Physics and Albert MIchelesen essays

Physics and Albert MIchelesen essays ysics is a powerful word- this single word embodies everything that the universe encompasses- and everything even beyond this point. Excelling in the field of optics and broaching the topic of light, Albert Michelsen was a man who had made an important mark in this area that would make an everlasting impression in the world of physics. During Michelsens long career, he was able to explore the world of physics with a greater depth, due to the abundance of knowledge he had received in the area of physics by both learning and teaching it in his career- he initiated his career as earning the position as an instructor in physics and chemistry at the Academy. Later, in 1879, Michelsen was posted to the Nautical Almanac Office, Washington. He also visited the Universities of Berlin, Heidelberg, College de France and Ecole Polytechnique. In 1883 Michelsen returned to America and became a professor of physics in the Case School of Applied Science. In 1890 he accepted a similar position at Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts and in the year1892, Michelsen became the highly prestigious and distinguished role of the Professor of Physics and the first Head of Department at the new University of Chicago (nobel.se/physics/laureates/1907/michelson-bio.html). During his lifetime, Michelsen accomplished a great deal in the physics world. Michelsen contributed a great deal in the area of optics, experimenting with some rather crude, but respectable versions, at that time, of approximating the speed of light (Gary Waldman, Introduction to light: the physics of light, vision, and color, Englewood Cliffs, N.J. : Prentice-Hall, 1983, p. 221). These rough sketches led to the invention of a new apparatus- the interferometer. This device was designed to split a single beam of light into two different beams of light. After the divergence has both beams in two lines, perpendicular to one another, they are brought back together onc...

