Talk:Hertha Ayrton

Date of death
There are inconsistencies on her date of death. At the beginning of the article is states 23 August 1923. Under "Later life and research" and other sources states her death was on 26 August 1923. sike

Regarr (talk) 12:35, 28 April 2016 (UTC)

Request for Comments
There is an RfC on the question of using "Religion: None" vs. "Religion: None (atheist)" in the infobox on this and other similar pages.

The RfC is at Template talk:Infobox person.

Please help us determine consensus on this issue. --Guy Macon (talk) 06:27, 24 April 2015 (UTC)

Place of death
Within the text it is claimed she died in North Lancing, Sussex; in the infobox in Bexhill-on-Sea. Does anyone know which is accurate? --RedHillian &#124; Talk 23:38, 27 April 2016 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 28 April 2016
Hello ther don't you find strange that the biography of this lady has " ethnicity  = Jewish". Scientifically speaking ethnicity is a social construction to divide homo sapiens in separate groups. 2dly I do not see any other biographies have ethnicity, why do this lady? As I said the concept is ambiguous and If wiki wants to conmemorate women in sciences, why do put ethnicity in the small square at the right? thinking as I said before, that no other biographies have it. txs

Mary2016 (talk) 08:25, 28 April 2016 (UTC)
 * Padlock-silver-open.svg Not done: The page's protection level has changed since this request was placed. You should now be able to edit the page yourself. If you still seem to be unable to, please reopen the request with further details. —&thinsp;JJMC89&thinsp; (T·C) 07:51, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 28 April 2016
In September 2013, the former Somers Park Primary School in Portsmouth became an Academy and was renamed Ark Ayrton Primary Academy in her honour.

Source: AAPA site:

212.87.70.232 (talk) 10:58, 28 April 2016 (UTC)
 * Padlock-silver-open.svg Not done: The page's protection level has changed since this request was placed. You should now be able to edit the page yourself. If you still seem to be unable to, please reopen the request with further details. —&thinsp;JJMC89&thinsp; (T·C) 07:52, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 28 April 2016
I am not an authority on Hertha Marks Ayrton by any stretch, but I noticed an inconsistency regarding the origin of her assumed name: the short video of her life which I found here: details a character named Hertha in the eponymously named feminist novel by the Finnish feminist Frederika Bremer. Perhaps both theories could be noted?

Tallen387 (talk) 11:56, 28 April 2016 (UTC)
 * Padlock-silver-open.svg Not done: The page's protection level has changed since this request was placed. You should now be able to edit the page yourself. If you still seem to be unable to, please reopen the request with further details. —&thinsp;JJMC89&thinsp; (T·C) 07:52, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

Two marriages?
It sounds as if she got married twice, both times to the same man: once in the section on Mathematics and Electrical Engineering Work and one in the section on Personal Life. Felsenst (talk) 11:56, 28 April 2016 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 28 April 2016
Original text: "On 6 May 1885 she married her former teacher, and thereafter assisted him with experiments in physics and electricity." Please may I suggest that in the above sentence the word "assisted" be replaced by "collaborated with" so that the sentence then reads: "On 6 May 1885 she married her former teacher, and thereafter collaborated with him with experiments in physics and electricity." The reason for my suggestion is that this will describe Hertha Ayton as an equal rather than a subordinate to her husband.

Ninianne42 (talk) 11:58, 28 April 2016 (UTC)
 * Padlock-silver-open.svg Not done: The page's protection level has changed since this request was placed. You should now be able to edit the page yourself. If you still seem to be unable to, please reopen the request with further details. —&thinsp;JJMC89&thinsp; (T·C) 07:52, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

Ethnicity: Jewish
uhm.. srsly how can this be an ethnicity? It is max a Religious POV but ethnicity? She is clearly white.. so caucasian or something else --Nimbrod (talk) 12:15, 28 April 2016 (UTC)

Hertha Ayrton was Jewish on both her mother and father's side. It appears that she is unambiguously Jewish. One can argue that being Jewish is cultural, or religious, or ethnic. However, there is no need to have that argument in this biography, as she herself does not appear to have contested or repudiated her Judaism. See the biography of her written circa 1926, within three years of her death. 66.195.223.214 (talk) 17:19, 28 April 2016 (UTC)

consistency of using name
Why is her first name sometimes used when referring to her scientific achievements, e.g. "Hertha registered 26 patents" instead of "Ayrton registered 26 patents"? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.204.29.4 (talk) 13:57, 28 April 2016 (UTC)

Add in the Google Doodle template, please.
Add in the Google Doodle template for today (4/28/2016) at the top of the page.

