Binary Stars, Neutrinos, and Liquid Crystals:

Paul A. Heiney

Description

This book traces the parallel paths of physics and astronomy at the University of Pennsylvania, starting with their genesis in the 18th century, through the rising stature of both departments in the 20th century, and concluding with their unification in 1994. Along the way we meet David Rittenhouse, who observed the transit of Venus in 1769, Charles Doolittle, whose remarkable beard would freeze to his telescope on cold nights, Gaylord Harnwell, who transformed first the physics department and then the entire university, and Raymond Davis, who uncovered a mystery in the middle of the sun. The stories are tragic (Arthur Goodspeed failed to discover X-rays through inattention), horrifying (Dicran Kabakjian poisoned an entire neighborhood), and celebratory (three Penn physicists received the Nobel Prize in the late 20th Century). The reader will gain an appreciation, not just of the history of one institution, but of the ways these two disciplines both intersect and complement each other.

Sujets

• Astronomie
• Astrophysique
• Science
• Stars
• Astronomy
• Binary
• Sciences et techniques
• Space Science
• Crystals

Informations

• Publié par: Xlibris US
• Date de parution: 21 décembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669851578
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 9 Mo

Extrait

BINARY STARS, NEUTRINOS, AND LIQUID CRYSTALS:
 
The First 250 Years of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Pennsylvania
 
 
 
PAUL A. HEINEY
 
Copyright © 2023 by Paul A. Heiney. 846591
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
 
 
 
Xlibris
844-714-8691
www.Xlibris.com
 
 
ISBN:
Softcover
978-1-6698-5158-5

EBook
978-1-6698-5157-8
 
 
 
 
 
