Editing John Ambrose Fleming

{{Short description|English electrical engineer and inventor (1849–1945)}}
{{Other people|John Fleming}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}}
{{Use British English|date=November 2013}}
{{Infobox engineer
| honorific_prefix  = [[Sir]]
| name              = John Ambrose Fleming
| honorific_suffix  = {{Post-nominals|FRS|size=100%}}
| image             = John_Ambrose_Fleming_1890.png
| caption           = Fleming in 1890
| birth_date        = {{Birth date|1849|11|29|df=yes}}
| birth_place       = [[Lancaster, Lancashire|Lancaster]], England
| death_date        = {{Death date and age|1945|04|18|1849|11|29|df=yes}}
| death_place       = [[Sidmouth]], [[Devon]], England
| education         = {{Plain list|
* [[Lancaster Royal Grammar School]]
* [[University College School]]
}}
| alma_mater        = {{Plain list|
* [[University College London]] ([[BSc]], 1870)
* {{No wrap|[[University of London]] ([[DSc]], 1879)}}
* [[St John's College, Cambridge]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]], 1881)
}}
| known_for         = [[Fleming valve]] (1904)
| spouses           = {{Plain list|
* {{Marriage|Clara Ripley Pratt|1887|1917|end=died}}
* {{Marriage|Olive May Franks|1928}}
}}
| awards            = {{Plain list|
* [[Fellow of the Royal Society|FRS]] (1892)<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Eccles|first1=W. H.|author-link=William Eccles (physicist)|title=John Ambrose Fleming. 1849-1945|doi=10.1098/rsbm.1945.0014 |journal=[[Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society]]|volume=5|issue=14|pages=231–242|year=1945|s2cid=192193265|url=https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsbm.1945.0014}}</ref>
* [[Hughes Medal]] (1910)
* [[Albert Medal (Royal Society of Arts)|Albert Medal]] (1921)
* [[Faraday Medal]] (1928)
* [[Duddell Medal and Prize]] (1930)
* [[IRE Medal of Honor]] (1933)
* [[Franklin Medal]] (1935)
}}
| honours           = [[File:200px ribbon bar of the Knight Bachelor medal (UK).svg|25px]] [[Knight Bachelor]] (1929)
| discipline        = [[Electrical engineering]]
| institutions      = University College London (1884–1927)
| employer          = {{Plain list|
* [[Edison and Swan Electric Light Company]] 
* [[Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company]]
}}
}}

'''Sir John Ambrose Fleming''' (29 November 1849 – 18 April 1945) was an English [[electrical engineer]] who invented the [[vacuum tube]],<ref>{{cite web |last=Harr |first=Chris |title=Ambrose J. Fleming biography |date=23 June 2003 |work=Pioneers of Computing |publisher=The History of Computing Project|url=http://www.thocp.net/biographies/fleming_ambrose.htm|access-date=30 April 2008}}</ref> designed the [[Transmitter|radio transmitter]] with which the first transatlantic radio transmission was made, and also established the [[right-hand rule]] used in [[physics]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Right and left hand rules |work=Tutorials, Magnet Lab U. |publisher=National High Magnetic Field Laboratory |url=https://nationalmaglab.org/education/magnet-academy/watch-play/interactive/right-and-left-hand-rules |access-date=30 April 2008}}</ref>

He was born in [[Lancaster, England|Lancaster]], Lancashire and was baptised on 11th February 1850, the eldest of seven children of James Fleming DD (died 1879), a [[Congregational church|Congregational]] minister, and his wife Mary Ann.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1 = Brittain |first1 = J. E. |doi = 10.1109/JPROC.2006.887329 |title = Electrical Engineering Hall of Fame: John A. Fleming |journal = Proceedings of the IEEE |volume = 95 |pages = 313–315 |year = 2007 }}</ref> A devout Christian, he once preached at [[St Martin-in-the-Fields]] in London on evidence for the [[resurrection]].

In 1932, he and [[Douglas Dewar]] and [[Bernard Acworth]] helped establish the [[Evolution Protest Movement]]. Fleming bequeathed much of his estate to Christian charities, especially those for the poor. He was a noted photographer, painted watercolours, and enjoyed climbing the [[Alps]].

