By John N. Howard

In less than a month, scientists from all over the world will gather at OSA's annual meeting in Rochester, N.Y., U.S.A.—and a select few of them will be recognized for their outstanding contributions to the field of optics with an OSA award. In my upcoming History of OSA column in OPN, I will present a biography of William F. Meggers, who was a renowned spectroscopist, OSA honorary member, and OSA president from 1949-1951. In just a few short weeks, Frédéric Merkt of ETH Zürich, Switzerland, will carry on Megger's legacy when he receives the award named after Meggers. The William F. Meggers award acknowledges outstanding work in the field of spectroscopy.

But back in 1964, it was Meggers himself who was receiving an OSA award. He shared the C.E.K. Mees Medal, which is given to scientists who do excellent interdisciplinary work, with George R. Harrison of MIT. In those days, the awards were bestowed at an OSA ceremonial banquet, held on an evening during an OSA annual meeting. Attendees at the banquet were already aware of the friendly sparring that always occured between Harrison and Meggers, both of whom had been internationally known spectroscopists and long-time friends and competitors.

After Meggers had made his short acceptance speech, he was presented with the C.E.K. Mees Medal. Harrison then remarked to the audience that he planned to design an optical arrangement with mirrors that would enable Meggers' portion of the medal to be seen when the joint medal was displayed! His crack was received with much laughter and applause. And, actually, the Optical Society ultimately addressed that particular issue by presenting each awardee with his own individual medal.

Optics History, OSA Honorary Members, Profiles OSA, OSA honorary members, The Optical Society, OSA Awards, William Meggers, George R. Harrison, C.E.K. Mees, Frédéric Merkt

by John N. Howard

In this month's History of OSA column in OPN, OSA's former executive director Jarus Quinn shares his reminiscences about the summer he spent cleaning out the lab of Robert W. Wood--and the explosive surprise he found when he used water clean out a bottle filled with sodium. Robert Wood was the famous and eccentric physicist who discovered resonance radiation and greatly expanded our understanding of ultraviolet light.

There were so many rememberances of R.W. Wood that the Hopkins types who had known him used to have dinner together at OSA or American Physical Society meetings just to relate some of their cherished anecdotes. I was not a Hopkins graduate (only an Ohio Stater), but even I attended at least one of those hilarious evenings. Many of those anecdotes were authenic, first-hand recollections of those who had known or worked with Wood; but most of the classic anecdotes came from the book Doctor Wood by William Seabrook.

Around 1908, Wood had bought a summer place in East Hampton, on Long Island; and Seabrook was a neighbor who had many interviews with Wood in the 1930s and 1940. His book was published in 1941 by Harcourt, Brace. So many of the classic anecdotes are from Seabrook (such as Wood tossing a bit of sodium into a puddle while he pretended to spit, thus awing some onlookers with the explosive results--a tale that Quinn also recounts in his OPN piece.)

Seabrook also gives an account of a visit Wood made to Lord Rayleigh's home in Essex in 1904--which will be featured in the October History of OSA column in OPN. I have read his book several times, and now I need to read it again, to refresh my own memory of Wood's exploits!  Wood enjoyed publicity, and he was often mentioned in the Baltimore Sun.  H.L. Mencken called Wood the  "Wild Man of Baltimore" (a spoof on the Wild Man of Borneo exhibited by Phineas T. Barnum).

Optics History, Physics History, Profiles Robert W. Wood, Robert Wood, OSA, OSA history, physics history, optics history, science history, the Optical Society, Jarus Quinn