oc vi phono: Cornell U QC 7.H85 of phys | iil ii : CORNELL | LIBRARY PHYSICS SEVENTY YEARS OF PHYSICS AT CORNELL (Written in 1958 by “Retiring” Professors Howe and Grantham \Wrrecrbec he 4 aS 3 es Pe. Be ee a ae « 2 * oe ay se Vay Se ul wate : Carlyle said that the history of any nation is the, history ¢ e ; 4 v3 vy =} $ Set r 1 < qa 4 f ‘ahens . ce of the great. men who made it. He who writes the history of a Ss ade Motion OLtTen tries to treat its cdevedopment as proken,; inte definitely “marked periods or epo ochs. The application of these two ideas to Sa SM ag 1 aoe peti es fi a Lhe Sia oa Ee 2 2 2 + tne history of Cornell's Physics Department shows that if the men oa Te Me chs est dy ws gn ea es Ck om eae Ba who have made this history are arranged in order of the dates or $ x iy kaye oe de LR de ey f £7 4 wm ced Tae PAS eae he ds be to Heir aeopoinement. to the staff, they easily Tail ave tree groups, hi. wes cat pe tear ty Ae RS Foe toes noe Se a eet pga * SO ian ‘hora ser oly or generations, each generation covering about a third of a century: + 30 ENERO SAO R Por R ‘ ee SY asta fe e 1867-1901 1902-1934; 1935-1955. None of the Men OF Che Fire: eroup. 16 now livirig; all of the s ond group, with one exception =} oie Vivi ks ae ae A> 5 Ai ols Nas ke Se he ot hed WL LMA cat UN 9 i L one eK i es NV dE ec art. 3 wm toate Bhaxmn- © tha #A4 A omni; has retired or left Cornell; the third group, numbering nearly ae aga + 4m, aaAnmIiaAasan 2 TIT Ss 4 HA On ¥ <9 4 nS | T\7 ST many as the two earlier groups together, constitutes the present physics staff. (See chronologic list of staff members.) Cornell's first faculty included a professor of Daysica, Bia Wy, Blake, who remained but three years (1867-1870), resigning to go uU n to Brown University, where he taught until his revirement. oF Blake's next two successors, John J. Brown moved vO syracuse Uni- versity after only one year at Cornell teaching ohysies and Wr serving as Methodist pastor to the students. rancis HE, Loomis, professor for one year, was prevented by illness from giving any William A. Anthony (1872-1887) brought to Cornell experience tn teaching and enthusiasm for physics, with the result that. in ee his first ‘the words of his successor, Edward L. Nichols, Tecture a miracle happened at Cornell ... He won his students in the first ten minutes" by introducing experiments with his lecture, thus beginning the "demonstration lectures" that have so long been a cherished tradition of the department. He also introdu ced laboratory experiments for his students, despite the very limited apparatus and floor space then available. President White, a willing backer of laboratory science, wrote, "As to equipment, wherever I found valuable material. I pought it. Thus wag brought toe the university physical and chemical Ph fan ‘apparatus from London, Par delberg, and Berlin." (Auto- 's purchases must have included some of ather dust in. the Rockefeller the ancient pieces that still ¢ attic, e.g., copper vessels designed by Regnault (ca 1860) when he was performing his classical experiments in calorimetry, gaseous expansion, and other work in the subject of Heat.) To secure more funds for laboratory and lecture apparatus, Anthony gave popular demonstration Lectures, admission. charged, His "laboratory" was at © CA ce 14) © ct rH © ° - La Te tne aoe 8 ose ak oa ~ On Che SUDO JECTS Of LABAvY anh first a bit of space under a stairway in McGraw veer which =. building, along with Morrill and W ,» Physics was-siven @n r (1884) was moved to Ss and Chemistry. “a Franklin Hail, newly completed ce sor Anthony's interest in ap ations of electricity, } oa which ultimately took him from Cornell and Physics to become what " we now call “an electrical engineer," caused him to push labora- tory work in electricity for his students. In order to be able to make precise measurements of large currents, Anthony and his only instructor, George S. Moler (Cornell University, - 1875), designed and built. (1884) a large tangent galvanometer, Ate outer: colds .of | two meters diameter being able to carry currents of 250 amperes. This most unusual, inst trument was mounted in "the Magnetic Observa- ct tory, an isolated building entirely free from iton,! (eo he wood 0 frame of this building was held together with large copper nails. a A chart of the campus dated 