From her car, a perfect apple caught the Editor’s attention on Wednesday, September 23, 2020. She investigated ripe fruit on the tree in Robert A. [Andrews] Millikan Park, where Morrison Chamber of Commerce is housed, at 221 W. Main Street, Morrison, IL. Apples dotted the ground, gnawed by either animals or someone lying on their belly.
This apple would be best served as a treat for the Editor, so she picked it and took its photograph–to honor a growing-season-well-done. Two desiccated, non-fruit-producing apple blossoms were shriveled and dangled from the stem.
Most people do not know this pocket park was named to honor a home-grown, Nobel Prize winner, physicist Robert A. Millikan. Born in Morrison on March 22, 1868, he died in San Marino, CA, during December 1953. Morrison’s Heritage Museum, 202 E. Lincolnway, has photographs and scientific information about Dr. Millikan’s life.
In 1891 Millikan was graduated from Oberlin College in Oberlin, OH; he received a Doctorate Degree in 1895 from Columbia University, New York City, NY.
He discovered “the elementary charge of an electron, using the oil-drop experiment” and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1923. There were “numerous, momentous discoveries” to follow, “chiefly in the fields of electricity, optics, and molecular physics.”
Every notable person comes “from somewhere,” even if that is a small, Northwest Illinois town on the Rock Creek in Whiteside County. Many autumns ago, it is likely young Bobby Millikan plucked an appealing apple from a tree in his hometown.
The Editor’s Millikan Park apple was juicy and sweet. No warm, Bourbon Pecan Caramel Sauce was needed!