Dr. S. W. Stratton

Abstract

SAMUEL WESLEY STRATTON was born at Litchfield, Illinois, in 1861. He graduated in 1884 from the University of Illinois, where he remained for the next eight years, at first as an instructor, then as professor of mathematics, and finally as professor of physics and electrical engineering. In 1892 he became assistant professor of physics and later professor in the University of Chicago. Nine years afterwards he was invited by the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury to formulate a project for the development of work on weights and measures, and in 1901 was mainly responsible for the Act which established the Bureau of Standards at Washington. Of this he became the first director, retaining the position until 1923, when he was appointed president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He had a lifelong connexion with the American Navy, and in 1898 served during the Spanish American War. This brief summary of his activities shows that the most important part of his work was connected with the Bureau of Standards, which is indebted to him for its existence and for many of its most striking developments.