OHM, THE FOUNDER OF MATHEMATICAL ELECTRICITY.
Lord Kelvin, himself one of the greatest of the electrical scientists of
the nineteenth century, in commenting some years ago on Ohm's law, said
that it was such an extremely simple expression of a great truth in
electricity, that its significance is probably not confined to that
department of physical phenomena, but that it is a law of nature in some
much broader way. Re-echoing this expression of his colleague, Professor
George Chrystal, of Edinburgh, in his article on electricity in the
Encyclopedia Britannica (IX. edition), says that Ohm's law "must now be
allowed to rank with the law of gravitation and the elementary laws of
statical electricity as a _law of nature_ in the strictest sense." In a
word, to these leaders and teachers in physical science of the
generation after his, though within a comparatively short time after
Ohm's death, there has come the complete realization of the absolutely
fundamental character of the discovery made by George Simon Ohm, when he
promulgated the principle that a current of electricity is to be
measured by the electromotive force, divided by the resistance in the
circuit. The very simplicity of this expression is its supreme title to
represent a great discovery in natural science. It is the men who reach
such absolutely simple formulæ for great fundamental truths that
humanity has come, and rightly, to consider as representing its greatest
men in science.
Like most of the distinguished discoverers in science who have displayed
marked originality, Ohm came from what is usually called the lower
classes, his ancestors having had to work for their living for as long
as the history of the family can be traced. His father was a locksmith,
and succeeded his father at the trade. The head of the family for many
generations had been engaged at this handicraft. The first of them of
whom there is any definite record was Ohm's great-grandfather, Wilhelm
Ohm, who was a locksmith at Westerholt, not far from Münster, in
Westphalia. Wilhelm Ohm's son, Johann Vincent, the grandfather of the
great electrician, during his years as a journeyman locksmith had spent
some time in France, and subsequently settled down in Kadolzburg, a
small suburb of Erlangen, in Bavaria. In 1764, he obtained the position
of locksmith to the University of Erlangen, and became a citizen of that
municipality. Both of his sons followed the trade of their father.
The elder of these, Johann Wolfgang, worked at his trade as a journeyman
in a number of the small cities of Germany, and only after ten years of
absence in what, because of the independent condition of the States now
known as the German Empire, were then considered foreign parts, did he
wander back to his native place. On his return he received the
mastership in his craft, and shortly after, about 1786, married a young
woman named Beck. George Simon Ohm, the electrical scientist, was the
first child of this marriage, and was born March 16th, 1789. A second
son, born three years later, also became distinguished in after-life for
his mathematical ability. This younger brother, after having filled a
number of teaching positions in various German educational institutions,
was called as professor of mathematics to Berlin, where he died in 1862.
While their father, Johann Wolfgang Ohm, followed his trade of locksmith
for a living, like many another handicraftsman, he had many mental
interests which he cultivated in leisure hours, and doubtless dwelt on
while his hands were occupied with the mere routine work of his trade.
It is curiously interesting to find that he devoted himself, during the
hours he could spare from his occupation, to two such diverse
intellectual occupations as mathematics and Kant's philosophy; but they
had no newspapers in those days, and a man, even of the artisan class,
had some time for serious mental occupation. It might be thought, under
these circumstances, that he would be but the most passing of amateurs
in either of these subjects, and have a very superficial knowledge of
them. This probably was true for his philosophy fad, for there are not
many who have ever thought themselves more than amateurs in Kantism, and
even Kant himself, I believe, thought that only one scholar ever really
understood his system, and subsequently said he had some doubts even
about that one; but in mathematics, the elder Ohm seems to have attained
noteworthy success.
Hofrath Langsdorff, who was the professor of mathematics at Erlangen
during the last decade of the eighteenth century, and who was called to
Heidelberg in 1804, a fact that would seem quite enough to set beyond
all question that his opinion in this matter may be taken as that of a
competent judge, declared that the elder Ohm's mathematical knowledge
was far above the ordinary, and that he knew much more than the elements
even of the higher mathematics. Under these circumstances, it is not
surprising that the father should have tried to encourage in both his
boys a taste for mathematics, nor that he should have taken their
mathematical instruction into his own hands and succeeded in making
excellent mathematicians of them, even in their early years. He was so
successful in this, indeed, that Langsdorff, after a five-hour
examination of the brothers when they were respectively 12 and 15, did
not hesitate to declare that the Erlangen locksmith's family was likely
to be remembered as containing a pair of brothers who, for success in
mathematics, might rival the famous Bernoulli brothers, so well known at
that time.
This might be thought only a bit of neighborly praise, meant to warm a
father's heart, yet it seems indeed to have been given quite seriously.
Certainly the event justified the prophecy. It is not surprising that,
with such a forecast to encourage him, the father should have been ready
to make every sacrifice to enable both his sons to prepare for the
university.
He continued his instruction of them, then, in mathematics, though he
insisted at the same time that they should continue to keep up their
occupation of locksmiths. In spite of his enthusiasm for mathematics,
the old gentleman seems to have cherished no illusions with regard to
the likelihood of pure mathematics ever serving them as a lucrative
means of livelihood. It was a very satisfying intellectual interest, but
a good trade was much more apt to prove their constant and substantial
standby, unless, of course, the boys should actually prove to be the
geniuses foretold. He seems to have realized to the full, Coleridge's
idea that, like the literary man, the mathematician should have some
other occupation, though he might not go to the extent of following
Oliver Wendell Holmes' well-known addition to Coleridge's formula, that
he should, as far as possible, confine himself to the other occupation.
The boys were given the opportunity to attend the gymnasium of Erlangen,
and seem to have had excellent success in their general studies besides
mathematics.[28]
In 1805, when George, the subject of our sketch, was sixteen years of
age, he was graduated from the gymnasium and was ready for the
university. On May 3d, 1805, he took his matriculation examination
before the faculty of Erlangen, electing the course of mathematics,
physics and philosophy. Later in life he told his friends that it was
his deep love for the mathematics of these studies, and his persuasion
that in them the student was brought in contact with the most important
factors for absolute intellectual cultivation, that tempted him to take
them up. To this he did not hesitate to add that there seemed to him to
be some call of a higher voice, as if he had a vocation to dedicate
himself to the cultivation and extension of these important subjects.
He had been but some two years at the university, when for a time his
studies had to be interrupted, partly for lack of means to pursue them,
but partly because to his father, at least, the university course was
not the source of such satisfaction as he had anticipated from his son's
ability in mathematics. While Ohm took his studies seriously, he was not
by any means a mere "grind," and, indeed, the reputation which he
acquired at the university for many of the qualities which make for a
student's popularity among his fellows, was not such as would be likely
to appeal to a very serious-minded father. Ohm had acquired the fame of
being one of the best dancers in the university; he was a brilliant
billiard player and an unrivalled skater; all of which indicates that as
a young man he had the physical development and acuteness of sense so
necessary to enable him to gain prestige in all these sports.
