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JOHN TORRENCE TATE
July 28,1889—May 27,1950
BY ALFRED O. C. NIER AND JOHN H. VAN VLECK
ON JUNE 21, 1966, the physics building of the University of
Minnesota, which previously had only a functional desig-
nation, was named the "John T. Tate Laboratory of Physics," a
fitting tribute to a man who had helped so much in bringing
America to the forefront in physics and in making Minnesota
one of its leading centers.
EARLY LIFE
Tate was barn in Adams County, Iowa, on July 28, 1889,
the son of Samuel A. and Minnie Ralston Tate. The area was
a rural one and the nearest sizable town, of about 1,000 popula-
tion, was Lenox, slightly over the line in an adjacent county.
This Tate consequently listed as his town of birth, and the
fact that it was not in Adams County caused considerable con-
fusion in his clearance papers and other documents during
World War II.
Tate's father was a country doctor of Scottish descent, whose
ancestors had come to America before the Revolutionary War.
Several generations of them were Presbyterian ministers in this
country. His mother was of Irish descent.
Tate's mother died when he was about ten years old. After
that he was sent to live in New York City with the family of
his father's brother. Two important considerations led to this
461
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
decision. Educational facilities at that time obviously were
better in New York than in rural Iowa. Also, the nomadic life
of a widowed country doctor could not offer much in the way
of a home atmosphere for a boy.
In New York, young Tate attended the Horace Mann School.
By the time he was in high school, he exhibited a fondness for
science. He used to experiment at home with a small chemistry
set, and he created one or two small explosions in the house.
His high school yearbook had a rhyme for each member of the
graduating class, and the one for Tate was "terribly taciturn
Tate, with HC1 on his pate."
U N I VE R S I T Y E D U C AT I O N
After finishing high school, Tate entered the University of
Nebraska as an electrical engineering major. He presumably
chose this institution so he might see something of his father.
About this time, the latter had accepted an assignment as
physician on the Rosebud Indian Reservation, located in South
Dakota, just north of the Nebraska line. The young Tate
helped support himself in college by taking a summer position
involving maintaining the power plant of the reservation.
After being graduated from the university in 1910, he com-
pleted two years of graduate work there, and received an M.A.
in 1912. He had shifted from engineering to physics, and the
paper he published in the Physical Review in 1912, "The Theo-
retical and Experimental Determination of Reflection Co-
efficients of Absorbing Media," was essentially his M.A. disserta-
tion.
It was something of a tradition for physics students at
Nebraska to continue their graduate worl; at the University of
Berlin, as many of its senior staff (Army, Brace, Skinner, Tucker-
man, and others) had done so. This Tate was able to do in 1912,
with the aid of a loan from his brother, and perhaps a legacy
from his father who had died in 1911. He took his Ph.D. only
two years later under James Franck, who had not yet left Berlin
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JOHN TORRENCE TATE
463
for the University of Gottingen. His dissertation was "The
Heat of Vaporization of Metals," a title that implies chemistry.
There is no reference to this piece in Science Abstracts, so ap-
parently it was not published in a scientific journal even in
abridged form. This may be because of the onset of World
War I, which probably forced Tate to return to America earlier
than he otherwise would have done. Dr. Paul Foote informs us
that he thinks Tate published his dissertation as a pamphlet.
