text: Duane was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Charles William and Emma Cushman (Lincoln) Duane. He was a direct descendant of Benjamin Franklin from his father's side.
  He received an A.B. degree in mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1892 and was valedictorian of his class. He studied at Harvard University and graduated with an A.B. in 1893. He worked as an assistant to John Trowbridge in his research on Hertzian waves and received an A.M. degree in 1895.
  He received a Tyndall Fellowship from Harvard and conducted research on electromagnetism under Emil Warburg at the University of Berlin. His doctoral advisor was Walter Nernst from the University of Gottingen. Duane received his doctorate degree from the University of Berlin after his dissertation Uber elektrolytische Thermoketten was accepted by Max Planck.