Ewing, Sir James Alfred

Japanese: ユーイング - Ｅｗｉｎｇ，ＳｉｒＪａｍｅｓＡｌｆｒｅｄ

Year of death: 1935.1.7 (1935.1.7)
Born: March 27, 1855
A foreign resident who came to Japan during the Meiji period. A British physicist. Born to a clergyman in Dundee, Scotland, he studied under Professor Jenkin, a civil engineer, at the University of Edinburgh. He then worked under Professor Thomson (Lord Kelvin) at the University of Glasgow, where he was involved in the construction of the Atlantic submarine cable. On Thomson's recommendation, he came to Japan in September 1878 (Meiji 11) as a teacher at the University of Tokyo, lecturing on physics, steam engine theory, machinery, and other subjects. He remained in this position until June 1883, and trained Tanakadate Aikatsu and other disciples. Like Milne, who was in Japan at the time, he was interested in seismology, and contributed to the founding of the Seismological Society of Japan, as well as inventing a seismograph and establishing an earthquake observatory. After returning to Japan in 1883, he became a professor of engineering at the University of Dundee, and in 1890 moved to Cambridge University, where he served as a professor of mechanical engineering and applied mechanics. He became well known for his research in magnetism, and was also active in the field of education, becoming Director of Naval Education in 1903 and Vice-Chancellor of his alma mater, the University of Edinburgh, in 1916. He wrote a widely used textbook, The Steam Engine and other Heat Engine (1894). In 1885, he was one of the people who recommended Dyer when he applied for his second professorship at the University of Glasgow, but this was unsuccessful. <References> TJN Hilkins, Engineering at Cambridge University; Japan's Civil Engineering Society (ed.), Civil Engineering and Foreigners in Japan since the Meiji Period

(Nobuhiro Miyoshi)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

没年：1935.1.7(1935.1.7)
生年：1855.3.27
明治期に来日したお雇い外国人。イギリス人物理学者。スコットランドのダンディの牧師の家に生まれ,エジンバラ大学で土木工学のジェンキン教授に師事。その後グラスゴー大学のトムソン教授(ケルビン卿)の輩下として,大西洋海底電線の敷設工事などに従事した。トムソンの推薦により明治11(1878)年9月に東大の教師として来日し,物理学,蒸気機関論,器械学などを講義した。16年6月まで在職し,田中館愛橘らの門弟を育てた。当時滞日中のミルンと同じように地震学に関心を寄せ,日本地震学会の創立に寄与するとともに,地震計を創製し,地震観測所を設立した。 16年に帰国後はダンディ大学の工学教授となり,1890年ケンブリッジ大学に移って機械工学,応用機械学の教授を務めた。磁気学の研究で著名になるとともに,1903年海軍教育部長,16年母校エジンバラ大学の副総理に就任するなど教育面でも活躍。テキスト《The Steam Engine and other Heat Engine》(1894)を著し,広く利用された。1885年にダイアーがグラスゴー大学の2回目の教授選応募の際,推薦者のひとりとなったが,これは不首尾に終わった。<参考文献>T.J.N.Hilkins《Engineering at Cambridge University》,土木学会編『明治以後本邦土木と外人』

(三好信浩)

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