Dr. John Aitken, F.R.S

Abstract

DR. JOHN AITKEN, widely known for his unique researches in meteorology, died at Ardenlea, Falkirk, on Friday, November 14, at the ripe age of eighty years. Although he served his apprenticeship as a marine engineer, Dr. Aitken's intellectual interests drew him into the fields of physical research, for which he received a stimulus as a student under Sir William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) in Glasgow University. He lived a retired life in Falkirk in a house which was largely fitted up as a laboratory, whence he would emerge from time to time to communicate some novel experiment or observation to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Dr. Aitken frequently visited the Continent, partly for his health's sake, and never failed to utilise his opportunities in studying at first hand the varied meteorological conditions of our globe. He published scientific papers in the Philosophical Magazine and through the publications of the Royal Societies of London and Edinburgh, but it was mainly through the latter society that his important investigations were laid before the scientific world.