Laby, Thomas Howell (1880 - 1946)

Summary

Thomas Laby, Professor of Natural Philosophy, University of Melbourne 1914-1942, was formerly Professor of Physics at Victoria University College, Wellington, New Zealand 1909-1914. He shared in the design of one the first anti-gas respirators. Laby was also Chairman of the first Optical Munitions Panel during the 1940s. Laby was a strong advocate of the use of radio in public education and frequently made radio broadcasts. With G. W. C. Kaye he wrote Tables of physical and chemical constants (1911, 9th edition 1941). A physics lecture theatre at the University of Melbourne was named after him.

Details

Chronology

1901 - 1905

Career position - Demonstrator of Chemistry, University of Sydney

1905 - 1908

Award - 1851 Exhibition Science Research Scholarship

1907

Education - Bachelor of Arts (BA), University of Sydney

1909 - 1915

Career position - Professor of Physics, Victoria University College, New Zealand

1911

Career position - President, Section A (Astronomy, Mathematics and Physics), Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science

1915

Award - Master of Arts (MA), honoris causa, University of Melbourne

1915 - 1944

Career position - Professor of Natural Philosophy, University of Melbourne

1921 -

Career position - Foundation Councillor (Physics), Australian National Research Council

1921

Education - Doctor of Science (ScD), Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge

1923 - 1946

Award - Fellow, Institute of Physics, United Kingdom

1924

Career position - President, Royal Society of Victoria

1927 - ?

Career position - Member, Australian Radio Research Board, CSIR

1928

Career position - President, Section A (Astronomy, Mathematics and Physics), Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science

1929 - 1931

Career position - Consulting physicist, Imperial Geophysical Experimental Survey

1929 - 1937

Career position - Commonwealth Adviser on Radium, Commonwealth Radium Laboratory

1931 - 1946

Award - Fellow, The Royal Society, London (FRS)

1939 - 1941

Career position - Inaugural President, Australian branch, Institute of Physics

1940 - 1944

Career position - Chairman, Optical Munitions Panel 1940-44

1943

Career position - Member, Army Inventions Directorate

Related entries

Archival resources

The University of Melbourne Archives

• Thomas Howell Laby - Records, 1908 - 1937; The University of Melbourne Archives. Details

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

• Exhibition Papers, A Bright Sparcs Exhibition, Australian Science Archives Project, 1997, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/exhib/papers/exhib_papers.htm. Details
• The Giant's Eye: the Optical Munitions Exhibition, Australian Science Archives Project, 1997, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/exhib/omp/omp.htm. Details

Articles

• Sutherland, Denise, 'The Giant's Eye: Optical Munitions in Australia', Australasian Science, Spring (1997), http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/exhib/journals/as_omp.htm. Details

Books

• Muirhead, Ed, Thomas Howell Laby (1880 - 1946): his contribution to Australian science ([s.l.]: [s.n.], c.1990), 63 pp. Details
• Muirhead, Edmund, A Man Ahead of his Times: T.H. Laby's Contribution to Australian Science (Melbourne: School of Physics, University of Melbourne, 1996), 134 pp. Details
• Rogers, J. S.; edited by T. H. Laby, Physics for medical students : a supplementary text book (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1932), 151 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Close, Cecily, 'Laby, Thomas Howell (1880-1946), physicist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 9: 1891 - 1939 Gil-Las, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1983), pp. 640-641. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A090643b.htm. Details
• Home, R. W., 'Thomas Howell Laby, 1880-1946' in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004). Details

