Howard Turner Barnes (21 July 1873, in Woburn, Massachusetts – 4 October 1950, in

Burlington, Vermont Burlington is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Vermont and the seat of Chittenden County. It is located south of the Canada–United States border and south of Montreal. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the population was 44,743. It ...

) was an American-Canadian physicist who specialized in calorimetry, electrolytes, ice formation and ice engineering.

Education and career

In 1879, Howard T. Barnes moved with his family from Massachusetts to Montreal. where his father was appointed minister of Montreal's Unitarian church. After attending secondary school in Montreal, he entered in 1889 McGill University, where he received in 1893 his bachelor's degree in physics and, after working there as a demonstrator in chemistry, an M.S. in Applied Science in 1896. He became at McGill a demonstrator in physics and worked under Hugh L. Callendar. In 1898, Ernest Rutherford succeeded to Callendar's professorial chair and supervised Barnes, among others. In 1899 Barnes went to the U.K. on a scholarship from the Royal Society; he returned to McGill in 1900 as a lecturer in physics. In 1900 he received a D.Sc. from McGill, where he became an assistant professor in 1901 and associate professor in 1906. In 1907 he succeeded Ernest Rutherford as Macdonald Professor of Physician, but resigned his chair in 1919. In the early 1920s he again became a professor at McGill, where he remained until his retirement as professor emeritus in 1933.Barnes, Howard Turner, encyclopedia.com
/ref> Barnes worked with Callendar on extremely precise measurements in constant-flow calorimetry, in which a given amount of electrical energy is added to a given mass of flowing liquid whose consequent increase in temperature is precisely measured. Barnes pioneered the constant-flow calorimeter which is used by contemporary physical chemists. He also studied turbulence, electrolytes, and the heat effects of radium. In the 1920s, he became a world-class expert on anchor ice,

frazil ice Frazil ice is a collection of loose, randomly oriented ice crystals millimeter and sub-millimeter in size, with various shapes, e.g. elliptical disks, dendrites, needles and of an irregular nature. Frazil ice forms during the winter in open-wate ...

, and ice engineering.

Awards and honours

Barnes was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1908 and a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1911. He was honoured as the Tyndall Lecturer for 1912 at the Royal Institution in London.

Articles

* with H. L. Callendar: * * * with Ernest Rutherford:

Books

* *

Patents

Method of and apparatus for recording marine conditions. U.S. Patent 1,022,526
1911
Method of loosening ice accumulations. U.S. Patent 1,562,137
1925

External links

Howard Turner Barnes fonds, MG1016.

McGill University Archives The McGill University Archives (MUA) performs integrated archival and records management for McGill University. and is housed on the fourth floor of the McLennan Library Building The McLennan Library Building of McGill University in Montreal, Queb ...

, McGill University. Fonds consists of Barnes's records (originals, printed materials, photographs and motion pictures) of a professional and research nature, covering Barnes’s general scientific and university work during World War I, a number of special research problems, and his involvement in scientific and social organizations.

References

1873 births 1950 deaths McGill University Faculty of Science alumni Academic staff of McGill University Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Fellows of the Royal Society People from Woburn, Massachusetts American emigrants to Canada 20th-century Canadian physicists {{physicist-stub