1891-shows that this so-called "copper 1 house" stood about where the west end of Rand Hall is now.) The galvanometer was mentioned with pride in each announcement of the Physics Department up to the year 1900- 1901, but its usefulness oe suddenly ded when the trolley line of the Ithaca Railway system then passed nberes (up East Avenue and across Triphammer Bridge). still in the attic. of Rocke! eiier e wy Parts of the galvanometer are Fail. = nthony's enthusiasm for and success with the teaching of icity having come under the eye of President White, White \ fa) asked Anthony to Sketch out a plan Tor so "Department of Blectrical Engineering." This was done, preparing the way for the creation, in 1883, of what President White called "the first department of electrical engineering ever known in the United States, and, so far as I can learn, the first known in any country." (As a matter Ol Tact, such 4 department had been set up, just a few months earlier, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.) In an official booklet issued by the university in 1891, where two pages are given to the Department of Physics and a pnotograph of Professor Nichols, the next two pages are asaigned iT to "The Laboratory of Electrical Engineering, With @ Dphogerrapn of-Proressor Moller as in charee. “Following this, two pages: tell of Professor Ryan as in charge of "The Lighting-Dynamo Room.” It was only later that Electrical Engineering, with Protessor Ryan as Director, became a department separate from Physics. | Among the men who came under Anthony's teaching and then went on as engineers or physicists may be mentioned the following: Edward L. Nichols, George S. Moler and Ernest Merritt (physics, Cornell) | Harris J. Ryan (electrical engineering, Cornell; Stanford, 1905-1931) Dugald C. Jackson (electrical engineering, Wisconsin and Massachusetts Institute of Technology) 3 : Benjamin W. Snow (physics, Wisconsin University) Samuel J. Saunders (physics, Hamilton College) Edwin S. Ferry (physics, Purdue University) Robert W. Quick (Georgia Polytechnic Institute) Frank E, Millis (Lawrence University) ' i 1 3 = : Th Ten an Nay ‘ ‘ vn ‘ | tne famous Gramme-ring Dynamo ~ Moler had no more than graduated when he Joined his profess Anthony, in the construction of a ring-armature dynamo, a begun immediately ywpon the receipt in this country (in 1875) of che cdevalis of a successful machiné: built by Gramme,; in 2 In 1876 this Gramme dynamo was exhibited at the Centennial Ex- position in Philadelphia, where it was operated by Mr. Moler. (The dynamo was driven by a steam engine taken along, from Ithaca. When the steam engine broke down, Moler became the "orime mover Sing a hand-crank. He could thus eet fhe armature uo Go ‘ue: enough speed that a small wire, used to short-circuit the whirling machine would glow briefly.) ra u This Gramme machine, known to those who associated with -Professo r Moler in his later years as "the Moler dynamo” or "the Moler motor,” has been the department's prize exhibit since its display in Philadelphia, After the Philadelphia EXNLDLCiLon, the Gramme dynamo had a long and varied use on the Cornell campus. For several years it operated arc lamps that lighted the campus, thus creating a new "need" -- street lighting by electricity. The local belief, long held, that this dynamo was "the first dynamo built in America" seems not supported by the available evidence (see Moler's departmental folder), though it was certainly " and probably the. very first Gramme dynamo Hone of the Tiret built. in this country... However, there seems 110 tle: dount cnae Cornell's out-door electric lighting was. the first of its kind in this country, probably the first anywhere, certainly antedat “in electric street-lighting in Paris or London. The Cornell dynamo supplied current for various departmental ae such as producing oxygen and hydrogen by electrolysis and ‘charging “storage batteries" for laboratory use. Later, when more re dynamos became available, this versatile old machine functioned as a motor to run the lathes of the physics machine shop. An astonishing novelty at Philadelphia, it was an historical show- piece at the Louisiana Exposition (St. Louis, 1904) and at the Century of Progress Exposition (Chicago, 1933). The machine remains, even unto this day, a treasured piece of lecture-demonstration