Thomas Smith, 1883-1969

K. J. Habell

1971, 681-687, published 1 November171971 Biogr. Mems Fell. R. Soc. 

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THOMAS SMITH

1883-1969

Elected F.R.S. 1932

T homas Smith, former Superintendent of Light Division, National Physical Laboratory, died on 28 November 1969 at his home at Buxhall, Prospect Road, Heathfield, Sussex, at the age of 86. For many years, from 1908, he served on the Council and as Secretary of the old Optical Society, of which he was President in the period 1925-1927. He also had a long record of service with the Physical Society, on the Council from 1917 almost continuously to 1938, Vice-President 1922-1925 and 1932-1936, and President 1936-1938. He had also been a member of the Board of the Institute of Physics, and was the first President of the International Commission for Optics, 1947-1950.

T. Smith was born at Leamington, Warwickshire, in 1883, and was educated at Warwick School, under the Rev. R. Percival Brown, and at Queen’s College, Cambridge, where he was 14th Wrangler in the Mathe­matical Tripos in 1905, and took the Mechanical Sciences Tripos in 1906. At first he followed his father’s profession, and taught mathematics, physics, drawing and engineering at Oundle School; one year was sufficient to convince him (and the Headmaster) that teaching was not for him, and in 1907 he joined the National Physical Laboratory as an Assistant in the Department of Electricity to work on optics and tide prediction. In 1909 he was given charge of the Optics Division, and when in 1940 the Light Division was formed he was its first Superintendent. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1932. He retired from the Laboratory in 1948, and for some time afterwards acted as a consultant for the Royal Society. He was elected an honorary member of the Optical Society of America after his retirement.

Smith was the author of many scientific papers, mostly published in the Transactions of the Optical Society or The Proceedings of the Physical Society, and these reflect his developing interest. This was mainly the evolution of a system of optical design—the products of such a system became of secondary importance to him. As early as 1915 he advocated the use of algebraic methods in conjunction with the use of calculating machines rather than trigonometrical methods requiring logarithmic tables. In this connexion he introduced the use of matrix notation, which in his hands became a most powerful tool. His Presidential Address to the Optical Society in 1927

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was devoted to ‘Some uncultivated optical fields’, and in this he drew attention to the potential power in optical instrument design of the use of the Characteristic Function and of the Eikonal, and in much of his subsequent work Smith developed characteristic function theory. For this he earned a well-deserved international reputation, and also for the development of several theorems of great power and generality, such as the ‘optical cosine theorem’ which includes a number of other better-known but less general forms. His contributions to the theory of colour measurement are perhaps less well known. In 1931 he was associated with J. Guild in proposals made to the International Commission on Illumination for a ‘System of colori­metry’, and these proposals formed the basis of the internationally accepted C.I.E. system. After retirement he maintained an interest in optics and published several more papers.

Smith was a kind man, in the true sense of the word, and is remembered by his colleagues with respect and affection. He is survived by his wife, two sons, three daughters and thirteen grandchildren.

The photograph is by Walter Stoneman.K. J. H abell

Biographical Memoirs

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1923. Periscopes. In A dictionary of applied physics (ed. by Sir Richard Glazebrook), 4, 350-374.

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therefor. British Patent Specification No. 236,634.1926. A review of lens theory. Proc. Optical Convention, Part II, 740-758.1926. Lagrange’s theorem and stationary functions. Trans. Opt. Soc. 27, 43-50.1926. Note on the criterion for the best position of focus. Trans. Opt. Soc. 27, 265-266.1926. The stationary value of axiallv symmetric functions, Part I. Trans. Opt. Soc. 27,

307-311.1926. On a light transmitted and reflected by a pile of plates. Trans. Opt. Soc. 27, 317-323.1926. The treatment of reflection as a special case of refraction. Trans. Opt. Soc. 27, 312-316.1926. Note on Chalmers’ applications of the Hartmann test. Trans. Opt. Soc. 27, 242-248.1927. The theory of the lens-testing interferometer, Part I. Trans. Opt. Soc. 28, 104-111.1927. Presidential address. Some uncultivated optical fields. Trans. Opt. Soc. 28, 225-284.1927. (With J. H. D o w ell .) Method and apparatus for testing and finishing optical

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1928. The depth of field and resolving power of optical instruments. Nature, Loud. 122, 649-650.

1928. Photography and the wave theory of light, (i) The clash between ray and wave theories of image formation; (ii) Photographic lens testing by interference. Proceedings of the Seventh International Congress of Photography, London, 9-14 July, pp. 276-292.

1928. Comments by T. Smith on aspects of Seventh International Congress of Photo­graphy. (i) Suggesting a standard of radiation (light), pp. 171-172; (ii) Discussion of proposed definitions, p. 272; (iii) Discussion of Mr. Lee’s classification oflenses, p. 302. Proceedings of the Seventh International Congress of Photography. London,9-14 July.

