JOSEPH HENRY. ^6l 



Electricity was not the only subject of Henry's investi- 

 gations during his years as a college professor. For several 

 years in Albany he was associated with Dr. T. Romeyn Beck, 

 Principal of the Albany Academy, and the Hon. Simeon De 

 Witt, Chancellor of the Board of Regents of the State Univer- 

 sity, in making annual tabulations of temperature and rainfall 

 obtained at stations in various parts of the State. During the 

 same period he made a series of observations for Prof. Ren- 

 wick, of Columbia College, to determine the magnetic intensity 

 at Albany, by which he was led to researches upon the aurora 

 borealis. His interest in meteorology continued throughout 

 his residence at Princeton, and prompted several communica- 

 tions to the Philosophical Society. In 1839 he and Prof. 

 Bache induced the society to memorialize the Government to 

 establish stations for magnetic and meteorological observa- 

 tions. This application was only in part successful. 



In the field of physics outside of electricity he investigated 

 the capillary movement of liquid metals in solid metals, the 

 cohesion of liquids as seen in the soap bubble, on phosphores- 

 cence, on the radiation from sun spots, etc. 



We come now to Prof. Henry's connection with the Smith- 

 sonian Institution. The origin of this great scientific bureau 

 was admirably described by Prof. Simon Newcomb in his 

 memorial address on Henry. He says : " James Smithson, a 

 private English gentleman of fortune and scientific tastes, a 

 chemist of sufficient note to be elected a Fellow of the Royal 

 Society, led a comparatively retired life, and died, unmarried, 

 in 1829. He does not seem to have left any near relatives 

 except a nephew. On opening his will it was found to be 

 short and simple. Except an annuity to his servant, he left the 

 nephew, for his life, the whole income from the property, and 

 the property itself to the nephew's children, should he leave 

 any. In case of the death of the nephew without leaving a 

 child or children, the whole property was bequeathed * to the 

 United States of America, to found at Washington, under the 

 name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the in- 

 crease and diffusion of knowledge among men.' . . . 



" We thus have the curious spectacle of a retired English 



gentleman, probably unacquainted with a single American 



citizen, bequeathing the whole of his large fortune to our 



Government to found an establishment which was described 



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