astronomy

Homer Jay Wheeler

Homer Jay Wheeler is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Homer Jay Wheeler rather than just read about it. In short: Homer Jay Wheeler (September 2, 1861 – November 18, 1945) was an American agricultural chemist and college administrator. He was the director of the Rhode Island Agricultural Experiment Station at the Rhode Island State College and was interim president of the college between 1902 and 1903.

Key takeaways

Homer Jay Wheeler belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Homer Jay Wheeler to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Homer Jay Wheeler from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Homer Jay Wheeler (September 2, 1861 – November 18, 1945) was an American agricultural chemist and college administrator. He was the director of the Rhode Island Agricultural Experiment Station at the Rhode Island State College and was interim president of the college between 1902 and 1903. After 1912 until his retirement he was employed by Agricultural Service Bureau of the American Agricultural Chemical Company in Boston and New York City.

Early life and education Homer Wheeler was born in Bolton, Massachusetts, on September 2, 1861, to Quakers Jesse Brown Wheeler and Martha Aann (Sykes) Wheeler. He studied agriculture at Massachusetts Agricultural College, earning a B.S. degree in 1883, after which he worked for four years as assistant to the Dr. Goessmann, the director of the newly established Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station. In 1887 with his colleague John Hosea Washburn traveled to Germany for graduate studies at University of Göttingen. He earned both his M.A. and Ph.D. in 1889, with his dissertation focusing on the isolation and characterization of xylose in wood. He returned to the United States and became chief chemist of the newly established Rhode Island Agricultural Experiment Station at Kingston, Rhode Island. On 15 May 1891 he was married in Brooklyn, New York, to Frieda H. F. Ruprecht of Göttingen, Germany.

Professional career Not long after Wheeler's arrival at the agricultural experiment station, he was offered the directorship, and the position of professor of geology and agrononmy at Rhode Island College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (later to become Rhode Island State College), concurrent with his experiment station work from 1894 to 1912. From 1902 to 1903 served as acting president of the college upon the departure of John Hosea Washburn. While at the college, he served as president of the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists of the United States, as president of the American Society of Agronomy, and as chairman of the New England Section of the American Chemical Society. In 1912, Wheeler resigned to become manager of the Agricultural Service Bureau of the American Agricultural Chemical Company in Boston, Massachusetts. During World War I he served as chairman of the Committee on Soils and Fertilizers of the National Research Council. Wheeler maintained his activity in retirement as a practicing scientist until just prior to his death in 1945. He died at his home in Montclair, New Jersey on November 18, 1945.

Selected publications Wheeler, H.J. and Tollens, B. (1889). V. Ueber die Xylose oder den Holzzucker, eine zweite Penta‐Glycose. Justus Liebigs Annalen der Chemie, 254(3):304-320. Wheeler, H. J., & Tollens, B. (1889). Ueber die Xylose (Holzzucker) und das Holzgummi. Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft 22(1):1046-1046. Wheeler, H.J. (1897). On the use of flowers of sulfur and sulfate of ammonia as preventive of the potato scab in contaminated soils. Rhode Island Experiment Station Annual Report 10:254-268. Wheeler, H.J. (1899). Quantities of Nitrogen for Grass (Vol. 57). Agricultural Experiment Station of the Rhode Island College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. Wheeler, H.J., Hartwell, B.L. and Sargent, C.L. (1900). Chemical methods for ascertaining the lime requirement of soils. Journal of the American Chemical Society 22(3):153-177. Wheeler, H.J. (1900). A Four-year Rotation of Crops: Indian Corn, Potatoes, Rye, Clover (Vol. 75). Agricultural Experiment Station of the Rhode Island College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. Wheeler, H.J. (1904). A Six-year Rotation of Crops (Vol. 99). Agricultural Experiment Station of the Rhode Island College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. Wheeler, H.J. (1909). The future of agricultural chemistry. Science 29(747):647-653. Wheeler, H.J. (1910). A Pheasant-Bantam Hybrid. Journal of Heredity 1(4):266-268. Wheeler, H.J. (1913). Manures and Fertilizers: A Text-book for College Students and a Work of Reference for All Interested in the Scientific Aspects of Modern Farming. New York: Macmillan. Wheeler, H.J. (1918). The fertilizer needs of the United States. The Quarterly Journal of Economics 32(2):209-237. Wheeler, H.J. (1919). Problems and Methods in Agricultural Research. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry 11(11):1056-1060. Wheeler, H.J. (1924). How to Select and Apply Fertilizer. American Agricultural Chemical Company.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Homer Jay Wheeler

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Homer Jay Wheeler claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Homer Jay Wheeler before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Homer Jay Wheeler ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Homer Jay Wheeler

In research: Homer Jay Wheeler appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Homer Jay Wheeler in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Homer Jay Wheeler is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1861 births, 1945 deaths, American chemists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Homer Jay Wheeler outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Homer Jay Wheeler in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Homer Jay Wheeler means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Homer Jay Wheeler out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Homer Jay Wheeler in simple terms?

Why does Homer Jay Wheeler matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Homer Jay Wheeler?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Homer Jay Wheeler.