Herbert E. Ives

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Dr. Herbert Eugene Ives (1882–1953) was a scientist and engineer who headed the development of facsimile and television systems at AT&T in the first half of the twentieth century.

Ives studied at the University of Pennsylvania and the Johns Hopkins University, where he graduated in 1908. He wrote a 1920 book on aerial photography, while an Army reserve officer, in the aviation section.^[1]

Like his father Frederick Eugene Ives, Herbert was an expert on color photography. In 1924 he transmitted and reconstructed the first color facsimile, using color separations. In 1927 he demonstrated 185-line long-distance television, transmitting the image of Herbert Hoover from AT&T's experimental station 3XN in Whippany, New Jersey.

In the 1940s, Ives expressed his vigorous opposition to Einstein's presentation of the theory of relativity.^[2] His issue was not with the theory's predictions but with, as he put it in 1945,^[3] "the indeterminancies and impotences by which the 'Restricted Theory of Relativity' has been widely publicized."

Following the philosophy of Lorentz, he attempted to demonstrate the physical reality of relativistic effects both by means of logical arguments and experiments. In particular he became known for the Ives–Stilwell experiment which provided direct confirmation of special relativity's time dilation factor.

U. S. President Harry Truman awarded Ives a "Medal for Merit" in 1948 for his war-time work on blackout lighting and optical communication systems.^[2]

[edit] References

^ Herbert E. Ives, Airplane Photography, Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1920.
^ ^a ^b Dean Turner and Richard Hazelett, eds., The Einstein Myth and the Ives Papers: A Counter-Revolution in Physics Pasadena: Hope Publishing, 1979 [1]
^ H. Ives, "Derivation of the Lorentz transformations", Phil. Mag. 7, vol.39, 1945 p.392