Florence Martin

{{short description|Australian-American physicist and philanthropist (1867-1957)}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Florence Martin

| birth_date = {{birth date|1867|12|25|df=y}}

| birth_place = Clarens, Potts Point, Sydney, Australia

| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1957|10|27|1867|12|25}}

| death_place = Denver, Colorado, United States

| alma_mater = {{plainlist|

University of Sydney
Cavendish Laboratory{{Australian Dictionary of Biography |last=Home|first=R W|title=Martin, Florence (1867–1957)|id2=martin-florence-7504 |access-date=2020-07-19}}

}}

| mother = Isabella Long

| father = Sir James Martin

| relatives = William Long (uncle)
Eleanor Manning (niece){{Australian Dictionary of Biography |last=Oppenheimer |first=Melanie |author-link= Melanie Oppenheimer |title=Manning, Eleanor (1906–1986) |id2=manning-eleanor-14910 |access-date=2020-07-19}}

}}

Florence Martin (25 December 1867 – 27 October 1957) was an Australian-American physicist and philanthropist. She performed research at the University of Sydney under Sir Richard Threlfall and at Cavendish Laboratory under J. J. Thomson. Her donations of land in Douglas County, Colorado, led to the creation of Daniels Park, a Denver Mountain Park.

Early life and education

Martin was born on 25 December 1867 to Sir James Martin, Premier of New South Wales, and his wife Isabella Long, the daughter of a convict turned successful businessman. The eleventh of fifteen children, she was educated by a governess and later at Madame Gilder's school, Campbell Lodge. Her father died in 1886, and in 1891, she enrolled at the University of Sydney in arts. She completed her first year with honours in physics and enrolled again in 1892.{{Cite web|last=Boyd|first=Shaun|date=June 9, 2020|title=Florence Martin – An Unbelievable Life|url=https://thehrhs.org/20200615-Florence_Martin-An_Unbelievable_Life|access-date=July 16, 2020|website=Highlands Ranch Historical Society}}

Research

In 1892 Martin took on the role of an unpaid research assistant to Professor Sir Richard Threlfall, a family friend. She worked with him from 1892 to 1893, during which time they produced a paper, "On an Approximate Method of finding the Forces acting in Magnetic Circuits", which was published first in the Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales,{{Cite journal|last1=Threlfall|first1=Richard|last2=Martin|first2=Florence|date=1893|title=On an Approximate Method of finding the Forces acting in Magnetic Circuits|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/130154#page/211/mode/1up|journal=Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales|volume=27|pages=197–218|doi=10.5962/p.359148 |via=Biodiversity Heritage Library|doi-access=free}} and then in the Philosophical Magazine.{{Cite journal|last1=Threlfall|first1=Richard|last2=Martin|first2=Florence|date=1893|title=On an Approximate Method of finding the Forces acting in Magnetic Circuits|url=https://archive.org/details/londonedinburgh5381894lon/page/89/mode/2up|journal=The Philosophical Magazine|volume=38|pages=89–110|via=Internet Archive}} After this was published, Martin went to England with a recommendation from Threlfall to J. J. Thomson.

Only the second Australian research student to work at the Cavendish, she took advanced undergraduate practical classes and performed research under the direction of Thomson for about eighteen months. During this time she published a paper on gas expansion in capacitors in the Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society (in which she is called "Miss Martin").{{Cite journal|last=Martin|date=1895-11-11|title=Expansion produced by Electric Discharge|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101028455515&view=1up&seq=31|journal=Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society|volume=9|pages=11–16|via=HathiTrust Digital Library}} Though Martin was the sole author on the paper, Thomson orally presented the paper to the Cambridge Philosophical Society on her behalf.{{Cite journal|last=Gould|first=Paula A.|date=1998-01-01|title=Making space for women in the history of physics|url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160932798010904|journal=Endeavour|language=en|volume=22|issue=1|pages=24–26|doi=10.1016/S0160-9327(98)01090-4|issn=0160-9327|url-access=subscription}}

Martin moved back to Sydney in 1896 and began collaborating with Threlfall again. They published two more papers, "A Contribution to the Study of Oxygen at Low Pressures"{{Cite journal|last1=Threlfall|first1=R.|last2=Martin|first2=Florence|date=1897|title=A Contribution to the Study of Oxygen at Low Pressures|url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/130955#page/97/mode/1up|journal=Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales|volume=31|pages=79–82|doi=10.5962/p.359260 |via=Biodiversity Heritage Library|doi-access=free}} and "Magnetic Hysteresis Losses in Feebly Magnetic and in Diamagnetic Substances".{{Cite journal|last1=Threlfall|last2=Martin|first2=Florence|date=1898|title=Magnetic Hysteresis Losses in Feebly Magnetic and in Diamagnetic Substances|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WjxKAAAAYAAJ&q=%22magnetic+hysteresis+losses+in+feebly+magnetic+and+in+diamagnetic+substances%22&pg=PA176|journal=Report of the Seventh Meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science|pages=176}}

In 1899 she became housekeeper for her senile mother, marking the end of her physics career.{{Citation|title=Martin, Florence (1867–1957)|url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1468344|journal=Trove|publication-date=2010|access-date=18 July 2020}}{{Cite book|last=Creese, Mary R. S.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K9FkFg5ogZAC&q=%22florence+martin%22&pg=PA63|title=Ladies in the laboratory III : South African, Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian women in science : nineteenth and early twentieth centuries : a survey of their contributions|date=2010|publisher=Scarecrow Press|others=Creese, Thomas M.|isbn=978-0-8108-7289-9|location=Lanham, Md.|pages=63–64|oclc=659564120}}

Philanthropy

In 1905, Martin met William Cooke Daniels, an American explorer, veteran of the Spanish–American War, and millionaire department store owner.{{Cite news|date=1918-03-19|title=William Cooke Daniels Dies in Argentina|work=The Herald Democrat|url=https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=THD19180319-01.2.28&e=-------en-20--1--img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA--------0--|access-date=2020-07-20}} Daniels' fiancée, Cicely Banner, lived with Martin for sixteen months while Daniels was on an expedition to Papua New Guinea. After Daniels married Banner in 1907, Martin began living with them (primarily in England and France) and travelling the world with them.

The Daniels couple both died in 1918, and Florence Martin inherited most of their estate and settled around Denver. She donated 38 acres in 1920 and another 962 in 1937 to establish Daniels Park in Douglas County, Colorado.{{Cite web|title=Daniels Park|url=https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/daniels-park|access-date=2020-07-20|website=Colorado Encyclopedia|date=25 August 2017}}

In 1934, Martin endowed the Denver Art Museum's Cooke-Daniels Memorial Lectures.{{Cite book|last=Cuba, Stan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1n7gCwAAQBAJ|title=The Denver Artists Guild : its founding members : an illustrated history|date = 15 May 2015|publisher = University Press of Colorado|isbn=978-0-942576-59-7|location=Denver, CO|oclc=918968336}}