Edward Morley
<<This article is too short and needs to be fleshed out. One source is Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. It mentions that he attended Andover Theological Seminary and hoped to become a Congregational minister someday. When he was given the post of professor at Western Reserve College, he took it on condition that he could preach at the University chapel.>>
Edward Williams Morley (January 29, 1838 - February 24 1923) was an American scientist.
Early life
Morley was born in Newark, New Jersey, the eldest son of Sardis Brewster Morley and Anna Clarissa Treat. Morley was schooled at home until he was almost 20, when his family moved to Williamstown, Mass. so that he and his three brothers could attend Williams College, the alma mater of his father. Morley graduated from Williams with a bachelor of science in 1860, and the following year, enetered Adnover Theological Seminary. He continued studying at Williams, earning a masters in 1863, and graduated from Andover in 1864. As the American civil war had not yet ended, Morley traveled to Virginia, where he was assigned duty on the Sanitary Commission, which took care of the medical needs of troops.
He taught at South Berkshire Academy in Marloro, Mass, and married Isabella Ashley Birdsall in 1868. He accepted a position as minister at a congregational church in Twinsburg, Ohio, and in 1869 became the Hurlbut Professor of Chemistry and Natural History at Western Reserve College in Hudson, Ohio. When he arrived at the college, the only equipment available in the college laboratory was an alcohol lamp and a Wollaston's logarithmic slide rule for calculating atomic weights. He was supplied some funding to upgrade the laboratory, which he upgraded considerably over the following decade.
and grew up in West Hartford, Connecticut, where he is currently the namesake of Morley Elementary School in West Hartford. He graduated from Williams College in 1860.
Career
From 1869 to 1906 he was professor of chemistry at Western Reserve College (today Case Western Reserve University).
His best remembered work, which he did together with Albert Abraham Michelson, was the Michelson–Morley experiment in 1887. Neither he nor Michelson ever considered that it disproved the aether hypothesis. However, others did, and it ultimately led to Einstein's theory of relativity. Morley also worked with Dayton Miller on positive aether experiments after his work with Michelson.
Morley also worked on the oxygen composition of the atmosphere, thermal expansion, and the velocity of light in a magnetic field.
See also
External links
- Edward Williams Morley from the Encyclopædia Britannica
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