History of Physics at UNC

The subject of physics was one of the fields of knowledge contained in the original curriculum drawn up by a committee before the opening of the University. In the early days the subject was called Natural Philosophy and sometimes Experimental Philosophy .

At a meeting of the Board of Trustees held in New Bern on December 4, 1792, Dr. McCorkle reported for a committee on a "Plan of Education" which included Natural Philosophy and further recommended "----the procurement of apparatus for Experimental Philosophy and Astronomy. In the list recommended there is included: a set of globes, a Barometer, Thermometer, Microscope, Telescope Quadrant, Prismatic Glass, Air Pump, and an Electrical Machine----" (Battle's "History of the University" Vol. 1, p. 49)

In 1795 the University opened and the plan of instruction was put into operation. It appears, however, that problems of finance and possibly of finding personnel prevented the plan from being carried out as a whole, and that the professorship of Natural Philosophy was not filled for two years. Nevertheless, probably Natural Philosophy was taught by some other instructor, for in the examinations attended by certain of the trustees in July, 1796, the senior class was examined in Natural Philosophy and Mathematics.

In 1797 the trustees elected James Smiley Gillespie as Professor of Natural Science and as presiding professor. Gillespie, as presiding officer of the University, had one fairly successful year, but there were student disorders in 1799, and Gillespie resigned with the whole faculty. He was replaced by Caldwell as administrator, and while the records are not clear on this point it is probable that Caldwell also taught Natural Philosophy. Elisha Mitchell came to the University in 1817 as head of the Mathematics Department, and the following year Denison Olmstead, LLD., came from Yale to teach Chemistry, returning to Yale in 1826. Apparently both Mitchell and Olmstead taught courses in Natural Philosophy. In 1826, upon Olmstead's leaving, his duties were assumed by Mitchell. During that year James Phillips, D. D., a native of England, came to the University and took over the subjects of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, remaining in the University until 1867. Walker Anderson was appointed Adjunct Professor of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy in 1833, retaining that position until 1836.

As stated above the original committee on a Plan for the University recommended, in 1792, the purchase of several physical instruments. There is, however, no evidence that any of this apparatus was procured until much later. References do occur frequently in the literature to early gifts of apparatus, but the exact dates of the donations are not known, or are indefinite. The first donor of apparatus for instruction was Alfred Moore, then called Colonel, a pair of globes, and next to him was Richard Benneham. On p. 133 of Vol. 1 Battle notes other gifts: "The same Alexander Martin presented a microscope and acromatic telescope 3 1/2 feet long, magnifying 70 times for land objects and 80 times for astronomical purposes....Hon. W. B. Grove, a barometer and thermometer, Professor Caldwell, a camera obscura. Other instruments were purchased..."

In 1824 the University apparently first met with the conflict of what things should come first. Apparently the Trustees wanted to proceed on a building program, but found that the Faculty felt otherwise. "The Trustees resolved to add a story to Old East and to build Old West of the same size and also a new chapel..... The resolution.....was in opposition to the views of the Faculty. In an earnest paper in the handwriting of Professor Mitchell it was urged that the true policy was to purchase books and apparatus.....The petition closes with this extraordinary argument and prediction: 'If invested in apparatus, the property will not be perishable. Instruments with careful usage will be as valuable one hundred years hence as now.'

"The Trustees could not be diverted from their purpose, but they resolved to purchase the apparatus..."

In February, 1824, President Caldwell recommended to the Board of Trustees that books and apparatus for the study of Natural Philosophy be purchased. The Trustees agreed to spend $6,000 equally divided between books and apparatus and accepted the offer of President Caldwell to act as agent of the University in the purchase of this equipment.

President Caldwell journeyed to London in 1824. In his report of the trip he says: "I continued nearly a month in the city, first visiting places and institutions of importance and becoming acquainted with books and book sellers, and instruments and inst rument makers. Having informed myself of circumstances and characters I made a number of purchases and engagements."

