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Interview with Ernest H. Swift
Full text linkAn interview in four sessions, in April and May 1978, with Ernest H. Swift, professor of analytical chemistry, emeritus, in the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. Dr. Swift received his undergraduate education at Randolph-Macon College and the University of Virginia. He came to Caltech, then Throop College of Technology, as a teaching fellow in 1919 and received his PhD there in 1924. He joined the faculty in 1928, serving as chairman of the chemistry division from 1958 to1963, and became emeritus in 1967.
In this wide-ranging interview, he recalls his upbringing in Virginia, his undergraduate education, and his recruitment to Throop by Arthur Amos Noyes. He discusses Noyes’s influence on the development both of Caltech and its chemistry division and describes the early years of the institute, the establishment of the Kerckhoff Marine Laboratory at Corona del Mar, and the contributions of various colleagues, including Stuart Bates, Roscoe Dickinson, James Ellis, William Lacey, and Earnest Watson. Comments on the admission of women, and on playing tennis at Caltech. He discusses Linus Pauling’s chairmanship of the chemistry division, the reactions to Pauling’s political activities, and Pauling’s eventual departure from Caltech. Recalls John D. Roberts’s division chairmanship and his own stint as chairman. Comments on the presidencies of Robert A. Millikan, Lee A. DuBridge, and Harold Brown. The concluding session deals with his own work, including his work on chemical warfare in the run-up to World War II, and he ends with an overview and recap of the chemistry division’s history
Interview with Frank J. Malina
Full text linkInterview in one session with Mary Terrell, December 14, 1978. Frank J. Malina was research fellow (1940-1942) and assistant professor of aeronautics (1942-1946) at the California Institute of Technology. The interview begins with his arrival at Caltech as a graduate student in 1934 to begin a master's degree in mechanical engineering (MS, 1935). He then undertook a second master's in the Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory, known as GALCIT and then under the direction of Theodore von Kármán. Writes PhD dissertation ("Characteristics of the rocket motor and flight analyses of the sounding rocket," 1940) on rocket propulsion under Von Kármán, marking the beginning of a long-term relationship with Kármán, who became "a second father." Formation of rocket propulsion research group with William Bollay of Caltech and two men outside Caltech, Jack (John) Parsons and Edward Forman; later involvement of others at Caltech. Early rocket experiments on campus in Guggenheim create hazard, resulting in move to Pasadena's Arroyo Seco; group named "the suicide squad." Early funding provided by Army Air Corps, 1939. Malina recalls open, permissive atmosphere in GALCIT. Support of Robert A. Millikan and Irving P. Krick for rocket development for meteorological research; skepticism of Clark B. Millikan, who later becomes more supportive. Rocket group becomes known as Jet Propulsion Laboratory, GALCIT. Malina comments on relationship of the group, later known as JPL, to Caltech; administrative changes and tensions upon Von Kármán's departure and promotion of Clark Millikan to GALCIT leadership; Malina makes day-to-day decisions at the lab. Establishment in 1942 of Aerojet Engineering Corporation to engage with aerospace industry; resistance of both Caltech and Army Air Corps to this venture. Success of Aerojet; Malina's financial gain.
Christmas, 1946, Malina departs for initial leave of absence to work for UNESCO in Paris; never returns to Caltech. Discusses reasons for change; eventual decision to pursue artistic career; interest in kinetic art. Founding of art journal Leonardo. After launch of Sputnik, founding with Von Kármán of International Academy of Astronautics. Discusses international cooperation in science. Comments on early skepticism about intercontinental missiles and satellites; key paper 1946 with Martin Summerfield on rocket escape from Earth's atmosphere. Failure of Americans to think creatively about space at that time, despite technology at hand; Russian thinking different, leading to 1957 launch of first satellite. Concluding comments on living in Paris, travel, the relationship of art and science
Interview with Frederick C. Lindvall
Full text linkAn interview in three sessions, November and December 1978, with Frederick C. Lindvall, professor of engineering, emeritus, in the Division of Engineering and Applied Science. Dr. Lindvall received his BS from the University of Illinois (1924) and his PhD from Caltech (1928). He joined the Caltech faculty in 1930 as an instructor in electrical engineering and served as chairman of the Division of Engineering and Applied Science from 1945 (when it was known as the Division of Civil and Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics) to 1969, becoming professor emeritus in 1970.
