Henry Morton

Background

His father was rector of St. James's Episcopal Church in Philadelphia for more than fifty years.

Education

Henry's early education was received at the Episcopal Academy, Philadelphia, and at the age of seventeen he entered the University of Pennsylvania, graduating with the class of 1857.

Toward the close of his college course he suggested to some of his classmates that they undertake the translation of the famous Rosetta Stone that had been discovered in Egypt during the occupation of Napoleon, a plaster cast of which had been presented to the Philomathean, a philosophical undergraduate society, of which Morton was a member.

Although this stone had been studied by others no complete translations had been made.

The work was published in 1858 (2nd edition, 1859) under the title: Report of the Committee of the Philomathean Society of the University of Pennsylvania to Translate the Inscription on the Rosetta Stone.

In 1859 Morton studied law for a short time, but as a result of his success in teaching chemistry and physics at the Episcopal Academy, he soon gave up law to devote himself to science.

His lectures were so "novel, entertaining and instructive" that his lecture room had to be enlarged and finally a new wing added to the academy building.

The fame of them spread, and in 1863 he became professor of chemistry at the newly organized Philadelphia Dental College and the next year was appointed resident secretary of the Franklin Institute.

Career

The inscriptions were in Greek, demotic, and hieroglyphic; Morton undertook the translation of the hieroglyphic inscription while two of his associates worked on the Greek and demotic inscriptions.

Within each page-design was a portion of the translation in Morton's bold, clear, characteristic penmanship.

Before the first lecture every seat in the house was sold, as was also the case at a repetition of the lecture a few days later.

In 1868 he occupied the chair of chemistry and physics at the University of Pennsylvania during the year's leave-of-absence of the regular professor.

The following year a separate department of chemistry was created for him.

It is said that his printed testimony given in patent litigation, if collected, would equal in volume a set of Scott's novels (Sellers and Leeds, post).

He wrote extensively on the subjects of fluorescence, galvanic batteries, pneumatic pyrometer, conservation of energy, gaseous compounds, Roentgen rays, photometry, liquid air, artificial illumination, electric storage, engineering fallacies, and dynamo-electric machines, his articles appearing in various American and European papers, notably in Engineering (London).

"With him, " it was said, "poetry was a natural form of expression, " but very little of his verse was published.

[Coleman Sellers and A. R. Leeds, Biog.

Notice of Prest.

Henry Morton (1892); F. DeR.

Furman, Morton Memorial, A Hist.

of the Stevens Inst.

of Technology (1905); Who's Who in America, 1901-02; Science, May 30, 1902; Engineering (London), July 18, 1902; E. L. Nichols, "Biog.

Memoir of Henry Morton" (1915), in Nat.

Acad.

Sci.

Biog.

Memoirs, vol.

Religion

He was also a contributor to the New York Tribune, the Churchman, the Outlook, and the Church Eclectic.

Personality

In this connection, he was the first to prove that the bright line on the sun's disk adjacent to the edge of the moon was a photographic phenomenon and not an optical one.

Connections

Mother:

VIII

VIII; name of mother and date of marriage from a grandson.

married:

Dodge

On Aug. 20, 1862, he married Clara Whiting Dodge, and they had two children.

children:

Dodge

On Aug. 20, 1862, he married Clara Whiting Dodge, and they had two children.

Grandson:

VIII

VIII; name of mother and date of marriage from a grandson.

marriage:

VIII

VIII; name of mother and date of marriage from a grandson.