Talk:Michelson–Morley experiment

Possible Michelson-Morley experiment at The University of Chicago
I remember a biography of Michelson by a daughter, which mentioned the aether-drift experiment being carried out in Ryerson Hall on the campus of The University of Chicago, in ducts travelling the length of the building and the height of the central tower.

I worked in that building for years, and saw the ducts (which is not valid information for the Wikipedia article, but lends some credence to the existence of the biography).

I will try to find a copy of the biography again. I believe that I found it in The University of Chicago library before, but I am no longer close enough to look it up there.

My own inspection of the ducts left me skeptical that they could have been used in the aether-drift experiment, but I am not a physicist, and I recall that the daughter/author had some background in physics.

I see that this information is very sketchy, and should not lead to any addition to the article at present, but perhaps someone else will find the biography that I remember and check it further. Mjodonnell (talk) 18:41, 19 July 2023 (UTC)


 * I believe that the biography in question is Michelson: The Master of Light. A biography of Albert A. Michelson. Dorothy Michelson Livingstone. Scribner, New York 1973. Reprinted by The University of Chicago Press
 * https://archive.org/details/masteroflightbio0000livi/page/200/mode/2up?q=ryerson
 * Pages 199-200 appear to describe the ether-drift experiment in Ryerson Hall. I am suffering a neurological difficult making it unlikely that I will edit the Wikipedia article. I would be delighted if someone else could confirm my reading and make an appropriate edit. Mjodonnell (talk) 19:06, 19 July 2023 (UTC)