Charles H. (Charles Henry) Smith

Charles H. Smith (Charles Henry Smith, 1861–1926) was an American educator and coauthor of several physics textbooks for secondary-school students. Surviving catalog and library records link him to works including Manual of Experimental Physics for Secondary Schools, Principles of Physics, and Physics.

A 1920 edition of Physics identifies him as holding an M.E. from Cornell and serving as head of the department of physics and assistant principal at Hyde Park High School in Chicago. The same book makes clear that his teaching aimed to explain familiar physical phenomena in plain, practical terms rather than leaning too heavily on difficult mathematics.

That approach gives his books a clear purpose even now: they were written to help beginners feel that physics belonged in everyday life, not just in formulas. Although little biographical detail was easy to confirm beyond his school role and publications, his surviving textbooks show a teacher deeply interested in making science understandable.