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Norman Frederick Astbury CBE, MA, ScD, CEng, FIEE, CPhys, FInstP, HonFICeram, FRSA (December 1, 1908 – October 28, 1987) was a British physicist with wide ranging experience and success in industry, academia, the war effort, and scientific research. A double first in Natural Sciences from St John's College, Cambridge[1][2] launched his career in 1929 with an appointment at the National Physical Laboratory (United Kingdom)[3] in Teddington followed by a lifetime of professional positions both at home and abroad culminating with the Directorship of the British Ceramic Research Association [4], later, Lucideon (1960 – 1973).
Early Life and education
[edit]Norman was the youngest of seven children born in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent. His father, William Edwin Astbury, was a potter. His mother was Clara Astbury, née Dean. He met his future wife, Nora Wilkinson, when, aged five she took his hand at infant school.
His education started at Normacot Church of England School (1913 -1919), continued at Longton High School (1919-1926), and he then read Natural Sciences at St John’s College Cambridge where he was a Scholar and Prizeman, gained a First in both parts of the Tripos
Career
[edit]National Physical Laboratory -1929-1939[5]
As a member of staff at the NPL, his first job following university and working with his senior colleague Leslie Hartshorn, he became responsible for much of the work on primary and secondary electrical standards, including the re-establishment of the primary inductance standard and the redetermination of the ohm.[6]
Royal Naval Scientific Service -1939-1945
[edit]During World War II, he worked on problems of harbour defence and electro-acoustics in the Royal Naval Scientific Service with specific involvement in HM Anti-Submarine Experimentation Establishment and Ship Degaussing [7]
For his wartime service in Royal Naval Scientific Service mentioned above, Norman was awarded the 1939-45 Star (second from the left; dark blue, red and light blue in three vertical stripes), the Defence Medal (third from the left; flame coloured with green edges upon each of which is a narrow black stripe) and the War Medal 1939-45 (fourth from the left; a narrow central red stripe with a narrow white stripe on either side; a broad red stripe at either side, and two intervening stripes in blue). The photo shows Norman’s complete set of medals including his CBE, first left, which was awarded in 1968 as mentioned below.
Joseph Sankey & Guest Keen & Nettlefold -1945-1949
Director of Research [8]
In 1945 he joined Joseph Sankey and Sons to organise a research laboratory. This became the central laboratory of the Guest, Keen and Nettlefold group of companies. He took part in work on the processing and properties of electrical sheet-steel and expanded the organisation to deal with a wide range of problems in applied physics.
University of New South Wales 1949 -1951
[edit]Norman was appointed Professor of Applied Physics[9][10] at the newly founded New South Wales University of Technology in 1949. He continued in post until 1951 when he was appointed to the Gordon Memorial College in Khartoum, Sudan, as described below.
Gordon Memorial College, Khartoum (now University of Khartoum) 1951 – 1956
Norman was appointed Professor of Physics and Dean of the Faculty of Science in 1951. During his tenure he designed and set up an experiment at the old ‘Kilo Five’ Khartoum Airport to measure changes in the earth’s magnetic field during the total eclipse of the sun on February 25, 1952.
His contribution to contemporaneous global research on this topic is recorded in the edition of Nature Magazine published on 12 July 1952:
Micro-Magnetic Variations During the Solar Eclipse of February 25, 1952.[11]
Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) Farnborough 1956-1957
Following RAE being disbanded and its work being absorbed into different UK government departments, relevant records can now be found in The National Archives (United Kingdom). During the two years he worked with RAE, Norman undertook early development work on Instrument Landing Systems (ILS) and, separately, the impact of atmospheric precipitation on the nose cones of supersonic aircraft. The ceramic materials used in the related manufacturing process linked to his work at BCRA below.
British Ceramic Research Association – BCRA - which has now become Lucideon - 1957-1973[4]
Deputy Director 1957 -1960 and Director 1960 -1973
Historically Stoke-on-Trent was the focal point of the British ceramic industry. Manufacturers of a wide range of ceramic products from clay pipes to fine china relied on BCRA for research and scientific advice. BCRA also conducted research into stresses on masonry in high rise buildings including gas explosions of the type that destroyed the Ronan Point block of flats in Canning Town, London, in 1968
Awards and Honours
1928 & 1929
Norman was a Scholar and Prizeman at St John’s College Cambridge.[12] St John’s College offered entrance scholarships of £60-£100 a year tenable for at least two years: Norman held one of these as an undergraduate. The college also offered a prize of books to the value of £3 3s. (three guineas) for performance in examinations: Norman won prizes for his performance in both Part I and Part II of the Natural Sciences Tripos in 1928 and 1929 respectively.
1954
In 1954 Norman was conferred the degree of Doctor of Science by Cambridge University Faculty of Engineering for contributions to applied physics, in which context he submitted 36 published papers on engineering subjects.[13] In this photograph he is shown wearing his doctoral robes on a sunlit day in the garden of his home in Devon.
1968
Norman was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1968 New Year’s Honours List under Harold Wilson’s Labour Government.
