John Madsen works with William Bragg to bring a big boost to electrical engineering at Adelaide University
The brilliant John Madsen became Adelaide University’s lecturer in electrical engineering in 1903, working closely with William Bragg.
As with his father in law Charles Todd, Adelaide University's mathematics and physics professor and future Nobel Prize winner William Bragg promoted electrical technology in Adelaide. Todd, as South Australia's postmaster general and director of the Adelaide-Darwin telegraph line project, had urged that Adelaide use electricity long before it began to be seriously discussed in the 1880s. The 1887 Jubilee Exhibition in Adelaide pushed the use of electricity to grow steadily.
In 1900, the new School of Mines and Industries reorganised its electrical engineering course and asked Adelaide University for help. William Bragg was reluctant because of the shortage of staff, funds and equipment but he suggested weekly two-hour evening classes. These had began in 1891.
Students petitioned for an advanced course in 1894 and Bragg arranged for it to be taken by Ointon Farr, an Adelaide graduate who’d studied electrical engineering with Richard Threlfall in Sydney.
After a brilliant undergraduate career at Sydney University, John Madsen arrived in Adelaide in 1901 to replace J.B. Allen (leaving for Perth) as assistant lecturer in mathematics and demonstrator in physics. During the 1902/03 summer break, Madsen visited universities and electrical works in England and the USA. In 1903, he became Adelaide University’s lecturer in electrical engineering.
The university and School of Mines during 1902 had set up four-year courses leading to a joint school fellowship and university diploma in applied science. Details of the electrical engineering course and the design of the laboratories were left to Madsen, who also took charge of all physics practical work, provided advice for the Adelaide Electric Lighting Co. and, by 1906, was assisting Bragg with his research work.
Bragg took a considerable interest in these developments. With the support of Todd and Todd’s English colleague William Preece, Bragg was elected an associate (1893) and then a full member (1894) of The Institution of Electrical Engineers (UK) until 1912.
