Stephen Butterworth

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Stephen Butterworth (1885-1958) was a British electronic engineer who invented the Butterworth filter. He published it as "On the Theory of Filter Amplifiers" in Wireless Engineer (also called Experimental Wireless and the Radio Engineer), vol. 7, 1930, pp. 536-541.

Stephen Butterworth was educated at the University of Manchester, where received an MSc degree. For the next 11 years he was a physics lecturer at the Manchester Municipal College of Technology. He subsequently worked for several years at the National Physical Laboratory, where he did theoretical and experimental work for the determination of standards of electrical inductance. In 1921 he joined the Admiralty's Research Laboratory. Unfortunately, the classified nature of his work prohibited the publication of much of his research there. Nevertheless, it is known that he worked in a wide range of fields; e.g., he determined the electromagnetic field around submarine cables carrying a.c. current, and he investigated underwater explosions and the stability of torpedos. In 1939, he was a "Principal Scientific Officer" at the Admiralty Research Laboratory in the Admiralty's Scientific Research and Experiment Department.[1] During World War II, he investigated both magnetic mines and the degaussing of ships (as a means of protecting them from magnetic mines).

He was a first-rate applied mathematician. He often solved problems that others had regarded as insoluble. For his successes, he employed judicious approximations, penetrating physical insight, ingenious experiments, and skillful use of models. He was a quiet and unassuming man. Nevertheless, his knowledge and advice were widely sought and readily offered. He was respected by his colleagues and revered by his subordinates.

In 1942 he was awarded the Order of the British Empire.[2] In 1945 he retired from the Admiralty Research Laboratory. He died on 28 October 1958 at his home in Cowes on the Isle of Wight, England.[3][4][5]

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Navy List, March 1939.
  2. ^ Supplement to the London Gazette, 11 June 1942.
  3. ^ See: http://home.att.net/~numericana/answer/filter.htm . Scroll down to "(2007-06-09) Low-pass Butterworth filters".
  4. ^ Brief obituary of Stephen Butterworth: The Times (of London, England), 7 November 1958, page 15.
  5. ^ H. F. Willis, Obituary: "Mr. Stephen Butterworth, O.B.E.," Nature, vol. 182, issue 4651, pages 1706-1707 (1958).
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