Among the items of apparatus purchased on this trip to London by President Caldwell which are still in existence on the campus, some in usable form, are:

• 1 3-ft. plate Electrical Machine
• 1 jointed discharger
• 1 diamond spotted jar
• 1 12-inch convex mirror in blackened frame
• 1 12-inch concave mirror
• 1 altitude and Azimuth Telescope
• 1 Sextant
• 1 Meridian Transit Telescope
• 1 Astronomical Clock (in the President's office)

President Caldwell built a platform on top of his dwelling and took his students there for observations on the heavenly bodies. He erected a sun dial in his garden and in 1830 he determined to erect a building in which he could use the instruments purchased in London ¹ for astronomical observations. This building was finished in 1831 and President Caldwell ". . . is thus entitled to the credit of inaugurating the first observatory ² connected with an institu tion oflearning in America, that of Professor Hopkins of Williams College being in 1836." (Battle Vol. I. p. 334.)

According to Dr. Battle ' s history of the University this first observatory cost $430.29 1/2 and was paid for out of his private funds by President Caldwell but was reimbursed however by the Trustees a few days before his death.

This observatory had a short life, rapidly fell into decay, in 1838 was destroyed by fire, tradition says, kindled by a student.

The University closed in 1870 and reopened in 1875. In the period 1875-1881 Natural Philosophy was taught at various times by Alexander F. Redd, Ralph Henry Graves, B.Sc., C. and M.E. and Carey D. Grandy.

In 1882 Prof. Joshua Walker Gore, C.E., a graduate of Richmond and the University of Virginia, came to the University and took charge of the work in Natural Philosophy and Engineering. He held a scholarship at Johns Hopkins for two years and taught at Southwestern University of Tennessee and the University of Virginia before coming here. Gore remained at the University until 1908 and Natural Philosophy, as a part of the curriculum, enjoyed considerable growth under his direction. It is of interest to note that his title was changed to "Professor of Physics" in 1895. By 1891 six separate courses in physics were listed in the catalog, and Professor Gore had the services of an assistant. These assistants usually held the position for about two years, taking graduate courses in physics and then moving on to further graduate work at other universities or to full-time positions elsewhere.

In 1907 the Physics Department was officially organized as a separate department of the University under the headship of Professor Gore.

Professor Andrew Henry Patterson (Ph.D., B.E., Univ. of N. C., 1891; B.A., Harvard Univ., 1892; M.A. Ibid., 1893; Student at Berlin Charlottenberg Technische Hochschule, and University of Cambridge, 1905-06) came to the University in 1908 as head of this newly-formed department and remained as head until his death in 1928.

Professor Otto Stuhlman, Jr.,(B.A., University of Cincinnati, 1907; M.A., University of Illinois, 1909; Ph.D. Princeton University, 1911) came to the University in 1920 as Associate Professor of Physics, becoming Professor of' Physics in 1924. Upon Professor Patterson's death Dr. Stuhlman became acting-head of the department. He held this position until 1934.

In 1934 Professor Arthur E. Ruark, (A.B. 1921; A.M. 1923; Ph.D. 1924, Johns Hopkins) came from the University of Pittsburgh as head of the department, a position which he still holds.

Professor Earle Keith Plyler (B.A., Furman University, 1917; M.A., Ibid., 1918; M.A. Johns Hopkins University, 1923; Ph.D. Cornell University, 1924) joined the physics staff in 1924.

Professor Karl Hartley Fussler (A.B., Indiana, 1909; Ph.D., Pennsylvania, 1916), who was head of the Physics Department at the University of North Dakota, joined the staff of the department as Professor of Physics in 1929.

For more than fifty years the Physics Department has been active in research and graduate work. Gore published several papers, mostly in the field of Electrical Engineering. James Edward Latta, a student of Gore's and later a member of the physics facul ty (1901-1910) also published a total of four papers in the field of electricity.

