Napier Shaw

Napier Shaw
Born March 4, 1854
Birmingham, England, UK
Died March 23, 1945 (1945-03-24) (aged 91)
London
Nationality United Kingdom
Known for Tephigram
Awards Royal Medal (1923)
Scientific career
Fields Meteorologist

Sir William Napier Shaw FRS[1] HFRSE LLD (March 4, 1854 – March 23, 1945), was a British meteorologist.[2] He introduced the tephigram, a diagram of temperature changes.[3]

Biography

Shaw was born at 84 Vyse Street in Birmingham the son of Charles Thomas Shaw, a goldsmith and jeweller, and his wife, Kezia Lauden. He was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham.[4]

He studied at Cambridge University graduating MA in 1876, then at the University of Berlin in Berlin.

Returning to Britain he began as a Demonstrator in Physics at the Cavendish Laboratory linked to Cambridge University in 1879. In 1887 he began lecturing in Experimental Physics. In 1898 he became Assistant Director of the Cavendish Laboratory.

In 1891, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.[1][5][6]

In 1900 he became Secretary of the Meteorological Council. From 1905 to 1907 he was Director of the Meteorological Office. In 1907 he became the first Professor of Meteorology at Imperial College, London.[7]

In 1911 he served as President of the International Meteorological Committee.[8] In 1915, he developed the tephigram. He was knighted by King George V later than year.

He was President of the Royal Meteorological Society 1918/19. In 1933 he was elected an honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.[9]

Shaw also studied air pollution, and was the first to study and discuss smog and look at its health problems.

Shaw retired in 1924 aged 70 and died in London aged 91.

Family

In 1885 he married Sarah Jane Dugdale Harland (d.1923). They had no children.[10]

Publications

  • Practical Physics (1893)
  • Forecasting Weather (1911)
  • Articles on "Dew", "Fog","Squall" and "Sunshine" in Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911)
  • The Smoke Problem of Great Cities (1925)
  • Manual of Meteorology (1926) plus several later editions

Honours and awards

References

  1. 1 2 Gold, E. (1945). "William Napier Shaw. 1854-1945". Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society. 5 (14): 203. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1945.0013.
  2. ↑ "Obituary Notice: Shaw, William Napier". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 106 (1): 35–37. 1946. Bibcode:1946MNRAS.106...35.. doi:10.1093/mnras/106.1.35.
  3. ↑ Burton, J. (2004). "William Napier Shaw – Father of modern meteorology". Weather. 59 (11): 307. Bibcode:2004Wthr...59..307B. doi:10.1256/wea.45.04.
  4. ↑ Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0 902 198 84 X.
  5. ↑ Addison, Henry Robert; Oakes, Charles Henry; Lawson, William John; Sladen, Douglas Brooke Wheelton (1907). "SHAW, William Napier". Who's Who. Vol. 59. pp. 1591–1592.
  6. ↑  Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). "Shaw, William Napier". New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
  7. ↑ Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0 902 198 84 X.
  8. ↑ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/william-napier-shaw-frs/
  9. ↑ Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0 902 198 84 X.
  10. ↑ Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0 902 198 84 X.
  11. ↑ Shaw, Napier. "The convective energy of saturated air in a natural environment". In: Proceedings of the International Congress of Mathematicians in Toronto, August 11–16. 1924. vol. 2. pp. 305–313.


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