His father, in spite of his desire for his son's university career, was
quite willing, then, at the end of September, 1808, to have him take up
a position as teacher of mathematics in the school kept by Pastor
Zehnder, in the Canton Berne, in Switzerland. His very youthful
appearance (he was only 18 years of age at the time, quite boyish
looking and not even large for his years) caused the head of this
institution no little surprise when he came with letters of introduction
showing that he was to be the new teacher in mathematics. He could
scarcely believe his eyes for a time. Within a few months, however, he
was convinced of the ability and the capacity for work of his new
addition to the faculty, who seems to have given, from the very
beginning, excellent satisfaction in his rather important position.
Ohm remained there some three years and a half and then moved to
Neunberg, where, independent of any educational institution, he set
himself up as a private tutor in mathematics. His reason for so doing,
as he himself tells, was that he wished to devote himself to the study
of pure mathematics more than was possible in a regular teaching
position. For this same reason also he refused a number of offers of
positions as teacher of mathematics, which would ordinarily be
considered quite flattering to a young man of only 21. Another reason
for refusing these offers was that he wished to perfect himself in
French, and he had an excellent opportunity afforded him for
conversation in this language in the conditions in which he was placed
in Neunberg. This last may seem an unusual reason, but it is
characteristic of Ohm's determination always to add to his power of
understanding and expression.
Most young men in Ohm's circumstances are so occupied with the thought
of immediate success in life, that every possible abbreviation of their
studies which will bring them nearer the opportunity to make their own
living is likely to be heartily welcomed. Ohm, however, realized that
his own intellectual development was more important, especially at this
time, even than getting on in the world; and for this reason his life
has an added interest, not only for students themselves, but especially
for those who have the best interests of students at heart and wish to
be able to cite examples of how a little delay in getting at one's
actual life-work, or, still more, at a remunerative occupation, may
serve the very useful purpose of preparing a man so much the better to
bring out his best intellectual possibilities when he does settle down
to his work.
At Easter, 1811, Ohm returned to Erlangen, after having spent nearly two
years perfecting himself in mathematics. He then finished his studies at
the university, which seems not to have had the rule of requiring
attendance for a definite period before coming up for its degree, but
permitted him to take the examinations for the doctorate of philosophy
on the strength of the work he had done, and gave him his degree on the
25th of October of the same year. With the drawing tighter of the bands
of red tape in educational institutions in more recent years, Ohm would
have found it difficult to get his degree thus readily, though it was
the university rather than the graduate who was eventually to be honored
by it. After this, he became _privatdocent_ in mathematics at the
university, and taught for three semesters. He met with marked success
and became very popular with the students. After a year and a half,
however, he gave up his university position to accept the professorship
of mathematics at the Realschule of Bamberg.
While Ohm was here, the spirit of young Germany awoke at the news of
Napoleon's unfortunate Moscow campaign, in which his good fortune seemed
to have definitely abandoned the great Emperor of the French. Most of
the students of the universities of Germany were deeply aroused by it,
and those who know Körner's and Uhland's songs will have some idea of
the depth of patriotic feeling that was stirred in thousands of young
German hearts, who thought that now the opportunity for the fatherland
to throw off the hated foreign yoke forever, had come at last. Ohm
debated with himself whether he should volunteer with the crowds of
young men who were so bravely giving up everything, that the fatherland
might be free. Two things deterred him. If he went as a soldier, the
material assistance he was able to give his father, and which, as the
old man was now advancing in years and had spent most of his little
savings upon his sons, was needed, would have to be given up. The other
motive that kept him at home was, according to his German biographer in
the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, which we have been following for
most of these details, because he felt that what he might be able to
accomplish in other fields besides those of battle would eventually
prove more beneficial for his fatherland, and indeed for the whole of
humanity, than anything he could do as a soldier, even with the
patriotic motive to help his country to throw off the yoke of the
foreign usurper, which had proven so hard to bear. As we have already
seen, it was a characteristic trait of Ohm all through life, that he
cherished the idea, which acquired almost the force of a premonition,
that he was destined for great things.
Ohm continued his work as a teacher, then, instead of volunteering for
the army; but, as might be expected, found the monotonous work of
drilling young students in mathematics extremely unsatisfactory after a
time. At the end of a year and a half of service at Bamberg, he asked
for a change in the conditions of his teaching position. Instead of
this, he received a transfer to the Bamberg pro-gymnasium, where he was
to teach Latin until a regular teacher was appointed. In spite of his
representations that the teaching position offered him was utterly at
variance with his talents and his inclinations, he was compelled to
accept this occupation for a time, though after some delay there came
the assurance that, just as soon as possible, he would be assigned to a
position as teacher of mathematics.
In spite of his unfortunate circumstances, which would ordinarily be
thought quite enough to keep him from serious work until he was settled
in a position more suited to his tastes, he devoted himself to the
writing of his first book during this time, and it was published by
Enke, in Erlangen, in the spring of 1817. Its title was, "Outlines of
the Study of Geometry as a Means of Intellectual Culture." It comprised
nearly two hundred pages, and gives the best possible insight into the
ability and intelligence of the author, then a young man of only
twenty-eight. As a sort of appendix, he gives a short sketch of his
father, evidently introduced, not quite so much for the purpose of
filially confessing his obligations to the old locksmith mathematician,
nor with the idea of repaying some of his immeasurable debt for all the
opportunities which the sacrifices of paternal affection had brought
into the life of his sons, as to emphasize the excellent educational
influence which his father's mathematical training had had upon his
boys, and thus prove his thesis as to the value of mathematical studies
in education. Few filial tributes were ever more deserved or given more
convincingly or with less suggestion of the conventional attitude of son
to father.
Now that mathematics has come to occupy probably even a less prominent
place in education than it did in Ohm's time, though the burden of his
complaint with regard to educational methods was that geometry was not
used as a daily developmental subject as much as it should be, it may be
interesting to recall some of the reasons which he advanced for urging
its greater employment as an instrument for mental training. He thought
that rational geometry should occupy a place of honor among our means of
education. Its quality as a mode of pure reasoning, though so closely
related to the senses, made easy the transition from sensation to
thought, which is such an important element in education; while its
eminently simple character, though combined with definite demands upon
the constructive faculties, made it appropriate in a high degree for the
education of the young out of the field of merely imitative use of the
intellect, into that of independent thinking and following out of ideas.
