In Wolstanton, Lodge experimented with producing a wholly new "electromagnetic light" in 1879 and 1880, paving the way for later experimental success. During this time, he also lectured at
Bedford College, London. Lodge left the Potteries in 1881 to up take the post of Professor of Physics and Mathematics at the newly-established
University College Liverpool. In 1900, Lodge moved from Liverpool back to the
Midlands and became the first Principal of the newly-founded
University of Birmingham, where he remained until his retirement in 1919. He oversaw the start of the move of the University from Edmund Street in the city centre to its present
Edgbaston campus.
Electromagnetism and radio In 1873,
James Clerk Maxwell published
A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, and by 1876 Lodge was studying it intently. But Lodge was fairly limited in mathematical physics, both by aptitude and training—and his first two papers were a description of a mechanism (of beaded strings and pulleys) that could serve to illustrate electrical phenomena such as conduction and polarisation. Indeed, Lodge is probably best known for his advocacy and elaboration of Maxwell's
aether theory, a later deprecated model postulating a wave-bearing medium filling all space. He explained his views on the aether in "
Modern Views of Electricity" (1889) and continued to defend those ideas well into the twentieth century ("
Ether and Reality", 1925). As early as 1879, Lodge became interested in generating (and detecting)
electromagnetic waves, something Maxwell had never considered. This interest continued throughout the 1880s, but some obstacles slowed Lodge's progress. First, he thought in terms of generating light waves with very high frequencies rather than radio waves with their much lower frequencies. Second, his good friend
George Francis FitzGerald (on whom Lodge depended for theoretical guidance) assured him (incorrectly) that "ether waves could not be generated electromagnetically". FitzGerald later corrected his error, but by 1881 Lodge had assumed a teaching position at University College Liverpool—the demands of which limited his time and energy for research. In 1887, the
Royal Society of Arts asked Lodge to give a series of lectures on
lightning, including why
lightning rods and their conducting copper cable sometimes do not work, with lightning strikes following alternate paths, going through (and damaging) structures, instead of being conducted by the cables. Lodge took the opportunity to carry out a scientific investigation, simulating lightning by discharging
Leyden jars into a long length of copper wire. Lodge found the charge would take a shorter high resistance route jumping a spark gap, instead of taking a longer low resistance route through a loop of copper wire. Lodge presented these first results, showing what he thought was the effect of
inductance on the path lightning would take, in his May 1888 lecture. In other experiments that spring and summer, Lodge put a series of spark gaps along two 29 meter (95') long wires and noticed he was getting a very large spark in the gap near the end of the wires, which seemed to be consistent with the oscillation wavelength produced by the Leyden jar meeting with the wave being reflected at the end of the wire. In a darkened room, he also noted a glow at intervals along the wire at one half wavelength intervals. He took this as evidence that he was generating and detecting Maxwell's electromagnetic waves. While traveling on a vacation to the
Tyrolean Alps in July 1888, Lodge read in a copy of
Annalen der Physik that
Heinrich Hertz in Germany had been conducting
his own electromagnetic research, and that he had published a series of papers proving the existence of electromagnetic waves and their propagation in free space. Lodge presented his own paper on electromagnetic waves along wires in September 1888 at the
British Science Association meeting in
Bath, adding a postscript acknowledging Hertz's work and saying: "The whole subject of electrical radiation seems working itself out splendidly." In the 1890s, Lodge carefully studied the
aether drag hypothesis. He built increasingly elaborate "whirling machines"; a whirling machine has a flat metal disk rotating at high speeds, in the hope of dragging ether near its surface. This would then be detected by shining light through it and observing the shift in the interference patterns. He could find no evidence of any ether drag. On 1 June 1894, during a Friday Evening Discourse at the
Royal Institution, Lodge gave a memorial lecture on the work of Hertz (recently deceased) and the German physicist's proof of the existence of
electromagnetic waves six years earlier. Lodge set up a demonstration on the quasi optical nature of "Hertzian waves" (
radio waves) and demonstrated their similarity to light and vision including reflection and transmission. Later in June he repeated his lecture, and on 14 August 1894 at the meeting for the
British Association for the Advancement of Science at Oxford University he was able to increase the distance of transmission up to 55 meters (180'). Lodge would later work with
Alexander Muirhead on the development of devices specifically for wireless telegraphy. In January 1898, Lodge presented a paper on "syntonic" tuning which he received a patent for that same year. Syntonic
tuning allowed specific frequencies to be used by the transmitter and receiver in a wireless communication system. The
Marconi Company had a similar tuning system adding to the priority dispute over the invention of radio. When Lodge's syntonic patent was extended in 1911 for another 7 years Marconi agreed to settle the patent dispute, purchasing the syntonic patent in 1912 and giving Lodge an (honorific) position as "scientific adviser". Lodge carried out scientific investigations on the source of the electromotive force in the
Voltaic cell,
electrolysis, and the application of
electricity to the dispersal of fog and smoke. He also made a major contribution to motoring when he patented a form of electric
spark ignition for the internal combustion engine (the Lodge Igniter). Later, two of his sons developed his ideas and in 1903 founded Lodge Bros, which eventually became known as Lodge Plugs Ltd. He also made discoveries in the field of wireless transmission. In 1898, Lodge gained a patent on the moving-coil
loudspeaker, utilizing a coil connected to a diaphragm, suspended in a strong magnetic field. In political life, Lodge was an active member of the
Fabian Society, and published two Fabian Tracts:
Socialism & Individualism (1905), and
Public Service versus Private Expenditure, co-authored with
Sidney Webb,
George Bernard Shaw, and Sidney Ball. They invited him several times to lecture at the
London School of Economics. In 1889, Lodge was appointed President of the Liverpool Physical Society, a position he held until 1893. The society still runs to this day, though under a student body. In 1901, he was elected as a member of the
American Philosophical Society. Lodge was President of the
British Association in 1912–1913. In his 1913 Presidential Address to the Association, he affirmed his belief in the persistence of the human personality after death, the possibility of communicating with disembodied intelligent beings, and the validity of the
Aether theory. == Paranormal investigations ==