THE NEBRASKA AND EARLY MINNESOTA YEARS, 1914-1917
It is not surprising that, after receiving his doctorate, Tate
was offered an instructorship at the University of Nebraska,
which he accepted. A year later he was made an assistant pro-
fessor. During the academic year 1915-1916, Professor Anthony
Zeleny of the University of Minnesota, on sabbatical leave at
Princeton University, was instructed to look for promising
young men while he was in the East. How he became acquainted
with Tate is not known, but on tune 3, 1916, he wrote to Pro-
fessor Henry Erikson, chairman of the Minnesota physics depart-
ment, strongly urging that Tate be considered. By June 26
Tate had visited Minnesota, created a most favorable impres-
sion, and received an offer of a position. By June 29 he had
accepted the offer. Initially his position was only as instructor
at $1500, but he was promised that he would be considered for
promotion to assistant professor at the end of the year if he made
flood. The promotion possibility was tendered with some reluc-
tance, but was rationalized on the grounds that it was so late
in the year and that Tate had created such a favorable impres-
sion. That Tate made good cannot be doubted. He re-
ceived this promotion as well as two others in the next feel
years, with the result that by 1920 he was a full professor at the
age of only thirty-one! Except for the interruptions occasioned
by World Wars I and II, he served on the Minnesota faculty
continuously for thirty-four years.
In his first year at the University of Minnesota, Tate col-
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
laborated extensively with Paul D. Foote, then in his last year
of graduate work there. The two men had already been fellow
students and laboratory assistants at Nebraska in 1909-1911.
The year 1916-1917 saw a quite remarkable group of young
men in the Minnesota physics department. Dr. Foote writes us,
"fate was one of my teachers. In fact all of the younger staff
took courses under each other. Tate taught me statistical
mechanics, and the group, including Arthur Compton, Tate,
McKeehan, Klopsteg and others, were in my class on radiation
theory."
WORLD WAR I AND RESEARCH Al THE
BUREAU OF STANDARDS, 1 91 7 - 19 18
During World War I Tate served as a lieutenant in the
Signal Corps, and at the close of the war he was stationed in
Washington, D.C., where Foote had already moved to a position
at the Bureau of Standards. Prior to entering the Army, Tate
himself may have had a temporary summer position at the
Bureau, as its roster for 1917 lists him as an employee. The
two men continued collaborating on some of the problems they
had studied at Minnesota. They published two papers con-
nected with the latent heat of evaporation of metals, thereby
showing, continued interest in the area in which Tate had
worked for his Ph.D. Something of particular importance is
revealed when Foote writes that "by working evenings and
Sundays at my laboratory at the Bureau of Standards, we were
able to publish several papers on critical potentials."
The general subject of electron Impact and critical potentials
Is probably the research area in which the most notable work
of Tate and his research students was performed over the years.
His first paper on this subject in 1917 was most timely in its
appearance. Bohr's theory of the atom, announced only shortly
before, predicted that electrons in atoms should be found only
in discrete energy levels, and transitions between levels would
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JOHN TORRENCE TATE
465
result in absorption or emission of radiation according to the
relation Ve = he, connecting critical potentials and spectral
frequencies. Tate's early work indeed verified the existence of
energy levels and showed the distinction between the critical
energy required to excite radiation and that required to pro-
duce ionization. This was of considerable importance at the
time, as it furnished unmistakable evidence that the quantum
concept was inevitable, though it was then still in embryonic
form since the true quantum mechanics was not evolved by
Heisenberg, Schrodinger, and others until about a decade later.
Whether having been with Franck earlier in Berlin had stimu-
lated Tate's interest in electron impact phenomena, we cannot
say for sure. Franck himself did outstanding work in this field
after Tate left Germany, but as far as we know, the two men
never collaborated on this subject, and Tate may have been
attracted independently into the then new field.
TEACHING AND RESEARCH AT MINNESOTA, 1919-1940
When Tate returned to the University of Minnesota, in
January 1919, he shared the teaching of graduate courses with
W. F. G. Swann, who was the principal adviser of graduate
students during the early 1920s. It was during this period that
Tate developed a comprehensive course in classical physics,
"Introduction to Theoretical Physics," which he taught every
year but two until 1937. The course was taken by all beginning
graduate students in physics and an occasional undergraduate
bold enough to enroll. It was also taken by many graduate
students in mathematics, chemistry, and engineering, so that
over the years a great many students were exposed to and in-
spired by Tate's elegant lectures. Students agreed that he was
one of the best, if not the best, teacher they had ever had.
