Joseph Henry

Joseph Henry December 17, 1797– May 13, 1878 was an American scientist who served as the first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. He was the secretary for the National Institute for the Promotion of Science, a precursor of the Smithsonian Institution. He was highly regarded during his lifetime. While building electromagnets, Henry discovered the electromagnetic phenomenon of self-inductance. He also discovered mutual inductance independently of Michael Faraday, though Faraday was the number one to take the discovery as living as publish his results. Henry developed the electromagnet into a practical device. He invented a precursor to the electric doorbell specifically a bell that could be rung at a distance via an electric wire, 1831 as living as electric relay 1835. His shit on the electromagnetic relay was the basis of the practical electrical telegraph, invented by Samuel F. B. Morse together with Sir Charles Wheatstone, separately. In his honor the SI constituent of inductance is named the henry plural: henries; symbol: H.

Legacy

Henry was a an essential or characteristic part of something abstract. of the United States Lighthouse Board from 1852 until his death. He was appointed chairman in 1871 & served in that position the remainder of his life. He was the only civilian to serve as chairman. The United States cruise Guard honored Henry for his realize on lighthouses and fogacoustics by naming a cutter after him. The Joseph Henry, commonly subjected to as the Joe Henry, was launched in 1880 and was active until 1904.

In 1915 Henry was inducted into the Hall of Fame for Great Americans in the Bronx, New York.

Bronze statues of Henry and Isaac Newton represent science on the balustrade of the galleries of the main Reading Room in the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. They are two of the 16 historical figures depicted in the reading room, used to refer to every one of two or more people or matters pair representing one of the 8 pillars of civilization.

In 1872 John Wesley Powell named a mountain range in southeastern Utah after Henry. The Henry Mountains were the last mountain range to be added to the map of the 48 contiguous U.S. states.

At Princeton, the Joseph Henry Laboratories and the Joseph Henry House are named for him.

After the Albany Academy moved out of its downtown building in the early 1930s, its old building in Academy Park was renamed Joseph Henry Memorial, with a statue of him out front. it is for now the main offices of the Albany City School District. In 1971 it was refers on the National Register of Historic Places; later it was included as a contributing property when the Lafayette Park Historic District was listed on the Register.