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{{short description|British physicist and engineer (1855–1935)}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox scientist
|name = Sir Alfred Ewing
|image =James A Ewing 1855-1835.jpg
|image_size =
|caption =
|birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1855|03|27}}
|birth_place = [[Dundee]], Scotland
|death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1935|01|07|1855|03|27}}
|death_place =
|residence =
|citizenship =
|nationality = Scottish
|ethnicity =
|field = [[physics]] and engineering
|work_institutions = [[University of Edinburgh]]
|alma_mater =
|doctoral_advisor =
|doctoral_students =
|known_for = [[hysteresis]]
|author_abbrev_bot =
|author_abbrev_zoo =
|influences =
|influenced =
|prizes = [[Royal Medal]] {{small|(1895)}}<br>[[Albert Medal (Royal Society of Arts)|Albert Medal]] {{small|(1929)}}
|religion =
|footnotes =
|signature =
}}

'''Sir James Alfred Ewing''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|KCB|FRS|FRSE|DL}}<ref name="frs">{{Cite journal | last1 = Glazebrook | first1 = R. T. | author-link = Richard Glazebrook| title = James Alfred Ewing. 1855-1935 | doi = 10.1098/rsbm.1935.0011 | journal = [[Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society]] | volume = 1 | issue = 4 | pages = 475–492 | year = 1935 | jstor = 768978}}</ref> <small>[[Institution of Civil Engineers|MInstitCE]]</small> (27 March 1855 − 7 January 1935) was a Scottish [[physicist]] and engineer, best known for his work on the [[magnetism|magnetic]] properties of metals and, in particular, for his discovery of, and coinage of the word, ''[[hysteresis]]''.

It was said of Ewing that he was 'Careful at all times of his appearance, his suits were mostly grey, added to which he generally wore – whatever the fashion – a white piqué stripe to his waistcoat, a mauve shirt, a white butterfly collar and a dark blue bow tie with white spots.'{{cn|date=May 2019}} He was regarded as brilliant and successful, but was conscious of his dignity and position. On appointment to head the newly created Admiralty codebreaking department, the Director of Naval Intelligence, [[Henry Oliver]], described him as 'too distinguished a man to be placed officially under the orders of the Director of Intelligence or Chief of Staff'. His first wife, Annie, was an American, a great great niece of [[George Washington]].<ref>Beesley p. 10</ref>

==Life==

===Early life===
Born in [[Dundee]], [[Scotland]], Ewing was the third son of the Reverend James Ewing a minister of the [[Free Church of Scotland (1843-1900)|Free Church of Scotland]].<ref name="Archives Records and Artefacts">{{cite web|title=Notable University Figures (1): Sir James Alfred Ewing|url=http://www.archives-records-artefacts.blogspot.com/2011/06/notable-university-figures-1-sir-james.html|publisher=Archives Records and Artefacts at the University of Dundee|access-date=12 June 2015|date=29 June 2011}}</ref> He was educated at West End Academy and the [[High School of Dundee]], Ewing showed an early interest in science and technology.

{{Quotation|In a family whose chief interests were clerical and literary, I took my pleasure in machines and experiments. My scanty pocket money was spent on tools and chemicals. The domestic attic was put at my disposal. It became the scene of hair-raising explosions. There too the domestic cat found herself an unwilling instrument of electrification and a partner in various shocking experiences.<ref>[http://www-g.eng.cam.ac.uk/125/1875-1900/ewing.html University of Cambridge biography]</ref>}}

Ewing won a scholarship to the [[University of Edinburgh]] where he studied physics under [[Peter Guthrie Tait]] before graduating in engineering. During his summer vacations, he worked on [[telegraph]] cable laying expeditions, including one to [[Brazil]], under [[William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin]] and [[Fleeming Jenkin]].

===Japan===
In 1878, on [[Fleeming Jenkin|Fleeming Jenkin's]] recommendation, Ewing was recruited to help the modernisation of [[Meiji Era]] Japan as one of the ''[[o-yatoi gaikokujin]]'' (hired foreigners). Serving as professor of mechanical engineering at the [[Tokyo Imperial University]], he was instrumental in founding Japanese [[seismology]].

