The Biographical Dictionary of America/Barker, George Frederick

BARKER, George Frederick, physicist, was born at Charlestown, Mass., July 14, 1835. He was graduated at Yale scientific school in 1858, and during his senior year was appointed assistant in chemistry to Professor Silliman. After his graduation he was made assistant to John Bacon of Harvard medical college. he held the chair of natural sciences in Wheaton (Ill.) college during 1861, and in 1862 accepted the acting professorship of chemistry in Albany medical college, where he took a medical course, receiving the degree of M.D. in 1863. In 1864 he was professor of natural sciences in the Western university of Pennsylvania; in 1865 he became demonstrator of chemistry in the medical department of Yale university, and the following year, in the absence of Professor Silliman, occupied his chair. In 1867 he took charge of the department of physiological chemistry and toxicology at Yale, and in 1873 was given the chair of physics at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1881 he was one of the United States commissioners to the international electrical exhibition in Paris, and a delegate to the international congress of electricians. The French government decorated him with the insignia of the Legion of Honor, with the rank of commander. In 1884 President Arthur appointed him a member of the United States electrical commission, and he was employed as an expert in the suit against the American Bell telephone company. His lecture on the "Correlation of Vital and Physical Forces" was published in 1871, and later was republished in French. Among his other published writings are "The Forces of Nature" (1863); "Text-book of Elementary Chemistry" (1870); "The Chemical Discoveries of the Spectroscope" (1873); " The Conversion of Mechanical Energy into Heat by Dynamo-Electric Machines" (1880), and "Barker" (1893). In 1873 he was made vice-president of the American association for the advancement of science, and president in 1879, and in 1876 he was elected a member of the National academy of sciences. He was editor of the journal of the Franklin institute, and for a number of years edited the "Annual Record of the Progress of Physics," published in the Smithsonian reports. He was associate editor of The American Journal of Science, established in 1818, and a contributor to the American Chemist, and the "Proceedings" of the American philosophical society.