Joseph Henry

American physicist

• Born: December 17, 1797
• Birthplace: Albany, New York
• Died: May 13, 1878
• Place of death: Washington, D.C.

As the first secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, president of the National Academy of Sciences, and a leading experimental physicist, Henry was one of the most important molders of an American professional scientific community of the nineteenth century.

Early Life

Joseph Henry was descended from Scots who immigrated to North America at the time of the Revolutionary War. His father, William Henry, was a cartman—a hauler and mover—of modest financial circumstances, but his mother, née Ann Alexander, was from a more affluent family. Henry was brought up by an uncle in Galway, New York, and educated in the village school, learning arithmetic, reading, and writing (but little about spelling, as his future letters would demonstrate). At the age of ten, he was working in a general store. The death of his father in 1811 and of his uncle shortly thereafter led to his return to Albany, where he was apprenticed to a silversmith, but was attracted to the theater.

According to Henry’s later recollection, the turning point in his life occurred in about 1815 when he read a popular introduction to the physical sciences, William Gregory’s Lectures on Experimental Philosophy, Astronomy and Chemistry (1808), the first book he had ever read with attention. The questions that Gregory asked and answered about the way the natural world behaved piqued Henry’s interest and led to his decision to devote his life to science.

The reality of his situation, however, was a lack of any training in science and the immediate need to earn a living. Henry worked as an actor, a schoolteacher, and a private tutor during the late teens and early twenties of the nineteenth century. Most important for his future, he attended the Albany Academy as an overage student between 1819 and 1822, his only formal education beyond the elementary level. His intelligence, capacity for hard work, ambition, and determination attracted the attention of the faculty of the academy and the scientific leaders of the community, leading to his election as a member of the Albany Lyceum of Natural History and its successor, the Albany Institute. He found work as a tutor and a surveyor until his appointment in September, 1826, as professor of mathematics and natural philosophy (physics) at the Albany Academy.

Life’s Work

The Albany Academy was not the ideal place for an ambitious scientist. The teaching load was heavy and much of it was on the elementary level, providing little intellectual stimulation. Research facilities were limited. Nevertheless, Henry’s years on its faculty were fruitful, marked by great creativity and insight. He initiated his lifelong research program of exploring the phenomena of and interrelationship of the so-called “imponderables”—electricity, magnetism, light, and heat—the major field of research in the physical sciences during the first half of the nineteenth century. During his Albany years, he developed his great electromagnet, created the telegraph, invented the first electric motor, and discovered (independently of Michael Faraday ) electromagnetic self-induction and mutual electromagnetic induction.

The Henry of this phase, however, was a scientist who was not in control of his research program. Both of his major publications of this period were in response to European scientists announcing discoveries paralleling or anticipating Henry’s research. In the case of the electromagnet, it was Gerrit Moll; in the case of induction, it was Faraday. He was always in danger of losing his claim of priority, of being ignored by the European community. He was not, however, ignored by his compatriots. His fame, especially for his great electromagnet, led to a professorship at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1832, despite the lack of a college degree.

The Joseph Henry who arrived in Princeton in November, 1832, to teach natural philosophy was a mature family man. He had married Harriet Alexander, a first cousin, in 1830, and had a son by this time. Three daughters would follow. Paintings and photographs of Henry show an oval visage and stocky build. He had brown hair, gray eyes, and a light complexion. As he aged he put on weight. At five feet, ten inches, he must have given the physical impression of solidity, which was also one of his significant mental traits.

Henry’s chief characteristic, however, was his curiosity. No natural phenomenon was too trivial for observation or experimentation, whether it was snow melting on his porch, light changing color as it passed through a syrup, or water evaporating while being heated for shaving. This curiosity may explain why he often experimented in short, intense bursts with frequent shifts among topics. With all the unanswered questions to be examined, Henry had difficulty giving a single problem his undivided attention.

Henry’s years at Princeton were his most productive quantitatively. During this period, he examined lightning paths, discovered the concept of the transformer and the oscillational nature of the discharge of a capacitor, became the first individual to measure empirically the temperature difference between sunspots and the solar surface, and studied ultraviolet light—simply to point out the highlights. These were also the years of his friendly interaction with Samuel F. B. Morse . Their first documented contact was in 1839, and subsequently Henry supplied Morse with technical advice and private and public support for his telegraph. By 1846, however, Henry was unhappy over what he perceived to be Morse’s failure to give Henry proper credit for his contributions to the invention and development of a practical electromagnetic telegraph. Ultimately, the two men found themselves on opposite sides during the various court tests of Morse’s telegraph patent during the 1850’s.

