836 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



SKETCH OF PROFESSOR JOHN TROWBRIDGE. 



PROFESSOR TROWBRIDGE is the son of a physician, and was 

 born in Boston in 1843. He prepared for Harvard University 

 at the Boston Latin School, but did not join the Freshman class. He 

 entered the Lawrence Scientific School, from which he was graduated 

 in 1866. He was tutor in the Scientific School for the two years suc- 

 ceeding his graduation, and was appointed Assistant Professor of 

 Physics in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1868. In 

 1870 he was called to Harvard University as Assistant Professor of 

 Physics to establish a laboratory course of instruction. He obtained 

 the degree of Doctor of Science from Harvard in 1873. For the past 

 six years he has been Professor of Experimental Physics in the uni- 

 versity. 



The descent and early education of scientific men have lately be- 

 come the subject of investigation by Galton, None of the ancestors 

 of Professor Trowbridge evinced auy scientific tastes, although there 

 were several who had strong literary tastes and also legal ability. 

 Professor Trowbridge's father, believing in the adage of Bacon, that 

 a boy, if given the range of a library, will select the food most suit- 

 able to his tastes, provided him liberally with books, but not with in- 

 structors ; and, being fond of art himself, stimulated a certain fond- 

 ness for drawing in the child. The consequence of this training was 

 that, when the boy at the age of fourteen or fifteen entered the public 

 schools, he had a large amount of desultory information in literature 

 and a facility for drawing, but no systematic training in languages or 

 in mathematics. While, however, many of his comrades who had 

 been carefully trained in schools from an early age grew tired of in- 

 tellectual effort, he came to the subjects of mathematics and the sci- 

 ences with a certain freshness which might not have survived too 

 much school-culture at an early age. His strong taste for art made 

 his friends predict an artistic career as the only one suitable for him. 

 His graduation at the Lawrence Scientific School with the degree of 

 Summa cwn Laude, and the evidence of strong mathematical tastes, 

 determined his future career. 



When Professor Trowbridge came to the university in 1870 as a 

 teacher, the subject of physics was taught merely by lectures and reci- 

 tations. He immediately secured a small room and fitted it up as a 

 physical laboratory. From this small beginning arose, through his con- 

 stant endeavor, the Jefferson Physical Laboratory, which is the largest 

 laboratory of the kind at present in America. In order to secure this 

 great means for advancing the study of physical science in the uni- 

 versity, Professor Trowbridge has given his best efforts for the past 

 ten years in the direction of personal solicitation, and by publishing in 



