New-York tribune., 1891-05-24
A GREAT ELECTRICIAN.
PROFESSOR HERTZ AND HIS WORK AT BONN.
ponnam-R Rhein Nav 6.


away back-they would remember the building
Of a most ambitious Electoral Palace. and that
some fifty years thereafter d777) 1t was partially
DESTROYED by fire. Just now the last OF the
rebuilding is doing; and the fully restored palace
AMIN stretches for almost half a mile from the
Kaiser Platz to the Rhine. II Is. however. ho
longer an Electoral Palace. More than halt
century ago the Elector wisely dedicated IL as
the University Of Bonn. and it still contains most
Of the university lecture rooms several coiiec'oh'
of antiquities the famous library, and the deparV
ment of physics. OF course the UniversltV OIL
| Ronn has outrrown even the Electoral Palace half
a mile long, and possesses many separate ouhu-
inrs. such as the Chemical Laboratory whose
! internal arrangements are prehaps the most CONF
plete in Germany. and due to Professor Hohnan
of Berlin the Anatomical Laboratory the fnys-
iolorical Institute; the Agricultural Academy :
Botanical Gardens: Museums; and especially the
| observatory But this writing is not Of the Uni
versitv of Bonn, but of an epoch in the history
Of Electricity. 1t is not remarkable that Amerl-
"a should lead the world in taking practical adj
vantage of so useful servant but one is surprised
n note how much she is in the lead. Many
town Of less than ten thousand inhabitants IN
the United States contains more electrical appli-
ances than some Of the larger cities of England
and Germany In Liverpool. Cologne and such
cities even the electric light is found only at large
railway stations. and electric street cars are un-
| thought Of
And vet in both German and English labora-
tories electricity is studied. as 1t always has been
with great interest and greater results
The epoch TO which have referred is the dis
covery of electrical waves, which behave very
much as light and heat waves do: and can be
put through all the PAGES of reflection. refraction
interference. echo and the like, by methods well
understood by everybody at all familiar with sound
waves That electrical energy may be trans
! ferred by ether waves has been believed by some
for years but its practical demonstration had been
almost despaired Of when Professor Henry Hertz,
professor of physics in the University of Bonn'
hit upon splendid series of experiments which
give decisive answer.
Professor Hertz is solid matter-of-fact. unas-
suming brainy man. remarkably young to have
done what will. in scientific history put him in
line with Faraday and Maxwell. He was born
in Hamburg in 1857. and received his earlier
education in one Of the private schools which
since then have been starved out by the inau-
duration of the present system of public education
throughout the German Empire. While in the
gymnasium he did not form the usual habit of ex-
cessive beer drinking. which occupies the most Of
the thought and vitality of from eighty to ninety
! per cent Of the German university students; the
| foreign students Of the German universities, hav-
ing an object in view in coming so far, if included
in this estimate, would increase the per cent OF
faithful students very materially.
| At eighteen Professor Hertz decided to be a
civil engineer. and devoted himself for year
and half to special study In that direction: but
finding that il would require years for him to
become sef-supporting. and that the work was
full of monotonous details. like estimating quantl-
ties Of brick. and counting and passing upon the
| qualities Of stone he abandoned the idea. and.
| after his two years OF military service. was at
tracted 10 Berlin by Professor Helmholtzs In
1881 he became assistant TO that greatest Of all
| German physicists. Two years later he accepted a
position in the University of Kiel which he eX-
changed in 1885 for the chair of physics in the
Polytechnic School of Carlsruhe. the Oldest Of
| the kind in Germany. Soon after the death OF
the well-known mathematical-physic Professor
Clanssus. in 1889. Professor Hertz was appointed
professor Of physics in the Usiversity of Bonn.
He Is a splendid example of the three necessary
elements to success. innate ability. hard work.
fortnitous circumstances. His present sit
uation is unusually favorable for work
His chair requires four lectures OF
forty-fve minutes each per week. The remainder
of the time is his own, except that he has chosen
| 10 devote a considerable part of 10 TO the build
ing Of a practical working laboratory.
The physical department is one wing of the
| front of the former palace. II comprises in It's
two stories sixteen rooms, from any one of which
the outlook is charming To the west is Pop
pcsdorfer Alice, one of the most pleasant prone
nades on the Rhine; its four lines Of wide
spreading chestnuts reaching for more than hal
n mile to the moat Of the castle, and beyond an6
above. TO that lofty monastery of the Older
time. with its holy steps" Of Italian marble, VI
which people yet painfully climb on their knees
| az Luther did the Scala Santa, but unfortunately
not with the same results. The front opens int
the Hofearten. with its magnificent avenues o.
chestnut and elm, trained for century or more
till they are become ideal specimens of the Gothic
in nature If Cornell University, which fol
beauty of situation is unique, could command
these long lines of gnarled and lknotted-bodied
graceful-boughed, yet naughty monarchs Of ;
former age, the combination would be worth
| elobe-trot to see Some distance further up tht
river rise the Seven Mountains, famous for th'
| geological story of their making; though dumb
they are yet speaking To the east are the flowe
and fruit gardens of the palace that was
Professor Herta's lecture-room is the former din
ing-hall Its sixteen Corinthan columns anC
deeply frescoed ceiling are in striking contras
with the chalk-boards and rather clumsy elevated
seats of typical German lecture room.
All of the rooms have massive foundations an,
walls from three to four feet in thickness Be
sides fine lecture outfit, Professor Hertz is gather
ing the instruments of precision necessary for
hgh-grade physical laboratory, which has beer
in operation only since his coming.
The beautiful experiments that have made hi
name so familiar all over the scientific world ar
based upon an ingeniously devised metal ring, o
double p%te, which picks up electrical wave
much as one tuning fork responds to another o
the same pitch.
The experiments do not pretend to tell wha
causes the electrical waves, any more than eA
perments with light or heat waves explain whs