ALBERT ABRAHAM MICHELSON 



By Forest R. Moulton 



[With one plate] 



On May 9, 1931, in his seventy-ninth year and at the zenith of his 

 fame, Albert Abraham Michelson died. As the news of his death was 

 spread by telegraph and cable, the whole world acclaimed his incom- 

 prehensible genius ; but his intimate acquaintances mourned and still 

 mourn the loss of a friend who was gentle and wholly without 

 affectation. 



No scientist of the present day has had a more romantic life than 

 that of Michelson. As a small child, his parents brought him to the 

 United States from Strelno, Germany, where he was born on Decem- 

 ber 19, 1852. His school days were spent in San Francisco, Calif. 

 In 1869, at the age of 17 years, he made a journey alone across the 

 continent to Washington in order to apply personally to President 

 Grant for an appointment as a cadet in the United States Naval 

 Academy at Annapolis, Md. Since genius has a habit of recognizing 

 its kind, he received the appointment. He graduated in 1873 and 

 became a midshipman in the United States Navy. From 1875 to 

 1879, inclusive, he was an instructor in physics and chemistry in the 

 Naval Academy ; in 1880 he served on the staff of the Nautical Alma- 

 nac, in Washington ; from 1881 to 1888 he studied in Berlin, Heidel- 

 berg, and Paris ; he was professor of physics in Case School of Ap- 

 plied Science, in Cleveland, Ohio, from 1883 to 1889; from 1889 to 

 1892 he was a professor in Clark University, in Worcester, Mass.; 

 and in 1892 he answered President W. R. Harper's call to join the 

 new adventures in research, scholarship, and education which were 

 then being started on the Midway, in Chicago. Until his retire- 

 ment in 1927, he was head of the department of physics in the Uni- 

 versity of Chicago and he was the first distinguished service professor 

 in the university. 



Many of the great scientific societies of the world elected Michelson 

 to their membership. Moreover, he received numerous prizes and 

 medals, among which were the Copley medal of the Royal Society 



» Reprinted by permission from Popular Astronomy, vol, 29, No. 6, June-July, 1931. 

 102992—32 38 579 