apparatus, being each year shown in operation as both dynamo and motor to hundreds of students in Cornell's introductory physics eourses. Hdward Leamingt O tJ —{ Ps ©) i Oo 4 we After fifteen years in "the chair of physics," Anthony resigned, apparently for several reasons: (1) the new President Adams did not favor the support of laboratory work in science; (2) Anthony was growing more and more interested in electrical engineering, which he practiced in industry (with Mather Electric Company, Manchester, Connecticut) and then as a consulting engineer, and finally taught (1894-1908) at Cooper Union until his death; (3) he thought that new blood would be good for the physics department and that. the needed new life was to be found in the person of his former student, Edward L. Nichols (Cornell University, 1875), who had gone to cig (four years) for post-graduate study, had been in research with Rowland (at Hopkins University) and with Edison @t Menlo Sea and who had been teaching at the State Universities of Kentucky (two years) and Kansas (four years). +. F5 When Edward L. Nichols freer 1919) became Professor of Physics, he inherited, as his complete staff, one man, Assistant Professor Moler, two teachers having been sufficient to satisfy all the demands for physics py Cornell's one thousand: students. But at once a period of rapid growth of the department began, Nichols soon adding to the staff Ernest Merritt, Frederick Bedell, and Harris J. Ryan, the last-named later becoming Professor of Electri- cal Engineering at Cornell (and still later at Stanford, 1905-1931). In. 1091, the Chemistry. Department moved into new quarters in Morse Pail end Physics expanded CO. ft eo oa Franklin Hall, next out grew Franklin, and then acquired anew and splendid home in Rockefeller Hall (1905). By that time there were two professors, four assistant professors, and ten instructors and assistants, all cor ed at being in a new $250,000 building with a $90,000 equipment. | The trio, Nichols, Merritt, and Bedell, were destined to become famous not only at Cornell but internationally, for their individual and their joint activities. The three men worked in loyal cooper- ation for over twenty-five yeers, until Nichols retired. Each had his special personal interests, his individual line of study, research, and teaching, but they also worked together in certain fields; and the time came that the names "Nichols and Merritt" were mentioned among physicists almost as though they were one. This close association began in 1895, when the two men first announced a course consisting of "Lectures on Spectroscopy, with Laboratory use of the Spectrometer and the Spectrophotometer,' Within ten years, they were engaged in spectrophotometric researches in Luminescence, their results being reported in many published papers before Nichols! retirement. No better statement of the personality, scientific attitude, and achievements of Professor Nichols can be found than that pre- pared after his death by Professor Merritt, his close friend an research associate for many years. Below are given extracts from cf his. "Biographical Memoir," published by the National eeu of Seiences (1940, Vol. 21,.p. 343-366). "There can be little doubt that it was the influence of Professor Anthony that led Yo Nichols! choice of physics as a career, "Nichols was a pioneer in several branches of OUVSLCS -a9es 5 os Much of his work called for manipulative skill of a high order; all of it called for ingenuity in meeting new problems. But when an investigation reached a point where high precision was called for he was ready to go to something beyond. "The numerous papers on color, physiological optics, and tilumination, published-during the first twenty years of i scientific activity exerted a great influence upon the sevetommens of these fields in America... "One of his most important contributions to American physics was the indirect influence he exerted through the students who received their inspiration from him and who later entered the. field om Coliese teaching or industrial physics. At the time. of nis retirement (1919) the heads of departments in thirty-five colleges, fifteen of them state universities, were men who had received their physics training under him." Scores more of his trainees were then in industry. After retirement at the