Paul Renno Heyl (1872 in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

– 22 October 1961) was an American inventor, physicist, and author.

Biography

Born in Philadelphia, Heyl earned his PhD in physics in 1899 from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

. For several years he taught in high schools in Pennsylvania. In 1907, he won the

Franklin Institute The Franklin Institute is a science museum and the center of science education and research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is named after the American scientist and statesman Benjamin Franklin. It houses the Benjamin Franklin National Memori ...

's Boyden Premium. In 1910, he joined the physics staff of the Commercial Research Corporation in New York. In 1920, he was employed as a physicist at the

National Bureau of Standards The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into physical sci ...

in Washington D.C. With Lyman J. Briggs, Heyl invented the Heyl–Briggs earth inductor compass. The compass used a spinning electric coil mounted in an airplane to determine the airplane's bearing in relation to the Earth's

magnetic field A magnetic field is a vector field that describes the magnetic influence on moving electric charges, electric currents, and magnetic materials. A moving charge in a magnetic field experiences a force perpendicular to its own velocity and to ...

. This invention won for Heyl and Briggs the 1922 Magellan Medal of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

. At the NBS, Heyl worked on a redetermination of Newton's constant of gravitation using a torsion balance. In 1928, Heyl served as President of the

Philosophical Society of Washington Founded in 1871, the Philosophical Society of Washington is the oldest scientific society in Washington, D.C. It continues today as PSW Science. Since 1887, the Society has met regularly in the assembly hall of the Cosmos Club. In the Club's pr ...

. He retired form the NBS in 1942. He won the Potts medal in 1943. He married Lucy Knight Daugherty; they had two daughters, one of whom died in infancy.

Selected publications

* * *with V. L. Chrisler: * * * * * *

References

External links

*
The Earth Inductor Compass
* "Does the speed of light in space depend upon its wave-length?" by Paul R. Heyl {{DEFAULTSORT:Heyl, Paul Renno 1872 births 1961 deaths 20th-century American inventors American physicists Fellows of the American Physical Society Scientists from Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania alumni Howard N. Potts Medal recipients