"Geometry," says Ohm, "when properly taught, not with the fruitless
drilling usually employed in teaching it, but in such ways as to secure
deep personal attention, must take rank above all other branches of
education, in enabling the student to break down the barrier which
separates mere understanding from personal investigation. It forces a
man whose thoughts were, up to this time, only the repetition of others'
thoughts, to think for himself and to light for himself in his own mind
the torches which enable him to see things clearly for himself, and not
merely in the dimness of the half light that is thrown on them by the
explanations of others."
Geometrical methods always had a special fascination for Ohm, and
practically all of his books and writings bear the impress of that close
dependence of all parts on one another, that absolutely logical
connection so characteristic of geometric accuracy of thought. His was
the sort of mind likely to be benefited by mathematical training. Such
minds are, however, comparatively few, for most men are not rational in
any sense of the word, that would make them dependent on logical
reasoning. Perhaps it is as well that they are not, for many of those
lacking in logic or mathematical accuracy of thought and absoluteness of
conclusion, still continue to accomplish much in the world of thought
and do much valuable planning for the complexities of human affairs,
where strict logic will not always solve the intricate yet incomplete
problems that present themselves in human relations, where, indeed,
individual unknown factors often make any but an approximate solution
impossible.
The opinions of the critics as to Ohm's "Outlines of Geometry" were, as
might be easily anticipated, not all flattering, since only a few of the
critics were able to place themselves on the ideal standpoint of
mathematical subjectivity from which he had written his book. King
Frederick William III., of Prussia, is said to have read it with much
interest, however, and the royal pleasure doubtless drew attention to
Ohm's work, and may have contributed to the fact that, shortly after its
publication, in September, 1817, Ohm was invited by the Royal Consistory
of Cologne to take the position of head professor of mathematics and
physics in the gymnasium of that city. This post was not only
honorable, it was also highly remunerative, at least from the
standpoint of teachers' wages as they were at that time, and Ohm eagerly
accepted the position.
Lamont, who was the director of the Royal Observatory at Munich, has
written a memorial of Ohm which contains much valuable information. The
body of it is an address delivered at a meeting of the Faculty of the
University of Munich in honor of Thaddeus Siber and George Simon Ohm,
but its value has been much enhanced by notes added before publication.
Siber was a Benedictine who was professor in the philosophical
department at Munich, and died the same year as Ohm. Lamont says that he
received his information as to intimate details of Ohm's life from his
brother, Prof. Martin Ohm, of Berlin. His sketch is, therefore,
absolutely authoritative. Lamont says with regard to this period of
teaching at Cologne: "Ohm's first position of importance, in any way
worthy of his talents, was the professorship of mathematics at the large
Jesuit gymnasium in Cologne, in 1817, where the special gift that he
possessed, of making the study of mathematics not only comprehensible
but attractive to boys, brought him success and recognition."
For nearly ten years Ohm had the opportunity to put into practice in
this Jesuit gymnasium of the Rhineland, the principles which he had so
much at heart, for he was apparently given the full freedom of his
department of teaching. He succeeded so well that he received wide and
hearty recognition for his work. The mathematical studies of the Cologne
gymnasium stood higher than had ever been the case before, and this was
all Ohm's work. In the years before his teaching in the Rhenish city,
those who were distinguished in mathematics at the University of Bonn
had not come, as a rule, from Cologne, but from other places; but now
nearly all the mathematical prize-takers of Bonn came from among Ohm's
students, and the best of the candidates for teaching positions in
physics and mathematics had also, as a rule, had the advantages of his
training.
Among the best of his scholars at this time was the afterwards
well-known mathematician, Lejeune-Dirichlet, who taught in Berlin with
Jacobi and Steiner and succeeded Gauss in Göttingen. Another of his most
distinguished pupils was the astronomer Heis, who occupied a modest
position at the Munster Academy, but whose merits were above the post
which he occupied, and who was distinguished for the excellency of his
original work and his ability as a mathematician. One very interesting
fact with regard to Ohm's teaching, was that he was successful in
catching and holding the interest not only of those of his students who
were later to specialize in mathematics, but also of those who took up
mathematics only as a subject for mental development, that was to be
applied to other purposes later in life, and who found Ohm's teaching of
the greatest possible service. Among these, the well-known German
literary man, Jacob Venedey, of Cologne, has expressed his affection and
gratitude for his old teacher in a very striking way in his sketch of
the cathedral at Cologne, written in the banishment that came to so many
vigorous German thinkers after the failure of the revolution of '48. In
sending a copy of this to Ohm, Venedey says: "Honored Sir:--It will
perhaps be a source of wonder to you that a student who apparently
learned so little from you and your colleagues that he must now earn his
bread by writing, should continue to cherish for you the liveliest
gratitude. It is not the fault of mathematics that only the dimmest
recollection of them remains with me. I shall never forget the
personality of my professor, however, nor his ways and methods of
teaching. I frequently recount your way with us boys, and I have the
liveliest remembrance of your influence as a teacher. There are seldom
weeks, there never is a month, when I fail to recall you. This is no
mere compliment that I am paying to you, since I know you too well to
think that flattery would mean anything to you, as it would be unworthy
of you, and I for my part am not one of those who like to bandy
compliments. I have often wished to meet you again, and a hundred times
I thought that I saw you because some one at a distance had something
that recalled you. I may say to you that you accomplished something for
me in those days of teaching that I would not have been able to
accomplish for myself. I can only think of you, then, with the highest
feelings of reverence approaching what might well be called love. It
will be a happy day, indeed, for me if I am ever in a position to make
an hour of existence happier for you in any way."
While Ohm so zealously continued his instruction in both the upper
classes of the gymnasium, he never lost from sight that higher aim of
original research and investigation to which his genius disposed him.
His choice of a subject for original investigation wavered for a long
time between mathematics and physics, but, as he himself declared, his
experience having shown him that authority was prone to play a large
role in mathematics, while the field was more open for personal research
and observation in physics, he resolved to take up that department for
his special studies, consoled by the idea that physics cannot be
properly pursued without mathematics. Looking around to select a subject
that would serve as a striking preface to his work in this department,
though resolved at the same time to avoid one where he would be without
rivalry, he found it all ready to his hand in what one of his
contemporaries called the enigmatic phenomena of the galvanic current.
This was to prove a fortunate selection, indeed, both for himself and
the opportunity afforded his genius as well as for the science of
electricity itself.
He then began a series of investigations, always experimental in
character, and with the mathematical explanations of the phenomena
observed carefully worked out. Accounts of these studies appeared from
time to time in the year-book for Chemistry and Physics, issued by
Schweigger. After some ten years, these were collected together, or at
least the principal portions of them, and published in the second half
of the year-book for the year 1826. The apparatus for his experiments
was fortunately at command in the gymnasium at Cologne, but without his
mechanical skill, obtained from his experience as a locksmith when a
boy, it would have been impossible so to vary his experiments and modify
his instruments as to bring out many of the phenomena that he succeeded
in demonstrating. Nearly all of the great discoverers in science have
been handy men possessed of mechanical skill, and this is as true for
medicine, as I have shown in "Makers of Modern Medicine,"[27] though it
might perhaps not be expected, as it is here in electricity, where it
seems very natural.
