Leonard Thompson Troland (26 April 1889– 27 May 1932) was an American

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and explanation, interpretatio ...

and psychical researcher. A specialist on the perception of colors, he became chief engineer of Technicolor Corporation. Troland proposed that genes originated from enzyme-like autocatalysts, calling them "genetic enzymes" and that the earliest life forms were purely auto-catalytic substance.

Life and work

Troland was born in Norwalk, Connecticut. He graduated in 1912 from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

with a degree in biochemistry. He then studied psychology at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, where he obtained a Ph.D. in 1915 under

Hugo Münsterberg Hugo Münsterberg (; ; June 1, 1863 – December 16, 1916) was a German-American psychologist. He was one of the pioneers in applied psychology, extending his research and theories to Industrial organization, industrial/organizational (I/O), legal ...

. He also worked on book on physics for non physicists, ''The Nature of Matter and Electricity'' (1917), with Daniel Comstock. He worked for a year as a Harvard Travelling (Sheldon) fellow at the

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

Nela research lab. During World War I, he worked on acoustic devices to detect submarines. He served as a member of committees of the National Research Council on vision and aviation psychology. In 1922 he wrote a book, ''The Present Status of Visual Science''. At Harvard, he gave advanced courses in psychology, and he followed up his 1926 book ''The Mystery of Mind'' with ''Fundamentals in Human Motivation'' in 1928. At the same time, he was chief engineer of the

Technicolor Technicolor is a family of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes. The first version, Process 1, was introduced in 1916, and improved versions followed over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black-and ...

Motion Picture Corporation of California and was appointed director of research at Technicolor in 1925. Troland was elected to serve as president of the

Optical Society of America Optica, founded as the Optical Society of America (later the Optical Society), is a professional society of individuals and companies with an interest in optics and photonics. It publishes journals, organizes conferences and exhibitions, and ca ...

from 1922 to 1923. He gave his name to the troland (symbol Td), the unit of ''conventional retinal illuminance''. It is meant as a method for correcting photometric measurements of

luminance Luminance is a photometric measure of the luminous intensity per unit area of light travelling in a given direction. It describes the amount of light that passes through, is emitted from, or is reflected from a particular area, and falls wit ...

values impinging on the

human eye The human eye is a sensory organ in the visual system that reacts to light, visible light allowing eyesight. Other functions include maintaining the circadian rhythm, and Balance (ability), keeping balance. The eye can be considered as a living ...

by scaling them by the effective

pupil The pupil is a hole located in the center of the iris of the eye that allows light to strike the retina.Cassin, B. and Solomon, S. (1990) ''Dictionary of Eye Terminology''. Gainesville, Florida: Triad Publishing Company. It appears black becau ...

size. The

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

gives an

award An award, sometimes called a distinction, is given to a recipient as a token of recognition of excellence in a certain field. When the token is a medal, ribbon or other item designed for wearing, it is known as a decoration. An award may be d ...

on his behalf. In 1932, he fell, accidentally, to his death into a rocky canyon while hiking near the observatory at Pasadena CA, Mount Wilson.

Psychical research

Troland took interest in

psychical research Parapsychology is the study of alleged psychic phenomena (extrasensory perception, telepathy, teleportation, precognition, clairvoyance, psychokinesis (also called telekinesis), and psychometry) and other paranormal claims, for example, those r ...

and had carried out experiments in

telepathy Telepathy () is the purported vicarious transmission of information from one person's mind to another's without using any known human sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was first coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Frederic ...

which were reported in 1917. He was one of the first scientists to use a machine in this type of experiment instead of a human experimenter. The machine consisted of a lamp which when triggered would light either of two square blocks. The agent would attempt to perceive the light in one room while the receiver would use a switch to identify which lamp had been lit in the other room. Troland discovered that the subjects had produced below chance expectations.

Publications

*''A Technique for the Experimental Study of Telepathy and Other Alleged Clairvoyant Processes'' (1917)
''The Nature of Matter and Electricity: An Outline of Modern Views''
ith Daniel Frost Comstock">Daniel_Frost_Comstock.html" ;"title="ith Daniel Frost Comstock">ith Daniel Frost Comstock(1917) *''The Mystery of Mind'' (1926)
''The Fundamentals of Human Motivation''
(1928)

References

External links

Articles Published by early OSA Presidents
– Journal of the Optical Society of America

{{DEFAULTSORT:Troland, Leonard T. 1889 births 1932 deaths 20th-century American physicists 20th-century American psychologists Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni American parapsychologists Presidents of Optica (society) Fellows of the American Physical Society American optical physicists Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni

Life and work

Psychical research

Publications

See also

References

External links