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EDWIN C
.
KEMBLE
January 28, 1 889-March 12, 1984
BY ALEXI ASSMUS
UNUSUAL AMONG PHYSICISTS but in consonance with his re-
ligious views, Edwin Crawforc! Kemble approaches! his
career with humility. He spoke of his own research on mo-
lecular quantum physics clepreciatingly, was reticent in ac-
cepting its importance for the growth of the American quan-
tum physics community, ant! macle little of his lifelong
clevotion to teaching. Perhaps we can regarc! his career more
clispassionately, neither with embarrassment nor with a
memoirist's false grandiosity.
Edwin C. Kemble began his college career at Ohio-Wesleyan
University in 1906, but stayer! there only a year before trans-
ferring to the Case School of Applier! Science from which
he receiver! his B.S. in physics in 1911. He began graduate
school at Harvarc! University in 1913 en c! completer! his
Ph.D. in physics in 1917. After a short time cloing war work
en c! a half semester teaching physics at Williams College,
Kemble returnee! to Harvarc! in 1919 as an assistant profes-
sor in the physics department. He remainec! there the rest
of his career, en c! was macle chairman of the department in
1940. He spent a Guggenheim fellowship year in Europe in
1927-28. In 1925 Kemble marries! Harriet Mary TincIle. The
couple hac! two chilciren, Robert en c! lean. Two years be
179
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80
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
fore their fiftieth wocicling anniversary, Harriet cliecI. In 1978
Kemble marries! Martha Chacibourne Kettelle, his Racicliffe
fiancee from graduate student clays.
As a graduate student Kemble macle an exciting en c! cou-
rageous move into quantum theory ant! in 1919 Percy
Bricigman, his thesis Divisor, convincer! him to accept the
job of building up theoretical research in the Harvard physics
department. Not only clic! Kemble introduce a theoretical
sophistication at the university, but he also focuses! atten
tion on quantum physics, a subject that generally hac! been
ignored, both at Harvarc! en c! in the Uniter! States as a
whole. In his first clecacle at Harvard, Kemble playoc! a cru-
cial role in the creation of a national research program in
the application of quantum concepts to molecular struc-
ture en c! dynamics. In this endeavor, Kemble worker! closely
with young colleagues and graduate students. In later years
he would turn his attention to college undergraduate and
high school education.
The orientation towards community that was evident in
Kemble's career reflected! his upbringing in the home of
Duston en c! Margaret (Day) Kemble, former Methodist mis-
sionaries. Kemble was born in ISS9 in Delaware, Ohio. Like
many of his colleagues, he was raiser! in a Midwestern reli-
gious househoIc! that maintainer! an admiration for science,
rather than an antagonism towards it. In fact, he clescribec!
his minister father as to "some degree, an inventor.") He
began his college studies at Ohio-Wesleyan in preparation
for missionary duties ~ ~ 906-! 907), but between his brother's
urgings en c! his own inclinations he cleciclec! to transfer to
the Case School of Applier! Science en c! to follow in the
footsteps of his engineer brother. After a summer spent
working in his brother's business, the Case Machine Com-
pany, which hac! proclucec! one of Minister Kemble's inven-
tions, Kemble changer! his mine! once again en c! began a
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EDWIN C. KEMBLE
181
scientific career. This choice was not in conflict with his
family's or with his own religious views. For Kemble, as for
many other physicists of his generation, religion en c! sci-
ence clic! mix. Religion brought to science a cleclication to
inclucle others in a community that believer! in a higher
truth.
