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Jolly and J. F. W. von Bezold; the consequence was that within a few days of his arrival in Berlin in October 1878 he was able to plunge into original See also:

RESEARCH (O. Fr. recerche, from recercher, re- and cercer, mod. chercher, to search; Late Lat. circare, to go round in a circle, to explore)

research on a problem of electric inertia. For the best See also:

SOLUTION (from Lat. solvere, to loosen, dissolve)

solution a See also:

PRIZE, or PRIZE OF WAR (Fr. prise, from prendre, to take)

prize was offered by the philosophical See also:

FACULTY (through the French, from the Lat. facultas, ability to do anything, from facilis, easy, facere, to do; another form of the word in Lat. facilitas, facility, ease, keeps the original meaning)

faculty of the University, and this he succeeded in winning with the See also:

paper which was published in 188o on the " Kinetic See also:

ENERGY (from the Gr. ivipyela; iv, in, ipyov, work)

Energy of See also:

ELECTRICITY

Electricity in See also:

Motion." His next investigation, on " See also:

INDUCTION (from Lat. inducere, to lead into; cf. Gr. ilrayu yli)

Induction in Rotating See also:

SPHERES, MUSIC OF THE

Spheres," he offered in 188o as his dissertation for his See also:

DOCTOR (Lat. for " teacher ")

doctor's degree, which he obtained with the rare distinction of summa cum laude. Later in the same See also:

YEAR

year he became assistant to Helmholtz in the physical laboratory of the Berlin See also:

INSTITUTE (from Lat. instituere, to establish or set up)

Institute. During the three years he held this position he carried out researches on the contact of elastic solids, hardness, evaporation and the electric See also:

DISCHARGE (adapted from the O. Fr. discharge, modern decharge, from a med. Lat. discargare, to unload, dis- and earn care, to load, cf. " charge ")

discharge in gases, the last earning him the See also:

SPECIAL

special See also:

COMMENDATION (from the Lat. commendare, to entrust to the charge of, or to procure a favour for)

commendation of Helmholtz.

In 1883 he went to See also:

KIEL

Kiel, becoming PrivatdozQnt, and there he began the studies in See also:

Maxwell's electro-magnetic theory which a few years later resulted in the discoveries that rendered his name famous. These were actually made between 1885 and 1889, when he was See also:

PROFESSOR (the Latin noun formed from the verb profiteri, to declare publicly, to acknowledge, profess)

professor of physics in the Carlsruhe See also:

POLYTECHNIC (Gr. aroWus, many, and rEXvn, an art)

Polytechnic. He himself recorded that their origin is to be sought in a prize problem proposed by the Berlin See also:

Academy of Sciences in 1879, having reference to the experimental See also:

ESTABLISHMENT (0. Fr. establissement, Fr. etablissement, late Norm. Fr. establishement, from O. Fr. establir, Fr. etablir, Lat. stabilire, to make stable)

establishment of some relation between electromagnetic forces and the See also:

DIELECTRIC

dielectric polarization of insulators. Imagining that this would See also:

INTEREST

interest Hertz and be successfully attacked by him, Helmholtz specially See also:

drew his See also:

ATTENTION (from Lat. ad-tendo, await, expect; the condition of being " stretched " or " tense ")

attention to it, and promised him the assistance of the Institute if he decided to See also:

WORK

work on the subject; but Hertz did not take it up seriously at that See also:

time, because he could not think of any See also:

PROCEDURE (Fr. procedure, from Lat. procedere, to go for-ward)

procedure likely to prove effective. It was of course well known, as a See also:

NECESSITY (Lat. necessitas)

necessity of Maxwell's mathematical theory, that the polarization and depolarization of an insulator must give rise to the same electromagnetic effects in the neighbourhood as a voltaic current in a conductor. The ex perimental See also:

