Talk:Edward Victor Appleton

WikiProject class rating

This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 09:48, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

Tom Swift

Someone had added an unsourced statement that Edward Victor Appleton was the "likely" source of the house name Victor Appleton, used for the Tom Swift children's books. This seems unlikely, since the first "Victor Appleton" book was published in 1910, when the real-life Appleton was only 18 years old and not yet a well-known figure. The name seems be sheer coincidence as far as I can tell, so I have removed the reference. Please do not re-add it unless you can document a connection between the two. Craig418 (talk) 14:32, 20 May 2015 (UTC)

Emperor Appleton.

Appleton later had an unfortunate reputation for minimizing other's contributions, amply documented. This reads like hagiography. Anmccaff (talk) 03:59, 15 April 2016 (UTC)

GA review

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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This review is transcluded from Talk:Edward Victor Appleton/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Nominator: Hawkeye7 (talk · contribs) 04:27, 6 May 2026 (UTC)

Reviewer: A.Cython (talk · contribs) 00:48, 19 June 2026 (UTC)

I will review this. I will need a couple of days to go through the article and sources. A.Cython(talk) 00:48, 19 June 2026 (UTC)

I enjoyed reading the biography of a notable scientist. Overall the article is well-written and sourced. There are a couple of wriggles to be ironed out. My comments are listed below. A.Cython(talk) 04:40, 20 June 2026 (UTC)

Various

• No edit wars
• Neutral
• Broad and focused
• Figures have appropriate licences and captions, all of them are relevant

Copyright

• Earwig's Copyvio Detector gives 49%, flagging a small paragraph
  • Appleton had observed ... from the interference pattern of the two signals. Please rewrite this or provide evidence that they copied from wikipedia

    Re-written. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 06:25, 20 June 2026 (UTC)

Prose & MoS

• He brought a captured German thermionic valve back with him I noticed that you mentioned in the lead as well so it appears important, but I do not see its relevance/connection with the rest of the narrative. Why was this important?

  It indicated his fascination with the valve. Added a bit more about this. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 06:35, 20 June 2026 (UTC)

• ingenious device why "ingenious"? is it subjective?

• It seemed like a good word to me, but omitted. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 06:25, 20 June 2026 (UTC)

• Appleton thought the best place to look for evidence of the ionosphere was in the variations he believed it was causing around sunset in radio signal receptions. I do not follow this sentence, perhaps breaking into two. Also, explain what "the variations" mean, is it the thickness of the layer or density, etc.

  Re-worded. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 06:25, 20 June 2026 (UTC)

Sources

Spot check: 5, 15, 26, 33, 38, 40, 66, 70

• I do not think that the paragraph starting The basic idea behind Appleton's work is so simple that it is hard to understand at first how he devoted almost all of his scientific career to its study. is fully supported by the citation #33, care to revisit? Also the first sentence appears to be drawing a conclusion.

  Re-worded the first sentence. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 06:25, 20 June 2026 (UTC)

  [AC] FYI: I added a source to help with verification, as the "electron friction" quote does not appear in Clark's book.

Final comments

Congratulations to Hawkeye7 for bringing an important biography of a British scientist to GA family! Well done!A.Cython(talk) 17:48, 20 June 2026 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. Track your hook after promotion. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by NewAccount7295 (talk) 04:08, 26 July 2026 (UTC)

(

• Comment or view
• Article history

)

• ... that Edward Victor Appleton was awarded the Nobel Prize for the discovery of the Appleton layer?

• Source: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1947/summary/

• • Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Timeline of the Liz Truss premiership, Template:Did you know nominations/Outline of artificial satellites

Improved to Good Article status by Hawkeye7 (talk). Number of QPQs required: 2. DYK is currently in unreviewed backlog mode and nominator has 459 past nominations.

Hawkeye7 (discuss) 04:00, 22 June 2026 (UTC).

• Hook is interesting. Article recently promoted to GA status. Earwig's just lists names. Hook is interesting and matches the source and article. Looks like some more work is needed on the second review; I'm not sure if I can approve at this stage because of the unfinished review, so I'll wait. Panamitsu (talk) 03:41, 25 June 2026 (UTC)

You can.--Launchballer 06:27, 25 June 2026 (UTC)

Ok thanks, approved. Panamitsu (talk) 06:57, 25 June 2026 (UTC)