CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY The date shows when this volume was taken. SEP 15 1997 HOME USE RULES All books subject to recall All borrowers must regis- ter in the library to borrow books for home use All books must be re- turned at end of college year for inspection and repairs Limited books must be returned within the four week limit and not renewed. Students must return all bDoks before leaving town. Officers should arrange for the return of bodks wanted during their absence from town. Volumes of periodicals and of pamphlets are held in the library as much as possible For special pur- poses they are given out for a limited time. Borrowers should not use their library privileges for the benefit of other persons. Books of special value and gift books, when the giver wishes it, are not allowed to circulate. Readers are asked to re- port all cases of books marked or mutilated. Do not deface books by marks and writing. Cornell University Library Q 143.H52T24 A memoir of Joseph Henry. A sketc^^ 3 1924 012 234 310 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924012234310 ''-**'i iiLy'dvtd tpf 3-,It,So.ll ^^^/^f^u^t/t- /h^tyty ^1 '- ij i-i I '■ I ! I n ; M I Ln 1 1 M A MEMOIR JOSEPH HE]^ET. A SKETCH OF HIS SCIENTIFIC WORK. WILLIAM B. TAYLOR. Read before the Philosophical Society of Washington, October 26, 1878. Second. Edition. WASHINGTON: GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 1880. [Extracted fkom thb Henry Memorial Volume publisited by Order op Congress.] CORNELL^ UNIVERSITY LIBRARY SYl^OPSIS. I. Page. Early Career: 1814—1826 206 Communications to the Albany Institute : 1824, 1825 .'.'.'.'.. 208 State Appointment as a Civil Engineer: 1825 210 Professorsliip of Mathematics at the Albany Academy: 1826 '.'.'.". 211 Electrical Researches at Albany: 1837—1832 212 Great development of the "Quantity" Magnet: 1828 — 1831 216 The first "Intensitv" Magnet: 1829—1831 223 The first Magnetic Telegraph : 1830, 1831 228 The first Electro-magnet ic Engine : 1831.. 230 Discovery of Magneto-Electricity: 1831, 1832 233 Discovery of the "Extra Current :" 1832 237 Professorship of Natural Philosophy at Princeton : 1832 238 Electrical Researches at Princeton : 1833 — 1842 238 Electrical Self-induction: 1832 — 1835 239 Combination of Circuits: 1835, 1836 243 Visit to Europe : 1837 244 Discovery of Successive Orders of Electrical Induction : 1838 248 Oscillation of Electrical Discharge : 1842 255 Investigations in General Physics : 1830 — 1846 257 Meteorology: 1830 — 1846 258 Molecular Physics : 1839—1846 263 Light and Heat : 1840—1845 267 Miscellaneous Contributions : 1830 — 1844 270 II. Administration of the Smithsonian Institution : 1846 — 1878 274 Meteorological Work: 1847 — 1870 286 Archajological Work: 1848—1877 290 Editing of Smithsonian Publications: 1848—1877 293 System of Scientific Exchanges : 1851 — 1878 298 Astronomical Telegraphy: 1873—1878 300 Official Correspondence : 1850—1878 301 Loss by Fire: 1865 305 Second Visit to Europe: 1870 307 Services in improving the Light-House system : 1852 — 1877 308 Services to the National Government : 1850 — 1877 316 Contributions to Science at Washington : 1850 — 1877 319 Thermal Telescope: 1847, 1848 , 320 Views of Education: 1853 323 Experiments on Building-Stone : 1854 326 Sulphuric-Acid Barometer : 1856 329 Range of Information 332 Theory of Organic Dynamics: 1844—1857 335 Investigations in Acoustics : 1851 — 1877 343 Personality and Character 360 List of Scientific Papers: 1828 — 1878 365 Supplementary Notes : A — N 375 THE SCIEITTIFIO WORK OF JOSEPH HENRY.* BY WILLIAM B. TAYLOR. To cherish with affectionate re^rd the memory of the venerated dead is not more grateful to the feelings, than to recall their excel- lences and to retrace the stages and occasions of their intellectual conquests is instructive to the reason. Few lives within the century are more worthy of admiration, more elevating in contemplation, or more entitled to commemoration, than that of our late most honored and beloved president- — Joseph Hekey. Distinguished by the extent of his varied and solid learning, pos- sessing a wide range of mental activity, so great were his modesty and self-reserve, that only by the accidental call of occasion would even an intimate friend sometimes discover with surprise the full- ness of his information and the soundness of his i:)hilosophy, in some quite unsuspected direction. Remarkable for his self-control, he was no less characterized by the absence of self-assertion. Ever warmly interested in the development and advancement of the young, he was a patient listener to the trials of the disappointed, and a