Ewing made two special friends at Tokyo University soon after arriving: [[Basil Hall Chamberlain]] and [[Thomas Henry James|Lieutenant Thomas Henry James RN]], who taught navigation. He was also in close contact with [[Henry Dyer]] and [[William Edward Ayrton]] at the [[Imperial College of Engineering]] (''Kobu Dai Gakkō'').

In Tokyo, Ewing taught courses on mechanics and [[heat engine|heat engines]] to engineering students, and on electricity and magnetism to physics students. He carried out many research projects on magnetism and coined the word '[[hysteresis]]'. His investigations into earthquakes led him to help develop the first modern [[seismometer|seismograph]], alongside [[Thomas Lomar Gray|Thomas Gray]] and [[John Milne]] of the Imperial College of Engineering, from 1880 to 1895. All three men worked as a team on the invention and use of seismographs, though Milne is generally credited with the invention of the first modern horizontal-pendulum seismograph.

Ewing joined Gray and Milne in founding the [[Seismological Society of Japan]] (SSJ) in 1880.<ref>Massachusetts Institute of Technology, [https://web.archive.org/web/20050511093728/http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/milne.html Inventor, John Milne]</ref>

===Return to Dundee===
In 1883, Ewing returned to his native [[Dundee]] to work at the recently established [[University of Dundee|University College Dundee]] as its first Professor of Engineering.<ref name="University Education in Dundee">{{cite book|last=Shafe|first=Michael|title=University Education in Dundee: A Pictorial History|year=1982|publisher=University of Dundee|location=Dundee|page=13}}</ref> He was appalled by the living conditions he found in many of the poorer areas of the town which he felt compared unfavourably with those in Japan. He worked fervently with local government and industry to improve amenities, in particular [[sanitary sewer|sewer]] systems, and to lower the [[infant mortality rate]]. Some of the letters Ewing wrote at this time are now held by Archive Services, [[University of Dundee]] along with some of his other papers.<ref name="Archives Records and Artefacts"/><ref name="University of Dundee Archive Service Catalogue">{{cite web|title=University of Dundee Archives Services Online Catalogue|url=http://arccat.dundee.ac.uk/dserve.exe?&dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqCmd=overview.tcl&dsqSearch=((text)=%27UR-SF%2044%27)|publisher=University of Dundee|access-date=12 June 2015}}</ref>

A reminder of Ewing's connection with both University College and the city of [[Dundee]] is the [[University of Dundee]]'s Ewing Building which was built in 1954 and named in his honour.<ref name="Archives Records and Artefacts"/><ref name="University Education in Dundee2">{{cite book|last=Shafe|first=Michael|title=University Education in Dundee: A Pictorial History|year=1982|publisher=University of Dundee|location=Dundee|pages=112–114}}</ref> The Ewing Building is currently part of the University's School of Science and Engineering.

===University of Cambridge===
In 1890, Ewing took up the post of Professor of Mechanism and Applied Mechanics at the [[University of Cambridge]], initially at [[Trinity College, Cambridge|Trinity College]], though he later moved to [[King's College, Cambridge|King's College]].<ref>{{acad|id=EWN891JA|name=Ewing, James Alfred}}</ref> At Cambridge, Ewing's research into the magnetisation of metals led him to criticise the conventional account of [[Wilhelm Eduard Weber|Wilhelm Weber]]. In 1890, he observed that magnetisation lagged behind an applied [[alternating current]]. He described the characteristic hysteresis curve and speculated that individual molecules act as magnets, resisting changes in magnetising potential. (Note: According to the book ''Sir Alfred Ewing: A Pioneer in Physics and Engineering'' (1946) by Professor Bates, the discovery of magnetic hysteresis probably occurred before Ewing. However, Ewing re-discovered it, studied it in detail and coined the word ''[[hysteresis]]'').{{fact|date=February 2019}}

Ewing also researched into the crystalline structure of metals and, in 1903, was the first to propose that [[fatigue (material)|fatigue failures]] originated in microscopic defects or ''[[dislocation#Dislocations, slip and plasticity|slip bands]]'' in materials. In 1895 he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Society for his work on Magnetic Induction in Iron and other Metals.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=EWING, James Alfred|magazine=Who's Who|year=1907|volume= 59|page=571|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yEcuAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA571}}</ref>

Ewing was a close friend of Sir [[Charles Algernon Parsons]] and collaborated with him on the development of the [[steam turbine]]. During this time, Ewing published ''The Steam Engine and other Heat Engines'' around this time. In 1897 he took part in the sea-trials of the experimental vessel ''[[Turbinia]]'', which set a new speed record of 35 knots.{{fact|date=February 2019}}

