Robert W. Wood - Life

Life

Born in Concord, Massachusetts, Wood attended The Roxbury Latin School with the initial intent of becoming a priest. But he decided to study optics instead when he witnessed a rare glowing aurora one night and believed the effect to be caused by "invisible rays". In his pursuit to find these "invisible rays", Wood studied and earned numerous degrees from Harvard, MIT and the University of Chicago. He taught briefly at the University of Wisconsin and eventually became a full-time professor of "optical physics" at Johns Hopkins University from 1901 until his death. He worked closely with Alfred Lee Loomis at Tuxedo Park, New York. He wrote many articles on spectroscopy, phosphorescence and diffraction. He is best known for his work in ultra-violet light.

Another claim to fame was his debunking of N-rays in 1904. Visiting the discovering laboratory at the behest of the journal Nature, he surreptitiously removed an essential prism from the apparatus. The effect did not vanish, showing that it had always been self-deception.

He discovered that the darkest area of the Moon in ultraviolet light is the Aristarchus Plateau. In 1909, Wood constructed the first practical liquid mirror astronomical telescope, by spinning mercury to form a paraboloidal shape, and investigated its benefits and limitations.

Wood has been described as the "father of both infrared and ultraviolet photography". Though the discovery of electromagnetic radiation beyond the visible spectrum and the development of photographic emulsions capable of recording them pre-date Wood, he was the first intentionally to produce photographs with both infrared and ultraviolet radiation. He developed a filter, Wood's glass, that was opaque to visible light but transparent to ultraviolet and is used in modern-day black lights. He used it for ultraviolet photography but also suggested its use for secret communication. He was also the first person to photograph ultraviolet fluorescence. He also developed a lamp, called a Wood's lamp, that radiated only ultraviolet, which is now used in medicine, forensics, and other fields. The slightly surreal glowing appearance of foliage in infrared photographs is called the Wood effect.

Wood also authored non-technical works. In 1915, Wood co-authored a science fiction novel, The Man Who Rocked the Earth, with Arthur Train; a sequel, The Moon Maker, was published the next year. He also wrote and illustrated two books of children's verse, How to Tell the Birds from the Flowers (1907) and Animal Analogues (1908).

Wood married in 1892 in San Francisco, Gertrude Hooper Ames, daughter of Pelham Warren and August Wood (Hooper) Ames, and granddaughter of William Northey Hooper, and Massachusetts Supreme Court judge, Hon. Seth Ames. He died in Amityville, New York.

• Rumford Medal of the Royal Society, for his work in physical optics, 1938.
• Henry Draper Medal of the National Academy of Sciences, for his contributions to astrophysics, 1940.
• The crater Wood on the far side of the Moon is named after him.
• Honorary degrees from Berlin University, Clark University, University of Birmingham, and Edinburgh University.
• Member of the Royal Society, London (foreign), London Optical Society (honorary), Konigliche Akademie der Wissenschatten zu Göttingen (corresponding), Accademia dei Lincei, Rome (foreign), Russian Academy of Science, Leningrad, American National Academy of Science, Academy of Arts and Sciences, Philosophical Society, Physical Society, Royal Institutions, London (honorary), London Physical Society (honorary fellow), Royal Swedish Academy, Stockholm (foreign), Indian Association for Science, Calcutta (foreign).
• Medal awarded by the Royal Society of Arts for his diffraction process in color photography, 1899.
• Franklin Institute John Scott medal, awarded by the City of Philadelphia for further progress in diffraction color photos, 1907.
• J. Traill Taylor medal, awarded for photography by invisible rays, 1910.
• Gold medal, Societa’ Italiana della Scienze, for general outstanding scientific achievement, 1918.
• Frederic Ives Medal, awarded by the Optical Society of America for distinguished work in physical optics, 1933.
• Served as vice-president (1934) and president (1935) of the American Physical Society.