John Henry Michell,
FRS (26 October 1863 – 3 February 1940) was an Australian
mathematician
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems.
Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change.
History
On ...
, Professor of Mathematics at the
University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...
.
[
]
Early life
Michell was the son of John Michell (pronounced Mitchell),[ a miner, and his wife Grace, ''née'' Rowse and was born at ]Maldon, Victoria
Maldon is a town in Victoria, Australia, in the Shire of Mount Alexander local government area. It has been designated "Australia's first notable town" and is notable for its 19th-century appearance, maintained since gold-rush days. At the 201 ...
. His parents had migrated from Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...
shire in 1854.[ Educated at first at Maldon, he went to ]Wesley College, Melbourne
, motto_translation = Dare To Be Wise
, slogan = A ''True'' Education (2010 – Present)
, established = 18 January 1866
, type = Independent, day & boarding
, gender ...
, in 1877, where he won the Draper and Walter Powell scholarships. In 1881 he began the arts course at the University of Melbourne, and qualified for the B.A.
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
degree at the end of 1883. He had an outstanding course, heading the list with first-class honours each year, and winning the final honour scholarship in mathematics and physics.
Michell then went to the University of Cambridge
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
, obtained a major scholarship at Trinity College Trinity College may refer to:
Australia
* Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales
* Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...
, and was bracketed senior wrangler
The Senior Frog Wrangler is the top mathematics undergraduate at the University of Cambridge in England, a position which has been described as "the greatest intellectual achievement attainable in Britain."
Specifically, it is the person who a ...
with three others in the first part of the mathematical tripos
At the University of Cambridge, a Tripos (, plural 'Triposes') is any of the examinations that qualify an undergraduate for a bachelor's degree or the courses taken by a student to prepare for these. For example, an undergraduate studying mathe ...
in 1887. In the second part of the tripos in 1888, Michell was placed in division one of the first class.
University of Melbourne
Michell was elected a fellow of Trinity in 1890, but returned to Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
later the same year, and was appointed lecturer in mathematics at Melbourne University. He held this position for over 30 years. His academic work occupied so much of his time that it was difficult to do original research. The first of his papers, "On the theory of free streamlines", which appeared in ''Transactions of the Royal Society'' in 1890, had drawn attention to his ability as a mathematician, and during the following 12 years about 15 papers were contributed to English mathematical journals. It was recognized that these were important contributions to the knowledge of hydrodynamics and elasticity, and in June 1902 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society
Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...
(FRS), London. The number of his students at the University steadily increased, but there was no corresponding staff increase for a long while. Michell continued his research work but none of it was published. In 1923 he became professor of mathematics and, obtaining some increase of staff, established practice-classes and tutorials, thus considerably improving the efficiency of his department.[ Michell resigned the chair at the end of 1928 and was given the title of honorary research professor. He died after a short illness on 3 February 1940 at ]Camberwell
Camberwell () is a district of South London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark, southeast of Charing Cross.
Camberwell was first a village associated with the church of St Giles and a common of which Goose Green is a remnant. This e ...
. Michell did not marry. Michell published ''The Elements of Mathematical Analysis'' (1937), a substantial work in two volumes written in collaboration with Maurice Belz Maurice may refer to:
People
*Saint Maurice (died 287), Roman legionary and Christian martyr
*Maurice (emperor) or Flavius Mauricius Tiberius Augustus (539–602), Byzantine emperor
*Maurice (bishop of London) (died 1107), Lord Chancellor and Lo ...
.[
]
Legacy
Michell was regarded as a shy man and was one of the earliest graduates of an Australian university to be elected to the Royal Society. He was a good teacher, good-natured and patient with students, but his heart was really in his research work. His assistance was freely given to his engineering friends in clearing up their problems, and he did a good deal of physical experimentation including the devising and construction of several new forms of gyroscopes. He was continually at work, and it is not known why he did not choose to publish any papers after 1902. The value of his paper on "The wave resistance of a ship", published in 1898, was not realized until some 30 years later, when both English and German designers began to recognize its importance. Michell's brother, Anthony Michell
Anthony George Maldon Michell FRS (21 June 1870 – 17 February 1959) was an Australian mechanical engineer of the early 20th century.