Ohm felt, in 1826, that he had succeeded in exhausting nearly all that
he could learn for himself, and as he wished to have opportunities for
further study, and especially for further reading, he asked for an
academic furlough that would carry him over the next year. The work that
he had already accomplished was beginning to be appreciated, and after
discussion of the papers that he had published up to that time, the
requested furlough was promptly granted; and in a letter in which the
school authorities praised his school work as well as his original
investigations, they allowed him to take the sabbatic year for the
furtherance of science on one-half the usual salary, though with the
condition also that more would be allowed to him in case this seemed
necessary and the conditions justified it.
This furlough was perhaps the most important event in Ohm's life. He
employed it in bringing to a focus the ideas with regard to electricity
which had been gradually worked out in his mind during the past ten
years. In May, 1827, within six months after the beginning of his
exclusive devotion to the subject, Ohm's article on the mathematics of
the galvanic current appeared. It proved a scientific achievement of the
first rank, that was to be epoch-making in the domain of electricity. It
settled the conditions under which electrical tension exists in various
bodies, and made it clear that there is a fundamental law of electrical
conduction which could be expressed by an easy, simple formula.
Ohm's preface to his little book, that was to work such a revolution in
electricity and was to remain for all time one of the classics in this
department of science, is typical of the man in many ways. Its modesty
could not very well be exceeded. Its simplicity constitutes in itself an
appeal to the reader's interest. I know nothing in the literature of the
history of science quite like it in these regards, unless it be the
preface of Auenbrugger's little book on percussion, in which he laid the
foundation of modern clinical diagnosis.[26] The two men have many more
qualities in common than the authorship of modest prefaces to their
books. Both of them were geniuses whose names the aftertime will not
willingly let die, and both of them accomplished their work apart from
the stream of university life in their time, and met with a like fate in
the neglect, for some time at least, by their distinguished colleagues
of the important discoveries that they had made. Ohm's preface deserves
to be quoted because of its classic quality:
"I herewith present to the public a theory of galvanic electricity as a
special part of electrical science in general, and shall successively,
as time, inclination and means permit, arrange more such portions
together into a whole, if this first essay shall in some degree repay
the sacrifice it has cost me. The circumstances in which I have hitherto
been placed have not been suitable either to encourage me in the pursuit
of novelties or to enable me to become acquainted with works relating to
the same department of literature throughout its whole extent. I have,
therefore, chosen for my first attempt a department of science in which
I have the least to apprehend competition.
"May the well-disposed reader accept whatever I have accomplished with
the same love for science as that with which it is sent forth!--The
Author, Berlin, May 1st, 1827."
In his preface to the American edition of the "Galvanic Circuit
Investigated Mathematically,"[25] Mr. Thomas D. Lockwood, vice-president
of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, said of this
masterpiece of Ohm's: "A sufficient reason for republishing an English
translation of the wonderful book of Professor G. S. Ohm is the
difficulty with which the only previous translation (that of Taylor's
Scientific Memoirs) is procurable.
"Besides this, however, the intrinsic value of the book is so great that
it should be read by all electricians who care for more than superficial
knowledge.
"It is most remarkable to note, at this time, how completely Ohm stated
his famous law that the electromotive force divided by the resistance is
equal to the strength of the current."
With regard to the book as a whole, Mr. Lockwood says, after suggesting
certain anticipations of Ohm's ideas which had been made in the
preceding century: "Ohm's work stands alone, and, reading it at the
present time, one is filled with wonder at the prescience, respect for
his patience and prophetic soul, and admiration of the immensity and
variety of ground covered by his little book, which is indeed his best
monument."
Like many another great discovery in physical science, Ohm's work
failed to receive the immediate appreciation which it deserved. It
cannot be said, however, that it failed to attract attention. It would
be easier, indeed, to forgive the scientists of the day if this were
true. Not long after its appearance, abstracts from it were made by
Fechner in Leipzig, by Pfaff in Erlangen, and Poggendorff in Berlin,
which showed that these scientists understood very clearly the
significance and comprehended the wide application of Ohm's law as
claimed by its author. From these men there was no question of hostile
criticism. Professor Pohl, of the University of Berlin, however, in the
Berlin "Year-book of Scientific Criticism," did not hesitate to express
his utter disagreement, and declared that Ohm's work was fallacious and
should be rejected. Other writers of the time treated Ohm's article more
or less indifferently, as a merely conventional contribution to science.
Professor Pohl's opinion was taken to represent the conclusions of the
faculty of the University of Berlin, especially noted for mathematical
ability. This was to prove a serious hindrance to Ohm in the university
career which he had planned for himself. At Berlin they had the ear of
the Minister of Education, and it was not long before Ohm felt that the
criticisms of his work were making themselves felt in a direction
unfavorable to him. Not long after the appearance of his book, there
came a disagreement between Ohm and the educational authorities. Ohm
felt that this was due to failure to recognize the significance of his
work, and that under the circumstances he could not hope for the
appreciation that would provide him with the opportunities he deserved.
He insisted on sending in his resignation as a teacher. Nothing could
change his determination in the matter, not even the pleas of his former
scholars, and his resignation had to be accepted.
Ohm had hoped for a teaching position in a university. The Minister of
Education declared that, while his work as a teacher had been
accomplished with careful industry and diligence and conscientious
attention to duty, the ministry regretted that, in spite of thorough
appreciation of him and admiration for his excellent work as a
scientist, they could not find for him a position outside of the
gymnasium. How utterly trivial the conventional expressions sound, now
that we know that they brought about for the time being the interruption
of one of the most brilliant scientific careers in Europe. Of course,
the geese cannot be expected to appreciate the swans, and it was not the
minister's fault, but that of some of Ohm's own colleagues. The next six
years of his life, the precious years between 38 and 44, Ohm had to give
up the idea of teaching in a university, and devote himself to some
private tutoring in Berlin, with a stipend of about three hundred
dollars a year, miserable enough, yet sufficient, as would appear, for
Ohm's simple mode of life. This he owed to the kindness of Gen.
Radowitz, who employed him to teach mathematics in a military school in
Berlin.
At the end of this time, when he was nearly 45 years of age, his
unfortunate situation attracted the attention of King Ludwig I., of
Bavaria, who offered him the chair of professor of physics at the
Polytechnic School in Nuremberg, which had recently by royal rescript
been raised to the status of a Royal Institute, with the same rank in
educational circles as a lyceum for the study of humanities. Here Ohm's
duties were shortly to be multiplied. He became the inspector of
scientific instruction, after having occupied for some time the
professorship of mathematics, and later became the rector of the
Polytechnic School, a position which he held for some ten years,
fulfilling its duties with the greatest conscientiousness and fidelity.
