Henry A. Bumstead | |
|---|---|
 Portray from 1914 | |
| Born | March 12, 1870 Pekin, Illinois, US |
| Died | December 31, 1920 (1921-01-01) (aged 50) On a train between Chicago andWashington, D.C. |
| Alma mater | Johns Hopkins University Yale University |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physicist |
| Institutions | Yale University |
| Doctoral advisor | Josiah Willard Gibbs Henry Augustus Rowland |
| Doctoral students | Leigh Page Harry Nyquist John Stuart Foster |
Henry Andrews Bumstead (March 12, 1870 – December 31, 1920) was an Americanphysicist who taught atYale from 1897 to 1920.[1] In 1918 he was scientific attache to the United States embassy in London. In 1920 he was Chairman of theNational Research Council.
Henry was ahigh school student inDecatur, Illinois. In 1887 he went toJohns Hopkins University, initially as a student in a pre-medical program. He studiedmathematics withFabian Franklin and took up an interest in that subject. He studiedphysics withHenry Augustus Rowland and found his calling there. In 1891 he obtained thebachelor's degree and continued at Johns Hopkins as an assistant in the physics laboratory and agraduate student. He studied thermodynamics, electrostatics, and the electromagnetic theory of light.
Henry Bumstead became an instructor at the Sheffield Scientific School ofYale University in 1893, working withCharles S. Hastings. At the same time he became a student ofWillard Gibbs, learningvector analysis and continuing the study of thermodynamics and the electromagnetic theory of light. He was awarded the Ph.D. in 1897, composing a thesisA Comparison of Electrodynamic Theories. Bumstead became anassistant professor in 1900.
In 1905 Bumstead spent a sabbatical year at theCavendish Laboratory. Performing an experiment suggested byJ. J. Thomson, Bumstead examined the effect ofX-rays (then calledRöntgen rays) when applied tolead andzinc, finding that "twice as much heat is produced in lead compared to zinc".[2]
WhenArthur Williams Wright retired in 1906, Bumstead becameprofessor of physics at Yale College and Director of the Sloan Physics Laboratory.
InWorld War I Bumstead was selected to serve as the head of the Scientific Section in London under AdmiralWilliam Sims, Commander of the American Forces countering the U-boat campaign in the North Atlantic:[3]
In 1920 Bumstead was elected Chairman of theNational Research Council.[4] He was a member of theConnecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, the United StatesNational Academy of Sciences,[5] theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences,[6] and theAmerican Philosophical Society.[7]
In 1896 Bumstead married Luetta Ullrich, daughter of John Ullrich, a banker of Decatur, Illinois. The couple had two children, John Henry (born 1897) and Eleanor (born 1902). John Henry became amedical doctor in 1923, after study at Johns Hopkins University. He later joined Yale Medical School. Eleanor marriedWilliam E. Stevenson, a President ofOberlin College (1946–59).[8]
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