Authored Books and Papers
[edit]Balance Detectors for A C Bridges (1940)[14]
Some theoretical considerations on the dynamic properties of plastics (1949)[15]
Industrial Magnetic Testing (1952) Published by The Institute of Physics, London [link is to digitised version by Google Books]
Introduction to Electrical Applied Physics (1956) Published by Chapman & Hall Ltd, London [link is to digitised version by Google Books]
The Alternating Current Properties of a Copper Conductor (1957) [16]
Brickwork and Gas Explosions (1969)[16]
A New Method for the Study of Pore Size Distribution (1969)[16]
A precision method for the measurement of the mutual conductance of thermionic valves (2002)
The Absolute Measurement of Resistance by the Method of Albert Campbell (1937)[17]
Leslie Hartshorn, N F Astbury
A note on the calibration of decade condensers (1938) [14]
L H Ford, N F Astbury
The A T Green Book: Dedicated to Arnold Trevor Green (1959)
British Ceramic Research Association, N F Astbury
Gas Explosions in Load-bearing Brickwork Structures Special Publication No. 68 (British Ceramic Research Association, Stoke -on-Trent, 1970)[16]
N F Astbury, Herbert William Harcourt West, H R Hodgkinson, P A Cubbage and R Clare
Experimental Gas Explosions (1972)
N F Astbury, Herbert William Harcourt West, H R Hodgkinson
Appointments
[edit]Member, National Council for Technological Awards 1958-1964
Vice Chairman, Institute of Clay Technology 1959 -1976
President, British Ceramic Society 1960
Member, Inter-Services Metallurgical Research Council 1962-1964
Council Member, Institute of Physics and Physical Society 1963-1966
Member, Council for National Academic Awards 1964-1966
Committee Chairman, Directors of Research Associations 1964-1966
Member, Joint Services Non-Metallic Materials Research Board 1964-1969
Vice President, Parliamentary and Scientific Committee 1965-1968
Member, Construction Research Advisory Council 1968-1971
Clubs
[edit]Athenaeum, Pall Mall, London
British Pottery Manufacturers Federation Club [external link], Stoke-on-Trent – The Potters’ Club
Sudan Club, Khartoum
United Service Club, Pall Mall, London
Professional Qualifications
[edit]Recreational Interests
[edit]Astronomy
Norman purchased one of the few refracting telescopes available in Khartoum in the 1950s from a previous amateur owner. Located just 15 degrees north of the equator in a dry climate, amateur viewing of the solar system and nearby star clusters was exceptional. Somewhat extraordinarily, although it was always going to happen from the day he was born, on what would have been his 100th birthday one of the classic asterisms, the ‘Smiley Face’ was formed from the crescent of the new moon, and on this occasion, Venus to the left and Jupiter to the right. The asterism was clearly visible throughout the northern hemisphere on the night of December 1, 2008.
Model Railways
As an engineer at heart, model railways provided an absorbing outlet for this skillset and offered endless fun for him and his children. Having initiated his model building interest with an ‘O’ gauge steam engine in the UK in 1940s, he then went on to build one of a limited number of three rail Hornby Dublo layouts in the Sudan in the 1950s. On returning to the UK, he then built a new and highly expanded version at home in Stoke-on-Trent, later transformed and rebuilt in its final resting place in Devon.
Music
Norman was an accomplished pianist. He also both played and, using his engineering skills, maintained the organ in the first cathedral in Khartoum, now the National Republican Palace Museum. His favourite composer was Mozart, although he frequently played Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata for the enjoyment of visitors to his home in Khartoum. On returning to England, he purchased an early reel-to-reel tape recorder and spent many happy hours recording one half of a duet and then playing it back, so that he could ‘provide’ the other half from the piano itself. This resulted in a substantial audio-library of duet piano music which he enjoyed well into retirement.
Reading and Literature
Norman greatly enjoyed Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s creation of the fictional character of Sherlock Holmes (the 1904 painting here by Sidney Edward Paget). With Norman’s love of travel, he had plenty of time to read and re-read the literature involved not least living at the edges of the Sahara Desert in Khartoum in the 1950s distant in both time and space from the arrival of the internet in the 21st century.
Travel
While transatlantic travel is experienced by many today, that was not the case in earlier years. This is a photograph, taken by Norman, in 1959 at a time of financial adversity in the UK on his only visit to North America. The BCRA delegation was able to make the journey at the invitation of fellow professionals in the ceramics industry in the United States. The American hosts subsidised this stay in their country on the basis that, one day, their guests would be able to return the favour. The initiative taken by Norman and his colleagues to plan and execute this trip almost certainly contributed to the establishment of the transatlantic nature of Lucideon today.
References
[edit]- ^ Nature Publishing Group 184 December 1959
- ^ Cambridge University UA Graduati 12/9
- ^ NPL Annual Report and Accounts 1929 - 1939
- ^ a b Royal Society of Arts Journal 1987 Page 65
- ^ NPL Annual Reports and Accounts 1929 - 1939
- ^ Nature 164, 560 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/164560a0
- ^ Obituary in The Times of November 2, 1987, and Journals of the Royal Naval Scientific Service.
- ^ Obituary from the The Times of November 2, 1987
- ^ Mr. N. F. Astbury. Nature 164, 560 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/164560a0
- ^ https://rdcu.be/dMm16
- ^ https://doi.org/10.1038/170068a0
- ^ This information is in the Cambridge University Calendar, 1928-1929, pp. 583-4, and 1929-1930, pp. 630 and 634.
- ^ Cambridge University Archives UA BOGS 1 1953-4/HD1
- ^ a b ResearchGate: Journal of Scientific Instruments
- ^ "Some theoretical considerations on the dynamic properties of plastics". Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A. Mathematical and Physical Sciences. 196 (1044): 92–105. 1949-02-22. doi:10.1098/rspa.1949.0016. ISSN 0080-4630.
- ^ a b c d e books.google.com>books
- ^ Hartshorn, L.; Astbury, N. F. (1937). "The Absolute Measurement of Resistance by the Method of Albert Campbell". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences. 236 (769): 423–471. ISSN 0080-4614.