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The Nobel Prize in Physics 1907

Recalled to active service during WWI USNRF

In the nineteenth century American professors' salaries would seldom support a dignified style of life, and to be a proper physics professor it was usually necessary to inherit wealth or marry it. It was less necessary to have a doctorate—as late as 1900 only a minority of professors had the Ph.D.—and physicists could set out with any sort of training. Albert A. Michelson's background, which seems odd to modern eyes, was not surprising in his own times.

Albert Abraham Michelson was born in Strelno, Prussia, (later Strzelno, Poland), son of a Jewish merchant, on December 19, 1852. Two years later his family emigrated to the United States to settle at Virginia City, Nevada, but they eventually moved to San Francisco where Michelson received his early education in public schools, matriculating from the High School in 1869. He was appointed by President Grant to the U.S. Naval Academy, 28 June 1869, and after graduation as Ensign in 1873 and a two-years' cruise in the West Indies and the North Atlantic Station in Worcester and Constellation, he became an instructor in physics and chemistry at the Academy under Admiral Sampson. There he prepared a paper “On a Method of Measuring the Velocity of Light” which won him worldwide recognition.

He was commissioned master 5 March 1879, and posted to the Nautical Almanac Office, Washington, to work with Simon Newcomb, but in the following year, he obtained leave of absence to continue his studies in Europe. He visited the Universities of Berlin and Heidelberg, and the College de France and École Polytechnique in Paris. He resigned from the Navy, 30 September 1881, and in 1883 returned to America to take an appointment as Professor of Physics in the Case School of Applied Science, Cleveland, Ohio. In 1890 he accepted a similar position at Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, and in 1892 he became Professor of Physics and the first Head of Department at the new University of Chicago. He rejoined the Navy during World War I, and in 1918 returned to Chicago where in 1925 he was appointed to the first of the Distinguished Service Professorships. Michelson resigned in 1929 to work at the Mount Wilson Observatory, Pasadena.

Although Michelson resigned from the Navy in 1881 to pursue a career in physics, he remained dedicated to and involved with the Navy. From 1891 to 1919, Michelson designed for the Bureau of Ordnance optical range-finders and ear protectors, which were patented and later used for ear protection during gunfire. From 1895-1900, he served as commander of the First Battalion of the Illinois Naval Reserve, which he helped organize. During World War I, Michelson was the head of the scientific research committee at the University of Chicago and served as a lieutenant commander with the Bureau of Ordnance as a scientific consultant during the closing months of World War I. Appointed commander in the Reserve in May 1919, he was recalled briefly to active duty in the 9th Naval District. Commander Michelson was released from the Navy 30 September 1921 from the Naval Coast Defense Reserve and after another decade of significant research into the properties of light, died 9 May 1931 in Pasadena, Calif.

USNS Michelson was named in honor of CDR Albert A. Michelson, USNRF (United States Naval Reserve Forces).

Michelson, Albert, CDR