OBITUARY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20869, 11 May 1931, Page 9

OBITUARY.

DR. ALBERT MICHELSON. (Received May 10, 5.5 p.m.) NEW YORK. May 9. The death has occurred at Pasadena, California, of Dr. Albert A. Michelson, who was famed for Lis experiments in calculating the speed of light. His age was 78. Dr. Albert Abraham Michelson was born near Bromberg, Germany, in December, 1852, but as a baby was taken by his parents to the United States. He entered the Navy as a lad, and remained in it for 13 years. He then went to Germany and studied physics at Berlin and Heidelberg Universities, continuing his training in Paris. On his return to America he became lecturer on chemistry and physics at the Naval Academy at Annapolis, and later held similar posts in New York, Washington and Cleveland. In 1889 ho was appointed professor of physics at Worcester University, Massachusetts, from which in 1893 he was called to Chicago University. In addition to optical researches he devoted himself chiefly to the study of light. He devised special apparatus, including the MicheJson " intertliermometcr." Ilis observations with these extended over 20 years and ho published the results in popular language. Ho also obtained important results in tho domain of spectrum analysis. His methods for calculating tho speed of light attracted attention in the scientific world, for they bore out Einstein's relativity theory. His early experiments went to show that the speed of light in a vacuum was 187,500 ft. a second. To confirm them he constructed an apparatus with a vacuum tube a mile in length on the Irving Ranch, near Santa Anna, California. His long absence in this lonely spot and a health visit to tho Bermudas led in December, 1929, to an erroneous report in tho French Academy, of which lie was a member, that ho was dead. In 1905 Dr. Michelson was awarded tho Rumford Medal of the Royal Society and in 1907 the Nobel Prize for Physics. He was a member of a large number of learned bodies and held many_ distinctions. Although he never received any lessons, ho was a clever artist. A successful exhibition of his pictures was held at Chicago in February, 1928. His caricatures are particularly good.