Physics at UVM in the Early Years

Physics at UVM in the Early Years Robert G Arns, Professor Emeritus of Physics David A Hammond, Physics Instrumentation Coordinator The University of Vermont Abstract: In 1807, when the University of Vermont had only one faculty member in addition to the president, a major purchase of apparatus was made from John Prince of Salem, Massachusetts, premier scientific instrument maker of the young nation and an agent for European instrument makers The apparatus cost much more than the annual salary of the faculty member, James Dean, Tutor and later Professor of Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, and Astronomy It was another two years before a second faculty member was hired and several decades before there was a second physicist The answers to questions such as “why this purchase?” and “how could UVM afford it?” and “how was it used?” provide clues to the nature of the physics teaching of the time, of the University’s aspirations, and of some aspects of its chaotic early history The apparatus and the Philosophical Chamber, the room at the very heart of the University in which it was stored and used and in which the University’s Trustees held their regular meetings, were destroyed in the Old Mill fire of May 27, 1824 George Wyllys Benedict joined UVM a few months later as Professor of Mathematics and Natural History He was a talented fundraiser and played an important role in helping the University recover from the Old Mill fire He also taught physics from 1825 to 1839 Letters that he left tell us much about how physics teaching was organized in the early 1830s and notes of his “Electricity Lectures” reveal the state of understanding of electrical phenomena Important purchases to re-equip UVM for teaching physics and astronomy were made in 1835 Physics had burst on the UVM scene in a big way in 1807, but it was slow to recover from the University’s struggles in the years that followed Colloquium, Department of Physics, University of Vermont, November 5, 2004 Arns and Hammond UVM Physics Colloquium November 5, 2004 Our story begins in 1780 That year, Samuel Williams became the third person to be named Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at Harvard University He had graduated from Harvard in 1761, and was excused from the commencement ceremonies so that he could accompany the then Hollis Professor, John Winthrop, on a scientific expedition – the first scientific expedition in America – to view a transit of Venus visible in Newfoundland Williams subsequently studied theology, was ordained in 1765, and served as pastor of the church in Bradford, New Hampshire There he preached and taught for the next 15 years; his teaching included preparing young men to enter college studies The most famous of his students during this period was Benjamin Thompson, later known as Count Rumford At Harvard, as Hollis Professor, Williams became widely recognized as an able scholar He received honorary degrees from the University of Edinburgh in 1785 and from Yale in 1786 In 1788 he came under a cloud owing to his inability to account for the disappearance of Harvard College funds of which he was the trustee He resigned from his Harvard position and took off for the wilderness – Vermont was the wilderness in those days – leaving his family to fend for themselves in Cambridge Arns and Hammond UVM Physics Colloquium November 5, 2004 Williams lived hand-to-mouth for a while and then became pastor of a church in Rutland, Vermont In 1789 he wrote to his wife, still in Cambridge, that: “Having secured what can be done from the parish, my whole aim now is to influence and persuade persons of note here to found a college.” Thus it was that Williams, a disgraced academic, seeking a college in the hope that he could return to academic life, made common cause with Ira Allen, a land speculator, who was interested in boosting land values in the Champlain Valley Ira Allen was an early believer that a university is good for economic development Ira Allen and Sam Williams worked together: Williams supplied the knowledge of higher education, wrote the documents, Arns and Hammond UVM Physics Colloquium November 5, 2004 developed the strategy, and rounded up financial support; Ira Allen signed the papers Indeed, Ira Allen was in Europe for a critical five-year period during the founding, part of that time spent in British and French jails The University was chartered by the Vermont legislature on November 3, 1791, but had a hard time collecting enough money to get started The first students were admitted ten years later, in 1801, and graduated in 1804 In the beginning, nearly all of the teaching was done by the President, Daniel Clarke Sanders He was the first of nine Congregational ministers to serve successively as president of the University He had graduated from Harvard in 1788 He then got religion and was baptized the following year He studied theology He was licensed to preach in 1790 and ended up serving a congregation in Vergennes, Vermont In October 1799 Sanders moved into a rent-free house that had been built by the UVM Trustees He also presided over the