By that time, Henry was in Washington, D.C. In December, 1846, he had accepted the position as secretary (director) of the newly established Smithsonian Institution. Although there had been tremendous confusion in Congress over the meaning of James Smithson’s bequest to the United States to establish an institution for “the increase and diffusion of knowledge,” there was no confusion in Henry’s mind. The funds provided a unique opportunity to support research and scholarly publication, to encourage cooperation and international exchange. Henry defeated an effort to use the bequest to develop a national library and worked out an arrangement with Congress for the federal government to support the National Museum, which was under Smithsonian management, through appropriations. This left Henry relatively free to support research in a diversity of fields, including meteorology, botany, zoology, anthropology, and archaeology.

Administrative responsibilities did not leave much time, however, for personal scientific research. The acoustics of public buildings and investigations of fog-signals for the United States Light-House Board were the only major projects carried out by Henry during his years as secretary. There were also the responsibilities that came from being a senior leader of the scientific community. During 1849-1850, Henry served as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. One of the original members of the National Academy of Sciences, he was elected its president in 1868 and served in that office until his death, turning the academy into an impartial supporter of research and the voice of the American scientific community. He was president of the Philosophical Society of Washington from 1871 until his death and chairman of the Light-House Board during the same period.

After decades of excellent health, Henry was struck by temporary paralysis in December, 1877. A victim of Bright’s disease, he died in the Smithsonian Institution building on May 13, 1878.

Significance

When speaking of Henry, his contemporaries often compared him to Benjamin Franklin. The contributions to the understanding of electricity, the preeminence within the scientific community, and the international standing of the two men were all analogous. Like Franklin, too, Henry was to make contributions to his country that proved to be more far-reaching than his scientific discoveries; the reputation that he secured as an experimenter gave him the prestige and respect necessary for his success as a science administrator and leader.

On behalf of his vision of science, Henry was able to call upon the support of intellectuals, community leaders, and politicians. Intensely patriotic, Henry viewed the shortcomings of the American scientific community with dismay. As secretary of the Smithsonian and president of various scientific organizations, he nurtured the small community of research-minded American men and women, asserted the primacy of basic research over applied, and fought to raise American science to international standards and gain European recognition of American achievements. He served as an articulate spokesman for the power, value, and necessity of basic scientific research, as well as a symbol of what Americans could accomplish in science.

Bibliography

Cochrane, Rexmond Canning. The National Academy of Sciences: The First Hundred Years, 1863-1963. Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Sciences, 1978. An official history of the academy based upon its archives. Discussion of Henry and his circle dominates the early chapters.

Coulson, Thomas. Joseph Henry: His Life and Work. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1950. The standard biography, now dated. Although marred by factual errors and a lack of understanding of Henry’s milieu, it is still useful.

Hafertepe, Kenneth. America’s Castle: The Evolution of the Smithsonian Building and Its Institution, 1840-1878. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1984. An architectural historian discusses Henry’s struggle to focus the resources of the Smithsonian on the support of original research and the role the Smithsonian Building played in thwarting his dreams. Especially valuable for its insights into the political struggles surrounding the Smithsonian.

Hinsley, Curtis M., Jr. Savages and Scientists: The Smithsonian Institution and the Development of American Anthropology, 1846-1910. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1981. An excellent integrative history of the rise and professionalization of a discipline. Provides a case study of Henry’s role as a supporter of research.

Mabee, Carleton. The American Leonardo: A Life of Samuel F. B. Morse. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1943. This work presents a nonpartisan, well-researched account of the telegraph controversy.

Moyer, Albert E. Joseph Henry: The Rise of An American Scientist. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997. Focuses on the early phases of Henry’s career, concluding in 1846, just before Henry became secretary of the Smithsonian. Moyer describes how Michael Faraday’s discoveries about electromagnetic induction were dependent upon the electromagnet designed by Henry.

Reingold, Nathan, and Marc Rothenberg. “The Exploring Expedition and the Smithsonian Institution.” In Magnificent Voyagers: The U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842, edited by Herman J. Viola and Carolyn Margolis. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1985. Considers the creation of the National Museum at the Smithsonian in the context of the need for the federal government to find a home for its scientific collections.

Reingold, Nathan, et al., eds. The Papers of Joseph Henry. 10 vols. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1972-2004. When complete, this will be a fifteen-volume collection of approximately six thousand letters, diary entries, laboratory notebook entries, and other manuscripts. The current ten volumes cover the period from Henry’s birth through December, 1865.

Washburn, Wilcomb E. “Joseph Henry’s Conception of the Purpose of the Smithsonian Institution.” In A Cabinet of Curiosities: Five Episodes in the Evolution of American Museums, edited by Walter Muir Whitehill. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1967. Although challenged by recent scholarship that considers the picture presented of Henry as too simplistic, this article offers what has become the standard interpretation of Henry’s attitude toward the Smithsonian and especially the role of a museum in the Institution.