Samuel Morse and the Invention of the Telegraph

Samuel Morse and the Invention of the Telegraph The word telegraph is derived from Greek and means to write far, which describes exactly what a telegraph does. At the height of its use,  telegraph technology involved a worldwide system of wires with stations and operators and messengers, that carried messages and news by electricity faster than any other invention before it. Pre-Electricity Telegraphy Systems The first crude telegraph system was made without electricity. It was a system of semaphores or tall poles with movable arms, and other signaling apparatus, set within physical sight of one another. There was such a telegraph line between Dover and London at during the Battle of Waterloo; that related the news of the battle, which had come to Dover by ship, to an anxious London, when a fog set in (obscuring the line of sight) and the Londoners had to wait until a courier on horseback arrived. Electrical Telegraph The electrical telegraph is one of Americas gifts to the world. The credit  for this invention belongs to Samuel Finley Breese Morse. Other inventors had discovered the principles of the telegraph, but Samuel Morse was the first to understand the practical significance of those facts and was the first to take steps to make a practical invention; which took him 12 long years of work. Early Life of  Samuel Morse Samuel Morse was born in 1791, in Charlestown, Massachusetts. His father was a Congregational minister and a scholar of high standing, who was able to send his three sons to Yale College. Samuel (or Finley, as he was called by his family) attended Yale at the age of fourteen and was taught by Benjamin Silliman, Professor of Chemistry, and Jeremiah Day, Professor of Natural Philosophy, later President of Yale College, whose teaching gave Samuel the education which in later years led to the invention of the telegraph. Mr. Days lectures are very interesting, the young student wrote home in 1809; they are upon electricity; he has given us some very fine experiments, the whole class taking hold of hands form the circuit of communication and we all receive the shock apparently at the same moment. Samuel Morse the Painter Samuel Morse was  a gifted  artist; in fact, he earned a part of his college expenses painting miniatures at five dollars apiece. He even decided at first to become an artist rather than an inventor. Fellow student Joseph M. Dulles of Philadelphia wrote the following about Samuel, Finley [Samuel Morse] bore the expression of gentleness entirely... with intelligence, high culture, and general information, and with a strong bent to the fine arts. Soon after graduating from Yale, Samuel Morse made the acquaintance of Washington Allston, an American artist. Allston was then living in Boston but was planning to return to England, he arranged for Morse to accompany him as his pupil. In 1811, Samuel Morse went to England with Allston and returned to America four years later an accredited portrait painter, having studied not only under Allston but under the famous master, Benjamin West. He opened a studio in Boston, taking commissions for portraits Marriage Samuel Morse married Lucretia Walker in 1818. His reputation as a painter increased steadily, and in 1825 he was in Washington painting a portrait of the Marquis La Fayette, for the city of New York, when he heard from his father the bitter news of his wifes death. Leaving the portrait of La Fayette unfinished, the heartbroken artist made his way home. Artist or Inventor? Two years after his wifes death, Samuel Morse was again obsessed with the marvels of electricity, as he had been in college, after attending a series of lectures on that subject given by James Freeman Dana at Columbia College. The two men became friends. Dana visited Morses studio often, where the two men would talk for hours. However, Samuel Morse was still devoted to his art, he had himself and three children to support, and painting was his only source of income. In 1829, he returned to Europe to study art for three years. Then came the turning point in the life of Samuel Morse. In the autumn of 1832, while traveling home by ship, Samuel Morse joined a conversation with a few scientists scientific men who were on board. One of the passengers asked this question: Is the velocity of electricity reduced by the length of its conducting wire? One of the men replied that electricity passes instantly over any known length of wire and referred to Franklins experiments with several miles of wire, in which no appreciable time elapsed between a touch at one end and a spark at the other. This was the seed of knowledge that led the mind of Samuel Morse to invent the telegraph. In November of 1832, Samuel Morse found himself on the horns of a dilemma. To give up his profession as an artist meant that he would have no income; on the other hand, how could he continue wholeheartedly painting pictures while consumed with the idea of the telegraph? He would have to go on painting and develop his telegraph in what time he could spare. His brothers, Richard and Sidney, were both living in New York and they did what they could for him, giving him a room in a building they had erected at Nassau and Beekman Streets. Samuel Morses Poverty How very poor Samuel Morse was at this time is indicated by a story told by General Strother of Virginia who hired Morse to teach him how to paint: I paid the money [tuition], and we dined together. It was a modest meal, but good, and after he [Morse] had finished, he said, This is my first meal for twenty-four hours. Strother, dont be an artist. It means beggary. Your life depends upon people who know nothing of your art and care nothing for you. A house dog lives better, and the very sensitiveness that stimulates an artist to work keeps him alive to suffering. In 1835, Samuel Morse received an appointment to the teaching staff of  New York University  and moved his workshop to a room in the University building in Washington Square. There, he lived through the year 1836, probably the darkest and longest year of his life, giving lessons to pupils in the art of painting while his mind was in the throes of the great invention. The Birth of the Recording Telegraph In that year [1836] Samuel Morse took into his confidence one of his colleagues in the University, Leonard Gale, who assisted Morse in improving the telegraph apparatus. Morse had formulated the rudiments of the telegraphic alphabet, or  Morse Code, as it is known today. He was ready to test his invention. Yes, that room of the University was the birthplace of the Recording Telegraph, said Samuel Morse years later. On September 2, 1837, a successful experiment was made with seventeen hundred feet of copper wire coiled around the room, in the presence of Alfred Vail, a student, whose family owned the Speedwell Iron Works, at Morristown, New Jersey, and who at once took an interest in the invention and persuaded his father, Judge Stephen Vail, to advance money for experiments. Samuel Morse filed a petition for a patent in October and formed a partnership with Leonard Gale, as well as Alfred Vail. Experiments continued at the Vail shops, with all the partners working day and night. The prototype was publicly demonstrated at the University, visitors were requested to write dispatches, and the words were sent around a three-mile coil of wire and read at the other end of the room. Samuel Morse Petitions Washington to Build Telegraph Line In February 1838, Samuel Morse set out for Washington with his apparatus, stopping at Philadelphia on the invitation of the Franklin Institute to give a demonstration. In Washington, he presented to Congress a petition, asking for a money appropriation to enable him to build an experimental telegraph line. Samuel Morse Applies for European Patents Samuel Morse then returned to New York to prepare to go abroad, as it was necessary for his rights that his invention was patented in European countries before publication in the United States. However, the British Attorney-General refused him a patent on the grounds that American newspapers had published his invention, making it public property. He did receive a French  patent. Introduction to the Art of Photography One interesting result of Samuel Morses 1838 trip to Europe was something not related to the telegraph at all. In Paris, Morse met  Daguerre, the celebrated Frenchman who had discovered a process of making pictures by sunlight, and Daguerre had given Samuel Morse the secret. This led to the first pictures taken by sunlight in the United States and to the first photographs of the human face taken anywhere. Daguerre had never attempted to photograph living objects and did not think it could be done, as a  rigidity of position was required for a long exposure. Samuel Morse, however, and his associate, John W. Draper, were very soon taking portraits successfully. Building of the First Telegraph Line In December 1842, Samuel Morse traveled to Washington for another appeal to  Congress. At last, on February 23, 1843, a bill appropriating thirty thousand dollars to lay the wires between Washington and Baltimore passed the House by a majority of six. Trembling with anxiety, Samuel Morse sat in the gallery of  the House  while the vote was taken and that night Samuel Morse wrote, The long agony is over. But the agony was not over. The bill had yet to pass  the Senate. The last day of the expiring session of Congress arrived on March 3, 1843, and the Senate had not yet passed the bill. In the gallery of the Senate, Samuel Morse had sat all the last day and evening of the session. At midnight the session would close. Assured by his friends that there was no possibility of the bill being reached, he left the Capitol and retired to his room at the hotel, broken-hearted. As he ate breakfast the next morning, a young lady with a smile, exclaimed, I have come to congratulate you! For what, my dear friend? asked Morse, of the young lady, who was Miss Annie G. Ellsworth, daughter of his friend the Commissioner of Patents. On the passage of your bill. Morse assured her it was not possible, as he remained in the Senate-Chamber until nearly midnight. She then informed him that her father was present until the close, and, in the last moments of the session, the bill was passed without debate or revision. Professor Samuel Morse was overcome by the intelligence, so joyful and unexpected, and gave at the moment to his young friend, the bearer of these good tidings, the promise that she should send the first message over the first line of the telegraph that was opened. Samuel Morse and his partners then proceeded to the construction of the forty-mile line of wire between Baltimore and Washington. Ezra Cornell, (founder of  Cornell University) had invented a machine to lay pipe underground to contain the wires and he was employed to carry out the work of construction. The work was commenced at Baltimore and was continued until the experiment proved that the underground method would not do, and it was decided to string the wires on poles. Much time had been lost, but once the system of poles was adopted the work progressed rapidly, and by May 1844, the line was completed. On the twenty-fourth of that month, Samuel Morse sat before his instrument in the room of the Supreme Court at Washington. His friend Miss Ellsworth handed him the message which she had chosen: WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT! Morse flashed it to Vail forty miles away in Baltimore, and Vail instantly flashed back the same momentous words, WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT! The profits from the invention were divided into sixteen shares (the partnership having been formed in 1838) of which: Samuel Morse held 9, Francis O. J. Smith 4, Alfred Vail 2, Leonard D. Gale 2. First Commercial Telegraph Line In 1844, the first commercial telegraph line was open for business. Two days later, the Democratic National Convention met in Baltimore to nominate a President and Vice-President. The leaders of the Convention wanted to nominate New York Senator Silas Wright, who was away in Washington, as running mate to  James Polk, but they needed to know if Wright would agree to run as Vice-President. A human messenger was sent to Washington, however, a telegraph was also sent to Wright. The telegraph messaged the offer to Wright, who telegraphed back to the Convention his refusal to run. The delegates did not believe the telegraph until the human messenger returned the next day and confirmed the telegraphs message. Improved Telegraph Mechanism and Code Ezra Cornell built more telegraph lines across the United States, connecting city with city, and Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail improved the hardware and perfected the code. Inventor, Samuel Morse lived to see his telegraph span the continent, and link communications between Europe and North America. Replacing the Pony Express By 1859, both the railroad and the telegraph had reached the town of St. Joseph, Missouri. Two thousand miles further east and still unconnected was California. The only transportation to California was by stage-coach, a sixty-day journey. To establish quicker communication with California, the Pony Express mail route was organized. Solo riders on horseback could cover the distance in ten or twelve days. Relay stations for the horses and men were set up at points along the way, and a mailman rode off from St. Joseph every twenty-four hours after the arrival of the train (and mail) from the East. For a time the Pony Express did its work and did it well. President Lincolns first inaugural speech was carried to California by the Pony Express. By 1869, the Pony Express was replaced by the telegraph, which now had lines all the way to San Francisco and seven years later the first  transcontinental railroad  was completed. Four years after that, Cyrus Field and  Peter Cooper  laid the  Atlantic Cable. The Morse telegraph machine could now send messages across the sea, as well as from New York to the Golden Gate.

