WRJ-PD Convention & Interesting Women

I heard a rumor that for the WRJ-PD convention, the rooms with two beds at the convention rate are all gone! Say it isn't so! If you are thinking of coming to convention (October 18-21) it is time to decide. There will be Sisterhood money to help with registration costs. Convention is a lot of fun, you learn a lot, and you make friends with some really intelligent and interesting women. You should decide to go!

Here's the link to register https://www.wrjpacific.org/2018-pd-convention.html.

Speaking of intelligent and interesting people, have you ever heard of Hertha Ayrton? Hertha Ayrton was born Phoebe Sarah Marks in Portsea, Hampshire, England, on April 28, 1854. She was the third child of a Polish Jewish watchmaker named Levi Marks, an immigrant from Tsarist Poland; and Alice Theresa Moss, a seamstress.

Ayrton studied mathematics at Cambridge's Girton College. During her time at Cambridge, Ayrton constructed a sphygmomanometer (blood pressure meter), led the choral society, founded the Girton fire brigade, and, together with Charlotte Scott, formed a mathematical club. In 1880, Ayrton passed the Mathematical Tripos, but Cambridge did not grant her an academic degree because, at the time, Cambridge gave only certificates and not full degrees to women. Ayrton passed an external examination at the University of London, which awarded her a Bachelor of Science degree in 1881.

In 1895, Hertha Ayrton wrote a series of articles, explaining that the tendency of electric arcs (in the electric arc lighting of the day) to flicker and hiss (a major problem) was the result of oxygen coming into contact with the carbon rods used to create the arc. In 1899, she was the first woman ever to read her own paper before the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE). Shortly thereafter, Ayrton was elected the first female member of the IEE; the next woman to be admitted to the IEE was in 1958. Ayrton's work in the field of electrical engineering was recognized both domestically and internationally.

In 1906, she was awarded the Royal Society's prestigious Hughes Medal 'for her experimental investigations on the electric arc, and also on sand ripples.' She was the fifth recipient of this prize, awarded annually since 1902, in recognition of an original discovery in the physical sciences, particularly electricity and magnetism or their applications, and as of 2015, one of only two women so honored, the other being Michele Dougherty in 2008.

Ayrton died of blood poisoning (resulting from an insect bite) on August 26, 1923 at New Cottage, North Lancing, Sussex. She was definitely an intelligent and interesting woman!