Barrie Chaplin

G. B. B. "Barrie" Chaplin (27 January 1924 – 12 January 2021) was a British engineer and inventor, and professor emeritus at the University of Essex where he established the Department of Electrical Engineering Science in 1966. He was selected by IET as one of its 95 inspiring engineers and technologists of the past, present, and future and he was included in an exhibition at Savoy Place.

Born in Cheshire, Chaplin was a founding father of modern electronics as one of the first to devise circuits for the transistor after its invention in the late 1940s.. Circuit designs devised by Chaplin (some with co-authors) principally in the 1950s, have since become standard building blocks for the complex analogue and digital electronic systems of today.[citation needed]

His career as an inventor and academic continued until his retirement in 1989. He pioneered many technology breakthroughs including the world’s first transistorised digital computer, the world’s first transistorised sampling oscilloscope and active noise and vibration cancellation technologies. His output was prolific and wide-ranging, producing a long list of patents and important technical papers and publications throughout his career. Many of his breakthroughs were aired on British television through programmes such as the technology magazine programme Tomorrow’s World.

Chaplin earned his Bachelors, Masters and PhD at Manchester University and served in the RAF during World War II. He worked in the private sector before returning to academia.

Early life

Chaplin was born in the Stockport village of Romiley and began his studies at Manchester University in 1947. He received a first-class honours for his BSc electrical engineering in 1950, completed his MSc in 1951, and PhD in 1953.[citation needed]

During his studies he worked alongside early computing pioneers Tom Kilburn, Frederic C Williams and Alan Turing. They supported his innovative research into transistor circuits and computer design. The output of this pioneering work would be the creation of the world’s first transistorised digital computer.

References

  1. 1 2 Creed, Rebecca (14 April 2021). "Tributes paid to trailblazing inventor and engineer after death at 96". Retrieved 26 May 2022.
  2. ↑ "Professor Barrie Chaplin, University of Essex". www.essex.ac.uk. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
  3. ↑ "Celebrating the impact of inspiring engineers and technologists from the world of STEM". IET. 13 May 2022.
  4. ↑ "Professor Barrie Chaplin obituary".
  5. ↑ "Barrie Chaplin: Remembering a prolific Manchester alumnus and electronics pioneer". Science and Engineering. 13 January 2022. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
  6. 1 2 "Professor Barrie Chaplin, January 1924 – January 2021". www.theiet.org. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
  7. ↑ "Professor Barrie Chaplin obituary". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
  8. ↑ Chaplin, G. B. B.; Candy, C. J. N. (1 October 1959). "A transistor circuit for fast coincidence measurements". Nuclear Instruments and Methods. 5 (4): 242–246. Bibcode:1959NucIM...5..242C. doi:10.1016/0029-554X(59)90051-5. ISSN 0029-554X.
  9. ↑ Chaplin, G. (1958). "A method of designing transistor avalanche circuits with application to a sensitive transistor oscilloscope". 1958 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference. Digest of Technical Papers. pp. 21–23. doi:10.1109/ISSCC.1958.1155606. S2CID 60966758.
  10. ↑ Information, Reed Business (19 March 1981). New Scientist. Reed Business Information. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help)
  11. ↑ Swinbanks, M A (1 November 1984). "The Active Control of Noise and Vibration and Some Applications in Industry". Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part A: Power and Process Engineering. 198 (4): 281–288. doi:10.1243/PIME_PROC_1984_198_031_02. ISSN 0263-7138. S2CID 122163229.
  12. ↑ "Potatoes and chips at Essex". New Scientist. Reed Business Information. 17 December 1987. pp. 38–39.
  13. ↑ "Barrie Chaplin: Remembering a prolific Manchester alumnus and electronics pioneer". University of Manchester. 13 January 2022. Retrieved 30 September 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)