PROOF (in M. Eng. preove, proeve, preve, &°c., from O. Fr . prueve, proeve, &c., mod. preuve, Late. Lat. proba, probate, to prove, to test the goodness of anything, probus, good)

proof, however, was still lacking, and though several experimenters had come very near its See also:

DISCOVERY

discovery, Hertz was the first who actually succeeded in supplying it, in 1887. Continuing his inquiries for the next year or two, he was able to discover the progressive See also:

PROPAGATION

propagation of electromagnetic See also:

ACTION

action through space, to measure the length and velocity of electromagnetic waves, and to show that in the transverse nature of their vibration and their susceptibility to reflection, See also:

refraction and polarization they are in See also:

COMPLETE

complete See also:

correspondence with the waves of See also:

LIGHT

light and See also:

HEAT (0. E. haktu, which like " hot," Old Eng. hat, is from the Teutonic type haita, hit, to be hot; cf. Ger. hitze, heiss; Dutch, hitte, heet, &c.)

heat. The result, was in Helmholtz's words, to establish beyond doubt that See also:

ORDINARY (med. Lat. ordinarius, Fr. ordinaire)

ordinary light consists of See also:

electrical vibrations in an all-pervading See also:

ETHER, (C2H5)2O

ether which possesses the properties of an insulator and of a magnetic See also:

MEDIUM

medium. Hertz himself gave an admirable See also:

account of the significance of his discoveries in a lecture on the relations between light and electricity, delivered before the German Society for the See also:

ADVANCEMENT

Advancement of Natural Science and See also:

MEDICINE

Medicine at See also:

HEIDELBERG

Heidelberg in See also:

SEPTEMBER (Lat. septem, seven)

September 1889. Since the time of these See also:

early experiments, various other modes of detecting the existence of electric waves have been found out in addition to the spark-See also:

gap which he first employed, and the results of his observations, the earliest interest of which was simply that they afforded a See also:

CONFIRMATION (Lat. confirmatio, from confirmare, to establish, make firm)

confirmation of an abstruse mathematical theory, have been applied to the practical purposes of signalling over considerable distances (see TELEGRAPHY, WIRELESS). In 1889 Hertz was appointed to succeed R. J.

E. See also:

CLAUSIUS, RUDOLF JULIUS EMMANUEL (1822-1888)

Clausius as ordinary professor of physics in the university of See also:

BONN

Bonn. There he continued his researches on the discharge of electricity in rarefied gases,. only just missing the discovery of the X-rays described by W. C. See also:

Rontgen a few years later, and produced his See also:

TREATISE

treatise on the Principles of Mechanics. This was his last work, for after a See also:

long illness he died at Bonn on the 1st of See also:

JANUARY

January 1894. By his premature See also:

DEATH

death science lost one of her most promising disciples. Helmholtz thought him the one of all his pupils who had penetrated farthest into his own circle of scientific thought, and looked to him with the greatest confidence for the further See also:

EXTENSION (Lat. ex, out ; tendere, to stretch)

extension and development of his work. Hertz's scientific papers were translated into See also:

ENGLISH

English by Professor D. E. See also:

Jones, and published in three volumes: Electric Waves (1893), . See also:

MISCELLANEOUS

Miscellaneous Papers (1896), and Principles of Mechanics (1899).

The See also:

PREFACE (Med. Lat. prefatia, for classical praefatio, praefari, to speak beforehand)

preface contributed to the first of these by See also:

Lord See also:

KELVIN, WILLIAM THOMSON, BARON (1824-1907)

Kelvin, and the introductions to the second and third by Professors P. E. A. Lenard and Helmholtz, contain many See also:

BIOGRAPHICAL

biographical details, together with statements of the See also:

SCOPE (through Ital. scopo, aim, purpose, intent, from Gr. o'KOaos, mark to shoot at, aim, o ic07reiv, to see, whence the termination in telescope, microscope, &c.)

scope and significance of his investigations.

End of Article: HERTZ, HEINRICH RUDOLF (1857-1894)

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