Robert A. Millikan :: biographies biography bio

Robert Andrews Millikan was born on the 22nd of March, 1868, in Morrison, Ill. (U.S.A.), as the irregular son of the Reverend Silas Franklin Millikan and Mary Jane Andrews. He led a countrified existence in childhood, attending the Maquoketa High School (Iowa). After operative for a short time as a court reporter, he entered Oberlin College (Ohio) in 1886. During his undergraduate course his favourite subjects were Greek and mathematics besides afterward his graduation in 1891 he took, for two stratums, a teach post in elementary physics. It was during this period that he developed his disport in the subject in which he was later to excel. In 1893, after obtaining his mastership in physics, he was appointed Fellow in physical science at Columbia University. He afterwards received his Ph.D. (1895) for research on the polarisation of light emitted by incandescent surfaces - using for this purpose molten specie and silver at the U.S. Mint.On the instigation of his professors, Millikan spent a year (1895-1896) in Germany, at the Universities of Berlin and Gttingen. He returned at the invitation of A. A. Michelson, to become coadjutor at the newly established Ryerson Laboratory at the University of Chicago (1896). Millikan was an sublime teacher, and passing through the customary grades he became professor at that university in 1910, a post which he retained till 1921. During his early years at Chicago he spent much time preparing textbooks and simplifying the principle of physics. He was author or co-author of the following books A College pass in Physics, with S.W. Stratton (1898) Mechanics, Molecular Physics, and Heat (1902) The Theory of Optics,with C.R. Mann translated from the German (1903) A stolon Course in Physics, with H.G. Gale (1906) A Laboratory Course in Physics for Secondary Schools,with H.G. Gale (1907) Electricity, Sound, and Light,with J. Mills (1908) Practical Physics - revision of A premiere Course(1920) The Electron(1917 rev. ed s. 1924, 1935).As a scientist, Millikan make numerous momentous discoveries, chiefly in the fields of electricity, optics, and molecular physics. His earliest major success was the accurate termination of the charge carried by an electron, using the elegant falling-drop method he excessively proved that this quantity was a constant for all electrons (1910), thus demonstrating the nuclear structure of electricity. Next, he verified experimentally Einsteins all-important photoelectric equation, and made the first direct photoelectric determination of Plancks constant h (1912-1915). In addition his studies of the Brownian movements in gases put an end to all opposition to the atomic and kinetic theories of matter.