Case, the site of Kemble's first scientific education, was
founclec! in ISS0 as an engineering school in inclustrial Cleve-
lancI. By the time Kemble attenclec! Case it hac! clevelopec!
strengths in science. Dayton C. Miller, a nationally recog-
nizec! scientist worker! there in the physics of acoustics, but
because many students at Case wan tee! to be physicists, Miller
hac! only one or two students a year. Kemble was one of the
few. While working on his unclergracluate thesis project with
Miller, Kemble burst into a week of productive, frenzies!
work, which, he toic! historian Thomas Kuhn fifty years later,
"left one with a vivic! sense of the way . . . mental activity
propagates itself."2
Kemble gracluatec! from Case in 1911 en c! spent the fol
lowing year as a physics instructor at the Carnegie Institute
of Technology in Pittsburgh, a school founclecI, as was Case,
in response to the growing clamant! for higher education
for technologists. During that year, Miller obtainer! a graduate
fellowship for Kemble at Harvarc! a fellowship personally
finances! by Harvarc! Professor Wallace Sabine, a colleague
of Miller's in acoustics. In 1913 Kemble came to Harvarc! as
a graduate student.
At the time the physics department at Harvarc! was hospi-
table neither to the new quantum physics making its ap-
pearance on the Continent nor to a practice of physics that
incluclec! theorists as well as experimentaTists. (Theoretical
physics had made its appearance in Europe thirty years prior.)
It was not that Americans completely ignorer! quantum phys-
ics. Planck's blackbocly racliation law was well known en c! an
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
American, Robert A. Millikan, was the one to put Einstein's
photoelectric equation to an experimental test. (He expecter!
to prove it wrong!) Physicists in the Uniter! States were
primarily interested in experimental matters en c! hac! not
confrontec! critically the quantum theory as a whole. Kemble
was formally introclucec! to the new theory in G. W. Pierce's
course on racliation, but the professor hac! much to say
against it. Kemble, on the other hancI, was cir awn to the
new icleas. "Everything with a quantum in it, with 'h' in it,
was exciting."3 His early enthusiasm took the form of two
graduate "theses," so-callec! papers requires! for graduate
courses at Harvard. They were on an area of physics where
quantum icleas were coming into conflict with oicler prin-
ciples. The theses were on the problem of specific heats of
colitis en c! on the statement of the equipartition theorem.
While considering dissertation topics, Kemble jumper! at
the icleas introclucec! in a talk by fellow student lames B.
Brinsmacle on the recently introclucec! quantum theory of
molecular spectra.
In the usual accounts of the history of physics little has
been sail! about the unraveling of molecular structure, a
feat accomplishes! by the stucly of molecular spectra. The
focus hac! been on atomic structure, because it was in this
area that the most interesting and foundational questions
of quantum theory were aciciressec! in the perioc! 1916-25.
During this time Niels Bohr became a central figure in the
clevelopment of the new theory. Historians of moclern phys-
ics have emphasized his work, especially his papers of 1913,
which preclictec! accurately the spectra of atomic hydrogen.
Yet, in 1913 en c! for several years after, Bohr's work was not
part of the mainstream effort to clevelop a quantum theory.
In fact, atomic structure en c! atomic spectra were harcIly
consiclerec! in the years between 1900 en c! 1916, instead,
the focus was on the quantum behavior of collective sys
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EDWIN C. KEMBLE
183
ferns (blackbocly racliation en c! specific heats). The particu-
lar mechanical systems that were quantizes! the oscillator
en c! the rotator were basic to molecular structure.
At the Solvay conference in 1911 the question of how to
quantize the rotator was cliscussec! thoroughly. In the labo-
ratory of the organizer of the conference, Walther Nernst,
work was being clone on predicting the spectra of molecu-
lar gases, particularly HCI. A young Danish researcher, Niels
Bjerrum, took the moclel of a "quantized" rotator en c! user!
it to predict accurately what
is now caller! the vibrational-
rotational spectra of molecules. Bjerrum macle the analysis
independently of and slightly prior to Bohr's application of
quantizes! motion to atomic spectra.