Training & Talent Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Training & Talent Management - Essay Example I therefore appreciate the fact that Training and Talent Management has a significant impact on employees (managers, sales staff, customer service, etc.) (Treen, 2000). I suggests that it is important for the HR departments in organizations to ascertain that the employees at all levels including the managers, sales staff, customer service, etc are given equal chances to gain a clear insight of their expected roles and duties which will facilitate meeting the core values as well as purposes of the organization. This realization has enabled me as an aspiring manager to value the importance of Training and Talent Management in relation to the set goals of organization (Treen, 2000). Prior to this new knowledge I would have treated the process of recruitment of employees superficially. For instance, I would have employed the traditional method of placing an advert for job vacancies in the local dailies then asking for written applications based on purely academic qualifications as reflected on the curriculum vitae. I would also have â€Å"canvassed† from within the existing employees based on my â€Å"cronies† as a way of ‘buying royalty’. I would also have involved a hastily constituted panel to conduct â€Å"interviews† whose outcomes would have been premeditated. From the foregoing, it can be understood that I would not have been able to match talent equal to the task which is the core of Training and Talent Management. This topic on Training and Talent Management has acted as an eye opener. I now realize that the objective of Training and Talent Management is facilitating for efficient accomplishment of the responsibilities of the employees to the anticipated standards. Effectiveness of Training and Talent Management programs should be gauged by the perceived results which are reflected in the level of performance of the employees (Treen, 2000).

