Physics in the 1900s
1901
A graduate degree program in physics is established. (Annual national production of physics PhDs is about 15.)
1904
Charles Tobias Knipp, in collaboration with Professor H.A. Brown of Electrical Engineering, invents a radio tube "which reduces the 'B' battery necessary from 21.5 volts to about 7 volts by the introduction of a potassium-sodium alloy into the tube." (The tube, patented by Knipp and Brown, was manufactured by the General Electric Company.)
1906
The Department of Physics holds its first annual open house, becoming the precedent and inspiration for the present-day EOH. Classes in mathematical physics, optical physics, and the teaching of physics are offered for the first time.
Ernest Rutherford visits the department and sits with the Physics faculty for a group photograph on the steps of Engineering Hall. (He will win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1908.)
1907
Professor Fay C. Brown begins working with Professor Joel Stebbins (Astronomy), director of the University of Illinois Observatory, to use selenium cells to the measure the brightness of the moon—the first time in America that electricity is used to measure astronomical brightness.
1908
Head Albert Carman notes in his annual report to the College of Engineering that "the department has cooperated with the Engineering Experiment Station (which had been established in 1903), and a number of valuable researches are being carried on ... This active and close cooperation of the Physics Department with engineering for investigational work is not usual in American universities but promises much for both sides."
Professor Floyd Watson begins his groundbreaking work in architectural acoustics after the Physics Department is asked to propose solutions for the horrible acoustics of the new University (now Foellinger) Auditorium.
1909
Professor Jakob Kunz develops the photoelectric cell, based on the photoemissive cell design of Elster and Geitel.
The Physics Laboratory is completed at the corner of Green and Mathews Streets, and the Department moves from Engineering Hall to its "dignified and beautiful"—not to mention fireproof—new quarters, complete with a motorized screen in the lecture hall.
Meeting of the American Physical Society at the opening of the Laboratory of Physics, Urbana, November 27-28, 1909
