Finding Aid to the George C. Jaffé Papers, 1902-1962

Processed by The Bancroft Library staff

The Bancroft Library.

University of California, Berkeley

Berkeley, California, 94720-6000

Phone: (510) 642-6481

Fax: (510) 642-7589

Email: bancref@library.berkeley.edu

URL: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu

Note

Physical Sciences --Physics History --History of Science --General

finging Aid to the George C. Jaffé Papers, 1902-1962

Collection number: BANC MSS 76/210 z

The Bancroft Library

University of California, Berkeley

Berkeley, California

Contact Information:

The Bancroft Library.
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, California, 94720-6000
Phone: (510) 642-6481
Fax: (510) 642-7589
Email: bancref@library.berkeley.edu
URL: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu

Processed by:: The Bancroft Library staff
Date Completed:: ca. 1976
Encoded by:: James Lake

Collection Summary

Collection Title: George C. Jaffé Papers,

Date (inclusive): 1902-1962

Collection Number: BANC MSS 76/210 z

Creator: Jaffé, George C.

Extent: Number of containers: 2 boxes Linear feet: 1

Repository: The Bancroft Library

Berkeley, California 94720-6000

Physical Location: For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.

Abstract: Letters, mainly from fellow European physicists, many of them German, and written primarily in German; copies and/or drafts of his letters; documents and letters re professional appointments; personalia; reprints of papers; manuscript of Probability of Physics; material relating to his paper on Ludwig Boltzmann; notes, manuscripts of unpublished papers, etc.

Languages Represented: Collection materials are in German

Information for Researchers

Access

Collection is open for research.

Publication Rights

Copyright has not been assigned to The Bancroft Library. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Public Services. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The Bancroft Library 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], George C. Jaffé Papers, BANC MSS 76/210 z, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Biographical Sketch

George Cecil Jaffé was born in Moscow on January 16, 1880. He received his Ph.D. in physical chemistry at the University of Leipzig in 1903, having studied under Ludwig Boltzmann. In 1903-1904 he worked in the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, England, under J. J. Thomson, and in 1904-1905 and again in 1911-1912 he did research in the laboratory of the Curies in Paris. Resuming his work after the war, he taught first at the University of Leipzig and was then given the chair for theoretical physics at Giessen in 1926. Having been deprived of his position by the Nazi anti-semitic decrees in 1933, Jaffé was without employment until he emigrated to the United States in 1939. He taught at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, until his retirement in 1950, when he moved to Berkeley, California. He died in 1965.

Jaffé specialized in theoretical physics, but was also interested in the experimental conductivity of liquid and solid dielectrics and in the philosophy of science. He wrote two books, Handbuch der Experimental-Physik,vol. 19 (1928), and Zwei Dialoge über Raum und Zeit (1931), and many papers.

Scope and Content

The Papers in this collection were donated by Professor Jaffé's son, John L. Jaffé, to The Bancroft Library in 1976. Housed in two boxes, the collection includes letters to Jaffé, largely from prominent European physicists, covering the years 1902-1962; copies of letters by Jaffé; miscellaneous personal documents; reprints of his papers; and materials relating to his papers on Boltzmann and on probability in physics. Portraits of Jaffé have been removed to the Library's photographic collection.

The Key to Arrangement which follows describes the collection in greater detail.

box 1

Correspondence

Additional Note

Letters from colleagues, primarily written in German, arranged alphabetically by name of person or organization. Copies of Jaffé's letters are interfiled chronologically with those of the correspondent. A list of correspondents follows the Key to Arrangement.

Documents and letters re professional appointments, dismissals, promotions, etc.

Physical Description: (One folder)

Arrangement

Arranged chronologically, 1916-1951.

Miscellaneous documents, including birth certificate, marriage certificate, identification cards, materials re honorary and professional societies, passport, diplomas, etc.

box 2

Reprints of papers by Jaffé

Probability in Physics

Physical Description: (holograph MS, notes, abstract, typescript copy)

Materials re Jaffé's paper on Ludwig Boltzmann

Additional Note

(notes, abstract, holograph MS, typescript copy, minutes taken at History of Science Dinner Club, Jan. 1 9, 1960)

Miscellaneous notes, manuscripts, unpublished papers

Academic Press, Inc.

3 letters, 1949-1958

Scope and Content Note

From Kurt Jacoby.

See also Frederick Nachod.

Ankel, Wulf Emmo, 1897-

2 letters, 1958-1959

Scope and Content Note

Written while Ankel was rector of the Justus Liebig-Universität (Giessen).

Appleton, Edward Victor, 1892-1965

2 letters, 1929

Askenasy, Paul, 1869-

Letter, Sept. 15, 1930

Becker, August, 1879-

Letter, March 7, 1929

Becker, Richard, 1887-

Letter, July 16, 1925

Bijl, Hendrik Johannes van der, 1887-

Letter, March 13, 1913

Bjerknes, Vilhelm Friman Koren, 1862-1951

Letter, Nov. 5, 1915

Blumenthal, Ludwig Otto von, 1876-1944

Letter, Aug. 26, 1928

Boltzmann, Ludwig, 1844-1906

Letter, Dec. 23, 1902

Born, Max, 1882-1970

9 letters, 1931-1954

Bothe, Walther, 1891-1957

Letter, Jan. 8, 1934

Broda, Engelbert, 1910-

4 letters, 1960

Scope and Content Note

Letter, Feb. 1, is accompanied by carbon copy duplicate, annotated by Broda.