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18, 75-81.1929. Optics. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 14th ed. 16, 815-828.1929. Periscope. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 14th ed. 17, 527-529.1930. Imagery around a skew ray. Trans. Opt. Soc. 31, 131-156.1930. Charts for simple two- and three-lens problems. Trans. Opt. Soc. 31, 157-163.1930. The general form of the Smith-Helmholtz equation. Trans. Opt. Soc. 31, 241-284.1930. A method of eliminating magnetic disturbance of high sensitivity galvanometers.

J. sci. Instrum. 7. 78-79, 141. (Correspondence from T. Smith concerning an article of this title by A. B. D. Cassie. Original article appears on pp. 21-22 of same volume.)

1930. The quantitative estimation of the sensation of colour. J. Psychol. 20. Part 4,362-364.

1931. On absolute refractive indices in geometical optics. Trans. Opt. Soc. 32, 37-38.1931. Modern optical glass as exemplified by the list of the Parsons Optical Glass Company

dated September 1926. Trans. Opt. Soc. 32, 85-100.1931. Secondary conjugate surfaces. Trans. Opt. Soc. 32, 129-149.1931. Graphical constructions for a refracted ray. Trans. Opt. Soc. 32, 150-158.1931. Tesseral matrices. Quart J . Maths, 2, 241-250.1932. (With J. G uild .) The C.I.E. colorimetric standards and their use. Trans. Opt. Soc.

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1932. Photographic shutters and their properties. Instrum. 9, 40-47. (Report of aDiscourse given at the twenty-second annual exhibition of the Physical and Optical Societies.)

1933. The projective transformation in aerial surveying. Empire Survey Rev. 2, 137-150,206-221.

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Soc. Lond. 46, 478-480.1934. The mid-course method of fitting a parabolic formula of any order to a set of

observations. Proc. phys. Soc. Lond. 46, 560-573.1934. The teaching of geometrical optics. Report of the Committee appointed by The Physical

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1934. Maximum optical paths. Nature, Lond. 133, 830-831.1934. Duality in bi-projective correspondence. Empire Survey Rev. no. 12, 2, 340-344.1934. Improvements in the Schlieren method. J. sci. Instrum. 11, 32. (Letter concerning

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1935. Variations in colour vision and measurement. Phil. Mag. 20, 1055-1062.1935. Interpretation of Fermat’s principle. Nature, Lond. 135, 587.1935. The meaning of probability. Nature, Lond. 135, 604. (Letter concerning an article

by Dr Herbert Dingle, Nature, Lond. 135, 423-426.)1935. On crystal and slit systems for X-ray monochromatization and spectroscopy. (By

G. I. H a r pe r with an appendix by T. Smith.) Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A, 151, 118-141.1936. An optical calibration problem. Proc. phys. Soc. Lond. 48, 75-78.1936. Optics. I. The theory of optical instruments. II. The teaching of elementary

optics. Rep. Progr. Phys. 2, 356-360.1938. Vision through optical instruments. (Presidential address delivered on 25 Feb. 1938.)

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266-268.1942. (With J. G uild & R. D onaldson.) Colour measurement. Nature, Lond. 149, 76.1943. Note on image formation by rotating mirrors. Proc. phys. Soc. Lond. 55, 210-214. 1943. (With T. Y. Ba k er , L. C. M a r tin , J. H. J effree & E. H. L info ot .) The designing

of non-spherical surfaces. A discussion held by the Optical Group, 16 April 1943. Proc. phys. Soc. Lond. 55, 481-496.

1943. Note on window calculations. Trans. Ilium. Engng Soc. 8, 110-118.1944. (With W. S. Stiles.) A mean scotopic visibility curve. Proc. phys. Soc. Lond. 56,

251-255.1944. (W ith E. D. Bro w n .) The natural lighting of houses and flats with graded daylight factor

tables. National Physical Laboratory, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.

1945. On tracing rays through an optical system (fifth paper). Proc. phys. Soc. Lond. 57,286-293.

1945. Theoretical investigation on telephoto lenses. Proc. phys. Soc. Lond. 57, 543-558.1945. Variational formulae in optics. Proc. phys. Soc. Lond. 57, 558-564.1946. Notes on measurements of glass absorption. Proc. phys. Soc. Lond. 58, 472-475.1947. A series for the stationary value of a function. Proc. phys. Soc. Lond. 59, 323-326.1947. Note on aplanatic lenses for unit magnification. Proc. phys. Soc. Lond. 59, 844-846.1948. On perfect optical instruments. Proc. phys. Soc. Lond. 60, 293-304.

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1948.

1948.1949.

1949.

1949.

1949.

1949.

1949.

1949.

1949.

1949.

1949.

1949.

1952.1957.

(With E dna D. Brow n .) Systematic constructional tables for thin cemented aplanatic lenses. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. A, 240, 8-116.

Measurement of the transmissivity of optical glass. Rev. d'Optique, 27, 371-381.The contributions of Thomas Young to geometrical optics and their application

to present-day questions. Proc. phys. Soc. Lond. B, 62, 619-629.The treatment of elementary aberration theory with special reference to thin

lenses. In La theorie des images optiques, pp. 11-17. Colloques International.ix du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris.

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