It was to Bjerrum's theory of molecular spectra that Kemble
turner! as a graduate student. Kemble, so interested in "ev-
erything with a quantum in it" hac! fount! a problem. He
wrote in his first paper: "The explanation of the structure
of infrarec! bancis of gases given by Bjerrum has lee! to strik-
ing direct confirmation of the quantum theory in the form
first proposer! by Planck (assuming absorption as well as
emission by quanta), en c! gives to the stucly of these bancis a
large significance for the further clevelopment of the theory."4
Kemble took Bjerrum's moclel of a molecule as a simple
vibrating quantum rotator en c! moclifiec! it to inclucle an-
harmonic vibrations en c! interactions between vibrations en c!
rotations. Bjerrum's formula for the spectral lines of mo-
lecular bancis was vim = vO + vr where vO is the vibrational
frequency en c! vr the rotational frequency quantizes! to give
vr = nh/2~2{ ~ the moment of inertia). (Bjerrum applier!
the traclitional electroclynamic identification of racliation
with mechanical frequencies.) With his inclusion of non-
linear terms Kemble obtainer! to seconc! order v = (vO - a/
vr2) + vr, the adjustment coming in a decrease in the vibra-
tional frequency as the rotator speeclec! up, pullet! apart,
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
en c! sampler! the non-linear range of the force homing the
two atoms together.
Percy Bricigman supervisec! Kemble's work as a graduate
student. Harvarcl's well-known experimentaTist championec!
the cause of a young graduate student who wan tee! to clo
theory. Even though Bricigman conic! not help with the quan-
tum theory, he did provide Kemble with a philosophy for
cloing physics, which Kemble clescribec! later as "heaven sent."
Inspirec! by Einstein's definitions of space en c! time, Bricigman
came to believe that all concepts in physics must be clefin-
able in terms of measurable quantities. To define a concept
meant to explain, at least in principle, how to measure it.
He argucc! that concepts not clefinable in operational terms
were meaningless.5 Kemble embracer! Bricigman's operation-
alism, as it came to be callecI, en c! macle it central to his
own understanding of quantum theory. Even though
Bricigman's operationalism proviclec! Kemble with a philoso-
phy of quantum mechanics, Bricigman himself never felt
comfortable with (nor clic! he ever accept) quantum me
chanics.
Kemble was given permission to clo a theoretical thesis
(one of the first presented in this country), but only after
his Divisor manager! to convince other members of the cle-
partment of its value. A compromise was agrees! upon, Kemble
must have an experimental section, too. Kemble collabo-
ratec! with Brinsmacle, the fellow graduate student who hac!
introclucec! him to Bjerrum's theory, to obtain beautiful
molecular spectra, which confirmed! Kemble's postulates!
anharmonicity of vibrational motion.
A short piece on Kemble in McGraw-Hill's Men of Sci-
ence series sharply criticizes Kemble for his equating of
radiation frequencies with mechanical frequencies and his
ignorance of Bohr's new frequency condition that gives ra-
cliation frequencies as differences in energy (rather than as
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EDWIN C. KEMBLE
185
a function of mechanical motion).6 The absence of Bohr's
theory from Kemble's work shecis light on history, however,
en c! shouIc! not leac! to the conclusion that the young Ameri-
can was ignorant. When Kemble was working on his graclu-
ate thesis, Bohr's frequency condition clic! not apply to mo-
lecular dynamics, it was clear from Bohr's papers of 1913
that the conclition applier! only to electronic motion en c!
not to the rotation en c! vibration of molecules. Kemble macle
no mistake in ignoring it. The straightforwardness en c! suc-
cess of Bjerrum's more semi-classical approach, which equates!
racliation frequencies with mechanical ones, clelayoc! the
application of Bohr's frequency condition to the infrarec!
spectra of molecules. In fact, Bohr's frequency conclition
lee! to clifficulties. Why were so many frequencies forbicI-
clen? Partly clue to this clifficulty it was not until 1919 that a
unifies! explanation of frequencies wouic! apply to molecu-
lar en c! atomic spectra.
When Kemble gracluatec! from Harvarc! in June of 1917
the country was at war. Kemble felt it his duty to clevelop
airplane engines at Curtiss Aircraft Company, which he clic!
until he was lair! off precipitously as the war nearec! its end.