Ohm continued his work at Nuremberg for more than fifteen years. During
this time, he succeeded in making his mark in every one of the
departments of physics. He is usually considered as owing his reputation
as an experimental and mathematical scientist to his researches in
electricity. As a matter of fact, every branch of physics was
illuminated by his work, and perhaps nothing shows the original genius
of the man better than the fact that everything which he took up
revealed new scientific aspects in his hands. The only wonder is that he
should have remained so long in a subordinate position in the
educational world at Nuremberg, and received his appointment as
university professor of physics at Munich only in 1849.
In the midst of the administrative educational work that came to him at
Nuremberg, Ohm did not neglect original investigation, but somehow
succeeded in finding time for experiment and study. Having made a
cardinal discovery in electricity, of the value of which surely no one
was more aware than himself, Ohm might have been expected, as soon as
his new post gave him the opportunity, to devote himself quite
exclusively to this department of science. Instead, he turned for a time
to the related subjects of sound, heat and light, devoting himself
especially to their mathematics. He did this, as he said himself, to
complete for his own satisfaction his knowledge of the scientific
foundations of the imponderables, as heat, light and electricity were
then called, but also because he wished, for the sake of his students,
to get closely in touch with what had been accomplished by recent
investigators in physics.
It is almost a universal rule in science, that no matter how
distinguished an investigator may be, he makes but one cardinal
discovery. Ohm, however, was destined, after having brilliantly
illuminated electricity by the discovery of a great law, to throw nearly
as bright a light on the domain of acoustics; and there is a law in this
department of physics which is deservedly called by his name, though it
is often associated with that of Helmholtz. Helmholtz himself was always
most emphatic in his insistence on Ohm's priority in the matter, and
constantly speaks of the law in question by Ohm's name.
Perhaps no better evidence of the breadth of Ohm's interest in science,
his supreme faculty for experimentation, or the originality of his
investigating genius, can be found than the fact that he thus
discovered, by experimental and mathematical methods, the solution to
important problems in two such distinct departments of physical science
as electricity and acoustics. Before his time, the question of
electrical resistance was absolutely insoluble. The problem in acoustics
was not less obscure, as may be judged from the fact that, though some
of the best physicists and mathematicians of Europe during the
eighteenth century--and there were giants in those days, among others,
Brook Taylor in England, D'Alembert in France, Johann Bernoulli and
Euler in Germany, and finally, Daniel Bernoulli--had devoted themselves
to its solution, it remained nevertheless unsolved. Here, as in
electricity, the simplicity of the solution which Ohm found shows how
direct were his methods of thinking and how thorough his modes of
investigation. Perhaps the most striking feature of Ohm's work in
acoustics, and, above all, his solution of an important problem in
music, is the fact that he himself, unlike most of his German
compatriots, had no ear for music and no liking for it.
In his address delivered at the public meeting of the Royal Bavarian
Academy of Sciences at Munich, in March, 1889, the hundredth anniversary
of the birth of Ohm, Eugene Lommel, in discussing the scientific work of
Ohm, said: "Inasmuch as his law in acoustics furnished the clearest
insight into the hitherto incomprehensible nature of musical tones, it
dominates the acoustics of to-day no less completely than Ohm's law of
the electric current dominates the science of electricity."[24] This law
concerns the resolution of tones into their constituents. The ideas laid
down by Ohm were almost absolutely novel. They were so new that none of
the workers in acoustics could think that Ohm had made a great
discovery. His law states that the human ear perceives only
pendulum-like vibration as a simple tone. Every other periodic motion it
resolves into a collection of pendulum-like vibrations, which it then
hears in the sound as a series of single tones, fundamentals and
overtones. Ohm arrived at this law from mathematical considerations,
making use of Fourier's series; for its experimental verification he was
compelled to use the well-cultivated ear of a friend, inasmuch as he was
himself, as we have said, quite devoid of musical appreciation.
Ohm's results were too distant from the accustomed ideas of
investigators of sound at that time to be accepted by them. Seebeck, who
was one of the most prominent scientists of the time in acoustics, did
not hesitate to criticise severely, just as Pohl had made little of
Ohm's law of the electric current. While, however, foreigners were to
teach German scientists the value of the advance that their great
colleague in electricity had made, the privilege of pointing out the
significance of his work in sound was to be a compatriot's good fortune.
It was nearly a score of years, however, before this vindication was to
take place. Then Helmholtz, a decade after Ohm's death, furnished the
experimental means which enabled even the unskilled ear to resolve a
sound into its simple partial tones, and revolutionized the theory of
music by his classic work, "The Science of the Perception of Sound,"
which is based entirely on Ohm's law of acoustics.
Ohm, in the appendix to his work, "The Galvanic Circuit treated
mathematically," dared to suggest certain speculations with regard to
the ultimate structure of matter. He said: "There are properties of
space-filling matter which we are accustomed to look upon as belonging
to it. There are other properties which heretofore we have been inclined
to look upon as accidents or guests of matter, which abide with it from
time to time. For these properties man has thought out causes, if not
foreign, at least extrinsic, and they pass as immaterial independent
phases of nature under the names light, heat, electricity, etc. It must
be possible so to conceive the structure of physical bodies that, along
with the properties of the first class, at the same time and necessarily
those of the second shall be given."
It is all the more interesting to come upon Ohm's speculations on this
subject of the ultimate constitution of matter, because within a few
years of his time, Pasteur, then only a comparatively young man, had
also been taken with the idea of getting at the constitution of matter
by his observations upon dissymmetry, which he abandoned after a time,
however, because he found other and more practical subjects to devote
himself to, though he never gave up the thought that he might some time
return to them and perhaps discover the underlying principles of matter
from observations in this subject. It was not until the last five years
of his life, when Ohm was already past sixty, that he was to enjoy the
satisfaction of an ambition which he had cherished from his earliest
years as a teacher, and which, in spite of untoward circumstances, had
been a precious stimulus in his work. For some twenty years he had hoped
some time to be able to devote himself to the investigation of the
physical constitution of matter. Unfortunately, when the opportunity
came, the manifold duties of his teaching position prevented the
completion of his great work, and doubtless robbed his generation and
ours of a precious heritage in the mathematics of the structure of
matter, which would doubtless have been of the greatest possible value.
