Background
Charles Glover Barkla was born on June 27, 1877, in Widnes, England to John Martin Barkla, a secretary for the Atlas Chemical Company and Sarah Glover, daughter of a watchmaker.
Charles Glover Barkla was a British physicist and the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1917.
the Liverpool Institute, Mount Street, Liverpool, Merseyside, England, United Kingdom
Barkla received his secondary education at the Liverpool Institute High School for Boys.
The University of Liverpool, Liverpool, England, United Kingdom
Barkla was educated at the Liverpool Institute and entered University College, Liverpool, in 1894 to study mathematics and physics, the latter under Oliver Lodge. He graduated with First Class Honours in Physics in 1898 and in the following year he obtained his master’s degree. He migrated to King’s College during 1900 and in 1902 returned to Liverpool as Oliver Lodge Fellow. He received Liverpool’s Doctor of Science in 1904.
Charles Glover Barkla was a British physicist and the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1917 for his work in X-ray spectroscopy and related areas in the study of X-rays (Roentgen rays).
Charles Glover Barkla was a British physicist and the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1917.
Charles Glover Barkla was a British physicist and the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1917.
Charles Glover Barkla was a British physicist and the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1917.
Charles Glover Barkla in his laboratory during an experiment.
A postal stamp representing Charles Glover Barkla.
A postal stamp representing Charles Glover Barkla.
Hermitage House NT2570, Morningside, Edinburgh, Scotland, Great Britain
A commemorative plaque on Hermitage House NT2570: Hermitage of Braid and flowering Acer, the home of the Nobel Physics Laureate from 1922-1938, which was unveiled on 12 June 2018.
1912 - 1944
the Royal Society, London, SW1 England, United Kingdom
Charles Barkla became a Fellow of the Royal Society.
1914 - 1944
he Royal Society of Edinburgh, New Town, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
Charles Barkla became a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
1917
Charles Glover Barkla received the 1917 Nobel Prize for Physics “for his discovery of the characteristic Röntgen radiation of the elements".
1917
In 1917, he was awarded the Hughes Medal "for his researches in connection with X-ray radiation".
1912
the Royal Society, London, SW1 England, United Kingdom
Charles Barkla became a Fellow of the Royal Society.
1914
he Royal Society of Edinburgh, New Town, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
Charles Barkla became a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
1917
Charles Glover Barkla received the 1917 Nobel Prize for Physics “for his discovery of the characteristic Röntgen radiation of the elements".
1917
In 1917, he was awarded the Hughes Medal "for his researches in connection with X-ray radiation".
Charles Glover Barkla was a British physicist and the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1917 for his work in X-ray spectroscopy and related areas in the study of X-rays (Roentgen rays).
the Liverpool Institute, Mount Street, Liverpool, Merseyside, England, United Kingdom
Barkla received his secondary education at the Liverpool Institute High School for Boys.
The University of Liverpool, Liverpool, England, United Kingdom
Barkla was educated at the Liverpool Institute and entered University College, Liverpool, in 1894 to study mathematics and physics, the latter under Oliver Lodge. He graduated with First Class Honours in Physics in 1898 and in the following year he obtained his master’s degree. He migrated to King’s College during 1900 and in 1902 returned to Liverpool as Oliver Lodge Fellow. He received Liverpool’s Doctor of Science in 1904.
Hermitage House NT2570, Morningside, Edinburgh, Scotland, Great Britain
A commemorative plaque on Hermitage House NT2570: Hermitage of Braid and flowering Acer, the home of the Nobel Physics Laureate from 1922-1938, which was unveiled on 12 June 2018.
Charles Glover Barkla was a British physicist and the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1917.
Charles Glover Barkla was a British physicist and the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1917.
Charles Glover Barkla was a British physicist and the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1917.
Charles Glover Barkla in his laboratory during an experiment.
A postal stamp representing Charles Glover Barkla.
A postal stamp representing Charles Glover Barkla.
Charles Glover Barkla married Mary Esther, the eldest daughter of John T. Cowell of Douglas, Receiver-General of the Isle of Man, in 1907.
Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge, British physicist, and writer involved in the development of, and holder of key patents for, radio.
https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Physics-Junior-Students-Barkla/dp/B00JZRPJ5A/?tag=2022091-20
1915
Charles Glover Barkla was born on June 27, 1877, in Widnes, England to John Martin Barkla, a secretary for the Atlas Chemical Company and Sarah Glover, daughter of a watchmaker.
Barkla received his secondary education at the Liverpool Institute, and in October 1895, with scholarships, entered University College, Liverpool. He concentrated on mathematics and physics. After taking Honours in mathematics he specialized in experimental physics under Oliver Lodge and in 1898 was awarded First-Class Honours in the Bachelor of Science examination. He received the Master of Science in 1899.