Although Harvarc! wantec! him back as a faculty member
(in fact, the department hac! never wan tee! him to leave), a
position conic! not be fount! immecliately, en c! Kemble taught
at Williams College for half a semester. When Harvarc! clic!
make Kemble an offer, he was shocker! at the low salary
en c! the low status of the position he thought that impliecI.
Kemble toic! the department that he wouic! have to support
his parents in the future en c! reminclec! them somewhat
cryptically of the "shipwreck of an engagement" he hac!
sufferer! in the past. (After his first wife cliec! Kemble mar-
riot! his fiancee from his graduate student years.)
In a long letter clesignec! to lure Kemble to Harvard, his
oic! Divisor Bricigman explainec! his plans to built! up theory
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
at Harvarc! en c! to support its growth across the country.
Kemble's coming to the university was crucial to the plan.
Bricigman outline c! a restructurec! curriculum that hac!
Kemble teaching four upper-level courses (two of them graclu-
ate): racliation theory, quantum theory of the infrared, photo-
electricity, en c! specific heats, X-ray crystal structure, en c! a
special topics course in theory. Previously the Harvarc! cle-
partment, like others in the country, hac! focuses! on elec-
tromagnetism (e.g., racliotelegraphy, optics, en c! wave propa-
gation). More than three-quarters of the physics classes given
in 1919 fell uncler this rubric. Now Bricigman envisionec! a
move away from this concentration, en c! he wan tee! his former
graduate stuclent's help.
I am really enthusiastic about this scheme of courses. It comes pretty close
to what I have been wanting for a long time. If we can get the courses well
given, it ought to put Harvard pretty near the top in this country. What is
more, it is a good beginning to putting the country on the map in theoreti-
cal physics. Course 22 [the special topics course] is designed especially for
this, and would nominally be taken only by those students specializing in
theoretical physics, of whom we shall hope for an increasing number. But
you see that you are an essential part of this program. Don't you want to be
a member of a Department that is trying to do this, and don't you feel the
challenge in this?7
Kemble acceptec! the challenge. Establishing theoretical
physics at Harvarc! en c! taking the department to the top
was a heavy responsibility for a young man. Kemble starter!
immecliately. His first year at Harvarc! he taught one of the
earliest courses in quantum theory given in the country.
His approach to the subject was taken from Bricigman en c!
exemplified the American approach to theory.
It seems to me essential that we approach the subject in a proper frame of
mind. The quantum theory is an attempt to correlate and ultimately to give
a partial explanation of a series of startling facts which are in apparent
conflict with the laws of classical mechanics and classical electrodynamics. I
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EDWIN C. KEMBLE
187
say that it is an attempt to give a {partial explanation of these facts because
in the last analysis the physicists seek merely to formulate a few fundamen-
tal equations from which the behavior of matter may be predicted and into
whose origin we will hardly inquire.... In such a subject as this we must
not look for rigorous logical deductions and we must not make too much
of the paradoxes which come up from time to time. The theory is simply
justified by (a) the nature of the phenomena it is designed to explain, (b)
the results already obtained in the shape of formulae which stand the test
of quantitative comparison with the results of experiment, and (c) the
gradual clarification of the fundamental ideas on which it rests.8
Kemble's first graduate student was John Van VIeck, en c!
many follower! in the next fifteen years (e.g., Clarence Ze-
ner, lames H. Bartlett, Eugene Feenberg, en c! I. L. Dun-
ham). Although Van VIeck ant! Kemble worker! on the
crossecI-orbit moclel of the helium atom, most of Kemble's
students user! the quantum theory to shot! light on molecu-
lar structure. In fact, this was generally true of the emerg-
ing quantum physics community in the Uniter! States clur-
ing the twenties, the focus was on molecular structure, not,
as in Europe, on atomic structure.
