Hertha is the German form of the Old Germanic *Erþō* (earth) — an early Germanic earth-mother goddess described by Tacitus. **Hertha Ayrton (1854-1923)** was the **British electrical engineer and suffragist — the first woman elected as a member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers** (1899) and **the first woman read a paper to the Royal Society**. **Awarded the Hughes Medal of the Royal Society** for her work on the electric arc and on the sand ripples that form on beaches.
Subject of Adrian Smith's *Hertha Ayrton: A Memoir* (1926).
Hertha reduces to eight — the number of first female IEE member.