Frank Stanley Cotton (30 April 1890 – 23 August 1955) was an Australian lecturer in

physiology Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical ...

, specialising in the study of the effects of physical strain on the human body.

Early life

Cotton was born on 30 April 1890 at Camperdown,

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, New South Wales. His father was the Australian politician Francis Cotton (1857–1942) who was a strong proponent of

Georgism Georgism, also called in modern times Geoism, and known historically as the single tax movement, is an economic ideology holding that, although people should own the value they produce themselves, the economic rent derived from land—including ...

and played a key role in the rise of the Labour movement. He was the younger brother of

Shackleton Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton (15 February 1874 – 5 January 1922) was an Anglo-Irish Antarctic explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic. He was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of An ...

expeditioner and geology professor, Leo Arthur Cotton (1883–1963). Pioneer art photographer

Olive Cotton Olive Cotton (11 July 191127 September 2003) was a pioneering Australian modernist photographer of the 1930s and 1940s working in Sydney. Cotton became a national "name" with a retrospective and touring exhibition 50 years later in 1985. A book ...

was his niece.Nairn (2011) He attended

Sydney Boys High School Sydney Boys High School (”SBHS”), otherwise known as The Sydney High School (“SHS”) or High, is a Education in Australia#Government schools, government-funded Single-sex school, single-sex Selective school (New South Wales), academically s ...

from 1904 to 1908. In 1917, Cotton married Catherine Drummond Smith, a geology demonstrator who taught at the University of Sydney.

Inventions

;Anti-Gravity Suit In 1940, whilst at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

, Professor Cotton invented the "Cotton aerodynamic anti-G flying suit" (

G-suit A g-suit, or anti-''g'' suit, is a flight suit worn by aviators and astronauts who are subject to high levels of acceleration force ( g). It is designed to prevent a black-out and g-LOC (g-induced loss of consciousness) caused by the blood pool ...

), which prevented pilots from blacking out when making high speed turns or pulling out of a dive. This was used extensively by pilots in the Allied air forces during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. ;Ergometer Cotton was also responsible for the ergometer, a machine to test the athletic potential of sportsmen and women. Cotton claimed through this machine to have discovered the swimmers

Jon Henricks John Malcolm Henricks (born 6 June 1935) is an Australian Olympic swimmer who won two gold medals at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. Henricks set world records in two freestyle events. Career Henricks began his competitive swimming ca ...

and

Judy-Joy Davies Judith Joy Davies (5 June 1928 – 27 March 2016) was an Australian former backstroke swimmer of the 1940s and 1950s, who won a bronze medal in the 100-metre backstroke at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. At the national level, she won 17 Au ...

. The Australian swimming coach,

Forbes Carlile Forbes Carlile MBE (3 June 19212 August 2016) was Australia's first post-World War II Olympics swimming coach and later Australia's first competitor in the modern pentathlon at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki. He remains the only person to ...

, began his career as an assistant to Cotton.

Later life

On 23 August 1955, Cotton died at

Hornsby, New South Wales Hornsby is a suburb in the Northern Sydney region, or Upper North Shore of Sydney in the state of New South Wales, Australia, approximately north-west of the Sydney central business district. It is the administrative centre of the local ...

References

*Nairn, Bede, 'Cotton, Frank Stanley (1890–1955)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University

Notes

1890 births 1955 deaths People from Sydney Australian sports scientists Sport Australia Hall of Fame inductees {{Australia-med-bio-stub

Early life

Inventions

Later life

See also

References

Notes