Explore this section
Members and registered users
Find out about the preferential rates and generous discounts available to IET members as part of our Member Rewards scheme.
Manage your professional development and apply for professional registration using the IET’s online skills development and recording tool.
Guidance and support to enable IET members to undertake planned and structured Initial Professional Development (IPD) and Continuing Professional Development (CPD).
Lead by example. Inspire the next generation. Help to shape the profession.
Explore this section
Search today for your next engineering role on Engineering & Technology Jobs, the job board hosted by the IET.
This guide will help you to improve performance and have confidence in the operational safety of your electrical equipment.
Welcome to our Information For Authors hub. In these pages we’ve gathered together all the information and advice you’ll need as an author, editor or contributor from the start of the process – submitting a proposal – through to publication and beyond.
Intuitive search, flexible offline access and content updates included in your subscription.
Fresh insights into the hottest topics within the field of engineering. TechBites are insight documents that emerge out of the IET Technical & Professional Networks.
Explore this section
Find the latest events and content from the IET community including our Local and Technical Networks.
Visit our community platform where you can connect with engineers from around the world.
Volunteering can enhance your career development, is a personally rewarding experience and also benefits your Community
IET Sectors produce thought leadership, raises the profile of the IET and enhances the relevance of the institution around core issues, themes and technologies.
Explore this section
Highlighted events
27 - 28 September 2016 | Holiday Inn City Centre, Birmingham, UK
6 October 2016 | IET London: Savoy Place
11 - 13 October 2016 | IET London: Savoy Place
7 - 9 November 2016 | University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK
Dr Robert M Pepper
Vice President of Global Technology, Cisco
Professor William Nuttall
Professor of Energy, The Open University
Explore this section
IET corporate news and activities, plus comment and reaction on engineering and technology issues.
Read what the media is saying about the IET and our activities.
Catch up on the latest IET and engineering developments with our regular news videos.
Share what’s on your mind through this series of interactive webcasts for members of the IET.
Key topics offer summaries of the IET’s positions on many of the most important policy topics.
The IET represents the views of its members on a wide range of professional and technological issues.
The IET aids the legal profession by nominating expert witnesses to present technical information in court.
Contact information for the IET Policy department
Biographical information on W.E. Ayrton, electrical engineer and member of the first Science Abstracts committee.
William Edward Ayrton, F.R.S. was born in London on 14 September 1847.
The son of a barrister, he studied mathematics at University College, London and later electricity at Glasgow under W. Thomson (Lord Kelvin).
In 1873, after successful service with the Indian Telegraph Company and a year with the Great Western Railway, he was appointed to the first Chair in Natural Philosophy and Telegraphy at the Imperial Engineering College, Tokyo.
At the the Imperial Engineering College, he worked with John Perry, Professor of Engineering, on a variety of subjects including dielectric constants of gases; viscosities of dielectrics and terrestrial magnetism.
On his return to London, he took several academic posts: Professor at the City and Guilds of London Institute (1879), Finsbury Technical College (1881) and Central Technical College (1884) becoming an outstanding teacher of electrical subjects often using self-made apparatus in his classes.
In 1879, Ayrton was the first to advocate power transmission at high voltage. In conjunction with John Perry (who had rejoined him at Finsbury), he invented many electrical measuring instruments including a spiral-spring ammeter and wattmeter. They also worked on railway electrification and produced a dynamometer. In 1882 they produced the first electric tricycle.
In 1898, William Ayrton was a member of the editorial committee for the first issue of Science Abstracts published by The Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE).
From 1904 until 1908, the year of his death, Ayrton and his second wife, Phoebe Marks (known as Hertha Ayrton, found fame for her work on the electric arc and being the first woman member of the Institution), were sponsored by the Admiralty to work on the electric searchlight.