At this time there was a fine spectroscopic tradition in
the country. Harrison Ranciall heaclec! a major infrarec! spec-
troscopy laboratory at the University of Michigan. At the
enc! of the nineteenth century, Ernst Fox Nichols at Cornell
hac! clevelopec! the resiclual ray technique to isolate harcI-to-
cletect infrarec! racliation, en c! his student William W. Coblentz
hac! inventec! en c! improver! instruments to detect infrarec!
frequencies. Coblentz's three-volume work Investigations of
Infrared Spectra became the reference work for molecular
spectra, as hac! Heinrich Kayser en c! Car! Runge's for atomic
spectra. The molecular dynamics of rotation en c! vibration
generate spectra in the infrared. Electron motions in mol-
ecules en c! atoms generally produce spectra in the optical
en c! higher frequencies.
The national origins of these two compendia (one Ameri
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
can, the other German) point to the research focus each
country took cluring the ~ 920s. While the Germans en c!
other Europeans focuses! on atomic structure in their quest
for the foundation of quantum theory, the Americans
achiever! maturity as physicists by studying the quantum
nature of molecular structure. They shunner! the waters of
atomic physics en c! thus avoiclec! competing with those whom
Raymonc! T. Birge, molecular spectroscopist at Berkeley en c!
Kemble's close correspondent, caller! the "atomic structure
sharks."
Kemble was at the center of the research program in
molecular structure. Having introclucec! the quantum prob-
lem to the Uniter! States, he went on to chair the National
Research Council's Committee on Racliation in Gases, which
during its three-year-Ion" preparation (1923-26) of a book-
length report Motecular Spectra in Gases, server! as the coor-
dinating group for a national research program. Kemble
represented! Harvarc! en c! the east, Ranciall's group at Michi-
gan was represented on the committee by Walter F. Colby,
en c! Raymonc! T. Birge spoke for the west from his position
as a skillet! molecular spectroscopist at Berkeley. A post-
cloctoral fellow at Harvard, Robert S. Mulliken, playact a
large role in the research en c! writing of the report, al-
though he was not an official member of the committee.
. .
A crucial ingredient for the growth en c! success of the
research program in molecular structure were the post-cloc-
toral fellows, like Mulliken. Funclec! postcloctoral research
en c! education was set up after Woric! War I by the Rockefeller
Foundation and the National Research Council. These two
institutions chose to support physics en c! chemistry by cre-
ating a number of non-teaching, one- to two-year research
Positions for young Ph.D.s. The existence of these research
positions, intermediate between professor en c! graduate stu
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EDWIN C. KEMBLE
189
clents, market! the beginning of the moclern scientific re-
search group.
One of the first such research groups was the one that
surrounclec! Kemble at Harvarc! from 1923 to 1927. Mulliken
arriver! at Harvarc! in 1923 en c! in the following years was
joiner! by three other postcloctoral fellows. The group worker!
to unclerstanc! fluorescent bane! spectra, the Zeeman effect,
en c! the vibrational-rotational bancis that appear in the elec-
tronic spectra of molecules. Mulliken became known for
his untangling of molecular isotopic effects.
The years 1923-26 were a fertile perioc! for the uncler-
stancling of molecular structure. Because the oIcler quan-
tum theory gave essentially the same energies for the rota-
tor ant! oscillator as clic! the soon-to-come quantum
mechanics, the conclusions reacher! about clynamical struc-
ture were to remain vaTic! across the great clivicle of 1926
(the invention of quantum mechanics). The success of the
molecular program pre-1926 mover! Kemble to introduce
the National Research CounciT's report with: "Although the
theory of quanta has marvelously illuminates! all branches
of physics connecter! in any intimate way with atomic en c!
molecular processes, few subjects have become more strik-
ingly cIarifiec! than that of bane! (molecular) spectra."9
The stability of molecules remainec! an insoluble prob-
lem in the context of the oicler quantum theory, however.
The solution of the binding problem for the hydrogen mol-
ecule by Heitler en c! London in 1927, usually marks the
beginning of quantum chemistry, but the discipline's roots
go farther back. The education of American quantum physi-
cists in the early twenties through the stucly of molecular
structure set the stage for an American-clominatec! clisci-
pline of quantum chemistry in the late twenties en c! thir-
ties, in this Kemble playact a key role.
