Champions of Invention by Hudson Tiner John

Author:Hudson Tiner, John
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: RELIGION / Biblical Biography / General
ISBN: 9781614583042
Publisher: Master Books
Published: 2000-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

6

A FORGOTTEN HERO

Joseph Henry is America’s forgotten scientific hero. Although the public is hardly aware of his name, his discoveries are well known among scientists. He was both a great scientist and successful inventor. He is considered America’s greatest electrical experimenter between the time of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Edison.

The life of Joseph Henry followed a course like that of Michael Faraday. Both grew up in poverty. Both succeeded in getting an education through their own study and reading books. Both became great scientists but remained humble Christians.

At first, it looked as if Joseph Henry would not amount to much. As a child, he was expected to work to help support the family. He had a difficult time holding a job. No one could put a finger on the reason. He always seemed to be out of step with everyone else. One person said of Joseph Henry, “He isn’t quite right in the head.”

Joseph Henry also had a problem making up his mind. Once, his mother sent him to a shoe cobbler for a new pair of boots. The cobbler began on Joseph’s new boots. “Do you want square toes or round toes?” the cobbler asked.

Joseph Henry couldn’t decide. He went for a walk trying to make up his mind. He delayed so long the cobbler had given up waiting for an answer. When Henry returned, the cobbler had made one boot with square toes and the other with round toes.

His mother earned extra income by taking in boarders. A boarder pays for a room and regular meals. One of the people staying in the Henry home had a book about science experiments. Joseph Henry chanced up the book and began reading it. When the boarder saw Joseph Henry’s interest in the subject, he gave the boy the book.

The book was so interesting Joseph Henry wanted to become a scientist. He tried to enroll at Albany Academy, a local college. The president pointed out that Joseph had not gone to high school. Joseph Henry began working through the high school textbooks. The president of the college helped him. He finished the entire high school course of study in only seven months.

He earned college tuition by teaching at a country school. After graduation, he became a teacher of science at the college.

He experimented with electricity and made a number of discoveries and inventions. He built electric motors, generators, and transformers. He did not publish reports of his discoveries. He assumed they were ideas already well known to scientists. Joseph Henry was first with these discoveries. In many cases, Michael Faraday made the same devices after Henry. Faraday received credit for the achievement because he published first.

In 1825, William Sturgeon, an English scientist, invented an electromagnet. He wrapped bare copper wire around a bar of iron. The bar was not magnetic. The instant current flowed through the wire the iron became magnetic. The instant he turned off the electricity, the iron lost its magnetism.

Sturgeon’s electromagnet was only a toy. Joseph Henry studied the electromagnet with the goal of improving it.

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