Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Langmuir, Robert Vose (1912-1993)
- Language:
- English.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
The Robert Vose Langmuir papers document only a small portion of Langmuir's work. Notably absent is material on the Caltech synchrotron. Files include technical reports from the General Electric period, with an acccount of the discovery of synchrotron radiation by Pollock; patent documents beginning in 1945; course notes and problem sets from Caltech; and a selection of research and writing projects from the 1940s through 1990.
- Biographical / historical:
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Langmuir, Robert Vose (1912-1993) PHYSICIST, ELECTRICAL ENGINEER
Caltech Professor of Electrical Engineering, 1952-1980; Caltech Assistant Professor of Physics, 1950-1952; Caltech Senior Research Fellow, 1948-1950; Caltech alumnus (Ph.D., 1943).
Born December 20, 1912, in White Plains, New York, Langmuir received his A.B. from Harvard College in 1935. From 1939 to 1942, he worked for Consolidated Engineering Corporation of Pasadena on the development of the first commercial mass spectrometer. In 1942, he took a position with General Electric Company in Schenectady, New York, where he helped to develop CW magnetrons for jamming enemy radar during World War II. After the war, he invented another mass spectrometer, the omegatron, for which he was awarded the patent. With Pollock and Elder, he designed and constructed the first synchrotron to operate in the U.S., the 70 MeV. With this team, he was the co-discoverer in 1947 of synchrotron radiation and wrote the pioneering paper which provided experimental verification (Physical Review 74 (1948)). In 1948, Langmuir returned to Caltech to participate in the building of the 1.5 BeV synchrotron (1948-1960). At Caltech, he taught courses in electricity and magnetism, and in electronics, while conducting research in various topics in applied physics and engineering.
- Physical description:
- Linear feet: 1
Access and use
- Location of this collection:
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1200 E. California Blvd.MC B215-74Pasadena, CA 91125, US
- Contact:
- (626) 395-2704