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Interview with Hertha Gutenberg
Get PDFA 1981 interview with Hertha Gutenberg, widow of the seismologist Beno Gutenberg, who directed Caltech's Seismological Laboratory from 1946 to 1957. Both were born in Darmstadt, Germany, and they married there just after World War I. Gutenberg, who received his PhD from Göttingen in 1911, made the first correct determination of the radius of the Earth's core. In 1913 he joined the German University of Strasbourg, then headquarters of the International Seismological Association. He served as a meteorologist in the German Army in World War I, and after the war became a professor at the University of Frankfurt-am-Main. In 1929, he was invited to participate in a conference at Caltech on future directions for the Seismological Laboratory, then under the auspices of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. In 1930, he joined the Caltech faculty and went to work at the Seismo Lab, which, under his eventual directorship, became a leading center for deep Earth and earthquake studies. In 1941, with Charles Richter, he published Seismicity of the Earth, whose earthquake patterns were later instrumental in developing the theory of plate tectonics. Gutenberg's scientific honors include election to the National Academy of Sciences, the Bowie Medal of the American Geophysical Union, the Lagrange Prize of the Royal Belgian Academy, and the Wiechert Medal of the Deutsche Geophysikalische Gesellschaft.
In this interview, his widow recalls their early years in Darmstadt during the Weimar Republic and their efforts to help friends and his former students to come to the United States during the rise of Nazism. She comments on life at Caltech in the 1930s under Robert A. Millikan and the changes that occurred with the arrival of Lee A. DuBridge as Caltech's president in 1946. She recalls her husband's meteorological work for the U.S. Navy during the Second World War and his visit to Japan just after the war at the navy's behest to investigate possible atomic bomb research there. She recalls the difficulties of adjusting to life in America in the 1930s, her eventual participation in various campus volunteer activities, and her travels with her husband to Turkey and to Israel in the 1950s. The interview concludes with her memories of Mr. and Mrs. Albert Einstein, who became friends of the Gutenbergs during their visits to Caltech in the early 1930s
Interview with William H. Pickering (I)
Get PDFInterview in four sessions in 1978 with William Hayward Pickering, professor emeritus of electrical engineering at Caltech and director (1954-1976) of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, begins with recollections of his upbringing in New Zealand. He enters Caltech as an undergraduate in spring term of 1929: influence of A. A. Noyes; travels in Europe during his junior year. Remains at Caltech as a graduate student in electrical engineering and then joins the faculty. Recollections of life at Caltech during the Depression and the war years, including emphasis on power transmission in its electrical engineering department, under Royal Sorensen, and subsequent expanding into electronics. Recalls his work with H. Victor Neher and R. A. Millikan on balloon-flight studies of cosmic rays; travels with them to India and Mexico. Contrasts leadership of Millikan and Lee A. DuBridge. Comments on barrage of Japanese incendiary balloons during the war. Early history of JPL: Theodore von Karman, H. S. Tsien, Frank J. Malina. Long-range missile development for US Army; JPL's collaboration with Wernher von Braun at Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Ala. Advent of Sputnik (1957); competition with Soviet Union. JPL's move into space program with Explorer 1, first US satellite; establishment of NASA (1958); JPL becomes a NASA lab, administered by Caltech. Ranger program (lunar probes); Ranger 6 video failure; success of Ranger 7 (1964). Simultaneous progress of planetary and lunar exploration programs; Mariner 2 (1962 Venus fly-by); Surveyor series (moon); Surveyor as precursor to Apollo program. His reflections on JPL directorship; JPL's relations with Caltech; advantages of being administered by Caltech instead of by NASA as a civil service laboratory. The interview concludes with his comments on his post-retirement work setting up an applied research institute at Saudi Arabia's University of Petroleum and Minerals
Interview with Carl Anderson
Get PDFThis wide-ranging 1979 interview in eight sessions with Carl D. Anderson, Board of Trustees Professor of Physics, emeritus and Nobel laureate, begins with his recollections of his undergraduate years at Caltech (1923-1927), and the influence of Arthur Amos Noyes and Ira Sprague Bowen. He recalls courses with Earnest Watson, Morgan Ward, Richard Chace Tolman, J. R. Oppenheimer. He offers his early and ongoing impressions of Robert A. Millikan as chairman of physics division and head of Caltech, and of Millikan's work on cosmic rays. He recalls his own postdoctoral work at Caltech on cosmic rays, and his discovery of the positron in 1932 and the mu-meson, or muon, in 1936, and on contemporary developments in nuclear physics. He comments on his Nobel Prize (1936). He discusses his contacts with Enrico Fermi's group at Chicago in the early 1940s and Caltech's rocket projects during World War II at China Lake and Goldstone, including the contributions of Charles Lauritsen, I. S. Bowen, and Seth Neddermeyer. He offers recollections of postwar Caltech, the increase in research funds and undergraduate enrollment, the rise of particle physics and the advent of the large accelerator era. He discusses his stint as chairman of the Division of the Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy (1962-1970) and concludes by commenting on the current state of physics research
Interview with Arnold O. Beckman
