Abstract
DR. BERNARD WHEELER ROBINSON was appointed in October 1948 as superintendent of the Physics Division, National Physical Laboratory, in succession to Mr. W. F. Higgins. Dr. Robinson was born in 1904. He studied mathematics and physics at Trinity College, Cambridge, and then spent two years at the Cavendish Laboratory under Lord Rutherford. Afterwards as research assistant to Sir William Bragg at the Davy Faraday Laboratory, Royal Institution, he specialized in instrument design and the technique of X-ray crystallography. He later held the post of senior lecturer in physics at the Military College of Science. During the Second World War, Dr. Robinson was associated with the development of gunsight and fire-control instruments for aircraft, including the ‘gyro-gunsight'. He was later concerned with work on the remote control of aircraft guns, a project closely related to the extensive wartime advances in the field of servomechanisms. Finally, under the Directorate of Armament Development, Ministry of Aircraft Production, he was in general charge of fire-control research. After the War, Dr. Robinson was engaged on specialized instrument work for the National Institute of Medical Research, translating the requirements of the physiologist and biochemist into the design of new physical instruments.
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The National Physical Laboratory, Physics Division : Dr. B. W. Robinson. Nature 163, 14 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/163014c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/163014c0