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Clearing history
Posted by:
nordsider
(---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: January 05, 2013 11:33AM
A bit of off-beat Clearing history: In the winter of 1924, Albert Michelson, a physicist at the University of Chicago, performed an experiment to measure the speed of light. Somewhere in Clearing, he sent light beams through a 12-inch water pipe in the form of a rectangle with the dimensions 2010 x 1113 feet.
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/20/2014 11:50PM by nordsider.
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/20/2014 11:50PM by nordsider.
Re: Clearing history
Posted by:
Richard Stachowski
(---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: January 05, 2013 01:33PM
[b]That's very interesting. It looks like Clearing was like rural at that time. I remember the 63rd place street cars that went to harlem ave.You can still see the divider in the center of that street where the cars traveled.[/b]
Re: Clearing history
Posted by:
nordsider
(---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: January 05, 2013 07:20PM
I remember mentioning Albert Michelson and his apparatus in a conversation I had with Clearing historian Robert Milton Hill. That conversation was 20 years ago; and although he was interested in it, had I known then about the more than a mile of 12-inch pipe, and he being a plumber by trade, I suspect that I would have really piqued his interest.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/05/2013 07:55PM by nordsider.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/05/2013 07:55PM by nordsider.
Re: Clearing history
Posted by:
bowler
(---.chipublib.org)
Date: January 07, 2013 06:52PM
Thanks nordsider. As far as I can tell the experiment took place in what is today Midway Airport property. Only the Southeast corner of the property was being used as a cinder block airstrip in 1924. Of course Clearing was used in a much broader sense at that time, including what is now Bedford Park South of 65th St. and was also used to describe Garfield Ridge as the name had yet to fully catch on at that point, so this could have been anywhere.
Re: Clearing history
Posted by:
nordsider
(---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: January 07, 2013 07:24PM
bowler,
I understand that a detailed description of the Clearing experiment can be found in the book:
The Master of Light: A Biography of Albert A. Michelson by Dorothy Michelson Livingston, pp. 308-309 (Published in 1979) and is available at the Chicago Public Library.
or search: clearing illinois http://books.google.com/books?id=j5RYAAAAYAAJ&q=The+Master+of+Light.&dq=The+Master+of+Light.&hl=en&sa=X&ei=EkjrULSqMIWpqQGJx4G4AQ&ved=0CDsQ6AEwAQ
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/07/2013 07:49PM by nordsider.
I understand that a detailed description of the Clearing experiment can be found in the book:
The Master of Light: A Biography of Albert A. Michelson by Dorothy Michelson Livingston, pp. 308-309 (Published in 1979) and is available at the Chicago Public Library.
or search: clearing illinois http://books.google.com/books?id=j5RYAAAAYAAJ&q=The+Master+of+Light.&dq=The+Master+of+Light.&hl=en&sa=X&ei=EkjrULSqMIWpqQGJx4G4AQ&ved=0CDsQ6AEwAQ
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/07/2013 07:49PM by nordsider.
Re: Clearing history
Posted by:
bowler
(---.chipublib.org)
Date: January 07, 2013 08:08PM
Thanks nordsider, I'll see if I can get hold of a copy and I'll let you know what it says.
It's interesting you got to talk to Robert Hill. I met him a few times and our Clear-Ridge Historical Society helped his family catalog his stuff after he passed away a few years ago. His brother Art was instrumental in helping us form the society and still attends our programs.
We are actually in the process of reprinting his Clearing book, complete with over 150 photographs and hopefully will be available sometime this year.
It's interesting you got to talk to Robert Hill. I met him a few times and our Clear-Ridge Historical Society helped his family catalog his stuff after he passed away a few years ago. His brother Art was instrumental in helping us form the society and still attends our programs.
We are actually in the process of reprinting his Clearing book, complete with over 150 photographs and hopefully will be available sometime this year.
