Article

Howard Turner Barnes

Published Online February 6, 2008

Last Edited December 9, 2013

Howard Turner Barnes, physicist (b at Woburn, Mass 21 July 1873; d at Burlington, Vt 4 Oct 1950). Graduating from McGill in 1893 in applied sciences, he was initiated into research work by his physics professor Hugh L. Callendar, an authority in electrical precision measurements.

Barnes, Howard Turner

Howard Turner Barnes, physicist (b at Woburn, Mass 21 July 1873; d at Burlington, Vt 4 Oct 1950). Graduating from McGill in 1893 in applied sciences, he was initiated into research work by his physics professor Hugh L. Callendar, an authority in electrical precision measurements. Applying the techniques of his teacher to a peculiarly Canadian problem, Barnes devoted his life work to the study of the physical properties of ice. In 1906 he published Ice Formation. In the years following he tackled the applied side of the problem and published his results in Ice Engineering (1928), a few years before his retirement in 1933.

His ability in precision measurements led to his election to the Royal Society of London in 1911. He delivered the coveted Tyndall Lectures in 1912 at the Royal Institute in London on his favourite subject, "Ice Formation in Canada, Physical and Economic Aspects." A member of the Royal Society of Canada since 1902, he became president of Section III in 1908. That same year he was named Macdonald Professor of Physics at McGill, succeeding Ernest RUTHERFORD.