Troubridge JT. 1827-1916 Harvard Physics History Page 1 of 3 Harvard University Department of Physics 17 Oxford Street Cambridge, MA 02130 (617) 495-287 Home About the Department People Research Academics Administration ( History Early History Nobel Prize Winners Physics was a required course at Harvard College by 1642. At that time, t Harvard Cyclotron Aristotle. Loeb Lectureships "Cosmic-Ray" Shed In 1726, Thomas Hollis of London endowed a professorship in "Mathemati Experimental Philosophy" and also donated a shipment of scientific appar second occupant of the Hollis chair, John Winthrop, introduced his studen Principia, although, from a surviving manuscript, it is not clear whether he grasped Newton's Laws. Still, he made history as one of the first American astronomical phenomena, such as the transits of Venus. Count Rumford (originally Benjamin Thompson of Woburn, Massachusett have bootlegged physics courses at Harvard when still a poor boy, becam discoverers of the Law of Conservation of Energy, and left the endowmen Professorship in 1814. Jefferson Laboratory* The Jefferson Laboratory was born under the ascending star of expe as reflected in triumphant 19th-century terms by Pasteur. As is so often the case, the whole enterprise was realized when the dream met with the encouragement of an administrator and the support of philan Laboratory opened its doors in 1884, it was the first of its kind in the Unite Harvard President Charles W. Eliot university possessing a building designed specifically for physics research instruction. This innovation had its own unexpected history. When President Charles I in 1869, he espoused a relatively new view-that liberal education should and modern languages in addition to the classics and theology. At the tim science was taught almost exclusively at special scientific and technical S Harvard's Lawrence Scientific School (1847), Yale's Sheffield Scientific School (184 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1865) were early examples. But E yet include research: "The prime business of American professors in this ( regular and assiduous class teaching. Harvard's only professor of physics Lovering offered no challenge to Eliot on that score. As remarked by Edwi doubtful that he "ever made and original experiment, or any experiment n lectures." All this changed when John Trowbridge joined the faculty in 1870 as assis physics. A graduate of the Lawrence Scientific School, he brought with hir the importance of laboratory research to the future of physics. He did not "The department of physics in a University must embrace both teaching a http://www.physics.harvard.edu/history.htm 9/3/2003 Harvard Physics History Page 2 of 3 John Trowbridge Il IS yiven up entirely to leaching, me cause OI Science Sunreis, and the OU which is founded both to teach and increase the sum of human knowledge defeated." (1877) Perhaps his shrewdest move was his publication in 1879 of a collaborative the laboratory apparatus in the United States-which revealed the the nev Johns Hopkins University owned almost seven times as much physical ap Harvard. *Jefferson Laboratory history By 1880, Eliot had come to agree with Towbridge's idea-then strange in A written by Gerald Holton with physics instruction should not be by rote and from books, but in the labora assistance from Deborah J. Coon, and instruments in hand"; and, moreover, that physics instruction required Armand Dionne and the Harvard research as well. Planning could now begin for a new building for both pur University Archives. anonymous "friend of the University" came forward to give $115,000 on C Note I.B.DORR another $75,000 would be raised to cover the running costs of the facility. donor turned out to be the Boston businessman Thomas Jefferson Coolid enralled ingraduate The name of the building honors Coolidge's ancestor, the President who V supporter of and occasional contributor to science in America. Progress that Prof. Tawbridge By 1883, the additional money had been raised, primarily through the gen administered. Alexander Agassiz. When the building opened in the fall of 1884, its very "plainest possible" furnishings-down to the unpainted inside brick walls- opposing the ornate European style of laboratory construction. All