The challenges of managing communication, leadership and decision Essay

The challenges of managing communication, leadership and decision making - Essay Example The role of managers is to level possible disagreements and create positive climate and atmosphere. In hospitality, sector, cohesive groups, and self-managing teams create a tension and pressure which has a negative impact on critical analysis and decision-making process. The challenge of management is to restructure self-managing teams and introduce new methods and forms of communication between teams members. Cohesiveness is more likely when members of a team are to gather for a reasonable length of time, and changes occur only slowly. Strict guidelines and rules established by a manager will help to avoid conflict situations and turnover of members. Low morale and a negative attitude are often associated with a large number of team members undertaking similar work. This requires realistic planning by which the degree and quality of goal achievement can be determined. Teamwork coordination should be stated clearly and communicated to those concerned, and to those who are subject to the operation of the control system. Decision-making has a great influence on effective teamwork, because it involves some degree of participation. Team decision-making uses an overlapping form of structure (Dittmer 2001). Cross-cultural environment and cross-cultural teams create another challenge for management. This issue is typical for hospitality management and communication based on the nature of business itself. Hospitality management operates on the global scale and has to deal with different customer groups and culturally diverse employees. In this case, communication and leadership are the main tools used by management to eliminate cultural differences and tension (Beardwell et al 2001). There are always certain groups in any society that are discriminated against unfavorably due to the prejudices and preconceptions of the people with whom they have to deal. These preconceptions are sometimes verbalized, but often not, and the people holding these preconceptions may well be unaware of the way that they see and judge things and people. The key to managing a diverse workforce is increasing individual awareness of and sensitivity to differences of race, gender, social class, sexual orientation, physical ability, and age. The locus of change is the individual and change itself is both intra- and inter-personal. The action plan will can be based on employee' survey (questionnaire) aimed to identify the main areas of improvement and current problems faced by hospitality managers (Dow 1999). Primarily, it is crucial to develop mutual acceptance and membership within each team. Members in different departments and corporate office environment should have an initial mistrust of each other and a fear of inadequacies. If they remain defensive and limit their behavior through conformity and ritual, the manager should adopt diversity policies to reduce a negative impact (Bowen, Ford 2004). The priority is with questions of likes and dislikes, and power or dependency of group members. Critics admit that there is

