Written in 1968
Fowler html version May 3, 2026
This account, mostly recollections, is dedicated to three persons:The late Dr. L. G. Hoxton, beloved teacher and friend, Dr. J. W. Beams, friend, colleague and tireless experimenter, who suggested this project, and my wife, Maude M. Brown, beloved companion, helper, encourager and balance wheel.
Editor's Note: This is still a draft version. It needs more work. I have corrected typos, changed the paragraphing and section headings for clarity in a few places, and, in referring to people, changed black and negro to the now standard African-American. I've also added some links, usually to Wikipedia. Michael Fowler April 2026
The author (Frederick Brown, faculty member 1922--1968) of this sketch has been asked several times by Dr. J. W. Beams to write a History of the Physics Department. The person who should have written it was undoubtedly Dr. L. G. Hoxton, student at the University from 1896 to 1900 and Chairman of the School of Physics, later called the Physics Department from 1906 to 1948 and continuing friend, adviser and "grandfather" of the department until his death in 1966. Up until a few years before his passing he had a clear and accurate first-hand knowledge of the events of that 70-year period.
However, as far as is known he never put these recollections in writing and many reports that he did write have perished from all the many misfortunes that such documents encounter in this world of constant change, hurry and pressure for "living space", so it is with ever increasing trepidation that the present author has undertaken to set some items down. The further he has progressed and read the more keenly he has felt his inadequacy and lack of information for the roll of Historian; consequently, at this, the fourth effort to get some things committed to writing he has decided to name these pages "Notes and Recollections", not History.
He hopes that some future Historian will find in them, hints, leads and loose ends which will suggest things to track down or verify. While as far as time and ability has permitted the author has put down only what he felt was true in essence if not in detail, he has not gone to the extensive study and research needed to verify every item, and to fill in the many gaps in the story. Principally for two reasons: The feeling of urgency to get things down before it is too late; and secondly, the lack of time for the necessary research and study to secure and sift all the evidence. He asks that this effort be judged in the light of these facts and he readily acknowledges, as the title suggests, the limited historical completeness, and trustworthiness of the whole.
There is an old proverb to the effect that "half a loaf is better than none". This might be extended by saying "one or two crusts are better than no loaf at all". Judging by some of the marvels of recent finds and anthropological studies combined with archeological exploration one might say, that in the hands and mind of a real specialist, the tooth or "jaw bone of an ass" can lead to the reconstruction of the entire animal. So without further palaver this meager outline, it is hoped, will someday fall into the hands of an expert and like Ezekiel's vision of the valley of dry bones become a record of the labors, dreams and efforts of a host of persons.
In the text the author comments that he had not found any historical sketch written by Dr. Hoxton. When Dr. Beams read that statement he remarked that evidently I had not seen the historical sketch that Dr. Hoxton had made part of his last annual report to President Colgate W. Darden, Jr., in March 1948.
At the time the author looked over the Laboratory file of the annual reports, he had not found it. Maybe it was out of the file then, or maybe he overlooked it. With Dr. Beams' statement as a guide he inquired of Miss Lovern and Mrs. McDaniel and they found it for him. He wishes to express his delight that it exists and his appreciation of getting to read it.
Anyone wishing to learn more of the Department's early days and the steps in its growth from 1896 to 1948 should consult that concise 27-page history. It includes details and statistical material not found in this present account. It also shows quite clearly the ideas Dr. Hoxton had in mind as to the needs and growth of the Department of Physics.
It has been suggested to the writer that as he is now the senior living member of the Physics Department of the University of Virginia he should jot down such important steps in its growth and development as he remembers having heard or experienced in his nearly forty years as an active member of the Department.
He has chosen the year 1898 as the starting point because the Rotunda fire of 1895 which gutted the Library quarters in the Rotunda also destroyed the annex just north of it that contained class rooms as well as storage space for library stacks. The details of this fire and the subsequent building may be found in other accounts of the University and will not be recounted here. Yet the fire and the subsequent building marked the end of one era and the start of another and has therefore been chosen as the appropriate beginning of this brief account.
Furthermore it includes the student days of Llewellyn Griffith Hoxton, under whose leadership the Department moved from the older 19th century into the newer 20th century with all that that means and/or implies in the development of modern physics.
In the Fall of 1896 L. G. Hoxton enrolled as an undergraduate at the University of Virginia where his older brother Archie Hoxton had been a student a few years previously.
In the building program following the Rotunda Fire it was decided not to rebuild the class room annex north of the Rotunda proper but to build a new three structure group at the then open end of the South of the Lawn and just south of the road that went from East to West at the foot (south end) of the Lawn. One of these three buildings, the one on the east was designated as Rouss Physical Laboratory--named after Charles Broadway Rouss, who it was hoped, would make a large donation to the building program. He did make a real contribution of some $10,000 (Dr. Beams remembers the gift as $25,000), I believe, which was a substantial one in that day but by no means large enough to be a major part of the cost of the new laboratory (Update: 2026 Wikipedia says Rouss' gift was $35,000.)
Professor Francis Henry Smith was then Chairman of the School of Natural Philosophy and became Chairman of what finally became the Department of Physics but then was called the School of Physics.
As already recorded L. G. Hoxton majored in Physics during his undergraduate career (1896--1900). His athletic ability was shown through his membership in the track and field sports and in gymnastics. He graduated in 1900 with both B.A. and M.A. having been elected to Phi Beta Kappa and the Raven Society. He then went to the National Bureau of Standards continuing his education by taking graduate courses at George Washington University and the Johns Hopkins University under an arrangement then in practice between John Hopkins University and the Bureau of Standards.
Professor Francis Henry Smith (the only member of the School of Physics with the rank of full professor in the late 1890's) greatly influenced the construction of the Laboratory. Two of his innovations deserve special mention. First: Instead of constructing cases to house the individual pieces of apparatus he decided to make the large main floor room in the north wing one immense instrument case and to this end all the large windows of that room were equipped with two sets of windows, one outside set of double hung counter weighted windows that moved up or down and inside of these a pair of "French Type" glass pane windows that opened inward but when closed were expected to make the entire room a dust proof instrument case.
But, as Dr. Hoxton often remarked the fact that persons went into this room through one or the other of two doors at its south end meant that dust and even mud and other dirt of one kind or another was carried into the room by the shoes of the persons using it. The net result was that the room was by no means dust proof. At some later date these great "French windows" were removed and used on tall instrument cases built to hold those items of apparatus most in need of protection. Some of these cases were moved to the new Physics Laboratory in 1954.
Another innovation was a set of three decker shelves made of 2 in. thick clear grained yellow pine. The lowest shelf (a) was the widest and tallest, the second, (b) being less wide and less high and the third, (c) being the narrowest but limited in height only by the very high ceiling of the room (see Fig. 1). Tall fragile items could be stored on it out of harm's way. But these were all open shelves with both the advantages and disadvantages inherent in open shelves.
Fig. 1
Originally, so I understand, from Dr. Hoxton these shelves ran crosswise through the center of the room, but later they were placed lengthwise, back to back and end to end down the center of this tremendous room. (see figure 2).
Fig. 2
The tall glass doored cases were placed along the outside walls and between the windows of these two long rooms NE and NW in Figure 3.
Fig. 3
Various "ancillary" items such as step ladders and roller tables, added later (see fig. 4), made the movement of apparatus from the storage room NW, where it was normally kept, to the lecture room for use, and then back again a simple matter.
A large amphitheater lecture room occupied most of the square central portion of R.P.L. (L in Fig. 5). This lecture room was two stories high and had wide step-like semicircular platforms in a great tier. The tablet armed chairs stood on these platforms, which were wide enough to allow foot room in front of the chairs. Because of the half circle structure all the students could easily see the lecture desk and blackboards behind it.
Fig. 4
The room was equipped with a great skylight for daytime illumination and plenty of electric lights when I came in 1922 for extra cloudy day or night illumination. As the skylight had two sets of diffusing glass, heavy outside glass in the sloping sides, and large ground glass panes on the horizontal inner frame, there was space for a shutter between them. The shutter mounted on wheels that ran on tracks so that it could be moved forward to darken the room, or back to the east under the light tight part of the roof to allow for daylight illumination. A handy continuous rope driven in the NW corner of the lecture room allowed the speaker to move this shutter back and forth at will.
Fig. 5
Through the years maybe Professor Smith and certainly Dr. Hoxton, added many features which made this lecture room extremely convenient and versatile. Many of these inside features were included in the design of the larger and to a much more limited degree in the design of the smaller lecture room in the New Physics Laboratory constructed in the early 1950's. Some of the most outstanding features will be described later in this record.
Other features of this building that might be mentioned here were (1), a semicircular space under the stepped floor of the lecture room. This space was walled off from the hallways that ran around its North, East, and South sides and was named the semicircular canal. It was fitted with shelves and became a very useful storage area for chemicals, supplies and 'even some apparatus. Access to it was gained by two doors, opening into the hallway back of the lower part of the lecture room. It was all under the upper rows of seats and the gallery of the lecture room proper.
The wing on the South of the central part (5) was the Undergraduate Laboratory for many years with my office in the corner.
The third wing, namely the East one behind the lecture room contained the Physics Library across its whole East end and two offices one on each side of the rear hall. In 1922 when I joined the Physics staff the one on the south was Dr. Hoxton's office, the one on the North Dr. C. M. Sparrow's.
There was a basement or lower floor under the whole building. This was used mostly for shop, laboratories and storage. There was also rooms in the East wing over the library and offices. These were also used for laboratories, dark room, etc. in 1922.
One final feature of the structure should be mentioned. This was a tower (T) that ran the full height of the building and could be entered at the basement, main floor and second floor levels from the hallways back of the lecture room area. It was at the corner made by the East and South wings. It included some extremely long pendulums, one of piano wire with a massive iron ball on the end intended, I think, to be used as a Foucault Pendulum to observe the rotation of the earth.
Steel ladders ran from the top floor to the basement inside on the west side of the tower. Three of the four corners of the square floors in this tower were cut by diagonals to make possible three vertical shafts from top to bottom. They had protecting iron railings to keep people from falling down them or into them.
Mr. Arthur Weed who was shop man here in 1922 told me that the largest one had been used to measure the acceleration of gravity by dropping a brick from the topmost floor and noting its time by descent, by a stop watch. "But", said Mr. Weed, "This experiment was discontinued when one boy became flustered and dropped the watch and tried to time with the brick".
Other features of the building will be mentioned as required but certainly it played a very prominent role in the activities of the Physics Department from 1898 to 1953.
While the writer knows nothing of this period at first hand since he did not come to U. Va. until September 1922, he has heard and read about it. In this brief account he makes no claim or, pretense to completeness, nor, unfortunately, to absolute accuracy although he has endeavored to check dates etc. by reference to handy sources such as: (1) Mr. Harry Clemon's small volume called "Notes on the Professors for whom the University Halls and Residence Houses are named, U. Va. Press, 1961", (2) American Men of Science, various volumes and (3) A set of University of Virginia Catalogues fairly complete over the interval February 15, 1922 to 1955, with a few scattered volumes prior to or subsequent to that interval. These will be referred to by number in subsequent pages. These and other documents are of course available at the University Library to the reader should he wish more detailed accounts, but the writer felt that for the purpose of this particular History it was more important to record recollections covering his stay at the University (September 1922 on) than to delve into historical material already extant. So, with this explanation and without apology we shall get on with the story.
This chapter will deal primarily with persons no longer living, in February 1967, persons who were very important in the life and development of the Physics Department, the shadows of whose lives and personalities extended far beyond their active participation.
The first of these men is Francis Henry Smith, Professor of Natural Philosophy, 1853-1907, see (1). He bridged the great change from before the great Rotunda Fire (1895) to the new situation following it. He influenced at least the inside arrangement of the Rouss Physical Laboratory, as we have already mentioned in chapter one.
It appears that Rouss was occupied about 1898, for a Corks and Curls of that year carries a picture of the front of Cabell Hall and alludes to the "New Quarters". Professor Smith was Chairman of the School of Natural Philosophy as noted above. He and at least some members of his family were still living in Pavilion V on West Lawn in 1922; and I may well have seen him but have no recollection of having met and talked to him.
Dr. Smith had evidently been trained in Newtonian Mechanics, and Helmholtz Sound. He had many simple machines, tops, tuning forks, pendulums and Helmholtz resonators, sensitive flames and some things in light. But, so I've been told, he did not include in the beginning course any electricity, let alone the physics that so deeply affected the whole outlook after the great discoveries of 1895-1900, x-rays, radioactivity and so on that were to become so important. These were becoming, more and more serious omissions which some of the younger staff members tried to remedy. Mr. Hoxton succeeded Professor Smith by according to reference (2) returning to U. Va. in 1906 so that the year September 1906 to June 1907 saw the very helpful overlap of the two eras, that of Professor Smith, and that of Doctor Hoxton. Each was Chairman over 40 years and together from 1853 to 1948 for nearly a century. A remarkable record.
Next might be mentioned Dr. William J. Humphreys related to Dr. Humphreys, the Professor of Greek at U. Va. who graduated from Washington and Lee in 1886. W. J. Humphreys was at U. Va. and Miller School for various periods, the final one being 1897-1905, at which time he was instructor in Physics. (See L.G.H. History.) He was then appointed supervising director of Mt. Weather Observatory and later Professor of Meteorology at the U. S. Weather Bureau in Washington, D. C. For various personal reasons he was not recommended to become the next incumbent and Chairman. It was at the U. S. Weather Bureau that the author first met him. A group of graduates in Physics, Engineering and like sciences were inducted in the fall of 1917 into the newly formed Meteorological Section of the Signal Corps, U. S. Army. After receiving one or two months of preliminary training at various large city weather bureaus like St. Louis, they were assembled as a larger group at Ft. Omaha, Nebraska, just before Thanksgiving 1917. Then all were sent to the Weather Bureau in Washington, D. C. for special instruction under Dr. Humphreys. He, at that time, was writing his important book "Physics of the Air" and we met him there in the Weather Bureau on M Street, N. W. We used parts of that book as study sheets.
Again, after World War I, I ran into the writings of Dr. Humphreys. Working under Professor Henry Crew in Physics at Northwestern University. I was assigned a thesis subject in emission spectra. While studying the subject I had occasion to read the work of Dr. Humphreys discovery of the effect of pressure on the wavelengths of emission arc lines, work that he had done at U. Va. while here as Instructor. (Note: the link appears to be work done at Hopkins, need to look further.) So when I came to U. Va. in 1922 and found the Rowland 21-ft. concave grating and mounting that he had used, as well as the high pressure chambers for his arcs, and many of the photographs he had made and the fine measuring machine he used in computing the wavelengths it was like meeting old acquaintances.
Dr. Humphreys' work in meteorology was also outstanding and through the years he was a staunch and most helpful friend of the Physics Department at U. Va.
An autobiography of Dr. Humphreys has just been loaned to the writer, its title is "of Me" W. J. Humphreys 1947, Garamond Press, Baltimore, Maryland. (Note: (2026) This book is still available as a reprint.)
The autobiography begins:
"I was born in a one-room or one-room and loft log house, at Gap Mills, Virginia, (now West Virginia), on February 3, 1862, and thereby presto became, as someone put it, a yelling member of the Confederate Infantry. I was not, however, the first of my race-didn't just grow, like Topsy."
Another person who was at Virginia before the authors time but with whom he later became acquainted was Dr. S.(tarling) H.(enry) Diggs who for years was a Research Chemist with Standard Oil of Indiana. If I understood correctly, he worked a good deal at Rouss while an undergraduate and helped build--among other things--locker units; each individual locker about 14" high, 16" wide and 24" deep, with lock doors. In these the apparatus for a given experiment might be stored. The number located one place and another in Rouss must have been nearly two hundred, each was numbered and their keys also numbered. Whatever their original purpose, by 1922 they were used in the general physics laboratories to hold the apparatus for one experiment. The student partners would secure a key at the start of the period, take out the apparatus, go to a table and work the experiment. Before the end of the period the student was expected to return the items to the locker close it up and check in the key. The locker was then ready for a subsequent user.
However, considering the number of students taking general physics prior to about 1938, there was no need of hundreds of lockers, even if to begin with each student had been assigned a locker for the entire term or quarter. They were in the advanced as well as the general physics laboratories. A hundred or more along the wall in the hall back of the lecture room were used to store, exams, current and old, and many other items. In fact they proved their worth in so many ways that all the old ones were moved to the New Physics Building in 1953 and used just for storage, and tiers of new ones modified only slightly were placed in every laboratory room. So, prior to meeting Dr. Diggs himself, after he and his wife and daughter came to Charlottesville to live following his retirement, the name Diggs brought to my mind tiers of lockers.
The reference to him in American Men of Science for 1949 is much too brief to begin to give any real idea of the man himself and his ability or his accomplishments and the dates involved. A hurried examination of catalogues in the Alderman Library reveals these few items.
