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DR Anthony Derek Appleton (1928–1994)
Cryogenics 35 (1995) 419420 0 1995 Elsevier Science Limited Printed in Great Britam. All rights reserved 0011.2275/95/$10.00
OBITUARY DR ANTHONY DEREK APPLETON (1928-1994) Pioneer in the application of superconductivity engineering
With the death of Tony Appleton on 19 December 1994, after a short illness, the world lost one of the most vigorous pioneers who have been working toward the application of superconductivity to the development of large-scale electrical machinery. Since the discovery of superconductivity in 1911, physicists and engineers have dreamed of applying the phenomenon to the transmission and the manipulation of electrical power with virtually perfect efficiency on a large scale. However, it was not until the early 1960s with the beginnings of the development of suitable superconductors in the form of wires and cables and the development of large helium liquefiers that such a dream was possible. Tony Appleton contributed significantly to the development of superconducting motors and generators, and superconducting magnetic energy storage, to methods of limiting faults in electrical networks such as those which blacked-
to electrical
out the east coast of the United States in the late 1960s and early 197Os, and to the generation of electrical power using magnetohydrodynamics. Tony Appleton was born in London in July 1928 and was educated at grammar schools in London and Manchester. He was awarded his Higher National Certificate in Electrical Power and a State Scholarship in 1947. From 1947 to 1949 he was a Student Apprentice at Johnson & Phillips Ltd. He entered Queen Mary College, University of London receiving his BSc in Electrical Power Engineering with Honours in 1952. From 1952 he was a Graduate Apprentice at General Electric Company (Witton) until he was seconded from the Atomic Energy Division of General Electric Company to the Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Harwell in 1955. He spent two years working on heavy-water reactors followed by two years on controlled
Cryogenics
1995 Volume
35, Number
7
419
Obituary fusion when, in 1961, he became a development engineer working on thermal reactors. In April 1964 he joined the International Research and Development Company (IRD), a fairly new contract research company formed in Newcastle upon Tyne, which was part of the Reyrolle Parsons Group, and later became part of Northern Engineering Industries (NEI). As a design engineer he developed the theory of superconducting homopolar d.c. machines and on behalf of the Ministry of Defence (Navy), National Research and Development Corporation and C.A. Parsons & Co. Ltd a model superconducting 50 hp homopolar motor was built and commissioned in 1966. This machine is now exhibited in the Science Museum, South Kensington, London. In 1966 he was appointed Head of the Electrical Engineering Department of IRD and began the task of building a team of scientists and engineers to design and build a superconducting 3250 hp homopolar motor. Installation of this motor to drive cooling water pumps at the Fawley power station, near Southampton, began in April 1970. In spite of being delayed many weeks by industrial disputes at the power station, installation was completed in September 1970. The cool-down to the operating temperature was delayed due to problems with the helium compressor and it was not until January 197 1 that the machine could be run at 25% of full power. Although the helium compressor was still subject to malfunction, 75% of full power was achieved in Febru ary and full load of 3250 hp in March 197 1. The difficulties with the compressor prevented the handing over of the machine to the Central Electricity Generating Board for service. It would have been a gratifying conclusion to the project and a remarkable event for the first prototype of a new class of machine to go into service without modification. Apart from a small number of defects, none of which were irreparable, the performance of the motor under all load conditions was excellent. The speed with which this project was completed, so soon after the superconducting materials became available, was remarkable. The technical success of the motor with its close speed control over the entire speed range and the advantages to ship design, if electric motors are used, led the Ministry of Defence (Navy) to fund the construction of a 1 MW motor generator combination which was to have been installed in a minesweeper and undergone sea trials in 1973. Due to various factors, such as questions about the consequences of introducing extra systems, in this case cryogenic systems, into military vessels and, in addition, when the ship was not available at the required time, the programme was cancelled. In 1976 Tony Appleton was appointed to the NEI-IRD board and became responsible for all engineering and science projects. In the early 198Os, a new 20 MW superconducting propulsion system of a novel drum design was funded by the MOD (Navy) which again was cancelled in 1984 primarily due to the Navy’s long term assessment of their future needs. Nevertheless from then until the present day, the Navy have kept an active interest in electrical propulsion. From 1976, he started many new projects, such as applying magnetic separation to a wide range of areas from water treatment to medicine and mining. In this period work started on a superconducting fault current limiter, superconducting a.c. generators, and on electrical power generation using magnetohydrodynamics with superconducting magnets to supply the background field. The development of an electric rail-gun was undertaken using a superconducting
420
Cryogenics
1995 Volume
35, Number
7