Get PDFInterview in two sessions, 1978, with Arnold O. Beckman--alumnus, faculty member, and trustee of Caltech and founder of Beckman Instruments (now Beckman Coulter, Inc.)--begins with his recollections of his early interest in chemistry. He attends University High School at Illinois State Normal University. Brief stint in the Marine Corps near end of World War I. After the war, he continues his education at the University of Illinois in Urbana, where he studies with C. S. Marvel, Gerhard Dietrichson, and Richard Chace Tolman. B.S. (chemical engineering) 1922, M.S. (physical chemistry) 1923. Follows Tolman to Caltech; does his graduate work with Roscoe Dickinson. Recollections of Arthur Amos Noyes and the Chemistry Division. Leaves Caltech in 1924 before receiving his PhD, works for Walter Shewhart at Bell Laboratories on West Street in Manhattan. Noyes prompts him to return to his graduate studies; he does so in the fall of 1926; joins Caltech faculty after receiving PhD in 1928. His consultant work and development of the pH meter. Development and production of the Helipot (helical potentiometer) and the quartz (Model DU) spectrophotometer. Establishes National Technical Laboratories while still a member of the Caltech faculty; leaves Caltech in 1939 to become its president (name changed to Beckman Instruments in 1950). Use of Helipots and spectrophotometers in World War II. In 1953, he returns to Caltech as a member of the Board of Trustees (chairman 1964-1974). Comments on Linus Pauling controversy; on changes in American work ethic prompting moving of plants overseas; on admission of women to Caltech. Founds Lincoln Club of Orange County, 1962. His interest in behavioral biology and creation of Caltech's Beckman Laboratories of Behavioral Biology. Recalls his involvement in air-pollution abatement in Los Angeles in the late 1940s and early 1950s and the work of Arie Haagen-Smit
Interview with Earl Mendenhall
Get PDFAn interview with Earl Mendenhall, graduate of Throop College of Technology, which in 1920 became the California Institute of Technology. Mr. Mendenhall entered Throop in the fall of 1914 and graduated April 1918 (commencement date had been moved up from June so graduates could participate in the war effort). He discusses the Throop curriculum and his work with Royal W. Sorensen (electrical engineering). Recalls part-time work at Pasadena’a Municipal Light Plant; acquaintance with John Pendleton of Plomb Tool, Los Angeles. Anecdotes of student life, including the pole rush and various pranks.
Recollections of Throop’s president, James A. B. Scherer; professors Franklin Thomas (civil engineering); Howard Lucas (organic chemistry); W. Howard Clapp (mechanical engineering); Lucien Gilmore (physics); H. C. Van Buskirk (mathematics); Harry Batemen (mathematics); Frederick Beckmann (German).
Recalls establishment of Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, 1916; Thomas Edison’s visit to campus; trustee Henry M. Robinson. Discusses early interest in electrical engineering. Works with Carl E. Johnson; joins U.S. Electrical Manufacturing Company. Social life at Throop
Interview with Herbert L. Hahn
Get PDFAn interview in four sessions, January 1981, with Pasadena attorney Herbert L. Hahn, a member of Caltech’s Board of Trustees from 1955 through 1969, and a Life Trustee thereafter. He discusses the early history of Caltech at the turn of the 20th century—originally Throop Polytechnic Institute, then Throop College of Technology—as well as the capitalists and entrepreneurs who supported it financially at that time.
Describes his early associations and friendships with numerous Caltech trustees and benefactors as an attorney, and how he eventually became a Caltech Associate and later a trustee. He offers recollections of, among others, Robert Andrews Millikan, William Bennett Munro, Royal W. Sorensen, Arnold Beckman, Keith Spalding, Archibald Young, Scott Brown, Albert Ruddock, Philip Fogg, Edward Valentine, Henry Dreyfuss, and Thomas J. Watson Jr., detailing their various contributions to Caltech and to the Pasadena community
Interview with James Bonner, Sterling Emerson, Norman Horowitz and Donald Poulson
Get PDFIn this 1978 informal conversation, the participants recall the early days of biology at Caltech under its first chairman, Thomas Hunt Morgan, including recollections of Theodosius Dobzhansky. Poulson, a professor of biology at Yale, and Caltech professor of biology Bonner describe their undergraduate and graduate education at Caltech in the early 1930s in chemistry, biology, and physics, including a botany course taught by Emerson, professor of biology emeritus. Memories of plant physiologist Herman Dolk, killed in an auto accident in 1932, and the early humanities faculty, including Clinton Judy, Harvey Eagleson, and William B. Munro. Re-creation of Columbia fly room at Caltech with Alfred H. Sturtevant and Dobzhansky; their collaboration on Drosophila pseudoobscura and their later disagreement. Bonner's work on plant physiology with Kenneth Thimann and H. Dolk. Norman Horowitz, chairman of the Biology Division, recalls arriving at Caltech as a graduate student in the late 1930s and being assigned by Morgan to work with embryologist Albert Tyler. Recalls visits to Caltech's marine biological station at Corona del Mar and NRC fellowship to Stanford, where he first met George W. Beadle. Bonner and Horowitz comment on the direction of Caltech's Biology Division in the 1930s--all experiment, no descriptive biology, and an emphasis on genetics rare among universities at that time. Comments on collaboration with chemists, including Linus Pauling. Reenergizing of the Biology Division in the late 1940s with the return of Beadle, Horowitz, Edward B. Lewis, and Max Delbrück. Beadle becomes chairman of the division; contrast between his and Morgan's style of leadership. Growth of Biology Division under Beadle
Interview with Hallett D. Smith
Get PDFAn interview in two sessions, April 1981, with Hallett D. Smith, professor of English, emeritus, in the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, which he chaired from 1949 to 1970. In 1970 he became a senior research associate at the Huntington Library but continued teaching part-time at Caltech until 1975, when he became emeritus.
