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George Frederick Barker (1835 - 1910) was an American physician and scientist. He graduated at the
Yale Scientific School in 1858. He was successively chemical assistant in
Harvard Medical School in 1858-59 and 1860 - 61, professor of
chemistry and
geology in Wheaton (Ill.) College. In 1864 he became the Professor of Natural Science at the
Western University of Pennsylvania, now known as the
University of Pittsburgh, where he undertook experiments to produce electric light by passing the current through a resisting filament which he claimed was "the first steady electric light generated in Pittsburgh, if not in the country". He subsequently went to Yale as a professor of physiological chemistry and toxicology, and later was a professor of
physics at the
University of Pennsylvania, in 1879-1900, when he became emeritus professor. He served as president of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1879; president of the
American Chemical Society; vice-president of the
American Philosophical Society for 10 years; a member of the
United States Electrical Commission; and for several years an associate editor of the
American Journal of Science. He lectured in many cities and wrote a Text-Book of Elementary Chemistry (1870); a Physics (1892); etc.
Wikipedia, George Frederick Barker
See Also
Keely Supported by Eminent Men of Science - mentions Barker
Recording Unuttered Thoughts