age of sixty-five, Nichols gave another fifteen years to experimental work, publishing thirty-five papers in PEpOrt Theres: . Merritt was now too busy with administrative duties to keep nis Tormer pace as collaborator, but Nichols found enthusiastic assistants in the persons of Horace L. Howes (later of New Hampshire University), Frances G. Wick (of Vassar College), David T. Wilbur (later of the DuMont Laboratory). Dur- ung this period, Nichols was a Research Associate of the Carnegie Institution, receiving grants. therefrom with which he obtained the aid of the assistants just named and with which publication Or Nis Yreésults was: supported, a at a a : . . fumboveyw int os tiAeomean: 7 . Da Se a Ga ae \O Birth of the Physical Review and the American Physical Society Professor Nichols was hardly settled at Cornell when, con- cerned over the lack of an American journal devoted exclusively to physics, he persuaded the University to furnish financial backing for such a publication, to be edited by him and Pro- fessor Merritt. Thus came into being the PHYSICAL REVIEW, now s0-familiar to all American physicists, Bedell, among the first eroun of men to receive the Ph.D. degree in physics at Cornell (1892), was added to the editorial staff before the first copy of the REVIEW appeared in 1893. For twenty years the three men managed and edited the journal. When this Nichols-Merritt-Bedell-Cornell enterprise became self-supporving, it was turned over, outright, in 1913, to the American Se After that, Bedell served for still another ten years as managing editor, from his office in Rockefeller: Hall, Meanwhile, American physicists were beginning to feel the need of a separate society, distinct from Section B of the A. A. A. S. A representative committee selected to consider the matter arranged a meeting of physicists at Columbia University, May 20, 1899, and at that meeting the American Physical Society was launched. Nichols, Merritt, Bedell, and John Ss. Shearer from Cornell were among the forty men present. Merritt was chosen as the first secretary; Nichols was put on the Council. Fifty years later, in a historical note on the founding of the society (Phys. Rev., Vol. 75, 1949) Bedell wrote, "Merritt now had a dual role, ee editor of the Review and secretary of the Society ..... During its early years, Merritt, as secretary, carried much of the load ef 41ts operation, arranging programs and issuing the quarterly Boiletins ..i-.s As Ssetretary during: ens eritical years, then as president and as councilor, he served que eee &s an officer of the Society for over forty-nine years." | Nichols, retiring at the end of World War I (1919) let his administrative mantle fall onto the shoulders of the logical successor, Ernest George Merritt, (Cornell, M.E., 1886), who LO headed the department for the next twenty-five years. As the department grew in numbers, the routine matters carried by its "head" increased. The business affairs of the department, the consultations with graduate students, the lectures to freshmen (which Merritt felt an obligation and found a delight) - all these duties left him distressed that he could find so little time for his own experimentation. But he continued to: hope and to reiter- ate that half of a university professor's time should be allotted to nis researches, Professor Merritt had an active period of some forty-five years (1889-1935). During the first fifteen of these years, he experimented and published in various fields, his twenty-five O papers dealing with such subjects as glow lamps, manometric fiames, DNOLOSLSCLIricircy., primary batteries, the Wehnelv interrupter, electric waves and osclilations, cathode rays, a.¢. Tiow in wires, and radioactivity. His second fifteen years were spent<-larcely in collaboration with Professor Nichols, on Luminescence; his third fitteen years were occupied, as just menvioned, with adminis tration and teaching. Merritt: was a good teacher, at ail: tevels.. in hive TN6oreyices Physics course, the’ most advanced then available to Cornell's eraduate students; his manner of presentation was always that of an explorer surprised at the results turned up -- a pedagogical trick that made the listener Teel that he’was nimsell doing tne discovering and that made the young instructors in the class strive to emulate him in their own teaching. He