In the Catalogue of the session 1909-1910 S. H. Diggs is listed as a second-year student. Yet he does not appear in the 1908-1909 catalogue. In 1910-11 and 1911-12 he is listed as an assistant in Physics, 1912-13 he is listed with a M.S. as instructor in Chemistry. In 1914-15 catalogue he is listed as M.S., Ph.D. instructor in Chemistry. His name does not appear in subsequent catalogues. He returned to Charlottesville in 1941 and helped in various ways, the members of the Physics Staff then engaged in War research. His vast store of information in itself was a very great boom.
Another person who was a member of the Physics Department prior to 1922 and changed from a name to a real person was Professor D(avid) V(ance) Guthrie who after graduating from Washington and Lee and taking his Ph.D. at Hopkins in 1908 went to L.S.U. in 1911 as Professor and Head of the Department of Astronomy and Director of the Observatory. After his retirement he and his family returned to the Valley of Virginia, I believe it was, and he may still be living.
While I may have met Professor Guthrie during some early meeting of the Southeastern Section of the Physical Society, my first memorable encounter was his Ghost, one might say, was in the 1920's, I believe. The chalk boards behind the lecture desk in Rouss were so worn it was decided to replace them. When the University work force started to take down the worn slate boards, writing was discovered underneath on what soon became evident was the original wooden black board, which was made up of clear lumber vertical boards painted black.
The writing turned out to be a final examination in a course in Physics. Dr. Hoxton said that from the handwriting and the content of the exam he thought it had been put up there by Dr. Guthrie.
The writer made a careful copy of all of the exam still clear enough to read and sent it to Dr. Guthrie for his comment.
He replied that it certainly was a final given by him. That immediately after the exam the new slate boards were installed.
Dr. Guthrie was instructor in Physics at U. Va. 1908 to 1910 according to the 1949 American Men of Science and in the 1908 University Catalogue I find the Physics Staff listed as Emeritus Professor F. H. Smith, Adj. Prof. L. G. Hoxton and Dr. Guthrie with Assistants Butler, Reeves and West.
The U. Va. Catalogue for 1911-12 lists Dr. Guthrie as Assistant in Astronomy and living on Mt. Jefferson (I judge at the observatory).
After the organization of the Southeastern Section I saw Dr. Guthrie often and of course met him after he retired to Virginia.
To this group of distinguished gentlemen who had been at U. Va. prior to the Fall of 1922 must be added Professor Fred Allison, who left Va. for Alabama just as the writer came to U. Va. Dr. Allison was another of the Emery and Henry graduates who came to Virginia for Postgraduate work. His thesis was an experimental investigation in the field of light under Dr. C. M. Sparrow. He had been an instructor in Physics while here but came to U. Va. not fresh out of College but after some years of experience teaching.
(Edit by M. Fowler, 2026: We should perhaps mention that Allison is also well-known for his claim of discovering two new elements, he called virginium and alabamine. Unfortunately, they don't exist.)
He returned to U. Va. to teach in Summer School at least two summers after 1922 and as Head of the Department of Physics at Alabama Tech at Auburn has advised many of his fine students to do their graduate work at U. Va. The first of these was J. W. Beams who had joined Dr. Allison's Staff at Auburn the fall of 1922 having just received his M.A. at Wisconsin. Another of Allison's students some years later was Howard Carr who after earning his Ph.D. under Professor Beams returned to Auburn and was appointed Head of the Department when Dr. Allison retired.
Another service to the department here occurred when a new Physics Building got to the drawing boards; he loaned us the plans and specifications for the very recent new Physics Building at Auburn.
All in all I doubt that any other person has done more for the Virginia Physics Department. We have been honored and greatly pleased to know them over the years and count Dr. and Mrs. Allison as wonderful friends.
He was living at Christmas time 1966 and teaching at a small college not far from Auburn, Alabama but he and Mrs. Allison keep their Auburn home.
Professor Thomas Fauntleroy Ball, B.S., M. S. a native of Virginia preceded the writer as Assistant Professor of Physics. Leaving Virginia in 1922 he was for a short time at the Ashville School for Boys; but soon thereafter became head of the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of South Carolina. He has been a frequent visitor to and good friend of the School of Physics through the years. (See American Men of Science). When he retired he returned to his native state and to the Charlottesville region, where he and Mrs. Ball presently (1968) live.
In this third chapter the writer will endeavor to picture the School of Physics, later called the Department of Physics, as it was in the fall of 1922 when he and his family arrived from Northwestern University, where in June he had been awarded the Ph.D.
Dr. Llewellyn Griffith Hoxton was Head or Chairman of the School of Physics. He had come to the University from a distinguished family entering the College in 1896. His older brother Archie Hoxton, Jr. had graduated a few years before and was to succeed his father as Head Master of the Episcopal High School at Alexandria, Virginia. Young Llewellyn made a good scholastic record being elected to Phi Beta Kappa and the Raven Society. He also distinguished himself in track and gymnastics an ability which showed clearly in his execution of some of the demonstrations in general physics where a steady hand and a clear eye were needed even when on a high ladder. After graduating from Virginia in 1900 with both the B. S. and M.A. degrees he went to the Bureau of Standards in Washington, D. C. all the while continuing his studies in Physics.
Mr. Hoxton returned to U. Va. in 1906 to succeed Professor F. H. Smith who retired in 1907. Thereby allowing a year to overlap before Mr. Hoxton became Head of the School of Physics with the rank of Adjunct Professor which corresponded to Assistant Professor in later years. He had not yet completed the experimental work for his dissertation and so continued that work while assuming the responsibilities of his new position. He was awarded the Ph.D. in 1916 by John Hopkins University.
He found that the School of Physics needed new goals. It is said that the general physics course in 1906 had little or no electricity, let alone anything about the epoch-making discoveries of x-rays, radioactivity and the electron. Also the University was just awaking to the need of primary research if it was to be a first rank modern university; so he set as two of his main goals, first: bring the courses in physics up to date and second, developing the spirit of research that Dr. Humphreys had already begun. It is no exaggeration to say that to these goals he devoted the majority of his time and thought for the rest of his life.
While he knew the importance of research he knew also the importance of good instruction to prepare the student and to create a climate in which research could grow, so at the start, at least, this goal had to be his major concern. His real flair for devising and implementing attention catching experiments that had real instructional value marked all his work until his retirement and in fact, until a few years before his death the summer of 1966.
Yet his outstanding ability as a teacher was exceeded by his fine character and charming personality. His kindly understanding and generous attitude to all who worked with him and to his students placed him very high in the esteem and respect of all.
This by no means covers his accomplishments for he was good at research, his own, and in his ability to help his students and fellow staff members by timely and appropriate suggestions when asked to, but not meddling by making unsolicited comments. Also he was active in promoting a climate encouraging to research. While not already a member of the honorary scientific research organization of the Sigma Xi he was one of the charter members when, in 1923, the Virginia Chapter was created. He was active in the founding of the Virginia Academy of Science and served one term as president in each of these.
He was also active in the formation of the Southeastern Section of the American Physical Society, taking several of us in his car to the founding meeting in Decatur, Georgia in March 1935.
This is but a brief sketch of the character and outstanding ability of the Head of the Physics Department in 1922. (See American Men of Science, etc.)
Associated with Dr. Hoxton was Dr. Carroll Mason Sparrow, a brilliant man plagued by an apparent inability to carry ideas to a successful conclusion. He appeared to be so intrigued by things that showed up on his way to a goal that he would go off on this or that side track and finally worn out drop the main project altogether. But he did have real ability and when by good luck or special interest he avoided these side lures he would carry out an interesting and important piece of work like that on meteors.
He had great difficulty with undergraduate teaching or perhaps more properly speaking, the students had great difficulty with his methods. But we often marveled at his ability to correlate apparently diverse topics and to explain or give a clue to obscure matters. When he set himself, as he did at times in Journal Club to summarize a whole field or show its relation to other fields he was at his very best and his best was indeed exceedingly good. He was an inspiration and a headache to the graduate students for he might carry a lecture or discussion through to a most satisfactory and often revealing conclusion but he was even more apt to become diverted by some side line and leave them lost in a maze.
He also had received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins, coming to Virginia in 1914 and remaining here until his death in 1941. No account of Professor Sparrow would be at all complete without two additional items: First, his catholicity of interests. He could talk or argue knowingly in many fields, one of his specialties being philosophy. Second, he was never at ease without a pipe. How many he had I doubt that even Mrs. Sparrow knew. He would pull one out of his pocket at any moment, hold it in his mouth a while then draw out of some pocket a pouch of tobacco and fill the pipe. Then he would light it. Sometimes he had a match but more often he was "out of matches" and would beg some. One match was seldom sufficient, for even if he did get it lighted on the first match, after a puff or two he might lay the pipe down and write on the board, or merely hold it in his hand while he talked and at least nine times out of ten it was out when he tried to draw on it. Then a new light was called for. Some of his associates said that Sparrow did not smoke tobacco he smoked matches. At one time he carried a burning glass around with him and when bright sunlight was available he could get the pipe started with the glass. He became quite expert at this but on many occasions there was no easily available sunshine so matches were required. (See note at end of this chapter.)
The third member of professorial rank in the School of Physics was Frederick Lyons Brown. (This is the author of the present history writing about himself!) He had been born of Presbyterian Missionary parents in Mexico City, Mexico. It had always been understood in his family that all the children would study, go to college and probably take professional work. When at the death of his father in 1906 the family moved from Mexico to the United States it was to the college town of Parkville, Mo. Here Fred was admitted to the Academy that was connected with the College, his younger brothers entering the local public school. All lived at home and did necessary chores about the six-acre place.
Upon graduation in 1914 he heard of a graduate assistantship at Northwestern University's Dearborn Observatory under Professor Philip Fox. He was fortunate enough to secure this and thanks to being allowed to live in the observatory he was able to make financial ends meet. He received his M. A. degree two years later, 1916, and was appointed instructor in Astronomy. Then came World War I and along with other young men in engineering, mathematics and physics he was inducted into the meteorological section of the Signal Corps. Going to France the first of April 1918 as a 2nd Lieutenant he was later part of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) in Coblentz on the Rhine. He returned to the U. S. A. in August 1919.
His former position in Astronomy was not available but he did secure an instructorship in mathematics at N. U. and enrolled as a graduate student in physics. He had married a former college mate and they had gone through the "battle for a degree" together. She receiving her "ma" and he the "pa" degree via a small daughter in the fall of 1921 before he completed the Ph.D. in June 1922.
He had done his research in spectroscopy and worked with Professor Crew the summer of 1922 while preparing his research, on wavelengths in the spectrum of titanium, for publication in the Astrophysical Journal.
The Browns moved to Charlottesville the end of August and had room and board for several weeks with the Robert McMurdo's on 17th Street, Preston Heights. Mrs. McMurdo, a very charming and kindly lady, was a direct descendant of the Founder of the University. During the regular session the McMurdo's took in student roomers but the Summer Session was smaller so they had space for us.
Brown brought to the School of Physics some experience in Astronomy and as already mentioned, had met Dr. S. A. Mitchell and Harold Alden. Assistant Professor Brown was assigned the lectures to the Engineering Students and placed in charge of all the general physics laboratory for both College and Engineers. Fortunately, he had excellent tutors: Dr. Hoxton in lecture demonstrations and Mr. Charles R. Larkin an undergraduate physics major who lived at Dr. Hoxton's. Mr. Larkin acquainted him with the laboratory procedure and equipment having been laboratory assistant the year before. The other laboratory assistants for 1922-23 were Claude W. Bruce, B.A.; and Preston B. Carwile, B. A. graduate students in physics: Joseph A. Kater, E. E.; Timothy H. Murphy, 4th year Engr.; and Robert B. Torbet, 3rd year in the college.
Another member of the physics group was Mr. Arthur J. Weed. He was in charge of the Instrument Shop. Mr. Weed had been at the Weather Bureau Station on Mount Weather before coming to Virginia. My guess is that Dr. Hoxton heard of him through Dr. Humphreys. Mr. Weed was the oldest member of the staff. In 1922 he had white hair and mustache and was commonly spoken of as "Father Weed" by everyone though I do not recall his ever, being called anything but Mr. Weed to his face. He had the ingenuity and inventiveness of the so called "typical upper New York Yankee".
One of his favorite sayings was, "you tell by finding out", and he use to enjoy experimenting to find out if he did not already know. This trait had its good but also its exasperating sides - as when he would modify a test model, like some high-speed top without saying a word about it to Dr. Beams. The results of the subsequent trial might by mystifying to the principal experimenter who knew nothing of the changes Mr. Weed had introduced while making the item in the shop. Another of his expressions was: "it looks like he did it himself". This was applied to any sloppy job or to one that clearly showed the ineptness or inexperience of the worker.
Mr. Weed's wife and son continued to live in Washington, D. C. until some years after 1922. Mr. Weed himself had quarters in R. P. L. using the space between the mount of the concave grating and the outside east. wall of the basement of the East Wing, right under the Library room. This was his "bedroom". I have no idea how many of his meals Mr. Weed got and ate right in the building but there was never any telltale odor. At that time there were only three members of the faculty - few graduate students, and little research work, also all classes were small so that there was room a plenty.
Mr. Weed made good use of several other parts of the basement area in addition to the machine shop which occupied part of the space immediately under the lecture room. A very wide hallway ran entirely around the machine shop. The South part was used for the air compressor used by Dr. Humphreys in his work. The North part was storage space and housed the large storage battery. The East part of this basement had woodworking machinery and the woodworking shop which was also under Mr. Weed's jurisdiction.
Just off this large central space and next to the tower was a square room some 16 ft. on a side. This Mr. Weed converted into his darkroom, for Mr. Weed was an avid and versatile photographer often taking pictures of scenes about the grounds, or of medical cases, etc. and making many lantern slides for individuals all over the University, to be used for classes or lectures or national meetings or anything else. In fact, for some years he might have been classed "The University Photographer". All work was then black and white. He had done this type of work at Mt. Weather and had many beautiful pictures and slides to show it. A book given to me by Mrs. Weed after Mr. Weed' death entitled "Fogs and Clouds" and written by Dr. Humphreys has among its many pictures several taken by Mr. Weed. This copy of the book was presented to Mr. Weed by Dr. Humphreys as is indicated on the fly leaf.
Mr. Weed also became extremely interested in seismology and about 1925 completed the construction (on his own time), of a very sensitive seismograph which he housed in a small room half below ground in the Southwest corner of the basement under the south wing. The smoked paper records of this machine were changed every morning and often the author (FB) took over for Father Weed when he had to be away.
The writer had felt earthquakes and knew about them, and their visible, often terrible manifestations during his early days in Mexico but this was his introduction to a real operational seismograph.
Mr. Weed used the basement level of the tower to smoke, fix and examine the two seismograph tracings, one by the N-S pen, the other by the E-W pen. Mr. Weed had other accomplishments and hobbies only one of which I shall take space to relate.
He enjoyed the out of doors and often with some camera in hand he, and at times and at his invitation I would join him in a tramp through the woods; in spring to find and maybe photograph wild flowers, in fall to collect and carry home bags of walnuts. One time after a very special combination of thaw and freeze he pointed out "ice flowers" formed by water squeezed out of the soil as the soil froze. Of course, this extruded moisture froze too and took interesting and lovely shapes.
Dr. Brown decided to use the concave grating for research and teaching, but some preliminary tests showed that it was much too unsteady because moisture and termites had eaten away much of the floor under the brick walls on which the grating was mounted. This made remounting on a new structure essential. It was decided that instead of brick walls reinforced concrete beams on concrete piers with solid foundations would be used. Furthermore, by having this L-shaped structure high enough above the floor the space underneath could be used. This was done and found to be satisfactory except for temperature changes which blurred the spectral lines in a long exposure. This was cured by building a double-walled, constant temperature housing around the space needed by the grating. Even so there was room for an optics laboratory underneath this box.
But all this required Mr. Weed to move his sleeping quarters to the N. E. corner of this big room. Here he stayed until Mrs. Weed moved down from Washington and they took a house on Virginia Avenue in the late 1920s or early 1930s. Then this space became Dr. Brown's office-in Rouss.
Soon after Mrs. Weed's move to Charlottesville they invited the Browns over for a Sunday night supper. Imagine their surprise to find that the event was the Weed's golden wedding--and that they, the Browns, were the only guests at the celebration.
Not long after this Mr. Weed died of a heart attack as he was speaking before the Physics Journal Club on Friday afternoon. Mrs. Weed moved to upper New York State in May 1938, some years after his death.
One other person that should be mentioned at this time is "John". He was an old and faithful African-American who was janitor and helped wherever needed. He was slow and dignified, he went about his appointed tasks slowly--but was always respectful, in fact subservient. There were times when we suspected that failing vision might be the main reason he missed corners or long elaborate cobwebs, but when the oversight was pointed out he endeavored to remedy the situation without comment. He also helped in setting up the lecture demonstrations by lifting the pieces of equipment onto the roller table or taking some tall piece from Dr. Hoxton's hands or mine as, standing on the 3-step ladder, we handed it down to him from some top shelf.
He also returned the apparatus to its proper storage place after the lecture but always with the admonition "John if you are not sure where it belongs, leave it on the roller table."
Most of these persons have gone on to a deservedly good reward.