faithful guide to the aspirations of the ambitious. Generous with- out ostentation, he was always ready to assist the deserving — by services, by counsel, by active exertions in their behalf. In his own pursuits Truth was the supreme object of his regard, — the sole interest and incentive of his investigations ; and in its quest he brought to bear in just allotment qualities of a high order; — quickness and correctness of perception, inventive ingenuity in *Read before the "Philosophical Society of Washington," October 26th, 1878. {Bul- letin of the Phil. Soc. W. vol. ii. p. 230.) A large portion of the discourse (including nearly the whole of the section on the "Administration of the Smithsonian Institu- tion") was necessarily omitted on the occasion of its delivery. (205) 206 MEMORIAL, OF JOSEPH HENRY. experimentation, logical precision in deduction, perseverance in exploration, sagacity in interpretation. * EARLY CAREER. Of Henry's early struggles, — of the youthful traits which might afford us clue to his manhood's character and successes, "we have but little i^reserved for the future biographer. Deprived of his father at an early age, he was the sole care and the sole comfort of his widowed mother. Carefully nurtured in the stringent principles of a devout religious faith, he adhered through life to the traditions and to the convictions derived from his honorable Scottish ancestry. At the age of about seven years, (his mother having been induced to part with him for a -time,) he was sent by his uncle to attend the district school at Galway, in Saratoga county, N. Y., at a distance of 36 miles from Albany, his native city. He remained under the care of his grandmother in this village for several years, until the death of his uncle ; when he returned to his mother at Albany. As a youth he was by no means precocious, as seldom have been those who have left a permanent influence on their kind. He seems to have felt no fondness for his early schools, and to have shown no special aptitude for the instructions they afforded. Like many another unpromising lad, he followed pretty much his own devices, unconcerned as to the development of his latent capabilities. The books he craved were not the books his school-teachers set before him. The novel and the play interested and absorbed the active fancy naturally so exuberant in youth ; and the indications from his impulsive temperament and dreamy imaginative spirit were that he would probably become an actor — a dramatist — or a poet. He was however from his childhood's years a close observer — ^ both of nature and of the peculiarities of his fellows : and one char- * Henry's tribute to Peltier, seems peculiarly applicable to himself. "He pos- sessed in an eminent degree the mental characteristics necessary for a successful scientific discoverer; an imagination always active in suggesting hypotheses for the explanation of the phenomena under investigation, and a logical faculty never at fault in deducing consequences from the suggestions best calculated to bring them to the test of experience; an invention ever fertile in devising apparatus and other means by which the test could be applied; and finally a moral constitution which sought only the discovery of truth, and could alone be satisfied with Its attainment " (Smithsonian Report for 1867, p. 158.) DISCOURSE OP W. B. TAYLOR. 207 acteristic early developed gave form and color to his mental dispo- sition throughout later years, — an unflagging energy of purpose. In 1810, or 1811, when about thirteen years of age, he was ap- prenticed to Mr. John F. Doty, a Avatch-maker and silver-smith, in Albany. He remained in this position about two years ; when he was released by his employer giving up the business. About the year 1814, while a boy of still indefinite aims and of almost as indefinite longings, having been confined to the house for ■a few days in consequence of an accidental injury, he took up a small volume on Natural Philosophy, casually left lying on a table by a boarder in the house. Listlessly he oi^ened it and read. Before he reached the third page, he became profoundly interested in the state- ment of some of the enigmas of the great sphinx — Nature. A new world seemed opening to his inquisitive eyes. Eagerly on he read, — intent to find the hidden meanings of phenomena which hitherto covered by the "veil of familiarity" had never excited a passing wonder or a doubting question. Was it possible ever to discover the real causes of things? Here was a new Ideal — if severer, yet grander than that of art. He no longer read with the languid en- joyment of a passive recipient; he felt the new necessity of reaching out with all the faculties of a thinker, with all the activity of a co- worker.