Background
Richard Glazebrook was born on September 18, 1854, in West Derby, Liverpool. He was the eldest son of Nicholas Smith Glazebrook, a surgeon, and Sarah Anne Tetley.
Dulwich College, Dulwich, London SE21 7LD, United Kingdom
Glazebrook was educated at Dulwich College until 1870.
Liverpool College, Queens Dr, Liverpool L18 8BG, United Kingdom
Glazebrook was educated at Liverpool College from 1868 to 1870.
Trinity College, Cambridge CB2 1TQ, United Kingdom
Glazebrook entered Trinity College, Cambridge. He received his Bachelor of Arts as fifth wrangler in 1876 and his Master of Arts in 1879.
United Kingdom
Richard Glazebrook
United Kingdom
Richard Glazebrook
United Kingdom
Richard Glazebrook
United Kingdom
Richard Glazebrook
United Kingdom
Glazebrook was elected to the Royal Society in 1882.
administrator educator physicist scientist
Richard Glazebrook was born on September 18, 1854, in West Derby, Liverpool. He was the eldest son of Nicholas Smith Glazebrook, a surgeon, and Sarah Anne Tetley.
Glazebrook was educated at Dulwich College until 1870, then Liverpool College, and in 1872 entered Trinity College, Cambridge. He received his Bachelor of Arts as the fifth wrangler in 1876 and his Master of Arts in 1879.
After working under Maxwell at the Cavendish Laboratory from 1876 until Maxwell’s death in 1879, Glazebrook stayed on under Rayleigh and in 1880 was appointed demonstrator. Glazebrook was a college lecturer in mathematics and physics and university lecturer in mathematics.
Although he was disappointed in not being elected to succeed Rayleigh when the latter resigned in 1884, Glazebrook remained at the Cavendish Laboratory and was appointed an assistant director in 1891. In 1895 he took on additional duties as senior bursar of Trinity College. He resigned these last positions to become principal of University College, Liverpool, in 1898, with the understanding that he might leave if offered the directorship of the National Physical Laboratory, then being established. This in fact occurred, and he left the college on the last day of 1899, taking up his new position on the first day of the new year. He remained in this post until his retirement in 1919.
Glazebrook’s initial work under Maxwell was in optics, with considerable attention to electrical measurements. When Rayleigh became a member of the reconstituted British Association Committee on Electrical Standards in 1881, Glazebrook assisted him. In 1883 he became secretary of the committee, a position he was to hold until 1913, when the work of the committee was taken over by the National Physical Laboratory. Glazebrook became increasingly interested in the precise measurement of electrical standards. This specialty, together with his talent as an administrator, made him an obvious candidate to head the National Physical Laboratory when it was formed.
As director of the new laboratory, Glazebrook continued to press for the determination of the fundamental units for both scientific and industrial purposes. In 1909 work was begun in the field of aeronautics, leading to efforts that were greatly accelerated during the war.
Glazebrook also wrote several physics textbooks which enjoyed widespread use. His true vocation, however, was scientific administration, as he demonstrated in leading the National Physical Laboratory through its first two decades.
Following his retirement, Glazebrook moved back to Cambridge and edited the Dictionary of Applied Physics. From 1920 to 1923 he was Zaharoff Professor of Aviation and Director of the Department of Aeronautics at Imperial College, London.
Glazebrook was elected to the Royal Society in 1882. He was also a member of the Physical Society, the Optical Society, the Institution of Electrical Engineers, the Faraday Society, and the Institute of Physics.
Glazebrook was an accomplished experimentalist.