Doctor Wood. Modern Wizard of the Laboratory: The Story of an American Small Boy Who Became the Most Daring and Original Experimental Physicist of Our Day-but Never Grew Up

Shortly after, I was asked to give a popular lecture with experiments, open to the public in the auditorium of the new Kent chemical laboratory. I chose as a subject “The Vortex Atom Theory,” propounded first by Lord Kelvin, and later developed by Professor Helmholtz of Berlin, which was receiving some attention by chemists at the time. I chose this subject chiefly because I wanted at least one spectacular lecture experiment that would make the audience sit up, and I decided that a huge “vortex machine” for making smoke rings would fulfill the requirements. I made a big one, bigger than I had ever seen, a cubic wooden box four feet on each edge, one side made of flexible thin oilcloth, loosely tacked on, with two diagonal strips of rubber tubing behind it, firmly attached to the corners. At the center of the opposite side was a circular hole about a foot in diameter. On striking the center of the square of oilcloth a smart blow with the fist, an invisible ring of air was shot from the box with such velocity and momentum that it would knock a large pasteboard box from the end of the lecture table onto the floor, while the impact on the face or body felt like a mild blow from a feather pillow. By filling the box with smoke produced by mixing the vapors of ammonia and hydrochloric acid, the rings were made visible, and the classical experiments with them could be shown on a large scale. With a little practice, two rings could be fired in rapid succession: the second ring, with a higher velocity, would catch up with the first and bounce off it, both rings remaining intact and changing into vibrating ellipses. This showed that a gas in rapid rotation had some of the properties of a solid (elasticity, for example). The “vortex atom” theory supposed that chemical atoms were endless vortices in the “ether of space,” tied in complicated knots, for it had been shown that if two or more vortex rings of a frictionless fluid were linked together or tied in knots they would spin forever, without interfering with each other or coming to rest. I had some other experiments which I’ve forgotten, but the big box came at the end of the lecture. When it was pointing skyward an invisible ring of air splashed against and extinguished the greater part of the circular ring of gas flames at the center of the auditorium dome. Two or three always remained lit, and the fire then ran around the entire ring, so that the experiment could be shown over and over again as fast as you could thump the box. Then I commenced a Blitzkrieg on the audience, shooting powerful invisible rings at the sea of faces. The spectators were delighted and applauded loudly, and I finally took courage and fired a ring at Mrs. Harper, the wife of the President, which lifted the front of her broad-brimmed hat several inches, and then one into the broad, smiling face of the President himself, who winced.

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We now come to the early spring of 1894. Wood had finished a piece of research acceptable to the Department of Chemistry as a thesis for the Ph. D. degree, and the examinations were in the offing. He was, however, suddenly informed that he would be required to pass examinations in advanced physics and mathematics if he wished to come up in physical chemistry. This change in the requirements had resulted from the advent of A. A. Michelson as head of the Department of Physics. Wood had a long and somewhat heated argument with President Harper, claiming that he had not been told this in the beginning and was not well enough prepared in either subject to take examinations on such short notice. Harper overruled his objections, and Wood left the university early in May.

He had definitely decided anyway, at this time, to go to Germany with his family, to work with Professor Wilhelm Ostwald, then the world’s leading physical chemist. But it was necessary to put off the trip because of the imminent arrival of their second child.

Accordingly, the Woods packed up, stored their furniture, and went out to San Francisco to visit Gertrude’s parents. Robert Wood, Junior, was born on June 23, 1894, in his grandmother’s house.

After an interval for Gertrude’s recovery, both the Woods began to study German furiously. Their first tutor was a red- bearded young German, with a facetious manner and a craving for Mr. Ames’s best cigars. His visits resembled social calls, and in fact, since he preferred to talk in English, the German lessons were a flop. It was difficult to get rid of anyone so polite, however, and finally Wood hit on a way of getting rid of the man. He substituted a trick cigar for one of Mr. Ames’s Coronas. And when Herr Becker, at the next lesson, lighted it, there was a bang. It had exploded.

Their next teacher was a Frau Lilienthal, who was excellent. She gave them a letter to Professor Leo, Germany’s foremost Shakespearean scholar, who afterwards proved very hospitable to the Woods.