Ghost Town Essay Example for Free

Ghost Town Essay A graveyard at midnight was always going to be scary. I just hadnt expected it to be quite so scary. Shadows scuttled behind crooked grave-stones. Street lights glowered like white unblinking eyes through the fog. Cold, clammy fingers stroked the back of my neck. Its just the wind, I told myself. Dont go shrieking like some silly girl, or youll give them away. I clutched my bad tighter, keeping my eyes on the circle of bobbing torches. Those Cool Club kids thought they were so cool, coming to the graveyard in the middle of the night, dressed all in black. I could hear them giggling, and making spooky sounds, as Reaper whose real name was Matt held a torch under his chin and told some stupid ghost story. Skeleton was glugging down some disgusting black drink they called bats blood, though I knew it was really blackcurrant cordial with green food colouring and a bit of flour. I knew this because Skeleton is my big brother Hamish, and hed chased me all round the house this afternoon trying to make, me drink it. Hamish and his mates thought they were so cool, but Id show them! I crouched down behind a broken stone angel, and carefully rummaged through my bag. A bag of flour, a toy microphone that made your voice echo loudly, a length of ragged white muslin curtain right, I was ready. Just then, I heard a weird shuffling sound right behind me, I whipped round and saw A rage infected dog! It was moving rapidly, in my direction and ready to pounce. Slowly and quietly it snuck up on me edging closer and closer. Without out any sudden warning the mad dog pounced. Rapidly, I moved just in time to get out of the way. The rage infected dog sensed my fear and I stood still as still can be. Furiously, I ditched my plans and I decided to make a run for it, leaving my bag and equipment behind. As soon as I started running, the dog came racing behind me, just waiting to take a bite out of my, little legs. The graveyard was a dark and mysterious place, which I would have never dared to go. My thoughts and my fear were getting the better of me and my legs. I started to slow down. In the moments of shear disbelief, the river came upon me, which ran past the graveyard. Without any conscious decision I leapt into the river with full force. The dog came to an abrupt halt. The blood was pumping frantically throughout my body. Moments later my heart rate began to normalise. The dog lost my scent and gave a frightening howl, which temporarily paralysed my hearing. The rage within the dog was building. I looked up through the shrubs, in the direction of the river bank. Slowly and quietly I swam towards the bank. The dog turned back and bailed. I was determined to get back to the club but the winds and the noises of the graveyard were again taking advantage of me, breaking me down slowly and slowly. I made the most immediate decision, and that was to follow the dog. As stupid as I was, I would always keep a safe distance away from the unpredictable creature. With no clear path and all dense shrubs, I had trouble getting out of the banks. My body was shivering; the hairs on my legs and arms were all straight and upright. The deep cuts from the bushes started to emerge on my legs and the lacerations started to sting as the dry wind grazed against them. With blood trickling out of the cuts on my legs I started walking, keeping a good distance from the dog. I soon got back to the clubs location and no one was there. And then it hit me, I had just lost track of the dog. The problem was where was the dog? After 10 minutes of walking, I soon spotted the club whimpering behind a cold hard abrasive rock. I was worried. There was no sign of Hamish, my big brother. Matt said that Hamish had gone off wandering tying to find me. One of the other club members spotted a dark red trail just ahead of the rock. Matt, his mates and I grouped together and we started following the blood trail. It seemed endless. The trail went on and on and no one knew when it would stop. After endlessly travelling in the middle of a graveyard, I became weary. Then we heard a noise. It was a deep heavy growl. Matt peeked through the bushes and gave a terrifying shriek. His face was purple. I looked through the bushes I looked up and I saw the rage infected dog right at him. It was Hamish. He was missing a great chunk from his neck and the dog was furiously tugging at the remaining leg. The shear force of the dog ripped the leg off. It was sent flying. The dog rapidly chased after the remaining leg and chewed it to pieces. All the blood and flesh went everywhere. I felt weak and dizzy. My brother was dead. Right in front of my eyes, in pieces! I had sunk to an all time low. I began weeping on Matts shoulder. My brother had gone. Just perished Matt tried calling for help but there was no answer. The group started moving on. We all walked up to Hamishs body, which was ripped up in pieces. We all thought the dog was long gone, until I turned around. Black creatures were emerging from the bushes. Slowly they grew bigger. The street lights around the graveyard began flickering. Suddenly they went out. From nowhere howling began to start. The lights started flickering again. And then everything stopped. Matt looked around and immediately clenched my hand. We were surrounded. Dogs were everywhere. Suddenly, Matt pulled out a knife. But how? Matt handed me a silver serrated knife, which was identical to his. I could barely hold on to it with one hand. With both hands I gripped it. And with my life on the line, we all charged at the dogs. Waving our knives back and forth, hurling flesh everywhere. In a flash, one of the dogs started heading in my direction. With a last and desperate attempt, the dog made a frantic move. It pounced at me I moved the knife right into the view of my face. I hacked the dogs face off with the knife. Its mangled body came flying into my face and knocked me over. Another ferocious creature came and looked over me. I was finished! Suddenly the wind started howling and a silver knife came down on the dog. Its innards flew everywhere. What looked like a stomach came flying into my mouth. Furiously I spat it out. With my mouth bathed in blood, I felt sick. The dogs had bailed. But what was ahead of us?

