EGERTON, Brian v1

EGERTON_BRIAN_v1

THE ROYAL COMMISSION ON HISTORICAL MANUSCRIPTS Report on the papers of REAR ADMIRAL BRIAN EGERTON (1886-1973) deposited in the Imperial War Museum, London Quality House, Quality Court, Chancery Lane, Reproduced for the Contemporary Scientific THE ROYAL COMMISSION ON HISTORICAL MANUSCRIPTS No. 75/32 All rights reserved Archives Centre (CSAC 29/6/75) vA London WC2A 1HP 1975 THE ROYAL SOCIETY THE ROYAL COMMISSION ON HISTORICAL MANUSCRIPTS Joint Committee on Scientific and Technological Records csac 29/6/75 CONTEMPORARY SCIENTIFIC ARCHIVES CENTRE Papers of Rear Admiral Brian Egerton (1886 - 1973) 1975 Deposited in:the Imperial War Museum, London Listed by: Jeannine Alton Harriot Weiskittel BoE. CSAC. 29/6/75 Description of the collection. The collection supplements other work of Admiral Egerton's already ~ given to the Imperial War Museum by Mrs. A.Dumas. The papers deal with work on mathematical problems, especially those involved in artificial satellites and space exploration, in which Admiral Egerton became interested during his retirement. He seems to have planned several popular +extbooks on these subjects, though none were completed. His Technical Note on Orbits produced considerable controversy and correspondence which forms the bulk of the collection (B5 — B11). The help of Dr. Peter Collins,St. Edmund Hall,Oxford, in sorting and identifying papers and correspondents, is gratefully acknowledged. Unless otherwise stated, all items are manuscript. Titles and des— criptions in inverted commas are those which appear on the manuscripts. Note on the career of Admiral Egerton. Rear Admiral Egerton was born in 1886. He retired from the Navy in 1935 after a distinguished career of the Admiralty, and as Director of Torpedoes and Mining 1928. In 1935 he was ADC to King George V, and was recalled to the Navy in 1939, commanding HMS Vernon, Torpedo, Mining and Electrical Training Establishment. which included service on the Mining Staff; Items B.1 — B.11 Cut = 'C.6 He died in 1973. B. C. Correspondence Contents of the handlist. Drafts and working papers Index to the correspondence BE. C.S.A.C. © 29/6/75 Notebooks A.1 — A.6. Red Analysis Book, pages numbered and indexed by Egerton, with many loose notes & MSS interleaved, some dated 1950. Misc. notes on mathematics, & some more extended drafts; includes copy of letter from L.S.Mordell, commenting unfav— ourably on Ms. submitted to him by Egerton. (c) 1950 Red notebook, labelled '3-T' (= three-—dimensional time). Misc. notes & calculations by Egerton on time & relativity, related press—cuttings; correspondence, & drafts of replies. Ms. by Egerton: "Dimensions of time" 1956 'Visualising 3—dimensional time’ 1955 "Gaussian time* 1955 and shorter undated notes. Green notebook, labelled 'J.L.Pritchard' Notes & drafts by Egerton, & correspondence with Pritchard, mainly on Egerton's 'Technical Note’ on "Spiral and Elliptical Orbits' and matters arising from it. (See also B.2—-B.11). 1956 — 57 Red notebook, with some loose pages interleaved, inscribed inside ‘Astronavigation for Amateurs'; draft for popular book. (Unfinished ) 1957 Black notebook, inscribed ‘Gravitation. Newton's Theory and the 'Classical' Version.'; draft for popular book (unfinished) 1958 Red notebook, ‘Experiments with Numbers for Amateurs"; misc. drafts & notes for popular book, calculations & notes on books read, correspondence with R.L.Gocdstein. *Accelerations' 'Experts and experts’ untitled (on gravitational orbits) "Orbits! "Elliptical & Spiral Orbits of Space-—ships’ ‘Textbooks and Reality' "Gravitation and Inertia’ Misc. Ms. drafts on gravitation & orbits, perhaps intended for popular book.(See A.5 above.) 1960 — 64 Drafts & working pavers B.1 — B.11 BoE. C.SsA.C. 29/6/75 B.2 Ms. drafts: *Privileged point in space and time’ "Least Action’ 'Holmant (comment on newspaper correspondence on recession of the galaxies) 1963. B.3 B.4 of letter on 'Time', with note 'Sent to New Scientist’ Ms. (not published) 1963 Letter to 'N.J.", with outline of Egerton's proposed experiment on ‘least action’. 1965 B.5.— B.11 *Spiral and Elliptical Orbits': Egerton's Technical Note, published in J.Roy aeronaut. Soc.,61, June 1957. B.5 Ms. of note, published paper, editorial correspondence. B.6 Ms. draft of Egerton's reply to criticisms received. B.7 B.8 Critical comments on note, received from Sydney Univ. Rocket Society, & Egerton's draft reply. Comment on note from W.B.Klemperer, Missiles Research Section, douglas Aircraft Co., & Egerton's draft reply. Ms. note by Egerton to unidentified correspondent. Correspondence with J.L.Pritchard on note, criticisms & answers. Misc. copies of letters arising from publication of note, transmitted to Egerton by J.L.Pritchard, many with his comments, & notes for reply by Egerton. Those who sent in comments were: K.E.Baler, E.C.Capey, A.Causon, R.A.Gellatley, W.G.Gilchrist, W.E.Hick, P.C.Parks, R.H.Peacock, Ernest Frederick Relf, RI. Vaughan, H.M.Yeatman. theory of number (with Egerton's draft reply ) Correspondence. C.1 — C.6 letter from A.M.Tyndall, on ‘Expanding Universe?', with Egerton's Ms. of that title. letter from Sir Bernard Lovell, on orbit of Lunik III letter from R.L.Goodstein, on some elementary results in BeE. C.S.A.C. 29/6/75 letter from H.Martyn Cundy, on errors in mathematical textbooks, (with Egerton's Ms. and draft reply) 1964 letter from D.G.King-—Hele, on orbits (with Egerton's draft replies) 1964 Misc. correspondence with setters etc. on mathematical problems set in journals. (Not indexed ) 1966 — 68. Index to principal correspondents. Martyn Le G. B. (2 letters) CUNDY, H. DINGLE, Herbert GOODSTEIN, R. KING-HELE, D. KLEMPERER, W. LOVELL, Sir (Alfred Charles} Bernard McVITTIE,C. MARGERISON, Tom A. Se MORDELL, L. G. PORTER, J. PRITCHARD, James Laurence TYNDALL, Arthur Mannering Ga... C.4 A.2 £6, 63 C.5 B.8 C.2 A.2 A.2 A.1 A.2 A.2, A.3, B10, B.11 C.1