Right at the heyday of excitement over the discovery of
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
quantum mechanics, in 1927-28, Kemble spent a Guggenheim
fellowship year in Europe, mainly at Gottingen en c! Munich.
Here Kemble macle what he later caller! the worst policy
decision of his life: to finish up an older quantum theoreti-
cal calculation for bane! spectra rather than throw himself
wholeheartecIly into learning the new theory. To friends in
the Uniter! States he wrote that he conic! not make heacis
or tails of von Neumann's first lectures on quantum me-
chanics (anc! he mentionec! that neither conic! Max Born).
In the next clecacle, Kemble was to more than make up for
his initial neglect of the theory.
On his return to the Uniter! States, Kemble wrote with E.
.
V. Hill two Tong review articles on quantum theory for the
first issues of Reviews of Modern Physics. The articles were the
first publisher! exposition of the new theory in the Uniter!
States. Kemble continues! to work on unclerstancling the
basis of the theory, considering the meaning of probability
in the quantum case en c! the relation between the wave
functions and the physical states of the system. Kemble's
efforts to secure a mathematical foundation for quantum
mechanics culminates! in his textbook Fundamental Principles
of Quantum Mechanics (1937), a book so cletailec! en c! math-
ematical in its attempt to ground quantum mechanics op-
erationally that it was little user! as a textbook. Kemble openly
attributer! his approach to Bricigman's. Founciational con-
cepts shouIc! be baser! on explicitly measurable properties,
not on intuitive ideas or metaphysical comforts.
The care and consideration Kemble brought to his un-
clerstancling of quantum mechanics in many ways a mea
cuIpa for his earlier decision to clisregarc! the theory in
1927 was antithetical to a pursuit of his own research in
molecular structure. In 1969 in a short autobiographical
sketch, he wrote, "I am prouc! of them The papers en c! the
book on the foundations of quantum mechanics] and too
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EDWIN C. KEMBLE
191
cleeply interested in questions of clarity in the organization
of knowlecige to wish that I hac! taken a different course in
1929. But I did pay a high price for my interest in philoso-
phy.~°
With WorIc! War II came another shift in Kemble's ca-
reer. Many of his colleagues worker! for the duration of the
war at MIT's Racliation Laboratory. Kemble, who chairec!
the physics department from 1940-1045, supervised the teach-
ing of basic physics to military officers. He consultec! for
the Navy's underwater sounc! laboratory cluring the war en c!
in 1945 was part of the overseas ALSOS mission, whose top-
secret job was to uncover German atomic bomb research.
Kemble enjoyoc! en c! was intrigues! by his wartime task of
explaining physics to non-physicists. At war's end, he hac! a
chance to continue this work. Reacting to the great role
science playact in the war, James B. Conant, president of
Harvard, high-level administrator in the bomb project, en c!
chemist, proposer! to teach science to all Harvarc! uncler-
gracluates by teaching them the history of science. Conant
hoper! to highlight the importance of science for social
change. Kemble enthusiastically joiner! the general ecluca-
tion project, en c! a lunchtime group was set up in the phys-
ics department to try to enact the ambitious plan. (It in-
cluclec! Kemble, I. Bernarc! Cohen, Geralc! Holton, Thomas
S. Kuhn, Philippe Le Corbeiller, en c! Leonarc! K. Nash.)
As part of the general education program, Kemble taught
a course in the physical sciences to non-science majors.
The cartons of student papers he kept attest to his love of
the job en c! his belief that writing the history of science
conic! stimulate the imagination of those who wouIc! have
to manage what he caller! the "issues of the clay, . . . war en c!
peace, racial injustice, overpopulation, automation, the pol-
lution en c! contamination of the atmosphere en c! water sup-
ply fancI] the breakdown of traclitional values." During
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
the fifties, Kemble worker! on restructuring the curriculum
for physics majors as well. His major contribution was to
chair a committee that forwardly! recommendations for a
revision of stanciarc! electromagnetism courses given at the
college level.
