True Genius The Life and Science of John Bardeen: The Only Winner of Two Nobel Prizes in Physics (2002) / Chapter Skim
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7 Engineering for National Defense
7 Engineering for National Defense
Pages 99-114
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From page 99... ...
But there would be no surrender. British scientists set aside their own research to develop tech99
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From page 100... ...
Federal support for laboratories engaged in military research entered a phase of unprecedented expansion. Vannevar Bush, an MIT professor of electrical engineering, became a crucial link between scientists and the government.
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From page 101... ...
, into which Bardeen landed, was part of this network. In 1929 the Bureau of Ordnance's Mine Laboratory, a small experimental unit founded in 1919 and housed in the Gun Factory of the Washington Navy Yard, was combined with the Experimental Ammunition Unit to form the Naval Ordnance Laboratory.
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From page 102... ...
But the $16 per day contract rate that Bennett initially offered Bardeen did not cover the cost of uprooting the family. When Buchta wrote Bennett that Bardeen was due for a pay increase in the fall, the navy increased its offer to $17 per day.
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From page 103... ...
Nearly every day cannons fired test rounds that rattled the windows. Bardeen kept his office windows shut to avoid the fumes from a paint shop directly below, rendering his workplace stifling in the summer.
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From page 104... ...
They tested the scale models by measuring the impact against a wall or by taking high-speed motion pictures of the action in a huge tank of water designed to simulate field conditions. Bardeen's analytical and pragmatic approach to problems made him a valued member of the NOL staff.
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From page 105... ...
He directed the preparation of a catalogue of ships' magnetic fields for use in naval planning. His report in August 1942 offered a way to classify the magnetic signatures of various ships, with an eye toward setting mines targeted at particular classes of enemy ships.
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From page 106... ...
The unit also faced personnel problems because its technical people were constantly siphoned off into Mine Development. Adding to the frustration, the results of the Mine Research Unit typically did not interest any naval officer in a position to develop them.
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From page 107... ...
He planned and directed the NOL's research program on influence field measurements. Teams in his division collected and interpreted data for applications in devices such as mine firing units, torpedo exploders, and depth charges.
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From page 108... ...
Years later William Whitmore sent Bardeen some "memories of the day at NOL in 1942 when you asked me if I knew anything about hydrodynamics. " Whitmore had replied to Bardeen, "Not particularly." Bardeen then handed him the standard textbook, Sir Horace Lamb's Hydrodynamics (1895)
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From page 109... ...
Skipper had gotten "his hair cut short so that it sticks straight up in the air. " John explained to Billy that his baby sister would take a while to grow into a playmate for him, but before long she would "learn to smile and roll over and sit up, " and that soon she would be able to "walk and talk like other children....
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From page 110... ...
The field mushroomed after the war with the advent of new research materials, like pure samples of silicon and germanium, or pure mercury isotopes, and new research technologies, such as nuclear magnetic resonance and the helium liquefier developed by Samuel Collins. New sources of funding were attracting many workers to solid-state physics.
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From page 111... ...
The team would also include two experimental physicists, Walter Brattain, lohn's old bridge enemy, and Gerald Pearson; a chemist, Robert Gibney; a circuits expert, Hilbert Moore; and two technicians, Philip Foy and Thomas Griffith. Bardeen learned more about the position when he visited Bell Labs to explore the opportunity on May 19, 1945.
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From page 112... ...
"It was a difficult choice to make," he wrote Buchta on June 11, "because I enjoyed my work and associations at Minnesota, and I like living in a University community." But "BTL appears to offer better opportunity for professional development." For one thing, the Bell Labs job was in solid-state physics. He said he expected physics at the university to be centered on nuclear physics, a field in which he would be "at a considerable disadvantage competing with those who have been fortunate enough to have worked on nuclear physics during the war." Bell was also offering ample research support and a generous salary.
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From page 113... ...
Bardeen's decision to resign is especially regretted in view of his international reputation as a versatile theoretical physicist and in consideration of his many outstanding contributions over a period of four years at the NOL in acoustics, magnetism, oceanography, degaussing, simulation, mine sweeping, torpedo research, and other important phases of underwater ordnance." Don Marlowe, assistant technical director of the NOL, "really worked on" Bardeen to persuade him to stay, but Bardeen would not be moved. Though sincerely sorry to see him go, Captain Schindler approved Bardeen's request.
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From page 114... ...
Bardeen has made to the Research Program of the Naval Ordnance Laboratory, since there are few problems that have not benefited either directly or indirectly from his keen insight, sound judgment, and exceptional scientific ability." lames Forrestal, the secretary of the navy, did not, however, approve the award on the grounds that Bardeen's "accomplishments are not considered sufficiently outstanding to warrant the Navy's highest civilian award." Forrestal offered instead the slightly less prestigious Meritorious Civilian Service Award. Bardeen was already established at Bell Labs by the time he learned of the honor.
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