born Aug. 23, 1875, Barrow-in-Furness, Lancashire, Eng.
died April 29, 1966, Oxford, Oxfordshire
English physicist.
After receiving his doctorate from the Royal College of Science, he became an early advocate of Oliver Heaviside 's theory that an upper layer of the atmosphere reflects radio waves, enabling their transmission over long distances. In 1912 he suggested that solar radiation accounted for wave-propagation differences between day and night.