Biographies or data about some of those mentioned here may be found in one or another volume of American Men of Science or Who's Who in America and/or the catalogues of the University. Of course, as mentioned earlier, there were graduate students some of whom were laboratory assistants for a year or more. This group naturally was in constant flux. A roster of even the most prominent ones will not be attempted here, though it may be added as an appendix as the writer has fairly complete records from 1920 to 1953 when the number increased very rapidly.
In 1922 the school year was divided into three terms in addition to which there was a summer quarter. The Fall Term ended with the Christmas Vacation lasting until January 2. The Winter Term ran to the end of March, and the Spring Term ran well into June. Practically all classes were on a three-hour basis with many beginning science classes on a six-hour schedule--3 hours of lecture and 6 hours of laboratory work a week. They met M-W-F or Tu-Th-Sat. mornings. Except for laboratory work and a few advanced and graduate classes none were held in the afternoon. The first morning classes were from 8 to 9 o'clock, but later hours were very much preferred, 10 to 11 and 11 to 12 being the favorites. The final morning classes were from 12 to 1 and laboratories began at 2 P.M.
Beginning college physics, taught by Dr. Hoxton was from 12 to I Tu-Th-Sat. many of the same students were also in Dr. Bird's 11 to 12 class in organic chemistry and arrived late to Dr. Hoxton's class because, they reported, Dr. Bird had held them over. Finally Dr. Hoxton changed his class to the 10-11 hour and the lateness stopped.
For engineering students, lectures were from 10-11 M-W-F and given by Dr. Brown. He taught this class until it was taken over by others in 1960. This arrangement allowed the engineers to have a laboratory section from 8 to 10, M-W-F morning so that for those having this 8 A.M. laboratory, the Physics was very compactly scheduled; a system that proved even more advantageous when in the early 1930s the engineers moved to their new quarters west of U. S. 29 instead of just across the Lawn from RPL.
It also made room for a laboratory section from 11 to 1, M-W-F for College Students. The other laboratory sections met M and W from 2 to 5 and T and Th from 2 to 5 P..M. Sections were held to a maximum of 16 students and often had only 12 during the 1920s. The six hours of laboratory time allowed for 2, 2-hour labs and two hours of problem and quiz drill.
Experiments were changed on Friday from 2 to 4 and Journal Club followed from 4 to 5 P.M. every week. The Astronomers and Professor Rodman, Chairman of Electrical Engineering, came regularly, and at times others came to listen or to speak. Most of the speakers were members of the faculties mentioned and it was primarily a report on material in the recent Journals, hence the name Journal Club. But instead of reviewing several articles on different topics, the speaker was much more apt to give a review of a single topic covering several articles. Toward the end of the year graduate students might report on their own work if it were far enough along. Only on rare occasions were there out of town speakers, though at times one passing through Charlottesville, often to or from an important meeting, would stop off and be our guest speaker. Those were rare and very special events, for in those days there was no budget for anything of the kind. In fact, there was practically no budget at all. Just the $15 lab fee from students taking laboratory work, and this had to cover everything, phone, gas, laboratory supplies, postage, and apparatus for lecture and laboratory and for any research work and materials for the shop. A sharp contrast to the affluence of today (1967).
Since there was plenty of spare room in Rouss the School of Astronomy used the east half of the large room on the main floor of the north wing. Here Associate Professor Charles P. Olivier and Assistant Professor Harold L. Alden had offices where they could write or study, but the machines for measuring the parallax plates taken with the 26-inch telescope, and the computing machines were up at the observatory itself on Mt. Jefferson. It might be remarked that the astronomers also used the Physics Lecture room for their class in general astronomy. This sharing of space lasted until the growth of graduate work and the need for room to carry on research made it necessary for physics to use the whole building. However, it was because of this close association of physics and astronomy that the writer and Professor Philip Fox at Northwestern heard of the impending vacancy in the U. Va. Physics Department and I came to U. Va.
As already mentioned I went to Northwestern from Park College in 1914 arriving in time to attend the Annual Meeting of the Astronomical Society which was held at the end of August and that year met at Dearborn Observatory, Northwestern University with Professor Philip Fox as host. This National Meeting was an eye-opener to the new recruit--not only did he meet many new astronomers but he heard many new technical words entirely unfamiliar to him. He has a picture of the group in which Professor Fox of N.U., Assistant Professor Alden of U. Va. and himself are among those present. Little did he dream then, in August 1914, that September 1922 would see him come to the University of Virginia in Physics.
In 1922 the school year consisted of three terms each with a ten-day examination period, one for each of the five M-W-F and five T-T-S morning lecture periods. Some examinations took only the morning but some took all day, and using thirty school days a year was much too much. This tremendous expenditure of time on examinations was one of the reasons for going over to the two-semester plan. Also in later years the length of exams was cut to 3 or 4 or at most 5 hours and with the great increase in the college student body with many sections of English or mathematics, etc. the afternoons were used to schedule a single exam for say all of the English Bl sections or French A sections so that all would take the same exam at the same time.
One great advantage of the three terms especially at that time and for physics was that the medical school requirement at that time was only four semester-hours, not six. Consequently, Dr. Hoxton covered the main branches of physics in his college course in the first two terms, leaving the most difficult topics such as rotary motion, moments of inertia, A. C. electricity and polarized light to be taken up the third term. Many premedical students took only the minimum requirement and dropped out at the end of the second term. This situation did not last because as more and more students applied for entrance to medical schools the competition became greater and the students found that other things being about equal the men with the 6-semester hour course were chosen in preference to those with only the 4-hour course. Also the new methods and apparatus used in medical schools made them prefer the men with the longer course. Consequently fewer men dropped out at the end of the second term and the need for the 4-hour course about vanished. For many years now most medical schools have required a full year of physics for entrance.
The laboratory work and problem drill were handled almost entirely by students, though the author taught one problem section for a number of years to familiarize himself with it. As already mentioned in 1922 and 1523 the group of instructors included some upper-class engineers and physics majors for lack of sufficient graduate students, and at times math or chemistry majors were used. But as U. Va. became better known for its good graduate work in physics these teaching fellowships were all taken by graduates. The teaching experience was valuable in itself and furthermore they were about the only fellowships available in physics. A full time teaching fellow was expected to put in 12 hours in laboratory or classroom and grade all the problems and weekly quiz papers for his students and a proportionate share of the laboratory reports. Here we found that an instructor could grade 60 reports on one experiment in less time and with less effort than he could grade 30 reports on each of two different experiments with the added advantage of giving all of the students more uniform or consistent grading. The easy grader and the hard grader being spread through the whole class not always grading a given smaller group. The fellowships paid $400 to $500 in cash plus fees and tuition and a careful man could live on this for the nine-month school year.
Courses beyond general physics which was taken by most students in their second college or engineering year were, except for the B2 course to be mentioned next, all 3-hr. courses having either three 1-hr. lectures or two 1-hr. lectures and a 2 to 3 hr. laboratory each week and lasting for the entire year. Later on B2 was replaced by a set of four three-hour, one-semester courses, and some of the C courses also changed to one semester instead of all a full year long, but there were variations and changes depending on many factors including who was teaching what. But all of these C-courses were taught by one or another of the professors -- none by graduate students.
About 1926 or 1927 Dr. Sparrow, noting the great difficulty many students encountered in going directly from general physics to the C-courses, instituted a 6 hr. full year course called, "Wave Motion, Sound and Light." He organized the whole course and gave the lectures, but Dr. Brown assisted and conducted much of the laboratory work. This 6-hr. course, three lectures and two 3-hr. laboratory periods a week was a dandy. Next to Dr. Hoxton's lecture-demonstrations it was the most helpful work F. L. Brown had. Both men were at their very best and masters of the subjects involved so to work with them was a most rewarding experience. Dr. Sparrow went over the whole field of. general physics using the basic idea of periodic motion throughout as a sort of cord by which all the individual topics of mechanics, sound, light and electricity were linked together. This course was called B2.
The first few years he continued to give all the lectures and review and modify the laboratory work, but once this experimental period was over and the course had more or less jelled he began to lose interest and by 1930 it was listed as taught by others. By 1934 or 1935 it had disappeared from the catalogues. Probably the two basic reasons were the growth of graduate and research demands, and Dr. Sparrow's proclivity for losing interest when the novelty of the undertaking had begun to disappear.
This chapter has been dated 1922-1928 for good reasons. During this period the number of graduate students in physics at U.Va. grew from 3 to 7 under the stimulating leadership of Dr. Beams. He completed his Ph.D. work in 1925 and was a National Research Fellow at U. Va. from 1925-26. He then went to Yale as a National Research Fellow from 1926-27 and became an instructor at Yale 1927-28. In the fall of 1928 he returned to U. Va. as Associate Professor and a second stage in the development of graduate work and research began at U. Va. in Physics. This will occupy our new chapter. In the meantime, there is more to report on the 1922-28 interval.
Among the significant changes that took place the following should at least be enumerated:
First, as the reputation of U. Va. as a place to do graduate work grew -- not only in physics but in many other fields -- the number of graduate students increased. Mainly, at first, from the southern states, but increasingly from all over. In part this was because more and more men with graduate degrees from U. Va. were taking positions of leadership in the colleges and universities of the south and also because at the National Meetings the men from U. Va. made a better and better impression. Soon all the positions as teaching assistants were filled by graduate students as they were about the only fellowships available not only in physics in the 1920s but in other fields as well.
Second, the large growth in the whole student body in both graduate and undergraduate work.
Third, for physics certainly, changes in the use of the space in R.P.L. to allow for research projects. This last will be amplified in a later chapter.
Fourth, not least but rather of great importance was the decision of J. W. Beams to continue his graduate work at U. Va. This came about as follows.
Jesse Wakefield Beams graduated from Fairmont College in Wichita, Kansas. The next year he took the masters degree in physics at Wisconsin, and in the fall of 1922 became one of Dr. Fred Allison's assistants. Dr. Allison noting his ability and enthusiasm told Dr. Hoxton about him and he was at once offered one of the teaching fellowships for 1923-24. Dr. Sparrow who had directed Dr. Allison's research became his thesis professor.
Beams was assigned the research project of determining the time delay between the arrival of the quantum in the photoelectric effect and the ejection of the electron resulting from the impact. This proved to be an exceedingly difficult task but it lead to some important developments.
Two basic devices were required: 1st a short and very sharp flash of light whose instant of birth would be known and whose life-time could be measured; and 2nd a device for measuring what were then considered very short time intervals of the order of l0-7 to 10-9 of a second.
The first was secured by means of a high-speed rotating mirror, the second by use of a Kerr Cell for which the cut-off or time of closing was determined by the length of wire between the activating voltage that opened it and a spark discharge that relieved the potential and closed it. The latter was controlled by, and measured in terms of the varied length of wire from spark gap to Kerr Cell.
The second of these main problems led to the actual work on which Beams' Ph.D. was awarded. He found that if he used the Kerr Cell between his eye and the discharging spark gap with a variable length of trolley line between them this line might be so long that the drop in potential, which would close the Kerr-Cell, would not reach the cell until the light i from the discharging spark had gotten through - so that the light from it was clearly visible. Then by decreasing the length of this "delay-line" the drop in voltage could be made to close the cell before all the light got through; and if shorter still before any of the light got through the cell to the eye. This indicated that the light was not produced instantly when the spark occurred but that there was a short time interval between the electrical discharge which knocked the electrons into higher energy levels, and the production of light that resulted from the return of the electrons from higher energy states to lower states.
A close examination of this light with a direct-vision spectroscope between eye and Kerr-Cell indicated that the spark lines of air were the first to appear regardless of the metal of the electrodes. After them the spectral lines of the metal of the electrodes were produced in a definite sequence depending on the metal used for the spark electrodes.
This basic spark-Kerr-Cell arrangement led to many subsequent uses in other studies by Dr. Beams and his graduate students. Mr. Brown was invited by Dr. Beams to participate in these early experiments and the results were presented at meetings of the American Physical Society, the Southeastern Section and the Virginia Academy and are printed in the corresponding publications.
.The development of the High Speed Rotors also led to a whole family of important experiments by Dr. Beams and his students. Even a listing of these is far beyond the scope of this brief survey and applications continue to the present. One of them was the application of high speed rotors to produce separation of the uranium isotopes. Begun at Virginia in the 1940s and discontinued temporarily in favor of the diffusion method of the Oak Ridge project it is again being studied as an important method for obtaining uranium with an enriched 235 content.
High-rotational mirrors were also applied by Beams and Snoddy to a study of electrical discharges including metallic sparks and lightning and as a device to trigger a spark gap by a flash of ultraviolet light and so produce a discharge at a precisely known instant.
While at Yale Beams and Ernest 0. Lawrence met and became firm friends. A friendly rivalry or race between them to see whether Beams could increase the speed of his rotors as fast or faster than Lawrence could increase the effective voltage or energy of his cyclotrons.
Laboratory manuals will be mentioned next as they engaged the writer's attention from the first and were his continuing responsibility until Professor J. W. Stewart took over all of the general physics laboratory work in the late 1950s. In 1922 U. Va. had already been using a loose-leaf type of laboratory manual and the stencils for most of the experiments were still in existence. That first year 1922-23 they were again run off, only those being replaced by new and revised sheets, that were so torn, worn or out of date as to be useless. By using the old sheets it was much easier for Mr. Larkin and the others to show Mr. Brown what apparatus was available and how the laboratory was conducted.
These sheets were then issued in small sets for two to four weeks at a time. With the small numbers of students in each section the whole section could work both experiments the same week, half one day, half the other day and so both experiments were changed each week. Later in the year when for some experiments there were not enough sets of apparatus it became necessary to work 3 or 4 experiments simultaneously with only one fourth of the section working a given experiment on a given day.
As the sheets were not bound together the idea was tried of making this instruction sheet a part of the report, so saving much duplication and reading. The student was supposed to have done it as outlined so need not describe this procedure unless there were some special reason. Also each experiment was handed in complete, in its own folder. No permanent notebooks were required and one instructor did not hold up another one because Mr. A had not graded experiment "w" before Mr. B wished to grade experiment no. "x". At N U the lab sheets were all printed and bound into a booklet for the semester or year, and the "write up" included procedure as well as data, graphs and conclusions all in a permanently bound book or books. To our minds the U. Va. method was superior and it was used not only in general physics but at least in B2 and my own more advanced classes.
After that first year another good feature of loose-leaf experiment sheets was put to use. Sheets for a given experiment could be corrected, changed, discarded and replaced individually without in any way affecting the other experiments. As a result the author began at once to replace worn out stencils with new ones not verbatim copies but with an edited and revised copy. Some experiments were dropped and a few new ones were added as replacements.
As the department had no clerical help of any kind in 1922 Dr. Hoxton and Dr. Sparrow wrote their own letters; the new man (FB) did the same. He learned the good and bad points of stencils and of the old mimeograph machine. Like the children of Israel in the desert he thought of former times, and like them brought to mind the good points only, of the N. U. experiment sheets not all the pains and headaches, that were part of that past. At N. U. the sheets were all printed and the students bought their lab manuals at the same book stores they bought all their other supplies. Could some scheme be devised to have the "flesh pots" of Egypt and not have to make bricks without straw at the same time? A trial run seemed to show promise and finally grew to a full fledged operation but not, definitely not, without its headaches and growing pains. Mrs. Brown did much of the typing for this.
How to pay the printer was item No. 1. One term about 1925 nearly half of the experiments for one quarter was revised and printed and the set sold over the lab window counter for 25 cents to the students. The whole deal was carefully explained to the students and the improved appearance of the printed sheets avoided unkind remarks, at least within my hearing. Instead of printing say 100 or so for just one years supply a printing of 1000 which cost very little more and would last for several years was tried. In this way a loose-leaf manual was developed at no expense to the laboratory or the author and at a very minor cost to the student. In a few years it was possible to have 90 to 95 percent of the sheets printed. Always a few were mimeographed for we never printed a new experiment until it was tried for a year or more. Also the Table of Contents sheets and some others were in need of yearly change. This need for reprinting every few years encouraged revision. All accounts were kept in a special book and as soon as possible there was a special bank account for the project.
After the manual was showing financial stability, some of the "profits" were used to purchase needed laboratory supplies such as string, thumb tacks, paint etc. for the School of Physics had an extremely meager budget. As already mentioned it did not even have secretarial help at first. But in 3 or 4 years a scholarship type of compensation was secured for a physics graduate student, on a very small part-time basis. This position was retained and gradually changed to a fulltime paid secretary-librarian. The first fellowship holder was a Miss Lois Corrine Ketcham, a physics graduate student. A year or two after she began her graduate work she married another of our graduate students - Preston B. Carwile. Miss Ketcham was also our first female graduate student. Her most exemplary behavior and demeanor avoided unkind remarks about women trying to horn in to a man's school. She received her Ph.D. in 1927 for work on the Rowland Concave Grating, almost certainly the first female Ph.D. at UVa.
While looseleaf sheets were used not only in the general physics laboratories but in all laboratory work, only the large courses in general physics warranted printing them; all others were mimeographed or run off in multiple with carbon sheets.
Years bring changes so that methods and procedures appropriate at one time are no longer appropriate at another. I trust that I may be excused for being so long-winded about manuals but over the years it was my special responsibility. At no time during the years were unsolicited comments about it offered by anyone, though advice was, willingly and graciously given whenever requested. I attribute this gracious attitude to the grand tradition of "men of honor".
