APRIL 26, 1912] 
much more than a verbal knowledge of 
their definitions. It implies familiarity 
with the doctrines that unfold the mean- 
ings of the ideas defined. It is evident 
that, in respect of this matter, the 
scripture must read: Knowing the doc- 
trine is essential to living the life. 
C. J. KYSER 
CoLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN THOMAS 
No more unexpected and startling an- 
nouncement ever came to the writer than that 
of the death of Professor Thomas last sum- 
mer. Only a few weeks before he was appar- 
ently in rugged health and as much interested 
as ever in the various phases of his depart- 
ment of science and its applications. The 
workers die but the work goes on. 
Professor Thomas was born at Palmyra, 
Ohio, October 14, 1850, and died near his 
summer home in Maine, July 4, 1911. He re- 
ceived his preparation for college under pri- 
vate tutorage in Fox Lake, Wisconsin, and 
took the degree of Master of Science at Ripon 
College in 1874. Then followed one year at 
the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in Da- 
kota, two years as instructor at Carlton Col- 
lege in Minnesota and three years as a grad- 
uate student at the Massachusetts Institute 
of Technology and research assistant at the 
Stevens Institute in Hoboken. At this last 
institution he earned the degree of Doctor of 
Philosophy in 1880. The next five years he 
spent as professor of physics at the Univer- 
sity of Missouri. In 1885 he was elected to 
the same chair in succession to Dr. T. OC. 
Mendenhall at the Ohio State University. To 
this institution he gave twenty-six years of 
undivided and efficient service in the cause of 
education. This term of service covered the 
critical formative period while the institution 
was evolving from a small “College of Agri- 
culture and Mechanic Arts” into the great 
state university of the present. His compel- 
ling logic, clear mental grasp of a difficult 
situation, and his exceptional gift for orderly 
statement made his services of great value in 
SCIENCE 
647 
faculty meetings, in hearings before legisla- 
tive committees, and as an expert witness in 
important cases of litigation. 
Professor Thomas was early in foreseeing 
the immense expansion likely to come in ap- 
plied electricity, and in 1889 he was instru- 
mental in obtaining from the legislature an 
appropriation for a building and its equip- 
ment to accommodate a course in electrical 
engineering. This was probably the first col- 
lege building ever built solely for the purpose 
of teaching this branch of engineering. His 
foresight has received abundant justification 
in a number of graduates in this course who 
have shed luster on their chosen profession 
and on their alma mater. 
Professor Thomas’s especial interest was in 
the subject of electrical measurements and 
electrical applications. He was unusually 
successful in developing the courses in ad- 
vanced electrical measurements for engineer- 
ing students; and by careful planning and per- 
sistent effort, carried on steadily through 
many years, he succeeded in getting together 
a magnificent equipment for this work. At 
the same time he elaborated a strong course 
of instruction which matched the fine equip- 
ment for effective use. He was a remarkably 
skilful experimenter in the study of rapidly 
varying electrical phenomena. His oscillo- 
grams of electric discharges and of waves of 
electric pressure and current are the most 
beautiful the writer has ever seen. 
Professor Thomas’s practical work as an 
electrical expert early led him to a thorough 
study of the photometry of arc and incandes- 
cent lamps, and enabled him to give valuable 
aid in electric lighting to many great institu- 
tions of the state, such as the Ohio Soldiers’ 
and Sailors’ Orphans Home, the state house at 
Columbus and the State Hospitals at Ath- 
ens, Dayton and Toledo. He was for a num- 
ber of years director of the Ohio Meteorolog- 
ical Bureau before it was merged into the 
United States Weather Bureau. He was also 
the representative for the state in the meet- 
ings called by the Bureau of Standards in 
Washington to confer on the subject of cor- 
rect weights and measures. 
