Julius Sumner Miller

Professor Julius Sumner Miller (May 17, 1909 – April 14, 1987), was an American science popularizer. He is best known for his work on children's television programs.

Personal life

Sumner Miller was born in Billerica, Massachusetts the youngest of nine children. His Lithuanian mother spoke 12 languages,Fact|date=April 2008 and his father was Latvian.

Sumner Miller graduated with a Master in Physics from Boston University in 1933 but due to the Depression worked as a servant for the next two years during which time he married Alice Brown; they were to have no children, but he was to go on to reach millions of children through his popular science programs. In 1937 he obtained employment in the Physics Department of Dillard University, a private, black liberal arts college in New Orleans. He was to go on to the Physics Department of the Michigan College of Mining and Technology (1949-1951) and the Physics Department at El Camino College, California (1952-1974).

From 1963 to 1986 he was the visiting lecturer for the Physics Department of the University of Sydney and from 1965 to 1985, the US Air Force Academy.

A student of Albert Einstein and lifelong friend,Fact|date=April 2008 he was instantly recognizable by his casual hair and horn-rimmed spectacles.

Throughout the 1960s and '70s, Dr. Miller taught physics at El Camino Jr. College in Torrance, California, to maximum student enrollments due to his great popularity.

Television

From 1962 to 1964, he was Disney's "Professor Wonderful" on new introductions, filmed at Disneyland, to the syndicated reruns of "The Mickey Mouse Club". During the same period, Dr. Miller appeared on a semi-regular basis, performing physics experiments, on Steve Allen's late night TV show in Hollywood, syndicated by Westinghouse. He is best known in Canada for his "mad professor" work on the 1971 TV series "The Hilarious House of Frightenstein".

Sumner Miller's first television appearance in Australia was on "Bob Sanders People" in 1963. In an improvised physics demonstration he attempted to drive a straw through a raw potato. A paper straw does not have the strength but if you pinch the end, the trapped air acts as a piston, easily piercing the Potato. For the first time in his career he could not get it to work and loudly exclaimed "Australian straws ain’t worth a damn". The next morning, Sumner Miller arrived at his Sydney University laboratory to find one million drinking straws on the floor with a telegram reading "You might find one of these fitting your requirements". He later stated "I sat amongst the straws with straws stuck in my hair and ears. But clearly I had made a mistake. I should have said: "Australian potatoes ain’t worth a damn," and I’d have cornered the potato market!"

Shortly after, he was offered a job presenting science for ABC television. When asked how much money he wanted he replied he never asked, he listened to an offer then "multiplied it by a factor between two and ten". Due to budget contraints the offer was withdrawn but later an agreement was reached for Sumner Miller to host his own science based TV series. "Why Is It So?" (his eventual stock phrase), was broadcast from 1963 to 1986 and became an instant hit, the 1960s program became "Demonstrations in Physics" (also called "Science Demonstrations" when it was aired on American Public television). He introduced each episode with the line: "How do you do, ladies and gentlemen, and boys and girls. My name is Julius Sumner Miller, and physics is my business."

"My first TV series on demonstrations in physics - titled"Why Is It So" were now seen and heard over the land. The mail was massive. The academics were a special triumph for me. They charged me with being superficial and trivial. If I had done what they wanted my programs would be as dull as their classes! I knew my purpose well and clear: to show how Nature behaves without cluttering its beauty with abtruse mathematics. Why cloud the charm of a Chladni plate with a Bessel function?" [The Days of My Life: An Autobiography Julius Sumner Miller, Macmillan Publishers, 1989 pg 212 ISBN 0333503376)]

Miller's on-air popularity was due to an enthusiasm not normally associated with serious science. Shows would be liberally sprinkled with phrases such as "He who is not stirred by the beauty of it is already dead!" and he also liked to trick the audience. A common ploy would be to hold up an empty glass and ask guests to confirm it was empty....then chide them for not noticing it was full of air. Before each demonstration he would usually ask for a show of hands to indicate which of several results they expected. Often he would then add "hands up those who don’t care".

In 1966 questions from his show with an answer to the previous day’s question were published as "Millergrams" for "The Australian" newspaper. 112 of these questions were published as a book "Millergrams; Some Enchanting Questions for Enquiring Minds". Further books were published in 1967: "The Second Book of Millergrams: Some More Enchanting Questions for Enquiring Minds" and 1988: "Why is it So?: The Very Best Millergrams of Professor Julius Sumner Miller".

