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Case School: The Evolving History

Mathematics Department Timeline

DateEvent details
1880Dr. Albert A Michelson joins Case as professor of physics
1881Dr. Albert Michaelson builds the first model of his interferometer in Berlin
1884Dr. Albert Michaelson becomes department head
1882Dr. Albert Michaelson begins teaching at the Case Homestead
1882Students in their first year were required to attend lectures on: Elementary Mechanics, Properties of Solids, Liquids, Gasses; Accoustics and Heat. In their second year they attended Optics, Electricity, and Magnetism
1885Physics laboratory moved to the new main building (?) 
1885Dr. Albert Michaelson begins collaboration with Edward W. Morley of the Western Reserve University in Physics Laboratory
1889Dr. Harry F. Reid succeeds Dr. Michaelson as Professor of Physics and department head
1891Dr. Dayton C. Miller joins the faculty
1893Dr. Harry Reid resigns and the Reid Prize in Physics is esablished after he left
1894Thomas Griswold is the first recipient of the Reid Prize
1895Dr. Dayton Miller becomes department head
1895Technology in the physics laboratory that year consisted of: comparator, balance. hectogram balance, reversible pendulum, chronometer and chronograph, cathetometers, dividing engines, level trier, harmonograph, tuning forks and organ pipes, standard thermometers, spectometers, concave grating spectroscope, chemical spectroscopes, difraction and inference aparatus, chemical aparatus... (continued pg. 5 in the history)
1900First M.S. in physics awarded to Harry W. Springsteen
1902Harry W. Springsteen becomes the fisrt full time instructor in the department
1904Dr. Charles D. Howe, president, approaches Mr. John D. Rockefeller Sr. and recieves a large gift to build the Rockefeller Physics Building and the Rockefeller Laboratory for Mining and Metallurgy
1905Dr. Dayton Miller travels to Europe to purchase equiptment for the new laboratory
1907Dr. Dayton Miller and Charles D. Hodgeman give a course in Photography
1910First B.S. in Physics awarded to E.G. Clark
1910s?a United States Weather Bureau station was installed in the Physics laboratory with a complete outfit of meteorological instruments on the roof of the building. Lectures were given to students in general physics by Dr. W.H. Alexander, official in charge of the Cleveland US Weather Bureau station
1917Dr. Dayton Miller aiding US Government in WWI research on sound and shell shock
1918Government of US assumes authority over students at Case
1919Courses return to normal at the end of the war
1922Mr. John R. Martin offers Theory of Radio Communication
1922Dr. Christian Nusbaum offers X-Ray and Crystal Structures courses
1925Department develops a Radio Recieving Station
1932The Lambda Club is established for students specializing in Physics
1933Physics department offering new courses in Theory of Electricity and Magnetism, Harmonic Analysis, Electronic Vacuum Tubes, General Spectroscopy, Radiation, and Quantum Theory
1933Jean Fillmore is the first departmental secretary and first female joining the department
1934Physics library increases, 130 volumes added
1934Dr. Harlow Shapley, Harvard Observatory, gives a public lecture in Severance Hall "Evolution Among the Stars"
1935Library expansion continues with 110 volumes added
1937Dayton Miller honored by the Franklin Institute in Philedelphia as lecturer on "The Nature or Electricity"
1937Dayton Miller elected Vice President of the Section of Physics and Astronomy, National Academy of Science
1937Dayton Miller publishes "Sound waves, their shape and speed"
1937Robert Shakeland designs and builds an electron refraction camera
193820 foot tower is built on the roof of the physics building to study lightening photography
1938Physics library is increased by 183 volumes
1939Dr. Dayton Miller's Franklin Institute lectures published by Macmillan as "Sparks, Lightening, Cosmic Rays"
1940Dr. Dayton Miller is Supervising Head and Robert Shakeland is Deputy Acting Supervisor of the Physics Curricula 
1940Dr. Robert S. Shankland becomes department head
1941Dr. Robert S. Shankland becomes Ambrose Swasey Professor of Physics
1941Cleveland Graphite Bronze Company establishes a fellowship in electron diffraction studies of bearing surfaces
1941Dr. Dayton C. Miller dies
1941Dr. Dayton C. Miller research fellowship established
1942Robert Shankland serves on the National Defense Research Commission in NYC
1942Department does consulting work with the Ohio Public Service Company and the B.F. Goodrich Company
1945General Electric fellowship is established for highschool teachers
1945Cleveland Physics Society is organized by Dr. Leonard Olsen
1946Program of Nuclear Physics begins developing
1949Earl Gregg recieved the first PhD from Case
1950sPhysics program grows exponentially due national interest in physics after WWII
1950Dr. Dayton C. Miller Prize is established by Herbert Erf
1951The former Lambda Club is changed to the Student Chapter of the
American Institute of Physics
1951The Charles F. Brush Scholarship for a senior physicist was established by the Brush Development Company
1952Physics library shelf room is increased by 50%
1953Department recieves a grant of $20,000 from the National Carbon Company supported the research in Solid State Physics.
 Board of Trustees approves plans for additional space. This included an addition to the Rockefeller Physics Laboratory, The Strosacker Auditorium, a library and classroom building, revision and expansion of the Bingham Laboratory, and a revision and expansion of the Rockafeller Mettalurgy Laboratory.
1957Rockefeller Physics Building addition was completed 
1958Robert Shankland reliquishes chairmanship of the department, with a committee for physics department administration being appointed
1958Dr. Leonard Olsen elected president of the American Association of Physics Teachers
1959Marshall Crouch serves as the Scientific Attache at the American Embasy in Tokyo, Japan
1959Dr. Frederick Reines becomes department head