Essay --

What Is a â€Å"Real† Woman? Criticism of Existing Body Positive Advertising Thinner and thinner models are being used in combination with Photoshop, creating an impossible beauty ideal that is affecting the physical and emotional health of women in our society. The typical fashion model presented in advertisements has protruding hip bones and an androgynous body shape due to dangerously low body fat. They are slimmed and smoothed further in images by the use of Photoshop. The documentary MissRepresentation points out, â€Å"you never see a photograph in the media of a woman considered beautiful that hasn’t been digitally altered to make her absolutely inhumanely perfect†. Since the 1980’s, the quest to be thin has shifted from eliminating excess weight to eliminating bulges, or flesh that wiggles (â€Å"Slender Body† 191). It is no longer enough to be thin. The ideal body is also toned, bolted down, and maintains â€Å"firm bodily margins† (â€Å"Slender Body† 191). This nearly impossible beauty standard is reflected and enforced by advertisements showing emaciated models selling products to smooth out bumps, reduce wrinkles, or tone the body. The media’s depiction of female bodies has a detrimental influence on women’s perception of themselves and has come under fire in recent years. Girls growing up in our media soaked culture internalize society’s ever-thinning standard of beauty, believing that they can never be slender enough. The negative effect of the media has been linked to the spread of eating disorders (â€Å"Never Just Pictures†, Thompson). This has led to a public outcry against impossibly thin, airbrushed models and a demand for more honest advertising. The movement toward â€Å"body positive† advertising is a response to the damaging eff... ...ove, it still rejects older and disabled women as beautiful. It also renders women with imperfect skin or tattoos as unacceptable. Although Skinnygirl claims to show the average woman in their advertisement, they still only represent a limited demographic. Although presented as body positive, Dove, M&S and Skinnygirl’s advertising campaigns using â€Å"real women† still subscribe to existing beauty standards to maintain firm body margins and reject certain body types as beautiful. Even if well intentioned, advertising for beauty products is inherently not a good place to start the body positive movement because it relies on the consumer feeling like they need to improve themselves to buy the product. Instead of focusing on how to make â€Å"ordinary† women feel beautiful, the focus should shift away from the body. Women should not feel as if their beauty is their self worth.

“Notes of a Native Son” by James Baldwin Essay

The point of Baldwin’s essays is not so much to make his readers aware of racial prejudice in the States as it is to attempt to look at that prejudice, analyze it, understand where it comes from, and decide how to deal with it. In this essay, James Baldwin explores the complexities of both race relationships and familial relationships. Concerning his relationship with his father, Baldwin admits toward the beginning of the essay: â€Å"We had got on badly, partly because we shared, in our different fashions, the vice of stubborn pride.† This admission sets the tone for the rest of the essay, an idea of both opposition and similarity in this relationship. Also, Baldwin begins the title essay in Notes of a Native Son with a statement of death and birth. He mentions that â€Å"my father died. On the same day, a few hours later, his last child was born.†(p,52) This theme of death and birth also works itself out on a larger scale, eventually encompassing the entire ess ay. At the end of the essay Baldwin begins with his father’s funeral. Then he goes into reminiscing the times when his father was alive, realizing that they hadn’t talked much. Then back to the funeral, â€Å"The casket now was opened and the mourners were being led up the aisle to look for the last time on the deceased.† (p.65) Baldwin takes a last look at his father’s face.Baldwin is able to see his father in a different light, one that includes both his negative and positive characteristics. In doing so, Baldwin is also able to see himself more clearly. By examining his relationship with his father, Baldwin experiences several revelations, which culminate in a type of symbolic death and spiritual rebirth by the end of the essay.