In 1922 the city manufactured its own supply of water-gas. The University made use of this source so it was the laboratory supply as well. Quite some time later a pipeline from the southwest gas and oil fields came through Albemarle Co. close enough to Charlottesville so that a branch line was run to town and the whole city and University changed over to natural gas.
In 1922 the University generated its own power in a coal-fired heating and steam-electric plant located back of and below Cabell Hall in the old ravine where new Cabell Hall now stands. This plant generated 110-220 volt DC used to light the grounds, run a few motors including those in our machine shop and used also for charging a 120-volt bank of lead-acid storage cells used to supply the lecture desk and laboratories with power for experiments.
The city had its own entirely independent plant down on the Rivanna river. The spring of 1923 or 24 the Rivanna got so high it drowned out the city plant so that the city was without power or light for a few days, but the main University grounds did have light. At that time several faculty families were living in the Faculty Apartments completed and opened for Faculty use in September 1922. These apartments are of course the building located on Rugby Road just north of the C and 0 track. While it was University property, it was lighted by power from the city lines. During the few days of this incident the apartments like the town had no lights, so in the evening I went over to Rouss to study and Mrs. Brown and the baby used candles for light. Fortunately we all cooked with gas. Not many years after this VEPCO (Virginia Electric and Power Company) established a new generating plant at Bremo on the James River. The expansion of the University had already begun, and the question became what to do? VEPCO had power to spare and the growing University needed more power but would not consider paying the normal commercial rate which was rather high. The University stated that they needed more steam for heating all the buildings anyhow and instead of buying at a high rate they would build a new plant to heat the buildings and to generate electrical power too. The compromise worked out has proved to be of mutually advantage. VEPCO gave the University an especially low rate and the new heating plant built on a switch just west of the C and 0 tracks and on what was then Fry's Spring Road and is now Jefferson Park Avenue supplied circulated hot water to heat all the University buildings and also steam where needed but the new plant did not generate electric power.
Another item that had apparently been a continuing responsibility of the Physics Department was the Rotunda Clocks and the University Class Bells. Certainly as the class rooms got farther from the original pavilions on the Lawn it became more difficult to hear the chapel bell in weather when windows were closed. When Dr. Hoxton fell heir to this responsibility I do not know but he had many stories about the system only one of which I will relate here.
It seems that on occasion some mischief-maker would draw from his bag of tricks the one involving the Rotunda Clocks, in particular, the one on the South front. The "stunt" was to lie prone at the southern edge of the original lawn and with a rifle shoot the works out of the clock.
Naturally this was an expense and it was a bother to the Faculty member in charge of the clocks. Finally one member wrote to the Howard Clock Company ordering dials made of one quarter inch steel boiler plate. This took "The Fun" out of the trick and it was dropped.
If I understood correctly, the system installed after the 1895 fire consisted of a master clock which by electrical impulses advanced the clocks on the North and South dials of the Rotunda and also rang bells in several buildings. The system had become badly worn and unreliable so before turning it over to me to care for Dr. Hoxton designed and Mr. Weed made and they installed a complete pendulum and escapement mechanism on each clock thereby rendering each independent of the master clock.
The bells, however, continued to be unreliable especially in stormy weather until someone persuaded a Mr. Clark, a law alumnus, to give a sum of money to install a new and much more up-to-date clock and bell system. The main stipulation of the gift was that a large clock dial be set in the pediment of the west elevation of the mechanical laboratory where it would be in plain view from the front entrance to the then Law building just across McIntire amphitheater.
The Standard Electric Time Company of Springfield, Mass. built the master clock and accompanying secondary clocks, program mechanism and auxiliary equipment and I secured a local electrician to install it. The master clock etc. were located in Rouss in the South end of the basement of the South Wing. Secondary clocks and class bells were installed in many buildings, and the entire system became much more accurate as well as reliable.
However, with such a precise master clock in Rouss we wished to use it to supply "seconds-signals" for use in timing events with a chronograph. The mechanism for this that came on the master clock disturbed it so much that when it was in use the clock would not keep its best time. This bothered Dr. Hoxton who wished a clock to always be as accurate as possible. To correct the trouble he devised a new scheme for using the pendulum. beats to produce time signals on the chronograph. This did not disturb the clock in any way. He then regulated it to a high degree of precision. While Dr. Hoxton left the maintenance of the secondary clocks and bells to me he graciously kept his eye on the master clock.
This love of accurate time pieces was put to use when it came to choosing a gift for him when he retired in 1948. The principal gift was a very fine Hamilton railroad watch. He was delighted with it and soon had it performing at its best. He devised special tricks to keep it so and bring it back should it begin to gain or lose.
With the return of Dr. J. W. Beams to the University of Virginia as Associate Professor a new period of growth and development can truly be said to have begun. In or by that year the University had secured funds for more and better Fellowships., C. R. Larkin and E. J. Workman are listed as Research Assistants in the 1929 catalogue: L. B. Snoddy, E. C. Stevenson, J. C. Street and B. R. Stevens are listed as teaching fellows and Cowan, Gagge,...
Interruption from MF: this Gagge has to be (from NYT 1993/2/19):
(A.P.) Gagge born in Columbus, Ohio, Dr. Gagge grew up in Richmond. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Virginia and a doctorate in physics at Yale in 1933, when he joined Yale and its affiliated John B. Pierce Laboratory.
In 1941 he joined the Aeromedical Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and became chief of biophysics. In 1950-51 he was chief of medical research for the Surgeon General. From 1951-55 he served as the chief of the Human Factors Division Directorate in the Air Force. From 1955-60 he was deputy commander and then commander of the Office of Scientific Research. From 1960-63 he was the manager of cloud physics weather modification for the Secretary of Defense. He retired as a colonel. He returned to Yale and Pierce in 1963 and retired in 1978.
To round out the Gagge picture, I can't resist adding more details on his research (from NYT):
In his emerging field, he developed basic principles like the relation of skin wetness to discomfort, the "met unit" to measure metabolic activity and "effective air temperature" to gauge the combined effect of temperature and humidity on body heat regulation and comfort. He conceived the standard measure for the insulation value of clothing as the "clo" and arbitrarily rated a business suit at 1 clo. Studies rated the insulation of a long-sleeved shirt and tie at 0.29 clo, for example, and socks at 0.03 and pantyhose at 0.01.
....and (back to the teaching assistants) L. R. Quarles , Lynch and McMurdo were assistants -- so that the staff had grown and was being financed in part from some source other than state appropriations.
It is possible that the special fund from the General Education Board to upgrade Biology, Chemistry and Physics had already made its initial contribution. The catalogues do not seem to state this clearly; or it may have been a token use of DuPont funds in advance of their general announcement and widespread awards, or, and most probably, it might have been a mighty push by the University to show its earnest desire to grow in order to attract outside help. Whatever it was the fall of 1928 showed a great surge ahead for research.
The next year, 1929-30, validated this belief for the several types of DuPont Scholarships and Fellowships that had been announced in advance were awarded.
Meanwhile, the Research Group in the Social Sciences under Professor Wilson Gee was already going strong and a great effort had been, and was being, made to secure a grant from the General Education Board to establish a corresponding fund in the Physical Sciences. This was ultimately effective with a schedule for an increasing gift from the General Education Board, and very soon a contribution by the State which was supposed to begin and to increase so that the total of both would reach $45,000 a year, if my memory is correct.
Beyond the biennium when the total reached $45,000 the General Education Board contribution was to decrease over a time, and the State contribution increase so as to keep the total $45,000. The total in any year was to be divided in the ratio, Biology and Chemistry each 10 parts, and Physics 7 parts, thus giving Physics a maximum of about $11,670 per year. This could be used for salaries or to purchase apparatus and supplies. One of the first additions in Physics was an instrument maker since the demand for shop work far exceeded the time of only one man, Mr. Weed. A Mr. Maurice Day, a Swiss, who was then employed by the Singer Sewing Machine Company was secured. However, his wife, an American, was so unhappy with his position that he left by the end of that school year. His departure was in no way opposed, and in fact, was encouraged by the Physics Department, as he did not appear to have the requisite training or temperament for the job. Perhaps it was his wife that was most to blame for this situation as she kept him in a constant state of mental turmoil by her attitude.
By this time the 1929 crash of the stock market was affecting the Northern Universities and some of their staff members were being let out. The Physics Department learned of a fine German instrument maker being dropped by the University of Michigan, and he was secured. Mr. Fritz Linke proved to be a wonderful choice. He just recently (1967) retired after over 30 years in the Physics Shops, first with Mr. Weed, then after Mr. Weed's death in the spring of 1936, as master of the shop. He, mainly, chose Mr. Phillip Sommer, another fine German mechanic as his assistant. Those two ran the shop alone until the great expansion in 1946, just after World War II.
The General Education Board fund combined with the DuPont Fellowships formed the financial foundation for the rapid growth in research in science. In Physics it was primarily under the direction of Dr. Beams, although the whole staff participated one way or another.
The first alteration in old Rouss involved two parts, one on each floor.
On the main floor the space in the north wing that had been used by the astronomers was taken over by Physics. The south quarter of the eastern half of the north wing was made into an office for Professor Sparrow. The northern 3/4 was used for research purposes. Dr. Hoxton's office was moved from the south room in the east wing to the north room that had been used by Dr. Sparrow. The south room became the office with a full-time secretary in charge who also doubled as librarian and stock clerk. The door from the hallway into the library was closed and a bookcase set in front of it on the library side so that the only access to the library was through the secretary's office.
With all the expansion in research work the need for a more adequate supply of electrical power became acute. Consequently, an up-to-date system designed by or at least with the help of Professor J. S. Miller of the department of electrical engineering was secured and installed, principally by E. J. Workman, a very capable graduate student. It consisted of an AC-DC motor-generator set producing D. C. power at 110-110-220 volts, and a second M-G set producing regulated A. C. power of various voltages. These two M-G sets with their controls and the distribution boards were located on the ground floor of R.P.L. in the wide hall between the stair well and the main machine shop and adjacent to the hall wall. Mr. Workman did much of the machine work for the distribution system as well as install all the wiring and the outlet boards in the several research rooms, laboratories and the main lecture room. It proved to be an excellent system and was copied, with modifications, in the new laboratory on McCormick Road. Compressed air was also in demand to run the air driven rotors and for glass blowing and soldering. Consequently, a platform was added above the AC-AC M. G. set in the hall. On this was located a new air compressor and two tanks one for high pressure and another for low pressure air.
Furthermore, the demand for research space led to the subdivision of the east half of each the north and the south basement wings. There were four long windows on the east side of each wing and this made possible four rooms in each wing each with its window. The partitions were cinderblock below and wall board above. Each space was supplied with a sink, water, air, gas and electrical power. They were very inexpensive but proved their worth from the start.
The basement windows on the west side of each wing were small and high up so this part was left as a long room in each basement wing.
Some years earlier Dr. Hoxton had designed and he and Mr. Weed had built a large curved scale fastened high on the front wall of the lecture room, visible from almost every seat. A beam of light reflected from the mirror of a sensitive wall-galvanometer played over this arc shaped scale. With its associated control box it could be used as the sensitive galvanometer itself, or as a three-range voltmeter, or as a three-range ammeter. It was constructed and installed in time to demonstrate it to the Virginia Academy Meeting held in 1926 at U. Va. It was moved to the larger lecture room in the new building in 1954.
Dr. Hoxton also gave the first public demonstration of his developing "ripple trough" at this meeting. The enthusiastic acclaim this brought encouraged him to continue to improve it and make it more and more versatile even after his retirement, so that in the end, he was able to demonstrate almost every property of wave motion except polarization.
Other modifications and improvements were conceived by Dr. Hoxton during the period we are now reviewing. Frequently, he and/or the shop made them, like his air gun, and often graduate students helped install them. However, one project was of such a nature that the University Department of Buildings and Grounds did all the work. This was a walkway with railings that crossed the lecture room from one side to the other high up and almost over the lecture desk. By using this runway it was possible to install easily and later to change or modify various pendulums and other devices attaching them to the ceiling or the wall or the runway itself. One such experiment involved a long ballistic pendulum with which the velocity of 22 caliber rifle bullets could be determined in the lecture period.
The platform was reached by a steep ladder which Dr. Hoxton climbed with the agility he had shown in his student days of track and gymnastics.
This runway across the lecture room, like others of Dr. Hoxton's devices was so useful that it was incorporated in the New Physics Building.
Another matter that might be included here was to affect the duties of the writer (FB) in a marked degree. While research had long been neglected by many at U. Va. it was now being shown to have very real value and anyone who cared to might try his hand at it. Mr. Brown was invited to teach at Northwestern U. the summers of 1924 and 1926. He took the occasion to use his Ph.D. thesis apparatus to carry on two minor research projects one of which was continued at U. Va. with a Hilger Spectroscope bought for the purpose.
Now with the increased funds, it was decided to allow Mr. Brown time for a larger project by employing Mr. Gilford G. Quarles a graduate in electrical engineering and now a graduate student in physics to take over the responsibility for the management of the undergraduate laboratories.
The project Mr. Brown decided on was the measurement of the index of refraction of the gas carbon-dioxide to establish what change, if any, took place as the pressure of the gas, at a constant temperature above the critical temperature, was decreased from over 100 atmospheres to one atmosphere. The plan was to use an interferometer inside the pressure chamber to secure the necessary precision. The basic idea was good though not entirely original. The experiment developed at least the usual number of problems so that the whole year, and more, was used up in securing some good data. Then it became increasingly apparent that to make good use of this new data a long and very tedious theoretical study and evaluation would be necessary.
(Footnote (MF): so maybe this was abandoned? It seems the project was carried out by Michels and Hamers in 1937.)
The depression that had begun in the north had by now reached the south, salaries were being cut and it was no longer feasible to employ Mr. Quarles as an instructor. So, in consultation with Dr. Hoxton and Dr. Beams, it was decided that Mr. Brown could make a greater contribution to the Department by teaching than by continuing this research. Fortunately, the University administration also felt that teaching was important and when the depression was past and things going strong again, that is, in the 1940's, Mr. Brown was promoted to full professor along with many of the other men whose promotions had been held up.
However, that year was well worth the effort, some small papers resulted and the experience was put to good use in the optics laboratory. It was by no means a total loss even though the whole project was not carried to the desired completion.
Several other events occurring during 1934-36 indicate an added reason for a break at 1936. First was the completion of the new Thornton Hall, home of the Engineering School. This not only gave them much- needed room and many new facilities but by vacating the "Mechanical Laboratory" building directly across the Lawn from Rouss it made possible much badly needed room for Physics. The building was renamed Cocke Hall and Physics was given the entire basement floor. This was repaired, plumbing and wiring added as well as replaced and some other work done. Later when it was discovered that the East front basement wall leaked in a hard rain it was water proofed. This extra space was used for the undergraduate laboratory and for several class rooms.
This move released the big main floor south wing of old Rouss. The room was promptly taken over for various research projects, one of which was to house a home-built van de Graaff. Naturally other shifts and rearrangements followed these major moves.
Dr. L. B. Snoddy who had been away at the General Electric Co. returned to U. Va. in Research under a Rockefeller Foundation grant.
The course, Physics B2, initiated by Dr. Sparrow and taught in one form or another mostly by Dr. Brown, after Dr. Sparrow gave it up was discontinued entirely and was replaced along with other courses by a whole new course sequence. More of this in Chapter 6.
June, 1935 saw 7 Ph.D.'s awarded in physics the largest number awarded at one time up to then. All of these men are making outstanding contributions. L. R. Quarles later became Dean of the Engineering School; Wm. T. Ham, Jr. is high up in the Medical College of Virginia; Herbert Trotter, Jr. became a "High up" in Electrical Research and Development; John W. Flowers is full professor at U. of Florida.
Edward Greydon Pickles after some years with the Rockefeller Inst. N. Y. City went west and set up a business of his own manufacturing ever improved and more sophisticated versions of the ultracentrifuge. To this group also belong Wm. M.C.S. Breazeale, and Dan H. Moore. Also the late Tom Davis and the late Jim Childes belonged to this outstanding group of 1935 and 1936 Ph.D.'s in Physics.
Two additional items will conclude this chapter and this period. Mr. Arthur J. Weed died April 18, 1936 while speaking at the Physics Journal Club.
Also it was a surprise to the writer to discover while consulting the College Catalogues that three very important former deans died during 1935-36. All had retired some years before. They were: Dean James M. Page of the University and the College, Dean Wm. Mynn Thornton of the Engineering School and Dean Wm. Minor Lile of the School of Law. It would seem that 1936 might properly be called the end of a period.
The next interval chosen for this survey includes the expansion into the added space secured in the basement of Cocke Hall and by the ever-quickening pace of World War Two and the year following its end. As noted in Chapter 5 an especially large group of Ph.D.'s were graduated in 1935 and 1936 so that in a very real way a new group of graduate students began to develop. Many of the advanced classes that had met in the basement of the South wing of Rouss or on the third floor of the East wing were transferred to one of the class rooms in the South basement wing of Cocke Hall. And all the space thus vacated in Rouss was converted to research. The large general laboratory became a high voltage research room, first with a long linear accelerator that was not entirely satisfactory and later to house a van de Graaff built in the shop. These were of course projects of Dr. Beams and Dr. Snoddy and their students.
