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Cow G Up
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JOHN GEORGE TRUMP
1907-1985
BY LOUIS SMULLIN
JOHN GEORGE TRUMP a pioneer in the scientific, engineer-
ing, and medical applications of high voltage machinery, died
on February 2 I ,1985. Married to the late Flora Trump, John
left three children: John, Karen, and Christine.
At the time of his death, John Trump was professor emer-
itus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in
the Department of Electrical Engineering. He was also senior
consultant for the High Voltage Engineering Corporation,
the company he founded in 1946 and where, until 1970, he
served as chairman of the board and then, until 1980, as
technical director.
John Trump was born in New York City on August 2l,
1907. He earned a B.S. in electrical engineering from the
Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn in 1929 and an M.S. in
physics from Columbia University in 1931. In 1933 he re-
ceived a D.Sc. in electrical engineering from MIT, where he
became a research associate in that same year, an assistant
professor in 1936, and a professor in 1952. Trump formally
retired in 1973, although he continued his active research
program as professor emeritus until 1980.
John Trump came to MIT to work with Professor Robert
I. Van de Graaff in what was then the new field of super-high
voltage generation and applications. "Van's" main interest
333
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MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
was in the application of his new electrostatic generator in
the field of nuclear physics. John Trump tract two main inter-
ests: the insulation of super-high voltages in vacuum and
compressed gases and the biological applications of high
voltage radiation. These wide-ranging biological applications
included the treatment of cancer by megavolt (Mev) X-
radiation and electron beams, extensive pioneering studies
of food preservation by electron beams, and the treatment
of sewage and sluclge by 2-Mev electron beams.
With grants from the Godfrey M. Hyams Fund, Trump
and his young assistants designecl ant! built an air-insulatecl
megavolt generator that was installed at the Huntington Me-
morial Hospital in 1937. It was large anc! awe inspiring. On
wet days, the generator crackled and sparked or just cried,
but the conspicuous advantages of its megavolt X-ray ther-
apy soon became clear. The greater penetration depth of
these radiations, compared to lower energy X-rays, permit-
ted more deeply seater! tumors to be treated with minimal
· · · ~
Damage to ac Joining tissues.
In 193S, with continued funding from the Hyams Fund,
the team began the design of a new, compact I.25-Mev gen-
erator that would be insulated with compressed gas. This
particular machine was installed in the George Robert White
Hospital of the Massachusetts General Hospital, where it re-
mainec! in active use for sixteen years. Trump then under-
took the building of a I.75-Mev machine for the American
Oncological Hospital of Philadelphia until World War IT
intervened, that is, and the machine was taken by the U.S.
Army for use in the Manhattan Project.
During World War IT, Trump interrupted his high-voltage
career to work on microwave radar in the MIT Radiation
Lab. He served for a time as field services director and was
then posted to the British branch of the Radiation Lab. In
1944 he was named director of the lab and given the respon-
sibility of working directly with the Eisenhower Military
Command. At the liberation of Paris, Trump rode into the
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JOHN GEORGE TRUMP
335
city with General Eisenhower and immediately began to set
up the Paris branch of the Radiation Lab.
His diary of this period is fascinating reading, especially
for those of us who remember the significance of H2X,
Oboe, Loran, MEW, SCR 584, anc! other sets of initials from
the alphabet soup of the clay. For his wartime service, John
Trump received a Presidential Citation and the King's Mecial
for Service in the Cause of Freedom.
After the closing of the Radiation Lab in 1946, Dr. Trump
quickly picked up the threads of his previous high-voltage
research. He formed the High Voltage Engineering Com-
pany to put electrostatic high voltage machines to work. Van
cle Graaff generators were soon in use all over the worIcl with
a wicle range of applications, inclucting those in physics re-
search, the sterilization of surgical instruments, the cross-
linking of polymers, and the radiography of welds and cast-
ings.
Trump's main efforts and interests, however, remained on
the MIT campus, where he initiated a long series of experi-
ments, supported by the Natick Laboratory of the Army
Quartermaster Corps, in the preservation of food by high
voltage radiation. There was also a continuing train of ex-
periments on the bactericidal and viricidal effectiveness of
high voltage radiation. Much new work was done on com-
pressed gas insulation, but his most noteworthy contribu-
tions were in the treatment of cancer by radiation.
Dr. Trump and his staff began a systematic study of the
problems of delivering radiation to deep tumors without de-
stroying the intervening healthy tissue. From their research
came an improved technique of rotating the patient 360 de-
grees about the tumor site, so that the radiation beam en-
terecl the body from all directions but focused on the tumor.
The team also clevelopec! techniques for static and dynamic
beam shaping to protect healthy tissues. This work led to a
cooperative twenty-five-year research venture with the Lahey
Clinic: the setting up of a treatment facility in the MIT High
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MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
Voltage Lab, where patients were routinely treated under the
joint supervision of Trump, his staff, and the Lahey Clinic
physicians. Ultimately, more than ten thousand patients were
treated.
Until 1950 nearly all high-voltage radiation therapy was
done with X-rays generated by the impact of a high-voltage
electron beam against a gold target inside a vacuum. In a
1940 paper, Trump, Van de Graaff, and Cloud had sug-
gestec! using direct high-voltage electrons because of the
uniquely different way they penetrated matter.
Although X-rays are absorbed more or less uniformly as
they traverse the body from the skin inward, high-energy
electrons produce very little ionization until their energy falls
below a critical value. They then do all of their ionizing
within a very short distance and almost never extend beyond
it. The first clinical test of this new technique was made in
1951. The technique offerer! an ideal way to treat many su-
perficial malignancies, ant! soon after its initial use, it became
a standard method of treatment.
Dr. Trump began his last major effort in 1976. Like all con-
cerned citizens, he was offended by the clumping of millions
of gallons of barely treated or raw sewage into our harbors
and waterways. His calculations showed that a 2-Mev elec-
tron radiation system comparer! favorably with chlorine
treatment on an economic basis, had the additional acivan-
tage of destroying many viruses, and appeared to dissociate
PCBs and similar compounds into less noxious forms. With
National Science Founclation support, Trump and his asso-
ciates built a pilot plant at the Deer Island Sewage Plant in
Boston Harbor. In addition, based on the valuable electron
radiation data produced at the Deer Island plant, a commer-
cial sewage treatment plant has been built for the greater
Miami area.
John Trump was truly a pioneer in the field of high voltage
engineering and high voltage machinery and in the medical
applications of high energy radiation. He was the author or
coauthor of more than one huncired papers and the recipi-
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JOHN GEORGE TRUMP
337
ent of many honors from numerous engineering and medi-
cal societies. John Trump was elected to the National Acad-
emy of Engineering in 1977. The latest award bestowed
upon him was the National Mecial of Science, which was pre-
sentec! posthumously in February ~ 985.
His mixture of personal technical work and quiet leader-
ship produced many important discoveries. John Trump will
be missed by his woric~wicle circle of colleagues ant! friends.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
george trump
