{{short description|British metallurgist and crystallographer (1894–1995)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2020}} {{Use British English|date=August 2012}} {{Infobox person | name = Constance Tipper | image = Constance Tipper.jpg | birth_name = Constance Fligg Elam | birth_date = {{birth date|1894|2|16|df=yes}} | birth_place = New Barnet, Hertfordshire | death_date = {{death date and age|14 December 1995|16 February 1894|df=yes}} | death_place = Penrith, Cumbria | education = Newnham College, Cambridge | occupation = Metallurgist | spouse = {{marriage|George Howlett Tipper|1928}} }} '''Constance Tipper''' (born '''Constance Fligg Elam'''; 16 February 1894 – 14 December 1995) was an English metallurgist and crystallographer.<ref name="matWorld1996">{{cite journal|date=June 1996|title=Constance Tipper: her life and work|journal=Materials World|pages=336–337}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite ODNB|title=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography – Tipper [née Elam], Constance Fligg|doi = 10.1093/ref:odnb/60337|year = 2004}}</ref> She investigated brittle fracture and the ductile-brittle transition of metals used in the construction of warships, and was the first female full-time faculty member at Cambridge University Department of Engineering.
== Early life and career == Constance Fligg Elam was born in New Barnet, Hertfordshire, the daughter of surgeon William Henry Elam, and Lydia Coombes. She was educated at Saint Felix School, Southwold before studying engineering at Newnham College, Cambridge (1912).<ref name=":5" /> Tipper achieved a third class in Part I of the Natural Science Tripos.<ref name=":0">{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Tipper, Constance Flig (Elam) (1894-1995) |encyclopedia=The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: L-Z |publisher=Taylor & Francis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LTSYePZvSXYC&q=constance+tipper+newnham+college+third&pg=PA1293 |date=2000 |author-link=Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie |language=en |isbn=9780415920407 |last2=Harvey |first2=Joy Dorothy |last1=Ogilvie |first1=Marilyn Bailey |author2-link=Joy Harvey}}</ref>
In 1915 she joined the Metallurgical Department of the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington, but moved in 1916 to the Royal School of Mines, where in 1917 she was appointed research assistant to Sir Harold Carpenter and, in 1921, elected to the Frecheville Research Fellowship.<ref name="matWorld1996" /> Also in 1917 she was elected a member of the Institute of Materials.<ref name=":5">{{cite journal |date=October 1947 |title=Contributors to the Journal |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_iron-and-steel-institute-journal_1947-10_157/page/282 |journal=The Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute |volume=157 |page= |pages=282-284}}</ref> It was subsequently arranged that she should work at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge.<ref>{{cite journal|date=8 July 1933|title=Beilby Memorial Awards|journal=Nature|volume=132 |issue=3323|page=56|doi=10.1038/132056a0|s2cid=4124197 |doi-access=free|bibcode=1933Natur.132Q..56. }}</ref><ref name="indObit">{{Cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-constance-tipper-1526649.html|title=Obituary: Constance Tipper|last=Hetzel|first=Phyllis|date=20 December 1995|work=The Independent|access-date=7 March 2018}}</ref> In 1923, under the name C. F. Elam she received the Royal Society's Bakerian Medal with G. I. Taylor. Unfortunately, the Royal Society had not realized that she was a woman and their dinner club did not allow women attendees.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Constance Tipper Cracks the Case of the Liberty Ships|journal=JOM |year=2015 |volume=67 |issue=12 |pages=2774–2776 |doi=10.1007/s11837-015-1697-9|bibcode=2015JOM....67l2774. |s2cid=189948418 |url=https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs11837-015-1697-9.pdf}}</ref>
In 1924 she was appointed to the first Research Fellowship in Metallurgy given by the Worshipful Company of Armourers and Braziers.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal|date=September 1924|title=Editorial Notes|url=https://www2.theiet.org/resources/library/archives/research/wes/WES_Vol_1.html|journal=The Woman Engineer|volume=1|issue=20|page=348}}</ref> In 1927, Elam attended the Second (Triennial) Empire Mining and Metallurgical Congress, held in Montreal, Canada, between 22 August and 28 September.<ref>{{Cite conference |author1= |author2= |editor-last=Graham |editor-first=R. P. D. |title=Proceedings : Second (Triennial) |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/22627408 |conference=Empire Mining and Metallurgical Congress, held in Canada, August 22nd to September 28th 1927 |publisher=Congress Office |publication-date=1928 |access-date=26 February 2025}}</ref> She wrote of the congress and her impressions of her two months travelling in Canada and America for The Woman Engineer journal, published by the British Women's Engineering Society, of which she was a member.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Elam |first=Constance |date=March 1928 |title=My First Visit to Canada and the United States |url=https://www2.theiet.org/resources/library/archives/research/wes/WES_Vol_2a.html |url-status=live |journal=The Woman Engineer |volume=2 |pages=268-270 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170927052226/http://www.theiet.org:80/resources/library/archives/research/wes/WES_Vol_2a.html |archive-date=27 September 2017 |access-date=2020-09-05}}</ref>