He recalls his childhood in Moline, Illinois; first two years of college at UC Southern Branch, in Los Angeles; youthful interest in railway operations; junior and senior years at University of Illinois; graduate work at Caltech with Francis Maxstadt, under Royal W. Sorensen; thesis work on vacuum switch. Comments on professors Smythe, Epstein, Bateman, Zwicky, Tolman, Judy. Origin of Sorensen’s high voltage laboratory and collaboration with Southern California Edison. Works for General Electric before joining Caltech faculty, 1930.
Recalls family trip to Europe just before World War I and difficulties getting back to the States. Graduate teaching; recollections of Millikans; campus life in the 1930s; outstanding graduate students.
Works on rockets and torpedoes in World War II. Caltech in wartime. Engineering division chairmanship; curriculum revision in the 1950s, new emphasis on applied science. Government support post-Sputnik. Interest in humanities. Work on Freshman Admissions Committee; travels to interview high school prospects.
Trips to Soviet Union, Africa, India, to investigate engineering education. Work at Deere & Company and son’s earthquake consulting firm after his retirement
Interview with Charles Richter
Full text linkInterview in 1978 with Charles F. Richter, professor of seismology emeritus, in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences. A pioneer in seismology and active in the seismology and earthquake engineering fields for over fifty years, Richter's name is known for the earthquake magnitude scale he developed in the 1930s for local earthquakes. Richter received his PhD from Caltech in 1928. In 1937 he joined the Caltech faculty and worked alongside Harry Wood in the Seismological Laboratory, which that year was transferred to Caltech from the Carnegie Institution of Washington and was situated in the San Rafael area of Pasadena. The interview covers a wide range of topics, including his graduate student years at Caltech, then headed by Robert A. Millikan; recollections of Harry Wood, Beno Gutenberg, and Hugo Benioff and their work in the early years of the Seismological Laboratory; the prospects for earthquake prediction; the role of the Bikini atomic tests in studies of the propagation of seismic waves; the tectonics of Japan; the importance of earthquake engineering; his consulting work with the L.A. Dept. of Water and Power; and his views on latter-day developments in the geology division and at Caltech
Interview with Max Delbruck
Full text linkInterview in 1978 with Max Delbruck, professor of biology emeritus, begins with his recollections of growing up in an academic family in Berlin. Trained at Gottingen in the late 1920s as a theoretical physicist, he later switched to biology, inspired by Niels Bohr to investigate the applications of complementarity to biological phenomena. After postgraduate work at Bristol and Copenhagen, he returned to Berlin in 1932 to work for Lise Meitner and formed a "club" of theoretical physicists, biologists, and biochemists, who met for discussions at his mother's house. Recollections of the advent of the Nazis in 1933. In 1937 Delbruck left Berlin for Caltech on a Rockefeller Fellowship; he defends the decision of other German scientists, notably Heisenberg, to remain in Germany. At Caltech he began working in Drosophila genetics but quickly shifted to phage work with Emory Ellis. Moved to Vanderbilt University in 1940, where he remained for seven years; comments on Oswald Avery's identification of DNA as the "transforming principle." Recalls his association with Salvador Luria and summer phage group at Cold Spring Harbor in the 1940s; joint letter with Linus Pauling to Science in 1940 on intermolecular forces in biological processes; his reaction to 1945 publication of Erwin Schrodinger's What is Life? Returned to Caltech in 1947 as professor of biology; comments on activities of Biology Division under chairmen George W. Beadle and Ray Owen, and the psychobiology of Roger Sperry. Recalls 1953 Watson-Crick discovery of the structure of DNA; comments on Watson as director of Cold Spring Harbor and on The Double Helix. Comments on receiving (with Luria and Alfred Hershey) the 1969 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Recalls his later work on Phycomyces. The interview ends with Delbruck's overview of the history of German science and its travails under the Nazis, and recollections of his postwar visits there
Interview with William Ralph Smythe
Full text linkAn interview in two sessions, February 1978, with William Ralph Smythe, professor of physics, emeritus, in the Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy. He recalls his youth in Colorado and Santa Fe, NM, and his father’s career as a civil engineer. Undergraduate physics at Colorado College; six months’ graduate work at Dartmouth. Enlists as U.S. enters WW I; sent to officers’ training camp, Plattsburgh NY, and thence to France as artillery officer. Recollections of the war.
