Women Scientists

Hertha Ayrton 1854-1923

At a glance:

pioneering engineer and suffragette who saved many lives

Born in Portsmouth, she studied maths at Cambridge but being a woman was not eligible for a degree, merely a certificate so had to study in London to obtain her BSc. She invented a draftsman's device for dividing a line into equal parts and for reducing and enlarging figures. Later she married physicist William Ayrton and assisted him in his experiments on electricity. She herself worked on arc lamps - her improvements to searchlight technology were used in aircraft detection during both wars. She also invented a fan for dispersing poison gases used in the trenches. Ayrton was the first woman to become a member of the Institute of Electrical Engineers. She was the first to read a paper in person (on the formation of sand ripples) to the Royal Society yet she was refused their Fellowship because she was a married woman. A great friend of Marie Curie, she provided an anonymous haven for her to recuperate from illness. Both women were constantly (and astonishingly) accused of riding on their husband's coat tails. 'An error that ascribes to a man what was actually the work of a woman has more lives than a cat' wrote Ayrton. She and her daughter were notable suffragettes.
Hertha Ayrton

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