![]() ![]() The mynahs suddenly flapped away into the gloom as a bigger bird landed. They will huff up to lodge quiet air in their feathers and quiet air is a good thermal insulator so it retains their body heat." And I enjoy watching them because pretty soon, as darkness consumes I will see them do something which I am sure you never saw them do. See those birds on the aerial, on the antenna there. "It's coming sundown and darkness will soon be here. "Now look what's happening," he said, quietly. Julius Sumner Miller, professor, from Torrance, California, is really a sombre, almost sad, old man, albeit a fascinating one, who, when he is not propounding, is still a consummate observer. It was a good act.īut suddenly he was there, an ordinary man with an ordinary man's doubts. Two hours in which he had moved chameleon-like through his life: from farmboy, to butler, teacher, brilliant physicist, television name, stand-up comedian and mad professor, without really stepping out of his life role: professional sage and entertainer. It had taken two hours to find that old man, two hours of bombast, self-opiniation, irascibility, histrionics, anger (or was it pseudo-anger?), egomania, pedantry, and intolerance. ![]() The evening was suddenly still - like the old man who lay on one of the single beds in the room, his curly grey chest hair crinkling over the top of his singlet, his dishevelled white hair a halo around his head. As it dropped, six Indian mynahs had come to roost on the television aerials on the roofs outside. In 1993 the Australian Science Foundation for Physics established a fellowship in his memory.The wind had stopped whistling and rattling the aluminium frame windows. He left his body to the school of dentistry, University of Southern California. Survived by his wife, he died on 14 April 1987 at his home at Torrance, Los Angeles, California. His publications were numerous: they included scores of articles in the American Journal of Physics Demonstrations in Physics (1969) a series of books based on his television and radio shows, among them Why It Is So (1971) and The Kitchen Professor (1972) Enchanting Questions for Enquiring Minds (1982) and his autobiography, The Days of My Life (1989). He also appeared on television advertisements for non-stick saucepans, Ampol petroleum and Cadbury’s chocolate. He set traps to keep people on their toes he would ask members of the audience to verify that a glass was empty and then berate them for not noticing that it was full of air.Īustralian newspapers published a daily question posed by Miller, a ‘Millergram’, and also an answer to the previous day’s question. Each session had a strong element of drama and was punctuated loudly with phrases such as ‘Watch it now! Watch it!’ or ‘He who is not stirred by the beauty of it is already dead!’. Bubbling with infectious enthusiasm not normally associated with the serious scientist, he brought each presentation to life with details of the history of the subject and the origins and meanings of the words used to describe it. He preferred to encourage his audience to seek the answers. Delighting in showing ‘how Nature worked its wondrous ways’, he rarely offered any detailed explanations. He also presented a television program entitled ‘Why Is It So?’ for the Australian Broadcasting Commission. In addition to recording science shows in the USA, he appeared on popular television programs, including ‘The Groucho Marx Show’, Walt Disney’s ‘Mickey Mouse Club’ and Johnny Carson’s ‘The Tonight Show’.įrom 1962 to 1986 Miller made twenty-seven visits to Australia, primarily to give demonstrations and lectures at the annual science school for high-school students in the physics department at the University of Sydney, organised by Professor Harry Messel. He was a visiting lecturer (1965-85) at the US Air Force Academy. He earned his living as a butler for two years.Įmployed by Dillard University, New Orleans (1937-38, 1941-52) and El Camino College, California (1953-74), Miller worked in their physics departments. On 21 April 1934 at Brookline, Massachusetts, he married Alice Marion Brown, a maid they had no children. Julius was educated at local schools and at Boston University (BS, 1932 MA, 1933) and the University of Idaho (MS, 1940). He was named Julius Simon but later took the name Sumner. ![]() His father had come to the USA from Latvia and his mother from Lithuania. Julius Sumner Miller (1909-1987), physicist, science educator and television performer, was born on at Billerica, Massachusetts, United States of America, youngest of nine children of Samuel Miller, farmer, and his wife Sarah, née Newmark. National Library of Australia, nla.pic-vn3086852 Julius Sumner Miller, by John Milligan, 1968
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