Geoffrey Builder
BUILDER, Geoffrey, BSc PHD DSc AMIEAust FIP(UK) FIRE(Aust) FIRE(Amer) (1906-1960)
Geoffrey was born on June 21, 1906, at Cue, the eldest of the four children of ironmonger Alfred Ernest Builder and his wife Grace Builder (nee Clark). His father worked for the hardware firm of Crooks and Brooker and around 1912 was transferred to Geraldton with the company as manager.
Geoffrey was educated at Geraldton High School, being the Dux of Primary School in 1918 and winning a Secondary School Scholarship.
He attended Guildford Grammar School completing his Junior Certificate (1920) and Leaving Certificate (1921/22) there. He then became an Apprentice Mechanic with the Midland Railway Company between 1922 and 1924 also studying at Perth Technical College. In 1925 he commenced a science degree at the University of Western Australia, graduating in April 1928.
In 1927, Geoffrey was a member of the winning Western Australian crew in the Interstate University Eight Oar Championship, the Oxford and Cambridge Cup, rowed in Sydney.
He worked as a Demonstrator at the University of Western Australia in the Physics Department in 1928 before becoming an Assistant at the Carnegie Institution of Washington Magnetic Observatory, at Watheroo, between 1928 and 1930. He had continued his studies in advanced physics and passed the Masters of Science preliminary course at the University of Western Australia in 1930.
Whilst at the Watheroo Magnetic Observatory he developed a broadcasting set that enabled him to make daily contact with Washington, USA.
Geoffrey then completed a Doctorate of Philosophy, in 1933 at Kings College, London under Professor Appleton. This research on the exploration of the ionosphere was largely responsible for the discovery of the magneto-ionic splitting of pulse radio echoes and the quantitative verification of ionospheric double refraction which had been predicted by a theory of his supervisor, Professor Appleton.
In 1932 he was selected, by Professor Appleton, to participate in the British Polar Expedition to the Artic with the broadcasting set he developed being part of the scientific observations from Tromso, Norway. The expedition ran from July 1932 to May 1933. It was this expedition which discovered the phenomenon of the polar radio blackout associated with magnetic storm and auroral act1v1ty.
The Australian Dictionary of Biography entry notes that Geoffrey “returned to Australia in 1933 to a position in Sydney with the Radio Research Board where his work again mainly dealt with instrumentation. Next year he became director of the research laboratories at Amalgamated Wireless (Australasia) Ltd. Builder recruited excellent staff and built his institution into the country's premier industrial research establishment. During World War II the A.W.A. laboratories contributed significantly to Australia's radio and radar capabilities.
A temporary major in the Australian Military Forces in February-August 1942, he advised on radar before being appointed acting general manager of Airzone Ltd, a wartime supplier of electronic equipment to the Department of Defence. Subsequently, with two colleagues from Airzone, he set up private companies to manufacture electrical equipment, specializing in constant voltage transformers.
In 1947 Builder joined the University of Sydney as a temporary lecturer in physics; in 1950 he was appointed senior lecturer. An enterprising and sympathetic teacher, he developed ideas on the foundations of relativity theory that continue to provoke discussion.”
Geoffrey’s work at the Radio Research Board played an important part in developing the Board's new experimental techniques for ionospheric exploration and collaborated with the late A. L. Green in research on the polarization of long radio waves and on the suppression of fading.
Geoffrey also worked as a consulting engineer in Sydney from 1945 to 1949. He continued in his role as Senior Lecturer at the University of Sydney until his death in 1960.
In 1956, he completed a Doctorate in Science at Kings College London.
He married science graduate Margaret Bettie Mitchell on May 25, 1936, at Ballarat, Victoria. They had four children.
Geoffrey became an Associate Member of the Institution of Engineers in 1934. He was a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, London, and a Fellow of both the Institute of Radio Engineers, America and the Institute of Radio Engineers, Australia (awarded 1940).
In 1937, Geoffrey and his research colleagues in Australia were awarded the Overseas Premium from the Institution of Electrical Engineers (UK) for papers on Control of Wireless Signal Variations and Control of Phase Fading in Long Distance Communications.
Geoffrey died on June 17, 1960, aged 53. He was survived by his wife Margaret and their four children.
References:
Geraldton Guardian, 24.5.1919, p. 2.
Geraldton Express, 6.6.1927, p. 2.
Geraldton Guardian and Express, 17.11.1932.
Daily News, 8.8.1933, p. 5.
The Mail (Adelaide), 17.7.1937, p. 10.
Sydney Morning Herald, 4.12.1940, p. 6.
R. W. Home, Builder, Geoffrey (1906–1960), Australian Dictionary of Biography, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/builder-geoffrey-9617/text16957 accessed 3 June 2023.
Who is Who Australia, 1938.
Nature, September 3, 1960.
J L C Wickham, Merging Streams, the story of the Cloisters and Guildford Grammar School, Advance Press, Bassendean, 2004.