Kemble's concern about the conditions of moclern soci-
ety was integral to his political en c! personal life as well as
to his teaching. He protester! security restrictions in the
National Science Foundation bill of 1950, encourages! sci-
entists to join the Fecleration of American Scientists cluring
the Cold War, and played a role in the peace movement as
part of a Methodist congregation.
Kemble retiree! from Harvarc! in 1957, having spent all
but three years there since the time he enterer! graduate
school. For three years after retirement, he was director of
Harvarcl's Academic Year Institute, where high-school teachers
could study with university professors. The beneficiaries of
Kemble's teaching were many: young postcloctoral research-
ers, graduate students, unclergracluates (both scientists en c!
non-scientists), and finally high school teachers (and indi-
rectly their students). He served his scientific community
in official capacities as chairman of the Physics Section of
the National Academy of Sciences ~945-48) en c! as a mem-
ber of the Executive Committee of the National Research
CounciT's Division of Physical Sciences.
Kemble was embarrassed and always apologetic about his
scientific output. "As you see, my career has not been one
of great distinction," he wrote. The feeling was intensified
by the high-caliber students he saw blossoming uncler him,
physicists like John Van VIeck, Robert S. Mulliken, John C.
STater, en c! l. Robert Oppenheimer. After his wartime teaching
experience, Kemble made a decision: "I saw myself spend-
ing the rest of my life panting to try to keep within hailing
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EDWIN C. KEMBLE
193
distance of what was going on. I cleliberately quit being a
scientist at that time although I continues! to teach."~3
Looking back at Kemble's entire career allows us to take
a broacler perspective than Kemble himself en c! recognize
his value as a community builcler, a task so in concert with
his religious beliefs. Kemble's most important contributions
to research were introducing the stucly of a quantum mo-
lecular structure to the Uniter! States en c! presiding over
the bucicling research community that worker! on the prob-
lem. Americans learner! quantum physics by studying mol-
ecules. There is goof! reason to believe that this is why
quantum chemistry was preclominantly an American clisci-
pline when it emerges! in the late twenties. It is foolish to
attribute such large-scale clevelopments to any one person,
but it is reasonable to claim someone a place as one of
perhaps several motivating forces. I believe that such a place
belongs to Kemble.
Edwin Crawforc! Kemble flier! on March 12, 1984.
NOTES
1. E. Kemble interview with T. Kuhn, October 1, 1963. Archives
for the History of Quantum Physics.
2. Ibid.
3. E. Kemble interview with T. Kuhn, May 11, 1962. Archives for
the History of Quantum Physics.
4. E. Kemble. The distribution of angular velocities among di-
atomic gas. Phys. Rev. 8~1916~:689.
5. P. Bridgman. The Logic of Modern Physics. New York: Macmillan,
1927.
6. Modern Men of Science, vol. 2, pp. 285-86. New York: McGraw-
Hill, 1968.
7. P. Bridgman to E. Kemble. Lyman correspondence, March
16, 1919, box 8, folder K-1919, Harvard University Archives.
8. E. Kemble lecture notes for physics 16a, 1919-1920, box 18.
Harvard University Archives.
9. E. Kemble et al. Molecular spectra in gases. In "Report on the
OCR for page 194
194
BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS
Committee on Radiation in Gases." Bull. no. 57, p. 9. Washington,
D.C.: National Research Council, 1926.
10. E. Kemble to S. S. Ballard, December 20, 1969. Harvard Un
versity Archives.
11. E. C. Kemble. Physical Science, Its Structure and Development, p.
14. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1966.
12. E. Kemble to S. Ballard, op. cit.
13. E. Kemble interview with T. Kuhn, October 1, 1963. Archives
for the History of Quantum Physics.
OCR for page 195
EDWIN C. KEMBLE
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With E. L. Hill. On the Raman effect in gases. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.
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Press.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
quantum mechanics