In 1898, Ewing took his wife and children to [[Switzerland]] for a [[mountaineering]] holiday with the family of noted Professor of Electrical Engineering at [[King's College London|King's College]], [[John Hopkinson]]. All five of the Hopkinson brothers were members of the Alpine Club and soon initiated Ewing into the sport of rock climbing. On 27 August, John Hopkinson set out with his son Jack and two of his three daughters to climb. Ewing decided not to go with them as he was feeling a little stiff after his climb the previous day. The party never returned, and was found the next morning, all four bodies roped together five hundred feet below the summit.{{fact|date=February 2019}}

In 1898 Ewing was elected to a Professorial Fellowship at King's College.{{fact|date=February 2019}}

===Admiralty===
On 8 April 1903, ''[[The Times]]'' announced that the [[Board of Admiralty]] selected Ewing for the newly created post of Director of Naval Education (DNE) in [[Greenwich]].<ref>The Times, Wednesday, 8 April 1903; The New Director of Naval Education. Category: Official Appointments and Notices.</ref>

He married Anne Maria Thomasina Blackburn Washington on 14 May 1879 in Tokyo, Japan. She was a descendant of President [[George Washington]]'s brother [[John Augustine Washington]]. Ewing's first wife, Annie (née Washington) died in 1909 and, in 1912, he married Ellen, the surviving daughter of his old friend and patron, John Hopkinson. He had two children with his first wife: Maud Janet Wills, née Ewing (20 May 1880 – 27 April 1952) and Alfred Washington Ewing (1 November 1881 – 5 December 1962).

As reward for his services, Ewing was made Companion of the [[Order of the Bath]] in 1906 and then Knight Commander of the Bath in 1911.<ref name="Beesley p.10">Beesley p.10</ref>

During [[World War I]], from 1914 to May 1917, Ewing managed ''[[Room 40]]'', the Admiralty intelligence department of [[cryptanalysis]], responsible predominantly for the decryption of intercepted [[Imperial German Navy|German naval messages]]. In this capacity, he achieved considerable fame in the popular press when Room 40 deciphered the [[Zimmermann Telegram]] in 1917 (which suggested a German plot to assist [[Mexico]] in recovering the southwestern United States). The publication of the Zimmermann Telegram is generally credited as the trigger event which brought American into the Great War.

===University of Edinburgh===
In May 1916 Ewing accepted an invitation to become [[Principal of the University of Edinburgh]], in the course of which he instituted an extensive series of effective reforms and which he held until his retirement in 1929. In 1927 he gave a lecture to the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution which contained the first semi-official disclosure of the work done by Room 40.<ref name="Beesley p.10"/> A house in [[Pollock Halls of Residence]] is named in his honour.{{fact|date=February 2019}}

Sir Alfred Ewing died in 1935 and is buried at the [[Ascension Parish Burial Ground, Cambridge|Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground]] in Cambridge, with his second wife [[Lady Ellen Ewing]], the daughter of [[John Hopkinson]].<ref name="Made them">{{cite book | title = Manchester Made Them | date=2001| first = Katharine| last = Chorley | isbn= 978-1902685090 |publisher =Silk Press Ltd | chapter= Introduction }}</ref>

==Honours==
*Fellow of the [[Royal Society of Edinburgh]] (1878);
*Fellow of the [[Royal Society]] (1887);<ref name="frs"/>

* Honorary membership of the [[Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society]] (1900);<ref>Memoirs And Proceedings Of The Manchester Literary And Philosophical Society Vol-46-47 (1947)</ref>

*[[LL.D.]] (''[[honoris causa]]''), [[University of Edinburgh]] (1902)<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=University intelligence |date=10 March 1902 |page=11 |issue=36711}}</ref>
*[[The Franklin Institute Awards|John Scott Medal]] (1907);
*[[Order of the Bath|CB]] (1907);
*[[Order of the Bath|KCB]] (1911);
*President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1924–1929);
*[[Albert Medal (RSA)|Albert Medal]] of the [[Royal Society of Arts]] (1929);
*President of the [[British Association for the Advancement of Science]] (1932);
*The [[James Alfred Ewing Medal]] of the [[Institution of Civil Engineers]] has been awarded for ''specially meritorious contributions to the science of engineering in the field of research'' since 1938.

