Lynch, Catt and the IEE/IET

Dr. Arnold Lynch gave the key talk in the evening of the IEE/IET day of meetings to celebrate the centenary of J J Thomson’s discovery of the electron. When I asked Lynch why he was honoured to give the key talk, he replied; “Because J J Thomson told me about it.” This occurred when Lynch was an engineering student at Cambridge.

Lynch became the doyen of the IEE, and was concerned that Catt’s work was not being dealt with properly. He proposed a joint article, to which I agreed. Having been suppressed by the IEE for many years, I was careful to not contribute a single word to the article, partly reprinted here .

Lynch told me the IEE were very anxious to publish something by Catt. He said he had been promised that if our joint article was rejected for publishing, reasons would be given. In the event, it was rejected and no reasons given. Then Lynch, who had set up a division of the IEE called “History of Electrical Engineering” asked his friend, the chairman, to allow our joiknt paper at their AGM. This resulted in our article being presented there and published in their proceedings . However, the Proceedings of “History of .... “ could be safely ignored, as it was. Lynch made the mistake of discussing electric current, whereas The Catt Question is about electric charge.

What we read below will be a section of the article which was rejected for publication and no reasons for rejection being given.

It may be a coincidence that when Lynch died, no IEE journal mentioned it, although there were obituaries in the New York IEEE and in The Times . 1 , 2 .

Here is the last part of the article which was rejected for publication and no reasons given.

Ivor Catt 10 February 2013