both instructed and delighted the groups who attended his weekly experimental lectures in the then-new fields of electric waves and electrical conduction in gases. He could take his home-made apparatus and turn out a simple and convincing demonstration with a skill not approached by his run-of-the-mine contemporaries. | Tre topics just mentioned were among the last treated in these experimental lectures, which were first announced by Merritt in 1896, under the title "Recent Advances in Experimental Physics" > ~ a3 oh and described as including "such of the more important develop- ments in physics as have not yet found their way into the text- books." This title and description was regularly printed for the next twenty years, the actual content of the course changing. Toward the end, the topics of ‘conduction in gases” and “electric waves" were continued until the World War, despite the fact that these "recent developments" were hardly still "recent." Those attending found the experiments still novel enough to be inter- esting, and some of the apparatus built for Merritt's use at that time is.stili wsed:.in the ireshman Lectures. After the World War I, an attempt was made to continue these weekly demonstrations as assorted topics in modern physics, handled by assorted members of the staff. The experimental lecturers soon found the chore greater than the results justified, SO. dropped the project! Frederick Bedell, mentioned above in connection with the PHYSICAL REVIEW, came to Cornell at a time when, in his words, "the. battle between direct and alternating currents in the distribution of electrical power was coming on" (1890). In 1892, td edell and Crehore's textbook "Alternating Currents" went to press. The several revisions of this book served as a basis for Bedell's lectures to students of physics and engineering for a score of years. For their use in his dynamo laboratory, he published "Direct and Alternating Current Testing" (1909) which a9el) Was, 1h a his prime, probably the most versatile teacher on the physics staff. Able as a demonstration- -lecturer, he had charge of fresh- men engineers; in the Special toric courses, both intermediate s : Pe Se se Wg Sem ra: somes ees : gis SF atioeeet aioe! ae : aie a i : 2g 4 +f and advanced, he could teach wherever needed; and he served xcellently in the advanced laboratory course he inherited from Murdock, His researches, in the field of infra-red spectroscopy, were continued until he at last succumbed (in 1947) to a long- time heart wealmess, The men of the Physics staff have not been unwilling, through the years, to carry a share of university responsibilities outside those of their own department. Nichols served as Dean of the Arts College for two years (1913-1915), probably without enthusiasm, despite the fact that in those days the Dean's duties were light and mostly secretarial. This was in the days before the College had decided that it needed "a real dean" and when, in the words of one honorable professor (George Burr), "Every professor on the staff is a complete university within himself," hence, needed no regulatory guidance from any dean! Professor Merritt was the first dean of the Graduate School (1909-1914); Professor Richtmyer expanded that deanship appreciably, serving as dean from 1931 until his death, eight years later. -Professor Murdock was Dean of the Faculty, 1945-1952. As faculty repre- sentatives on the Board of Trustees can be mentioned Merritt (1929- 1933), Gibbs (1941-1946) and Smith (1951-1956). In any university and any department, the courses offered to students change, often radically, as the personnel of the staff changes, while the methods of handling these courses changes with the times. At Cornell during World War I (1917-1919), when all able-bodied male students were potential soldiers and the Student Army Training Corps (SATC) was organized, government authorities decreed that the physics course for these men should have laboratory work as an essential part. The course set ni For the Army boys in the SATC became, after the war, the first course for students dn all colleges other than engineering, with Howe supervising and Merritt as participating lecturer. This course plan, with various modifications, has continued to date, under changing supervision. 