Returns to Dartmouth; moves to University of Chicago to complete PhD. Works with A. A. Michelson. Two-year instructorship at the University of the Philippines. Comes to Caltech as a research fellow, 1923. Isotope separation. His recollections of early physics dept. faculty and teaching his course in electricity and magnetism. Joins C. C. Lauritsen’s Caltech rocket project; works with Navy in Key West on the anti-submarine “Mousetrap” rocket. Invents yaw camera. Caltech in postwar era. His work on heavy-carbon separation
Interview with Frederick J. Converse
Full text linkInterview in 1978 with Frederick Converse, professor of soil mechanics emeritus, covers his family background in upper New York State, his undergraduate education in engineering at the University of Rochester, and his professional life at Caltech. At Rochester, his mentor was Frederic W. Hinrichs, who later became dean of students at Caltech in its early years. Converse was hired as an instructor in Caltech's engineering division in 1920, by the division's first chairman, Franklin Thomas. A pioneer in civil engineering and an adviser to builders, architects, and contractors, Converse taught one of the earliest courses in the country on soil mechanics and conducted research on the vibration compaction of sands and cohesive soils. He was a leader in professional organizations in his field and consulted for various firms and government agencies, including the United States Navy, the California Division of Architecture, the Kaiser Steel Mill, and Permanente Metals Corp
Interview with L. Winchester Jones
Full text linkAn interview in two sessions, March and April 1978, with L.Winchester Jones, dean of admissions, emeritus, in the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences. He recalls growing up in ranch country, Santa Ynez Mountains, and Montecito. Education at St. Paul’s and Princeton; marriage, early career in New York; move to Pasadena. Decision to go into teaching; interview with Clinton Judy; hired as an instructor in the English department, 1925. Describes the humanities division in the 1920s and influence of William Bennett Munro. Recollections of literary discussions at Judy’s home. Comments on Robert Andrews Millikan and Caltech’s Executive Council; Caltech in World War II; Navy V-12 program; advent of Lee Dubridge as president.
He discusses his work on Freshman Admissions Committee; his gradual move into administration; his work as director of scholarships; his recruiting of students. Describes the growth of humanities division and its change in emphasis from a service to a scholarly division. He concludes with several amusing anecdotes, chiefly concerning astronomer Fritz Zwicky and Albert Einstein
Interview with Horace N. Gilbert
Full text linkInterview in 1978 with Horace N. Gilbert, emeritus professor of economics. Gilbert joined Caltech's Humanities Division in 1929, having previously been an instructor at his alma mater, the Harvard Business School. He specialized in business economics and industrial policy, particularly the aircraft industry, and his familiarity with aircraft manufacture led him into defense-related work during and immediately after World War II. This interview contains his recollections of Harvard Business School in the 1920s, the early years of Caltech's Humanities Division under Clinton Judy and William Bennett Munro, the leadership of Robert A. Millikan, and Gilbert's trips to Western Europe and Russia in the 1930s. He discusses extensively his war-related work, including a 1940-42 leave of absence to teach in Harvard Business School's industrial mobilization program, the 1945 U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, consulting for the Air Materiel Command, and his work on the postwar Allied High Commission in Germany with John J. McCloy. Upon his return to Caltech in 1951, Professor Gilbert joined the Vista Project, a Caltech study of tactical nuclear warfare for the Defense Department. He comments on the effects of the McCarthy era at Caltech as exemplified by the cases of Tsien, Pauling, and Oppenheimer, and the responses of President Lee A. Dubridge and Dean Earnest Watson. Recalls his work on Caltech's Committee for Foreign Students and his return visit to the U.S.S.R. in the late 1950s. Evaluates DuBridge's presidency as contrasted with the administration of Caltech by the Executive Council under R. A. Millikan