The course B2 had been entirely discontinued as already noted.
A new course called Research Preliminaries and numbered C10 had been started by Dr. Beams to give the graduate students some necessary training in glass blowing, vacuum technique and other essentials for experimental research. The faculty consisted of Hoxton, Sparrow, Beams, Brown and Snoddy and the shop force of Linke and Sommer with the addition of a Mr. Kishbaugh for a few years employed under the research grant.
Mrs. Charlotte Ray was our very efficient secretary, librarian and storekeeper. Her husband, Charles Ray, was a graduate student in Biology. Thus, the second half of the 1930's got underway.
However, it was not many years before the rumble of Hitler and Mussolini began to shake Europe and start a "build-up" of troop strength and war research in the U.S.A., so that by 1940 there was a growing corps of men working on War Research Projects. The nearness of Charlottesville to Washington combined with the membership of Dr. Beams on several National Committees because of his research reputation were two significant factors in getting Virginia into this phase of war work.
Fred T. Holmes who had been living here but completing his Ph.D. at Yale and Charles Skarstrom who took his Ph.D. here both received their degrees in 1940 and immediately became part of the War Research Group. A former White Russian General, Michael Podtiaguine who was a buyer for the White Russian Army in Japan at the time that the Bolsheviks took over fled with his wife and two sons - first to Southern France - then finally to the U.S.A. Having become acquainted with members of a Charlottesville family while in Japan, the Podtiaguine's came to Charlottesville arriving here in 1929 or 30. General Podtiaguine told Dr. Beams that he had always wished to take an advanced degree in Physics. As a well-trained artillery officer plus further study at Genoble while waiting to come to the U.S.A. he was well qualified and enrolled the fall of 1930 completing his Ph.D. in 1932.
Many interesting stories could be told of the many experiences of the several members of the Podtiaguine family but this is not the place for them. One however deals directly with the laboratory so is included.
Dr. Beams knowing the General's background asked him to devise a "safe barricade" to use with the high-speed tops to avoid injury to the men working with them. The General came up with a design calling for side walls of 2" planking with a 4" space between filled with sand. These were built and put into use and proved their worth. Then one day when Dr. Beams went into the General's research room he noticed that on the "viewing side" of his barricade a sheet of 1/4 inch boiler plate had been attached over the planking. He joked the General a plenty - but both of them and everyone else knew or soon learned that the reason was the need for a very large opening in that side of the barricade to allow divergent light beams to enter and to leave and that the holes through the steel plate could be very much smaller as the plate was only 1/4 inch not 8 inches thick.
Just what part the General, as we always called him, took in the war research I do not remember but he is listed along with Dr. Diggs and F. T. Holmes as part of the Research Staff in the 41-42 catalogue.
Of course, all of us were involved one way or another, Dr. Hoxton was working on one project and even I on a minor one during those years. All this was, of course, in addition to the teaching that had to go on.
So we come to 1941 when another large group completed their Ph.D.'s and scattered to many places. This was also the year that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the U. S. directly into W. W. II. The immediate results of this were manifold. In Physics it began to restrict graduate instruction as more and more effort went into War Research. Not only Beams and Snoddy and the Special Research Group already mentioned were involved but all of us.
Dr. Sparrow listed in the 1941 catalogue is not listed in the 1942 and no date is given for his death. He and Mrs. Sparrow are buried in the University Cemetery but only the year 1941 for him and 1942 for her are recorded on the markers.
By now the Navy had a well organized NROTC unit at Virginia and when their Special V12 Program was instituted it became necessary for the Physics Department to change its former B1, General Physics Course or start a new one. This new one called Al had 3 lectures a week and a problem period but only one two hour laboratory period. It carried a credit of 5 hrs. per semester instead of 6. Soon its number was changed to Physics 1-2 and as the demand for it increased the B1 was dropped entirely.
Mr. Ray completed his Ph.D. work in Biology and received his degree in 1941 so he and Mrs. Ray, our excellent secretary, left. Fortunately Dr. Hoxton found a Miss Annie G. Lipscomb to replace her. Miss Lipscomb is a sister of the wife of Senator, later Governor John Battle. She stayed with us 12 years, as long as we remained in Rouss, but would not go with us to our new quarters in 1954.
As we puzzled over a parting gift for her Dr. Stevenson who had by then joined our staff thought of the song "Give me One Dozen Roses" so one dozen sweetheart roses, one for each year, were presented to her. She was a very friendly person and soon knew not only the staff but all the graduate students and the wives of the married ones and has kept up with a very large number of them ever since.
With the war effort in full swing the School Year had been changed into a 3-semester year, each semester 4 months long, September to Xmas recess, Jan. to Spring recess, and May to August recess. As the demand for Physics 1-2 in the V12 program and elsewhere increased Physics B1 was completely discarded. It also became necessary to seek outside help to carry the load of 4 lecture sections of about 100 students each - plus the many problem drill and laboratory sections. We were fortunate in finding some persons already at the University and some nearby. They were Prof. A. M. Jarman of the Education Department, who had been a science teacher and took one lecture section. Prof. Arthur Pegan of Geology who helped with problem drill and laboratory, Prof. E. R. Shaughter of the Athletic Staff who had trained as an Engineer. Mrs. Margaret Phillips of Norfolk, a very able science teacher, and Mr. C. Bernard Bailey a local business man who had a B. A. and an M. A. in science from Davidson College. They all gave us excellent help; all were mature, experienced persons and did an outstanding job. We owe them a great debt of gratitude for their cheerful, able and willing assistance. We also made use of graduates and undergraduates to help where they could. The arrangement of class schedules and instructors fell to my lot. Also in order to accommodate all the sections we began classes at 7:30 A. M. which meant starting while it was still dark in the winter time. However, everyone did their part and the esprit de corps was very high so that we came through with flying colors.
With the change to a 12-month school year the administration secured a considerable increase in compensation for the staff; for instance: full professors of some years in that grade were stepped up from $4,500 for a year of 9 months to $6,000 for a year of 12 months. The Dean of Engineering had pointed out to the Governor that the demand for trained men was so great in industry that the University would Promptly loose many of its ablest men if it did not make this concession to the pressing situation.
For a twelve month period in 1943-44 an entirely new group were sent to U. Va. for special training. These 200 men were college age Students garnered from Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio and other states. They had been picked because of their special backgrounds. They were to become full fledged meteorologists in two years. The basic reason stated was the need to place a meteorologist on every airplane or at least with every group of planes to assist the pilots in deciphering or out guessing the weather.
The 200 men were certainly the best prepared group as a whole that we had ever had the pleasure of dealing with. They were divided into two groups of 100 each and taken through a combined course of Physics and Mathematics, etc. that was a dilly.
The first 3 months they had a class in general physics with problem drill and laboratory, a class in mathematics starting with H. S. algebra and a second class in math starting with trigonometry one of these was taught by the Mathematics Department the other by the Physics Department Dr. Beams and Dr. Snoddy. They also had a class in physical and political geography and a class in something else and of course their army drill work. After the first few weeks one math class became college algebra the other analytical geometry. Then after the first quarter the math staff taught them calculus and later other advanced math and Dr. Beams and Dr. Snoddy went to more advanced physics. While Dr. Hoxton and I plowed on through a strenuous course in general physics using a text written by Profs. Lemon and Ference of Chicago University. The men studied hard and did well expecting to go on to a second year of work in meteorology.
However, about the end of the 3rd quarter word came down that instead of going on to a second year as promised, with a commission at the end of it for those who did well, all of them were to be dumped back into the infantry at the end of June, for reassignment.
Needless to say this took the heart out of most of them and it was some time before even the better members of the group were really studying again. To make the situation even more ridiculous another branch of the service was calling desperately for men with just the training these men were getting. But jealousy among the Services plus red tape made transfer impossible for the group as a whole and very difficult for even individuals; although some with more spirit and ingenuity and/or "pull" managed to shift to some other branch or service. All of us who worked with them felt that as a group they were the best prepared and most able lot of any comparable size we had ever seen. Of course the special teaching of so many in physics and mathematics required both departments to add to their regular staffs. They were secured where ever possible. Students of special ability just graduated or in the final year -- persons like Mr. C. B. Bailey who were able but doing something else and Mrs. Whyburn who had a Ph.D. in Math but was not then teaching.
About this time 1943 all of the college courses were renumbered. Physics Al became Physics 1-2 and B1 became 3-4. Intermediate Physics was first called 21-22 then broken down into four one semester courses, 31, Mechanics and 35, light meeting the first semester and 34, electricity and 38 heat meeting the second semester. All C courses open to advanced undergraduates and also counting for graduate credit were called 100 courses, and those that had been D courses open to graduate students only became 200s.
All odd numbered met the first semester and even numbered the second. So the former C course in optics became optics 105-106.
Returning to War Research there were many projects I never knew or could even name, let alone discuss. But one was so important and interesting we all knew something about it and even in my ignorance I wish to speak of it. One of the early problems was the separation of the isotopes to discover whether an atom bomb could be made. The Beams high-speed tops had been used on molecular gasses to increase the heavy or light component. Might it not be used on the gas uranium hexafluoride to, at least, enrich a lighter component? It was worth a try along with other methods and Virginia was assigned the task of finding out.
After some preliminary tests a duraluminum tube some 10 ft long and 10 inches in diameter was secured and mounted vertically in bearings in the largest corner opening in the tower in Rouss. It was driven by a powerful steam turbine. A mixture introduced at one end of the tube would work its way to the other end through the very strong centrifugal field produced in the rotating tube. Like the cream separator the heavier molecules would be forced to the outside and the lighter to the inside. In this way the central component would be enriched in the 235 isotope. Of course one passage would not be sufficient to produce the desired enrichment but would it produce enough to give promise?
The tube and part of its auxiliary equipment were mounted in the largest corner opening of the tower and a shack was built outside against one side of the tower and one wall of the main building to house the rest of it.
The experiment having overcome many difficulties was showing promise when the date arrived on which all "enrichment experiments" would be examined and evaluated to decide which one to push to achieve the material for an atomic bomb. The committee charged with the decision decided on the diffusion method. So it was picked and actually used successfully at Oak Ridge. But recent studies at various places indicate that the centrifugal field method is being considered again and may also be developed into a second large scale method. (This method is now being considered by the Atomic Energy Commission see Science News, Vol. 92, No. 5, p. 119, July 29, 1967.)
One remark made by Dr. Snoddy during the early days of the whole effort keeps coming back to me. He said "If a bomb can be made, we must make it ahead of Hitler -- but I wish it could be proved that it would be impossible to make it."
We saw great changes taking place in the War period discussed in the preceding chapter - and they continue into, if not through, this period. The table below showing the enrollment of graduate students in Physics, and the degrees granted each year for the period 1937-38 through 54-55 gives a bird's eye view of one of the elements that changed.
|
Year |
No. Grad.Stds |
Degrees Granted |
Year |
No. Grad.Stds |
Degrees Granted |
||
|
Ph.D. |
M.S./M.A |
Ph.D. |
M.S./M.A. |
||||
|
37-38 |
15 |
3 |
3 |
47 |
28 |
6 |
5 |
|
39 |
14 |
3 |
3 |
48 |
28 |
2 |
6 |
|
40 |
15 |
2 |
3 |
49 |
32 |
7 |
5 |
|
41 |
15 |
4 |
4 |
50 |
37 |
4 |
8 |
|
42 |
13 |
2 |
4 |
51 |
45 |
7 |
7 |
|
43 |
14 |
6 |
1 |
52 |
33 |
8 |
6 |
|
44 |
12 |
1 |
2 |
53 |
32 |
11 |
6 |
|
45 |
3-13(1) |
1 |
0 |
54 |
38 |
7 |
6 |
|
46 |
15-21(2) |
2 |
2 |
55 |
41 |
5 |
7 |
(1) 3 the first semester, 13 the second;(2) 15 the first semester, 21 the second.
Even a casual glance at this table shows the drop of graduate attendance to almost zero and the very few degrees granted in 44, 45 and 46. It also shows the steep climb in attendance, increasing from one semester to the next as students return from the war and war activities of all kinds.
Another cause for the large numbers was the decision by the government to assist ex-service men by financially helping them to go to school and so make up, in part, for the loss of time while in service.
A further increase in graduate students was due to the realization of the importance of new training to fit officers for the atomic age, with its added know-how. So, for several years at Virginia, beginning in 1947, officers were sent here for post graduate training. They were sent many places and the schools early pointed out that to avoid poor marks on the officers' records the men must have real ability and a good background in math and physics. As a result most of those who came were excellent students as well as mature men and experienced officers.
This assignment of former officers to graduate schools did not continue indefinitely, but did go on for several years. Also the men held up by the war were delayed for differing lengths of time and at different points in their education so the increased enrollment was spread out over several years -- most fortunately for all of us.
Among the students who were here in graduate physics in the lean war years were two men -- both 4-F and so not subject to draft call. One was John W. Moore with a B.A. from Davidson, who kept on with his studies securing his M.S. in '43 and his Ph.D. in October, 1945. The other was Richard W. Mitchell from Lynchburg, who only stayed to get the masters degree. Also there was one of the few ladies ever enrolled for graduate work in Physics up to that time. She had taken her undergraduate work at Tennessee Polytechnic. After completing her M.S. here in 1946 Miss Dorothy Estes went to Sweet Briar College as Assistant in Physics. 'About the time Miss Estes left in 1946, Miss Frances Lummis with a degree from Duke University came to Virginia. She did her thesis work under Dr. Davisson securing the Masters Degree in 1948. Her home was Charlottesville.
This period not only saw great changes in the student body both graduate and undergraduate but also in the staff. Dr. C. M. Sparrow had died in 1941. Dr. Ed Ney who took his Ph.D. here in 1946 after holding the post of Associate Professor for one year went back to Minnesota. Dr. F. T. Holmes removed to Colorado, and Dr. William T. Ham took a position with the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond. Dr. Diggs again retired but he and his family continued to live in Charlottesville, and Dr. Podtiaguine retired to his home here. Dr. C. J. Davisson had purchased a home here and continued to teach for a few years and lived in Charlottesville with his wife and daughter Elizabeth until his death.
Others who had stopped schooling to help with war research like F. L. Hereford* went back to their studies. Mr. Hereford secured the Ph.D. in 1947.
Another was W. Dexter Whitehead who received the B. S. in 1944, the M.S. in 1946 and the Ph.D. in 1949. To these should be added the name of Stephan Berko, a Rumanian Refugee*.
*For further details, see Chapter X.
Dr. Hoxton reached the retirement age of 70 in 1948, after more than forty years as Chairman of the Department. In that time he had seen the Department grow considerably in size and attain some of the goals he had set for it in the early part of the century.
We were all anxious to have his portrait painted, so Dr. Beams arranged with Dr. Herbert E. Ives of the Bell Telephone Research Laboratory, who had retired the year before, to paint it. Dr. Ives had made a fine name for himself in this field as well as in optics, and was now free to come here.
Dr. Ives spent several weeks in Charlottesville working with Dr. Hoxton and the result was a portrait everyone liked very much. It is presently hung on the West wall of the Conference Room on the third floor of the new laboratory.
On the same wall is a copy of the portrait that Dr. Ives had painted of Dr. C. J. Davisson.
.To assist in paying for the portrait and also allow former graduate students and associates of Dr. Hoxton to express a word of appreciation of him, a letter was sent to all of these persons asking them, if they cared to, to participate in Dr. Hoxton's retirement by doing any or all of these three things:
1. Write a letter to be included in a book of letters to be presented to Dr. Hoxton at the exercises marking his retirement.
2,. To come to the retirement ceremony at which his portrait would be unveiled. This would take place in the auditorium of Madison Hall on Saturday, June 12, 1948 at 4 p.m.
3. To subscribe to the fund being raised to defray the cost of the portrait; it being understood that any amount above the cost of the portrait would be used for a gift to Dr. Hoxton.
Many came to the unveiling - but many more who could not come sent letters and/or contributions. The total made a wonderful book of letters of appreciation for his fine teaching and his friendship.
The fund was large enough not only to pay for the portrait and a beautiful Hamilton railroad watch, but also to make up a modest purse which, it was suggested, he might wish to use as a supplement for a short trip.
Finding a replacement for Dr. Hoxton was no small task and without one the Department would be so short-handed it could hardly carry on. President Darden, seeing the difficult' situation, consented to extending Dr. Hoxton's tenure for the year 1948-49. Of course he continued even after that to occupy as office and private laboratory the room he had used in the basement of Rouss. When we moved to the New Laboratory, he had his choice ' of rooms, and that became his office and laboratory until his death in 1966.
