Word: langmuir
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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Some farsighted industrial laboratories have long since recognized the value of pure science. At the General Electric laboratories, Irving Langmuir was told by the director not to bother with practical applications, but to find out what he could about what went on inside the bulb of an incandescent lamp. Thereafter Langmuir spent three years "investigating facts," discovered some-for example, that a bulb filled with nitrogen or argon works better than an evacuated bulb-which now save electricity consumers several million dollars...
...some years Dr. Irving Langmuir of General Electric Co. has investigated the properties of monomolecular layers- that is, oil films, one molecule thick. He finds that in such layers molecules all stand on end, lined up in the same direction; that layers any number of molecules thick could be built up on a pane of glass by repeatedly dipping it in water covered with a monomolecular film. All this, however, came under the head of "pure-science" research...
Pure science gave way to practical technology when one of Dr. Langmuir's coworkers, Dr. Katharine Burr Blodgett, found that a layer of transparent liquid soap, with a thickness of one-quarter the average wavelength of white light (about 4/1,000,000 in.), made the glass to all intents and purposes invisible. Reason: glass is visible because of the light reflected from its surface; with a soap film there are two reflections, one from the glass and one from the soap; by spacing the two surfaces properly it is possible to get the "crest" of a light wave bouncing...
...manifesto of U. S. science, made public last week, was signed by 1,284 scientists, including three Nobel Laureates (Millikan of Caltech, Urey of Columbia, Langmuir of General Electric). 64 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 85 college presidents, deans, directors of industrial laboratories and experiment stations. It declared...
Nobel Prizewinner Irving Langmuir and X-ray Expert William David Coolidge of General Electric Co. received $16.000 and $21,500 respectively. General Motors' celebrated Charles Franklin ("Boss") Kettering, acknowledged father of the automobile self-starter, did not figure in the investigation because he, curiously enough, has received no star for distinguished research...