Nimitz Library

President Ulysses S. Grant awarded Albert A. Michelson a special appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy in 1869. During his four years as a midshipman at the Academy, Michelson excelled in optics, heat and climatology, and drawing. After his graduation in 1873 and two years at sea, he returned to the Academy to become an instructor in physics and chemistry, from 1875 to 1879. During this time in Annapolis he conducted his first experiments of the velocity of light, as part of a class demonstration in 1877.

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. Moreover, Michelson enrolled in the United States Naval Reserve Force on June 28, 1918 for four years. In May 1919, Michelson was promoted to Commander in the Naval Coast Defense Reserve Class 4.

Albert A. Michelson is renowned for his experiments and precise determinations of the velocity of light, ether drift, length of the standard meter, spectral lines, diameters of stars, and rigidity of the earth. Additionally, Michelson invented different types of instruments to help carry out these experiments. He is best known for his invention of the interferometer, the harmonic analyzer (with S.W. Stratton), the echelon spectroscope, and ruling engines. Michelson accomplished his research and inventions in the course of his teaching career as a professor of physics at various institutions of higher education.

Michelson began his teaching career in December 1875, as an instructor of physics and chemistry at the Naval Academy. He left the Academy in 1879 to aid Simon Newcomb in his experiments with the velocity of light at the Nautical Almanac Office. From 1880 to 1882, Michelson pursued graduate studies in Berlin, Heidelberg, and Paris, followed by seven years as an instructor in physics at the then newly established Case School of Applied Science, from 1882-1889. He then moved to Worcester, Massachusetts to become the first Chair of Physics at Clark University from 1889-1892.

Michelson's longest and most significant teaching tenure, however, was as Professor and first Head of the Department of Physics at the University of Chicago, from 1892-1930. He was one of the first physicists to occupy the Ryerson Physical Laboratory, which would eventually employ a number of Nobel Laureates and later become known as the home of the "Manhattan Project." Albert A. Michelson officially retired from teaching in 1930, having received the first "Distinguished Service Professor" award by the University in 1925. Earlier in his career, Michelson had also been an exchange professor in Germany and France.

It was during his days as an instructor at the Naval Academy that Michelson conducted his first velocity of light experiments as a part of a class demonstration in 1877. He made an important modification of Foucault's earlier method for determining the velocity of light. He contributed ten dollars of his own money for a revolving mirror, which enabled him to complete the experiment successfully. Michelson's determination in 1882 at Case of the velocity of light, 299, 853 +/- 60 (km/sec), became the standard measurement until his more accurate result of 299,796 +/- 4 (km/sec) at Mount Wilson in 1926. The latter is still considered the most accurate result using optical techniques.

In 1929, at Irvine Ranch in California, Michelson began his last attempt to determine the most exact measurement of the velocity of light in a vacuum tube. The final results of this experiment were determined in 1933, two years after Michelson's death, by his long-time associate Fred Pearson and astronomer F. G. Pease. The velocity calculation of 299,774+/- 11 (km/sec) was the least accurate of all of Michelson's attempts. The current accepted measurement of the velocity of light, or of the constant "c", is about 300,000 km/sec or 186,000 miles/sec.

Some of Michelson's other significant discoveries include the length of the standard meter (used as the standard length from 1893-1960), the rigidity and elasticity of the earth in 1919, and in 1920 the first measurement of the angular diameter of a star (the star named "Betelgeuse" of the constellation Orion). He also studied the metallic colors in birds and insects. In addition to his research and teaching, over seventy-five of Michelson's articles and lectures were published, along with three of his books: Determination Experimentale de la Valuer du Metre en Longueurs d'Ondes Lumineuses (1894), Light Waves and Their Uses (1903) and Studies in Optics (1927). Michelson's report conveying the results of his experiment at the U. S. Naval Academy in 1879, "Experimental Determination of the Velocity of Light", was also later published in 1880.

Throughout his career, Michelson taught and inspired people who would themselves become successful teachers, physicists, and inventors. His most indelible sphere of influence existed at the University of Chicago. Notable scientists, such as S.W. Stratton and George Ellery Hale, had collaborated with Michelson on various projects while making a name for themselves in their respective fields. Stratton, who later became Director of the National Bureau of Standards and President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, helped Michelson with teaching as well as with the invention and development of the Michelson-Stratton harmonic analyzer. Hale, who became a famous astrophysicist noted for his discoveries about the surface of the sun, was a colleague of Michelson's in the Physics Department; while at the University of Chicago he organized the Yerkes Observatory and from 1904-1923 also organized and directed the Mount Wilson Observatory. Robert A. Millikan, a Michelson student and later one of his faculty members, became the second American to win the Novel Prize in Physics in 1923. He was well known for his research of electricity, optics, and molecular physics. Arthur Holly Compton, also a faculty member in Michelson's department at Chicago, became the third American physicist to win the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1927. He was recognized for his work on cosmic rays, atomic energy, and the Compton effect.