pulse generator based on the technology from the homopolar motor. This work has now been transferred to RARDE. In this period he was responsible for a wide range of R&D contracts in engineering and applied science. His technical competence, insight and inventiveness are reflected in 17 patents and over 50 published papers in engineering and science journals. In 1977, for his work on superconducting motors, he was awarded his PhD by Queen Mary College and in the same year he was the recipient of the Hall Thermotank Gold Medal and award for his contributions to the applications of superconductivity to power engineering. In 1990 he was appointed Visiting Professor in the Institute of Cryogenics and the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Southampton. His technical competence, his clear thinking, his pleasant and co-operative manner, his desire to serve the profession of which he was proud, and the fact he was never selfseeking, made his services greatly in demand as an advisor to various government departments, professional organizations and as an invited speaker at international conferences. In 1986 new superconductors were discovered which operate at much higher temperatures. High working temperatures greatly reduce the problems of refrigeration, in terms of cost and reliability, and make many technical applications economically viable which had been rejected previously. Tony Appleton was ideally placed to help with these assessments with particular regard to power engineering. However, long before the discovery of high temperature superconductors, he had been an active and long time member of Defence Scientific Advisory Councils, such as the Hull and Machinery Committee, the Marine Technology Board and the Military Technology Board. He was a member of the DTI Electrical Technology Committee and the nominated member of the National Committee on Superconductivity which was formed in 1987 and which continued to meet until August 1993. From 1987 until his death, he was consultant to DTI on the application of high superconductivity to power engineering and by 1992 his commitments to DTI were so great that he took early retirement from IRD, which also allowed him to expand his consultancy business. As part of the DTI appointment he organized the UK Forum on Wire and Tapes and a number of active working parties concerned with building demonstration models of high temperature superconducting machines such as magnetic separators, fault current limiters and energy storage systems. He was an active member of the Overseas Expert Science and Technology Scheme and made a number of visits to the United States, where he had many friends, particularly at the David Taylor Research Center in Annapolis, and to Japan. He was a long-standing member of the British Cryogenics Council of which he had served as Chairman and was treasurer for many years, a position he occupied until his death. He was a Fellow of the Institution of Electrical Engineers and in 1994 delivered their Hunter Memorial Lecture. Tony Appleton was a very modest man with great enthusiasm, energy and determination. He was extremely well liked and greatly respected by his colleagues and had many friends throughout the world. He was also a devoted family man who found great pleasure and pride in his children. At his death he and his wife had been married for almost 41 years. He also leaves two daughters and a son. Professor J.H.P. Watson
OBITUARY DR ANTHONY DEREK APPLETON (1928-1994) Pioneer in the application of superconductivity engineering
With the death of Tony Appleton on 19 December 1994, after a short illness, the world lost one of the most vigorous pioneers who have been working toward the application of superconductivity to the development of large-scale electrical machinery. Since the discovery of superconductivity in 1911, physicists and engineers have dreamed of applying the phenomenon to the transmission and the manipulation of electrical power with virtually perfect efficiency on a large scale. However, it was not until the early 1960s with the beginnings of the development of suitable superconductors in the form of wires and cables and the development of large helium liquefiers that such a dream was possible. Tony Appleton contributed significantly to the development of superconducting motors and generators, and superconducting magnetic energy storage, to methods of limiting faults in electrical networks such as those which blacked-
to electrical
out the east coast of the United States in the late 1960s and early 197Os, and to the generation of electrical power using magnetohydrodynamics. Tony Appleton was born in London in July 1928 and was educated at grammar schools in London and Manchester. He was awarded his Higher National Certificate in Electrical Power and a State Scholarship in 1947. From 1947 to 1949 he was a Student Apprentice at Johnson & Phillips Ltd. He entered Queen Mary College, University of London receiving his BSc in Electrical Power Engineering with Honours in 1952. From 1952 he was a Graduate Apprentice at General Electric Company (Witton) until he was seconded from the Atomic Energy Division of General Electric Company to the Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Harwell in 1955. He spent two years working on heavy-water reactors followed by two years on controlled
Cryogenics
1995 Volume
35, Number
7
419
Obituary fusion when, in 1961, he became a development engineer working on thermal reactors. In April 1964 he joined the International Research and Development Company (IRD), a fairly new contract research company formed in Newcastle upon Tyne, which was part of the Reyrolle Parsons Group, and later became part of Northern Engineering Industries (NEI). As a design engineer he developed the theory of superconducting homopolar d.c. machines and on behalf of the Ministry of Defence (Navy), National Research and Development Corporation and C.A. Parsons & Co. Ltd a model superconducting 50 hp homopolar motor was built and commissioned in 1966. This machine is now exhibited in the Science Museum, South Kensington, London. In 1966 he was appointed Head of the Electrical Engineering Department of IRD and began the task of building a team of scientists and engineers to design and build a superconducting 3250 hp homopolar motor. Installation of this motor to drive cooling water pumps