Joseph Sweetman Ames
Joseph Sweetman Ames (1864-1943) graduated from Johns Hopkins
University in 1886, then went to Berlin to work in Hermann Helmholtz'
laboratory. In 1887 he returned to Hopkins to study spectroscopy with
Henry Rowland, working from 1888 to 1891 as an assistant in the
latter's laboratory. He defended his thesis in 1890, and became an
associate professor of physics at Hopkins in 1891. Ames spent his
entire career at Hopkins; he was promoted to professor in 1899, served
as provost from 1926 to 1929, and university president from 1929 to
1935. He succeeded Rowland in 1901 as director of the Physical
Laboratory.
Ames probably met Poincaré during the physics congress held from 6 to
12 August 1900 in Paris, where he was a member of the US delegation,
and delivered a paper on the mechanical equivalent of heat
[Ames, 1900].
Poincaré's letter to Ames concerns another student
of Rowland's, Harold Pender (§ pender), who was in Paris in
order to help resolve his conflict with Victor Crémieu
(§ cremieu) over the reality of the Rowland effect. Pender
solicited a $150 extension of his grant from the executive committee
of the an extension of his Carnegie grant in order to prolong his stay
in Paris. In particular, Pender wanted to ensure completion of the
experiments then in progress, and to demonstrate the disputed Rowland
effect before the French Physical Society, which had invited him to
its Easter meeting.
Références
- [Ames 1900]
-
Ames, J. S.
L'équivalent mécanique de la chaleur.
In Rapports présentés au congrès
international de physique, Volume 1. 4 vols. Publié par C.-E.
Guillaume et L. Poincaré, 178-213. Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1900.
- [Crew 1944]
-
Crew, H.
Biographical memoir of Joseph Sweetman Ames, 1864-1943.
National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoirs 23 (1944):
181-201.
Time-stamp: <30.12.2011 00:01>
Notes:
For accounts of Ames' career see
[Crew, 1944] and the DSB.
Ames to D.C. Gilman, 27.03.1903, Harold
Pender file, Carnegie Institution of Washington. For an overview of
the Crémieu-Pender experiments, see the correspondence with Crémieu (§ cremieu).
Archives Henri Poincaré (CNRS, UMR 7117)