He recalls his teaching career at Williams (1931-49) and Guggenheim Fellowship (1947-48) at the Huntington; invitation from President DuBridge to come to Caltech to replace Clinton Judy as chairman of what was then simply the Humanities Division. Discusses his duties, division’s emphasis on teaching vis-à-vis research, course requirements. Recollections of C. Judy and Robert Millikan. Athenaeum lunches; scientific colleagues Morgan Ward, Charles Lauritsen, Robert Bacher. Attempts to bridge gap between sciences and humanities; philosopher Charles Bures; psychologist John Weir. Campus visits of psychologist Carl Rogers. Humanities faculty as RAs in student houses: Horace Gilbert, Harvey Eagleson. Superb teaching of David Elliot and J. Kent Clark.
Carnegie Corporation funding; instituting Public Affairs Room; Caltech joins American Universities Field Staff. Appointment of geographer Edwin S. Munger; project Capricorn; Robert Huttenback, Frederick Lindvall, Robert Oliver. Beefing up of social sciences; division’s name change (1966). Trend toward quantification. Carnegie support for chamber music. Becomes trustee of AUFS. Advanced English option, 1950s. Campus atmosphere during McCarthyism. Excellence in teaching exemplified by Charles Newton, David Elliot. Humanities option (1965); its effect on faculty recruitment. Semi-retirement to Huntington; teaches one course (Shakespeare) at Caltech. Controversy over granting tenure to Jenijoy La Belle. Chairing Athenaeum’s Board of Governors and acquiring its liquor license
Interview with Robert P. Sharp (I)
Get PDFInterview in three sessions in late 1979 and early 1980 with Robert P. Sharp, Sharp Professor of Geology emeritus, who chaired the Division of Geology (later the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences) at Caltech from 1952 to 1968. Begins with his recollections of growing up in Oxnard and of life during his undergraduate years [1930-1934] at Caltech, including his career as quarterback on Caltech's football team, and his one graduate year there. In 1936 he moved to Harvard for further graduate study, doing his thesis work on the Ruby/East Humboldt Range in Nevada. From 1938 to 1943 he taught at the University of Illinois; he discusses expeditions in the Grand Canyon (1937) and the Yukon (1941). After three years with the Army Air Force in Alaska, he joined the faculty of the University of Minnesota, then returned to Caltech as a professor in 1947. He discusses the early history of Caltech's geology division under J. P. Buwalda, the importance of the Seismological Laboratory, and the demise of vertebrate paleontology at Caltech after the death of Chester Stock. Discusses the expansion of the division under his chairmanship into geochemistry and planetary science and other events of his chairmanship; chairing the search committee for a new president upon the retirement of Lee DuBridge; and the advent of Harold Brown. Recalls his participation in the efforts of Eugene Shoemaker and Leon Silver to raise money for a named chair by guiding trips in the Grand Canyon, and his establishment of field trips for the division non-academic staff. The interview concludes with a discussion of his interest in current geological phenomena, such as glaciers and wind effects, and his authorship of guidebooks on Southern California geology for laypeople
Autobiography of Olga Taussky-Todd
Get PDFThis autobiographical essay was written for the Archives in 1979-80 by Olga Taussky-Todd, emeritus professor of mathematics. In it she recalls her childhood and early education in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in Vienna and Linz; her early interest in mathematics; her studies at the University of Vienna; and her interest in algebraic number theory (PhD 1930). Recollections of her thesis advisor Philip Furtwängler, Hans Hahn, Kurt Gödel, Karl Menger; her appointment in Göttingen as one of the editors of Hilbert's collected works; colleagues at Göttingen; friendship with Emmy Noether. She spends the 1934-35 academic year at Bryn Mawr, with Emmy Noether, then moves to Girton College, Cambridge. The next year she moves to London University; meets and marries fellow mathematician John (Jack) Todd. After World War II breaks out, they move to Queens University in Belfast, then back to London; their war work; their move to U.S.A. in 1947. Her interest in matrix theory; their stay at the Institute for Advanced Study, in Princeton. Their appointment at the Institute for Numerical Analysis, UCLA. Return to London. Their work at the National Bureau of Standards, in Washington, in early 1950s. 1957 appointments at Caltech: John Todd as professor of mathematics, Olga Taussky-Todd as research associate. Recollections of her mathematical research, her colleagues, and her work with students at Caltech