The Biographical Dictionary of America/Barus, Carl

​BARUS, Carl, geologist, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, 1856. He was graduated at the Woodward high school, Cincinnati, in 1874, then entered the Columbia school of mines, New York, and completed a three years' course in two years. In 1876 he went to Germany and remained nearly five years in Wurzburg, studying physics, and for the last year acting as assistant to the professor in charge. He took the degree of Ph.D. in Wurzburg in 1880. In 1881 he returned to America and entered the service of the United States geological survey, at first working in the west. In 1889 was engaged at the physical laboratory, Washington, in working up problems in dynamic geology—more particularly the questions of the behavior of matter under conditions of high temperature combined with enormous pressure. From August, 1893, to January, 1895, he was physicist at the Smithsonian institution, engaged in aeronautical research. In June, 1895, he was elected Hazard professor of physics at Brown university. During 1894 and 1895 he acted as a member of the congressional committee of seven for drawing up specifications for the electrical standards of the United States. He published very many scientific papers and bulletins—the latter issued by the geological survey—the former printed in the American Journal of Science, the London Philosophical Magazine and Die Journal der Physiko Chemical.