BICKLEY

UNITED KINGDOM (see also List of Individuals)

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19.4.1893 Stantonbury/UK - 4.7.1969 Northwood/UK

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William George Bickley gained his BSc in 1912 from the University College, Reading, his MSc in 1920 and the PhD title in 1930. In parallel, he was until 1929 a mathematics Lecturer at the Battersea Polytechnic. From 1930 to 1947 he was an assistant professor and Reader, from 1946 to 1953 a professor of theoretical mechanics, and from then an emeritus professor at Imperial College, London. Bickley was a Council Member of the London Mathematical Society from 1942 to 1946 and then a vice-president until 1948. In 1949, he turned blind.

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Bickley worked essentially in applied mathematics and in theoretical mechanics. Some of his works are also in fluid dynamics. These include papers both in aerodynamics and in fluid mechanics. Bickley thus presented a notable work on the critical conditions for compressible flow and design information for compressible air flow. In fluid mechanics, he was one of the first to introduce the concept of jet flow thereby using the approach of self-similitude. This approach was later the basis for an integral approach of jets in a variety of environments. Bickley also analyzed the flow of a sphere in a viscous flow, a basic problem in fluid mechanics with a relevance in technical applications. The approach of Carl Wilhelm Oseen (1879-1944) was thereby developed. During his last years, Bickley made scientific contributions for the blind and their fate in the modern world.

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_{Bickley, W.G. (1925). Engineering applications of mathematics. Pitman: London. Bickley, W.G. (1937). The plane jet. Philosophical Magazine Series 7 23: 727-731.}

_{Bickley, W.G. (1938). The secondary flow due to a sphere rotating in a viscous flow. Philosophical Magazine Series 7 25: 746-752.}

_{Bickley, W.G. (1942). The effect of a free surface on compressible shock waves. Proc. Royal Society A 180: 209-218.}

_{Bickley, W.G. (1950). Critical conditions for compressible flow. Technical Report, R&M 2330.}

_{Aeronautical Research Council: London.}

_{Bickley, W.G. (1954). A selection of graphs for use in calculation of compressible airflow.}

_London.

_{Poggendorff, J.C. (1936). Bickley, William George. Biographisch-Literarisches Handwörterbuch 6: 213; 7b: 376-377; 8: 294. Verlag Chemie: Leipzig, Berlin, with bibliography. http://www.iutam.net/iutam/History/1934.php P}