Re: Clearing history
Posted by:
bowler
(---.chipublib.org)
Date: January 17, 2013 03:41PM
Just as a follow up. Got a copy of the "Master of Light" book from the library and there isn't really anything more than what you can read on Google Books. Thanks for the post. I'll try a little more digging and see if there is any more info on this subject.
Re: Clearing history
Posted by:
nordsider
(---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: January 17, 2013 09:49PM
bowler Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Just as a follow up. Got a copy of the "Master of
> Light" book from the library and there isn't
> really anything more than what you can read on
> Google Books. Thanks for the post. I'll try a
> little more digging and see if there is any more
> info on this subject.
Thank you for the follow up, and wonder if the University of Chicago Library has any information.
-------------------------------------------------------
> Just as a follow up. Got a copy of the "Master of
> Light" book from the library and there isn't
> really anything more than what you can read on
> Google Books. Thanks for the post. I'll try a
> little more digging and see if there is any more
> info on this subject.
Thank you for the follow up, and wonder if the University of Chicago Library has any information.
Re: Clearing history
Posted by:
adgorn
(---.dsl.emhril.sbcglobal.net)
Date: February 24, 2013 05:47PM
Interesting topic, thanks for bringin it up!
I dug into the Trib Archives and found these articles:
1925 0109 MICHELSON'S TEST UPHOLDS ENSTEIN IDEA
1925 0109 Scientist Proves Einstein Theory Is Sound
1926 1108 SPEED OF LIGHT, DR. MICHELSON'S LIFE WORK
1927 0603 RACING OF LIGHT BEAMS
1979 0227 Tempo Einstein A legend in his own time and space
The last article described the 1924 experiment location: "The field of operations included two weatherbeaten shacks on a mud flat in the prairie industrial area of Clearning, 6600 W. 65th."
This experiment was one of many repeats based on the original Michelson–Morley experiment done in 1887, trying to get a better value for the speed of light.
I dug into the Trib Archives and found these articles:
1925 0109 MICHELSON'S TEST UPHOLDS ENSTEIN IDEA
1925 0109 Scientist Proves Einstein Theory Is Sound
1926 1108 SPEED OF LIGHT, DR. MICHELSON'S LIFE WORK
1927 0603 RACING OF LIGHT BEAMS
1979 0227 Tempo Einstein A legend in his own time and space
The last article described the 1924 experiment location: "The field of operations included two weatherbeaten shacks on a mud flat in the prairie industrial area of Clearning, 6600 W. 65th."
This experiment was one of many repeats based on the original Michelson–Morley experiment done in 1887, trying to get a better value for the speed of light.
Re: Clearing history
Posted by:
nordsider
(---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: February 24, 2013 08:47PM
adgorn,
Thanks for your research discovery. I had vaguely remembered the 65th street location from an Internet story that I read two decades ago, but was reluctant to trust my memory from so long ago. I've driven along 65th, in that general area, many times in my past.
In the old 1924 photograph of the buildings and the experiment's pipe assemblies, wooden telephone/power-line poles are shown; and I wonder if their location could possibly still follow the present pole location, as shown in the Google Street View of 6600 West 65th?
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/25/2013 08:49AM by nordsider.
Thanks for your research discovery. I had vaguely remembered the 65th street location from an Internet story that I read two decades ago, but was reluctant to trust my memory from so long ago. I've driven along 65th, in that general area, many times in my past.
In the old 1924 photograph of the buildings and the experiment's pipe assemblies, wooden telephone/power-line poles are shown; and I wonder if their location could possibly still follow the present pole location, as shown in the Google Street View of 6600 West 65th?
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/25/2013 08:49AM by nordsider.
Re: Clearing history
Posted by:
nordsider
(---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: April 10, 2013 11:24PM
This may be of interest: A fine close-up photograph of physicist Albert A. Michelson, where I presume is Clearing, (1923?). He is shown sitting in a trench and peering into the eyepiece of a spectrascope. The negative number is DN-0076242 and is in the Chicago History Museum archive of Chicago Daily News negatives.