Rev. date:  12/20/2022
Contents
Forward
Prologue
Physics and Astronomy 1740-1827: The Colonial and Early Republican Periods
Physics and Astronomy 1828-1900: Adrain, Bache, Frazer, Barker, Kendall, Flower
Physics 1900-1938: Goodspeed, Richards, and the Old Boys Club
Astronomy 1895-1954: The Doolittles, Barton, and Olivier
Physics 1938-1953: Gaylord Harnwell and the War Years
Physics and Astronomy Facilities 1954-1968: DRL, LRSM, FCO, Mt. John
Astronomy 1954-1968: Frank Bradshaw Wood and the Flower and Cook Observatory
Physics 1954-1968: The Years of Expansion
Astronomy 1968-1994: Binary Stars and Neutrinos
Physics 1968-1982: Polyacetylene and Accelerators
Physics 1982-1994: Quasicrystals and the Top Quark
1994 and Beyond: The Department of Physics and Astronomy
The Undergraduate Programs, 1901-1995
Minorities and Diversity
Staff
Final Thoughts
Appendix: Abbreviations Used
Appendix: Academic Ranks and Governance
Image Credits
Bibliography
Tables
Table 1: 1779 Inventory of Philosophical Apparatus
Table 2: Physics Ph.D. Thesis Topics, 1900-1930
Table 3: Physics Ph.D. Thesis Topics, 1931-1940.
Table 4: Astronomy Ph.D. Topics, 1900-1954
Table 5: Physics Ph.D. Thesis Topics, 1941-1953.
Table 6: Astronomy Ph.D. Thesis Topics, 1955-1968
Table 7: Physics Ph.D. Topics, 1954-1968.
Table 8: Astronomy Ph.D. Thesis Topics, 1969-1994
Table 9: Physics Ph.D. Thesis Topics, 1969-1982.
Table 10: Physics Ph.D. Topics, 1983-1994
Table 11: Flower Observatory Inventory, 1920.
Table 12: Undergraduate Degrees by Decade
Table 13: Current Fields of Physics/Astronomy Alumni
Figures
Figure 1: Academy and College of Philadelphia at 4th and Arch St., around 1780. Sketch by Pierre du Simitière.
Figure 2: Portrait of Benjamin Franklin by Joseph Duplessis, 1778.
Figure 3: Hugh Williamson.
Figure 4: Portrait of William Smith by John Sartain after Benjamin West.
Figure 5: Curriculum of the College, Pennsylvania Gazette, August 12, 1756.
Figure 6: The Kinnersley Electric Air Thermometer , c. 1763
Figure 7: Portrait of John Ewing by Charles Willson Peale, 1788.
Figure 8: Portrait of David Rittenhouse by Charles Willson Peale, 1796.
Figure 9: Rittenhouse’s diagram from his observations of the 1769 transit of Venus [26].
Figure 10: The Rittenhouse Orrery in Penn’s Van Pelt Library
Figure 11: Robert Patterson Sr., c. 1800.
Figure 12: “President’s House,” viewed from the southeast (after the 1817 addition of the cupola to the Medical Department wing), after a watercolor by William Strickland, c. 1820.
Figure 13: Robert M. Patterson.
Figure 14: Robert Adrain.
Figure 15: Alexander Bache in the field.
Figure 16: Illustration of circular motion from Lardner’s Mechanics.
Figure 17: Course of instruction in 1832.
Figure 18: Text and figure describing an altitude and azimuth instrument, from Gummere’s Astronomy [52].
Figure 19: John Fries Frazer.
Figure 20: College Hall, c. 1890. The towers were removed in 1914. University of Pennsylvania Archives.
Figure 21: George F. Barker, photograph by Frederick Gutekunst.
Figure 22: Demonstration Gramme dynamo. Paul Heiney.
Figure 23: Map of Penn campus, 1893.
Figure 24: Organization of the College, 1893. Left: arranged by pedagogical units. Center and right: arranged by academic departments.
Figure 25: Hector Tyndale, c. 1861, J. E. McCleese artist.
Figure 26: E. Otis Kendall, portrait by William Curtis Taylor.
Figure 27: A page from Kendall’s Atlas (left) and part of the corresponding text from his Uranography (right).
Figure 28: Map of Upper Darby in 1875, showing location of Flower farm [87].
Figure 29: Arthur Willis Goodspeed.
Figure 30: Goodspeed and Jennings’ X-ray image of coins on a photographic plate, 1890.
Figure 31: Randall Morgan Laboratory of Physics in 1902. University of Pennsylvania Archives.
Figure 32: Aerial view of the Frankford Arsenal in 1978.
Figure 33: Doctoral degrees per decade, 1890-2020.
Figure 34: Graduate course requirements in 1903.
Figure 35: Fanny Cook Gates.
Figure 36: Bound copy of Duncan and Duncan thesis. Paul Heiney.
Figure 37: Department of Physics staff and graduate students, c. 1908. University of Pennsylvania Archives.
Figure 38: Undergraduate classes in physics offered in 1903.
Figure 39: Horace Clark Richards in 1906 (Richards family collection).
Figure 40: Charles Bazzoni in 1916.
Figure 41: Harold C. Barker in 1900.
Figure 42: Thomas D. Cope, c. 1950. University of Pennsylvania Archives.
Figure 43: Image from Lucian’s 1934 patent application for a “Luminescent Device.”
Figure 44: Joseph Razek
Figure 45: Charles Doolittle.
Figure 46: The Flower Astronomical Observatory.
Figure 47: The 18 inch equatorial telescope at the Flower Observatory.
Figure 48: Eric Doolittle in 1891. Special Collections, Lehigh University Libraries, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Figure 49: Samuel G. Barton in 1927. Credit: Rittenhouse Astronomical Society.
Figure 50: Charles P. Olivier. University of Pennsylvania Archives.
Figure 51: Image of a radiant from Young’s Textbook of General Astronomy and Scientific Schools, 1888.
Figure 52: Gustavus W. Cook in the Roslyn House Observatory, 1933.
Figure 53: John Irwin. American Institute of Physics.
Figure 54: Gaylord Harnwell in 1955. University of Pennsylvania Archives.
Figure 55: Electrostatic accelerator in 1940. Left: Interior view. Right: external view facing west, Morgan Lab is in the background. University of Pennsylvania Archives.
Figure 56: Louis Ridenour
Figure 57: Frederick Seitz
Figure 58: Andrew Lawson. University of Chicago.
Figure 59: Leonard I. Schiff.
Figure 60: William E. Stephens.
Figure 61: Penn authors of nuclear fission book. Credit: Philadelphia Inquirer.
Figure 62: Walter Elsasser.
Figure 63: Herbert Callen.
Figure 64: Left to right: William Stephens, Charles Ufford, and Charles Price (Chemistry Department Chair) on the Newport-Bermuda yacht race, 1960.
Figure 65: Julius Halpern in 1963.
Figure 66: Alfred K. Mann.
Figure 67: Sherman Frankel (center) with Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov and human rights activist Yelena Bonner, c. 1987. Kislak Center for Special Collections, University of Pennsylvania.
Figure 68: The 35 MeV Betatron at the University of Melbourne. Suzie Sheehy.
Figure 69: Campus map in 1953. Red arrows show locations of accelerators. University of Pennsylvania Archives.
Figure 70: Modern DRL, seen from the east, 2021. Paul Heiney.
Figure 71: The warm, friendly ambiance of a DRL corridor, fall 2020. Paul Heiney.
Figure 72: Observing a transit of Mercury at a Student Observatory public occasion, 1973. Robert Koch.
Figure 73: The LRSM building under construction in 1962.
Figure 74: LRSM electromagnet in 1969. Credit: The Daily Pennsylvanian.
Figure 75: The Tandem Building, c. 2020. The east wing of DRL is shown in the background.
Figure 76: View of the Tandem Accelerator vault. The accelerator was in the large tank to the right and the beam came out through the evacuated pipe to the left. University of Pennsylvania Almanac.
Figure 77: The Princeton-Pennsylvania Accelerator.
Figure 78: Postdoc Vasken Hagopian and graduate student Sharon Hagopian standing on bubble chamber detector at the PPA, 1967. Walter Kononenko.
Figure 79: The Flower and Cook Observatory in the early 1960s. Robert Koch.
Figure 80: Frank Bateson. Audrey Walsh.
Figure 81: The Mt. John Observatory. Fraser Gunn.
Figure 82: Frank Bradshaw Wood.
Figure 83: Leendert Binnendijk.
Figure 84: William Blitzstein.
Figure 85: The Pierce-Blitzstein 2-channel photometric system in 1985. Robert Koch.
Figure 86: William M. Protheroe.
Figure 87: Eva Novotny.
Figure 88: Astronomy and Astrophysics doctoral degrees, 1900-2000. Paul Heiney.
Figure 89: Organizers of 2011 Villanova conference in honor of Robert Koch. Bruce Holenstein.
Figure 90: Kenneth Atkins in 1961.
Figure 91: Max Caspari
Figure 92: Elias Burstein.
Figure 93: Donald Langenberg.
Figure 95: Roger Walmsley
Figure 96: Michael Cohen.
Figure 97: Robert Schrieffer.
Figure 98: A. Brooks Harris.
Figure 99: Paul Soven.
Figure 100: Robert Zurmuhle
Figure 101: Roy Middleton. Credit: AIP Emilio Segré Visual Archives, Physics Today Collection.
Figure 102: Abraham Klein.
Figure 103: Keith Brueckner. Special Collections and Archives, UC San Diego.
Figure 104: Ralph Amado.
Figure 105: Walter Selove. Walter Kononenko.
Figure 106: Howard Brody.
Figure 107: Kenneth Lande.
Figure 108: Walter Wale standing on his deck (see plaque in ba