On the Efficient Conduct of Professional Affairs, with Particular Reference to the Instruction of Physics

By Bella Swan, M.Sc.

Lecturer in Physics, Collegium Vistula, Krakow

b.swan@example.com +48 555 012 733 bellaswan.example.com ul. Fikcyjna 14, Krakow

I.Introductory Remarks

Being a plain account of the author's occupations, her methods of instruction, and the apparatus at her command; offered without ornament, in the hope that the reader may judge her fitness from the particulars alone.

I have taught physics at the university level for 9 years, chiefly mechanics, thermodynamics, and electromagnetism, to classes of 40 to 180 students. In that time I have supervised 23 diploma theses and rebuilt two undergraduate laboratory courses from the apparatus upward. I keep my lecture demonstrations in working order myself, a habit the technicians tolerate with visible patience.

II.Of Posts Held and Duties Discharged

Lecturer in Physics
Collegium Vistula, Krakow

1899–present¹

Deliver the full first-year course in mechanics and heat to 180 students per term; examination pass rates rose from 61 to 84 per cent over four sessions.
Designed and equipped a new electromagnetism laboratory of 12 benches on a budget of 4,200 crowns, complete within one academic year.
Supervise 6 diploma candidates annually; 5 of the last cohort proceeded to assistantships or industrial posts.

Demonstrator and Junior Assistant
Institute of Natural Sciences, Lviv Polytechnical School

1894–1899

Conducted 14 weekly laboratory sections in precision measurement; reduced apparatus breakage costs by roughly one third through a simple loan register.
Prepared and calibrated demonstration apparatus for 3 senior professors, including a Foucault pendulum of 11 metres.

Computing Assistant (seasonal)
Observatory of the Tatra Meteorological Commission

1892–1894

Reduced barometric and temperature records from 7 mountain stations; found and corrected a systematic instrument error of 0.4 mm of mercury in the Zakopane series.²

Plate I. Progression of posts, 1892 to the present day; ordinates denote the approximate scope of duties. Drawn by the author.

III.Of Instruction Received

Degree or Certificate	Institution	Year
Master of Science in Physics, with distinction	Lviv Polytechnical School	1894
Candidate examinations in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy	Jagiellonian Lyceum for Women, Krakow	1890
Certificate in Precision Instrument Making	Werkstatt Brunner & Sohn, Vienna (six-month course)	1891

IV.Of Methods and Apparatus in Which Proficiency Is Claimed

Department	Particulars
Lecture instruction	Mechanics, thermodynamics, electromagnetism, optics; classes of up to 180.
Laboratory practice	Precision measurement, galvanometry, calorimetry, photographic recording of oscillations.
Computation	Least-squares reduction, logarithmic tables, error analysis; a fair hand with the slide rule.³
Languages	Polish and German fluently; French and English sufficient for the literature.

V.Communications to Learned Bodies

"On a Convenient Suspension for Lecture Galvanometers," Proc. Galician Soc. Nat. Phil., vol. XLIV, pp. 211–219 (1903).
"Barometric Corrections for the Tatra Stations," read before the Meteorological Commission, autumn session, 1896; printed in abstract.
Public lectures on the wireless telegraph, Krakow Merchants' Hall, 1904; attendance of some 300 on each of 3 evenings.

Notes

The post was made permanent in 1901, upon the favourable report of the faculty committee.
The correction was afterwards adopted for the whole mountain network; see the Commission's yearbook for 1895, p. 112.
References and testimonials, including a letter from the Director of the Institute at Lviv, are furnished upon application to the address given above.

Printed for the Society by Drukarnia Akademicka, Krakow