Pagp 8 - The Canadian Jewish News^ Thursday, December. 16, 1982
World-
By
DAVID BIRKAN
Albert Abraham Michelson, pioneer of modern physics and first North American to win the Nobel Prize in science, was bom Dec, 19, 1852.
Michelson came as a young child with his parents to the ]United States from Streliio, then part of eastern Prussia, At 17, he entered the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., wherCi upon graduation.-he began his career as a science instructor and researcher.
Michelson took a 2-year leave to advance his knowledge of light, which dominated his lifetime efforts. In Berlin, Heidelberg and Paris, he studied optics and refined the homemade instruments he had devised in Annapolis. In 1883, using the double-mirror and wheel method of the tirrie, he succeeded in measuring the speed of light to an unprecedented level of accuracy..
Scientists assumed the existence of a. cosm'oS-filling medium through which light traveled in waves, called ether. It was thought to be beyond experimental confirmation.
In 1887, Michelson set up an instrument of his own invention, an interferorrieter, to split a beam of light into two parts at right angles to each other. The speed of the part traveling in the. same direction as the earth was expected to equal the speed of light plus the speed of the earth; the part at a right angle was expected to travel at the speed of light only, The effect of the ether would be cancelled out. The difference between the two speeds would be the absolute velocity of the earth through the ether.
Michelson and his aide, chemist Edward Morley, found there was no: difference whatsoever between the speeds of the two parts of light. They also found there was no difference in the speed of light whether it traveled in the same direction as the earth or against it. its speed did not increase or decrease with the velocity of the earth.
The existence of ether was disproved. More important, the commonsense concept derived from eyery-day experience that say, a football thrown ahead by someone running forward travels faster than when thrown by that person standing still, did not apply to light. Light traveled at the same, speed regardless of its projection. :
The discovery, verified many times afterr \yards for disbelieving scientists, shook physics to the core. The necessary revision of basic concepts was not effected until 1905, when Albert Einstein formulated the theory of relativity.
The absolute speed of light under any conditions became the fundamental principle of modern physics and astronomy, and is considered one of the few absolute natural laws in the universe.
In 1907, Michelson became the first Jew to win the Nobel Prize. Einstein, whose work was in large part an explanation and extrapolation of. Michelson's observation, received the award in 1921. ~^
Michelson applied his interferometer to measure heavenly bodies by noting the difference in light pattern from one side to the other. In 1920; he determined the.diameter of the star of Betelgeuse, 240 million miles away.
Michelson continued to refine measurements of the speed of light, even after his retirement in 1927 as physics department head of the University of Chicago and president of the (U.S.) National Academy of Science. His last tests were not evaluated until two years after his death in 1931. They showed a figure differing by about 1/5,000 of 1% from current data determined through state-of-the-art laser technology. ^ ; , .
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NEW YORK -
A new record price for printed Judaica was set here last week when a rare illustrated hagad-dah^printed o>n yellum in 1527 in Prague fetched $143,0()() at a Sotheby's auction. '
Navon
iThe former ^property of the Cpngrega:tion . Kahal Kadosh Beth Elo-him in Charleston, S.C., the haggadah went to a private London institution, Valmadohnai for more than three times its pre-sale estimate of $45,000.
A rare German l2th century miniature Torah
scroll. with English Re^ Igency parcelgilt silver finials, also went; to a London buyer for $33,000.
Spirited bidding characterized this sale throughout as buyers from Israel, Britain, the contineiit and the United States sought to acquire the unique and beautiful
items, being auctioned Both Jay Weinstein, head olthe Judaic works of art department, and George Snyder, expert in Judaic books and nlanu-scripts for Sotheby's, agreed that this was their most successful sale to date, the first Judaic sale to exceed its pre-sale high estimate to
realize a total $703,973.
Among th^ top lotM^; Were the Megilla^j^^^; Esther, which also Wen^|iL-to a London buyer for^.'-'i'; $41,250, and a German^ij.-: parcel-gilt silver spice tower, c. 1715, which set t';'^ -a record at $17,050 whenM| it went to a New York^^^ dealer. fe-^:
(Cont'd, from page 1} inculcate "the values of our ancient heritage" into the young generation in the Diaspora, because that was the key to hiture aliya.
Navon repeated this, adding, ",You can ask the young to keep their ide,ntity, but how can they keep it if they know nothing about it?"
The most profoundly moving moments at the congress session came at its opening when a large ' 7-branch menorah was kindled. The honor of lighting the first candle went to losif J Mendelevich, a Soviet Jewish Re-fusenik who a few years ago managed to escape to Israel.
He performed the ceremony "in the name of my brothers and sisters and all the Soviet aliya activists—^ the ollm and' the Prisoners of Zioii."
MONTREAL-
Canada-Israel Development Ltd. [CIDL] an^ nounced last week tha:t It sold approximately 43,000,000 ordinary IS.0.5 shares [3.6% of the equity shares] of First International Bank of Israel Holding Company Ltd. [FIBI] for an aggregate of approximately U.S. $15,000,-000, net of Israeli transfer taxes.,
CIDL retains a 13.6% equity interest and a 16.1% voting interest in FIBI, which is the fourth largest Israeli bank holding company. CIDL is presently negotiating to sell a further portion of its FIBI holdings.
CIDL realized a pretax profit of approximately U.S. $12,000,000 (U.S. $0.72 per share), including the portion of
Gert Cohos
Cohos elected JCC president
CALGARY -
Gert Cohos was recently elected president of the Jewish Community Council of Calgary. She thus became the first woman tohold that office
in the 21.years since ihe council became a feder-:
ated Jewish organization.
She rose through the. ranks of the council, having served as a line officer for the past .five, years and chairperson of the Women's Division campaign.
She has previously served as president of. the Calgary branch of the National Council of Jewish Women.
WE NEED A CANTOR. Premier Conservative Congregation in Chicago north suburban ..area is looking, for an experienced and energetic cantor for our 65Q-iamily. congregation. Position available immediately or we can wait until the High Holidays. Send detailed, resume in confidence to Box 6362, The Canadian Jewish News, 562 Eglinton Ave. E., Ste. 401, Toronto, Ont., M4P IPl
the gain previouisly reported to shareholders in the third quarter interim report.
CIDL has purchased a 3.9% equity interest in EIron Electronics Industries Ltd. , an Israeli high technology company, for
a cash consideration of approximately U.S. $4,000,000.
CIDL is a Canadian holding company with significant interests in several leading Israeli
companies including FIBI, a 40.3% equity
interest in Super-Sol Ltd., one of the largest private Israeli supermarket chains, and a 21.5% equity interest iri Property & Building Corp. Ltd., one of the leading real estate development companies.
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