Joseph Lovering
Joseph Lovering (born December 25, 1813 in Charlestown (Massachusetts) , † January 18, 1892 in Boston ) was an American physicist and mathematician. He was a professor of mathematics and physics at Harvard University .
Lovering was the son of a small city employee and was able to thanks to the protection of his pastor James Walker (1794-1874; later President of Harvard University). From 1930 to 1833 he studied at Harvard, including astronomy and Hebrew with Andrew Preston Peabody (1811-1893). At his master’s degree in 1833 he was valedictorian (best of his class to give the closing speech). After that he was a teacher in Charlestown and wanted to embark on the career of a clergyman, for which he studied at the Divinity School in Cambridge from 1834 to 1836 (whereby he also supported Benjamin Peirce in mathematics class), but then replaced John Farrar , whose health was failing, as a lecturer for math and physics at Harvard. In 1838 he became a Hollis professor there, succeeding Farrar. In 1888 he retired. At times he was regent of the university and from 1884 to 1888 director of the Jefferson Physical Laboratory. Among other things, he dealt with geomagnetism, for which he entered into a collaboration with other institutions such as the Royal Society in London at Harvard College Observatory, and gave lectures on experimental physics as well as astronomy. He was considered an excellent academic teacher.
He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences (1873) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (of which he was president for 12 years) and from 1854 to 1873 permanent secretary and 1873 president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science . In 1879 he received an honorary doctorate from Harvard.
From 1867 to 1876 he worked with the US Coast Survey to determine longitudes at sea with telegraph cables. He devoted a lot of research to the study of the northern lights . In particular, he observed a periodicity in its activity, but could not associate it with any other phenomena (such as sunspot activity or that of the earth's magnetic field, earthquakes were also discussed at the time).
Fonts
- On the periodicity of the Aurora Borealis, Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Volume 10, 1868, pp. 9-351
He also reissued the textbook on electricity and magnetism by John Farrar in 1842.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Lovering, Joseph |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American physicist and mathematician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 25, 1813 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Charlestown, Massachusetts |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 18, 1892 |
| Place of death | Boston |