DeWitt Bristol Brace

DeWitt Bristol Brace ( born January 5, 1859 in Wilson, New York, † October 2, 1905 ) was an American physicist particularly known for his optical experiments, which among other things, the impact of a possible movement of the earth against the so-called should reconsider ether.

Life and work

DeWitt Bristol Brace was preparing for his studies in Lockport before, and graduated in 1881 from Boston University. He then spent two years at Johns Hopkins University in Henry Augustus Rowland and two years at the University of Berlin under Hermann von Helmholtz and Gustav Robert Kirchhoff, where he received his doctorate in 1885. 1887 to 1888 he was assistant professor at the University of Michigan and from 1888 to 1905 professor of physics at the University of Nebraska- Lincoln. In Nebraska Brace planned and founded the physics laboratory. He fell ill in 1905 and died at the time of the opening of the new laboratory that bears his name to this day.

Brace was mainly concerned with research on optics, and he invented new variations of polarization filters. He carried out a series of experiments that determined the state of motion of the earth in the ether (ether wind), and the results were all negative. Especially important was the improved version of an attempt by Lord Rayleigh, where he proved with great accuracy that the Lorentz contraction is not to the birefringence results (Experiments of Rayleigh and Brace ). He also tried the speed of light with great accuracy to measure, but he died in the midst of his work.

Brace was a Fellow and Vice President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and member of the Council of the American Physical Society.

On 28 July 1999, the asteroid ( 10392 ) Brace was named after him.

Writings

• The Ether and moving Matter ( Congress of arts and science, universal exposition, 1904 St. Louis, (1906 ), vol. 4, pp. 105-117 )
• The Negative Results of Second and Third Order Tests of the " ether drift " and Possible First Order Methods ( Philosophical Magazine (1905 ), vol. 10, pp. 71-80 )
• A repetition of Fizeau 's experiment on the change produced by the Earth 's motion on the rotation of a Refracted Ray (Phil. Mag, London, ( Ser. 6), 10, 1905, pp. 591-599 )