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
Box Box 1, Folder 1.1
Technical reports 1941-1948
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
Folder 1.8
Electromagnetic Waves and Fields 1960-1961
Folder 1.9
Electrical engineering, misc.
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
Folder 2.3
Pipe-line research 1967-1968
Folder 2.6
Reports/consulting 1962-1980