Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine April 2018 - 56

Obituary for Dr. Philip Mayne Woodward
A new internationally defined
language, Algol 68, appeared on the
computing scene and was put to use
by the team at Malvern so quickly
that a conference which was set to be
held in Munich to discuss plans for
its implementation was taken aback
by the news that the job had already
been done by this UK team. The formal language definition of the International Federation for Information
Processing was so unaccommodating
that widespread curiosity about the
language was frustrated until a narrative guide compiled by Woodward
and a perspicacious colleague was
put on sale by HM Stationery Office
and sold all of its 17,000 copies.

RETIRING TO SCIENTIFIC
HOROLOGY
Woodward retired from his role of
Deputy Chief Scientific Officer in
1980. Retirement meant that he could
return to his interest in horology. He
threw himself heart and soul into this
'hobby' and achieved notable success in this field, contributing dozens
of articles to horological periodicals
over more than 30 years.
From his experience as a mathematician and analyst of complex
systems, he has made major contributions to scientific horology, including the definitive analysis of balance
springs and much work on the properties of pendulums. His principal
contribution to the horological literature is My Own Right Time in 1995,
a record of his passion for horology
and the design of a series of four meDr. Philip Mayne Woodward, DSc
chanical clocks made at his home,
largely by hand. On his acorn comcarried out a long series of timekeeping trials of W5, showing unputer Woodward evaluated accurately for the first time the nonlinprecedented accuracy over periods of more than 100 days.
ear behaviour of spiral hairsprings, and analysed the influence of
Woodward's clocks have been copied by numerous model
lunar and solar tides on historic pendulum clocks.
engineers. W5 has since been replicated, ranging from a version
The culmination of his efforts is his masterpiece W5. W5 was
made out of Lego to several deluxe versions having been made
built with the simplest of tools, but displays an elegance of concept
on commission for private clients by David Walter in California.
and design rarely seen in the history of the science. Woodward
Woodward became a Fellow of the British Horological Institute
even built the case, assembling it with intricate but invisible secret
(BHI) and in 1994 he was awarded the Barrett silver medal of the
mitre joints. It was acclaimed by Jonathan Betts, the Senior Curator
BHI. In 2006 the British Horological Institute published a hardof Horology at the Royal Observatory Greenwich as "the nearest
cover collection of 63 articles with new notes by Woodward. The
approach to perfection by any mechanical timekeeper not employcollection was titled Woodward on Time.
ing a vacuum chamber". The eminent horologist Anthony Randall

IEEE A&E SYSTEMS MAGAZINE

APRIL 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine April 2018