Brush, Stephen George

2 letters, 1962

Bucherer, Alfred Heinrich, 1863-1927

Letter, June 13, 1924

Curie, Marie (Sklodowska), 1867-1934

5 letters and a note, 1910-1913 and undated

Curie, Pierre, 1859-1906

5 letters, 1904-1909 and undated

Darwin, Charles Galton, 1887-1962

2 letters, 1933

Des Coudres, Theodor, 1862-1926

2 letters, 1916-1923

Dunoyer, Louis, 1880-

2 letters, 1913

Ehrenfest, Paul, 1880-1933

4 letters, 1921-1923 and undated

Scope and Content Note

Also: 2 letters by Ehrenfest's wife, T. Ehrenfest-Afanassjewa (1923).

Einstein, Albert, 1879-1955

7 letters, 1921-1954

Scope and Content Note

Also: photocopy of letter by Einstein, Jan. 30, 1939, to Jaffé's son, Hans L. Jaffé, with enclosed carbon copy of letter of reference written by Einstein on George Jaffé's behalf.

Emden, Robert, 1862-

Letter, Nov. 28, 1922

Enriques, Federigo, 1871-1949

2 letters, 1934

Evans, Herbert McLean, 1882-1971

2 letters, 1956-1960

Filon, Louis Napoleon George, 1875-1937

2 letters, 1933

Försterling, Karl, 1885-1960

Letter, Oct. 9, 1931

Franck, James, 1882-1964

4 letters, 1929-1950

Freundlich, Herbert Max Finlay, 1880-1941

2 letters, 1903-1926

Füchtbauer, Christian, 1877-1959

Letter, Oct. 17, 1928

Gans, Richard Martin, 1880-1954

19 letters, 1903-1932

Haas, Arthur Erich, 1884-1941

5 letters, 1925-1930

Heckmann, Otto, 1901-

Letter, Aug. 16, 1933

Hellinger, Ernst, 1883-

2 letters, 1930-1931

Hertz, Paul, 1881-19[40?]

7 letters, 1908-1931 and undated

Hess, Johann Jakob, 1866-

2 letters, 1935-1936

Hölder, Otto, 1859-1937

2 letters, 1903

Hund, Friedrich, 1896-

Letter, Oct. 19, 1928

Ignatowsky, Vladimir Sergeevich, 1875-

2 letters, 1929-1933

Scope and Content Note

Signed W. von Ignatowsky

Ignatowsky, W von.

See Ignatowsky, Vladimir Sergeevich

Jeans, James Hopwood, 1877-1946

Letter, Jan. 6, 1931

Jentzsch, Felix, 1882-

Letter, July 5, 1930

Joos, George, 1894-

3 letters, 1927

Kaufmann, W.

Letter, April 24, 1940

Kneser, Hans Otto, 1901-

Letter, Feb. 13, 1931

Koenig, Frederick Otto, 1902-

Letter, March 2, 1957

Ladenburg, Rudolf Walter, 1882-1952

Letter, June 27, 1928

Landau, Edmund, 1877-1938

2 letters, 1907-1908

Landé, Alfred, 1888-

3 letters, 1940

Langevin, Paul, 1872-1946

Letter, Aug. 12, 1910

Laue, Max Theodor Felix von, 1879-1960

2 letters, 1922-1923

Le Blanc, Max Julius Louis, 1865-1943

Letter, June 3, 1919

Levi-Civita, Tullio, 1873-1941

4 letters, 1930-1934

Lichtenstein, Leon, 1878-1933

4 letters, 1926-1931

Loeb, Leonard Benedict, 1891-

3 letters, 1929-1950 and undated

Lowie, Robert Henry, 1883-1957

Letter, Feb. 15, 1957

Mises, Richard Edler von, 1883-1953

4 letters, 1920-1921

Nachod, Frederick Constantine, 1913-

3 letters, 1958

Scope and Content Note

Also: carbon copy of letter by Nachod to Kurt Jacoby of the Academic Press (May 5, 1958).

Oppenheimer, J. Robert, 1904-1967

Letter, Sept. 30, 1949

Ostwald, Wilhelm, 1853-1932

2 letters, 1909 and undated

Ostwald, Wolfgang, 1883-1943

3 letters, 1930-1931

Ottes, Thomas

Letter, Sept. 20, 1934

Pauli, Wolfgang, 1900-1958

6 letters, 1930-1933

Prandtl, Ludwig, 1875-1953

2 letters, 1921

Pringsheim, Alfred, 1850-1941

Letter, Oct. 2, 1903

Regener, Erich, 1881-

3 letters, 1929-1933

Richardson, Owen Williams, 1879-1959

Card, Oct. 4, 1904

Rutherford, Ernest, 1871-1939

5 letters, 1933-1936

Schafer, Clemens, 1878-

Letter, June 30, 1930

Schrödinger, Erwin, 1887-1961

6 letters, 1928-1933

Sommerfeld, Arnold Johannes Wilhelm, 1868-1951

6 letters, 1921-1947

Springer, Ferdinand Fritz Josef Julius, 1881-

Letter, April 25, 1958

Thirring, Hans, 1888-

2 letters, 1922

Thomson, Sir Joseph John, 1856-1940

5 letters, 1903-1933

Trapesnikow, A.

Letter, March 26, 1933

Villat, Henri-René-Pierre, 1879-

2 letters, 1921-1922

Weyl, Hermann, 1885-1955

3 letters, 1922-1930

Weyl, Richard, 1912-

Letter, March 30, 1960

Whittaker, Edmund Taylor, 1873-1956

Letter, July 31, 1914

Wiener, Otto, 1862-1927

6 letters, 1914-1926

Wilson, Harold Albert, 1874-

Letter, Feb. 16, 1945

Wood, Robert Williams, 1868-1955

Letter, April 20, 1933

Zehner, Ludwig Albert, 1854-

Letter, July 31, 1936