Morley History
Who was Edward Williams Morley?
Edward W. Morley (1838-1923) grew up in West Hartford during the 1840’s and 1850’s. Morley’s family owned a farm here and he considered this his hometown. His biographer, Howard R. Williams (1957), believed that the West Hartford years “were undoubtedly among the happiest days of Morley’s life.”
Edward Morley was a famous physicist in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He earned an international reputation for his research on air and light. Morley helped determine how much oxygen is in the air. He discovered the atomic weight of hydrogen and oxygen. His most important achievement (with his partner Albert A Michelson) was research on the movement of light that led directly to Einstein’s theory of relativity.
During the 2017-2018 school year, we celebrated 90 years of Morley School!
