Biographical Memoirs Volume 50 (1979) / Chapter Skim
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Paul Darwin Foote
Paul Darwin Foote
Pages 174-195
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From page 175... ...
My mother was Abbie Lottie Tourgee, who died at age 56 in 1920 from septicemia following a tooth extraction, this occurring long before medical knowledge of antibiotics. Both parents were for many generations of American extraction but originally Father's antecedents came from England and Mother's from France.
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From page 176... ...
Although I could have received financial help from my parents, I worked my way through college. While attending Adelbert College, Western Reserve University, 1905-1909, I was employed part time by a Cleveland law firm and taught city night school, chiefly algebra.
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From page 177... ...
My thesis, published in Physical Review in 1912, contained data on the magnetic rotation of the plane of polarization and ellipticity of plane polarized light reflected from mirrors in a magnetic field. These data, including effect of strength of field and dispersion through the spectrum, still stand in the modern physical tables.
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From page 178... ...
In 1916 Foote resigned from the Bureau of Standards to accept the position of assistant manager of the Fisher Scientific Company in Pittsburgh, at that time a small firm engaged in the manufacture of instruments for military use, especially telescopic gun sights. He shared in the invention of the F 8c F optical pyrometer and other temperature measuring equipment.
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From page 179... ...
At first he was engaged in various military technical projects, probably the most important of which was the organization and direction of the development of heat control processes for the manufacture of high-grade optical glass. This early work, along with the cooperative efforts of a large group of industries, private laboratories (including the Carnegie Geophysical Laboratory in Washington, D.C.)
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From page 180... ...
Although this field of work was beyond the scope of their organizational responsibilities for heat and pyrometry work, Bureau Director Stratton allowed Foote and Mohler considerable freedom (but without extra funds) to pursue their spectral studies of atomic processes.
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From page 181... ...
Eckhardt, also a former Bureau of Standards physicist, had already been engaged in geophysical work for another oil company. From that time on, the work expanded by leaps and bounds, and by the beginning of 1930 a large part of the Fellowship was transferred to the Gulf Production Company as a new Research Department occupying a new eighty-room laboratory building.
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From page 182... ...
Under Foote's leadership the Gulf Research Sc Development Company became one of the most complete, integrated petroleum laboratories in the world. Paul Foote retired from the Gulf Research & Development Company at the end of 1953, having reached the usual industrial retirement age of sixty-five.
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From page 183... ...
The assignment involved the staffing, scheduling, and coordinating of about sixteen discipline oriented committees, corresponding to the primary organizational units of the Bureau. Foote's wide contacts with the scientific and engineering community, coupled with his great interest in the Bureau, enabled him to organize highly competent committees to work effectively with the Bureau during a period of rapid growth associated with the post-Sputnik atmosphere.
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From page 184... ...
Other honors and activities include: The Outstanding Achievement Gold Medal from the University of Minnesota, 1951; honorary degree of Doctor of Science from the Carnegie Institute of Technology, 1953; the Pittsburgh Man-of-the-Year in Science Award from the Pittsburgh Junior Chamber of Commerce, 1953; the Pittsburgh Award for outstanding service to chemistry from the American Chemical Society, 1954; the honorary degree of Doctor of Science from Western Reserve University, 1961. During World War II, he served as a consultant to the Office of Scientific Research and Development and to the Research and Development Board, and he was a member of the Executive Committee for Antisubmarine Warfare.
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From page 185... ...
For the benefit of the many academic scientists who believe this fiction I propose the following practical experiment. Let articles submitted to the Physical Review be carefully read by the editorial board and secure the sponsorship of the American Physical Society.
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From page 186... ...
During Foote's second period at NBS he helped organize among fellow scientists a chamber music group for which his excellence on the clarinet was a real asset. Paul Foote must be classified as a man whose impact covered many fields: basic science, especially the early growth of quantum physics; scientific instrumentation, especially thermal and photoelectric measurement; the development of the petroleum industry; the effective use of science by industry, national defense and other governmental agencies, and the more effective operation of professional societies, especially to deal with their publication problems.
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From page 187... ...
Our times call for more of the spirit that motivated Foote to explore new roles for the members of the physics professional Physics Today, 24 (November 1971~: 73.
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From page 188... ...
Eng., 11:97. 1914 Das Emissions vermogen van Metallen und Oxiden.
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From page 189... ...
Resonance and ionization potentials for electrons in cadmium vapor. Burl Stand.
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From page 190... ...
Atomic theory and low voltage arcs in caesium vapor.
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From page 191... ...
Sci., 10:435. Atomic theory and low voltage arcs in caesium vapors.
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From page 192... ...
Mon., 21:449. Photoelectric ionization of caesium vapor.
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From page 193... ...
1935 Laboratories of the Gulf Research & Development Corporation.
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From page 194... ...
In: Proceedings of the Pennsylvania State Univ. Conference on Administration of Research, Oct.
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