Congregational church in Burlington, taught students in the house for the next two years to prepare them for college-level studies, tended the surrounding farmland, 25 acres of which was assigned to his use, and cut his own firewood The deal called for him to receive $400 per year “for preaching to the town” plus $12 per year from the University for every enrolled student In 1803 he was promised a total of $800 per year to use for his own salary and that of a tutor – instead of the bounty on heads – but “to Arns and Hammond UVM Physics Colloquium November 5, 2004 be paid for by tuition” UVM rarely had enough money to pay Sanders more than a fraction of his salary Tuition was only $20.00 per year There were very few students, a total of 30 students in 1804 when the first class graduated The total grew to 36 in 1812 when war intruded; by 1822, the total was only 22 students To make the financial situation worse, Ira Allen never made good on the 4,000 English pounds (worth about $17,680 in 1807) that he had pledged in order to get the legislature to locate UVM in Burlington President Sanders sometimes had assistance from a succession of rather poorly-paid “tutors.” The first came in 1804 and remained only a few weeks Then Sidney Willard came in 1805 at an annual salary of $250 and served for two years The third person to serve as a tutor, James Dean, started in 1807 and taught mathematics and natural philosophy In 1809 he was named the first Professor of Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, and Astronomy at an annual salary of $400 per year Indeed, he was the very first professor hired by the University According to the University’s records, Dean was owed $847.15 in back pay by January 1, 1811, (and the president was owed $2,138.98) Dean continued as Professor until the University was shut down during the War of 1812 when the army commandeered the Old Mill Dean then taught at an academy in Montpelier Arns and Hammond UVM Physics Colloquium November 5, 2004 until 1817 when he was appointed Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at Dartmouth University, a new institution formed by the governor and legislature of New Hampshire in an attempt to take over Dartmouth College The two institutions dueled in the courts for two years (with Daniel Webster representing the College) and in 1819 the U.S Supreme Court ruled that a state could not dissolve contracts such as the Royal Charter that had established Dartmouth College in 1769 Dartmouth University was dead and Dean was again on the move until he returned to UVM as Professor in 1822 On May 27, 1824, the Old Mill burned to the ground Teaching equipment was destroyed Many students went elsewhere to continue their studies; others were taught in a shed on the property The then president, Daniel Haskell, suffered a nervous breakdown and was unable to continue James Dean was appointed interim president Shortly thereafter, he dismissed four students for poor grades The Trustees, concerned about the loss of tuition revenue, reversed the decision Dean promptly resigned as president We’ll return to 1824 later For now I’ll simply note that in 1827 Dean went on to become a founder of Vermont’s first manufacturing company, a glass factory in Winooski (Dean was also a founder and director of the Arns and Hammond UVM Physics Colloquium November 5, 2004 Champlain Ferry Co., which is still in operation.) In 1831 Dean and his partner overextended themselves financially by opening a factory overseas in order to exploit cheap foreign labor – another first for Vermont – overseas meant Plattsburgh, New York, in this case Dean’s sold his interest in the glass manufacturing business in 1839 (Thereafter Winooski was running out of firewood, and the factory was moved to Canada in 1846; it was out of business by 1850.) Dean died in 1849; his remains are buried in Burlington’s Elmwood Cemetery Now back to 1824 Scientific Equipment for the New College The loss of the Old Mill was a serious blow, both in terms of the building, but especially in terms of the teaching equipment it contained From the time he arrived in 1799, President Daniel Clarke Sanders was grubbing to find books to furnish a library for students, located in his home, and to find teaching equipment Then, in 1807, three Trustees of the College, John Pomeroy, David Russell, and Col William Harrington, pooled $700 of their personal funds to purchase scientific equipment from John Prince of Salem, Massachusetts On August 15, 1807, the College’s Board of Trustees acknowledged the existence of the equipment and voted to Arns and Hammond UVM Physics Colloquium November 5, 2004 permit it to be deposited in the Old Mill room known as the Philosophical Chamber – the most significant room in the Old Mill, well-suited to teaching and public functions such as the meetings of the Board – and stated that: “it is the sense of the Corporation that Lectures by the Rev Sam’l Williams, delivered in the College would be beneficial to the Institution, and they offer the use of the Chamber for that purpose.” An advertisement by Sam Williams in the Burlington newspaper two weeks later (on September 1, 1807), touted