Rowland’s physics

JUL 01, 1976

Of the three most eminent US physicists of the late nineteenth century, Gibbs, Michelson and Rowland, it was the “doughty knight of Baltimore” who had the broadest impact, setting the pace for the golden age of US physics.

DOI: 10.1063/1.3023563

John D. Miller

“Those were the days,” reminisced Daniel Gilman, the President of The Johns Hopkins University, “when scientific lecture‐rooms in America gloried in demonstrations of ‘wonders’ of Nature—‘the bright light, the loud noise, and the bad smell.’ Rowland would have none of this.” The Johns Hopkins physicist thus characterized was Henry Rowland, whose contributions—particularly those in spectroscopy and electromagnetism—secured him a high place in the ranks of nineteenth‐century physicists.

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References

1. J. D. Miller, Isis 63, 5 (1972); https://doi.org/ISISA4
J. D. Miller, 66, 230 (1975).https://doi.org/ISISA4 , Isis
2. Science in Nineteenth Century America, (N. Reingold, ed.), Hill and Wang, New York (1964).
3. G. Holton, Isis 60, 2 (1969).https://doi.org/ISISA4
4. Selected Papers of Great American Physicists, (S. R. Weart, ed.), American Institute of Physics, New York (1976).
5. Faraday’s Diary, 1820–62 (T. Martin, ed.), G. Bell and Sons, London (1933), volume III, page 354.
6. H. Rowland, Phil. Mag. 46, 140 (1873).https://doi.org/PHMAA4
7. Rowland to Helmholtz, 13 Nov. 1875, in the Archives of the Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften, (East) Berlin.
8. J. W. Gibbs, E. R. Wolcott, E. C. Pickering, and J. Trowbridge, list of [scientific] apparatus, Harvard College Library Bulletin, volume 11, pages 302, 350 (1879).
9. H. Rowland, “Screw,” reference 4, page 85.
10. H. Rowland, Presidential address to The American Physical Society, 28 Oct. 1899, reference 4, page 91.

More about the authors

John D. Miller, University of California, Berkeley.