Journal Articles

• Ambrose, Douglas, 'A History of Kaye & Laby', Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, 60 (2006), 49-57. Details
• Bowen, Jennifer, 'Riding the waves: Professor T. H. Laby as imperial scientist and radio visionary', Historical Records of Australian Science, 28 (2) (2017), 91-8, https://doi.org/10.1071/HR17003. Details
• Dean, Katrina, 'Inscribing Settler Science: Ernest Rutherford, Thomas Laby and the Making of Careers in Physics', History of Science, 41 (2003), 217-240. Details
• Flesch, Juliet and McPhee, Peter, '150 Years, 150 Stories: Laby Family', Uni News, 11 (24) (2002), 4. Details
• Grant, Kerr, 'Thomas Ranken Lyle, 1860 - 1944', Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society, 5 (14) (1945), 32-49. Details
• Martin, L. H., 'Obituary: Professor T. H. Laby, FRS', Australian Journal of Science, 9 (2) (1946), 64-65. Details
• Massey, Harrie Stewart Wilson, 'T. H. Laby, FRS: the 1980 Laby memorial lecture', Australian Physicist, 17 (11) (1980), 181-187. Details
• Mawson, Douglas; and Laby, Thomas, 'Preliminary observations on radio-activity and the occurrence of radium in Australian minerals', Journal and proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 38 (1904), 382-9. Details
• Montano, Walter A., 'Noise abatement actions in Australasia - 1920s and 30s', Acoustics Australia, 48 (2) (2020), 164-9. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40857-020-00199-x. Details
• Montano, Walter A., 'First measurements of street noise - 1928 in Melbourne, Australia', Acoustics Australia, 50 (2) (2022), 163-7. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40857-022-00272-7. Details
• Picken, D. K., 'Thomas Howell Laby, 1880 - 1946', Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society, 5 (16) (1948), 733-55. Details
• Picken, D. K., 'Thomas Howell Laby,1880 - 1946', Biographical memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, 5 (16) (1948), 733-55. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbm.1948.0009. Details

Resources

• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/76396317. Details
• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q7668286. Details
• 'Laby, T H (1880-)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1306306. Details
• 'Awarded honorary MA, 1915', Honorary degree holders, University of Melbourne, 2023, https://about.unimelb.edu.au/notable-alumni-staff/honorary-degree-holders. Details

Resource Sections

• 'Laby, Thomas Howell', in Physics in Australia to 1945, R.W. Home, with the assistance of Paula J. Needham, Australian Science Archives Project, June 1995, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/physics/P000553p.htm. Details
• 'Laby, Thomas Howell', in The Giant's Eye: the Optical Munitions Exhibition, A Bright Sparcs Exhibition, Australian Science Archives Project, 1997, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/exhib/omp/people/laby.htm. Details

See also

• Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, Technology in Australia 1788-1988, Online edn, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Melbourne, 3 May 2000, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/index_l.html. Details
• Federation and Meteorology, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/fam/index_l.html. Details
• Science and the making of Victoria, with Royal Society of Victoria, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/smv/index_l.html. Details
• Binnie, Anna, 'A Short History of the Australian Institute of Physics, Part 2: from the Formation of the Australian Branch of the Institute of Physics to the Establishment of the Australian Institute of Physics', Australian Physics, 44 (4) (2007), 128-137, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IN7sV_RIRljwstfZLa7pjQyvisDmp_m0/view?ts=65d6c651. Details
• Bolton, H. C., 'Optical Instruments in Australia in the 1939-45 War: successes and lost opportunities', Australian Physicist (1990). http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/exhib/papers/bolton2.htm. Details
• Caro, D. E.; Martin, R. L., 'Leslie Harold Martin 1900-1983', Historical Records of Australian Science, 7 (1) (1987), 97-107. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9870710097. Details
• Currie, George; Graham, John, The Origins of CSIRO: Science and the Commonwealth Government, 1901-1926 (Melbourne: CSIRO, 1966), 203 pp, https://ebooks.publish.csiro.au/content/origins-csiro. pages 36, 52, 54, 62-63. Details
• Flesch, Juliet and McPhee, Peter, 150 years, 150 stories: brief biographies of one hundred and fifty remarkable people associated with the University of Melbourne (Melbourne: Department of History, University of Melbourne, 2003), 168 pp. Details
• Gold, Ergad; Greener, Rosalie (Ed) ed., Inventive Vics Exhibition (Melbourne, Victoria: Australian Scientific Industry Association, 1985), 58 pp. Optical Munitions. Details
• Sherratt, Tim; Condé, Anne-Marie, A Wartime Observatory Observed - the Mount Stromlo Community, 1940-1945, Australian Science Archives Project, Canberra, 1994, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/pubs/articles/tps/tps_stromlo_draft.htm. Details
• White, F. W.G., 'Robert Gordon Menzies (1894-1978)', Historical Records of Australian Science, 5 (1) (1980), 68-102. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR9800510068. Details
• Wisdom, John, A History of Defence Science in Australia (Melbourne: Defence Science and Technology Organisation, 1995), 267 pp. Details