18 Meanwhile, the engineering students continued in a non- laboratory first course under Collins, with Gibbs as participating lecturer. The sophomores continued under Bidwell (Cornell Ph.D., 1914). These engineering courses in physics were maintained for a decade, but when Bidwell resigned to go to Lehigh (1927). Grantham (Cornell Ph.D., 1919) returned from the Post-Graduate School of the Naval Academy to replace him, and soon thereafter the engineering courses were rebuilt into a four-term sequence essentially that which still obtains. ee OR 4 Beha a os, & AG bby Lo Non-professional Staff Any graduate student of physics who spent any considerable time here during the Nichols regime went away with vivid memories, not only of Professor Nichols and his professorial associates but also of certain non-teaching workers in Franklin and Rocke- feller Halls whose personalities and length of service marked them as outstanding. Among these the following five individuals. seem most worthy of remark; in fact until World War I, there were almost no other departmental employees. F.C. ("Fred") Fowler, mechanician and instrument maker, in the department for thirty years (1884-1914), a man of personal Gisnity and of remarkable skill, was very helpful in designing and making apparatus for research projects. | DdWitt Calkins, who came in with the title of janitor in 1883 and advanced through lecture assistant to mechanician, and then building engineer before his death in 1935, fifty-two years later. As lecture assistant, he had only to be told the topics to be treated, and the lecturer would find everything in readiness for his use when the hour came; as mechanician, he could take down and rebuild a motor or a dynamo, although he knew no "cext- book" electricity; as engineer, he "fixed" everything around the building, doing carpentry and plumbing; he made liquid air in the days when Rockefeller Hall supplied all that was used on the campus; his temper and free speech induced Gaution. dn approach on the part of graduate students and professors alike; white, in ‘the Lecture room, his gum-chewing profile, shadowed during a demonstration, always furnished much amusement for the students. W. D. ("Billi") Stevens (1895-1927), "handy-man" and sometime stock-room attendant, was a "jack-of-all-trades" and most certainly master of none, despite the fact that he sometimes bore the title of assistant mechanician. The last half of his time in Rockefeller Hall, which followed 2 serious injury in the explosion of. a tank of hydrogen, he seemed to spend most of his time repairing his Model-T Ford car, the parts of which often lay around in the north basement. Se ee fae tae on at et fot Pr fees *. CRS ee Sates € : 3 7d ace Re A Pe eed - ee 20 (Fred and Bill were the first car owners in the department -- professors could: not afford the: luxury...Two.of the authors of ‘this account can remember agreeing, about 1920, that a professor Should not try Go own @ car if the overall annual expense threatened to exceed one month's salary.) a fe + Fred, DeWitt, and Bill were powerfui-in the: besement;. but > the offices on the first floor were "Nellie" and "Al," on whom all denizens of -Rockefeller Hall were more consciously depend 4enc than on the basement trio. Helen Mm. ("Nelize Lyons came to Frankl iT + Hall in :1Q00 as the one “giri™ for the. department and broke all university records by remaining on the job for fifty-seven years be! foré retiring. In the early years» while protessors @Guld seis J. write with pens, she was able to type all the necessary official letters and Go the office work for the: PHYSICAL REVIEW, also typing departmental scientific papers for publication.. She became chief | imeographer Im the later years, when, +4s. custodian of the Keys and distributer of the mail, she had“more face-to-face dealings with the graduate students than did-any other. person in tne depart- ment... To .the men who learned to depend on-Her for $6 many. 21tcl Be the name "Nellie" became synonymous with dependability and Fay Coy ts pe a fate Tt LULNESS, Aloysia A. ("Al") King came in, in 1909, to double the office sterr.