Patterson did research in optics, electricity, mechanics, and astronomy. Most of his publications, however, were of a semi-popular nature doubtlessly intended to appeal to the layman.

Dr. Stuhlman has been actively engaged in research in a variety of fields, including the photoelectric effect, problems in sound, spectroscopy, extensive studies of the electrodeless discharge and more recently has been interested in problems in the field of biophysics.

Dr. Plyler has done extensive research in the field of Infrared Spectra and has a number of publications to his credit.

In 1934 was begun an important expansion program in both the research facilities and the staff of the Physics Department. Up until that time the department had been handicapped by a totally inadequate budget for a research program. The University procur ed Dr. Arthur E. Ruark, a well-known physicist, as Kenan Professor and head of the department. A year later Dr. John Archibald Wheeler, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins, a brilliant young theoretical physicist, came to the department after a year of post-graduate work with Niels Bohr at Copenhagen. Library facilities, laboratory equipment, and research equipment were greatly expanded. In the period since 1934 a well-equipped machine shop has been constructed, employing the full-time services of Mr. Nestore DiCostanzo, a highly-skilled instrument maker.

Paul Edmondson Shearin, Ph.D., Ohio State University (1934) joined the staff in 1936, becoming acting head of the department on July 1, 1944 at which time Dr. Ruark took a leave-of-absence from the University in order to do full-time war research. He has carried on research in Infra-red Spectra as well as in Electron-Electron Collision Problems making use of the Wilson Cloud Chamber.

Russell H. Lyddane, Ph.D. Johns Hopkins University (1938), a theoretical physicist, joined the staff in 1938. He has been interested in problems of vibrations in polar crystals.

Nathan Rosen, Ph.D., M.I.T., joined the staff of the department in 1941 after having done extensive work in the Theory of Relativity with Einstein.

The department is now equipped to do research work in Infrared and Optical Spectra, Cloud Chamber Problems, various problems in Nuclear Physics, X-rays, and hopes in the near future to complete a Van der Graaf Generator for high voltage work.

At various times since l934 there have been connected with the Physics Department for periods of a year or more the following: James B. Fisk, Ph.D., M.I T.; Eugene Cooper, Ph.D., California; Fred T. Rogers, Jr., Ph.D., Rice; Eugene Greuling, Ph.D., In diana; Emil J. Hellund, Ph.D., Washington; and Joseph W. Straley, Ph.D., Ohio State. In addition to these a large number of both professional and non-professional staff members have been utilized in teaching elementary physics to the hundreds of Navy V -12 students now at the University. During the summer of 1943, at the peak of our teaching program in physics for the civilian and military personnel, the department had 43 men and women on its teaching staff. Forty-one of these were actively teaching a nd two were on leave elsewhere working on war research. At the present writing (October 1944) the department has a staff of 21 full-time men actively teaching. Four of the permanent faculty members are now on leave from the University and are engaged in confidential war research. Two war research programs are also underway in the department.

About this history...

This departmental history was written by Dr. Paul E. Shearin, formerly (1944-1956) Chairman of the Department. The facts were compiled by Dr. Shearin and several students who were working under his supervision at that time. The work was completed and typed for the files in October 1944.

January 12, 1965

Footnotes

1. The astronomical instruments which were used in this first observatory are still in possession of the Physics Department. They are not at present usable because all lenses were removed during the War Between the States (see Footnote #3). Someday these instruments should be restored to usable form because of their historical significance but to date funds for the purpose have not been found.
2. The location of this historical building in the life of the University has never been marked by monument or stone. It was located on a small hill that was leveled down to build the varsity tennis courts -- Karl H. Fussler. The late Professor Collier Cobb related to Karl H. Fussler that he had a lens in his possession which was given to him on a trip one time to Pennsylvania by a man who claimed he had stolen it when Union forces were stationed in Chapel Hill.