Robert Williams Wood

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Robert Williams Wood

Robert Williams Wood (born May 2, 1868 in Concord , Massachusetts , † August 11, 1955 in Amityville , New York ) was an American experimental physicist . His research in the field of wave optics became important .

Scientific career

Wood received a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Harvard University in 1891 and went to the newly formed University of Chicago in 1892 . From 1894 to 1896 he worked with Heinrich Rubens at the Berlin Friedrich Wilhelms University (today Humboldt University in Berlin ). After returning to the USA, he worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and from 1897 at the University of Wisconsin . From 1901 until his death Wood was professor of experimental physics at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore , Maryland . Among other things, he dealt with Raman spectroscopy . He is best known for his refutation of the alleged discovery of the so-called N-rays . He is considered the discoverer of the Wood effect and developed the Wood lamp . Wood was the first to observe the tunnel effect during the field emission of electrons in 1897 , but was not yet able to interpret it correctly.

Honors

In 1911 Wood was elected a corresponding member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences , in 1912 in the National Academy of Sciences , in 1913 in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 1934 a member of the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina .

The RW Wood Prize of the Optical Society of America is named in his honor.

Others

Wood photographed Otto Lilienthal a few days before his fatal flight crash. These are the last known pictures from Lilienthal and the only ones from the scene of the accident.

Fonts

  • Wood, RW: Note on the Theory of the Greenhouse . In: The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science . 17, 1909, pp. 319-320. doi : 10.1080 / 14786440208636602 .
  • A new form of Cathode Discharge and the Production of X-Rays, together with some Notes on Diffraction. In: Physical Review. Volume 5, 1897, p. 1
  • Physical optics. MacMillan, New York 1905.
  • Researches in physical optics (vol. 1), with special reference to the radiation of electrons. Columbia University Press, New York 1913.
  • Researches in physical optics (vol. 2), Resonance radiation and resonance spectra. Columbia University Press, New York 1919.

Web links

Commons : Robert Williams Wood  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ GH Dieke: Robert Williams Wood National Academy of Sciences Washington DC 1993
  2. Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 264.
  3. Member entry by Robert W. Wood at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on December 1, 2015.
  4. ^ The photos taken by Wood on August 2, 1896