Oliver Joseph Lodge (12.06.1851-22.08.1940) was an English physicist and a Fellow of the Royal Society (1887). He was born in Penkhull (India). He graduated from the University of London (1872). In 1881—1900 he was professor at the University of Liverpool, and in 1900—19 he was head of the University of Birmingham.
His research was in the field of mechanics, electrolysis, electromagnetic oscillations and waves, thermal conductivity, magneto-optics, the optics of moving bodies and the theory of the ether. He came close to the discovery of the electromagnetic waves detected by H. Hertz, studied their propagation, and in 1888 obtained electromagnetic waves along a conductor during the discharge of a Leyden jar; he substantially improved the methods of detecting waves by means of the coherer. He took part in the early stages of the development of radiotelegraphy. He showed that moving matter does not carry the ether along with it (the problem of the ether occupied a considerable place in his research), and by his experiments he proved the untenability of the theory of the ether. In 1896 he detected the splitting of a spectral line into three components in a magnetic field.
The B. Rumford (1898) and M. Faraday (1932) Medals and others.