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Culture Watch

And Consider This

Two Pioneers

Another woman who has 'first' added to references regarding her was Amy Johnson, the first female pilot to fly alone from Britain to Australia at age 26.

Johnson was born six years after Amelia Earhart and died in a flying accident over the Thames estuary three and a half years after Earhart was lost flying from New Guinea to Howland Island. Neither body was ever recovered.

Amy Johnson was working in London as a shorthand typist when she first became interested in flying. She saved enough money to join the London Aeroplane Club at Stag Lane Aerodrome, where she learned to fly, navigate, and repair engines. Although an unusual choice for a woman at that time, she made her first solo flight after a little under 16 hours’ tuition and achieved her pilot’s ‘A’ licence in July 1929.

Johnson was the first woman in this country to be granted an Air Ministry’s ground-engineer’s licence in December 1929. She then received the full navigation certificate in 1930. From this point, she was determined to make a career in aviation.

The aircraft for her epic flight was delivered only three weeks prior to her planned journey. Johnson acquired a two-year old De Havilland Moth with a Gipsy engine which already had extra fuel tanks, giving it a range of 13 hours flying time. She christened it Jason, the trademark of the Johnson family fish business, and had it painted bottle green with silver lettering.

On 5th May 1930, with only the experience of flying from London to Hull, Amy Johnson began her long journey to Australia. She was attempting to break the light aeroplane record for a solo flight to Australia. Johnson’s route covered some 10,000 miles of unfamiliar territory and took 20 days.

In July 1931, with Jason II, Amy Johnson became the first pilot to fly from London to Moscow in one day, flying the 1,760 miles in approximately 21 hours. From there she flew across Siberia to Tokyo, which took ten days. This was achieved in record-breaking time, as was the return journey.

Her death occurred on 5th January 1941. She was lost over the Thames estuary after baling out during a mission to deliver an Airspeed Oxford aeroplane. Ironically, after so many years of flying achievement, she was the first member of the ATA to be killed. Her body was never recovered, although her flying bag was picked up, and is now in the collections held at Sewerby Hall, Yorkshire.

Text about Johnson's exploits were taken from the online section at England's Science Museum site. Photos of Johnson, her planes and even the battered leather flying bag recovered from the crash that took her life are at the site. Her plane, Jason, may be seen in the Flight Gallery of the Science Museum

A recent biography of Marie Curie has sparked a renewal of interest in this renowned scientist. The Science Museum's online exhibit also carries a detailed biography of Marie and the history of radioactivity:

Marie Sklodowska was born in Warsaw in 1867. She was a brilliant student and dreamed of studying at the Sorbonne in Paris but it took eight years of saving before she could afford to go. Despite very poor living conditions, and a lack of French,she graduated in physics in 1893, and mathematics in 1894. While looking for a laboratory in Paris to continue with her experiments she was introduced to Pierre Curie, a highly regarded professor at the School of Physics. They married and joined forces in the laboratory to astonishing effect - they soon made the fantastic discovery of radium and radioactivity.

In 1903 Marie and Pierre Curie were awarded half the Nobel Prize in Physics 'in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel'. Pierre was tragically killed in 1906, leaving Marie with two daughters; Irène aged 9 and Eve aged 2. Marie was determined to continue their work. She became the first ever woman professor at the Sorbonne and as well as teaching, she discovered how to isolate radium in metallic form. In 1911 she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for the discovery of the elements radium and polonium. This she achieved by the isolation of radium and also from her study of the nature and compounds of this remarkable element.

During World War One she established a front-line X-ray service in the battlefields of Belgium and France, tirelessly fundraising, training staff and driving the X-ray vans. After the war, along with her research, Marie continued to fund raise, this time for her Institutes and for a hospital and laboratory devoted to radiology. She eventually died in 1934 from the cumulative effects of radiation exposure.

In April 1995 Marie and Pierre Curie's remains were enshrined in the Pantheon in Paris. Marie Curie is the first woman to be honoured in such a way for the achievements she made in Physics. Marie met Albert Einstein at the first Solvay Conference of the world's leading physicists. They became friends and in 1913 went on a walking holiday together with their children. Einstein said of Marie '[she was] The only person not corrupted by fame.'

— TG

Isabella Greenway biography or to the Sinatra Christmas Collection CD

 

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© 2004 Tam Martinides Gray for SeniorWomenWeb
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