EDWARD WILLIAMS MORLEY 



By Frank Wigglesworth Clarke 



Edward Williams Morley was born at Newark, N. J., January 29, 1838, and died at 

 Hartford, Conn., February 24, 1923. His father, Sardis Brewster Morley, was a Congrega- 

 tional minister. His mother, whose maiden name was Ann a. Clarissa Treat, had been a teacher 

 in a girl's school; and Catherine Beecher, the head of the school, said of her, " Clarissa Treat 

 can make girls learn who can't learn." She was evidently a good teacher. Both parents 

 came of early colonial stock, and of purely British origin. The Morley ancestry has been 

 traced back as far as 1681, all in the Connecticut River Valley; but beyond that date the records 

 are obscure. There were men of the same name in eastern Massachusetts as early as about 

 1630, but no connection between them and Edward's family has been traced. 



Soon after Edward's birth the family moved to Hartford, where they remained until 

 1851. Then his father accepted the pastorate of a Congregational church in Attleboro, Mass. 

 In 1857 they moved to Williamstown, Mass., in order to put Edward and his two brothers 

 through Williams College, their father's alma mater. 



In his childhood Morley suffered from ill health, and until he reached the age of 19 his 

 education was carried on at home. His father was his teacher. He learned to read before he 

 was 3 years old, began Latin at 6 and Greek at 11. I gather this information, and much that 

 follows, from some autobiographical memoranda, in Morley's own handwriting, which now 

 He before me. These memoranda give clear information as to the influences which led him to 

 a scientific career, and how he happened to become a chemist. 



When Edward was quite a young lad he found among his father's many books one entitled, 

 " Conversations on Chemistry," which fascinated him even more than the Arabian Nights, 

 that stood near it on the same shelf. When 12 years old he spent all his pocket money on 

 chemical experiments, which he carried on until he entered college. At about the age of 14 

 he obtained a copy of a textbook on chemistry by Benjamin Silliman, and, says Morley, "this 

 was so much studied that when the subject was taken up in the junior year of my college 

 course there was not much left to be learned." That means, of course, from such books as 

 were within his reach. 



At the age of 19 Morley entered Williams College. His preparation for college had been 

 so thorough that he was able to skip the freshman year and to enter with advanced standing 

 as a sophomore. He graduated in 1860 as A. B., and was valedictorian of his class. In 1863 

 he received his master's degree. A classmate said of him, "Morley recites everything as if it 

 were the most interesting subject he knew," a saying which well describes one of his dominant 

 mental characteristics. He was thorough in everything that he undertook. 



Under Prof. Albert Hopkins, astronomy became a fascinating study. It was perhaps not 

 so interesting as chemistry, but it provided an opportunity for the study of methods of pre- 

 cision which was not possible in any other subject at that time and place. Morley, while 

 remaining at Williams for further study, mounted a transit instrument in the prime vertical, 

 constructed a chronograph with Bond's spring governor, and determined the latitude of the 

 college observatory, which so far was known only by sextant observations to within about 

 five seconds of arc. Morley's determination was the subject of his first published paper, which 

 was read before the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1866. He also 

 read much in the Mechanique Celeste of LaPlace. Furthermore, in a work on astronomy 

 which was read in college, Morley found the statement " that if all the members of the solar 

 system were suddenly brought to rest, they would all fall in straight lines to the center of gravity 

 of the system." Morley called the attention of the editor of the book to the fact that the 

 statement was erroneous, and at his request wrote a paper establishing the configuration of 

 the system that would be required in order to make the statement true. This paper was not 



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