During the early l930s, he also developed a course entitled,
"Seminar in Contemporary Experimental Physics." In it were
discussed the latest developments in physics, experimental or
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
theoretical. Occasionally students presented papers, but more
commonly Tate did the talking. Graduate students took this
yearlong course once for credit, then attended on a noncredit
basis for most of the remainder of their student days. Other staff
members were frequent visitors.
During this period Tate attended many meetings of the
American Physical Society, in fact virtually all of them after
he became Editor-in-Chief of the Physical Review. Upon his
return from a meeting, he invariably reviewed for the class
the important papers he had heard. The receipt of an exciting
manuscript at the Physical Review office almost certainly re-
sulted in its presentation to the class, often without advance
preparation, since the paper might have arrived only the hour
before the class met. Tate had the almost uncanny ability to
extract the essential information from a long paper and, without
preparation, present it in a way that everyone understood. His
lectures were filled with ideas for possible research problems.
In his classes one literally lived on the forefront of knowledge.
When Swann left Minnesota in 1923, the main responsibility
for advising graduate students in experimental physics fell on
Tate's shoulders, and during the twenty years prior to World
War lI he was the adviser for twenty-seven of the forty-eight
students who obtained their Ph.D.s in physics. John T. Tate
did not, however, operate a diploma mill. Life as a graduate
student under his direction was not an easy lot. Candidates for
the Ph.D. degree were expected to stand on their own feet and
to persist until they overcame the inevitable stumbling blocks
faced in research. It is no wonder that, with such training, so
many of his students later distinguished themselves in positions
of leadership and accomplishment. One of them, Walter Brat-
tain, shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1956 for his contribu-
tion to the invention and development of the transistor.
As the Physical Review grew and Tate became active in the
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JOHN TORRENCE TATE
establishment and guidance of the American Institute of Physics,
he had less and less free time. Travel alone occupied consider-
able time, as this was before the day of regular air travel, and
a trip to New York from Minneapolis required a day and a
half in each direction. Throughout his busiest years he taught
his two courses, giving eight lectures per week, except for
absent days when a substitute filled in. He graded all of his
467
examinations himself.
In spite of the pressure, his office door was always open, and
students and colleagues wandered in and out. Nevertheless,
for the new graduate student a trip to Tate's office was a trau-
matic experience. Tate was basically a shy man with an air
of aloofness about him. This, coupled with the great respect
in which he was held and the knowledge that he was a very
busy person, meant that he was regarded with considerable awe
by all but his closest friends. One did not go to his office to
idle away the time! More relaxed were his sessions with the
advanced graduate students when, in the late afternoon after
clearing up his Physical Review work, he wandered down the
research alley and went from room to room to smoke and chat.
He had little time to perform research himself and preferred
to help others develop programs. His name often did not ap-
pear on papers he had helped initiate. His own name usually
appeared last on joint publications with paid assistants, and in
at least one case when his name had to appear to justify the
expenditure of funds, he apologized to a postdoctoral assistant
for the circumstance.
Tate's advice, counsel, and interest were a great stimulus
and comfort not only to his students, but also to his colleagues
on the faculty of the Minnesota physics department. To this.
both writers can testify from personal experience. (Alfred O. C.
Nier has been a member of that faculty since 1938, and John
H. Van Vleck was a member from 1923 to 1928.)
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BIOGRAP HICAL M E MOIRS
During the 1920s, an era of atomic physics, Tate's students
worked mostly on problems relating to the impact of electrons
on gases. Particularly noteworthy was some of the work in the
1929-1931 period. Walker Bleakney had built an instrument
for studying ionization processes in gases. It had a collimated
monoenergetic electron beam whose energy could be adjusted.