It is of course idle to speculate as to what he might have accomplished
if left to his original investigation. The problem which he now took up
was much more difficult than any of his preceding tasks. It would have
seemed, however, quite as hopeless to those who lived before Ohm's laws,
to look for a single complete law of the resistance of the electrical
current in the circuit or of the overtones in music, as it is to us to
think of a simple mathematical formula for atomic relations. What Ohm
accomplished in these other cases by his wonderful power of eliminating
all the unnecessary factors in the problem, would surely have helped him
here. The main power of genius, after all, is its faculty of
eliminating the superfluous, which always obscures the real question at
issue to such a degree for ordinary minds, that they are utterly unable
to see even the possibility of a simple solution of it. Art has been
defined as the elimination of the superfluous; discovery in science
might well be defined in the same terms. Under the circumstances, we
cannot help regretting that Ohm was not allowed the time and the
opportunity to work out the thoughts with which he was engaged. It would
have been even more satisfactory if the precious years of his ripe
middle age had not been wasted in trivial, conventional tasks, so that
he might have been permitted to devote his academic leisure, sooner than
was actually the case, to the problem which had been so constantly in
mind since he made his great generalization in the laws of electricity.
Unfortunately, most of Ohm's time had now to be taken up with his
teaching duties. Only for his self-sacrifice in the matter, his success
as a teacher would doubtless have been less marked. Science itself must
have suffered, however, from this pre-occupation of mind with a round of
conventional duties, since Ohm could no longer devote his time to
original research. In the meantime, his great discovery was coming to
its own. During these ten years since the publication of his book, a
number of distinguished physicists in every country--Poggendorff, and
especially Fechner, in Germany, Jacobi and Lenz in Russia, Henry in
America, Rosenkoeld in Sweden, and De Heer in Holland--took up the
problems of the current strength of electricity as set forth in Ohm's
law, and confirmed his conclusion by their investigations along similar
lines. The French physicist and member of the Academy of Sciences,
Pouillet, applied Ohm's ideas to thermo-electricity and
pyro-electricity, employing his terms and bringing his work to the
notice of foreigners generally, so that a translation of Ohm's work was
made into English.
Ohm's work at once attracted the attention that it deserved in England.
The Royal Society conferred on him the Copley Medal, which had been
founded as a reward for important discoveries in the domain of natural
knowledge. Before Ohm's time only one other German scientist, Carl
Friedrich Gauss, of Göttingen, had ever been thus honored. The words
employed by the Royal Society in conferring this distinction showed how
thoroughly the representatives of English science appreciated Ohm's
work. They said that he had set forth the laws of the electric current
very clearly, and thus accomplished the solution of a problem which was
as important in the realm of applied science as it had hitherto been in
the schools. Recognition now became the rule, and Ohm had the
satisfaction of having all his colleagues in the physical sciences
acknowledge the significance of his work.
Ohm's recognition, then, came from foreigners first, and only afterwards
from his fellow-countrymen. Immediate appreciation might have meant much
for him, and even this tardy recognition gave him renewed courage and
new strength to go on with his work. He gave effective expression at
once to his gratitude and to the stimulus that had been afforded him by
the dedication to the Royal Society of London of the great work,
"Contributions to molecular Physics," which he planned.
The year after he received the Copley Medal, he was made a Foreign
Associate of the Royal Society of England, and from this time on his
discoveries began to find their way into text-books as fundamental
doctrines in the science of electricity. German and foreign scientific
bodies followed the English example so happily set for them, and began
to give him their recognition as a physicist of the first rank. Ohm's
further observations were, for a time, not accepted so readily as his
first law. The reason for this was that Ohm was so far ahead of his
times that there was not as yet in existence a suitable electroscope to
test their truth. Finally, the invention of an exact electrometer by
Dellman, and its application by Professor Kohlrausch, of Marburg, made
the experimental confirmation of all his work quite as significant as
for his law.
It is a striking reflection on Ohm's career, though not very encouraging
for the discoverer in science, to realize that some important
discoveries, which thus proved eventually quite as epoch-making as his
law, had lain for practically ten years neglected, and their
magnificently endowed author had been allowed to eke out a rather
difficult existence in teaching, not in the important department of
science in which he was so great a master, but in certain conventional
phases of mathematics which might very well have been taught by almost
anyone who knew the elements of higher mathematics. Ohm's case is not a
solitary phenomenon in the history of science, however, but rather
follows the rule, that a genuine novelty is seldom welcomed by the
leaders of science at any given moment; but, on the contrary, rather
decried, and its discoverer always frigidly put in his proper place by
those who resent his audacity in presuming to teach _them_ something
new in their _own_ science.
Having thus illuminated electricity and acoustics, Ohm turned his
attention to the department of optics. His power to simplify
difficulties and get at the heart of obscure problems is illustrated by
his contribution to this subject, made while he was professor of physics
in the University of Munich. Optics had early engaged his attention, and
in 1840 he published a paper in Poggendorff's Annalen, bearing the
title, "A Description of some simple and easily managed Arrangements for
making the Experiment of the Interference of Light." With his usual
faculty for simplifying things, he showed that the interference prisms
which were made so carefully by the French could be constructed from
common plate-glass. He was indeed able to demonstrate that a simple
strip from the edge of a piece of such glass could be used for this
purpose.
He pursued this absorbing subject until 1852-53, and then set himself
the difficult task of developing a general theory of these phenomena of
interference which are so rich in form and color. The problem was indeed
alluring, but some of the best minds in nineteenth century science in
Europe had been engaged at it, without bringing much order out of the
chaos, and it would have looked quite unpromising to anyone but Ohm, to
whom, the greater the difficulty of a subject, the more the attraction
it possessed. With his wonderful power of synthesis and his capacity to
discover a clue to the way through a maze of difficulties, Ohm succeeded
in finding a formula of great simplicity and beauty and which covered
all the individual colors. It was only after he had reached his
conclusions and was actually publishing his results, that the German
scientist found that he had been anticipated by Professor Langberg, of
Christiania, in Norway, with regard to the principal points of his
investigation, though not as to all its details. Professor Langberg[23]
had published his article in the Norwegian Magazine for Natural Sciences
in 1841, and an abstract of it had appeared the following year in the
first complementary volume (Erganzungsband) of Poggendorff's Annalen.
Of this publication by Professor Langberg, Ohm had known absolutely
nothing. He had even gone to some pains to find out, before undertaking
his own investigation, whether anything had been published on the
matter. At the sessions of the German Naturalists' Association, held in
1852, he had called the attention of many prominent physicists and
mineralogists who were present at that meeting to the colored concentric
ellipses which occur in connection with certain crystals used in the
investigation of polarization. He asked whether these had ever been seen
before, or whether anything had been written about them. All of those
whom he consulted declared that they had not observed them, and that, so
far as they knew, nothing had been published with regard to them.
Accordingly, Ohm proceeded with his work, only to find, after its formal
publication, that he had been almost entirely anticipated and that the
merit of original discovery belonged to his Norwegian colleague.