==Early years==
Ambrose Fleming was born in [[Lancaster, England|Lancaster]] and educated at [[Lancaster Royal Grammar School]], [[University College School]], London, and then [[University College London]], where he obtained a BSc in 1870. He entered [[St John's College, Cambridge]] in 1877, gaining a DSc from the [[University of London]] in 1879 and a BA from Cambridge in 1881, before becoming a fellow of St John's in 1883.<ref>{{acad|id=FLM877JA|name=Fleming, John Ambrose}}</ref> He went on to lecture at several universities including the [[University of Cambridge]], [[University of Nottingham|University College Nottingham]], and University College London, where he was the first professor of electrical engineering. He was also a consultant to the [[Marconi Company|Marconi]] Wireless Telegraph Company, Swan Company, [[Ferranti]], Edison Telephone, and later the [[Edison Electric Light Company]]. In 1892, Fleming presented an important paper on electrical [[transformer]] theory to the [[Institution of Electrical Engineers]] in London.

==Education and marriages==
{{More citations needed|section|date=January 2023}}
Fleming started school at about the age of ten, attending a private school where he particularly enjoyed [[geometry]]. Prior to that his mother tutored him and he had learned, virtually by heart, a book called the ''Child's Guide to Knowledge'', a popular book of the day – even as an adult he would quote from it. His schooling continued at the [[University College School]] where, although accomplished at maths, he habitually came bottom of the class at [[Latin]].

Even as a boy he wanted to become an engineer. At 11 he had his own workshop where he built model boats and engines. He even built his own camera, the start of a lifelong interest in photography. Training to become an engineer was beyond the family's financial resources, but he reached his goal via a path that alternated education with paid employment.

Fleming enrolled for a BSc degree at [[University College London]],<ref>{{cite journal|jstor=530956 |title=Sir Ambrose Fleming (Jubilee of the Valve)|journal= Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London|author= J. T. MacGregor-Morris|year=1955 |volume=11|issue=2|pages=134–144|doi=10.1098/rsnr.1955.0004 |s2cid=143665764 }}</ref> graduated in 1870, and studied under the mathematician [[Augustus De Morgan]] and the physicist [[Carey Foster|George Carey Foster]]. He became a student of chemistry at the [[Royal College of Science]] in [[South Kensington]] in London (now [[Imperial College]]). There he first studied [[Alessandro Volta]]'s battery, which became the subject of his first scientific paper. This was the first paper to be read to the new [[Physical Society of London]] (now the [[Institute of Physics]]) and appears on page one of volume one of their Proceedings.

Financial problems again forced him to work for a living and in the summer of 1874 he became science master at [[Cheltenham College]], a [[Public school (UK)|public school]], earning £400 per year. (He later also taught at [[Rossall School]].) His own scientific research continued and he corresponded with [[James Clerk Maxwell]] at [[Cambridge University]]. After saving £400, and securing a grant of £50 a year, in October 1877 at the age of 27, he once again enrolled as a student, this time at [[Cambridge]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/people/science-and-technology/electrical-engineering-biographies/sir-john-ambrose-fleming |title=Encyclopedia of John Ambrose Fleming}}</ref>

He was among the "two or perhaps three University students who attended [[James Clerk Maxwell|Maxwell]]'s last Course".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fleming |first1=Ambrose |title=Some memories of Professor James Clerk Maxwell, pp. 116–124, in: James Clerk Maxwell: A Commemorative Volume, 1831–1931 |date=1931 |publisher=Macmillan |location=New York}}</ref> Maxwell's lectures, he admitted, were difficult to follow. Maxwell, he said, often appeared obscure and had "a paradoxical and allusive way of speaking". On occasions Fleming was the only student at those lectures. Fleming again graduated, this time with a [[First Class Honours]] degree in chemistry and physics. He then obtained a DSc from London and served one year at [[Cambridge University]] as a demonstrator of mechanical engineering before being appointed as the first Professor of [[Physics]] and Mathematics at University College Nottingham, but he left after less than a year.

On 11 June 1887, he married<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.electronics-notes.com/articles/history/pioneers/ambrose-fleming-facts-quotes.php |title=Electronic Notes: Ambrose Fleming Facts & Quotes}}</ref> Clara Ripley (1856/7–1917), daughter of Walter Freake Pratt, a solicitor from [[Bath, England|Bath]]. On 27 July 1928 he married the popular young singer Olive May Franks (b. 1898/9), of [[Bristol]], daughter of George Franks, a [[Cardiff]] businessman.