In addition, an m/e analysis could be made of the ions pro-
duced. When mercury vapor was introduced, it was possible to
observe the various multiply charged ions of mercury formed
by electron impact, as well as the onset potential for each ion
and the ionization cross section. This introduced a new era in
mass spectroscopy and led to subsequent developments and ap-
plications that have had an enormous impact on other areas of
science and technology. To cite but one example, we can quote
from a cryptic entry in the handwritten ledger kept by Henry
Erikson, for many years chairman of the physics department.
"In March and April 1940 Nier established U 235 as responsible
for the slow fission in uranium. This gave rise to a considerable
interest." In referring to these words, James Gray says in his
history of the University of Minnesota, "The reticence of Pro-
fessor Erikson's comments cannot be duplicated in the literature
of science or in all the literature of human affairs...."
In 1929-1930, E. U. Condon was on the Minnesota faculty
working on the theory of molecular binding, employing the new
quantum mechanics just then coming into use. One prediction
of the theory was that in a diatomic molecule or molecular ion
there could be a repulsive potential energy curve as well as an
attractive one. If so, a molecule excited by electrons of sufficient
energy should reach the repulsive state and subsequently dis-
sociate into an atom and an ion, the particles having measurable
kinetic energy. At the dedication of the John T. Tate Labora-
tory of Physics in 1966, E. U. Condon related in his character-
istically entertaining manner the circumstances at the time, and
how he, Tate, and Bleakney discussed the feasibility of an ex-
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JOHN TORRENCE TATE
469
periment to test the theory. It turned out that Bleakney's mer-
cury apparatus was ideally suited for a crucial experiment, and
indeed a few days later Bleakney observed the energetic atomic
hydrogen ions formed in the dissociation process.
Tate not only expected his students to be self-reliant, but he
also expected experiments to be done correctly. After all, he was
editor of the Physical Review and felt a special obligation to
see that results reported from his laboratory were not in error.
As a former student, Alfred O. C. Nier can testify to this atti-
tude. Gray, again in his history of the University of Minnesota,
writes, "A teacher with the hardihood to insist that all his stu-
dents must make a decent attempt at being geniuses is likely to
produce many of outstanding talent. Tate's success may be
measured by the fact that in the period when the volume Men
of Science made a practice of starring those names that seemed
particularly bright, Minnesota graduates in physics were nearly
as numerous among the elite as were graduates of the Massa-
chusetts Institute of Technology."
Eloquent testimony to the fact that experiments conducted
under Tate's direction were performed with care can be found
in references on ionization of molecules by electron impact.
New workers in the field, even today, proudly establish their
credibility by announcing that they were able to confirm the
measurements made by Tate and his graduate student, P. T.
Smith, some forty-five years earlier!
The 1930s saw the emergence of nuclear physics as a new
frontier awaiting exploration, and Tate was determined that
Minnesota be a participant in the action. In 1933 the late John
H. Williams accepted the position of research assistant to Tate.
He was employed to carry on the work on ionization of gases,
but before a year had passed he was encouraged by Tate to start
a program in nuclear physics. The department owned a 275-
keV transformer—kenetron—condenser, a source of high voltage
that when supplemented by an ion source, an ion accelerating
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
tube, and other accessories made possible the study of nuclear
disintegration processes in light elements.
It was soon realized that to perform significant work in the
expanding field of nuclear physics, higher energies would be
required. Work was started on a Van de Graaff generator to
give energies of one million electron volts, but it was never
finished because it soon became apparent that a more ambitious
program was in order. In 1936 it was decided to construct a
pressure Van de Graaff generator that would provide energies
of at least three million electron volts. Because the cost was
beyond the resources of the institution, outside help was sought.
It was a time when there was a growing appreciation of the
potential for applying the fruits of nuclear physics research to
medicine and biology. Tate headed a distinguished committee
of University researchers representing the several areas of con-
cern, who approached the Rockefeller Foundation for a grant
of $36,000 to build a Van de Graaff generator and to finance
a program of interdisciplinary research using the facility. On
April 7, 1937, the trustees of the Rockefeller Foundation ap-
proved the request and the program was launched, the design
of the machine being put under the direction of Tate's young
protege, John Williams.
