Editing Josiah Willard Gibbs (section)

=== Career, 1863–1873 ===

After graduation, Gibbs was appointed as tutor at the college for a term of three years. During the first two years, he taught Latin, and during the third year, he taught "natural philosophy" (i.e., physics).<ref name="Bumstead" /> In 1866, he patented a design for a [[railway brake]]<ref>US Patent No. 53,971, "Car Brake", April 17, 1866.  See ''The Early Work of Willard Gibbs in Applied Mechanics'', (New York: Henry Schuman, 1947), pp.&nbsp;51–62.</ref> and read a paper before the Connecticut Academy, entitled "The Proper Magnitude of the Units of Length", in which he proposed a scheme for rationalizing the system of units of measurement used in mechanics.<ref name="Units">Wheeler 1998, appendix II.</ref>

After his term as tutor ended, Gibbs traveled to Europe with his sisters. They spent the winter of 1866–67 in Paris, where Gibbs attended lectures at the [[University of Paris|Sorbonne]] and the {{Lang|fr|[[Collège de France]]|italic=no}}, given by such distinguished mathematical scientists as [[Joseph Liouville]] and [[Michel Chasles]].<ref>Wheeler 1998, p. 40.</ref> Having undertaken a punishing regimen of study, Gibbs caught a serious cold and a doctor, fearing tuberculosis, advised him to rest on the [[French Riviera|Riviera]], where he and his sisters spent several months and where he made a full recovery.<ref>Wheeler 1998, p. 41.</ref>

Moving to [[Berlin]], Gibbs attended the lectures taught by mathematicians [[Karl Weierstrass]] and [[Leopold Kronecker]], as well as by chemist [[Heinrich Gustav Magnus]].<ref>Wheeler 1998, p. 42.</ref> In August 1867, Gibbs's sister Julia was married in Berlin to [[Addison Van Name]], who had been Gibbs's classmate at Yale. The newly married couple returned to New Haven, leaving Gibbs and his sister Anna in Germany.<ref>Rukeyser 1988, p. 151.</ref> In [[Heidelberg University|Heidelberg]], Gibbs was exposed to the work of physicists [[Gustav Kirchhoff]] and [[Hermann von Helmholtz]], and chemist [[Robert Bunsen]]. At the time, German academics were the leading authorities in the natural sciences, especially chemistry and [[thermodynamics]].<ref>Rukeyser 1988, pp.&nbsp;158–161.</ref>

Gibbs returned to Yale in June 1869 and briefly taught French to engineering students.<ref name="Klein-proceedings">{{cite book | chapter = The Physics of J. Willard Gibbs in His Time | last = Klein | first = Martin J. | title = Proceedings of the Gibbs Symposium | year = 1990 |pages = 3, 7}}</ref> It was probably also around this time that he worked on a new design for a steam-engine [[Governor (device)|governor]], his last significant investigation in mechanical engineering.<ref name="Mayr">{{cite journal |doi=10.1098/rsnr.1971.0019 |title=Victorian physicists and speed regulation: An encounter between science and technology |journal=Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London |volume=26 |issue=2 |pages=205–228 |year=1971 |last1=Mayr |first1=Otto |s2cid=144525735 }}</ref><ref>Wheeler 1998, pp.&nbsp;54–55.</ref> In 1871, he was appointed Professor of Mathematical Physics at Yale, the first such professorship in the United States. Gibbs, who had independent means and had yet to publish anything, was assigned to teach graduate students exclusively and was hired without salary.<ref name="Rukeyser-professor">Rukeyser 1988, pp.&nbsp;181–182.</ref>