* For the first time he realized (though with no conscious expression of the thought) that there is — so to speak, — an imagi- nation of the intellect, as well as of the emotional soul ; — that Truth has its palaces no less gorgeous — no less wonderful than those reared by fancy in homage to the Beautiful. The new impulse was not a momentary fascination. Thencefor- ward the novel was thrown aside, and poesy neglected ; though to his latest day a sterling poem never failed to strongly impress him. As it dawned upon his reason that the foundation of the coveted * " There is a great difference between reading and study ^ or between the indolent reception of Icnowledge without labor, and that effort of mind which is always neces- sary in order to secure an important truth and make it fully our own." J. Henry. (Agricultural Report of the Patent Office for 1&57, p. 421.) The book which so strongly Impressed him was entitled " Lectures on Experimental Philosophy, Astronomy, ; nd Chemistry: by G. Gregory, D. D., Vicar of West-ham." 12mo. London, 1808. The owner of the book — a young .Scotchman named Robert Boyle — observing the close application of the boy, very kindly presented the book to him. Many years afterward Henry wrote in it: "It accidentally fell into my hands when I was about sixteen years old, and was the first book I ever read with attention." 208 MEMORIAL OF JOSEPH HENRY. knowledge must be the studies he had thought so irksome, he at once determined to repair as far as possible his loss of time by taking evening lessons from two of the professors in the Albany- Academy; applying himself diligently to geometry and mechanics. And here shone out that strength of will which enabled him to rise above the harassing obstacle of the res angusta domi. As soon as he felt able (although yet a mere boy), he managed to procure a position as teacher in a country school, where for seven months suc- cessfully instructing boys not much younger than himself, in what he had acquired, he was enabled by rigid economy to take a regular course of instruction at the Albaiiy Academy. Again returning to his school-teaching, he furnished himself with the means of com- pleting his studies at the Academy ; where learning that the most important key to the accurate knowledge of nature's laws is a famil- iarity with the logical processes of the higher mathematics, he resolutely set himself to work to master the intricacies of the dif- ferential calculus. Having finished his academic course and passed with honor through his examinations, he then through the warm recommen- dation of Dr. T. Romeyn Beck — the distinguished principal of the Academy, obtained a position as private tutor in the family of General Stephen Van Rensselaer.* As this duty did not exact more than about three hours a day of his attendance, he applied his ample leisure (having in view the medical profession) — partly to the assistance of Dr. Beck in his chemical experiments, and partly to the study of anatomy and physiology, under Doctors Tully and Marsh. His devotion to natural philosophy which had only grown and strengthened with his own growth in knowledge, led him constantly to repeat any unusual experiment as soon as reported in the foreign scientific journals ; and to devise new modifications of the experi- ment for testing more fully the range and operation of its funda- mental principles. Communications to the Albany Institute. — The "Albany Insti- tute" was organized May 5th 18:^4, by the union of two older « Presiding officer of the original Board of Trustees of the Albany Academy. DISCOUBSE OP W. B. TAYLOR. 209 societies; with General Stepheq Van Eensselaer as its President:* and young Henry became at once an active member: though with his modest estimate of his own attainments, he preferred the part of listener and acquirer, to that of seeming instructor, till urged by those who knew him best to add his contributions to the general garner. Henry's first communication to the Institute was read October 30th, 1824, (at the age of about twenty-six years,) and was "On the chemical and mechanical effects of steam : with experiments de- signed to illustrate the great reduction of temperature in steam of high elasticity when suddenly expanded."t From the stop-cock of a strongly made copper vessel in which steam could be safely generated under considerable pressure, he allowed an occasional escape; and he showed by holding the bulb of a thermometer in the jet of steam, at a fixed distance (say of four inches) from the orifice, that as the temperature and