==Activities and achievements==
{{More citations needed|section|date=January 2023}}
After leaving the [[University of Nottingham]] in 1882, Fleming took up the post of "electrician" to the Edison Electrical Light Company, advising on lighting systems and the new [[Ferranti]] alternating current systems. In 1884 Fleming joined University College London taking up the Chair of Electrical Technology, the first of its kind in England. Although this offered great opportunities, he recalls in his autobiography that the only equipment provided to him was a blackboard and piece of chalk. In 1897 the Pender Laboratory was founding at University College London and Fleming took up the [[Pender Chair]] after the £5000 was endowed as a memorial to [[John Pender]], the founder of [[Cable & Wireless plc|Cable and Wireless]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/electronic-electrical-engineering/about/history-0|title=History: The early years, 1885–1950|website=UCL Electronic and Electrical Engineering|date=24 September 2018 |access-date=13 January 2023}}</ref>

In 1899 [[Guglielmo Marconi]], the inventor of radiotelegraphy, decided to attempt transatlantic radio communication. This would require a scale-up in power from the small 200–400 watt transmitters Marconi had used up to then. He contracted Fleming, an expert in power engineering, to design the radio transmitter. Fleming designed the world's first large [[radio transmitter]], a complicated [[spark gap transmitter|spark transmitter]] powered by a 25&nbsp;kW alternator driven by a combustion engine, built at [[Poldhu]] in [[Cornwall]], UK, which transmitted the first radio transmission across the Atlantic on 12 December 1901.

Although Fleming was responsible for the design, the director of the Marconi Co. had made Fleming agree that: "If we get across the Atlantic, the main credit will be and must forever be Mr. Marconi's". Accordingly, the worldwide acclaim that greeted this landmark accomplishment went to Marconi, who only credited Fleming along with several other Marconi employees, saying he did some work on the "power plant".<ref>{{cite journal |author=Cornwall Archaeological Society |title=Cornish archaeology |publisher=Cornwall Archaeological Society |oclc=8562888 }}</ref> Marconi also forgot a promise to give Fleming 500 shares of Marconi stock if the project was successful. Fleming was bitter about his treatment. He honoured his agreement and did not speak about it throughout Marconi's life, but after his death in 1937 said Marconi had been "very ungenerous".

In 1904, working for the Marconi company to improve transatlantic radio reception, Fleming invented the first [[thermionic]] [[vacuum tube]], the two-electrode [[diode]], which he called the oscillation valve, for which he received a patent on 16 November.<ref>Fleming Valve patent {{US patent|803684}}</ref> It became known as the [[Fleming valve]]. The [[Supreme Court of the United States]] later invalidated the patent because of an improper disclaimer and, additionally, maintained the technology in the patent was known art when filed.<ref>[http://www.mercurians.org/nov98/misreading.html "Misreading the Supreme Court: A Puzzling Chapter in the History of Radio"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091219110734/http://www.mercurians.org/nov98/misreading.html 
|date=19 December 2009 }}. November 1998, Mercurians.org.</ref>

This invention of the [[vacuum tube]] is often considered to have been the beginning of [[electronics]].<ref>J.Summerscale (ed.) (1965). "The Penguin Encyclopedia", Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, UK.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Macksey |first1=Kenneth |last2=Woodhouse |first2=William |year=1991 |chapter=Electronics |title=The Penguin encyclopedia of modern warfare: 1850 to the present day |publisher=Viking |page=110 |isbn=978-0-670-82698-8 |quote=The electronics age may be said to have been ushered in with the invention of the vacuum diode valve in 1902 by the Briton John Fleming (himself coining the word "electronics"), the immediate application being in the field of radio.}}</ref> Fleming's diode was used in radio receivers and [[radars]] for many decades afterwards, until it was superseded by [[solid state (electronics)|solid state]] electronic technology more than 50 years later.
[[File:John Ambrose Fleming 1906.png|thumb|John Ambrose Fleming (1906)]]
In 1906, [[Lee De Forest]] of the US added a control "grid" to the valve to create an amplifying [[vacuum tube]] RF detector called the ''[[Audion]]'', leading Fleming to accuse him of infringing his patents. De Forest's tube developed into the [[triode]] the first electronic [[amplifier]]. The triode was vital in the creation of long-distance telephone and radio communications, radars, and early electronic digital computers (mechanical and electro-mechanical digital computers already existed using different technology). The court battle over these patents lasted for many years with victories at different stages for both sides. Fleming also contributed in the fields of [[photometry (optics)|photometry]], [[electronics]], [[wireless telegraphy]] (radio), and electrical measurements. He coined the term ''[[power factor]]'' to describe the true power flowing in an [[AC power]] system.