Dr. Edward C. Stevenson was persuaded to return to Virginia to join the Physics staff. Dr. Stevenson had been an Engineering student in the early 20's before completing the work for his E. E. degree. He started in on a Ph.D. in physics at the same time that J. C. Street, E. J. Workman and others were here. They became the first large group under the research leadership of J. W. Beams. Later Dr. Stevenson went to Bartol Foundation under Dr. Swan and then on to Harvard where Dr. Street had already gone. Together they investigated cosmic rays, one of the liveliest problems of the day, and made some outstanding discoveries. He was later connected with work on the atomic bomb and was a member of the group who flew a bomb to Japan in 1945. He had also had some experience in industrial research so we felt most fortunate to have him come back to the University of Virginia.
Dr. Stevenson took on part of the undergraduate general physics load. Also he and the new Dean of the School of Architecture, Dean Fitzpatrick, worked out a plan for a course for architects. Until then this had not been possible as the former dean did not wish to enroll architects in either the College or the Engineering courses as he felt they did not have the right emphasis and approach. On their part the Department of Physics did not feel they had the manpower to run another section of General Physics. Now it seemed that the hurdles were down and Dr. Stevenson gave them an excellent course. He also taught graduate work, including at times a course in sound. He joined in doing and supervising research, in short, taking a full share of the load.
It was indeed a real loss when he decided to return to his first love, Electrical Engineering. He had been asked by Dean Quarles of the Engineering School to help find a new chairman of the E. E. Department to replace the one who had retired. Dr. Stevenson says that in selling Dr. Mark Foster on this position he also sold himself so in the Fall of 1961 he crossed McCormick Road to the South Side. But for the years 1950-61 he had very fine contributions to teaching and research in physics.
We have already discussed the changes taking place in the electrical power services of the University and mentioned the conversion of the city gas system from locally manufactured water-gas to piped in natural gas. We should also have noted the change from the old steam heating plant back of Cabell Hall to the "circulated hot water" plant down on the C & 0 R.R.. switch on Jefferson Park Avenue. Now we add a note about the Liquid Air supply.
One of the surest lectures to catch and hold the attention of a class or an audience is one using liquid air. Dr. Hoxton planned to give one such demonstration lecture to his class in general physics each year inviting any other students who were free and cared to come to attend also. With his help I tried to do the same. In 1922 the liquid air had to be made in our own laboratory using the large compressor employed by Dr. Humphreys in his work on the emission spectra of metals already referred to in a much earlier chapter.
This compressor was in the south portion of the central part of the basement. In addition to the compressor a device for cooling the compressed air to remove the water vapor as well as reduce its temperature was essential and then it passed through the liquifier coil and needle valve assembly, the final unit in the chain.
The task of making a couple of quarts of liquid air was considerable. Ice must be secured and crushed for cooling. The big compressor oiled and started. In general it took the best part of an afternoon to produce between one and three quarts. It was of course kept in thermos flasks for use the next morning.
This was liquid air containing both oxygen and nitrogen and readily supported combustion.
By 1935 it became possible to purchase liquid nitrogen which was shipped into town by truck in large thermos bottles. Also by 1935 the Physics budget was large enough to allow the Department to buy it. As it was now used in many different experiments it would have been a very great burden to have to make it.
By the time Physics moved into its new quarters on McCormick Road the whole University was using so much liquid nitrogen that soon after a large storage tank was placed on the loading platform on the North side of the building and then another added in the hospital complex. By now, 1967, there may well be other large storage tanks around the University as the demand for extremely low temperatures is increasing rapidly, not only for research experiments, but also to lower the temperature of parts of delicate and/or complicated devices used in many fields.
The purchased product is liquid nitrogen free from oxygen; it is able to produce the intense cold needed without the danger of combustion when the oxygen component of liquid air was present.
Dr. Leland Bradley Snoddy was one of the department stalwarts during the prewar, war and postwar years. He was able and very well liked, so it was indeed a sad day when upon his return from a summer in New Mexico to continue the study of lightning with E. J. Workman it was learned that he had leukemia.
He went at once to the University Hospital and was given every care possible. The physics graduate students gave many pints of blood to replace that required for him. But the tragic course and fatal termination could not be averted, and he died November 12, 1950.
He was survived by his wife, Mrs. Virginia Snoddy, an excellent science teacher at St. Anne's School here in Charlottesville. The school wished to do something to honor him and show its appreciation of her as one of their teachers. They consulted the Physics Department about it, and it was decided to collect into a binder reprints of as many of Leland Snoddy's own publications as possible and also those of students doing their research under him. Several of the Physics Staff were on the committee charged with this project. We were able to accumulate three very good sets of his reprints. These were bound into covers along with a very good biographical sketch of Dr. Snoddy preceded by the foreword of presentation by the Saint Anne's Group. One copy of this memorial was placed in the Alderman Library Rare Book Room, one placed in the Physics Library and the original given to Mrs. Snoddy. After Mrs. Snoddy's death this copy, through the kindness of Navy . Captain and Mrs. C. M. Williams, was placed in the Physics Library.
Perhaps a further word or two concerning the ramifications of Dr. Snoddy's research is in order here. As an undergraduate Snoddy had two loves - music, and all types of electrical and chemical phenomena. Which field should he pursue? He did become an accomplished pianist, but he was called into service in World War I as an X-ray operator with the Medical Corps.
When he returned to school after the war he entered the University of Kentucky to study science. With both Bachelor's and Master's degrees from there, he went to the University of California. However, he did not seem to like it and presently, 1925, took the position of Chairman of Chemistry and Physics at Lynchburg College, Virginia. Mrs. Snoddy, who also had a Master's Degree, became head of the Domestic Science Department at the same school.
While in Lynchburg, he heard of the work of Dr. Beams at Virginia and began driving up to attend graduate classes and continue his graduate studies.
Snoddy completed his Ph.D. in 1929 and accepted a position with the General Electric Company. In 1933 he returned to Virginia as a Research Fellow in Physics and in 1936 was appointed to an Assistant Professorship, advancing to Associate in 1940 and to Full Professor in 1943. His war research has already been mentioned. Later he and Beams studied lightning with a high-speed rotating mirror.
He was interested in electrical discharges not only in the laboratory but in nature. He and Mrs. Snoddy went to the Churchill-Hudson Bay region several summers to study aurora, and as mentioned to New Mexico to study lightning. It was on the last of these trips that the serious ailment that led to his death became evident. The loss of such a versatile and talented person was indeed very great. (Note - for more details see the Biographical Sketch in the Saint Anne's Book.)
The Pearl Harbor incident of January, 1941 is too well known to be repeated here; it brought the U.S.A. actively into World War II and is responsible for the situation related here.
As already indicated, Dr. Beams and Dr. Snoddy were endeavoring to apply the centrifuge principle to the separation of the isotopes of uranium. However, the experiments were being conducted in an unguarded building and so easy prey to sabotage. Consequently, it is not surprising that orders came at Christmas time 1941 to place Rouss under 24-hour guard at once. For the moment the local unit of the National Guard - the Monticello Guard - was charged with the duty and took over at once, placing guards both outside and inside of the building.
A high-wire fence was ordered constructed completely around the East side of Rouss and those portions of South and North sides that had windows at ground level. The only gate through this fence was on the north side and gave access directly to the back door.
Inside on both the ground floor and the main floor level in the region of the stair well were placed books where everyone entering or leaving had to sign in or out with the time recorded. A guard was stationed on the main floor level to challenge any who got that far and wished to go up, down, or to the office-library in the North-wing.
The only door open from the Lawn on the West side was the South one at class time; at all other times it was locked and the North lawn door was always locked. The only room in Rouss used for classes was the large lecture room and the students came and went through the South door and were not allowed to go anywhere else.
The Monticello Guard remained on duty for ten days or two weeks, until arrangements were completed for a group of civilian guards to take over, and the fence and other security measures were working as planned.
There are many interesting stories connected with the first period of guards' operation.
One member of the staff arriving at the back door and being challenged by the guard thinking it a joke put up his hand in a Nazi salute and said "Heil Hitler". He was immediately put under arrest to his great surprise and taken to the officer of the day, who called Dr. Beams. Dr. Beams identified the man as a bonafide member of the research staff who had not realized what was going on. But the word got around that this was no joking matter and that the guard meant business.
Another story recalled by Dr. Beams was of a group of townspeople who became much excited by the fact that the two instrument men were of German origin and they were sure were not loyal Americans, so they wished them dismissed. Fortunately, Dr. Beams was able to convince the group that they were trustworthy and that to dismiss them would put an end to the very important work going on.
After the decision by the special committee to use only the diffusion method of separation of uranium isotopes and discontinue the centrifuge experiments, the staff were given the testing of certain jet engines. This test was stationed east of the building and inside the fence but made a tremendous racket for about a minute during a run. The noise bothered everyone around and finally a Mrs. Slaughter, who knew Dr. Beams rather well, went to him about the disturbance. Dr. Beams explained to her that the experiments were in the interest of National Defense and did she not think it better to put up with them from time to time during the daylight hours rather than risk a German bomb attack at night? Well, the reply hardly satisfied the lady, but she had no ready answer to it and that was the end of the matter.
Fortunately, very soon thereafter the Navy Department authorized that a research facility be erected up on Mt. Jefferson. Dr. Snoddy was the Physics Department's representative on that project. It is well adapted to the needs, and all of the War Research and other confidential work, including the noisy experiment, were moved up there. One of the original guards at Rouss, Mr. F. Austin, is still (1967) a guard at this laboratory.
For more years than one wishes to recall the Department of Physics had needed more adequate accommodations. While the assignment of the basement floor of Cocke Hall to Physics when the Engineering School moved to its new quarters on McCormick Road was a very great help, it did not adequately meet the need, for now the Department was split in two with the Lawn between. So we earnestly besought the administration for new and larger quarters. The great depression of the 1930's pushed this dream into the remote background, but with the recovery from that depression, and the speed up of all industry by the rise of Hitler and Mussolini and the feeling of urgency to meet that threat, everything took on a new aspect.
Penn State College had also needed larger and more modern quarters, and Professor Davey in Volume 10 of the American Physics Teacher for 1942 told how they had secured an excellent building and at very low cost because prices were still down due to the depression. When Dr. Hoxton read this he at once assembled and forwarded to the President of the University our detailed requirements. However, nothing happened for several years. Then the Virginia Legislature tentatively appropriated $611,000 for the building. That was Dr. Hoxton's 1943 estimate based on even earlier figures based on Penn State accomplishment. But by 1949 prices had risen so much that the $611,000 did not even begin to cover the new estimates let alone the bids. But this gets ahead of the story.
When it began to look as though we should be ready with more complete and detailed information, a Building Committee was appointed with Dr. F. L. Brown as its chairman, to work with the University Department of Buildings and Grounds and the Architects. Dr. Beams, as the new Chairman of the Physics Department since Dr. Hoxton's retirement, undertook to look after finances.
Several basic decisions had been or were quickly made, among them these:
(A) The building was to be erected between Rouss and the road through the grounds to the "chain gate" east of Rouss.
(B) The chance of it being constructed all at once was so dim, due to
the limited appropriation of $611,000 that it would be designed so as to be erected in two installments, the first to be used in conjunction with Rouss, the second to replace Rouss.
(C) Eggers and Higgins of New York City were to be the architects.
Our committee worked with and through Frank Hartman's office of Buildings and Grounds.
Thanks to Dr. Hoxton's earlier work and the above considerations as to location part of the work was already done. But to fit the space the building must be long and narrow with its long axis N and S. It must be planned as a whole but so designed that it could be constructed in two phases. It was decided that the first phase to be erected would be the Northern part. Here, because of underlying rock the building would be only three stories high and the shop, in the north wing, would rest on solid rock. The Lecture room in Rouss would continue to be used. That meant that the new lecture rooms would be in the south end and constructed later. This second part could easily be four floors high. It would be very difficult to make the floor levels of the new building match those in Rouss, but simple to arrange it so that the shop floor level would be only one-half floor below the lowest basement floor of Rouss. Then the teaching floor with laboratories and some small class rooms would be the next floor up and so only one-half floor above the basement floor of Rouss. Access would be primarily from the West, that is, from the Lawn and from Rouss and students would have little or no occasion to be on the shop floor, and if offices were put on the third floor they would go there only on business.
In this way the original plans were developed. Many of the incongruities of the building in its present site arise from these considerations, which were logical and appropriate to that location next to old Rouss, though not logical or appropriate to the place on McCormick Road where it stands.
Several other important considerations were involved. Having had 45 years experience in Rouss where no elevator was available to move things from one floor to another the Committee felt that an elevator was essential. But elevators were considered an unnecessary luxury anywhere except in the hospital. Consequently, there was a long and at times provoking hassle to secure Mr. Hartman's approval of an elevator. Fortunately, at last he gave in and its great value was shown from the very beginning. In fact, it was so useful we wondered how we have ever gotten along without one.
Next was the problem of adequate lighting. As in the late 1940's and early 50's the detectors of cosmic rays were also sensitive to the starters of fluorescent lights, it was decided that no fluorescent lights could be used in spite of the fact that they were much more efficient and the same level of illumination could be secured with much less electrical power and so with very much less heat production;' an important item especially in the summer.
Finally we were told that under no circumstances might we include any air conditioning and in fact we might not even make provision for its installation at a future date. In retrospect this decision looks even more preposterous than it looked in 1950 for it was well known even then that many machines, as well as most people, work better with at least some cooling and dehumidification of the summer air.
With these several considerations in mind, planning went ahead and by late 1949 we had a set of plans and some notion of overall cost which turned out to be very much greater than the $611,000 that had been allocated. In fact that sum would not even pay for the first unit let alone the entire building.
The prospect looked very discouraging until an alumnus and very good friend of the University, a man deeply interested in science, Mr. John Lee Pratt, class of 1905, who had already given great assistance to the Chemistry Department, let the President of the University understand that he was very much interested in the fine research work of Dr. Beams and the Physics Department and felt that they needed encouragement. He stood ready to make a very substantial gift to the University to endow a chair of Physics and subsidize research for some time, if the State and the University on their part would construct the entire building at once.
This was the magic key. His gift turned out to be some $500,000 in General Motors Stock, a very generous amount indeed.
It was not long after this that the "go ahead" signal was given, and on April 25, 1952 bids were called for. Not, however, before a very important change of site was made.
With the entire building to be constructed at one time there was no reason to place it near Rouss. That location looked worse and worse the more one studied it, so it was decided to erect the new Physics Laboratory west of U. S. 29 along the north side of McCormick Road and just across from the Engineering School. This allowed for a basement floor under the entire building adding some 12 to 14% to the usable space. Unfortunately, this change had some unhappy through minor consequences too. No time or money was available to start all over from scratch so only absolutely essential changes in the plans c6uld be made. As the main entrance would now be from the street on the south side of the building instead of the north, and the teaching floor would now be one whole story above the McCormick Road level, two redesigned entryways and associated stair wells had to be carved out of that side of the building. Also, with the teaching floor one story above street level even in front and two stories above the driveway at the back, or north side of the building, the large lecture rooms could not have outside grade level doorways, even for emergency use. Some of these things including the fact that offices and library are now on the third floor look queer but are not as queer as they seem when one understands how it all came about.
Even with the added funds for the building, the first round of bids in 1952 was too high. A re-examination was required to reduce the total cost by $50,000 or more. The most fruitful sources of savings turned out to be the electrical system and the furniture bid. The others could be reduced only in minor ways.
Furniturewise, it was decided to put fewer work benches, tables, bookcases and chairs in the graduate student research areas. Only minor cuts could be made other places.
In the electrical contract several major cuts were effected. First, the number of power stations in each small research room was cut from four to two. Lesser reductions were made other places. It was also decided to do away entirely with the storage battery and so with all the wiring attendant to it. Instead, it had been decided that steady voltage for a particular experiment might be secured by the use of small portable storage batteries, like auto batteries kept up to a constant voltage by individual rectified charging circuits. This would avoid the large outlay of a central storage battery and wiring, and also avoid mutual interference where two or more persons are cutting in and out of a common supply. This also simplified the distribution panels supplied by the Standard Electric Time Company. The net result was that the cost was reduced enough to get the "go-ahead" signal. Excavation on the McCormick Road site began the Fall of 1952. We moved into the new building the late Spring and Summer of 1954.
Almost as soon as construction began, Mr. Brown began taking pictures so that a rather complete history of the building progress was recorded. This entire set of pictures plus some large exterior and interior views taken by Mr. Ralph Thompson and also some pictures he took of the portrait of Dr. Hoxton and of the retirement ceremony were mounted in an album and later deposited in the Alderman Library for safe keeping.
With the contracts let and the building underway, we might, for the record, list the principal contractors and some others involved.
From the University:
Frank Hartman's Office of Buildings and Grounds
Harry Wilson, Superintendent of Construction for this building
F. L. Brown, Chairman, Physics Building Committee
Chief Contractor, Jeffress-Dyer, Inc., of Washington, D. C. (This project was moved to their New York office.)
Boss on the job for Jeffress-Dyer, Larry Naulty
Electrical Contractor, Godwin-Halstead Electrical Co., Charlottesville Virginia, H. D. Godwin in charge of work.
Other Electrical Sub-contractors: Standard Electric Time Company of Springfield, Massachusetts, Distribution boards and accessories.
Intercom system, Executone Company, Richmond, Virginia. S. R. Pickens.