pressure increased within the boiler, the indications of the thermometer without grew lower; — the expansion and consequent cooling of the escaping steam under great pressure, increasing in a higher ratio than the increased tem- perature required for the pressure. And finally he exhibited the striking paradox, that the jet of saturated steam from a boiler will not scald the hand exposed to it, at a prescribed near distance from the try-cock, provided the steam be sufficiently hot. J Prolific arid skillful in devising experiments, Henry delighted in making evident to the senses the principles he wished to impress upon the mind. Extending the law of cooling by expansion, from steam at high temperatures, to air at ordinary temperatures, his *The Albany Institute resulted from the fusion of "The Society for the Pro- motion of Useful Arts in the State of New York," organized Feb. 1791, (incorporated April 2nd, 1804,) and the "Albany Lyceum of Natural History" formed and incorpo- rated April 23rd, 1823 : of which latter society, Henry had been a member. See " Sup- plement," Note A- f Trans. Albany Institute, vol. i. part 2. p. 30. J: While it requires a temperature of 250° F. to generate a steam-pressure of two atmospheres (i. e. one additional to the existing), 25° higher will produce a pressure of three atmospheres, and 100° higher, (or 855° F.) will produce a pressure of nine atmospheres : the curve (by rectangular co-ordinates of temperature and pressure) resembling a hyperbola. The Increased- velocity at high pressure produces a mole- cular momentum of expansion carrying the rarefaction beyond the limit of atmos- pheric pressure ; and in the case of the exposed hand, the injected air current doubtless adds to the cooling impression. 13 210 MEMORIAL OP JOSEPH HENRY. next communication to the Institute (made March 2nd 1825,) was "On the Production of Cold by the Earefaction of Air." As before, he accompanied his remarks by several characteristic exhi- bitions. "One of these experiments most strikingly illustrated the great reduction of temperature which takes place on the sudden rarefac- tion of condensed air. Half a pint of water was poured into a strong copper vessel of a globular form, and having a capacity of five gallons ; a tube of one-fourth of an inch caliber with a num- ber of holes near the lower end, and a stop-cock attached to the other extremity, was firmly screwed into the neck of the vessel; the lower end of the tube dipped into the water, but a number of holes were above the surface of the liquid, so that a jet of air min- gled with water might be thrown from the fountain. The apparatus was then charged with condensed air, by means of a powerful con- densing pump, until the pressure was estimated at nine atmospheres. During the condensation the vessel became sensibly warm. After suffering the apparatus to cool down to the temperature of the room, the stop-cock was opened : the air rushed out with great violence, carrying with it a quantity of water, which was instantly. converted into snow. After a few seconds, the tube became filled with ice, which almost entirely stopped the current of air. The neck of the vessel was then partially unscrewed, so as to allow the condensed air to rush out around the sides of the screw: in this state the temperature of the whole interior atmosphere was so much reduced as to freeze the remaining water in the vessel." * Although the principle on which this striking result was based was not at that time new, it must be borne in mind that this par- ticular application, thus publicly exhibited, was long before any of the numerous patents were obtained for ice-making, not a few of which adopted substantially. the same process. State Appointment as a Civil Engineer. — Through the friendship and confidence of an influential judge, Henry received about this time an unexpected offer of an appointment as engineer on the sur- vey of a route for a road through the State of New York from * Trans. Albany Institute, vol. 1. part 2. p. 36. DISCOURSE OP W. B. TAYLOR. 