Hampden Sydney College - Kaleidoscope Yearbook (Hampden Sydney, VA)

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others were incorrect in their supposition that steel can be magnetized by exposure to violent light. In IS37 he commenced a series of researches upon the nature of the rays of light in the spectrum. Using the then little-known spectroscope, Draper showed first that all solids become self-luminous at a temperature of 9770 F., and that they then yield a con- tinuous spectrumg and that as the temperature of the body rises it emits more refrangible iays, the intensity of the rays previously emitted also increasing. In 1843 Draper photo- graphed the dark lines in the solar spectrum, and in l857 he showed the superiority of diffraction over prismatic spectra. He devoted special energy to the study of the ultra- violet, or, as he styled them, tithonic rays .... V . . In IS39 Draper obtained portraits, for the first time, by the daguerreotype process. Early in I840 Draper succeeded in taking the first photograph of the moon: the time occupied was twenty minutes, and the size of the figure about one inch in diameter. In l85I he secured phosphorescent images of the moon. To measure the chemical intensity of light Draper devised in I843 a chlor-hydrogen photometer, an instrument which was subsequently perfected and employed by Bunsen and Roscoe. Draper was among the first, if not the hrst, to obtain photographs of microscopic objects by combining the camera with the microscope. He used daguerreotypes obtained in this way to illustrate his lec- tures on physiology given at the University of New York between l845 and l850. Draper applied his studies on capillary attraction to explain the motion of the sap in plants, and between 1834 and I856 he published several papers upon this and kindred subjects, including the passage of gases through liquids, the circulation of the blood, etc .... In IS75 the American Academy of Arts and Sciences gave Draper the Rumford medal for his Researches in Radiant Energy, the president justly declaring him to have taken a prominent rank in the advance of science throughout the world. Draper was led, as he declares, by his physiological studies, to apply to nations the same laws of growth and development, presenting the results in his History of the Intellectual Development of Europe fI862J, a book which has been translated into many languages. Another work which has been highly praised for its impartiality and philosophical elevation is Draper's History of the American Civil War, published IS67-70. In l874 Draper wrote the History of the Conflict Between Science and Religion, to which Professor Tyndall wrote the preface. By many, Draper has been regarded as a materialist, but he was a theist and a firm believer in a future state. In the Royal Society's Catalogue of Scientific Papers, Draper's name is appended to fifty-one!! Article signed by Professor W. Jerome Harrison, in Vol. XVI, D. N. B., l888. Dr. Draper had relatives settled in Mecklenburg County, and it was these he joined on coming to America a few years afler 1830. His was the active mind of a Liverpool man-as soon as he had taken his degree in medicine at Philadelphia, he got in touch with a few public-spirited residents of Southside Virginia who felt the importance of a close study of local mineralogy. It was this connection that brought Draper to Hampden-Sidney College. It is not impossible that he had been a short time in South America before coming to Virginia. His brother-in-law, Professor Gardner fwho succeeded him at Hampden-Sidney Collegej. was from Brazil. While at Hampden-Sidney, Dr. Draper was influential in getting the Medical College of Virginia started, under the charter of Hampden-Sidney College. The late Dr. John Peter Metlauer owned a copy of Draper's early volume of papers, The Effect of Light on Plants, Src. This book, fortunately, is now deposited in the Library of Hampden-Sidney College. A half dozen or more of the papers in this book were based on experiments done at Hampden-Sidney. A. M. 13

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Elnlin william Bremer, IHILE., EEE., 1881-1882 llt is not every college in the country that has even one of its Professors listed in the Dictionary of National Biography, the great British authority. The following account of Dr. Draper, taken from the sixteenth volume of this extraordinary encyclopaedia, is worth a reading for itself and is of interqst locally for the mention of Hampden-Sidney College. Draper was Professor at Hampden-Sidney from IS36 to IS39. Here his capabilities for original scientific research found full play, a good physical and chemical laboratory having been organized by President Cushing. Draper himself added a good deal to the equipment, although funds were getting scant during his tenure of oflice. A batch of vouchers, purchases of scientific apparatus, signed by Draper and allowed by the Board of Trustees, is to be seen among the valuable documents deposited in the lVluseum.l ,'t.- '- I OHN WILLIAM DRAPER, Chemist, born at St, l-lelen's, near gg Liverpool, on May 5, l8I l, was educated at Woodhouse. Grove School. Here he showed scientific tastes, and, after some instruction from a private teacher, he completed his studies at University College, ig, ic London. Shortly after attaining his majority, Draper emigrated to the ' V l 'l l United States fin 18331, whither several members of his family had preceded him. l-le studied at the University of Pennsylvania, where . .'l ' . he took the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1836, presenting as his J - thesis an essay on The Crystallization of Camphor Under the lnllu- ence of light. Draper contributed several papers on physiological problems to the American fournal of Medical Sciences, which led to his appointment, in IS36, as professor of chemistry and physiology lsicl at Hampden-Sidney College, Vir- ginia. l-lere his capabilities for original scientific research found full play, and the publi- cation of his results brought him the offer of the professorship of chemistry and physiology in the University of New York, a post which he accepted in l839. ln 1841 he took an active part in organizing a medical department in connection with the university, acting as secretary until I850, when he succeeded Dr. Valentine Mott as president, an office which he held till 1873. Draper married youngg he had three sons and three daughters. Of his sons, Henry Draper lb. 1837, at Hampden-Sidneyl became famous as an astronomer and spectro- scopist, and John Christopher Draper attained equal celebrity for his researches in physiology. Their father spent the latter part of his life in a quiet retreat at Hastings, on the Hudson, a few miles from New York City. l'le died on January 4, I882, and was buried in Greenwood cemetery, Long Island. Draper distinguished himself in the department of molecular physics, of physiology, and of chemistry. The results of his work appeared mainly in the American journal of bcience, the fournal of the Franklin Institute, and the Philosophical Magazine. His principal papers were devoted to investigations concerning the phenomena of light and heat, and these their author collected and republished in one volume in I878 under the title of Scientific Memoirs-being experimental contributions to a Knowledge of Radiant Energy. ln I835 he published accurate experiments showing that Mrs. Somerville and 12

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CAMPUS SCENES