Leonard Thompson Troland (1889–1932) 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 Perception () is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the pre ...

and

psychical researcher Parapsychology is the study of alleged psychic phenomena (extrasensory perception, telepathy, precognition, clairvoyance, psychokinesis (also called telekinesis), and psychometry) and other paranormal claims, for example, those related to near- ...

Career

Troland graduated in 1912 from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of th ...

with a degree in biochemistry. He then studied psychology at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

, where he obtained a Ph.D. in 1915. He worked for a year as a Harvard Travelling fellow at the

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable ene ...

Nela research lab. He served as a member of committees of the National Research Council on vision and aviation psychology. 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 series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...

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

Optical Society of America Optica (formerly known as The Optical Society (OSA) and before that as the Optical Society of America) is a professional society of individuals and companies with an interest in optics and photonics. It publishes journals and organizes conference ...

from 1922 to 1923. He gave his name to the

troland The troland (symbol Td), named after Leonard T. Troland, is a unit of ''conventional retinal illuminance''. It is meant as a method for correcting photometric measurements of luminance values impinging on the human eye by scaling them by the ef ...

(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 with ...

values impinging on the

human eye The human eye is a sensory organ, part of the sensory nervous system, that reacts to visible light and allows humans to use visual information for various purposes including seeing things, keeping balance, and maintaining circadian rhythm. ...

by scaling them by the effective

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

size. The

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, 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 Nat ...

gives an

award An award, sometimes called a distinction, is something 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 awar ...

on his behalf. In 1932, he fell to his death from Mount Wilson.

Psychical research

Troland took interest in psychical research 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 Lamp, Lamps or LAMP may refer to: Lighting * Oil lamp, using an oil-based fuel source * Kerosene lamp, using kerosene as a fuel * Electric lamp, or light bulb, a replaceable component that produces light from electricity * Light fixture, or ligh ...

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.Asprem, Egil. (2014). ''The Problem of Disenchantment: Scientific Naturalism and Esoteric Discourse, 1900-1939''. Brill Academic Publishers. pp. 362-364.

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''
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''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 University alumni Parapsychologists Presidents of the Optical Society Fellows of the American Physical Society Optical physicists

Career

Psychical research

Publications

See also

References

External links