Abstract
DR. HENDRIK JOHANNES VAN DER BIJL, whose death occurred on December 2, was born in 1887. From early children he showed that he was of stern stuff and would be different from others. A successful stay at the University of Stellenbosch concluded with a B.Sc. honours degree. He proceeded to Germany, where, at the University of Halle, he obtained the degree of M.A., to be followed later on by the Ph.D. of the University of Leipzig. It was while he was instructor in physics at the Royal School of Technology at Dresden that he came in contact with Prof. R. A. Millikan, who had gone to Germany to deliver a lecture on an aspect of physics with which van der Bijl was also dealing at the time ; this meeting laid the foundation for van der Bijl's meteoric career. So impressed was Prof. Millikan that on his return to the United States he advised the Western Electric Company, New York, to employ the serious young South African to pursue research on the triode, which had recently been invented by Lee de Forest, and was just being applied in the fast-developing art of radio.
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HATTINGH, J. Dr. H. J. van der Bijl, F.R.S. Nature 163, 353 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/163353a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/163353a0