His application citation read: "Discovered the law connecting the latent heat of vaporisation and molecular weights of bodies known as "Trouton's law" and experimentally determined the directions of vibration of electric and inaquatic force in plane polarised light.
His application citation noted that he had identified the connection between the latent heat of vaporization and molecular weights, known as Trouton's law, and carried out experiments to identify the directions of vibration for electric and aqueous forces in polarized light.