°. She kept the academic records, wroté 411 omaers lor apparatus and kept the department books, remembered everything about the department that others had forgotten. She later became supervisor of the much-expanded office staff and then administrative secretary. ehe began after and retired before Miss Lyons, Raving spent a mere forty-five years in the department. It would be impossible to list the names and accomplishments of the many who did graduate study in physics during the years this account covers. But a partial list, with brief data, is here offered as possibly of interest to some who may see it. The first list names men and women who went out to teach physics, the year a ORAS LOT ad velling when they obtained their Ph.D. degree. An asterisk (*) indicates that the one named became the head of a physics department at the school Listed . Frank Allen* 1902 University of Manitoba Charles Bidwell* EOL Lehigh University | A. A. Bless 1927 University of Plorids Thomas Brown* 1916 George Wet eee University S.J. Barnett 1898 UntVerel ty Of Ca, feenia Ca Ue Ghaio* SaeOT Colgate University A. L. Foley* 1597 University of Indiana L. W. Hartman* 1899 Nevada University Percy Hodge* 1908 - Stevens Institute R. M. Holmes* Lone Vermont University H. L. Howes* £925 New Hampshire University Coe tw HOU 1933 Lingnan University (China) Goer .ee To Ant op 1900 Lllinois University W. N. Lowry* Seo Bucknell University S. S. Mackeown 1923 California Institute of Technology Louise McDowell* L909 Wellesley College C. Re Mineine 1935 Lowell Polytechnic Institute Be. i Nichols* 1897 Dartmouth College Paul Northrop* 1926 Vassar College i. D. Palmatier* LoS University of North Carolina ds oar Flere 1942 Rochester University, Harvey ; | isudd College Hy od. Reiter 1928 Lllinois University Ls As Richards 1931 Towa State College Re We Shawee - ¥ 1934 Cornell University (Astronomy) G. W. Stewart* 1901 University of iowa Os -M,. Stewart* | 1897 University of Missouri 'C. W. Waggoner* L909 West Virginia University Ai che WITS 1929 UNIVersivy of Cali tormie Frances G. Wick 1908 Vassar College heoG,. Widliams 1935...» University. of Michigan (Astronomy) Pec. WOlLd* 1915 Union College industrial research laboratories took many Cornell physicists, mostly since World War.I. Only a véry brief list. 4s attempted below: bavueile Institute <7: OR. Re Nelson, Hy Wo Fussei Bell Telephone Laboratories Ralph. Bown, 0. E. Buckley : 3 | P Mertz, F.-W. Heynolids Bureau of Standards Wie W. CObtents, Bu C2 Ori teenden gx; P, G. Notting, Bs kh. Piyier Dumont Laboratories La be GOLGgH En Mederal. Communications Comms. C..B. Jollitte Radio Corporation of America Irving Wolff: Private Laboratory GC. HH. Shares ies ee WOR eo ae KHKKEMKKHEKEKEKKKKKEKHEK in the Very eCerties? years, Cornell's: teachers. ol physics were of necessity, drawn from other schools (but only up to the advent of Nichols, in‘°1887). “After Anthony got a eolne department into operation and for some fifty years (until 1935), practically every man to become a permanent member of the staff was a Cornell-trained man, almost ail holding advanced degrees from Cornell. The ex- 3 ceptions to this generalization were the following men who. left the department after ghort Tesidences:: F.-G. Tucker (four years, then to Oberlin), H. A. Barton: (three wears, then to the American Institute of Physics), and S. Livingston (four years, then to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology). After fifty years of this academic inbreeding, the department beean to add to the stall men trained elsewhere, ¢.€., Bacher, Bethe, Parratt, Rossi. World War II took these men away to work On. War projeete.: Their. return brought 2. new era, a new Cuver prise, and a. time of emphasis on nuclear physics. OP. the sixteen additions to the professorial staff since the. war, only Tour are men holding degrees from Cornell. The process of "fission" has been replaced by that of "fusion." It will remain for some future generation to describe and evaluate the results. eed cee cS PERMANENT PHYSICS STAFF, 1867-1958, CHRONOLOGICALLY ARRANGED ; (Temporary Instructors have been omitted) symbols: R, resigned; D, died in service; E, became professor- emeritus. Hach man listed attained the rank of professor unless indicated by AP (assistant-professor) or Assoc.P. (associate- professor). 7 | Active Years 1867-1870 R Blake, Eli W. .(Head) 1870-1871 R Borwn, John J. (Head) 1871-1872 R Loomis, Francis E. (Head) 1872-1887 R Anthony, William A. (Head) 1875-1917 E Moler, George S. 1887-1919 E Nichols, Edward L.