Physicist, b. 3 August 1851 (Dublin, Ireland), d. 22 February 1901 (Dublin)
FitzGerald entered Trinity College of Dublin as a tutor in 1877 and became professor of natural and experimental philosophy in 1881. His major interest was in the behaviour of electromagnetism and the laws of radiation. He studied oscillating electrical currents and came to the conclusion that such a current should produce electromagnetic waves. His conclusion was verified experimentally by Heinrich Hertz and led to the development of wireless telegraphy.
FitzGerald's most important work developed from his study of the Michelson-Morley experiment of 1877, which had failed to determine the velocity of the Earth through the hypothetical "ether" and shown that the measured velocity of light was the same in all directions. He suggested that bodies are shortened in the direction of their movement and that this affected the instruments used in the experiment. The same idea was suggested independently by Hendrik Antoon Lorentz and is now known as the Lorentz-FitzGerald contraction. Einstein used it to develop his theory of special relativity.
Photo: public domain (Wikipedia)