 
Michelson-Morley
Experiment
Albert Abraham Michelson (1852-1931) was the first American to
win the Nobel Prize in physics in 1907. His experiment disproved the notion that space
is filled with ether. Michelson was born in Stzelno, Poland and graduated from
the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis (1873).
 Michelson
also was an instructor at the U.S. Naval Academy. In 1877, as part of a class
demonstration, Michelson conducted his first velocity of light experiments. He
made an important modification of a previously popular method for determining
the velocity of light -- he used a revolving mirror. He later served as
Professor of physics at the Case School of Applied Science in Cleveland from
1883 to 1889.
While in Cleveland, Michelson built an
interferometer (a device designed to split a beam of light in
two and bring the two beams back together again) and collaborated with chemist
Edward William Morley (1838-1923) of Western Reserve University (1869-1906) to
conduct experiments that showed the speed of light was unaffected by movements
of the earth through space (1887), disproving the "space ether concept" and
paving the way for Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity (1905).
The pioneering work
performed by this pair has come to be known as the Michelson-Morley experiments.
Michelson was also the first scientist to accurately determine the speed of
light (299,792 km/sec).
Michelson served as President of the National
Academy of Sciences from 1923 to 1927. Morley's later research dealt with the
density and weight of gases, which resulted in his definitive chemical method of
determining atomic weights.
Throughout his life, Michelson was known as a
person who loved education, and who inspired others who would themselves emerge
into inspiring teachers, physicists, and inventors.
Did You Know?
The works of Albert Abraham Michaelson are
freely available in electronic form from Project Gutenberg:
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