Throughout his lifetime, Michelson received over fifteen medals and prizes, twelve honorary degrees, and numerous honorary and elected positions in professional organizations and societies related to the discipline of science. Besides being awarded prestigious medals and prizes such as the Matteucci Medal (1903), the Copley Medal (1907), the Franklin Medal (1923) and the Duddell Medal (1929), Michelson most notably received the Nobel Prize in Physics on December 10, 1907. Two days later, as part of the ceremonies for this prize, Michelson delivered his Nobel Lecture entitled “Recent Advances in Spectroscopy.” Distinguished universities around the world, such as Western Reserve University, the University of Cambridge, Yale University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Paris, and Princeton University, conferred honorary Ph.D., Sc.D., and LL.D. degrees upon Michelson throughout his career.

Albert A. Michelson was both a regular member and an honorary member of numerous internationally recognized professional societies, such as the Royal Astronomical Society, the American Philosophical Society, the Sociedad Astronomica de Mexico, the Optical Society of America, Societe Francaise de Physique, and the Russian Academy of Science. Michelson also took an active leadership role in several of these professional organizations. In 1888, he was Vice President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and its President in 1910. Michelson was also President of the American Physical Society in 1901 and President of the National Academy of Sciences in 1923.

"It seems to me that scientific research should be regarded as a painter regards his art, a poet his poems, and a composer his music." -- Albert A. Michelson

In 1877, Albert Michelson married Margaret Heminway, and with her had three children, Albert Heminway, Truman, and Elsa. This first marriage ended in divorce in 1897, and Michelson never saw most of those family members again. Michelson was married to his second wife Edna Stanton from 1899 until his death in 1931. Together Michelson and Stanton had three daughters named Madeleine, Beatrice, and Dorothy.

Albert A. Michelson had many interests outside of the realm of physics and science, including music, art, billiards, chess, and tennis. His interest in the violin began when he was a child, grew during his years at the Naval Academy, and eventually led to musical composition. Michelson expressed his interest in art through sketching, and painting watercolors. The majority of Michelson’s painting was completed in his later years and during his retirement, consisting mostly of watercolors of California landscapes. Some of Michelson’s watercolors were exhibited at the Pasadena Art Institute in 1931, shortly before his death.

At the University of Chicago Michelson was known for his love of chess and tennis, but mostly for his skill at playing billiards. While at the University he became a co-founder and a Vice President of the Renaissance Society in 1916, a society for the "cultivation of the arts."

"It is the pitting of one's brains against bits of iron, metals and crystals and making them do what you want them to do. When you are successful that is all the reward you want." -- Albert A. Michelson, The New York Times, January 18, 1929

Although truly a "Renaissance Man," Michelson has typically been remembered for his breakthroughs and refinements in the field of science. Since his death in 1931, numerous organizations and institutions have paid tribute to Michelson’s varied and abundant scientific accomplishments. In May 1948, the Michelson Laboratory at the Naval Ordnance Test Station in China Lake, California was dedicated. Interest in the materials exhibited at this dedication eventually led to the Michelson Museum, a collection and exhibition of Michelson memorabilia at this same location. In addition, the Navy honored Michelson with the USNS Michelson in 1957, and on May 10, 1969 the U.S. Naval Academy dedicated the academic building Michelson Hall. Michelson was again remembered on October 21, 1973 by the Hall of Fame for Great Americans, then a part of New York University (and now a part of Bronx Community College, within the City University of New York), with the unveiling a of bronze bust and tablet.

Since that time, numerous awards, lectures, and honors have been created in Albert A. Michelson’s name. Some of the current awards and lectures named for Michelson include the following: the Bomem-Michelson Award and Lecture annually presented by the Coblentz Society; the Michelson-Morley Award and Lecture, along with the Michelson Lecture Series, and the Michelson Postdoctoral Prize Lectureship, all of which are given annually by Case Western Reserve University; the A.A. Michelson Award presented every year by the Computer Measurement Group; the Albert A. Michelson Award given by the Navy League of the United States; and the Michelson Memorial Lecture Series presented annually by the Division of Mathematics and Science at the U.S. Naval Academy.