Alexander Oliver Rankine (8 December 1881 – 20 January 1956) was a British physicist who worked on the viscosity of gases, molecular dynamics, optics, acoustics and geophysics.
[2] Rankine carried out government research during both World Wars, working on anti-submarine technology and on fog dispersal systems.
Rankine is most associated with the Trouton–Rankine experiment of 1908, but he also worked on early devices for the optical transmission of sound, and improved gravimeter and magnetometer designs.
[1] Rankine was educated at the Royal Grammar School, Guildford,[3] and then studied at University College London (UCL), graduating in 1904 with first-class honours in physics.
He worked under recently appointed UCL professor William Henry Bragg and British-born Canadian physicist Arthur Stewart Eve.
[1] Rankine's research during and immediately after the war also looked at ways to achieve the optical transmission of sound, a problem being worked on by other scientists and engineers in several countries.
[9] The device was similar to the photophone constructed by US inventor Alexander Graham Bell in the 1880s, and the system being developed by the Polish engineer Joseph Tykociński-Tykociner from 1918.
[1][12] By the time the war had ended, Rankine had added to the distinguished reputation he had gained from work in fields such as molecular dynamics, acoustics and electromagnetics.
In 1937, Rankine resigned from Imperial College to take up a full-time position with the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company,[16] in which role he made several visits to Persia (Iran).
[1] This resignation was marked by the following rhyme, published in 1937 in The Record of the Royal College of Science Association:If Rankine prefers travelTo academic toil,No one of us will cavil,At the fact that he's struck oil.
[21][22] During World War II, Rankine again worked for the government, this time on the development of the FIDO system for clearing fog from military runways.
[3] This work was done with the Petroleum Warfare Department,[14] and he contributed to both the design and testing done on the system in wind tunnels at the Empress Hall, Earls Court.
[15] The system was then developed further by Arthur Hartley, and when brought into operation helped to save the lives of many World War II aircrews.