Although Tate was primarily an experimental physicist, he
had a keen appreciation and understanding of what was going
on in theory and this quality was a great help In his research.
Manv ohYsicists educated early in the present century, when
(A ,
. , ~ ,
classical physics was well entrenched and quantum theory was a
parvenu, were never able adequately to assimilate, or in many
cases even to accept, the basic ideas of quantum mechanics.
Tate was not a man of this type. When Heisenberg, Schrod-
inger, and others developed the true quantum mechanics around
1926, he quickly realized its importance. When a lecture course
on this subject was given by one of the writers (incidentally one
of the earliest, if not the earliest, such course in the United
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JOHN TORRENCE TATE
475
Tate's characteristic modesty and consideration for others
are well illustrated in exchanges of correspondence between
himself and I. W. Buchta, Chairman of the Department of
Physics at Minnesota. Upon Tate's resignation as dean, the
regents of the University suggested that his very special status
be recognized by naming him Research Professor of Physics,
but they left it to him to decide if he wanted such a title. On
February 21, 1944, he wrote to Buchta:
"President Coffey has just informed me of the regents' ac-
tion. From my point of view I question a title which would,
in any way, set me apart from others. On the other hand, as
I told President Coffey when I saw him in January, if in his
judgment the title Research Professor would be of value to the
University or the Physics Department, I would not be adverse
. . .
to having It.
"I see ways in which having such a title in the Department
might be of value to it in that it would give concrete evidence
that research in physics is given emphasis by the Board of
Regents.. . .'
In another letter dated October 26, 1943, he said:
"For some time I have had it in mind to suggest that you
recommend to McConnell that the salaries of the men in the
Physics Department who are on leave (in service to the U.S.)
be raised in much the same way as you would anticipate they
would have been raised had they remained on duty. To do
this would give them assurance that the University wants them
to return and intends to treat them properly. I recall this was
done in my case during, the last war and still recall the pleasure
it gave me and the feeling that I was still regarded as a per-
manent member of the University staff."
Tate had unusual patience. We will cite two incidents that
reflect this quality. One was at an open business meeting of the
American Physical Society a year or two after he had taken over
as Editor-in-Chief of the Physical Review. His predecessor in
that capacity arose to criticize him publicly on the ground that
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
the average length of a paper published was longer than in the
previous administration. Tate might well have rejoined that
the greater length was only a reasonable manifestation of the
rapidly improving quality of American physics at the time, to
· c~
say nothing of the added complexity of theoretical papers oc-
casioned by the burgeoning quantum mechanics. However, he
bit his lip and said nothing. Another time one of us found him
painstakingly copying out the many equations in a paper of a
distinguished theoretical physicist because the author's hand-
writing, though beautiful in appearance, was not sufficiently
legible for the printer. Many editors would have sent the paper
back to the author for rewriting, but this would have caused
delay at a time when theoretical developments were moving
fast.
Tate was not by temperament a fighter.
~ · A__ __ A, 1 ~7 ' 7 ~ · ~ ~ ~ ~
Although the
dictums ot the Physical Review forbade the use of radical signs,
he decided it was easier to make an exception rather than to
struggle perennially with one distinguished chemical physicist
who was particularly recalcitrant about having radicals replaced
by fractional exponents. Tate won victories through his tact
rather than by "slugging it out." In 1926 the new library of
the University of Minnesota was completed. Grants from the
legislature for construction of the building had been obtained
by the regents on the ground that there would be a central
library facility. To the great irritation of the members of the
physics department, the physics books were all moved from
their building to the central library. The resulting inconven-
ience was a reason one prominent physicist gave for leaving after
only one year at Minnesota. Tate did not resist the moving of
the books, but when one of us visited Minneapolis only a few
years later, the physics library had somehow been returned to
the physics building where it belonged.