When his attention was called to the publication, Ohm was perfectly
ready to acknowledge the priority of Professor Langberg's claim and to
give him all the credit that belonged to his discovery. At the beginning
of the second part of his article, he said:
"I know not whether I should consider it lucky or unlucky that the
extremely meritorious work of Langberg should have entirely escaped me
and should have been lost to general recollection. Certain it is that,
if I had had any knowledge of it before, my present investigations,
which were occasioned by this elliptical system, would not have been
made and I would have been spared a deal of work. In that case, however,
a number of other and scarcely less important scientific principles
would have remained hidden for the time being at least. Under the
circumstances, the profound truth of the old proverb, 'Man proposes, but
God disposes,' has been brought home to me again. What originally set me
investigating this subject now proves to be without interest for
science, since the problem has been solved before. On the other hand, a
number of things of which I had no hint at all at the beginning of my
researches, have come to take its place and compensate for it."
Perhaps nothing will show better than this, Ohm's disposition toward
that Providence which overrules everything, and somehow, out of the
mixture of good and evil in life, accomplishes things that make for the
great purpose of creation. His eminently inquiring attitude towards
science, which had on three occasions led him to tackle problems that
had puzzled the greatest of experimental scientists, has been shown. He
must have been, above all things, a man of a scientific turn of mind, in
the sense that he was not ready to accept what had previously been
accepted even by distinguished authorities in science, but was ready to
look for new clews that would lead him to simpler explanations than any
that had been offered before. In spite of this inquiring disposition, so
eminently appropriate to the scientist, and constituting the basis of
his success as an experimenter and scientific synthesist, he seems to
have no doubts about the old explanation of the creation nor the
all-wise directing power of a Divine Providence. This is all the more
interesting, because already the materialistic view of things, which
claims to know nothing except what can be learned from the matter around
us, had begun to make its way in Europe, especially in scientific
circles, but Ohm remained untouched by it.
Another example of this same state of mind in Ohm is to be found in the
preface to his last great work, his contribution to molecular physics,
in which he hoped to sum up all that he could discover and demonstrate
mathematically with regard to the constitution of matter. He knew that
he was taking up a work that would require many years and much laborious
occupation of mind. He realized, too, that his duties as professor of
physics and mathematics as well as the directorship of the museum and
the consultancy to the department of telegraphs, left him comparatively
little time for the work. He foresaw that he might not be able to finish
it, yet hoped against hope that he would. In the preface to the first
volume, he declared that he would devote himself to it at every possible
opportunity, and that he hoped that _God would spare him to complete
it_. This simplicity of confidence in the Almighty is indeed a striking
characteristic of the man.
The work which Ohm began thus with such humble trust in God, was to
contain his conclusions concerning the nature, size, form and mode of
action of the atom, with the idea of being able to deduce, by the aid of
analytical mechanics, all the phenomena of matter. Unfortunately, he was
spared only to write the first, an introductory volume which bears the
title, "Elements of the analytical geometry of space on a system of
oblique co-ordinates." This did not touch, as he confesses, the ultimate
problem he had in mind. The second volume was to have contained the
dynamics of the structures of bodies, and a third and fourth were to be
devoted to the physical investigation of the atom and its relation to
other atoms and matter in general.
Ohm devoted himself, however, with too much ardor to his duties as
teacher, to allow himself to give the time to his own work that would
have enabled him to finish it. Among other things that he did for his
students was to complete a text-book of physics. He confesses that he
had always felt an aversion to working at a text-book, and yet was
impelled to take up the task because he felt that in electricity, in
sound and in optics, the only way in which his students would get his
ideas, many of which were the result of his own work, was to have a
text-book by himself, and he felt bound in duty to do this for them, as
he had accepted the position of instructor. He succeeded in completing
the book very rapidly by lithographing his lectures immediately after
delivery and distributing copies to his classes.
It is almost needless to say that the work was, in its way, thoroughly
original. It was accomplished with the ease with which he was always
able to do things; but, unfortunately, the strain of the work told on
him at his years much more than when, as a younger man, he was able to
work without fatigue. He acknowledges, at the close of the preface, that
the task has been too great, and that he should not have undertaken its
accomplishment, and especially not in the hasty way in which it was
done. This preface was dated Easter, 1854. Within a few months, Ohm's
strength began to fail, and the end was not long in coming.
According to the translation of the address of Lommel, as it appeared in
the Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institute for 1851, Ohm died as the
result of repeated attacks of epilepsy, on July 6th, 1854. The date is
correct; the mode of death, however, is surely reported under a
misunderstanding. The physician who hears of epilepsy is prone at once
to inquire as to its origin, and to wonder how long the patient had been
suffering from it. There are no reports of previous attacks of epilepsy,
and the sudden development of genuine epilepsy in fatal form at the age
of 65 is quite unlikely.
His German biographer, Bauernfeind, who is quoted by Lommel as one of
the authorities for the details of Ohm's life, and who was a pupil and
intimate friend, gives quite a different account. Up to the very last
day of his life, Ohm continued his lectures. His duties as professor
appealed to his conscience as no others. On Thursday, July 6th, 1854, he
delivered his last lecture. That night at ten o'clock he died. The cause
of his death was given as a repeated apopleptic stroke. It is evidently
because of the occurrence of more apopleptic seizures than one, that the
assertion of epilepsy was introduced unto the account of his death.
For some days before his death, Ohm had been very weak, but had
continued to fulfil every duty. To us in the modern time, it may seem
surprising that there should be lectures in a university in July; but
the second semester of the university year in Germany is not supposed to
come to a close until the first of August, when the summer vacation
begins, and lectures are continued until well on into July. The manner
of Ohm's death, as told by his biographer friend, at once corrects the
idea of epilepsy, and also shows that his passing came without any of
the preliminary suffering that makes death a real misfortune. A half
hour before his death, he had been entertaining some friends with lively
recollections of the events of his early life in Cologne and Treves. He
had been quite gay in the stories that he told, and almost boyishly
happy in the recollections of those early days. For one for whom duty
had meant so much in life, and who had always tried so faithfully to
fulfil it, no happier call to higher things could possibly be imagined
than that which came to Ohm.
On the following Sunday he was followed to the grave by numbers of
friends, by all his colleagues and by most of the students of the Munich
University. The university felt that it had suffered a great loss, and
no signs of its grief were felt to be too much. Ohm was buried in the
old Munich graveyard, where his bones still rest, beneath the simple
memorial not unworthy of the modest scientist who did his work patiently
and quietly, yet with never-failing persistency; who cared not for the
applause of the multitude, and accomplished so much quite independently
of any of the ordinary helps from others and from great educational
institutions that are often supposed to be almost indispensably
necessary for the accomplishment of original scientific work.
