Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 05.djvu/235

 HENRY

HENRY

bons in coils, producing sparks from the elbow which could be heard in the next room. He found that a secondary current could produce a third, this a fourth, and so on. He made a " quantity " induced current produce an " inten- sity," and vice versa. He discovered the oscilla- tory character of the electrical discharge; and anticipating the wireless telegraphy of 1900, induced currents at a distance: — in a plate in the cellar of the Philosophical Hall while the primary current was in the upper story, and between two wires stretched across the college grounds, a quarter of a mile apart, with a college building intervening. He turned the tin roof of his house into an induction plate, and by means of an electrical cm-rent induced in this by a thunder- storm twenty-five miles away, telegraphed from his residence to his laboratory. He began with this subject in 1834 and 1835, and the same year discovered electrical screening. He made numer- ous experiments on the various parts of a con- ducting wire; on atmospheric electricity, by fly- ing kites on the college grounds; on the tenacity of water in soap bubbles; on light, heat, phos- phoretic emanations; and thousands of other experiments, many of which he never published. His lectures to his students at Princeton included geology, mineralogy and architecture. In 1827- 83 he aided Dr. Beck in developing his state system of meteorological observations. In 1836- 37 lie visited Europe, where he made the ac- quaintance of leading scientists, and in 1839 proposed to the U.S. government to carry on simultaneous magnetic and meteorological ob- servations at appointed stations. When congress organized the Smithsonian Institution in August,

1846, under the provisions of the will of James Smith- son, by which $515,169 was set apart for the purpose, Joseph Henry was appointed first secretary and director, and he equipped and developed the establisliment. In order to continue his work in Washington, be declined the chair of natural philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania, and the presi- dency of the College of New Jei'sey in 1853, and again in 1867, although the salary of either place would have been double that received from the government. He made many experiments in acoustics for government buildings and also on the tenacity of building stones, aiid in many other matters for which his aid was required. All these services to the government were given without charge. He originated the system of

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investigations which resulted in the govern- ment weather reporting system; he helped to organize the U.S. light-house board in 1852, and was made chairman of the board in 1871. He also advised the formation of the national liglit-house system, and investigations in its be- half were among the last that occupied his atten- tion. During his connection with the light-house board he made an interesting series of experi- ments on sound in connection with the waves and on the echo from the waves; and also ex- perimented on the burning of oils, devising lamps which, by the introduction of cheaper oils, saved the government millions of dollars. He was elected president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1849; was a charter member of the National Academy of Science, and its president, 1868-78; a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; and a member of the AmericaTi Philosophical society and of numerous other learned societies. He was knighted by the King of Norway and Sweden and was made master of St. Olof. He received the honorary degree of A.M. from Union college in 1829, and that of LL.D from the College of South Carolina in 1838, from the University of the State of New York in 1850, and from Harvard in 1851. His papers printed in scientific publica- tions include over 150 subjects; his official papers include a series on meteorology in its connection with agriculture, contributed to the Agricultural Reports (1855-59), and Scientific Writings of Joseph Henry, published by the Smithsonian In- stitution in two volumes (1886). He edited the annual volumes of

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the Smithsonian Re- ports (1846-77) and published Syllabus of Lectures on Phys- ics {18U). After his death a memorial meeting was held in his honor in the house of represen- tatives, attended bj the Pi'esident and all the heads of de- partments, represen- tatives of learned societies and a large concourse drawn by affection as well as respect. The gov- ernment erected on the grounds of the Smitlisonian Institu- tion a bronze statueof Professor Henry, executed by William W. Story, at the cost of $15,000. which was unveiled April 19, 1883, with appropriate

STATUE OF JOSEPH HE.NRY,

AT WASH I NC TO/M.