Hertz, He In Rich

electrician, born at Hamburg in 1857; he pursued a course of study in engineering until 1878, when he turned his attention more especially to physics, receiving the degree of Ph.D. from the University of Berlin in 1880. He then studied under Kirchhoff and Helmholtz, being for three years the a istant of the latter. He a umed the chair of Physics at the Technical College of Carlsruhe, in 1885, and four years later succeeded the illustrious Clausius in the chair of Physics at the University of Bonn, which important position he held until his death. His greatest contributions to science were the experimental demonstration that electro-magnetic induction is propagated through space at the velocity of light, by means of a wave-motion in all respects identical with that by means of which radiant energy is transmitted, and that the electric current is capable of being reflected and refracted in the same manner as light. After these remarkable researches, which were begun in 1886, the scientific fame of the young physicist soon became world-wide. In 1888 he succeeded in furnishing an experimental confirmation of the theories already advanced by Faraday and Clerk Maxwell, upon the propagation of electric waves in the surrounding medium; and these demonstrations mark an important epoch in electrical science. The apparatus which he devised is now cla ic, and is known as the resonator. H. confirmed the identity of all the different phenomena of radiation and showed their common origin-ether in vibration-the various phenomena being characterized only by the length of waves and their frequency. The intimate nature of these vibrations is still beyond our ken; and it is a matter of sincere regret that a physicist so talented and an investigator so succe ful should have been cut off in the very morning of a most promising career. H.'s researches have been published in a volume entitled Die A us brei tung der Elektrischen Kraft. Died Jan. 5, 1894.