Down to Earth

Sir Edward Victor Appleton has spent most of his 56 years with his head in the clouds. He has accomplished a lot up there. "The ionosphere," a colleague once said of Sir Edward, "is his playground." He proved the theory that the earth is circled by electrically charged layers in the upper atmosphere, came to know more about them than any man alive (there is an Appleton layer, usually about 140 miles above the earth*). His researches made possible the development of radar, won him a knighthood and the 1947 Nobel Prize in physics.

Last week, Sir Edward came down to earth: he had just been made Principal of Scotland's great University of Edinburgh. When a TIME correspondent asked to see him, Sir Edward said he had neither the time nor the inclination to be interviewed. But, he added, he knew all about TIME style, and though it "shocked my modesty," would interview himself. So he did:

"Chubby in build and cheery in face, Sir Edward likes human beings, and says it will be a terrible wrench to leave his closest colleagues in the British Civil Service [since 1939, he has been Secretary of Britain's Department of Scientific and Industrial Research]. If he's climbed to any eminence at all, it's been on their shoulders. Although he looks forward to resuming academic life, he's found his ten years in civil service a great adventure, which he wouldn't have missed for anything! Always takes life at great pace and with gusto.

" 'You will naturally expect no declaration of policy [about Edinburgh University] from me at this stage. But I firmly believe that a university must turn out men & women who are fit to live, as well as fit to earn a living . . . After all, we sleep for one third of our time, we work another third--but there is still a third left. Education should prepare one for the whole of one's waking life . . .'

"I [TIME'S imaginary correspondent] found Sir Edward's Kensington flat filled with books, by no means scientific only. He is a great reader of Victorian novels, and of Trollope and Dickens especially. 'And what about detective stories?' I asked. 'Why, of course, two or three a week, especially by women authors, who have got male authors beaten in this branch of fiction . . .'

"Asked if he had any recipe for success in scientific research, he said, 'Yes . . . enthusiasm ... I rate that even ahead of professional skill.'

"Lady Appleton, dark brown hair and handsome, runs her Kensington flat singlehanded. She has traveled widely with her husband within the last three years. 'I always seem to be packing,' she said, 'and I hope this will be the last occasion.'"

*The Appleton layer reflects certain radio waves around the earth. Sir Edward's experiments proved the possibility of round-the-world broadcasting.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.