Early life
Michell was born in London while his parents were on a visit to England from Australia to which th ...
(born 1870) made significant contributions to mechanical science, including the famous Michell thrust bearing.[
During a relatively short research career, Michell published 23 scientific papers that are some of the most important contributions ever made by an Australian mathematician.
A mini-symposium has held at the 3rd Biennial Engineering Mathematics and Applications Conference (EMAC '98) celebrating the centenary of the publication of Michell's famous 1898 paper on ship ]hydrodynamics
In physics and engineering, fluid dynamics is a subdiscipline of fluid mechanics that describes the flow of fluids—liquids and gases. It has several subdisciplines, including ''aerodynamics'' (the study of air and other gases in motion) and ...
, ''The wave resistance of a ship'', Phil. Mag. (5) 45 (1898) 106-123.[
Since 1999, The JH Michell Medal has been awarded by ]ANZIAM
The Australian Mathematical Society (AustMS) was founded in 1956 and is the national society of the mathematics profession in Australia. One of the Society's listed purposes is to promote the cause of mathematics in the community by representing t ...
in his honour.The JH Michell Medal
www.anziam.org.au
Publications of J.H. Michell
# The small deformation of curves and surfaces with applications to the vibrations of a helix and a circular ring, Messeng. Math. 19, (1890) 68-82.
# On the exhaustion of Neumann's mode of solution for the motion of solids of revolution in liquids, and similar problems, Messeng. Math. 19 (1890) 83-86.
# Vibrations of a string stretched on a surface, Messeng. Math. 19 (1890) 87-88.
# On the stability of a bent and twisted wire, Messeng. Math. 19 (1890) 181-184.
# On the theory of free stream lines, Phil. Trans. A. 181 (1890) 389-431.
# On a property of algebraic curves, Australasian Assoc. Adv. Sci. Report (1892) 257.
# On the bulging of flat plates, Australasian Assoc. Adv. Sci. Report (1892) 258.
# The highest waves in water, Phil. Mag. (5) 36 (1893) 430-437.
# A map of the complex Z-function: a condenser problem, Messeng. Math. 23 (1894) 72-78.
# The wave resistance of a ship, Phil. Mag. (5) 45 (1898) 106-123.
# On the direct determination of stress in an elastic solid, with application to the theory of plates, Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. 31 (1899) 100-124.
# The stress in a rotating lamina, Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. 31 (1899) 124-130.
# The uniform torsion and flexure of incomplete tores, with application to helical springs, Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. 31 (1899) 130-146.
# The transmission of stress across a plane of discontinuity in an isotropic elastic solid, and the potential solutions for a plane boundary, Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. 31 (1899) 183-192.
# Some elementary distributions of stress in three dimensions, Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. 32 (1900) 23-35.
# Elementary distributions of plane stress, Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. 32 (1900) 35-61.
# The stress in an aeolotropic elastic solid with an infinite plane boundary, Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. 32 (1900) 247-258.
# The stress in the web of a plate girder, Quart. J. Pure Appl. Math. 31 (1900) 377-382.
# The theory of uniformly loaded beams, Quart. J. Pure Appl. Math. 32 (1900) 28-42.
# The determination of the stress in an isotropic elastic sphere by means of intrinsic equations, Messeng. Math. n.s. 350 (1900) 16-25.
# The uniplanar stability of a rigid body, Messeng. Math. n.s. 351 (1900) 35-40.
# The inversion of plane stress, Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. 34 (1902) 134-142.
# The flexure of a circular plate, Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. 34 (1902) 223-228.
# (with M.H. Belz) The elements of mathematical analysis (2 vols) Macmillan 1937.
Further reading
* E.O. Tuck, "The wave resistance formula of J.H. Michell (1898) and its significance to recent research in ship hydrodynamics", J. Austral. Math. Soc. Series B 30 (989) 365-377;
* A. Goriely, "Twisted elastic rings and the rediscoveries of Michell's instability", J. Elasticity 84, 281–299. (2006)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Michell, John Henry
1863 births
1940 deaths
Mathematicians from Melbourne
Senior Wranglers
Fellows of the Royal Society
People educated at Wesley College (Victoria)
University of Melbourne alumni
University of Melbourne faculty
People from Maldon, Victoria