Search: Albert A. Michelson
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpcoop/ichihtml/
The photograph can also appears on page 217, in the book --- Chicago Under Glass: Early Photographs From The Chicago Daily News by Mark Jacob and Richard Cahan (published in 2007).
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 04/11/2013 07:10AM by nordsider.
Search: Albert A. Michelson
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpcoop/ichihtml/
The photograph can also appears on page 217, in the book --- Chicago Under Glass: Early Photographs From The Chicago Daily News by Mark Jacob and Richard Cahan (published in 2007).
Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 04/11/2013 07:10AM by nordsider.
Re: Clearing history
Posted by:
Lance Grey
(---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: April 11, 2013 12:20AM
nordsider Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This may be of interest: A fine close-up photograph of physicist Albert A. Michelson in Clearing, 1924. He is shown sitting in a trench
> and peering into the eyepiece of a science apparatus scope. The negative number is DN-0076242 and is in the Chicago History Museum archive of Chicago Daily News negatives.
> http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/f?cdn:0:./temp /~ammem_NLkP:
The link was expired or set to your browser search / cache / cookies
DN-0076242
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/11/2013 12:20AM by Lance Grey.
-------------------------------------------------------
> This may be of interest: A fine close-up photograph of physicist Albert A. Michelson in Clearing, 1924. He is shown sitting in a trench
> and peering into the eyepiece of a science apparatus scope. The negative number is DN-0076242 and is in the Chicago History Museum archive of Chicago Daily News negatives.
> http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/f?cdn:0:./temp /~ammem_NLkP:
The link was expired or set to your browser search / cache / cookies
DN-0076242
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/11/2013 12:20AM by Lance Grey.
Re: Clearing history
Posted by:
nordsider
(---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: April 11, 2013 07:06AM
Lance Grey,
Thank you for the photograph and the correction of the web-site.
By the way, I wonder also, if it is truly a photo of Michelson, but instead, of one of his colleagues?
Considering that he was born in 1852, and in 1923-24 he would have been 71 or 72 years old, and not willing or able to climb in and out of a trench.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/14/2013 11:14AM by nordsider.
Thank you for the photograph and the correction of the web-site.
By the way, I wonder also, if it is truly a photo of Michelson, but instead, of one of his colleagues?
Considering that he was born in 1852, and in 1923-24 he would have been 71 or 72 years old, and not willing or able to climb in and out of a trench.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/14/2013 11:14AM by nordsider.
Re: Clearing history
Posted by:
bowler
(---.chipublib.org)
Date: April 12, 2013 07:16PM
Below is a link to an aerial shot of the Clearing Industrial District looking west down 65th St around the same time as the experiment (I believe this is from 1923) and you can see 6600 West 65th. Sorry, I tried to use the built in Flickr tool and it can't find this image.
Where the rail yard tracks all meet is about Central Ave. (5600 West), 65th St begins in the lower right of the photo.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/34126404@N06/8642997359/in/photostream
Where the rail yard tracks all meet is about Central Ave. (5600 West), 65th St begins in the lower right of the photo.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/34126404@N06/8642997359/in/photostream
Re: Clearing history
Posted by:
nordsider
(---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: April 13, 2013 08:34AM
bowler,
Thank you again for another interesting photo. I can see why Michelson chose Clearing; for the wide open space. And, I imagine, the nearness to the railroad yards made it convenient for the delivery of more than a mile of the 12-inch water pipe; needed for his light experiment.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/13/2013 12:04PM by nordsider.
Thank you again for another interesting photo. I can see why Michelson chose Clearing; for the wide open space. And, I imagine, the nearness to the railroad yards made it convenient for the delivery of more than a mile of the 12-inch water pipe; needed for his light experiment.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/13/2013 12:04PM by nordsider.
Re: Clearing history
Posted by:
Jeff_Weiner
(---.sub-75-205-111.myvzw.com)
Date: April 14, 2013 01:45AM
Interesting side-note: Michelson's grandson was a professoor of mechanical engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology when I went there in the mid-to-late 1970's. I had him for Statics and Dynamics. Difficult man...
