then taught physics for five years at
Wisconsin and at Iowa to earn money
for graduate school, completing a Ph.D.
at the University of Michigan in 1911.
Worthing took a job at the newly
created laboratory of the National Lamp
Works (later called the GE Nela Park
Laboratories) in Cleveland in 1911. During World War I, the Laboratory was
asked to develop an artificial light unit
for signaling in the daytime in places
where the operator would be seen against
a bright sky background. Later an additional request came for a 6-volt, 2-ampere
lamp for use in a trench-signaling unit
designed by Major Mendenhall and the
Lynn Works of General Electric Company; it would supplant the unsatisfactory unit then in service.
Practically all of Worthing’s time—
as well of that of his colleagues Drs.
Forsythe and Lorenz—was devoted to
these problems in light signaling for a
period of 10-12 months. The team de-
veloped a 2-ampere, 6-volt, G- 12 D.C.
bayonet S- 4 filament Mazda C lamp
for the trench signal unit for Major
Mendenhall by the Lamp Development
Laboratory and Worthing; the Lynn
Works of the General Electric Co. sup-
plied the lamps for 300 units.
John N. Howard ( johnnelsonhoward@gmail.com)
is the founding editor of Applied Optics and retired
chief scientist of the Air Force Geophysics Laboratory.