RainbowBounce (talk) 14:28, 28 April 2016 (UTC)


 * I definitely did it. It's possible I even did it right. --  stillnotelf   is invisible  16:47, 28 April 2016 (UTC)


 * Can someone point me to the discussion and community consensus for use of these templates? I seem to recall some discussion and many users opposing the use of such Google Doodle templates, as they add no encyclopedic value, are highlighting the action of an external party (Google) with no relevance to Wikipedia, and clutter the top of the page. What's the distinction between putting an article on Google Doodle articles versus other high-profile articles (or even FATD) that are likely to draw a lot of new users? It's a slippery slope, and there's no encyclopedic value (unlike the templates for recent news events, or those warning of potential biases) for cluttering the top of the *article page* with another template. I propose we put this to discussion at a place where it'll get more attention (e.g. WP:VP) to have a discussion and see if there a consensus supporting such an action. If there is not, then the Google Doodle templates should not be added. 2607:F6D0:CED:5BA:D41F:9C10:2CF0:6985 (talk) 17:10, 28 April 2016 (UTC)


 * I didn't go looking for policies, I just searched until I found the template. Your points are valid but I think the template is a good idea.  The template itself links to here (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Today%27s_articles_for_improvement/Google_Doodle_task_force#Process).  I won't be offended or re-add the template if you choose to remove it.  (That said, I am aware that you may be technically unable to remove it due to being anonymous and the article being semiprotected - I guess just open another edit request?)  --  stillnotelf   is invisible  17:27, 28 April 2016 (UTC)


 * OK, let's leave the template for now (I can't remove it anyways since it's semi-protected) but let's see if we can get more discussion going at the WP:Village Pump. Can you notify the appropriate Wikiproject so they can chime in as well? 2607:F6D0:CED:5BA:D41F:9C10:2CF0:6985 (talk) 20:16, 28 April 2016 (UTC)

Ayrton Fan
Might be a good idea to have more info on what it was, found a picture and more neutral assessment of its use in wartime — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.76.64.234 (talk) 18:50, 28 April 2016 (UTC)

BBC Radio 4 " Science Stories " series 4 - " The Woman Who Tamed Lightning "
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0858v5m

BBC Radio 4 " Science Stories " series 4 - " The Woman Who Tamed Lightening " - 28mins - available to hear until 18th January

In the 1870s with a degree from Cambridge University, Herta Marks was making a living teaching and inventing. She sold maths puzzles to magazines and designed a draftsman's device which divided lines into equal parts and enlarged or shrank drawings. The "Marks' Patent Line Divider" was very well reviewed. Herta had worked much of her early life as her father had died when she was seven leaving the family with debts.

Still eager to learn, Hertha Marks signed up for a series of classes about the exciting new field of electricity at Finsbury Technical College, taught by William Ayrton. She went on to marry William Ayrton. Her marriage gave her the stability and income to be able to do more inventing. Arc lights had started to be use as street lighting but they flickered and could send out sparks that caused fires. Herta Marks Ayrton found a way to make safer arc lights.

Naomi Alderman tells the story of Herta Marks Ayrton. She talks to Dr Naomi Paxton, cultural historian at the University of London, about the impact of the invention of safe street lighting on women's lives at the start of the 20th century, and to Naomi Climer, the first female president of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, which - unlike the Royal Society - was quick to acknowledge Hertha Marks Ayrton's achievements, about the legacy of arc lighting. DaiSaw (talk) 21:28, 21 December 2016 (UTC)

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External links modified
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Hunger strike
Ayrton was the subject of the BBC Radio 4 series "Great Lives" on January 2 2018, on which it was mentioned that she went on hunger strike. This is surely interesting enough to go in the article. Vorbee (talk) 16:52, 2 January 2018 (UTC)

"Line Divider"
I believe the link to "Divider Caliper" for her invention of "line divider" is incorrect. The actual device she invented is not a caliper; it looks like this: http://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/browse/issue-10/the-life-and-material-culture-of-hertha-ayrton/figure-3/

Why is Ayrton called a "mathematician" ?
Learning the mathematics necessary to become a scientist or engineer is not a sufficient basis to call someone a "mathematician".

What is the evidence that Ayrton was a mathematician?

As far as I can tell, there is no such evidence currently in the article.