Biographical Memoirs Volume 47 (1975) / Chapter Skim
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13 John Torrence Tate
13 John Torrence Tate
Pages 460-485
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This Tate consequently listed as his town of birth, and the fact that it was not in Adams County caused considerable confusion 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.
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in 1912. He had shifted from engineering to physics, and the paper he published in the Physical Review in 1912, "The Theoretical and Experimental Determination of Reflection Coefficients of Absorbing Media," was essentially his M.A.
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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 Professor Henry Erikson, chairman of the Minnesota physics department, strongly urging that Tate be considered.
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They published two papers connected 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.
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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 stimulated Tate's interest in electron impact phenomena, we cannot say for sure.
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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.
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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.
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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 dissociate into an atom and an ion, the particles having measurable kinetic energy.
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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.
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, ~ , 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.
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But Tate showed rare judgment and common sense in not delaying by much refereeing noteworthy papers dealing with various applications of quantum mechanics; this was important, for America was somewhat at a disadvantage compared to the centers of Europe, where the revolution had germinated. One of the authors remembers how the refereeing of a paper submitted by D
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TATE S BRIEF ROLE AS DEAN That Tate's interests went beyond physics was well known at the University of Minnesota. In 1930 the University established a new college for students of high ability whose educational objectives crossed traditional college lines.
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The most complete investigation possible of all the factors and phenomena involved in the accurate detection of submerged or partially submerged submarines and in anti-submarine devices, and (2) the development of equipment and methods for use of promising means for detection to the point where their final embodiment in form satisfactory for Naval operations can be undertaken by the regular Bureaus of the Navy." John Tate was chosen to lead this awesome effort.
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He taught one course and began a modest research program involving a few students. Now, the Physical Review began its rapid postwar expansion, and more and more of Tate's time was devoted to it.
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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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~ · 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.
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He was fond of golf. At one time he was the champion billiard player of the University of Minnesota faculty, and during his undergraduate days he ranked as a collegiate tennis champion.
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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.
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He is the only Americanborn 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.
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416-24 of The University of Minnesota, 18511951 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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Rev., 34:321-32. 1916 The low potential discharge spectrum of mercury vapor in relation to ionization potentials.
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Ionization potentials and probabilities for the formation of multiply charged ions in the alkali vapors and in krypton and xenon.
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Design and construction of the Minnesota pressure electrostatic generator.
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Ionization and dissociation of diatomic molecules by electron impact.
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