The Dayton Miller reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Dayton Miller

Dayton Clarence Miller (March 13 1866 - February 22, 1941) was an American physicist, astronomer, acoustician, and accomplished amateur flutist.

Table of contents

1 Biography 2 Bibliography 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

Biography

He obtained a doctorate in astronomy at Princeton University under Charles A. Young. In 1890, he worked at the Case School of Applied Science in Cleveland, Ohio teaching astronomy, later becoming the head of the physics department in 1893. Following the discovery of x-rays by Wilhelm Röntgen in 1895, Miller used cathode ray tubes built by William Crookes to make some of the first photographic images of concealed objects, including a bullet within a man's limb.

In 1900, he began work with Edward Morley on aether drift experiments that concern physicist, astronomers, and mathematicians dealing with Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. The type of experimental apparatus Miller used was very delicate. Dayton Miller performed over 200,000 observations and experiments dealing with the aether and aether drift. From 1902 to 1933 Miller performed experiments producing more accurate measurements. This work on ether yielded positive results.

Albert Einstein was interested in this ether drift theory and commented that altitudal influences and temperatures may provide sources of error in the findings. Miller's reply was:

"The trouble with Professor Einstein is that he knows nothing about my results. ... He ought to give me credit for knowing that temperature differences would affect the results. He wrote to me in November suggesting this. I am not so simple as to make no allowance for temperature."

Computer analysis after Miller's death on the little available data has proven that the shifts were statistically significant. Lately, there has been more of Miller's papers from the possession of R. S. Shankland to surface and they are awaiting future analysis.

Dr. Miller published manuals designed to be student handbooks for the performance of experimental problems in physics. In 1908, Miller's interest in acoustics led him to develop a machine to record sound waves photographically, called the phonodeik. He used the machine to compare the waveforms produced by flutes crafted from different materials. During World War I, Miller worked with the physical characteristics of pressure waves of large guns at the request of the government. Dayton Miller was elected to the National Academy of Science in 1921.

Bibliography

• Laboratory Physics (New York: Ginn & Company, 1903)
• The Science of Musical Sounds (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1916, revised 1926)
• Anecdotal History of the Science of Sound (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1935)
• Sound Waves: Their Shape and Speed (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1937)
• Sparks, Lightning and Cosmic Rays (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1939)

See also

• Luminiferous aether
• History of physics
• List of physics topics
• Michelson-Morley experiment

References

• William J. Maynard (1971). Dayton C. Miller: His Life, Work, and Contributions as a Scientist and Organologist. Master's thesis, Long Island University.

External links

• Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection at the The Library of Congress.
• "Dayton Miller's Ether-Drift Experiments: A Fresh Look" by James DeMeo.
• Dittrick Medical History Center: Crookes x-ray tubes

• "Dayton C. Miller's 1933 Cosmic Ether Model" by Glen W. Deen
• The Phonodeik
• Ether-Drift Experiment and the Determination of the Absolute Motion of the Earth

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