George W. Pierce
George Washington Pierce (born January 11, 1872 in Webberville , Texas , † August 25, 1956 in Franklyn (New Hampshire) ) was an American physicist.
Life
His father of the same name was a Texan rancher. He first studied at the University of Texas with Alexander Macfarlane with a bachelor's degree in 1893 and a master's degree in 1894 and then taught at Dallas High School in 1896/97 until he received a scholarship to Harvard University in 1898 , where he was in 1899 earned a master's degree again. He received his doctorate from Harvard in 1900 with a thesis on measuring the wavelengths of shortwaves. As a post-doctoral student , he was with Ludwig Boltzmann at the University of Leipzig in 1900/1901 and then went back to Harvard University, where he became an assistant professor in 1907 and was given a full professorship in 1917. In 1921 he succeeded Edwin Hall Rumford professor of physics. From 1927 until his retirement in 1940 he was head of the physics faculty at Harvard. He was also director of the Cruft High Tension Electrical Laboratory at Harvard from 1914 to 1940 .
plant
He viewed resonance as a key phenomenon in electronics and published a five-part series of articles " Experiments on resonance in wireless telegraph circuits " in the Physical Review from 1904 to 1907 . In 1910 he published, u. a. with John Ambrose Fleming , Principles of Wireless Telegraphy , where he first used the term modulation . He experiments with crystal detectors and experimentally checked the antenna theory.
During the First World War he worked on sonar tracking of submarines using ultrasound. In 1920 he published Electric Oscillations and Electric Waves . He also pursued the idea of Walter Guyton Cady of Wesleyan University to use quartz to frequency stabilize oscillators. Cady's circuit still used several triodes, and Pierce reduced that to a single tube in his Pierce circuit .
In 1948 he published Song of Insects , in which he analyzed the singing of crickets. He also worked with Donald R. Griffin on bat echolocation in the late 1930s
Honors and memberships
In 1907 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences (since 1920) and the Texas Academy of Science. In 1943 he received the Franklin Medal .
In 1915 he became a Fellow of the IRE , was its President in 1918/19 and received the IRE Medal of Honor in 1929.
Fonts
- with J. Fleming: Principles of Wireless Telegraphy, 1910
- Electric Oscillations and Electric Waves, 1920
- The song of insects, 1948
Web links
References and comments
- ↑ Griffin, Pierce: Experimental determination of supersonic notes emitted by bats. J. Mammal., 19, 1938, pp. 454-455
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Pierce, George W. |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Pierce, George Washington |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American physicist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 11, 1872 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Webberville , Texas |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 25, 1956 |
| Place of death | Franklyn, New Hampshire |