Tate's loyalty to Minnesota was great and unfailing over the
years. We know of at least two offers he declined from prestigi-
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JOHN TORRENCE TATE
477
ous institutions: one a research professorship, and the other
an influential administrative post. Both offers were of the type
he would have accepted had he been interested in getting his
name in the limelight as often as possible.
Tate did not go out of his way to seek public speaking en-
gagements of a general character.
However, when he was
enticed to the lecture platform, his speeches were outstanding.
He impressed his audiences with his sincerity, dignity, and
substantial thoughts. He felt that scientists had an obligation
to disclose some of their philosophy and the meaning of their
profession to those in other disciplines. Unfortunately, his
addresses on such occasions as a joint meeting of Phi Beta Kappa
and Sigma Xi or the centennial celebration of Rockford College
were not published, as far as we know, although his son has some
of the manuscripts. A favorite topic of his was "Science and
Human Values," a manifestation of his belief that science is not
a separate entity but rather a necessary ingredient in a liberal
education. The manuscript of an unpublished commencement
address has so many literary and historical references that an
uninformed reader would deem it the work of a professor of
English or history.
Tate's "outside," or recreational, interests were many and
varied. He was fond of golf. At one time he was the champion
billiard player of the University of Minnesota faculty, and dur-
ing his undergraduate days he ranked as a collegiate tennis
champion. He was an enthusiastic and skilled photographer.
He returned from his studies in Berlin with hundreds of photo-
graphs, including one of the last meeting of the Kaiser and two
other crowned heads of Europe in a procession before the war.
He was also a talented drawer. His son recalls some quite pro-
fessional-looking sketches of "Gibson Girls" he made in his
youth. Since Tate was an experimental physicist, it is not sur-
prising that in the early days of radio he assembled his own
radio receiver with a crystal detector. He enjoyed attending
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
most of the home games of the University of Minnesota football
team. He liked to play a game or two of billiards or a rubber
of bridge after lunch at the Campus Club, at least until the
time that his life was excessively burdened by the Physical Re-
view and administrative work.
HONORS OF VARIED NATURE
In 1941 Tate was elected to the American Philosophical
Society and in 1942 to the National Academy of Sciences. In his
student days he was named to Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi.
He was, naturally, a member or fellow of the five constituent
societies of the American Institute of Physics, which he helped
found (viz., the American Physical Society, the Optical Society
of America, the Acoustical Society of America, the American
Association of Physics Teachers, and the Society of Rheology).
The American Physical Society chose lack Tate, as he was
known to his friends, as its President in 1939.
He received honorary doctorates from the University of
Nebraska (1938) and from the Case School of Applied Science
(1945~. In recognition of his services in World War II, Tate
was awarded the Presidential Medal for Merit by the U.S.
Government and the King George's Medal for Service in the
Cause of Freedom by the British Government. The citation
accompanying the Presidential Medal included the statement
"With never-ceasing energy and patience, he brought to his
. _ 1 . . ~ ~ .
~ ~ ~ .
rasK great tecnnlca1 knowledge and analytic ability which he
combined with sound and dispassionate judgment. Dr. Tate's
selflessness of purpose, steadfast devotion to duty and his telling
contributions to the vital cause of our country cannot be
measured."
The American Institute of Physics established the John
Torrence Tate International Gold Medal in his honor. Appro-
priately, services that further international understanding and
exchange are considered to be of primary importance in select-
ing the medal's recipient. The Tate Medal was presented to
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JOHN TORRENCE TATE
479
Paul Rosbaud in 1961, to Sir Harold W. Thomson in 1966, and
to Gilberto Bernardini in 1972.
FAMILY LIFE
Tate married Lois Beatrice Fossler on December 28, 1917,
in Lincoln, Nebraska. He had already moved to Minnesota a
year earlier, and his bride was someone he had known while
he was still on the Nebraska faculty. She soon became active in
campus life, especially the activities of the Faculty Women's
Club. She was very understanding of the demands of his pro-
fession, which included frequent trips away from home. Lois
and Jack were avid bridge players and spent many delightful
evenings with friends who shared this interest. Lois's death in
1939 made the war years, strenuous ones for all physicists, par-
ticularly trying and lonely ones for Tate.