Re: Clearing history
Posted by:
sonyamorris
(117.247.126.---)
Date: December 17, 2014 06:17AM
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Re: Clearing history
Posted by:
nordsider
(---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: December 21, 2014 12:11AM
Three photos I have found in the University of Chicago Photographic Archive - the Michelson- Gale experiment in Clearing,
http://photoarchive.lib.uchicago.edu/db.xqy?one=apf1-04509.xml The two men in the photo were: possibly astronomer Otto Wilhiem Struve (1897-1963) or Fred Pearson (optician) ; and astrophysicist Henry Gordon Gale (1874-1942)
http://photoarchive.lib.uchicago.edu/db.xqy?one=apf1-04510.xml
http://photoarchive.lib.uchicago.edu/db.xqy?one=apf1-04511.xml
And also, a description of the experiment in Clearing; dated April 1925.
The Effect Of The Earth's Rotation On The Velocity Of Light
http://ether-wind.narod.ru/Michelson_Gale_1925/Michelson_Gale_1925.pdf
Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 12/21/2014 07:31PM by nordsider.
http://photoarchive.lib.uchicago.edu/db.xqy?one=apf1-04509.xml The two men in the photo were: possibly astronomer Otto Wilhiem Struve (1897-1963) or Fred Pearson (optician) ; and astrophysicist Henry Gordon Gale (1874-1942)
http://photoarchive.lib.uchicago.edu/db.xqy?one=apf1-04510.xml
http://photoarchive.lib.uchicago.edu/db.xqy?one=apf1-04511.xml
And also, a description of the experiment in Clearing; dated April 1925.
The Effect Of The Earth's Rotation On The Velocity Of Light
http://ether-wind.narod.ru/Michelson_Gale_1925/Michelson_Gale_1925.pdf
Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 12/21/2014 07:31PM by nordsider.
Re: Clearing history
Posted by:
b.a.hoarder
(---.hsd1.in.comcast.net)
Date: February 04, 2015 05:19PM
Today I was eating a late lunch and while doing so turned a "Bonanza" rerun on, the show is featured on ME TV. The subject matter looked vaguely familiar, it was about a young boy and his interest in higher education. One of the boy's experiments was on the measurement of the speed of light but still, it wasn't until Lorne Green's final comment that the light bulb went on for me (no pun intended). The young man's father owned Michelson's , the local general store and Lorne's comment was regarding Albert A. Michelson, once a resident of Virginia City, NV who went on the receive the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1907.
Some artistic liberties were taken , but never the less it was an entertaining program. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0529603/
Some artistic liberties were taken , but never the less it was an entertaining program. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0529603/
Re: Clearing history
Posted by:
nordsider
(---.hsd1.il.comcast.net)
Date: February 04, 2015 06:04PM
A comment about the television series Bonanza - - Michelson in popular culture
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_A._Michelson
Also, mentioned in "Michelson in popular culture "Norman Fitzroy Maclean's essay "Billiards is a Good Game"; in The Norman Maclean Reader, "an appreciation of Michelson from Maclean's vantage point as a graduate student regularly watching him play billiards."
https://books.google.com/books?id=dosXQRp7itAC&pg=PR24&dq=The+Norman+Maclean+Reader&hl=en&sa=X&ei=a47SVKG7HIjigwS8nYOACA&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Michelson%20&f=false
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/04/2015 06:36PM by nordsider.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_A._Michelson
Also, mentioned in "Michelson in popular culture "Norman Fitzroy Maclean's essay "Billiards is a Good Game"; in The Norman Maclean Reader, "an appreciation of Michelson from Maclean's vantage point as a graduate student regularly watching him play billiards."
https://books.google.com/books?id=dosXQRp7itAC&pg=PR24&dq=The+Norman+Maclean+Reader&hl=en&sa=X&ei=a47SVKG7HIjigwS8nYOACA&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Michelson%20&f=false
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/04/2015 06:36PM by nordsider.
