Constance Tipper

Who was Constance Tipper?

Constance Fligg Elam Tipper was an English metallurgist and crystallographer.

Constance Tipper specialized in the investigation of metal strength and its effect on engineering problems. During World War II she investigated the causes of brittle fracture in Liberty Ships. These ships were built in the US between 1941 and 1945, and were the first all-welded pre-fabricated cargo ships.

Tipper established that the fractures were not caused by welding, but rather by 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. These fatigue cracks were able to spread across the ship's welded joint plates, instead of stopping at plate edges of a riveted joint, as previously used.

In 1949 Tipper was appointed Reader and became the only woman to be a full-time member of the Faculty of Engineering of Cambridge University.

She was the first person to use a scanning electron microscope to examine metallic fracture faces.