no POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



SKETCH OF HENRY AUGUSTUS ROWLAND. 



By CHAELES EDWAED LLOYD. 



A MONG the distinguislied physicists America has produced 

 -^^ Prof. Henky Augustus Rowland, of Johns Hopkins Uni- 

 versity is unanimously accorded a leading place. He was born 

 at Honesdale, Pa., November 27, 1848. His forefathers were 

 among the earliest settlers of Fairfield, Conn. Three gener- 

 ations of clergymen of well-known prominence in the Congre- 

 gationalist Church of Windsor, Conn., are his immediate paternal 

 ancestors. His father, the Rev. Henry Augustus Rowland, had a 

 great love for all scientific pursuits, and only gave them up for 

 what he considered a higher calling. Prof. Rowland's mother is 

 descended from representatives of several Knickerbocker families 

 of Manhattan Island. She was Harriette Heyer, the daughter 

 of a wealthy merchant of New York. Her mother was Miss 

 Suydam. 



In 1855 Prof. Rowland's father removed to Newark, N. J. He 

 died there in 1859. Prior to his death, however, he had discovered 

 the scientific bent of his young son, and heartily sympathized 

 with and encouraged it. During the residence of his family in 

 Newark the boy spent most of his time making chemical experi- 

 ments. He used a book on chemistry belonging to an older sis- 

 ter, and worked in a crude laboratory he made for himself in the 

 cellar of his father's house. Between the ages of eleven and 

 fifteen he also commenced experiments in electricity and mag- 

 netism, making many small electric motors, electric machines, 

 and repeating all the experiments he could find mentioned in 

 the few scientific books to which he had access. 



When he was about sixteen years old his mother sent him to 

 Andover, Mass., to prepare for college. While here he was so 

 engrossed in his electrical and magnetic experiments that his 

 Greek and Latin studies were neglected. He was severely repri- 

 manded by Mr. Taylor, the head of the school. This lecture, de- 

 livered to him in an arbitrary manner, without any inquiry as to 

 the cause and with no word of kindness or sympathy, made a pro- 

 found impression on the boy and increased, if possible, his dislike 

 for the stones of the Latin and Greek languages which were forced 

 upon him when he was starving for the bread of scientific knowl- 

 edge. On returning home from Andover he expressed his dislike 

 for this course of study so strongly to his mother that she deter- 

 mined to send him to the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at 

 Troy, N. Y., at that time the leading engineering school in the 

 country. Here the young man maintained a good position in his 

 classes, although much of his time was spent in his own experi- 



