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What is most striking about the life and work of Joseph Henry is the fact that he is so little known today for his accomplishments. While Alexander Graham Bell and Samuel F.B. Morse, are household names, and even the names, Volta, Ampere, and Ohm ring a bell with most, few seem to have heard of Joseph Henry. When I first began work on Joseph Henry: An Enduring Legacy, I, too, had never heard of the man whose work in electromagnetism made possible the modern electric age. Though, like Amphere and Volta, he was immortalized with a unit of electric measure named for him - the HENRY is the electrical unit of inductance - the average person doesn't deal with HENRYS around the house the same way we do VOLTS and AMPS. Men like Joseph Henry may have been fairly common in the 19th Century, but today it seems astonishing that a largely self-taught man who never went to college was awarded an honorary degree from Union College, taught physics at Princeton University for 14 years, was appointed head of the Smithsonian Institution, and served there for 32 years, shaping it into his vision of a lasting center of knowledge and learning.
The discovery of inductance and the
development of the modern electromagnet are monumental
accomplishments in and of themselves, but they are in fact just
one small part of a seemingly endless stream of activities and
achievements for which Joseph Henry must be credited. His
far-reaching accomplishments also include discoveries and
important breakthroughs in astronomy, meteorology, and
acoustics; he developed improved lighthouse lamps and fog horns,
helped establish the Dudley Observatory, gave advice on how best
to build new additions to the Federal Capitol and mentored both
Morse and Bell, who might well not have built either telegraph
or telephone without his help. he was also an advisor and friend
to Abraham Lincoln. On the bicentennial of Joseph Henry's birth, this exhibition aims to give him some of the recognition he so rightly deserves as one of the most accomplished scientists of his time. -Rachel Seligman, Director/Curator, Mandeville Gallery
When in 1829, Union college granted an honorary masters degree to a young man named Joseph Henry, they were the first institution to give formal recognition to a brilliant scientist who, despite being born poor and without a college education, had become an outstanding teacher and scientist at Albany Academy. The next year the young scientist invented the modern electromagnet. By winding more than a mile of insulated wire around a horseshoe shaped iron core he could lift several hundred pounds, using a small current from a battery. This experiment also lead to his defining the basic law of electromagnetism and helped establish him as the greatest American scientist of the 19th century. His name was immortalizes for all scientists and engineers when the unit of electric inductance was named HENRY in 1893. Henry's scientific device and discovery would soon lead to practical applications, such as a magnetic method for the separation of iron ore, the telegraph, the electric motor, the telephone, the electric generator, the transformer, radio, television, the computer, and magnetic resonance imaging. This list of devices will undoubtedly continue to grow for the remainder of civilization. His degree from Union College and his discovery of the properties of electromagnetism led to his 1832 appointment as a Professor at Princeton, where he taught for 14 years. Congress established the Smithsonian Institution in 1846 with a $500, 000 bequest from the English scientist James Smithson, Who admired but never visited the United States. Joseph Henry was chosen to serve as the founding Secretary and Director. A prophetic exchange of messages between the 73-year-old Union College President Eliphalet Nott, who was also a national recognized scientist, and the 49-year-old Joseph Henry exists in the Special Collections of Schaffer Library at Union College. President Nott congratulated Henry on his new position and offered some advice. The new Smithsonian Secretary answered with concern that too much money was being spent on the new building, and that he was determined that sufficient money remain to build a living scientific institution for the stimulation of research and the collection and distribution of scientific information. He also wrote that he would resign if he believed he was not meeting these goals. Over the next 32 years, which included the darkest days of the Civil War, Joseph Henry faithfully fulfilled his goals. He acted to found a telegraph-based weather service and to study the heritage and culture of Native Americans. He helped mobilize scientist for service in the Civil War. the once skeptical President Abraham Lincoln got to know him and to value the Institution, frequently seeking solace and advice from Henry. Joseph Henry was a mentor for inventors such as Samuel Morse, an artist, Alexander Graham Bell, who taught the deaf, and Thomas Davenport, a blacksmith who built the first electric motor. In 1875 the 28-year-old Alexander Graham Bell traveled to Washington D.C. to meet the 77-year-old Joseph Henry, who was listening intently to his ideas involving a new method for putting voice on a telegraph wire. Bell asked Henry if he should publish his ideas or first try to make his method work. Henry advised him first to make his method work. Bell answered that he had insufficient knowledge of electromagnetism. "GET IT", was Henry's answer. The next year, Bell dazzled the world with his demonstration of a working telephone. He gave much credit to Henry for his encouragement and advice. Henry's work ultimately provided the scientific basis for all future communications technology based on electromagnetism including the advances of men like Edison, Tesla, Marconi, DeForest. Throughout his life, Joseph Henry was dedicated to scientific discovery and the dissemination of knowledge. He stands as one of the greatest American scientists of his era and indeed of all time.
-Frank Wicks, Professor of Mechanical
Engineering
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