Background
From 1898 to 1900 Barnett rose from instructor to professor of physics at Colorado College. In 1918 Barnett was appointed a physicist with the Carnegie Institution of Washington, D.C., where he was connected with the department of terrestrial magnetism from 1918 to 1924 and was a research associate from 1924 to 1926. He then became professor of physics at the University of California at Los Angeles, where he remained until his retirement in 1944, becoming professor emeritus until 1953. He became a fellow of the university in that year and died in 1956.