Popular Science Monthly/Volume 44/December 1893/Obituary Notes

OBITUARY NOTES.

The death is announced of M. Daniel Colladon, of Geneva, one of the most eminent of the former generation of physicists, in the ninety-second year of his age. He was born at Geneva in 1802; became an engineer; studied physics and mathematics in Paris; returning to Geneva, performed in co-operation with Sturm, in 1827, his famous experiments on the propagation of sound in water. The two also studied together the resistance of materials and the compressibility of liquids. In 1829 he became Professor of Mechanics in the École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures in Paris; later, professor in the academy at Geneva. Near the beginning of his career he studied the properties of liquid veins, and executed the remarkable experiment of the transportation of luminous waves by a column of water, which is the basis of the curious luminous fountains. One of his most important discoveries was that of the use of compressed air as a medium for the transmission of energy a discovery which has found practical application of great value in apparatus for perforating tunnels. He was also an earnest student of meteorological phenomena, and made many observations on lightning and hail. Like most students of broad minds, he took much interest in the popularization of science.

Henry J. Philpott, a writer who had gained considerable distinction in the discussion of economical subjects, died of consumption in Niles, Cal., September 24th. He was a resident of Iowa; had been engaged in editorial work in that State; and had gone to California as a last resort for the possible benefit of his health. He was prominent in the organization of the Free-Trade movement in Iowa; was interested in the work of the Society for Political Education of this city; and published many bright and forcible papers on the subjects he held near at heart. He contributed to The Popular Science Monthly articles or letters on The Joint-Snake Idiocy (vol. xxx); Social Sustenance (vol. xxxi); Origin of the Rights of Property (vol. xxxv); Irrigation of Arid Lands, and A Novel Water-Cooler (vol. xxxvi); A Little Boy's Game with a Ball (vol. xxxvii); and Almond Culture in California (vol. xli).