, Hopkinson discovered a similarity relation between the masses of explosive charges and their effects at a given distance. The same similarity relation was discovered independently in 1925 by Karl Julius Cranz in Germany.
He learnt to fly and died on 26 August 1918 when his Bristol Fighter crashed en route from Martlesham Heath to London.
Royal Society.