Pres. Nichols' Widow Dies at Age of 85

FUNERAL SERVICES for Mrs. Katharine West Nichols, 85, widow of the late Dr. Ernest Fox Nichols, tenth President of Dartmouth College, were held February 12 in St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Hamilton, N. Y. Mrs. Nichols, who leaves a daughter and a twin sister, died in New York City on February 10.

Her husband, to whom she was married in 1894, was a noted physicist as well as administrator. He served as President of Dartmouth from 1910 until 1916, when he resigned in order to give more time to scientific research. Mrs. Nichols was among those present when her husband succumbed to a heart attack in April, 1924, while addressing the National Academy of Sciences in Washington.

While teaching physics at Dartmouth, Dr. Nichols perfected an apparatus for measuring the heat of a candle at six miles, thus making possible the measurement of the heat of stars. In 1901, with Gordon Ferrie Hull, now Professor of Physics, Emeritus, he discovered the fact that a beam of light exerts pressure. This proved to be one of the foundation stones of the Einstein Theory.