Guide to the Robert Vose Langmuir Papers, 1941-1990

Processed by Charlotte E. Erwin; machine-readable finding aid created by Brooke Dykman Dockter
Archives
California Institute of Technology
1200 East California Blvd.
Mail Code 015A-74
Pasadena, CA 91125
Phone: (626) 395-2704
Fax: (626) 793-8756
Email: archives@caltech.edu
URL: http://archives.caltech.edu
© 1998
California Institute of Technology. All rights reserved.

Guide to the Robert Vose Langmuir Papers, 1941-1990

Archives



California Institute of Technology

Pasadena, California

Contact Information:

  • Archives
  • California Institute of Technology
  • 1200 East California Blvd.
  • Mail Code 015A-74
  • Pasadena, CA 91125
  • Phone: (626) 395-2704
  • Fax: (626) 793-8756
  • Email: archives@caltech.edu
  • URL: http://archives.caltech.edu
Processed by:
Charlotte E. Erwin
Date Completed:
October 3, 1996
Date Updated:
July 1998
Encoded by:
Brooke Dykman Dockter
© 1998 California Institute of Technology. All rights reserved.

Descriptive Summary

Title: Robert Vose Langmuir Papers,
Date (inclusive): 1941-1990
Creator: Langmuir, Robert Vose (1912-1993)
Extent: Linear feet: 1
Repository: California Institute of Technology. Archives.
Pasadena, California 91125
Language: English.

Administrative Information

Access

Collection is open for research.

Publication Rights

Copyright has not been assigned to the California Institute of Technology Archives. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of the Archives. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the California Institute of Technology Archives as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item, Box and file number], Robert Vose Langmuir Papers, Archives, California Institute of Technology.

Biography

Langmuir, Robert Vose (1912-1993) PHYSICIST, ELECTRICAL ENGINEER
Caltech Professor of Electrical Engineering, 1952-1980; Caltech Assistant Professor of Physics, 1950-1952; Caltech Senior Research Fellow, 1948-1950; Caltech alumnus (Ph.D., 1943).
Born December 20, 1912, in White Plains, New York, Langmuir received his A.B. from Harvard College in 1935. From 1939 to 1942, he worked for Consolidated Engineering Corporation of Pasadena on the development of the first commercial mass spectrometer. In 1942, he took a position with General Electric Company in Schenectady, New York, where he helped to develop CW magnetrons for jamming enemy radar during World War II. After the war, he invented another mass spectrometer, the omegatron, for which he was awarded the patent. With Pollock and Elder, he designed and constructed the first synchrotron to operate in the U.S., the 70 MeV. With this team, he was the co-discoverer in 1947 of synchrotron radiation and wrote the pioneering paper which provided experimental verification (Physical Review 74 (1948)). In 1948, Langmuir returned to Caltech to participate in the building of the 1.5 BeV synchrotron (1948-1960). At Caltech, he taught courses in electricity and magnetism, and in electronics, while conducting research in various topics in applied physics and engineering.

Scope and Content

The Robert Vose Langmuir papers document only a small portion of Langmuir's work. Notably absent is material on the Caltech synchrotron. Files include technical reports from the General Electric period, with an acccount of the discovery of synchrotron radiation by Pollock; patent documents beginning in 1945; course notes and problem sets from Caltech; and a selection of research and writing projects from the 1940s through 1990.

 

SECTION I: WAR WORK/GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY

 

General Electric Company

Box Box 1, Folder 1.1

Technical reports 1941-1948

Folder 1.2

Delay lines 1943

 

Magnetron work

Folder 1.3

1944-1946

Folder 1.4

Photos, negatives, technical drawings

 

SECTION II: PATENT MATERIALS

Box Box 1, Folder 1.5

Patent materials 1945-1976

Folder 1.6

Patent dispute, mass spectrometer 1950-1957

 

SECTION III: CALTECH MATERIAL

Box Box 1, Folder 1.7

Lindvall, Fred 1958-1965

 

Course notes

Folder 1.8

Electromagnetic Waves and Fields 1960-1961

Folder 1.9

Electrical engineering, misc.

 

SECTION IV: BIOGRAPHICAL

Box Box 1, Folder 1.10

Pollock, Herbert, on discovery of synchrotron radiation 1981-1982

Folder 1.11

Biographical, misc. [includes photo]

 

SECTION V: RESEARCH AND WRITINGS

 

Research and writings

Box Box 2, Folder 2.1

1940s-1950s

Folder 2.2

1960s

Folder 2.3

Pipe-line research 1967-1968

Folder 2.4

1970s

Folder 2.5

1980s-1990s

Folder 2.6

Reports/consulting 1962-1980