(Head) 1889-1935 B Merritt, Ernest G. (Head) 139221937 E Bedell, Frederick 1894-1922 D Shearer, John 8S. 1901-1919: sR Blaker, Ernest 1906-1946 E Gibbs, R.- Clifton: (Chm.) 1906-1939 sD Richtmyer, Floyd K. | 1909-1952 . E 7 Murdock, Carleton G. 1909+1912, ; 1918-1950 E Howe, Harley E. 1910-1940 E Trevor, Joseph E, 1912-1927 R Bidwell, Charles C. 1913-1946. R Kennard, Earle H. 1918-1947 D Collins, Jacob F, 1919-1920, 1928-1955 E Grantham, Guy E. 1923-1926 R Tucker, Forrest G. 1927-1956 R Smith, Lloyd FP. (Chm) 1930-1932 R Barton, Henry A. (AP) 1929- Barnes, Leroy i. 1934-1938 R Livingston, Stanley M. (AP) 1935-1949 R Bacher, Robert F. 1934- Bethe, Hans 1935- Parratt, Lyman G. (Chm. since 1959) 1940-1946 R Rossi, Bruno | ee Sed ae ol Active Years 1i941- Newhall, Herbert F. 1942- : 7 Greisen, Kenneth I. 1945-1950 R Feynman, Richard P. 1946-1959 Corson, Dale R. (Chm.) 1946- oe Hertman, raul , 1940 | Morrison, Philip 1946- Sproull, Robert “L; 1947- | DeWire, John W. 1947~- : | Wilson, Robert R. Pole lO Krumhansi, James A. 1959- “1948- . Woodward, William M. 1949- Cocconi, Guiseppe 1950- | salpeter, Edwin E. 1951-1953 ne Dyson, Freeman J. 195e- silverman, Albert 1953- Overhauser, Clarence A. 1954- Holcomb, Donald F, L95[- Bradley, Richard Cc, Many others have been appointed since 1958. PERMANENT PHYSICS STAFF, 1867-1958, ALPHABETICALLY ARRANGED Under "Rank" is Tisted the first appointment, as Instructor or higher rank, also the final rank of men no longer in service. mynvole: = 5; instructor; AP, assistant “prot 6ssor; Assoc .P. associate- -professor;. P, professor; E, emeritus-professor ; Head; Om, , -chai rman, 1919-1946 Name Rank Active years Life Span Anthony, William A. P & Head 1872-1887 1835-1908 Bacher, Robert P,. [e=Aesoc .P 1935-1949 =1905- Barnes, Leroy L. I-- 1929. 1902- Barton, Henry A. AP 1930-1932. - 1898- Bedell, Frederick © coo 1892-1937 1868-1958 Bethe, Hans A, Ape. 1934- 1906- Bidwell, Charles. ¢. [--P 1912-1927 °° 1681 Blake;, Eli W. P & Head 1867-1870 Blaker, Ernest T--P 1901-1919 1870-1947 Bradley, Richard ¢. ip 19572 1922- Brown, Jonn J; P &Head 1870-1871 1820-1891 Cocconi, Guiseppe AP-- 1949- 1914. Collins, Jacob R. Tap 1918-1947 1891-1947 Corson, Dele FR. AE --P 15 2 “1853 1914. DeWire, John W. AP < 1916- Dyson, Freeman J. ¥ La oe. L923= Feynman, Richard P, AP-Assoc.P. 1945-1950 . 1918- Gartlein, Carl W. I-- 1927- 1902- Glbps, RR. Clirten I--E 1906-1946 1878- | Chin. © 1935-1916 Grantham, Guy E. oTesk 7 19019<19202. 1886 — 1928-1955 ? Greisen, Kenneth I. I-- 1942- -1918- Hartman, Paul L. Dest 1938- 16755 Holcomb, Donald F. [~~ 1954- 1925- Howe, Harley E, 1-55 1909-19123. 1882- 1918-1950 Kennard, Earle H. I--P 1913-1914 1885- 1916-1917 Name _ Krumhansl, James A. Livingston, Stanley M. Loomis, Francis E. Merritt, Ernest G. Moler, George S. Morrison, Petia. Murdock, Carleton C. Newhall, Herbert F, Nacrnols;,:. Boward: L. Overhauser, Clarence A. Parrave, Lyman G. Richtmyer, Floyd K. nossi, Bruno Salpeter, Edwin E, Shearer, John S. Silverman, Albert Smith, Lloyd P. sproull, Robert. i; Tomboulian, Diran H. Trevor, Joseph E. Picker, Forrest G. Wilson, Robert R. Woodward, William M. 26 Rank AP--Assoc.P. Dic us I--AP P & Head: I[--f Head T--E AP-- [--E een P--it Head AP--Assoc.P. Te Chm. tae AP--P AP-- I--P AP-- I[--P Chm. Te. aie P--is AP Pau AP-- Life Span- Active Years 1948-1954 1919- 1959- 1934-1938 uD 1871-1872 1889-1935 1865-1948 1919-1935 1875-1917 . qBsicigse 1946- -1915- — 1909-1952 1884- 1941- 1916- 1887-1919 (1854-1937 1887-1919 1953-1959 1925-— 1935- 1908- 1906-1939 1881-1939 1940-1946 1965-5 1950~.. 1924- 1894-1922 1865-1922 1952- 1919- 1927-1956 1903- 1946-1956 1946- 1918- 1935- 1902- 1909-1940 1864-1941 1923-1926 1892- 1947- 1914- 1948- 1916- \ ee el tN DEX Subject. Advanced Laboratory Anthony Bedell Bidwell Blaker Collins Copper House Dynamo, Gramme-ring . Karly X-rays Electrical Engineering Gibbs Grantham Graduate Students Howe | Kennard 720uUL0 ale Merritt Moler Murdock Nichols Non-teaching staff Photographic Laboratory Physical Review Professors ad deans Richtmyer Rockefeller Hall Shearer Summer lecturers Tangent galvanometer ' Staff members, chronologic Staff members, alphabetic Page 14 Les Ld - 16-18 45 eso 14,15 18 el. 17 16 13 9710 2-4,12 6-9 19,20 Le LY 16 6,14 1S 15 23, ol 25, 26 bears PAMPHLET BINDER eee es ence cameras ane seem serenity Syracuse, N. Y. Stockton, Calif. © = an) 2 fF oa PRINTED IN