Joseph Henry
Bicentennial Program Titles and Abstracts

Prof. Henry, Mr. Faraday, and the Hunt for Electromagnetic Induction
Albert E. Moyer, Department of History, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061-0117

On different sides of the Atlantic but about the same time, Michael Faraday and Joseph Henry announced success in a quest that had preoccupied the scientific community for a decade: coaxing electricity from magnetism. "Mutual induction," what Faraday and Henry had identified in the early 1830s, would turn out to be not only a foundational concept in the physics of electricity and magnetism but also the principle behind the technology of electrical transformers and generators — two mainstays of industrialization.
Although Faraday announced his findings slightly before Henry and received credit for priority from his contemporaries, later commentators judged Faraday's breakthrough in London and Henry's in Albany to be classic examples of "independent discovery." But closer analysis reveals that the discoveries were not independent. In fact, the two natural philosophers shared a similar orientation toward their research and, moreover, a distinctive laboratory instrument: Henry's new, powerful electromagnet.

Thus, the story of Henry's and Faraday's search for induction illuminates not only the interpersonal linkages between Victorian scientists but also the crucial part that Henry's instrument — the electromagnet — played in a discovery traditionally credited to Faraday.

"A Knowledge of General Principles": Joseph Henry and General Science Education in Nineteenth-Century America
Marc Rothenberg, Smithsonian Institution, MRC429, Washington, DC 20560 During his twenty years teaching science at the Albany Academy and the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) and almost thirty-two years as the first secretary (director) of the Smithsonian Institution, Joseph Henry was deeply concerned about science education for non-scientists. He developed a clear vision of the role of science in general education and a controversial position on the necessary credentials for a teacher of science in the liberal arts curriculum. This paper will discuss Henry's views on the teaching of science, especially in the liberal arts college, and how these views are linked to Henry's agenda for the Smithsonian. In particular, this paper will explore Henry's view that support of basic research resulted in superior teaching, superior textbooks, superior popular expositions of science, and ultimately, young men and women better equipped to pursue their life's work.

Arithmetic, Population, and Energy
Albert A. Bartlett, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado

This talk defends the thesis that "The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." The exponential function is used to describe the arithmetic of steady growth, which is important because steady growth is the goal of all commerce, industry, and governance systems.

The arithmetic makes it clear that steady growth for long periods of time is impossible, and that the term "sustainable growth" is an oxymoron. When one looks at resources such as coal and petroleum one can evaluate the present precarious position in which we have placed ourselves through the past growth in the rates of consumption of these resources. The only "solution" to the problems is to educate people about the arithmetic of steady growth.

"Getting It" in the 21st Century: Joseph Henry's Ideals Two Centuries Later
George Wise, Communications Specialist, GE Research and Development Center

The talk will take off from a laconic remark made by Joseph Henry to another great inventor in 1876, and ask whether the ideals Henry embodied as well as expressed in his formative ("Albany") years provide us with insights into the technology and science education challenges of our own time. Henry embodied interesting contradictions. Reaching a scientific career starting from the lowest rung on the economic and social ladder of any major U.S. scientist of his time (a cartman's son) he became the champion of the most uncompromising pure science ideal — a highly upper class, even aristocratical notion. Few 19th century professional scientists disdained the practical aspects of science publicly as Henry did — or contributed as much to make them happen. Those contradictions persist in the age of the Internet, gene splicing, quarks and microchips. The talk will focus on them, and seek hints from Henry's career projected forward for resolving them.

Joseph Henry and Michael Faraday: Connections and Comparisons
Frank A.J.L. James, Reader in History of Science, Royal Institution Centre for the History of Science and Technology, Royal Institution, 21 Albemarle Street, London, W1X 4BS, England.

The United States of America in the early nineteenth century tends to be viewed as a young country recently independent of what was widely regarded as "old England". Such an obvious difference in temporal outlook should not, however, lead us to assume that science, especially experimental science, in England was necessarily that much more developed than in America. Evidence for this suggestion can be found by considering the lives and works of Henry at Albany, Princeton and the Smithsonian and of Faraday at the Royal Institution in London. They both discovered electro-magnetic induction very close together; Henry nearly discovered the magneto-optical effect and with his previous knowledge was able to replicate the experiment very quickly after Faraday did discover it in 1845.

In the institutional sphere, the money for the Smithsonian Institution was left by one of those associated with the early history of the Royal Institution. When the Smithsonian was established in the 1840s, Faraday's advice and help was sought in providing information on the Royal Institution, founded not so very long before, as a model. Thus, despite the geographical separation and the different perceptions of history in each country, so far as experimental science was concerned the difference was not that huge, and it was further reduced by two men who held each other in the highest esteem.