Fleming retired from University College London in 1927 at the age of 77. He remained active, becoming a committed advocate of the new technology of Television which included serving as the second president of the [[Television Society]]. He was [[Knight Bachelor|knighted]] in 1929, and died at his home in [[Sidmouth]], Devon in 1945. His contributions to electronic communications and [[radar]] were of vital importance in winning [[World War II]]. Fleming was awarded the [[IEEE Medal of Honor|IRE Medal of Honor]] in 1933 for "the conspicuous part he played in introducing physical and engineering principles into the radio art".

In 1941 the [[London Power Company]] commemorated Fleming by naming a new 1,555 [[Gross register tonnage|GRT]] [[Coastal trading vessel|coastal]] [[Collier (ship type)|collier]] SS ''Ambrose Fleming''.<ref name=Burntisland>{{cite web |url=http://www.burntisland.net/ships-list-anderson.htm |title=Ships built by the Burntisland Shipbuilding Company Ltd: arranged by date of launch |last=Anderson |first=James B |editor-last=Sommerville |editor-first=Iain |year=2008 |work=Welcome to Burntisland |publisher=Iain Sommerville |access-date=16 June 2011}}</ref>

On 27 November 2004 a [[Blue Plaque]] presented by the [[Institute of Physics]] was unveiled at the [[Norman Lockyer Observatory]], [[Sidmouth]], to mark 100 years since the invention of the thermionic radio valve.

==Creationism==

Fleming was a Christian creationist who argued against evolution.<ref>{{cite journal|year=1935|title=Brief Notices|journal=The Quarterly Review of Biology|volume=10|issue=4|pages=452–491|doi=10.1086/394495 |jstor=2808468|s2cid=201792104 }}</ref>  He was President of the [[Victoria Institute]] from 1927 to 1942.<ref name="frs">{{Cite journal | last1 = Eccles | first1 = W. H. | author-link = William Eccles (physicist)| title = John Ambrose Fleming. 1849-1945 | doi = 10.1098/rsbm.1945.0014 | journal = [[Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society]] | volume = 5 | issue = 14 | pages = 231–242 | year = 1945 | s2cid = 192193265| url=https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsbm.1945.0014}}</ref>

== Collections ==
In 1945 Fleming's widow donated Fleming's library and papers to [[University College London]]. Fleming's library, which totals around 950 items, includes first editions of works by prominent scientists and engineers such as [[James Clerk Maxwell]], [[Oliver Lodge]], [[James Dewar]] and [[Shelford Bidwell]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=UCL Special Collections |date=2018-08-23 |title=Fleming Book Collection |url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/library/special-collections/a-z/fleming-books |access-date=2023-12-06 |website=UCL Special Collections |language=en}}</ref> Fleming's archive spans 521 volumes and 12 boxes; it contains his laboratory notebooks, lecture notes, patent specifications, and correspondence.<ref>{{Cite web |last=UCL Special Collections |title=Fleming Papers |url=https://archives.ucl.ac.uk/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=MS+ADD+122 |access-date=2023-12-06 |website=UCL Archives Catalogue}}</ref>

