About Hertha Ayrton
Phoebe Sarah Hertha Ayrton was an English electrical engineer, mathematician, physicist and inventor, and suffragette. Known in adult life as Hertha Ayrton, born Phoebe Sarah Marks, she was awarded the Hughes Medal by the Royal Society for her work on electric arcs and ripple marks in sand and water. Ayrton then passed an external examination at the University of London, which awarded her a Bachelor of Science degree in 1881. She adopted the name "Hertha", first given as a nickname by her friend Ottilie Blind, after the eponymous heroine of a poem by Algernon Charles Swinburne that criticised organised religion. She also constructed a sphygmomanometer (blood pressure meter), led the choral society, founded the Girton fire brigade, and, together with Charlotte Scott, formed a mathematical club.
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