Lorentz was born in Arnhem, Holland, on July 18, 1853. At the age of seventeen, he entered the University of Leyden and earned his bachelor's degree a year later. He then returned home and studied on his own for the doctorate, supporting himself by teaching classes at night. He received his degree in 1875 and was appointed to the chair of theoretical physics at Leyden at the age of twenty-four. He remained in this position throughout his academic career. Lorentz's doctoral thesis was entitled The Theory of Reflection and Refraction of Light. It dealt with unsolved problems of James Clerk Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism, the behavior of light at boundaries between two media. Lorentz showed how Maxwell's equations could be modified to deal with such conditions. Lorentz next attacked the problem of the transmission of light through the ether. According to Maxwell, an electromagnetic wave is caused by the oscillation of...