==Works==
* 1877: (with [[Fleeming Jenkin]]) [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/121556#page/322/mode/1up On Friction between Surfaces moving at Low Speeds], [[Philosophical Magazine]] Series 5, volume 4, pp 308–10, link from [[Biodiversity Heritage Library]].
* 1883: ''A Treatise on Earthquake Measurement''.
* 1899: [https://archive.org/details/strengthofmateri00ewin Strength of Materials], link from [[Internet Archive]].
* 1900: [https://archive.org/details/magneticinductio00ewinuoft Magnetic Induction in Iron and Other Metals, 3rd edition], link from Internet Archive.
* 1910: [https://archive.org/details/cu31924004249532 The Steam Engine and Other Engines, 3rd edition], from Internet Archive.
* 1911: [https://archive.org/details/examplesinmathem00ewiniala Examples in Mathematics, Mechanics, Navigation and Nautical Astronomy, Heat and Steam, Electricity, for the use of Junior Officers Afloat].
* 1920: [https://archive.org/details/thermodynamicsfo00ewinuoft Thermodynamics for Engineers], link from Internet Archive.
* 1921: [https://archive.org/details/mechanicalproduc00ewinuoft The Mechanical Production of Cold, second edition], [[Cambridge University Press]], link from Internet Archive.
* 1933: ''An Engineer's Outlook'', London: [[Methuen Publishing]]<ref>{{Cite journal |doi = 10.1038/132259a0|title = Sir Alfred Ewing's "Monument"|journal = Nature|volume = 132|issue = 3329|pages = 259|year = 1933|s2cid = 186243018|doi-access = free}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Anglo-Japanese relations]]
*[[Room 40]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{Find a Grave|99221664}}
* [http://digitalcollections.ucsc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p265101coll10/id/1586/rec/1 Portrait of James Alfred Ewing from the Lick Observatory Records Digital Archive, UC Santa Cruz Library's Digital Collections] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305013846/http://digitalcollections.ucsc.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p265101coll10/id/1586/rec/1 |date=5 March 2016 }}

==Bibliography==
*[[Leslie Fleetwood Bates|Bates, L. F.]] (1946) ''Sir Alfred Ewing: A Pioneer in Physics and Engineering'' {{ISBN|1-114-51704-6}}
*Pedlar, Neil, 'James Alfred Ewing and his circle of pioneering physicists in Meiji Japan', Hoare, J.E. ed., ''Britain & Japan: Biographical Portraits'' Volume III Chapter 8. Japan Library (1999). {{ISBN|1-873410-89-1}}
*{{cite book |title=Room 40: British Naval Intelligence, 1914–1918 |last=Beesly |first=Patrick |author-link=Patrick Beesly |year=1982 |publisher=Hamish Hamilton Ltd |location=Long Acre, London |isbn=0-241-10864-0}}
*{{wikisource author-inline}}
{{s-start}}
{{succession box | before=[[William Turner (anatomist)|Sir William Turner]] | title=[[Edinburgh University Principals]] | years=1916–1926| after=[[Thomas Henry Holland]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ewing, James Alfred}}
[[Category:Scottish civil engineers]]
[[Category:Scottish physicists]]
[[Category:1855 births]]
[[Category:1935 deaths]]
[[Category:British people of World War I]]
[[Category:Scientists from Dundee]]
[[Category:Academics of the University of Dundee]]
[[Category:Academics of the University of Edinburgh]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh]]
[[Category:Principals of the University of Edinburgh]]
[[Category:Academics of the University of Cambridge]]
[[Category:Fellows of King's College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Foreign advisors to the government in Meiji-era Japan]]
[[Category:Foreign educators in Japan]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Tokyo]]
[[Category:Scottish expatriates in Japan]]
[[Category:People educated at the High School of Dundee]]
[[Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath]]
[[Category:Presidents of the Royal Society of Edinburgh]]
[[Category:Presidents of the British Science Association]]
[[Category:Deputy lieutenants of Edinburgh]]
[[Category:Royal Medal winners]]
[[Category:Engineers from Dundee]]
[[Category:Professors of engineering (Cambridge, 1875)]]
[[Category:Hopkinson family]]

Alfred Ewing - Revision history

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