the: “costly and elegant Philosophical Apparatus now placed in the Philosophical Chamber in the University of Vermont.” It also announced a course of PHILOSOPHICAL LECTURES, about twenty in number, which would take place over a period of about six weeks beginning October 9, 1807, and would use the new apparatus The cost to attend was set at $10 for the entire course or 75 cents for an individual lecture These were public lectures that were also attended by the University’s students We not know what was contained in these lectures and lecture notes that we have seen of courses given by Sam Williams earlier at Harvard – which had similar equipment for teaching – are not revealing However, we believe that the equipment on hand at UVM was cutting edge in quality Arns and Hammond UVM Physics Colloquium November 5, 2004 and subject matter The lectures could have been and probably were both sophisticated and exciting So: we know that the University could not have afforded such princely equipment for teaching science if three Trustees had not come forward to put up their own money for the purchase Nor was there any prospect that UVM would be able to buy the equipment from these three Trustees any time soon We also know that the first person to use the equipment for teaching was Samuel Williams; he presented a series of PHILOSOPHICAL LECTURES on his own, but with the approval of the University’s Trustees So who you think persuaded the three trustees to cough up the big bucks? Probably Samuel Williams, who wanted to get back into an academic position after his unfortunate history at Harvard What better way than to show what he could in the hope that he would be appointed professor or perhaps made a Trustee? This is only conjecture on my part, but it seems plausible Alas, Williams was not given a faculty appointment or made a UVM Trustee He gave the lectures again in 1808 and that was the end of his association with UVM As noted earlier, James Dean became the first Professor of Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, and Astronomy in 1809 Arns and Hammond UVM Physics Colloquium November 5, 2004 As for Williams, why didn’t the University bite? Perhaps he wanted more money than the University could provide Williams also preached in Burlington while here and perhaps his Harvard-style theology – which was regarded as quite liberal in theological terms – was not welcomed We know that Sanders, also a Harvard liberal, got himself into trouble with his congregation for his preaching and left Burlington in 1814 His successor learned his theology at Yale, considered to be more conservative Finally, it should be noted that Sanders was in a class taught by Williams at Harvard in 1788 when Williams was caught with his hands in the till Perhaps his bad reputation was simply too much to take So much for Sam Williams He went on to found the Rutland Herald and other good things, but he had no further connections with UVM Now, let’s talk about the equipment John Prince and UVM’s First Scientific Equipment John Prince was born in Boston in 1751 and graduated from Harvard in 1776 He then studied theology (under Samuel Williams, incidentally) He served as pastor of the First Unitarian Church in Salem, Massachusetts for fifty-seven years and seven months beginning in 1779 He was also deeply interested in science He carried on a lively side-line business of 10 Arns and Hammond UVM Physics Colloquium November 5, 2004 making and repairing scientific instruments during this entire period He also bought and sold used scientific equipment and served as an agent for European instruments makers He supplied scientific instruments to Harvard (which had lost its teaching apparatus in a fire in 1764), Rhode Island College (now Brown University), Williams College, Bowdoin, Dartmouth College, Middlebury, Yale, Union College, Transylvania, and others – as well as to the University of Vermont Prince published a detailed description of an improved vacuum pump in 1783 He amassed a substantial personal library In 1795, he received an honorary degree from Brown University 11 Arns and Hammond UVM Physics Colloquium November 5, 2004 Now a word about his vacuum pump Although crude by today’s standards, the pump really represented a substantial advance in pump technology Prior to the improvements made by Prince, the best artificial vacuum obtainable was 1.27 mm of Hg (Schechner, pp 453, 464) Prince’s pump did twelve times better, reaching one-tenth of a Torr Here’s a picture of the “floor model” of the pump 12 Arns and Hammond UVM Physics Colloquium November 5, 2004 13 Arns and Hammond UVM Physics Colloquium November 5, 2004 Now to the other instruments that UVM obtained in 1807 We found a copy of the packing slip for the shipment and have verified that it is in Prince’s handwriting 14 Arns and Hammond UVM Physics Colloquium November 5, 2004 15 Arns and Hammond UVM Physics Colloquium November 5, 2004 16 Arns and Hammond UVM Physics Colloquium November 5, 2004 17 Arns and Hammond UVM Physics Colloquium November 5, 2004 The categories were (1) Pneumatics (the vacuum pump and accessories); (2) Electricity, an electrostatic generator