On June 30, 1945, he married Madeline Margarite Mitchell.
She had been the entire office force (other than Tate himself) of
the Physical Review when its headquarters were first moved to
Minneapolis. When the American Institute of Physics was
created in 1931, she was made its Publication Manager, heading
a sizable staff in New York.
He had one son, John T. Tate, Jr., by his first marriage.
The younger Tate is a distinguished mathematician and a pro-
fessor at Harvard University. Like his father, he is a member of
the National Academy of Sciences. He is the only American-
born mathematician of the celebrated "Bourbaki," the nom de
plume of a group of mathematicians, mainly French, who have
set about rewriting all the foundations of mathematics in
modern terms. Thus, for two generations the name of John
Torrence Tate has made its impact on the world of science.
FINALE
Tate suffered a stroke in December 1949, but he recovered
sufficiently to be able to work at a reduced rate and to attend
the meetings of the National Academy of Sciences and the
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
American Philosophical Society the following spring. Then
on May 27, 1950, he succumbed to a cerebral hemorrhage. It is
tragic that America had to lose one of its leading figures in
science when he was but sixty. Had he lived a year longer, he
would have served as Managing Editor of the American Physical
Society for a quarter of a century. Prior to his death, some of
his friends were already secretly planning a special issue of the
Reviews of Modern Physics to appear in 1951, dedicated to him
in commemoration of this milestone and with articles by former
students and colleagues. This issue did appear, but alas, not as
a jubilee edition, but as a memorial.
THE AUTHORS have benefitted from reading the biographical memoir
by K. K. Darrow on pp. 325-28 of the Year Book of the American
Philosophical Society for 1951. Tate's role in the Minnesota faculty
is described on pp. 416-24 of The University of Minnesota, 1851-
1951 by fames Gray (University of Minnesota Press, 1951~. The
article written by Roger Stuewer for The Dictionary of American
Biography contains detailed references to obituaries and archival
material relating to Tate (unpublished manuscripts, tape recordings
of speeches about him, etc.)
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JOHN TORRENCE TATE
BIBLIOGRAPHY
KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS
Phys. Rev. = Physical Review
Rev. Sci. Instrum.—Review of Scientific Instruments
1912
481
The theoretical and experimental determination of reflection co-
ef~cients of absorbing media. Phys. Rev., 34:240. (A)
The theoretical and experimental determination of reflection co-
efficients. Phys. Rev., 34:321-32.
1916
The low potential discharge spectrum of mercury vapor in relation
to ionization potentials. Phys. Rev., 7:686-87.
1917
The passage of low speed electrons through mercury vapor and the
ionizing potential of mercury vapor. Phys. Rev., 10:81-83.
1918
With Paul Foote. Resonance and ionization potentials for electrons
in metallic vapors. Philosophical Magazine, 36:64-75.
1921
The effect of angle of incidence on the reflection and secondary
emission of slow moving electrons from platinum. Phys. Rev.,
17:394-95.
1924
Spectroscopic evidence of impact ionization by positive ions in
mercury vapor. Phys. Rev., 23:293. (A)
Note on the quenching of the fluorescent radiation in mercury
vapor. Phys. Rev., 23:770-71. (A)
1926
Note on the absorption of 2540A by mercury vapor. Phys. Rev.,
25:110. (A)
OCR for page 482
482
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
1930
With W. Bleakney. The primary ions formed by electron impact in
hydrogen. Phys. Rev., 35:658. (A)
With P. T. Smith. The ionization of helium and neon by electron
impact. Phys. Rev., 35:1438. (A)
1931
With P. T. Smith. The ionization by electron impact and extra
ionization potentials of nitrogen and carbon monoxide. Phys.
