Lindemann, Frederick Alexander (Viscount Cherwell) [key], 1886–1957, British physicist and government official. He studied with W. H. Nernst and developed with him the Nernst-Lindemann theory of specific heat. His achievements also include the Lindemann melting-point formula and the Lindemann electrometer. During World War I he discovered how to recover an aircraft from an uncontrolled spin. Lindemann was scientific adviser to Winston Churchill during World War II, serving also as paymaster general from 1942 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1953. He developed Clarendon Laboratory, Oxford, into a major research facility, and he was an important influence in the founding of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority.
See biographies by R. F. Harrod (1959) and F. Winston, 2d earl of Birkenhead (1961).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Physics: Biographies
