Alexander Wood (physicist)

Alexander Wood (May 3, 1879^[1]–1950) was a Scottish physicist who worked as researcher and university lecturer in the field of acoustics and experimental physics.^[2]

Biography

Son of Sir Alexander Wood of Partick, he was born in Scotland and educated at Glasgow University and obtained a doctorate in 1907. That very year he went to the Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he became a fellow and tutor.

At the fiftieth anniversary of the discovery of the electron, Wood lectured on the work and history of the Cavendish Laboratory^[3] of which he was a notorious and active member.^[4] Future Nobelist George Paget Thomson, who attended Wood's lectures of physics, would comment later: "these were outstanding both in material and exposition, and impressed me greatly."^[5] Similarly, Alan Lindsay Mackay, who was Wood student, mentioned him as one of his great professors and someone whose lectures were full of demonstrations.^[6] In addition, scientist Charles Alfred Coulson spoke of Alex as one of his three major influences,^[7] and William Lawrence Bragg corresponded with him asking for help in his research.^[8][9]

As a pupil of Lord Kelvin (William Thomson) at the University of Glasgow, Wood acqurired some of his religious practices as the habit of praying before lecturing.^[10] He was a member of the Church of Scotland and a devout Christian who held Bible lessons and spoke about the relation between science and religion.^[11]

In addition, along with Kees Boeke and Herbert Gray, during the World War I he was a member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, a group of religious pacifists.;^[12] at the time of conscription he was a conscientious objector. He was a leading member of the Peace Pledge Union, serving as Chair, 1940–46, and was also active in the National Peace Council. After his death, theologian Charles E. Raven wrote a biography of the physicist entitled Alex Wood: the man and his message (1952).

Works

• The physical basis of music; Cambridge University press; (Originally published in 1913, though there were further editions in 1945, 1954 and 1975)
• Joule and the study of energy (1925); G. Bell and Sons Ltd.
• In pursuit of truth. A comparative study in science and religion (1927)
• Sound waves and their uses (1930).
  • Also published as Sound waves and their uses; six lectures delivered before a "juvenile auditory" under the auspices of the Royal institution, Christmas, 1928 (1931).
• Planning for good acoustics (1931); coauthored with Hope Bagenal
• The Cavendish Laboratory (1931); 1946
• Science Wisdom and War: Through the Ages Science Has Given Destructive Intentions to War (1934)
• Wood, Alexander (1940). Acoustics. London, UK: Blackie & Sons. 
• Atomic Energy: Notes on the Course of Negotiations for Its Control (1950)

Posthumous

• Thomas Young: Natural Philosopher 1773-1829 (1954; 2011)
• The physics of music (1975); ed. by J. M. Bowsher

Bibliography

• Jeans, Sir James Hopwood. 1928. The Physics of the Universe, Volume 165. R. & R. Clark, limited,
• Navarro, Jaurme. 2012. A History of the Electron: J. J. and G. P. Thomson. Cambridge University Press.
• Rupke, Nicolaas A. 2009. Eminent Lives in Twentieth-century Science & Religion. Peter Lang
• Wood, Alexander. 2011. Thomas Young: Natural Philosopher 1773-1829. Cambridge University Press.

References