Plumbing, Heating and Ventilating, William H. White, Richmond, Va. Subcontractor, N. W. Martin, Charlottesville, Va.
Furniture Contractor, modern Woodwork Specialties, Richmond, Va. Levy and Metlick in charge.
Elevator: Monarch Elevator and Machine Company, Greensboro, North Carolina.
Moving: In charge for Physics Department, Mr. Melvin Cruser.
Extra acoustic treatment to lecture room was applied after the building was first completed and tested. General contractor.
The cost figures reported by Frank Hartman's office to the Physics Building Committee after it was all over, but without detailed explanation, in particular of items marked (a) and (b).
Base figure of general Contractor: $987,000.00
Plus (a): $95,200.00
Plus (a): $200,292.00
Elevator: $12,200.00
Modern Woodwork, furniture: $69,965.00
Work done by owner (U.Va.) (b): $35,000.00
Architects fees: $130,000.00
Inspection and Clerk of Works, including Secretary (b): $28,000.00
Blueprints: $3,500.00
Moving (none of this came to Mr. Cruser) (b): $15,000.00
Grading (b): $4,000.00
Office (b): $5,000.00
Total: $1,591,165.00
For contingencies (b): $33,000.00
Grand Total: $1,624,165.00
(a) Not known whether handled by main contractor or Mr. Hartman's office: $295,492.00
(b) Most certainly handled by Mr. Hartman's office, and including supply lines for services such as heat, water, sewer, and electric power.$120,000.00
When the lecture rooms were nearing completion and again when completed tests were made to determine audibility in them. The large one in particular had too much reverberation to be satisfactory. This was brought to the attention of the architects and acoustic treatment was added on the side walls above the wainscotings (there was acoustic treatment already on the ceiling). This reduced the reverberation to a reasonable level, especially if the lecture room were at least one-third full of people as the sound absorption of clothing is very much greater than that of hard wooden seats.
The move to the New Lab from Cocke Hall and Rouss was directed by Melvin E. Cruser, Jr., a graduate of W and L who had completed his M.A. at Virginia in 1950, and then held various positions such as: Student Instructor, Stock-Clerk, Assistant in charge of lecture set-ups, etc., which had given him a wide acquaintance with the various types of material, fine instruments, and potentially useful junk that had accumulated in Cocke Hall and especially in R. P. L.
Of course items like the two motor generator sets we had and similar equipment had already been moved and installed by the contractors, but there were truck loads of other things.
It appeared to Mr. Hartman's office that it would be better to place men and trucks at Mr. Cruser's command rather than hire a regular mover. Doubtless this had its points certainly it was very much cheaper but the crews placed at Mr. Cruser's disposal were, for the most part, the roughest and cheapest type of day laborers. They knew nothing whatever of the care and handling of fine instruments and, in fact, could not tell a fine instrument from a piece of junk and were apt to give them similar treatment. They were hardly the right sort for some parts of the work although reasonably competent for moving chairs, tables, stools and heavy metal items. Also, with only one person in charge, he could not be at both ends at once -- so Mr. Cruser rode back and forth on the truck and had no time to arrange items as they arrived. But he was able to see that most things were placed in the right room or at least on the correct floor. The sorting and arranging came later and occupied extra hours from most everyone for the following year.
Much of the moving of material used in lectures or the general laboratory was moved during the May-June exams or the vacation season, so that actual Summer School work was not disrupted greatly, though it was inconvenienced. Everyone "made do" with what they had, the while sorting and properly placing items when they put them away after use. Because of extremely crowded conditions at Rouss it was not possible to mark and move contents of Shelf 7-B in Rouss to some designated shelf in the new quarters or contents of case C-19 to the new case C-19 in such and such new location. The result was that much extra labor was required to actually settle in. The thing that saved the day was the extra space in the new building, one did not trip over unsorted items--but could generally leave the things where they were and take what they could readily find for the job of the day, but put it back, not in the pile, but in the location where it was expected it would be kept thenceforth.
Mr. Cruser was a superb man for the task, his disposition did not ruffle easily and he knew how to get the best out of the men assigned to him. Also he was extremely well acquainted with much of what was being moved. We can never repay such good nature, ability and work, back breaking work at times.
Probably this account of the new building should go a little farther than 1954. We had more or less expected to have a public open house when we were settled and straightened out. But during the Summer of 1954, while attending the Gordon Conference in New England, Dr. Beams had a heart attack. Fortunately, it was a relatively mild case and he had an excellent recovery, but it meant that for some time he could not walk up and down stairs. We were more than glad that there was an elevator in the building, but it was a freight elevator whose access doors were moved up and down manually and required quite a bit of work to accomplish it. Obviously not the thing for Dr. Beams, so President Darden ordered the doors electrified while Dr. Beams was recuperating enough to come to the Lab. Then they opened or closed at the push of a button. The change not only enabled Dr. Beams to get around the lab much sooner but has been a boon to others through the years.
However, maybe because it was a less expensive type to start with, the elevator developed signs of old age, with periods of "out of order" to interrupt its usefulness much sooner than anyone had anticipated so that all of the younger people at the Lab are requested to use the stairs when possible.
The University employs a full-time elevator man as it appears all types of elevators develop troubles from time to time, and he comes to the rescue. In any case, the fact that an elevator was already in the building proved its worth in this, another way in its very first year of operation.
This period involves so many changes in both the material items and the personnel that it is being divided into two chapters. This chapter, No. IX, will deal primarily with what we might call material changes--though they of course cannot be entirely divorced from the persons involved. And Chapter X will dip back into previous years and pick up some names that were left out--and then come forward to list, if not discuss, many persons--though by no means all of those involved. The students will, of course, be the great group omitted because there are too many to even list in this brief report--the College Catalogues and other records must be the ultimate source for them.
As we moved from Rouss and Cocke Halls a certain amount of expansion took place immediately. However, considerable rethinking, especially of research projects, also took place. Which experiments should go right ahead, which should be modified, in some cases greatly modified, because of the new space available; and which should be discarded completely, and perhaps replaced by entirely new investigations?
An example of one discarded was the 21-foot Rowland concave grating--and that in spite of the fact that three adjacent rooms had been designed to house it adequately. Instead, the space was used to enable several more students to work on one phase or another of Beam's high-speed rotors and centrifuges.
An example of a new one added was the experiment of J. W. Stewart, combining very low temperatures and very high pressures in which he studied the attributes of certain gases when cooled below the freezing point and simultaneously exposed to extremely high pressures. In connection with this very low temperature work a helium liquifier was secured from Arthur Little in 1953 and first installed in the Ordnance Laboratory on Mt. Jefferson because the new building was not yet ready. It was then moved to one of the north basement rooms in the new lab. With it bottled helium gas could be liquefied to produce the low temperature refrigerant required by Dr. Stewart's work.
The second new field--actually it had been started with the arrival of Dr. Cabrera in 1952--was solid state physics, already a very important and rapidly growing domain. This, as well as other faculty additions, posed at once the need for more office space and very soon it became evident that offices must be provided even if it meant making them out of something else. One and later two classrooms on the third floor were divided up for this purpose.
Fortunately because of the basic construction of the steel frame with continuous floors, partitions could easily be removed or erected almost anywhere. Also, since the services, water, gas, etc. were almost all surface mounted instead of being imbedded in the masonry they could be changed with relative ease.
The suite of two rooms, an office and a private research room designed for Dr. Snoddy, was reassigned to Dr. Hereford who with the cooperation of Dr. Whitehead was now in charge of high energy research.
Soon after we moved into the new building the Physics Department was given a 70 MeV synchrotron by the General Electric Company. A former student and very good friend, Dr. Herbert Pollock, who had used it in some important researches including the discovery of a new type of radiation from accelerating electrons was instrumental in securing the generous gift for the University of Virginia. This machine was first erected in the large south east corner room of the basement and gotten into operation there. But that was not considered a very satisfactory location because of the radiation produced by it; so, when the new Accelerator Laboratory was erected on Mt. Jefferson in the 1960's, it was moved up there along with the first home-made Van de Graaff which had been entirely rebuilt and the new high voltage Van de Graaff, under the special charge of Dr. Lawrence Cranberg.
Through the auspices of Dr. Cabrera the Physics Department heard of other men at Bristol, England. One of the first of these to come over was Dr. Plaskett, who was interested in solid state physics and teamed up with Dr. Berko on some work on positronium.
Later came Dr. J. W. Mitchell, a man with an established reputation in solid state physics. For laboratory space he was assigned the very large north west corner room in the basement. This he had subdivided into several smaller areas with special air conditioning and apparatus installed.
Later the attic, which had been used for storage, was taken over in several steps for research space. Some of the old historical apparatus was taken by the Smithsonian to add to their collections in Washington. Some was pushed way back under the eves, and by far the largest portion was thrown out because it was felt that the space to house it could not be spared any longer. Eventually the majority of this area was transformed to active research space.
Another major change was the gradual transformation of the tower into individual rooms, one on each floor. Some services already there were used, some removed and the rooms air conditioned and well lighted.
This reassignment and rearrangement of space to meet constantly changing conditions was a gradual but continuous operation.
A very different kind of change was the one resulting from discussions between E. C. Stevenson and F. L. Brown on the one hand and the new Dean of Architecture, T. K. Fitzpatrick, on the other. In the years when Physics was housed on the Lawn with only one lecture room, and Professor Campbell was Dean of Architecture it had not been possible to work out a plan for the Architecture students to take their physics in the Physics Department. On his part, Dean Campbell felt that neither the College physics nor the Engineering course met the specific needs of the architectural students, and on their part Physics had neither space nor personnel for a special section for the architects, so they taught their own physics.
Now with the new building having two, in fact three rooms that were suitable for demonstration lectures, and an additional person, namely, Dr. Stevenson, who wished to undertake it, the whole matter warranted a new look. The upshot of the discussion was that Dr. Stevenson agreed to set up and teach a special course for the architectural students. This met their need so well that it was continued.
Another innovation which, unfortunately, did not have any such success was a short demonstration lecture course set up by Dr. Brown, meeting Tuesday and Thursday only. It carried no special science credit but did carry two hours general credit. It was designed to enable any student who cared to enroll to learn enough physics to be able to understand most articles in the daily press or over the TV or radio. With no laboratory, no problem section and only demonstration lectures that avoided Saturday and Monday classes, it was hoped it would make an appeal to the students.
It did start off propitiously, but in a couple of years students began to discover that with the 3-6 hour basis for all undergraduate classes a class carrying only 2-hour credit was not enough--or superfluous. So few would be "fool enough" to take it "just to learn" something, even on the advice of their counselors. A somewhat similar course given for three hours on a M-W-F schedule by Dr. Harold Alden in Astronomy grew tremendously. But the writer did not feel he had the time to put it on M-W-F, and he had discovered that Saturday attendance was almost out of the question, as far as students were concerned. only required courses could maintain any semblance of attendance on Saturday. So, sorrowfully, the idea was given up after a few years trial.
Of course, as the staff changed the different persons would give courses that were the same in name but really different in emphasis or method, or they would drop a previously given course and offer instead one different in title and content.
In the middle 1950's the National Science Foundation established a group of fellowships to enable high school science teachers to take a refresher year of study.
Dean James Cole of the Extension Department, later called The School Of General Studies, secured a grant which enabled the University to Offer a 9 or 12 month scholarship to high school science teachers. One Of the courses offered was physics, and E. C. Stevenson and F. L. Brown with a graduate student assistant agreed to teach it. The first offering was in 1957-58. The teachers were eager and most of them mature and the results were beyond our highest expectation. However, we concluded it would be easier for only one person to be in charge. Since Dr. Stewart had by now relieved Dr. Brown of responsibility for the General Physics Laboratories, Dr. Brown with the help of some experienced graduate assistants gave the lectures and ran the entire course until he retired in 1961.
As federally financed research projects grew in number and variety, they affected the whole University and in particular the Physics Department. It was possible to increase the staff, add new courses and new lines of research. Of the new men who came some, like Dr. Nicolas Cabrera, stayed on to become part of the regular staff. others stayed only a very few years and were replaced by still others; Chapter X names many of them.
Another major rearrangement took place after Dr. Beams retired as Chairman of Physics and after Dr. Gwathmey's death. It was decided to place "Applied Physics and Chemistry" in the School of Engineering under Dr. Robert Kuhlthau who was made Associate Dean. The name was changed to School of Engineering and Applied Science. As a result the crystal work of Dr. Gwathmey and his associates became part of the new School of Engineering and Applied Science and some projects and graduate students from Physics were also transferred to that school.
About this time a new Department of Materials Science was started in that School with Dr. Heinz G. F. Wilsdorf as chairman. His wife, Doris K. Wilsdorf, who was in solid state physics, taught in both the Physics Department and the School of Engineering and Applied Science.
Another addition to the staff from England was Dr. Alan P. Batson who soon set up a computer in the north side of the east wing of the basement. However, the demand for computer work was growing so rapidly that the space was soon crowded. So, upon the completion of Gilmer Hall, the new home of Biology and Psychology, the computer group with Dr. Batson as director was moved to larger and more appropriate quarters in the south east part of its basement, across the hall from the new quarters allotted to the Astronomy Department which was growing rapidly under the directorship of Dr. Laurence Fredrick.
This chapter was entitled 1954-61 and has already mentioned persons and events that involved later dates. We must not extend it farther, but shall conclude it with a brief statement and appreciation of the retirement dinner given to Dr. and Mrs. Brown in June, 1961.
This was held in Newcomb Hall on the evening of June 6th. It was attended by the Physics Staff and others from local faculty and friends, and by a goodly number of former students who graciously came to participate in the event. The room was tastefully decorated with many flowers, arranged by Mrs. Beams assisted by other ladies of the staff.
After dinner the Browns were presented with a beautiful large silver tray, inscribed with a very gracious product of Dr. Hoxton's generous heart and pen. They were also given a book of letters from those present at the dinner and from many who could not attend but sent their greetings for the occasion.
While the retirement dinner and that June's Finals marked the technical retirement date for Dr. Brown, it had been arranged by Dr. Cole that he would be allowed to teach the group of High School Teachers that were planning to take physics in the 1961 Summer School.
Dr. Brown was also allowed to retain a place in the physics laboratory and moved his office and books and other items into the first-floor room no. 120 that Dr. Stevenson had used for some of his research students - since Dr. Stevenson was transferring to the Engineering School and building across McCormick Road.
In 1965-66 the need for additional space led Dr. Brown to release room 120 for three graduate students in Solid State Physics. At the generous invitation of Dr. Beams, he moved his desk and file case into a corner of the large south west room on that same floor where Dr. Beams had his own office and several of his research experiments. .
This, except for a possible chapter X dealing with personnel, concludes the rambling and, considering the momentous changes that took place, the brief sketch of the growth of the Physics Department, from the year of the Rotunda fire, 1895 - the same year that is frequently used as the start of Modern Physics - to the death of Dr. Hoxton in 1966. It has been 70 years of tremendous increase in our knowledge of and-its utilization in all walks of life in Western civilization. The writer only hopes that the sketch is not replete with errors and that the events recorded will help the reader to grasp the changes taking place at the University of Virginia. It is interesting to note that Dr. Hoxton was connected with the University over the entire time except for a few years - 1898-1905 away - and that the lives of two other members of the Department, Dr. Brown and Dr. Beams, span all or practically all of this fascinating period. A wonderful three score and ten years to be alive.
The main objective in this chapter is to say a bit more about the people who in one capacity or another from chairman to janitor have been directly associated with, nay, have been the Physics Department since 1922. Yet, not all of those involved will appear here for two main reasons: first, a good many have been, not only mentioned, but biographed as fully as seems appropriate in this short account, and second; there are some who have undoubtedly been missed and others whose identification with the Department was so short or whose contribution was so small as to appear not to warrant inclusion in any but a definitive account. One other group appears very little: the student group. Some who were outstanding have been mentioned already, but for even the names of most of them one must consult the University records; it is much too long to be included here. In general, the personnel, will be treated in four groups: 1, Faculty; 2, Shop and instrument men; 3, Secretaries, Librarians and Store Keepers; and 4, Janitors or Custodians.
Most of this group have been included at one or more places already, at least as regards those who were active members prior to 1954. Probably through the years the majority of the faculty members have taken one or both undergraduate and graduate degrees elsewhere than at the University of Virginia. But there have been a few who have taken all degrees here and I wish to begin with them, in particular: E. C. Stevenson, F. L. Hereford, W. D. Whitehead, Stephan Berko, and Robert Coleman.
Stevenson has been mentioned perhaps enough. He transferred to the Engineering School in 1961.
Frank Loucks Hereford came to the University from Lake Charles, La., and at once showed his interest in physics, taking his B.A. in 1943. He was a National Research Fellow 1945-47 and completed his Ph.D. in 1947. A physicist at Bartol Research Foundation from 1947 to 1949, then back here as Associate Professor 1949-52, and Professor since 1952.
He was appointed as Chairman of the Physics Department in 1962--but was immediately made Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences instead, and became Provost of the University in 1966. However, he continues his interest in teaching and research.
