Robert W. Wood

Infobox Scientist
name = Robert Williams Wood
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caption = Robert Williams Wood
birth_date = May 2, 1868
birth_place = Concord, Massachusetts
death_date = August 11, 1955
death_place = Amityville, New York
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nationality = American
ethnicity =
field = physics
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known_for = optics
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Robert Williams Wood (May 2, 1868 – August 11, 1955) was an American physicist. He was a careful experimenter known for his many contributions to optics including infrared and ultraviolet photography, and the liquid mirror telescope. He discredited the purported phenomenon of N rays.Klotz (1980)] He was also a writer of science fiction and nonsense verse.

Life

Born in Concord, Massachusetts, Wood attended The Roxbury Latin SchoolFact|date=February 2008 and earned his bachelor's degree at Harvard University. He studied at Johns Hopkins University, University of Chicago, in Berlin and at MIT, although he never earned a doctorate. He taught at the University of Wisconsin and then moved to Johns Hopkins.http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=2201&page=441 Robert W. Woods, National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoirs] He was professor of experimental physics at Johns Hopkins from 1901 until his death. [Anon.] (2001)]

His fields of interest included Raman spectroscopy, field emission, optics, and the manufacture of diffraction gratings. The optical effect belonging to diffraction grating known as Wood's anomaly is named after him.

He discovered that the darkest area of the Moon in ultraviolet light is the Aristarchus Plateau.Fact|date=August 2007 In 1909, Wood constructed the first practical liquid mirror astronomical telescope, formed by spinning mercury so that it forms a paraboloidal shape, and investigated its benefits and limitations. [ cite journal | author=Gibson, B. K. | year=1991 | title= [http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/cache/papers/cs/2683/http:zSzzSzwww-astro.physics.ox.ac.ukzSz~bkgzSzLMT_history.pdf/liquid-mirror-telescopes-history.pdf Liquid mirror telescopes: history] | journal=Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada | volume=85(4) | pages=158–171 |format=PDF ]

Wood has been described as the "father of both infrared and ultraviolet photography". Though the discovery of electromagnetic radiation beyond the visible spectrum and the development of photographic emulsions capable of recording them pre-date Wood, he was the first intentionally to produce photographs with both infrared and ultraviolet radiation.Seabrook (1941)] He developed a filter, Wood's glass, that was opaque to visible light but was transparent to ultraviolet. He used it for ultraviolet photography but also suggested its use for secret communication.Williams & Williams (2002)] He was also the first person to photograph ultraviolet fluorescence. He also developed a lamp, Wood's lamp, that radiated only ultraviolet.Fact|date=August 2007 The slightly surreal glowing appearance of deciduous trees in infrared photographs is called the Wood effect. [ cite web | title=Wood effect | work=PhotoNotes.org: Dictionary of Film and Digital Photography | url=http://photonotes.org/cgi-bin/entry.pl?id=Woodeffect | accessdate=2007-08-13 ]

Wood also authored non-technical works. In 1915, Wood co-authored a science fiction novel, "The Man Who Rocked the Earth", with Arthur Train. [Train & Wood (1915)] . He also wrote and illustrated a book of nonsense verse, "How to Tell the Birds from the Flowers".

Wood died in Amityville, New York. [Anon.] (1980)]

Honors

* Rumford Medal of the Royal Society, for his work in physical optics, 1938. [ cite web | url=http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/page.asp?id=1747 | title=Rumford archive winners 1988 - 1900 | work=The Royal Society | accessdate=2007-08-13 ]
* Henry Draper Medal of the National Academy of Sciences, for his contributions to astrophysics, 1940. [ cite web | url=http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AWARDS_draper | work=National Academy of Sciences | title=Awards: Henry Draper Medal | accessdate=2007-08-12 ]
* The Wood crater on the far side of the Moon was named after him. [cite book | author=Cocks, E. E. & Cocks, J. C. | year=1995 | title=Who's Who on the Moon: A Biographical Dictionary of Lunar Nomenclature | publisher=Tudor Publishers | id=ISBN 0-936389-27-3 ]
* Honorary degrees from Berlin University, Clark University, University of Birmingham, and Edinburgh University.
* Member of the Royal Society, London (foreign), London Optical Society (honorary), Konigliche Akademie der Wissenschatten zu Gottingen (corresponding), Accademia dei Lincei, Rome (foreign), Russian Academy of Science, Leningrad, American National Academy of Science, Academy of Arts and Sciences, Philosophical Society, Physical Society, Royal Institutions, London (honorary), London Physical Society (honorary fellow), Royal Swedish Academy, Stockholm (foreign), Indian Association for Science, Calcutta (foreign).
* Medal awarded by the Royal Society of Arts for his diffraction process in color photography, 1899.
* Franklin Institute John Scott medal, awarded by the City of Philadelphia for further progress in diffraction color photos, 1907.
* J. Traill Taylor medal, awarded for photography by invisible rays, 1910.
* Gold medal, Societa’ Italiana della Scienze, for general outstanding scientific achievement, 1918.
* Frederick Ives medal, awarded by the Optical Society of America for distinguished work in physical optics, 1938.
* Served as vice-president (1934) and president (1935) of the American Physical Society.

References

Bibliography

Works by Wood

* cite book | author=Train, A. C. & Wood, R. W. | title=The Man Who Rocked the Earth | location=Garden City | publisher=Doubleday, Page & Co. | year=1915
* cite book | author=Train, A. C. & Wood, R. W. | title=The Moon Maker | location=Garden City | publisher=Doubleday, Page & Co. | year=1916 (A direct sequel to The Man Who Rocked The Earth)
*cite book | author=Wood, R. W. |title=Researches in physical optics (vol.1), with special reference to the radiation of electrons | location=New York| publisher=Columbia Univ. Press | year=1913 | url=http://www.archive.org/details/researchesinphys00wooduoft
*
* cite book | author=Wood, R. W. | title=Physical Optics | year=1905 | publisher=MacMillan | location=New York|url=http://www.archive.org/details/physicaloptics00wooduoft
* cite book | author=— | title=How to Tell the Birds from the Flowers and Other Wood-Cuts: A Revised Manual of Flornithology for Beginners" (includes "Animal Anatomies") | origyear=1907 | id=ISBN 0-486-20523-1 | year=2000 | location=New York | publisher=Dover |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1593

About Wood

* [Anon.] (2001) "Wood, Robert Williams", "Encyclopaedia Britannica", Deluxe CDROM edition
* cite journal | author=Klotz, I. M. | title=The N-ray affair | journal=Scientific American | pages=May, 130 | year=1980
* cite book | title=Doctor Wood, Modern Wizard of the Laboratory | authorlink=William Buehler Seabrook | author=Seabrook, W. | year=1941 | location=New York | publisher=Harcourt Brace
* cite web | title=Pioneers of Invisible Radiation Photography: Prof Robert Williams Wood (1868 - 1955) | author=Williams, R. & Williams, G. | year=2002 | work=Medical and Scientific Photography | url=http://msp.rmit.edu.au/Article_04/06.html | accessdate=2007-08-13

External links

*gutenberg author| id=Robert+Williams+Wood | name=Robert W. Wood