Morley was born in Newark, New Jersey. He graduated from Williams College in 1860.
From 1869 to 1906 he was professor of chemistry at Western Reserve College[?] (today Case Western Reserve University). His best remembered work, which he did together with Albert Abraham Michelson and, later with Dayton Miller, was the Michelson-Morley experiment in 1887. Neither he nor Michelson ever considered that it disproved the aether hypothesis. His work may be seen correct with recent developments concerning the quantum flux and the casimir effect. However others did considered the null-result as proof of no aether and it ultimately led to Einstein's theory of relativity.
Morley also worked on the oxygen composition of the atmosphere, thermal expansion, and the velocity of light in a magnetic field.
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