Henry, Joseph

Description

Autograph ID: 3588
Condition: Very good, 2 mail folds
Description: “(1797-1878) American physicist, built 1st electric motor 1829, observed electric induction pre Faraday 1830. At Princeton 1832-48, discovered principle underlying transformers, invented low & high resistance galvanometers. 1st Smithsonian Institution Secretary 1846-78, began weather reports. Unit of electrical induction, the henry, named for him.

13 x 8 MsDS as Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, March 10 1873, to the Smithsonian’s “foreign correspondents”, introducing Senator George F. Edmunds, “a special friend of this Institution and a liberal patron of science, who visits Europe for recreation in the recess of his senatorial duties”. Nice white embossed Smithsonian seal at lower left. George F. Edmunds (1828-1919) Republican US Senator from Vermont 1866-91. State legislator 1854-62, on death of Senator Solomon Foot, appointed to take his place. In the Senate, he was active in the 1868 attempt to impeach President Andrew Johnson, and was influential in creating the electoral commission to decide the disputed presidential election of 1876. Edmunds was one of the commissioners, voting for Republicans Rutherford B. Hayes & William A. Wheeler. He was a candidate for the 1880 & 1884 GOP presidential nomination at the 1880 & 1884 Republican National Conventions. He was the author of the Edmunds Act for suppression of polygamy in Utah. He served as President pro tempore of the Senate 1883-85, Senate Republican Conference chairman 1885-891, chairman of the Senate Committee on Pensions 1869-73, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee 1872-79 & 1881-91, chairman of the Senate Committee on Private Land Claims 1879-81, and chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations 1881.”
Type: Document