Rev., 37: 1705. (A)
1932
With W. Wallace Lazier. The dissociation of nitrogen and carbon
monoxide by electron impact. Phys. Rev., 39:254-69.
With P. T. Smith. The efficiencies of ionization and ionization
potentials of various gases under electron impact. Phys. Rev.,
39:270-77.
With R. Ronald Palmer. The angular distribution of electrons
scattered elastically and inelastically in mercury vapor. Phys.
Rev., 40:731-48.
1933
With P. T. Smith. An attempt to observe a helium isotope. Phys.
Rev., 43:672. (L)
Publication problems of the American Physical Society. (Editorial)
Rev. Sci. Instrum., 4:323-24.
1934
With A. L. Vaughan and l. H. Williams. Isotopic abundance ratios
of C, N. A, Ne and He. Phys. Rev., 46:327. (A)
With P. T. Smith. Ionization potentials and probabilities for the
formation of multiply charged ions in the alkali vapors and in
krypton and xenon. Phys. Rev., 46:773-76.
1935
With P. T. Smith and A. L. Vaughan. A mass spectrum analysis of
the products of ionization by electron impact in nitrogen,
acetylene, nitric oxide, cyanogen and carbon monoxide. Phys.
Rev., 48: 525-31.
OCR for page 483
JOHN TORRENCE TATE
1937
483
With J. H. Williams, W. H. Wells, and E. L. Hill. A resonance
process in the disintegration of boron by protons. Phys. Rev.,
51 :434-38.
With P. Kusch and A. Hustrulid. The products of dissociation of
benzene vapor by electron impact. Phys. Rev., 51:1007. (A)
With A. Hustrulid and P. Kusch. The products of dissociation of
ethylene by electron impact. Phys. Rev., 52:249. (A)
With P. Kusch and A. Hustrulid. Dissociation processes produced
in SbCl3, AsCl3 and PC13 by electron impact. Phys. Rev., 52:840-
42.
With P. Kusch and A. Hustrulid. The dissociation of HCN, C2H2
and C2H4 by electron impact. Phys. Rev., 52:843-54.
1938
With l. H. Williams and L. H. Rumbaugh. Design and construction
of the Minnesota pressure electrostatic generator. Phys. Rev.,
53:928. (A)
With A. Hustrulid and P. Kusch. The dissociation of benzene
(C6H6), pyridine (C,H5N) and cyclohexane (C6H~2) by electron
impact. Phys. Rev., 54: 1037-44.
1939
With R. F. Baker. Ionization and dissociation of CHBrF~ by
electron impact. Phys. Rev., 55:236. (A)
With H. D. Hagstrum. The heat of dissociation of carbon monoxide.
Phys. Rev., 55: 1136. (A)
With A. Hustrulid and M. M. Mann. Dissociation of HERO vapor
by electron impact. Phys. Rev., 56:208. (A)
1940
Edith H. D. Hagstrum. Further electron impact study of NO. Phys.
Rev., 57:561. (A)
With M. M. Mann and A. Hustrulid. Dissociation of NH3 by elec-
tron impact. Phys. Rev., 57:561. (A)
With H. D. Hagstrum. Electron impact study of O., with a mass
spectrometer. Phys. Rev., 57:1071. (A)
With M. M. Mann and A. Hustrulid. The
. . . ~ · .
Ionization and c .~ssoc~a-
OCR for page 484
484 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
tion of water vapor and ammonia by electron impact. Phys.
Rev., 58:340-47.
1941
With H. D. Hagstrum. Ionization and dissociation of diatomic
molecules by electron impact. Phys. Rev., 59:354-70.
With H. D. Hagstrum. On the thermal activation of the oxygen
molecule. Phys. Rev., 59:509-13.
1942
With J. H. Williams and L. H. Rumbaugh. Design of the Minne-
sota electrostatic generator. Rev. Sci. Instrum., 13: 202-7.
OCR for page 485
Representative terms from entire chapter:
physical review
