Bertram Hopkinson

{{Infobox engineer

| honorific_prefix = Professor, Colonel

| name = Bertram Hopkinson

| honorific_suffix = F.R.S.

| image = Bertram Hopkinson (3a).JPG

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| alt =

| caption =

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1874|01|11|df=y}}

| birth_place = Birmingham

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1918|08|26|1874|01|11|df=y}}

| death_place = England

| resting_place = Ascension Parish Burial Ground, Cambridge

| resting_place_coordinates =

| education = St Paul's School, London, King's College, London, Trinity College, Cambridge

| spouse =

| parents = John Hopkinson

| relatives =Alfred Hopkinson (uncle) Edward Hopkinson (uncle) Katharine Chorley (cousin)
Austin Hopkinson (cousin) John Hopkinson (cousin)

| children =

| occupation = Professor of mechanism and applied mechanics, University of Cambridge

| discipline = Civil engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent law

| institutions = Institution of Civil Engineers, Institution of Mechanical Engineers

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| employer =

| significant_projects =

| significant_design =

| significant_advance =

| significant_awards = Fellow of the Royal Society

| signature =

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}}

Bertram Hopkinson {{post-nominals|country=GBR|CMG|FRS|MIEE|MICE}} (11 January 1874 – 26 August 1918) was a British patent lawyer and Professor of Mechanism and Applied Mechanics at Cambridge University. In this position he researched flames, explosions and metallurgy and became a pioneer designer of the internal combustion engine.

Background

Hopkinson was born in Birmingham, in 1874, the son of John Hopkinson, an electrical engineer. He read law at Trinity College, Cambridge, and became a lawyer after his graduation.{{acad|id=HPKN891B|name=Hopkinson, Bertram}} Following the death of his father, brother and two of his sisters in a mountaineering accident in 1898, Hopkinson switched to a career in engineering instead.{{cite web |title=Professor Bertram Hopkinson (1874-1918) |url=http://www-g.eng.cam.ac.uk/millennium/noflash/1900-1925/hopkinson.html |website=g.eng.cam.ac.uk |publisher=University of Cambridge |access-date=20 February 2024 |page=1}}

Career

In 1903, Hopkinson was elected to the Cambridge chair in mechanism and applied mechanics, and in 1910 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. During World War I he was commissioned into the Royal Engineers, and opened a research establishment at Orford Ness where he and his team researched weapons, sights, and ammunition. In 1915, Hopkinson discovered a similarity relation between the masses of explosive charges and their effects at a given distance.Hopkinson, B. (1915) British ordnance minutes, 13563. The same similarity relation was discovered independently in 1925 by Karl Julius Cranz in Germany.Cranz, Karl Julius, Lehrbuch der Ballistik (Berlin: Julius Springer, 1926), vol.2 ("Innere Ballistik"), pp. 174 ff.

Service in World War I

Having become an aviator after joining the army, Hopkinson died on 26 August 1918 when his Bristol Fighter crashed en route from Martlesham Heath to London. He is buried in the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground in Cambridge, with his wife Mariana, née Siemens; they had seven daughters.{{cite web |title=Professor Bertram Hopkinson (1874-1918) |url=http://www-g.eng.cam.ac.uk/millennium/noflash/1900-1925/hopkinson4.html |website=g.eng.cam.ac.uk |publisher=Cambridge University |access-date=20 February 2024 |page=4}}{{cite web |title=Colonel Bertram Hopkinson |url=https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/344345/bertram-hopkinson/ |website=cwgc.org |publisher=Commonwealth War Graves Commission |access-date=20 February 2024}}

Notes

= References =

;Secondary sources

{{cite journal | journal=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography | title= Hopkinson, Bertram (1874–1918) | first=Jacques | last=Heyman }}
{{cite book | last=Cranz | first= Karl Julius | title= Lehrbuch der Ballistik: "Innere Ballistik" | place=Berlin | publisher= Julius Springer | date= 1926 | volume=2 | pages=174 ff}}

External links

{{Find a Grave|34874629}}
{{citation | url=http://www-g.eng.cam.ac.uk/125/1900-1925/hopkinson.html | title=Bertram Hopkinson }} Biography at the University of Cambridge
{{citation | url=http://kingscollections.org/warmemorials/kings-college/memorials/hopkinson-bertram | title=Bertram Hopkinson }} Biography at King's College London

Category:1874 births

Category:1918 deaths

Category:Academics from Birmingham, West Midlands

Category:Lawyers from Birmingham, West Midlands

Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge

Category:Professors of engineering (Cambridge, 1875)

Category:British automotive engineers

Category:English engineers

Category:English inventors

Category:Fellows of the Royal Society

Category:Royal Engineers officers

Category:Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George