Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1891-01-08
Three Scientists Who Have Devoted
Their Genius to the Study of
the Physics.
The Original Work on Color Was
Made By Professor Rood of
Columbia.
The Physical Laboratory of Johns
Hopkins University and Its
Studies in MicrOmetry.

We have recently made reference to sew
eral members of the National Academy
of Sciences who made the study of ply
sizes their speciality, and in the present pa
per We return to a group of men who
have made that subject the work of their
| lives.
! The first to whom we desire to call at
[ tention is Ogden Nicholas Rood, who was
born in Danbury, Conn.,, in February,
| 1881 and is the son Of the Rev. Arson
in Philadelphia. He was graduated at
Princeton in 1852, AMI there developed
foudness for science. in consequence Of
which he pursued studies first at the
scientific school of Yale, and then in
Europe at the universities of Munich and
Berlin.
He returned to the United States in
1858, and almost at once was called to the
chair of chemistry and physics at Troy uni
yersity. Soon after the beginning of the
civil war the chair of physics at Columbia
college became vacant in consequence of
the expulsion of Professor Richard S. Nc
Culloh, who, southerner by birth, had
hastened to the aid of his countrymen.
To this vacancy Professor Rood was chosen
In 1868, and has since retail ed that chair,
and also delivers the lectures at the Col
umbia College School of Mines.
During his administration the department
has grown until it now fills with its large
collection of apparatus the top floor of
Hamilton hail.
Professor Rood was one of the first to app
ly photography to the microscope and to take
pictures with that instrument. Suisse
quently he studied the nature of the cleo
trio spark, and IN measuring the duration
of flashes, he was obliged to make more
minute determinations of time than had
previously been measured. After William
CrOokers' magnificent researches on radi :
ant matter, Professor Rood repeated his
work, and in that connection in 1880 he
; devised q mercurial air pump giving an
expansion of 1888 millionth of atmos-
: phere, degree that has not been attained
by other pumps up to the present time.
He has likewise shown considerable in
genuity in introducing new methods of
photomatry, and he has studied very ex-
tensively such phenomena as depend on
the physiology of vision. Prof. Rood was
the first to make quantitative experiments
on color contrast. In 1881 he published
in the International Scientific Series his
work on Modern Chromatics," which
contains the results of numerous original
investigations and gives the fundamental
facts connected with our perception OF
color.
Professor Rood paints in water coors,
and frequently exhibits at the annual col
/ lectiors If the American Water Color So
: ciety. q, which he has been member
since 1873, He has long been a member
Of the American association for the adj
vancement of science, and in 1867 was one
of its vice presidents. As an authority on
r physics he stands deservedly bigh, and in
1865 he was chosen a member of the Ma
: ti0nal Academy of Sciences.
i, Likewise the son of a clergymen is Henry
Augustus Rowland, who was born in No.
veInDer, 1S48, at Honetdale, Pa, where
The young man was educated at the Rens-
seiner Polytechnic Institute, where he was
i. graduated as civil engineer in 1860
Subsequently he spent some time in sur
veying on railroad and also taught at
Webster university, in ohio, but in 1872
returned to Troy as instructor in physics
at the Institute, and in 1874 was advanced
to assistant professorship. He then spent
) a year abroad visiting various laboratories,
and spent most of his time at the univers-
ity of Berlin, under the great Helmholtz.
When the Johns Hopkins university came
J into active operation in 1876 Professor
: Rowland was called to the head of the de-
partment OF physics there, which place he
still holds. He has charge of the physica!
laboratory, where considerable original re-
search Is being carried on under his sup
} ervlslOn, and where some of his own most
brilliant Investigations have been conduct
ed
While in Berlin he showed experiment.
ally that moving charge of statlcai elec-
triclty has the same magnetic effect as a
current. His name has become widely
known by his large diffraction gratings,
which are ruled by method of his own
directly on Concave mirrors. An image
OF the spectrum is thus produced without
the aid of lenses. The photograph Of the
solar spectrum that he has succeeded in
making with the aid of these grating sur
passes anything else Of the kind that has
ever been done. They were exhibited be-
for the National Academy of Science in
1888, and since that time he has regularly
contributed to the proceedings, papers on
the progress of his work. Thus in 1888 he
gave Report On the Progress in Spect-
rum Photography and also paper ION
the Spectrum of Carbon and its Existence
on the Sun.
The brilliancy of his work has brought
him many honors. The degree of Pm. D.
/ has been cor ferred upon him, and In 1884
the American Academy of Arts and Scien
ces, of which ne is an associate, bestowed
upon him the Rumford medal for his re-
searches in light and heat He was a
member OF the Electrical Congress that
met IN Paris in 1881, and served on the
jury of the Electrical exhibition held there
| that year, ana for his service was made
chevaller of the Legion of Honor.
Professor Rowland is a permanent mem
| Der OF the international commission for
establishing electrical units, and spoke On
| that subject last summer at the Leeds
| meeting of the British Association for the
advancement of science, of which he is a
corresponding member He is one of the
twelve foreign members of the Physical
Society OF London. and a corresponding
member OF the Cambridge (England) Phil
osophlcal society. In 1883 he presided
over the section of physics of the Ameri
can ASSOCIATION for the advancement of
science at Minneapolis, and at that time
delivered valuable address entitled, "a
Plea Tor Pore Science" He was elected
to the National academy of sciences in
1861.
The third number of the group is Will
liam Augustus Rogers, who was born in
Waterford, Conn, in November, 1882. |
After studying at the academies in De
Ruyter and Alfred n. Y, he entered the |
sophomore class at Brown university, and !
was graduated there in 1857.
Returning to Alfred, he began his work |
as teacher there, and In 1853 he was
chosen professor of mathematics and as |