211 the Hudson river on the east, to lake Erie on the west, a distance of about three hundred miles. The proposal was too tempting to his natural proclivities to be refused ; and being appointed, he em- barked upon his new and arduous duties with the zeal and energy which were so prominent a feature of his character. "His labors in this work were exceedingly arduous and responsible. They extended far into the winter, and the operations were carried on in some instances amid deep snows in primeval forests." In connec- tion with Professor Amos Eaton, he completed the survey with credit to himself, and to the entire satisfaction of the Commissioners of the work. So attractive appeared the profession of engineer to his enter- prising disposition, that he was about to accept the directorship in the construction of a canal in Ohio, when he was informed that the Chair of Mathematics in the Albany Academy would soon become vacant, and that his own name had already been prominently brought forward in connection with the position. At the urgent solicitation of his old friend and former teacher Dr. T. Romeyn Beck, he consented with some hesitation to signify his willingness to accept the vacant chair if appointed thereto. Election as Professor of Mathematics. — In the spring of 1826, Henry was duly elected by the Trustees of the Albany Academy to the Professorship of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in that institution. As the duties of his office did not commence till September of that year, he was allowed a practical vacation of about five months ; which was partly occupied with a geological explora- tion in the adjoining counties, as assistant to Professor Eaton, of the Rensselaer School, and partly devoted to a conscientious prepa- ration for his new position. In a worldly point of view, this variety of occupation and ver- satility of adaptation might perhaps be regarded as unfavorable to success. As a method of culture, it was of unquestionable advan- tage to his intellectual powers. A hard student, with great capacity for close application, he accumulated large stores of information; and in addition to the slaking of his constant thirst for acquire- ment in different directions, his leisure was occupied to a considera- 212 MEMORIAL OF JOSEPH HENRY. ble extent with physical and chemical investigations. On the 21st of March 1827, he delivered before the Albany Institute a lecture on "Flame," accompanied with experiments.* Meteorological Work. — The Regents of the University of the State of New York, endowed by the State Legislature with super- visory functions over the public educational institutions of the State, — in 1825 established a system of meteorological observation for the State, by supplying to each of the Academies incorporated by them, a thermometer and a rain-gauge, and requiring them to keep a daily register of prescribed form, to entitle them to their portion of the literature fund of the State. In 1827, the Hon. Simeon De Witt, Chancellor of the Board of Regents, associated with himself Dr. T. Romeyn Beck and Professor Henry of the Albany Academy, to prepare and tabulate the results of these observations. The first Abstract of these collections (for the year 1828) comprised tabulations of the monthly and yearly means of temperature, wind, rain, etc. at all the stations, an account of meteorological incidents generally, and a table of "Miscellaneous Observations " on the dates of notable phases of organic phenomena connected with climatic conditions. These annual Abstracts, to which Henry devoted a considerable share of his attention, were continued through a series of years and were published in the "Annual Reports of the Regents of the University to the Legisla- ture of the State of New York.f The third Abstract (for 1830) includes an accurate tabulation by Henry of the latitudes, longi- tudes, and elevations of all the meteorological stations; over forty in number. ■ ELECTRICAL RESEARCHES AT ALBANY : FROM 1827 TO 1832. Of Henry's distinguished success as a lecturer and teacher, in imparting to his pupils a portion of his own zeal and earnestness in the pursuit of scientific knowledge, as well as in winning their affection and in .inspiring their esteem, it is not designed here to dis- course; but rather of his solitary labors outside of his professional * TraTis. Albany iTistitute, vol. i. part 2. p. 59. ■fSeports of JRegenis, etc. Albany, vol. i. 1829-1835. DISCOURSE OF W. B. TAYLOR. 213 occupation in communicating and diffusing knowledge. Yery shortly after his occupation of the academic chair of mathematics and physics, he turned his attention to the experimental study of that mysterious agency — electricity. Professor Schweigger of Halle, had improved on Oersted's galvanic indicator (of a single wire circuit) by giving the insulated wire a number of turns around an elongated frame longitudinally enclosing the compass needle; and by thus multiplying the effect of the galvanic circuits, had con- verted it into a real measuring instrument — a "galvanometer."* Ampere and Arago of Paris, developing Oersted's announcement of the torsional or equatorial reaction between a galvanic conductor and a magnetic needle, had found that a circulating galvanic cur- rent was ca