OSA Historical Archives
OSA Historical Archives
Presidents
of the
Early 1940s
John N. Howard
Kasson S. Gibson Archie G. Worthing
Meet two 20th century OSA leaders—one who helped lay the foundation
for the study of light visibility and another who developed the tungsten
filament lamp.
Kasson Stanford Gibson
1939-1941
Born in 1890, Kasson Stanford Gibson
received his education at Cornell. In
ant Energy,” which was written with
Edward P. T. Tyndall and published as a
scientific paper of the Bureau of Standards in 1923. (That paper is described
in detail in a 2001 article by Jonathan
E. Hardis entitled “Visibility of Radiant
Energy.” It is available through NIST at
http://nvl.nist.gov/pub/nistpubs/sp958-
lide/025-027.pdf.)
This classic paper from 1923 reports
the results of one of the most enduring
projects ever undertaken at NBS—
John Howard
research into the physical description
of human vision. Gibson and Tyndall
were neither the first nor the last to study
Gibson and Tyndall were
neither the first nor the
last to study the visibility
of light, but their work is
perhaps the most notable
for its thoroughness,
timeliness and impact.
the visibility of light, but their work is
perhaps the most notable for its thoroughness, timeliness and impact. The
principal result of this work was the “
visibility curve,” a quantified model of how
well a typical person can see the different
wavelengths (colors) of light.
Today this model function, which
is essentially unchanged, underlies all
physical measurements of photometric
quantities and their interpretation in
photometric units of measure. In addi-
tion to that work, he made important
contributions to the design of optical
filters for transforming radiation from
incandescent lamps to simulate natu-
ral daylight. He headed the work on
photometry and colorimetry at NBS
from 1933 until his retirement in 1955,
publishing more than 100 papers in spite
of his administrative responsibilities.
Archie Garfield Worthing
1941–1943
Archie Garfield Worthing was born
on February 6, 1881, in LeRoy, Wis.,
U.S.A. After finishing high school,
he taught in a grammar school for
two years to earn money for college.
He obtained his B.A. degree from the
University of Wisconsin in 1904. He
