Originally trained for the ministry, Edward Williams Morley decided instead in 1868 to pursue a career in science, the other great love of his life. At first he devoted himself primarily to teaching, but gradually became engaged in more original research. His work can be divided into three major categories: the first two involved the determination of the oxygen content of the atmosphere and efforts to evaluate Prout's hypothesis; his third field of research involving experiments on the velocity of light with Albert Michelson, are those for which his name will always be most famous.

Morley was born in Newark, New Jersey, on January 29, 1838. His mother was the former Anna Clarissa Treat, a schoolteacher, and his father was Sardis Brewster Morley, a Congregational minister. According to a biographical sketch of Morley in the December 1987 issue of the Physics Teacher, the Morley family had come to the United States in...