Walter Dexter Whitehead, Jr., a native of Virginia, became interested in physics and took the B. S. in 1944, and M.S. in 1946. He was then a Carnegie Institute Fellow 1947-48, an Atomic Energy Commission Fellow 1948-49, taking his Ph.D. at the University of Virginia in 1949; Bartol Foundation 1949-53, Assistant Professor, North Carolina State 1953-55, called back to U.Va. as Assistant Professor in 1956, and made an Associate Professor in 1957, and Full Professor in 1961. He was made Director of the Center for Advanced Studies in 1965, in the drive to make the University a Center of Excellence.
Stephen Berko came to the University of Virginia from war-devastated Bulgaria as a refugee under the auspices of the Hillel Foundation. He was the son of a physician and both his father and mother had been liquidated by the Nazis. He had an excellent secondary education, and had apparently entered the University of Munich when his career was interrupted by World War II. While acquainted with several European languages, he had little knowledge of English. Since he was interested in the physical sciences, he was enrolled in my physics 3-4 his first year. From the start he made fine progress, and learned English rapidly making a fine college record. He came to the attention of Dr. C. J. Davisson who wanted him to grade his papers and enthusiastically recommended him for graduate work and a Scholarship. He completed the B.S. in 1950 and received the Ph.D. in 195a. While a graduate student he conducted an advanced undergraduate class among whose students were Robert and Joseph Coleman, twins of a professor of chemistry at the Textile Institute. They completed their undergraduate work with honor. Joe went into medicine, and Bob continued with his Ph.D. in Physics here. Berko was a Fellow at Princeton 1953-54, and that Fall returned to the University of Virginia as Assistant Professor. He became associate Professor in 1957. In the Fall of 1961 he was called to Brandeis University as Professor of Physics. Berko was a good teacher, an excellent experimentalist, and very good in theory, too, an all around top notch man.
Robert Vincent Coleman, as already indicated, was a physics major who in his undergraduate years did outstanding work, receiving the B.A. in 1953. He continued his graduate work immediately, receiving the Ph.D. in 1956. The years 1956-58 he spent in the Research Department of General Motors. He was invited back to the University of Virginia as Assistant Professor in 1958, and advanced to Associate in 1960, and to Full Professor in 1964. He was especially interested in Solid State Physics.
Another interesting group began with the meeting of Dr. Alan Gwathmey, of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Virginia, with Dr. Nicolas Cabrera in Paris in 1952. Dr. Gwathmey had heard about him while in Bristol, England earlier that summer. Nicolas Cabrera had taken his secondary and college training in Madrid, but when Franco came to power the family moved to Paris, and Nicolas did his graduate work at the Sorbonne, receiving the Doctor's Degree in Physics in 1944. He remained in Paris except for an interval, 1947-50, when he was a research associate at Bristol, England.
After meeting Dr. Cabrera in Paris in 1952, Dr. Gwathmey told Dr. Beams about him, and they persuaded the President to invite him to come to the University of Virginia as associate professor in Solid State in both physics and chemistry. In 1954 he was made Professor of Physics, and in 1962 he succeeded Dr. Beams as Chairman of the Department of Physics.
Through his contacts in Bristol, several men came to the University of Virginia during the next few years. First was Dr. John Plaskett, who had a Ph.D. from Bristol and came to U.Va. in Solid State as assistant Professor in 1954. He became associate in 1962, and then decided to return to England.
Dr. Alan Percy Batson completed his Ph.D. in 1956 at Bristol University, came to U.Va. as instructor in 1958 and became assistant professor in 1959, and associate professor and Director of the Computer Science Center in 1962. As already mentioned, this was first housed in the northeast rooms in the basement of the physics building, but moved to the southeast basement of Gilmer Hall when that was completed. This important center has developed rapidly under Dr. Batson. There had been, and still are, other groups working in the field of Computer Science, notably one under the leadership of Dr. Otis Updike, in the School of Engineering.
Dr. John Wesley Mitchell was another person of the Bristol group. While born in New Zealand, and taking his early schooling there, he did his graduate work at Oxford, securing the Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1938. He made fundamental contributions to the understanding of the photographic image and had already an outstanding reputation when he came to the University of Virginia as Full Professor in 1959. He returned to England on a "leave of absence" for part of the years 1962-63, but then returned to U. Va. also in the field of Solid State.
Dr. John Wescott Stewart graduated from Princeton in 1949, took the M.A. at Harvard in 1950, and the Ph.D. there in 1954 working in the field of High Pressure under Dr. Bridgman. He came to the University of Virginia in 1954 as a Research Fellow, and made an Assistant Professor in 1956. He has studied the properties of matter under the combined fields of high pressure and low temperature. He took over the management of the undergraduate laboratories and laboratory manual from Dr. Brown in 1956, and since Dr. Brown's retirement he has assumed several other of Dr. Brown's responsibilities. He is also interested in astronomy and meteorology, and has sponsored a chapter of the undergraduate physics honor society of Sigma Pi Sigma here at the University of Virginia.
The Fall of 1955 Dr. Walter Aaron came to the University of Virginia as assistant professor in nuclear physics; but the things didn't work out as expected, and he returned to California in the summer of 1960.
Dr. Morris E. Rose came the Fall of 1961 as Professor of Theoretical Atomic and Nuclear Physics from Oak Ridge. He had received the Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1935, he had had experience at Princeton, University of Illinois, and Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, and had made a reputation with his work on "Internal Conversion". He passed away from heart attacks the Fall of 1967.
Rogers C. Ritter with a Ph.D. From the University of Tennessee in 1961 and experience at Oak Ridge came to the University of Virginia as assistant professor the Fall of 1961. He was advanced to associate professor in 1964. His field is experimental nuclear physics.
Only a few of the most outstanding persons to join the staff after 1961 will be listed. Many of the rather numerous persons to join the group after that were here for only a short time, and as stated, the avowed terminal date of this account is with 1961.
However, two additional names will be included. Dr. Lawrence Cranberg, with a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1949 and experience at Los Alamos, came to the University of Virginia in 1963. Under his leadership a laboratory for high energy atomic and nuclear physics was built on Mt. Jefferson, as has already been mentioned. He is its Director.
In 1963 Dr. Doris K. Wilsdorf joined both the Physics Department and the Engineering School. She had won her Ph.D. in 1947 from the University of Gottingen. Her field is solid state and she directed most of the experimental work in this field during the leave of absence of Dr. Mitchell - 1963-64. She has students in both College Graduate School and in Engineering. She was promoted to University Professor in 1966.
Before closing this section, we should go back and pick up two men who were not only graduate students but helped in other ways.
William Gower Pettus was a graduate with a B.S. from Lynchburg College. He secured his M.S. in August, 1953; was an instructor at Lynchburg College 1952-54, and instructor at U.Va. 1954-55, and 55-56 receiving his Ph.D. in June 1956. He did not return to Lynchburg College but having majored in nuclear physics he joined the Lynchburg Atomic Energy Division of the firm Babcock and Wilcox.
The second is Melvin E. Cruser, Jr., with a B.A. from Washington and Lee, who was a graduate student from 1947-50 receiving the M.A. here in August, 1950. Mr. Cruser had shown himself so adaptable that he filled various posts during the next five years. When the secretary, Miss Lipscomb, needed help with the storeroom and supplies, Mr. Cruser took that on. He also assisted with the setting up of the lecture demonstrations and repair of the equipment. And from time to time he assisted other members of the faculty. He also endeavored to carry on some further class work and study of his own.
When the move from Rouss and Cocke to the new laboratory was contemplated in 1954, Mr. Cruser was placed in charge of that move and saw it through. After we were in and fairly well settled, he accepted a position with the Navy in the Norfolk-Virginia Beach area carrying out research experiments for them.
We have mentioned Mr. Arthur Weed who was here already in 1922; and Fritz Linke and Phillip Sommer, both of whom came in the 1930's. Mr. Linke was due to retire in 1967, but he was such a valuable person, especially to Dr. Beams, as they had worked together for over thirty years, that Dr. Beams secured a special arrangement whereby Mr. Linke would continue to work on his Government contract for part time, namely, three days a week. Mr. Sommer retired before his age required it, and he and his wife went back to Germany to live in 1966. Some short-time men were involved over the years, but when we moved into the new laboratory in 1954 and the number of graduate students and staff increased, it became essential to secure more shop men. Among these might be mentioned
Werner Frewer, now (1967) shop supervisor
George Bartsch
Hans Gerstl
Alexander Zink
It also became evident, especially after Mr. Cruser left, that one or more technicians were needed. The first of these was Mr. Luther A. Dorrier, Jr., who became research assistant to Dr. Beams, and continued in that position for several years.
Dr. Beams, Dr. Snoddy and everyone else who needed glassware did their own glass blowing; in fact, it was one of the techniques needed by all who experimented in physics or chemistry and was taught in the "research preliminaries" course along with other skills. Of course some persons developed real ability and others very little. But gradually it became apparent that it would be more efficient to employ a skilled glass blower than to use the time of an expert experimentalist, especially if there was enough work to keep the glass blower busy. So as the demand increased for more and at times more complicated glass work, and through contracts money became available to pay one, a glass blower was added to the staff. Of several who started to learn under an expert teacher who came to the University of Virginia for the purpose, a Mr. Earl E. Morris, Jr., became an outstanding one and has continued as T.A. (technical assistant) in that capacity.
From time to time other T.A.'s in electronics etc. have been added, the most recent being Mrs. Elizabeth Burnet in the field of mechanical drawing and technical illustration.
Again upon Mr. Cruser's departure, Dr. Stevenson and Dr. Brown were faced with the need to secure competent assistance to set up and maintain the lecture demonstrations and the apparatus needed there and in the general laboratory, for now there were more sections of lecture as well as of laboratory. Both had elsewhere worked with African Americans who had become highly competent in this field, and it seemed worth a try here. With the cooperation of the University Employment Service a young African American, Joseph Johnson, who had a good high school record, was secured and Drs. Brown and Stevenson set themselves to teach him. At first he was interested, learned rapidly, and seemed to be the right person but soon two major difficulties arose. He did not like to study or even read over the texts involved in the courses, and second, he was used to working with a group in the funeral home his brothers operated, so that when Brown and Stevenson stopped their intensive training he did not continue to improve and go it alone. It became necessary to release him to return to the group work to which he was accustomed.
Others were tried as replacements, including a graduate student by the name of Joel Evans, but it was not until one of the already employed T.A.'s, Mr. Marvin Reese, was transferred to this position that a satisfactory solution was found.
Another T.A., Mr. David Southall, became an electron microscope expert.
We have in the previous chapters indicated the changes from no secretary in 1922, when everyone wrote his own letters, to the twelve-year period just prior to 1954 when Miss Lipscomb was secretary, Librarian and, except for Mr. Cruser's help, stock room attendant as well.
During Miss Lipscomb's vacations and other absences, Miss Anne Marvin or Mrs. "Mickey" Murphy (Mrs. Theordore) generally substituted for her.
With the Physics Department move to its new quarters in 1954, and with the rapid increase in the number of graduate students and consequent load all around, the secretarial duties increased too. Also in the new building the stock room was two floors below the offices and library, so, as already mentioned, the secretary was no longer involved in the stock room, and later even the library duties were assigned to a librarian.
If my memory serves me, Mrs. Gloria Reid became the new secretary in 1954. She was an Australian by birth who had met and married Mr. Reid when he was stationed in Australia with the armed forces. She was a trained secretary with experience who soon learned to care for the library too. Her office was the telephone central and from it she would ring the party called. At that time it was felt to be important to have someone on duty from 8:30 to 5:00 p.m. and so it was necessary to secure relief for her. As the secretarial duties increased enormously almost at once she needed an assistant in the office. The secretaries did not leave for lunch at the same time and if both needed to be away some graduate student was pressed into service to answer the phone. This was simple as the library is adjacent to the two secretarial offices.
The first assistant to Mrs. Reid was Miss Sandra Cumbie, a highly trained secretary who had recently moved to Charlottesville. In a few years when Mrs. Reid resigned Miss Cumbie became head secretary. Miss Lois Lovern, a native of Charlottesville with secretarial training became the assistant and was an apt pupil at learning the several requirements of the position, so that when Miss Cumbie became Mrs. Joseph Pulumbo, Miss Lovern was fully capable of taking over the head position. Then Miss Arline Collins, who was already an experienced secretary, joined the staff. Later she became Mrs. Elton McDaniel.
It was about this time that various persons came to be acting librarians.
The secretarial staff grew as several professors requested and secured private secretaries. Also special receptionist and accounts secretaries have been added as the value of special research awards has grown into the six-figure sum so that, for the 1967-68 session, the total is eleven persons on the secretarial staff.
One of the duties of the early secretaries in Rouss was to issue supplies from the stock room. In the new quarters this was not possible. At first Mr. Cruser had this responsibility but when he left in 1955 a special person was secured for this position. Mr. Joseph W. Acree (Pat) has been the storekeeper from that time. Very soon he took over most of the ordering of supplies and then the accounting involved was also centered in his office.
Again the duties grew rapidly from the start so that soon he. needed a secretary, an assistant and private phone lines. One of his first assistants was John A. Breeden, the present assistant is Layton L. Gibson (Bill). He has also added a bookkeeper.
"Old John" was the one and only janitor and man of "all work" which was not very much in 1922 nor for some years thereafter, so that he had plenty of time to run errands and polish the brass front of Dr. Hoxton's Model T Ford. Unfortunately, Old John did not have a very keen eye for dirt in corners or cobwebs but he was genial and good-hearted man and tried to do what he was asked to do.
He was followed by others who served longer or shorter periods. One of these was Lee Spears, a tall strong African American who had a fine disposition. Another was Walter Winfree, all of them interesting persons
Finally, Milar Carter, always called "Jacie" became janitor. By this time the duties had increased greatly because of the number of graduate students so that the whole building, all three floors of it, were in constant need of attention. The duties of "errand boy" to take or bring messages from. Bursar, Registrar and President's office were almost entirely replaced by a regular daily University Messenger Service. Jacie had a quick eye for dust and dirt and was and still is a first-class custodian. When the new building was ready, Dr. Beams with the hearty backing of the entire staff requested that Jacie be transferred to its office and library floor. This was granted and all who have known Jacie think and speak highly of him.
When Physics expanded over into the lower floor of the Mechanical Laboratory right across the Lawn from Rouss in about 1935 they took a vested interest in the janitor of that building, but he was never so intimately connected with the Physics Staff and the names of those men will not even be listed.
But when Physics moved to McCormick Road four men, one for each floor, were needed. The men on the lower three floors changed from time to time and some of the group did not stay long and will not be named. The first group, with their working hours were:
Top Floor "Jacie" Carter, 7:30 a.m. - 4:30 p. m.
Second Floor Lacy Brown, 12:30 p-m. 8:00 p. m.
First Floor Carl Harris, 12:30 p.m. 8:00 p. m.
Basement Philip Johnson, 7:30 a.m. - 4:30 p. m.
The 12:30 - 8:00 p.m. hour needed especially on first and second floors allowed cleaning class rooms and shop and certain other areas after the classes were out or work hours over. Jacie cleaned the offices before the people arrived in the morning or when he could get to them. Sometime in the 1950's the title was changed from Janitor to Custodian, but the pay did not increase in the same proportion as the prestige was expected to. Later William Brown took over second floor, John Ford first and Melvin James the basement. Jacie is still on the third floor.
This post script, like the first, is written after the author had read Dr. Hoxton's historical summary in his 1947-48 annual report to President Darden. It has two main purposes in addition to a further acknowledgement of the author's debt to Dr. Hoxton, Dr. Beams and others.
The first purpose of this post script is to point out once again, even as Dr. Hoxton did, that the financial resources that have made each advance possible have come, for the most part, from outside the Commonwealth of Virginia or at least it is these gifts from outside that have inspired and activated the Commonwealth to increase its support.
In 1928, as Dr. Hoxton's history clearly points out, it was a grant by the General Education Board that made it possible to invite Dr. Beams to come back to the University of Virginia, with the resulting growth and development of Research Work and Graduate Studies. And it was the establishment of the DuPont fellowships at about the same date that attracted fine graduate students to U. Va., especially from the South.
Later it was Federal contracts for research, secured by Beams and Snoddy on the basis of work they had already done, that carried the financial load from 1938 to 1946.
In the 1950's it was the generous gift of Mr. Taylor of General Motors that induced the State to erect the New Physics Laboratory on McCormick Road.
In the 1960's and even more so in 1966-68 it is Federal or national money that is largely responsible for the present great expansion. Mayhap this is nearly always the pattern, but it certainly has been the pattern here.
The second purpose of this post script is to record the most recent award of many accolades that have been bestowed on Dr. J. W. Beams for his outstanding research. At the end of December 1967 Dr. Beams was named one of twelve scientists to receive the National Science Metal for 1967. The actual presentation is to be made by the President of the United States, L. B. Johnson, early in 1968.
The award to Dr. Beams is "for his development and continued improvement of his ultracentrifuges". Their application in the fields of Medicine, Engineering, National Defense and many applications in Physics itself have been outstanding.
It is indeed a source of satisfaction to all of us that this recognition of his lifetime work is being made while he is still active and productive.
F.L.B.