facilities for teaching undergraduates were ke to minimize vibrations in the west wing owing to "disturbances incidental to the movement of large numbers of I In order to further minimize disturbances and noise from the street traffic, 300 ft. away, the central tower in the built on a separate foundation. The tower's walls, not linked to the rest of the structure, would serve to support C instruments. All ferromagnetic materials were to be eliminated from the fixtures, pipes, and furnishings in the W was hoped that the magnetic field of the earth-whose variation was a lively research topic of the day-would F unchanged. Not everything worked as planned, and since this made research on geomagnetism less interesting, that was pe good. The red bricks themselves turned out to be slightly magnetic, somebody had forgotten about the ferroma and the marshy ground beneath the tower proved an unsteady support. But the splendid space, the fine shop fo construction of apparatus, and the tradition of precision measurement prepared for the meeting of research cha not even been anticipated. Within two decades of its opening, the Laboratory and the Department had developed to the point at which Trov that Harvard now had "the best equipment of any Physics Laboratory, either in this country or abroad." Jefferson Laboratory continued: Early Figures in the Life of the Jefferson Physical Laboratory Harvard Home Faculty of Arts and Sciences Physics Links Webmaster © 2003 The President and Fellows of Harvard College Will http://www.physics.harvard.edu/history.htm 9/3/2003 Harvard Physics Jefferson Lab Page 1 of 2 Harvard University Department of Physics IT Oxford Street Cambridge, MA 02138 (617) 495-287 Home About the Department People Research Academics Administration ( History Early Figures in the Life of the Jefferson Laboratory Joseph Lovering was director of the Laboratory until his retirement in 1888 responsible for buying most of the apparatus during this period, but his firs experimental demonstrations for classroom purposes. John Trowbridge, the guiding force behind the design of the Laboratory, W modern men in physics at Harvard. Despite heavy teaching and administr published over 80 research papers, with the best known work on spectroar Rontgen rays. For that purpose, he designed and had constructed a stora consisting of 10,000 cells-giving a far larger potential difference than any at the time, and attracting research visitors far and wide. At the time of the founding of the Laboratory, Wolcott Gibbs, a chemist, ta thermodynamics for the Physics Department-although the class chiefly r chemical lab in the Lawrence Scientific School nearby. Gibbs' research in work on complex inorganic acids, analytic methods, and physiological che Benjamin O. Peirce, a Harvard undergraduate, was Trowbridge's first rese brilliance became evident early. Of a research paper on magnetism, it wa Edwin H. Hall not in all America at that time another college Junior capable of all this." physics and mathematics, and the bulk of his research dealt with electrost measurements. Edwin H. Hall joined the faculty in 1881, having completed his PhD at Joh University and discovered the effect which bears his name. At Harvard he on thermo-conductivity, thermodynamic behavior of liquids, and thermoel improve physics education in secondary schools, he published a pamphle established a national standard of preparation and admission-level compe decades. Harold Whiting, the youngest member of the Department in 1884, was sai of mind and inventiveness approaching genius. He and his whole family p shipwreck in 1895. In accord with his will, the Whiting Fellowships were es been supporting graduate students in the Department ever since. Wallace C. Sabine, like Pierce a graduate student of Trowbridge (from 18 count as on of the early discoveries made in the Jefferson building. He wa in 1890, and charged in 1895 by President Eliot to improve the acoustics i the newly built Fogg Art Museum. The result was the founding of a new SC Hall's words: "Sabine's development of architectural acoustics, from a cor Harold Whiting ineffectual empiricism to the status of a reasoned and fairly exact science most notable single achievement in the history of the Jefferson Laboratory