Henry, Joseph

Joseph (1797-1878), the first secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. He was a native of Albany, New York. He took up the study of medicine, but abandoned it for engineering. In 1826 he became an instructor in Albany Academy. He was much interested in electro-magnets, a subject on which he delivered public lectures. By means of an electric battery, a coil of wire, and a soft iron core, he made a magnet capable of sustaining a weight of 3,500 pounds, to the great astonishment of the scientific world. His experiments led to the construction of the magnetic telegraph. His reputation won him the chair of natural philosophy in Princeton College. In 1846 he was made secretary of the Smithsonian. He had the privilege of organizing that institution. He won still further fame as the organizer of systematic information leading up to the establishment of the United States Weather Bureau. See Smithsonian