In the autumn of 1899, with an 1851 Exhibition scholarship, Barkla entered Trinity College, Cambridge, as an advanced student. He attended lectures, including those of George Stokes on optics and hydrodynamics (where he was on occasion the sole auditor), and began researches at the Cavendish Laboratory, for which he eventually received the Cambridge Bachelor of Arts. After eighteen months at Trinity, Barkla moved to King’s College in order to sing in its famous chapel choir - the chapel was jammed for his baritone solos.
In 1901 Barkla’s two-year scholarship was exceptionally renewed for a third year. The following year, refusing the opportunity to remain at Cambridge on a choral scholarship, Barkla returned to the University of Liverpool as Oliver Lodge Fellow for three years. He received Liverpool’s Doctor of Science in 1904.
In 1899, Barkla was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge, with an 1851 Research Fellowship from the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, to work in the Cavendish Laboratory under the physicist J. J. Thomson (discoverer of the electron). During his first two years at Cambridge, Barkla would, under the directions of Thomson, study the velocity of electromagnetic waves along wires of different widths and materials.
In 1902, Charles Glover Barkla returned to the University of Liverpool as Oliver Lodge Fellow and began his work on Röntgen radiation.
In June 1903, he established that secondary radiation emitted by all gases was of the same wavelength as that of the primary beam and that the scattering was proportionate to the mass of the atom.
In 1904, continuing his research on the same subject, Barkla showed that just like light, x-rays are also a form of electromagnetic radiation. His work during this period earned him his degree in Doctor of Science (D. Sc) from the University of Liverpool.
Subsequently, in 1905, he was appointed as a demonstrator at the University of Liverpool; but within a short period became an Assistant Lecturer. Sometime in 1906, Barkla, along with his team, used X-ray scattering to determine the number of electrons in the carbon atom.
In 1907, he was made a Physics Lecturer in Advanced Electricity at the same institute. The post was especially created for him. He remained there until 1909.
In 1909, Barkla joined King's College at the University of London as Wheatstone Professor of Physics, succeeding H. A. Wilson. There he continued his work on X-ray and by 1911 began to be regarded as an internationally reputed physicist.
In 1913, after having worked at the Universities of Cambridge, Liverpool, and King's College London, Barkla was appointed as a Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, a position that he held until his death. Barkla took a prominent part in instituting honors degree courses in pure science at the University of Edinburgh. He especially worked to develop an honors school of physics at the institute. All along he followed his mentor, J.J. Thomson, of Cavendish Laboratory in his style of leadership.
However, from 1916 onwards, he became rather isolated from the scientific community. That was mainly because he cited only his own work and based his theories only on the phenomenon he himself had investigated. His work on "J-Phenomenon" added to this seclusion. Also, in 1916, he was appointed as Bakerian Lecturer by the Royal Society of London.
Barkla made significant progress in developing and refining the laws of X-ray scattering, X-ray spectroscopy, the principles governing the transmission of X-rays through matter, and especially the principles of the excitation of secondary X-rays. He discovered the polarisation of X-rays, an experimental result of considerable importance for it meant that X-radiation could be regarded as similar to ordinary light. Barkla made valuable contributions to present knowledge on the absorption and photographic action of X-rays and his later work demonstrated the relation between the characteristic X-radiation and the corpuscular radiation accompanying it. He has also shown both the applicability and the limitation of the quantum theory in relation to Röntgen radiation. The results of his findings are recorded in various papers which have appeared mainly in the Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society.
He had a considerable reputation as an examiner in physics. In his honor, a commemorative plaque has been installed in the vicinity of the Canongate, near the Faculty of Education Buildings, at the University of Edinburgh.
Additionally, a lecture theatre at the University of Liverpool's Physics department, as well as a Biophysics laboratory in the Biological science department, are named after him. In 2012, a gritter in Barkla's hometown of Widnes was named in his honor, following a competition run by the local newspaper.
For his discovery of the characteristic X-rays of elements, Barkla was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1917. He was also awarded the Hughes Medal of the British Royal Society that same year.
Lunar cater Barkla, which has a diameter of 42 km and is located at 10.7° S, 67.2° E on the lunar surface, has been named in his honor.
A religious man, Barkla was a Methodist and considered his work to be "part of the quest for God, the Creator".
While at Liverpool, Barkla was a member and served as the first president of the University Physical Society. In 1912 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society and in 1914 a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Barkla’s chief recreation was singing – he had a powerful baritone voice and he was a member of the King’s College Chapel Choir, 1901-1902. Latterly, he had also become fond of golf.
Charles Glover Barkla married Mary Esther, the eldest daughter of John T. Cowell of Douglas, Receiver-General of the Isle of Man, in 1907. They had two sons and one daughter. Their youngest son, Flight Lieutenant Michael Barkla, a brilliant scholar, was killed in action in 1943.
After Barkla enrolled in the Liverpool Institute, he chose to pursue Physics under the guidance of Sir Oliver Lodge, a world-famous physicist.