==Books by Fleming==
*''Electric Lamps and Electric Lighting: A course of four lectures on electric illumination delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain'' (1894) 228 pages, {{OCLC|8202914}}.
*''The Alternate Current Transformer in Theory and Practice'' "The Electrician" Printing and Publishing Company (1896)
*''Magnets and Electric Currents'' E. & F. N. Spon. (1898)
*''A Handbook for the Electrical Laboratory and Testing Room'' "The Electrician" Printing and Publishing Company (1901)
*''Waves and Ripples in Water, Air, and Aether'' MacMillan (1902).
*''The Evidence of Things Not Seen'' Christian Knowledge Society: London (1904)
*''The Principles of Electric Wave Telegraphy'' (1906), Longmans Green, London, 671 pages.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Review: ''The Principles of Electric Wave Telegraphy'' by J. A. Fleming|journal=[[Athenaeum (British magazine)|The Athenaeum]]|number=4196|pages=386–387|date=28 March 1908|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XSI5AQAAIAAJ&pg=PA386|last1=Buckingham|first1=James Silk|last2=Sterling|first2=John|last3=Maurice|first3=Frederick Denison|last4=Stebbing|first4=Henry|last5=Dilke|first5=Charles Wentworth|last6=Hervey|first6=Thomas Kibble|last7=Dixon|first7=William Hepworth|last8=MacColl|first8=Norman|last9=Rendall|first9=Vernon Horace|last10=Murry|first10=John Middleton}}</ref>
*''The Propagation of Electric Currents in Telephone and Telegraph Conductors'' (1908) Constable, 316 pages.
*''An Elementary Manual of Radiotelegraphy and Radiotelephony'' (1911) Longmans Green, London, 340 pages.
*''On the power factor and conductivity of dielectrics when tested with alternating electric currents of telephonic frequency at various temperatures '' (1912) Gresham, 82 pages, ASIN: B0008CJBIC
*''The Wonders of Wireless Telegraphy : Explained in simple terms for the non-technical reader'' Society for promoting Christian Knowledge (1913)
*''The Wireless Telegraphist's Pocket Book of Notes, Formulae and Calculations'' The Wireless Press (1915)
*''The Thermionic Valve and its Development in Radio Telegraphy and Telephony'' (1919).
*''Fifty Years of Electricity'' The Wireless Press (1921)
*''Electrons, Electric Waves and Wireless telephony'' The Wireless Press (1923)
*''Introduction to Wireless Telegraphy and Telephony'' Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons Ltd. (1924)
*''Mercury-arc Rectifiers and Mercury-vapour Lamps'' London. Pitman (1925)
*''The Electrical Educator'' (3 volumes), The New Era Publishing Co Ltd (1927)
*''Television'' Television Press London. (1928)
*''Memories of a Scientific life'' Marshall, Morgan & Scott (1934)
*''Evolution or Creation?'' (1938) Marshall Morgan and Scott, 114 pages, ASIN: B00089BL7Y – outlines objections to Darwin.
*''Mathematics for Engineers'' George Newnes Ltd (1938)
*''Physics for Engineers'' George Newnes Ltd (1941)

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
*{{Commons category-inline}}
{{wikisource author}}
*{{Gutenberg author | id=39516| name=John Ambrose Fleming}}
*{{Internet Archive author |sname=Sir John Ambrose Fleming}}
*{{cite book |title=History of Wireless |url=https://archive.org/details/historywireless00sark_558 |url-access=limited |last1=Mitchell |first1=John |last2=Griffiths |first2=Hugh |last3=Boyd |first3=Ian |editor1-first=Tapan |editor1-last=Sarkar |editor2-first=Robert |editor2-last=Mailloux |editor3-first=Arthur |editor3-last=Oliner |editor4-first=Magdalena |editor4-last=Salaza-Palma |editor5-first=Dipak |editor5-last=Sengupta |year=2006 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |location=New Jersey |isbn=0-471-71814-9 |pages= [https://archive.org/details/historywireless00sark_558/page/n332 311]–326 |ref=Sarkar06 |editor-link1=Tapan Sarkar |editor-link3=Arthur A. Oliner}}
*[http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/John_Fleming IEEE History Center biography]
*[http://www.ee.ucl.ac.uk Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering, UCL – home of the original Fleming valve]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070127193558/http://www.ee.ucl.ac.uk/Fleming/ 100 Years of Electronics 2004 – The Centenary of the Fleming Valve]
*[https://www.electronics-notes.com/articles/history/pioneers/sir-john-ambrose-fleming.php Life and Times of Ambrose Fleming]
*[https://www.ucl.ac.uk/library/special-collections/a-z/fleming-books Fleming Book Collection] at [[University College London]]
*[https://archives.ucl.ac.uk/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=MS+ADD+122 Fleming Papers] at [[University College London]]

{{IEEE Medal of Honor Laureates 1926-1950}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fleming, John Ambrose}}
[[Category:1849 births]]
[[Category:1945 deaths]]
[[Category:British Christian creationists]]
[[Category:People from Lancaster, Lancashire]]
[[Category:People from Maida Vale]]
[[Category:English physicists]]
[[Category:English electrical engineers]]
[[Category:English inventors]]
[[Category:English knights]]
[[Category:Academics of University College London]]
[[Category:Academics of the University of Nottingham]]
[[Category:Alumni of University College London]]
[[Category:Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:IEEE Medal of Honor recipients]]
[[Category:European amateur radio operators]] <!-- one of the 1st radio amateurs in Europe -->
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:People educated at University College School]]
[[Category:History of radio in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Alumni of the Royal College of Science]]
[[Category:Knights Bachelor]]
[[Category:People educated at Lancaster Royal Grammar School]]
[[Category:Recipients of Franklin Medal]]