and various accessories, including an electrical discharge tube and a battery of Leyden Jars; Disk-type electrostatic generator Cylinder-type electrostatic generator 18 Arns and Hammond UVM Physics Colloquium November 5, 2004 Thunder House 19 Arns and Hammond UVM Physics Colloquium November 5, 2004 “Battery” of Leyden Jars Jointed Discharger (3) Magnetism, especially a five-layer used horseshoe magnet – said to be the only piece that survived the Old Mill fire – and a compass, as well as other small magnets; 20 Arns and Hammond UVM Physics Colloquium November 5, 2004 (4) Optics, including a microscope, prisms, concave and convex mirrors and lenses; Solar Microscope and (5) Hydrostatics; and various other items 21 Arns and Hammond UVM Physics Colloquium November 5, 2004 Now, let’s return to 1824 and the slow and painful task of rebuilding UVM’s capacity to teach physics after the tragedy of the Old Mill fire Here’s Dave George Wyllys Benedict and the Recovery from the Great Fire Lessons from Physics Teaching in the Early Years When we began this quest, and until two or three weeks ago, I thought that we might learn about the state of understanding of various physical phenomena during the first thirty-five years of the 19th century – and about where UVM fit into this picture at that time – by looking at old lecture notes of the professors and at the scientific apparatus that they used These were not revealing This realization came partly from a reading of the history of academic physics at the time* and partly from what we found in our own investigations There seems to be good reason for our failure to connect the frontiers of physics during the first thirty-five years of the 19th century either with experimental physics research at UVM or with the instruments and teaching of physics at UVM Physics, as we know it today, is comprised of * See, for example, H Otto Sibum, “What Kind of Science is Experimental Physics?”, SCIENCE, 306, (1 October 2004), pp 60-61; Albert E Moyer, AMERICAN PHYSICS IN TRANSITION (Tomash Publishers, Los Angeles and San Francisco, 1983); Jed Z Buchwald, THE CREATION OF SCIENTIFIC EFFECTS (Univ of Chicago Press, 1994) 22 Arns and Hammond UVM Physics Colloquium November 5, 2004 theoretical physics and experimental physics But experimental physics did not exist as an academic pursuit before the middle of the 19th century Natural Science and Natural Philosophy involved the observation of nature, but act of observing did not encompass phenomena that were artificially created in the laboratory To be sure, there were artisans of various sorts, engineers, instrument makers, and others who contributed to the development of scientific understanding and were respected for their contributions But they were not accorded a place within the academic community James Clerk Maxwell became the first Professor of Experimental Physics at Cambridge in 1871 and he wasn’t too happy with the idea The great experimenter Helmholtz first became a Professor at Berlin the same year Heinrich Hertz was one of the first graduate students of Helmholtz In the spirit of the first half of the 19th century, Hertz’s radio-frequency waves would not have been regarded as “discovered,” or a “natural phenomenon,” since Hertz observed them for the first time (in 1887) using technology that he had created in a laboratory environment Hertz’s waves would have been viewed as inventions 23 Arns and Hammond UVM Physics Colloquium November 5, 2004 By the end of the 19th century, laboratories were established at many European and North American universities and experimental physicists equaled or out-numbered theoretical physicists The need to cope with the new fields of electricity and magnetism – which required instruments for their study – played a large role in this transformation During the period of our interest here today, 1800-1835, the colorful display of an electrical discharge in a tenuous gas could be thought of as a scientific curiosity, perhaps even a model for the Aurora Borealis During the period 1800-1835, the apparatus that we studied was strictly for lecture demonstrations and the faculty members, natural philosophers, were theorists They did not employ artificial technologies in order to “invent” new phenomena By the last decade of the 19th century, electrical discharge in gases had become a leading part of the established academic discipline of experimental physics and the experiments led to the discovery of X rays, the electron, and radioactivity The sciences had changed and, with them, universities changed 24 ... time collecting enough money to get started The first students were admitted ten years later, in 1801, and graduated in 1804 In the beginning, nearly all of the teaching was done by the President,... appointment or made a UVM Trustee He gave the lectures again in 1808 and that was the end of his association with UVM As noted earlier, James Dean became the first Professor of Mathematics, Natural... looking at old lecture notes of the professors and at the scientific apparatus that they used These were not revealing This realization came partly from a reading of the history of academic physics