at the Fawley power station, near Southampton, began in April 1970. In spite of being delayed many weeks by industrial disputes at the power station, installation was completed in September 1970. The cool-down to the operating temperature was delayed due to problems with the helium compressor and it was not until January 197 1 that the machine could be run at 25% of full power. Although the helium compressor was still subject to malfunction, 75% of full power was achieved in Febru ary and full load of 3250 hp in March 197 1. The difficulties with the compressor prevented the handing over of the machine to the Central Electricity Generating Board for service. It would have been a gratifying conclusion to the project and a remarkable event for the first prototype of a new class of machine to go into service without modification. Apart from a small number of defects, none of which were irreparable, the performance of the motor under all load conditions was excellent. The speed with which this project was completed, so soon after the superconducting materials became available, was remarkable. The technical success of the motor with its close speed control over the entire speed range and the advantages to ship design, if electric motors are used, led the Ministry of Defence (Navy) to fund the construction of a 1 MW motor generator combination which was to have been installed in a minesweeper and undergone sea trials in 1973. Due to various factors, such as questions about the consequences of introducing extra systems, in this case cryogenic systems, into military vessels and, in addition, when the ship was not available at the required time, the programme was cancelled. In 1976 Tony Appleton was appointed to the NEI-IRD board and became responsible for all engineering and science projects. In the early 198Os, a new 20 MW superconducting propulsion system of a novel drum design was funded by the MOD (Navy) which again was cancelled in 1984 primarily due to the Navy’s long term assessment of their future needs. Nevertheless from then until the present day, the Navy have kept an active interest in electrical propulsion. From 1976, he started many new projects, such as applying magnetic separation to a wide range of areas from water treatment to medicine and mining. In this period work started on a superconducting fault current limiter, superconducting a.c. generators, and on electrical power generation using magnetohydrodynamics with superconducting magnets to supply the background field. The development of an electric rail-gun was undertaken using a superconducting
420
Cryogenics
1995 Volume
35, Number
7
pulse generator based on the technology from the homopolar motor. This work has now been transferred to RARDE. In this period he was responsible for a wide range of R&D contracts in engineering and applied science. His technical competence, insight and inventiveness are reflected in 17 patents and over 50 published papers in engineering and science journals. In 1977, for his work on superconducting motors, he was awarded his PhD by Queen Mary College and in the same year he was the recipient of the Hall Thermotank Gold Medal and award for his contributions to the applications of superconductivity to power engineering. In 1990 he was appointed Visiting Professor in the Institute of Cryogenics and the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Southampton. His technical competence, his clear thinking, his pleasant and co-operative manner, his desire to serve the profession of which he was proud, and the fact he was never selfseeking, made his services greatly in demand as an advisor to various government departments, professional organizations and as an invited speaker at international conferences. In 1986 new superconductors were discovered which operate at much higher temperatures. High working temperatures greatly reduce the problems of refrigeration, in terms of cost and reliability, and make many technical applications economically viable which had been rejected previously. Tony Appleton was ideally placed to help with these assessments with particular regard to power engineering. However, long before the discovery of high temperature superconductors, he had been an active and long time member of Defence Scientific Advisory Councils, such as the Hull and Machinery Committee, the Marine Technology Board and the Military Technology Board. He was a member of the DTI Electrical Technology Committee and the nominated member of the National Committee on Superconductivity which was formed in 1987 and which continued to meet until August 1993. From 1987 until his death, he was consultant to DTI on the application of high superconductivity to power engineering and by 1992 his commitments to DTI were so great that he took early retirement from IRD, which also allowed him to expand his consultancy business. As part of the DTI appointment he organized the UK Forum on Wire and Tapes and a number of active working parties concerned with building demonstration models of high temperature superconducting machines such as magnetic separators, fault current limiters and energy storage systems. He was an active member of the Overseas Expert Science and Technology Scheme and made a number of visits to the United States, where he had many friends, particularly at the David Taylor Research Center in Annapolis, and to Japan. He was a long-standing member of the British Cryogenics Council of which he had served as Chairman and was treasurer for many years, a position he occupied until his death. He was a Fellow of the Institution of Electrical Engineers and in 1994 delivered their Hunter Memorial Lecture. Tony Appleton was a very modest man with great enthusiasm, energy and determination. He was extremely well liked and greatly respected by his colleagues and had many friends throughout the world. He was also a devoted family man who found great pleasure and pride in his children. At his death he and his wife had been married for almost 41 years. He also leaves two daughters and a son. Professor J.H.P. Watson