In 1928, Elam married George Tipper, a graduate of Clare College, Cambridge, and the superintendent of the Geological Survey in India. When she left the Royal School of Mines in 1929, with a DSc, she settled in Cambridge and continued her work there for over 30 years.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OPutDgAAQBAJ&q=100th+birthday+newnham+college+tipper&pg=PA64|title=Women at Imperial College; Past, Present And Future|last=Anne|first=Barrett|date=24 February 2017|publisher=World Scientific|isbn=9781786342645|language=en}}</ref> Tipper was appointed as a lecturer in the department of engineering from 1939, as one of the first women lecturers in the university at a time when many male lecturers went off to wartime work.<ref name=":0" />
In 1949 Tipper was appointed as a reader at Cambridge University, becoming the only full-time woman member of the faculty of engineering. She remained at Cambridge until her retirement in 1960. Following her retirement, Tipper continued to work as a consultant in the North-West of England, advising on metallurgy in submarine construction.<ref name=":1" /> Her 100th birthday in 1994 was celebrated by Newnham College with the planting of the Tipper Tree, a sweet chestnut.<ref>https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-constance-tipper-1526649.html</ref>
== Research == Tipper specialised in the investigation of metal strength and its effect on engineering problems. Her research with G. I. Taylor on distortion of aluminium crystals under tension received the 1923 Royal Society Bakerian Medal,<ref name=":3" /> although Tipper was prevented from attending the celebratory dinner due to being a woman.<ref name=":4" /> This research later inspired Taylor's explanation of plastic deformation by dislocations.<ref name=":2" />
During World War II she investigated the causes of brittle fracture in Liberty Ships.<ref name=":0" /> These ships were built in the US between 1941 and 1945, and were the first all-welded pre-fabricated cargo ships.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/building-liberty-ships-1941/|title=Building Liberty ships for the war effort, 1941|date=2017-07-18|website=Rare Historical Photos|language=en-US|access-date=2019-02-15}}</ref> Tipper established that the fractures were not caused by welding, but were due to the properties of the steel itself. She demonstrated that there is a critical temperature below which the fracture mode in steel changes from ductile to brittle. Because ships in the North Atlantic were subjected to low temperatures, they were susceptible to brittle failure. While these fatigue cracks would not propagate beyond the edges of riveted steel plates, they were able to spread across the welded joints in the Liberty ships.<ref name="indObit" /> She developed what is now known as the "Tipper Test" to help ensure that the metal used in ship construction was sufficiently sound.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web|url=https://www.newstatesman.com/node/159188|title=No dinner, but a nice box of chocs|last=Cathcart|first=Brian|date=2004-02-16|website=New Statesman|url-status=live|access-date=14 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180308041850/https://www.newstatesman.com/node/159188 |archive-date=8 March 2018 }}</ref>
She was the first person to use a scanning electron microscope (SEM) to examine metallic fracture faces. She used a scanning electron microscope built by Charles Oatley and his team, the second SEM ever built. Dr Tipper was awarded the Thomas Lowe Gray Prize, jointly with Professor J F Baker, for their paper 'The Value of the Notch Tensile Test', read before the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in October 1955.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=Winter 1957 |title=1957 |url=https://twej.theiet.org/twej/WES_Vol_8a.html |journal=The Woman Engineer |volume=8 |issue=7 |pages=2}}</ref>
The International Congress on Fracture awards the Constance Tipper Silver Medal<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.icf13.org/about/icf-awards|title=ICF AWARDS|language=en-US|access-date=2019-02-15}}</ref> to mid-career scientists and engineers who have made significant contributions in any aspect of research in the field of fracture.