three decades." By about 1910, it had become clear that Trowbridge's vision was being ac http://www.physics.harvard.edu/jeff2.htm 9/3/2003 Harvard Physics Jefferson Lab Page 2 of 2 Washington Pierce, Theodore Lyman, and Percy Bridgman. All were prod Jefferson Laboratory, where they had done their graduate work. The physicist as both teacher and superb researcher-a curious and nove Trowbridge had proposed it for the endorsement of Eliot and Coolidge-h a reality by the early part of the 20th century. Soon, new facilities were to Laboratory, and as physics came of age in America, the faculty grew large could have imagined. And the rooms, too, would be put to ever changing I stream of result from them continuing to alter the direction of physics itsel Harvard Home Faculty of Arts and Sciences Physics Links Webmaster © 2003 The President and Fellows of Harvard College http://www.physics.harvard.edu/jeff2.htm 9/3/2003 Trowbridge, J. T. (John Townsend), 1827-1916. Papers: Guide. Page 1 of 14 bMS Am 2019 Trowbridge, J. T. (John Townsend), 1827-1916. Papers: Guide. Houghton Library, Harvard College Library VE a Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138 C 2002 The President and Fellows of Harvard College Descriptive Summary Repository: Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University Location: b Call No.: MS Am 2019 Creator: Trowbridge, J. T. (John Townsend), 1827-1916. Title: Papers, Date(s): 1855-1939. Quantity: 9 boxes (4.5 linear ft.) Abstract: Correspondence, photographs, and manuscripts of American writer John Townsend Trowbridge Administrative Information Acquisition Information: *83M-50. D Gift of Beatrice vom Baur Edmands and Francis Trowbridge vom Baur; received: 1984. Historical Note Trowbridge was an American author of novels, poems, and magazine articles. He was perhaps best known for his stories for boys. Organization Organized into the following series: I. Letters to John Townsend Trowbridge http://oasis.harvard.edu/html/hou00379.htm 9/3/2003 Trowbridge, J. T. (John Townsend), 1827-1916. Papers: Guide. Page 2 of 14 II. Letters from John Townsend Trowbridge III. Other letters IV. Compositions and other manuscripts V. Photographs and printed material Scope and Content Correspondence of John Townsend Trowbridge, including letters from editors, literary friends, and readers; manuscripts of poems and prose fragments; a few compositions of others; 256 photographs of Trowbridge, the Trowbridge family, Trowbridge with Mark Twain, with John Burroughs, and other subjects; and printed ephemera. Includes 9 letters from Walt Whitman. Container List Series: I. Letters to John Townsend Trowbridge Letters to John Townsend Trowbridge from various correspondents. (1) Adams, Charles Follen, 1842-1918. 2 letters; 1895-1907. (2) Adams, Oscar Fay, 1855-1919. 2 letters; 1907 & [n.d.]. (2a) Akers, Charles Edmond, 1861-1915. 1 letter; 1898. (3) Alden, Henry Mills, 1836-1919. 6 letters; 1875-1907 & [n.d.]. (4) Aldrich, Thomas Bailey, 1836-1907. 4 letters; 1881-1903. (5) Allen, Marion Boyd. 1 letter; 1915. (6) Allyn, Jennie B 1 letter; 1911. enjoy (7) American peace society. 1 letter; 1905. (8) Armes, Ethel, 1876- 5 letters; 1905-1915. With enclosures. (9) Arnold, Alexander Streeter, 1829- 1 letter; 1913. The Atlantic monthly. See nos. (4), (81), (86), (130). C (10) Authors club, Boston. 1 letter; [n.d.]. Poem by Martin L. (11) Babbitt, Jeannetta P. 1 letter; 1904. (12) Bacheller, Irving, 1859-1950. 1 letter; 1900. (13) Baird, Spencer Fullerton, 1823-1887. 1 letter; 1883. (14) Baker, William Mumford, 1825-1883. 1 letter; 1878. (15) Baldwin, Lida F. 1 letter; 1907. (16) Barnabee, Henry Clay, 1833- 1 letter; 1913. (17) Batchelor, George. 1 letter; 1907. (18) Bates, Katharine Lee, 1859-1929. 1 letter; 1907. (19) Baxter, Sylvester, 1850-1927. 3 letters; 1887-1910. (20) Black, Ebenezer Charlton, 1861-1927. 2 letters; 1910. (21) Blackwell, Alice Stone, 1857- 1 letter; 1907. (22) Bradford, Gamaliel, 1863-1932. 1 letter; 1915. (23) Braithwaite, William Stanley, 1878-1962. 1 letter; 1907. Poem. (24) Brown, Abbie Farwell. 9 letters; 1905-1915. (25) Brown, John Howard, 1840- . 1 letter; 1903. (26) Burroughs, John, 1837-1921. 13 letters; 1868-1916 & [n.d.]. http://oasis.harvard.edu/html/hou00379.html 9/3/2003