author
Edward Williams Morley
1838–1923
Best remembered for the Michelson–Morley experiment, this careful American scientist also made remarkably precise measurements that helped shape modern chemistry. His work combined patience, exactness, and a talent for asking big questions with simple apparatus.
1 Audiobook
On the relative motion of the earth and the luminiferous æther
by Albert A. (Albert Abraham) Michelson, Edward Williams Morley
About the author
Born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1838, Edward Williams Morley became an American chemist and physicist known for unusually exact experimental work. He studied at Williams College and later pursued both scientific and theological training before building his academic career.
Morley taught for many years at Western Reserve University, where he earned a reputation as a meticulous investigator. He is most famous for collaborating with Albert A. Michelson on the Michelson–Morley experiment, an attempt to detect the Earth's motion through the hypothetical ether. Although the experiment did not find the expected effect, it became one of the most important results in the history of physics.
He was also highly respected for his measurements of the atomic weight of oxygen, work that showed the same precision and care that marked all of his research. Morley died in West Hartford, Connecticut, in 1923, leaving behind a legacy built less on showmanship than on exact, trustworthy science.