== Awards and honours == * 1923 Royal Society Bakerian Medal * 1933 Beilby Medal and Prize * 1936–38 Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship
==Works== * {{cite journal |title=The production of single crystals of aluminium and their tensile properties |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Containing Papers of a Mathematical and Physical Character |date=December 1921 |volume=100 |issue=704 |pages=329–353 |doi=10.1098/rspa.1921.0089 |jstor=93990 |last1=Carpenter |first1=H. C. H. |last2=Elam |first2=Constance F. |doi-access=free |bibcode=1921RSPSA.100..329C }} * ''Deformation of Metal Crystals'' (Oxford University Press, 1935) * ''The Brittle Fracture Story'' (Cambridge University Press, 1962) * '' Publication: The fracture of mild steel plate. Report no. R3 '' (The Admiralty Ship welding Committee) [illustr.] London 1948 * ''Brittle fracture of mild steel plates '' (British Iron and Steel Research Association Procs. of a conf at the Engineering Laboratory, Cambridge University, 26 Oct 1945 p. 23–50 abstracted in Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute Oct 1947 p 300) * {{cite journal |last1=Elam |first1=C. F. |title=The influence of rate of deformation on the tensile test with special reference to the yield point in iron and steel. |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A. Mathematical and Physical Sciences |date=27 April 1938 |volume=165 |issue=923 |pages=568–592 |doi=10.1098/rspa.1938.0077 |jstor=97041 |s2cid=136748791 |doi-access=free |bibcode=1938RSPSA.165..568E }} * {{cite journal |title=The distortion of β -brass and iron crystals |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A. Mathematical and Physical Sciences |date=January 1936 |volume=153 |issue=879 |pages=273–301 |doi=10.1098/rspa.1936.0002 |jstor=96486 |last1=Elam |first1=C. F. |s2cid=119833803 |doi-access=free |bibcode=1936RSPSA.153..273E }} * ''The distortion of metal crystals '' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1935) * Baker, J.F. and Tipper, C.F. (1956) [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epdf/10.1243/PIME_PROC_1956_170_016_02 The Value of the Notch Tensile Test]. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers 1956 170:1, 65–93 * {{cite journal |last1=Elam |first1=Constance F. |title=Slip-bands and Twin-like Structures in Crystals |journal=Nature |date=May 1934 |volume=133 |issue=3367 |pages=723 |doi=10.1038/133723a0 |s2cid=4032998 |doi-access=free |bibcode=1934Natur.133Q.723E }}
==References== * Charles, Jim and Gerry Smith. "Constance Tipper: her life and work", ''Materials World'' (1996) * Hayes, Evelyn. "Dr. Constance Tipper: testing her mettle in a materials world", ''Advanced Materials & Processes'' (1998)
;Specific {{reflist}}
==External links== * [http://www-g.eng.cam.ac.uk/125/1925-1950/tipper2.html Cambridge Biographical Sketch]. Retrieved on 27 May 2007. * [http://www.engineerguy.com/comm/3731.htm Constance Tipper: A Public Radio Commentary]. Retrieved on 27 May 2007.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Tipper, Constance}} Category:1894 births Category:1995 deaths Category:People from Hertfordshire Category:People educated at Saint Felix School Category:Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge Category:English women centenarians Category:British metallurgists Category:Academics of the University of Cambridge Category:British crystallographers Category:20th-century English women engineers Category:Women's Engineering Society Category:Women crystallographers Category:Women metallurgists