ALBERT MICHELSON was the 1st American to win the Nobel Prize. His search for the aether inspired Einstein and is considered history’s most important “failed” experiment.
EDWARD MORLEY was Michelson’s partner in the early aether experiments. He attended theological seminary, but spent most of his adult life studying chemistry and geology.
MARGARET MICHELSON was Michelson’s first wife, and mother of three children. History tells us little, but we know that she lived through her husband’s tribulations.
ELSA MICHELSON was the oldest child, coming of age just as a new century approached. Her life will take her to Nassau and NYC, but in 1887 she was stuck in Ohio.
WALTER is a fictional character, imagined as an assistant in Michelson’s lab, and someone who thinks he’s in love with Elsa.
DAYTON MILLER was an astronomer, acoustician, and amateur flautist, but in 1887 he was at Case Western University and desperately in love with Walter.
EDNA MICHELSON was Michelson’s second wife (and mother to his second family), and is wholly unlike Margaret.