Ohm's personal appearance will be of interest to many of those to whom
his discoveries have made him appeal as one of the great original
thinkers in modern science. He was almost small in stature, even below
middle height; and those who remember Virchow, may get something of an
idea of his appearance when told that those who saw Ohm and knew
Virchow, considered that there was a certain reminder of each other in
the two men. According to his intimate friend and biographer, he had a
very expressive face, with a high, somewhat doubled forehead. His eyes
were deep and full of intelligence. His mouth, very sharply defined,
betrayed, at the first glance, at once the earnest thinker and the
pleasant man of friendly disposition. He was always restful and never
seemed to be distracted. He talked but little, but his conversation was
always interesting, and, except when he was in some particularly serious
mood, was always likely to have a vein of light humor in it. He did not
hesitate to introduce a sparkle of wit now and then into his lectures,
and especially knew how gently to make fun of mistakes made by his
pupils, yet in such a way as not to hurt their feelings, but to make
them realize the necessity for more careful thought before giving
answers, and for appreciating principles before speculating on them. He
was particularly careful not to do anything that would offend his
students in any way, and it is to this care that the success of his
method of teaching has been especially attributed.
His habits of life were from the beginning of his career simple, and
they continued to be so until the end. He was never married, and he
himself attributed this to the unfavorable condition of his material
resources at the beginning of his career as a teacher, and the fact that
the improvement in these did not really come until he was well past
fifty years of age. He once confessed to a friend that he missed those
modest pleasures of family life which do so much to give courage and
strength for the greater as well as the lesser sufferings of life. Most
of his years of teaching he spent in boarding houses. Only after his
appointment to the professorship at Munich was he able to have a
dwelling for himself, which was presided over by a near relative.
Ohm is remembered as a teacher rather than as an educational
administrator. His pupils recall him as one who was able to be eminently
suggestive, while at the same time he succeeded in making it easy to
acquire the details of information. The didactic lecture, as a method of
teaching, did not appeal to him, and his success was due to the
application of quite other methods. He realized how much personal
influence meant, and the peculiarity of his system of teaching was an
almost uninterrupted lively personal intercourse with his pupils.
Demonstrations and exercises at the board always occupied the first half
of his two-hour lesson, and only the other half was devoted to the
setting forth of new matter. In this way, Ohm succeeded not only in
influencing each student according to his personal endowments, but he
also began the training of future teachers by giving them a living
example of what their work should be.
The success of Ohm as a teacher was recognized on all sides. His
attitude towards his scholars was very different from that which was
assumed by many teachers. Instead of being a mere conveyer of scientific
information, he was himself "a high priest of science," as one of his
pupils declared, supplying precious inspiration, and not merely pointing
out the limits of lessons and finding out whether they were known, but
making work productively interesting, while neglecting none of the
details. His pupils became distinguished engineers, and as this is the
period in which the state railroads were being built, there was plenty
of opportunity for them to apply the instruction they had received. Not
only were the reports of the Royal Commission of Inspection repeated
evidence of Ohm's success as a teacher, but the technical schools which
were under the care of Ohm's disciples soon came to be recognized as far
above the average, and as representing not only the successful teaching
of technics on his part, but also the influence that his example as a
teacher had in forming others to carry on the work.
How much Ohm was beloved by those who knew him best can be properly
appreciated from the following passage from the panegyric delivered in
Munich in 1855, not long after his death, by Professor Lamont, who had
known him intimately: "Nature," he said, "conferred upon Ohm goodness of
heart and unselfishness to an unusual degree. These precious qualities
formed the groundwork of all his intercourse with his fellows. Despite
the underlying strength of his character, which kept him faithfully at
work during all his career, whenever there was question of merely
personal advantage to himself, he preferred to yield to pressure from
without, rather than rouse himself to resistance, and he thus avoided
all bitterness in life. The unfortunate events which forced him, during
the early part of his career, from an advantageous position back into
private life, did not produce any misanthropic feelings in him, and when
later a brilliant recognition gave him that rank in the world of science
which by right belonged to him, his simplicity of conduct was not in
any way modified, nor was the modesty of his disposition at all
altered." In a word, Ohm was one of those rare geniuses whose
magnanimity placed him above the vicissitudes of fortune. His power to
do original work was not disturbed by the opposition which a really new
discoverer invariably meets, but his unfailing equanimity was just as
little exalted into conceit and pretentiousness by the praise which so
justly came to him once the real significance of his scientific work
dawned upon the world.
With the realization of all that Ohm's Work meant in the department of
electricity, it is easy to understand how his name deserves a place in
the science for all time. In order permanently to honor his memory, the
International Congress of Electricians, which met at Paris in 1881,
confirmed the action of the British Association of 1861, by giving the
name _ohm_ to the unit of electrical resistance. This is an ideal
monument to the great worker. It is as simple and modest a reward as
even he would have wished, expressing as it does, the gratitude of
succeeding generations of scientists for all time.
FOOTNOTES:
[23] Ohm's brother, Martin Ohm, deserves a passing word,
because his life is characteristically different in certain ways and
because, above all, it represents academic success, while Ohm's was
almost an academic failure. He finally received the professorship in
mathematics at Berlin, and came to be considered as one of the greatest
professors of the subject in Europe. Their careers form typical examples
of the fact, often notable in history, that talent finds a ready welcome
in the academic world, while genius is often neglected, and indeed may
be, and often is, the target for bitter opposition. The younger Ohm's
writings are mainly with regard to mathematics, but nearly always from
some general rather than special standpoint, and very often with regard
to the educational side of the subject. His first book was on Analytic
and Higher Geometry in their Elements. He then wrote class text-books of
mathematics and mechanics. One of his works, The Spirit of Mathematical
Analysis and its Relation to a Logical System, because of its value as
an educational document attracted widespread attention. This book,
translated by Ellis into English, was published in London in 1845. One
of Martin Ohm's earlier books should be of special interest to educators
because of its subject. Its rather lengthy title is, "An Attempt to
Formulate a Short, Fundamental, Clear Method to Enable Those without a
Taste for Mathematics to Learn the Mathematics Necessary for the Higher
and Technical Schools."
[24] Fordham University Press, 1907.
[25] Makers of Modern Medicine, Fordham University Press, New
York, 1907.
[26] New York, Van Nostrand Company, 1891.
[27] Published in the Annual Report of the Smithsonian
Institute for the year 1891, Washington, 1893.
[28] In the address on the scientific work of George Simon Ohm,
published by the Smithsonian Institute in 1891, this name is translated
Sangberg. In the article by Baurenfeind, in the Allegmeine Deutsche
Biographie, the name is spelled Langberg. The form of the old German L
may have suggested the letter S, or it may have slipped in as a
typographical error.