GREAT WOMAN OF MATHEMATICS: HERTHA AYRTON, 1854-1923. British mathematician, engineer, and inventor, Ayrton was nominated for membership in the fellowship of the Royal Society in 1902--the first woman to be so honored. She was denied because, as a married woman, she had no 1/x 
legal existence in British law, rendering her ineligible. She grew up in the home of a watchmaker father and seamstress mother, one of eight children. She went to school from ages 9 to 15, studying French and music primarily, before becoming a governess at age 16. Her male 2/x
cousins were getting a broader education, and they introduced her to the study of science and mathematics, for which she had interest and obvious talent. At age 20, she was able to enter Cambridge University, which had recently been opened to women, earning honors in maths 3/x
on the entrance exam. While at Cambridge, she started both a fire brigade and a mathematical club. She passed the Mathematical Tripos, but Cambridge still gave only certificates, not degrees, to women. The University of London gave her a degree based on her Cambridge record 4/x
and stellar exam performance. After college, she worked as a maths teacher and inventor. She patented a "line divider," a drawing instrument that split lines into pieces and helped enlarge or reduce figures. It was the first of 26 patents she would earn for her inventions. 5/x
She studied physics and electricity (and married her teacher), and the two of them had fruitful scientific collaborations. In 1899, she became the first woman to read her own scientific paper before the Institute of Electrical Engineers. However, the Royal Society would not 6/x
let her, based on her sex, read her own work. (A man read it instead.) In 1906, she became the first woman to win the Hughes Medal. In later life, she mostly worked on electricity and air propulsion technologies. She used her knowledge to invent the Ayrton fan, designed for 7/x
World War 1 trench soldiers to protect themselves from mustard gas, though in actual combat conditions it had mixed results. She was a close friend of Marie Curie, and tutored Curie's daughter in maths. Throughout her life she worked for women's suffrage and equal education, 8/x
values she espoused all her life. She died in 1923, survived by a daughter and step-daughter. /end
She is one of the honorees in @ignotofsky 's wonderful postcard collection and book, Women in Science.
