John Sealy Edward Townsend (7 June 1868 - 16 February 1957) was a mathematical physicist who conducted various studies concerning the electrical conduction of gases (concerning the kinetics of electrons and ions) and directly measured the electrical charge. He was a Wykeham Professor of physics at Oxford University.
He was born in Galway, County Galway, Ireland, son of Edward Townsend, a Professor of Civil Engineering at Queen's College, Galway. ...
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John Sealy Edward Townsend (7 June 1868 - 16 February 1957) was a mathematical physicist who conducted various studies concerning the electrical conduction of gases (concerning the kinetics of electrons and ions) and directly measured the electrical charge. He was a Wykeham Professor of physics at Oxford University.
He was born in Galway, County Galway, Ireland, son of Edward Townsend, a Professor of Civil Engineering at Queen's College, Galway. In 1885, he entered Trinity College Dublin and came top of the class in maths with a BA in 1890. He became a Clerk Maxwell Scholar and entered Trinity College, Cambridge where he became a research student at the same time as Ernest Rutherford. At the Cavendish laboratory, he studied under J. J. Thomson. He developed the "Townsend's collision theory". Townsend supplied important work to the electrical conductivity of gases ("Townsend discharge" circa 1897). This work determined the elementary electrical charge with the droplet method. This...
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