Sample Millergram:
Q32: A juggler comes to a foot-bridge of rather flimsy design. He has in hand four balls.The safe load is no more than the juggler himself and one ball. Can he get across the bridgeby juggling the balls, always having at most one ball in the hand (and three in the air)?
A: No. A falling ball exerts a force on the hand greater than its own weight.
Rather, a 'thrown' ball exerts greater force than a 'held' one. That is, the additional force equal and opposite to that imparted to a flung ball, in addition to the juggler's mass, would exceed the bridge's tolerance (the bridge can tolerate a juggler and held ball, but not the additional downward force associated with forcing a ball 'up').

Miller was also an occasional guest in the 1970s on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" in the U.S.

Commercials

During the 1980s Miller appeared in a famous series of Australian television commercials for Cadbury chocolate, using his stock phrase "Why is it so?", demonstrating a simple scientific principle, and describing how each block of chocolate "embraces substantial nourishment and enjoyment," and contained "a glass and a half of full-cream dairy milk." The latter phrase became so well known that it led to the slang "Cadbury," used to refer to a person who gets drunk easily (i.e. after drinking "a glass and a half" of beer). While in Australia Miller also appeared in ads for non-stick saucepans and Ampol Petroleum. The ads were sufficiently popular to be played for some years after his death, and since he was demonstrating real principles of physics (albeit briefly) they never damaged his credibility.

Foundations

Miller died on 14 April, 1987, of leukemia in San Jose, California. Professor Sumner Miller's wife, Alice Brown Miller, wanted to perpetuate the memory and achievements of her husband, and so conceived the idea of the Julius Sumner Miller Foundation, which was established in 1998. Sumner Miller willed his body to the University of Southern California's School of Dentistry.Fact|date=April 2008

Through an offer by Cadbury-Schweppes Pty Ltd, the Cadbury-Julius Sumner Miller Scholarship for Academic Excellence was set up to provide undergraduate scholarships in the School of Physics at the University of Sydney.

In 1993 the Australian Science Foundation for Physics established the Julius Sumner Miller Fellowship in his memory. The fellowship is currently held by Karl Kruszelnicki, best known as "Doctor Karl" for his appearances on Australian radio and television as a science commentator and author.

Bibliography

*"Millergrams; Some Enchanting Questions for Enquiring Minds", Ure Smith, 1966
*"The Second Book of Millergrams: Some More Enchanting Questions for Enquiring Minds", Ure Smith, 1967
*"Quiz Questions in Physics", Horwitz-Martin, Australia 1967
*"Why It Is So", ABC books, 1971 ISBN 0642972966
*"Why It Is So: Heat and Temperature", ABC books, 1973 ISBN 0642974969
*"Why It Is So: Sound and Electricity & Magnetism", ABC books, 1973 ISBN 0642975841
*"Why It Is So: Mechanics, Heat & Temperature, Sound and Electricity", ABC books, 1978 ISBN 064297523X
*"Enchanting Questions for Enquiring Minds", Currey/O'Neil, 1982 ISBN 0-85902-280-3
*"Why is it so?: the very best Millergrams of Professor Julius Sumner Miller", Australian Red Cross Society, Ringwood, Vic; Penguin Books, 1988
*"The Days of My Life: an autobiography", Macmillan, 1989. ISBN 0-333-50337-6

References

External links

* [http://www.juliussumnermiller.org/ Julius Sumner Miller Foundation]
* [http://au.geocities.com/rocket42au/jsm/ Australian Julius Sumner Miller tribute page]
* [http://www.frightenstein.com/characters/professor.html Julius Sumner Miller page at a Hilarious House of Frightenstein tribute site]
* [http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/PersonDetail/personid-153302 Julius Sumner Miller at TV Tome]
*imdb name|id=0588697
* [http://www.abc.net.au/science/features/whyisitso Why is it so? site at Australia's ABC.net.au featuring original episodes]
* [http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/foundation/Outreach/DRK/jsm.pdf] Julius Sumner Miller 1909 - 1987, Physics Department, University of Sydney.