328 BELL SYSTEM TECHNICAL JOURNAL 



plans and return to the study of natural science. I feel that the time 

 has come for me to decide either to devote myself to this entirely or 

 else to say good-bye to it; for if I give up too much time to science in 

 the future it will end in neglecting my professional studies and becom- 

 ing a second-rate engineer. Only recently, in arranging my plan of 

 studies, have I clearly seen this — so clearly that I can no longer feel 

 any doubt about it. . . ." And then follows a lofty and appealing 

 presentation of the reasons for his choice. Concluding, he wrote: 

 "And so I ask you, dear father, for your decision rather than for your 

 advice; for it isn't advice that I need, and there is scarcely time for it 

 now. If you will allow me to study natural science I shall take it as a 

 great kindness on your part, and whatever diligence and love can do in 

 the matter, that they shall do. I believe this will be your decision, for 

 you have never put a stone in my path, and I think you have often 

 looked with pleasure on my scientific studies ..." 



Matters were arranged as he wished and he joyfully pursued his 

 studies at the University and at the Technical Institute, working hard 

 on mathematics and mechanics, and spending much time in the physical 

 laboratory. In October, 1878, he went to Berlin and became there a 

 student under the mighty giants, von Helmholtz and Kirchhoff ; writing 

 to his parents in November, "I am now thoroughly happy, and could 

 not wish things better." In 1880 he gained his doctorate, and in 

 October of that year was appointed assistant to Helmholtz, which 

 delightful and stimulating association continued until Easter of 1883. 

 He then went to the University of Kiel to become lecturer in theoretical 

 physics, and here he first began to reflect seriously upon Maxwell's 

 electromagnetic theory of light. 



He was soon promoted again, and at Easter, 1885, he became pro- 

 fessor of experimental physics at the Technical High School in 

 Karlsruhe Here, in 1886, at the age of twenty-nine, he married 

 Elizabeth Doll, daughter of the professor of geodesy in the same 

 institution, and their home became a congenial meeting place for their 

 many cultured associates. It was at Karlsruhe also that he began his 

 researches on electric waves. Before they were finished he was called 

 in 1889 to succeed the celebrated Clausius at the University of Bonn, 

 thus at the age of thirty-two having arrived at a position in the 

 academic world not ordinarily to be achieved until much later in life. 



He soon thereafter relinquished to others the further exploration of 

 the great new territory of electric waves he had opened up and re- 

 turned to some investigations on the discharge of electricity in rarefied 

 gases, a subject which had interested him while at Berlin. He then 

 devoted his attention entirely to what proved to be his last work, a 



