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Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54 (1983)

Chapter: Jesse Wakefield Beams

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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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Suggested Citation:"Jesse Wakefield Beams." National Academy of Sciences. 1983. Biographical Memoirs: Volume 54. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/577.
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JESSE WAKEFIELD BEAMS December 25, 1898-July 25, 1977 BY WALTER GORDY JESSE W. BEAMS ranks among the greatest experimental physicists whom America has procluced, a group that ~nclucles such men as Joseph Henry, Robert W. Wood, and Ernest 0. Lawrence. Although he carried out many inge- nious experiments, he is best known for his development and diverse applications of the centrifuge. His experiments with the centrifuge began in the early thirties and continued until his death. Their impact on science and technology has been enormous. EARLY LIFE IN KANSAS Jesse Beams was born on a farm in Sumner County, Kansas on Christmas Day IS98. His parents were frontier people in the true American tradition of the nineteenth cen- tury. His father, Jesse WakefielcI Beams, senior, while yet a boy, went west from Kentucky, across the Mississippi River. At the age of seventeen he was driving herds of longhorn cattle from Texas to the prairies of the MidcIle West. Later, he settled on a farm in Sumner County, Kansas. Jesse's mother, Kathryn Wylie, migrated with her parents in a covered wagon from what is now West Virginia to Kansas. After a Tong and difficult journey, the family settlect south of Wichita. 3

4 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS esse was a son in his father's second family. His father's first wife cried after there were four children in the family, two boys and two girls. Sometime after her cleath, Jesse's father met Kathryn Wylie, whom he married. They hacI two chilclren, Jesse and a younger brother, Harold, who grew up to be a clistinguishecT biologist, a professor at the University of Iowa. Those who seek a genetic or social basis for outstanding achievements and academic excellence may wonder why the two children of the seconct family of Jesse Beams, Sr., reared on the same farm, grew up to be distinguished scientists ant! professors whereas none of the children of the first family, so far as T couIct learn, became known scholars or scientists; apparently, they follower! the farm life of their parents. Al- though Kathryn Wylie's family also lived on a farm, one of her brothers became a physician. Jesse's outstanding accomplishments could hardly be at- tributect to early academic opportunity. His first seven years at school were spent in a one-room schoolhouse, several miles from his isolated farm home. He walked to school, or skated when there was ice and snow. Skating on the river, he said, was the easiest way to get to school on cold clays. Although the teacher he had must have been excellent, the instruction he receiver! in the first seven grades had to be meager. Anyone familiar, as ~ am, with the one-room school knows that a single teacher of several gracles has little time for teaching any one student or even any one grade. After school there was little time for stucly because of the heavy assignments of farm "homework"—husking corn, pitching hay, and milking cows. Despite his skimpy grade-school training, Jesse went on to graduate from high school with distinction. Among Jesse's duties on the farm was the turning of a centrifuge cream separator. Can it be that his lifelong fascina- tion with the centrifuge originated from this hand-cranked

JESSE WAKEFIELD BEAMS 5 separator rather than from something he read in a book? From early childhood he was exposed to spectacular displays of natural phenomena. Many times he must have watched the swirling dust of the whirlwinds that frequently dance over the Kansas plains in summer. He certainly was deeply impressed by the awesome displays of lightning streaking over the wide Kansas skies followecT by rumbling thunder. Second in im- portance to the centrifuge in Jesse's physical experiments were those designed to gain information about electrical dis- charges, including lightning itself. While it is easy to connect Jesse Beams's remarkable experiments in physics with his early experiences on the Kansas farm, there were thousands of children brought up on farms of the western plains who uncloubtecIly participated in the same farm operations, who saw over and over again the manifestations of the same natural phenomena without being so motivated to explore them. There must have been some- thing different in the makeup of the boy Jesse that caused him to see more than the others dicI, to crave more than they to understand what he saw. Jesse Beams obtained his undergraduate training at Fair- mount College, in Wichita, where he worked at various jobs to pay his expenses. He achieved high honors and was pres- ident of his senior class. In consideration of his fascination with physical phenomena, it is not surprising that he chose physics as his major subject. In 1959 his alma mater, which had then become the University of Wichita, conferred upon Jesse the distinguished Alumnus Award. GRADUATE EDUCATION IN PHYSICS, 1921-1925 After graduation from Fairmount College in 1921, Jesse attencled the University of Wisconsin for one year anct ob- tainec3 the M.A. degree in 1922 with a major in physics. In the fall of 1922 he interrupted his graduate education to accept

BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS 6 an instructorship in physics offered him by Fred Allison, chairman of the Physics Department of Alabama Polytechnic Institute, now Auburn University. Although he remained at Auburn only one year, he greatly impressed Fred Allison with his exceptional ability as an experimentalist. Much credit must be given to Allison for the future course of Beams's career. At this critical perioc! he urger! Jesse to complete his graduate education at the University of Virginia, where he had obtained his own Ph.D. in experimental physics. No doubt Allison was greatly responsible for Jesse's being of- ferecl a teaching fellowship at the University of Virginia for 1923 and 1924 and for his decision to accept the offer. It is not surprising that Jesse chose as his thesis clirector Professor Carroll M. Sparrow, who had directed the thesis research of Fred Allison. The thesis project that Professor Sparrow assigned to Jesse may have been as exciting to him as lightning over the Kansas farm. Sparrow proposed that he measure the time interval between the arrival of the quantum and the ejection of the electron in the photoelectric effect. Although Jesse slick not achieve this objective for his Ph.D. thesis, his attempts to do so dill leacl to the development of experimental tech- niques and instruments that he and others used later for many important experiments. With light from a high- intensity spark source that was reflected from a mirror rotat- ing at high speed, he produced extremely short flashes of light for which the onset ant! duration were measured with an ingenious light-switching mechanism he developed. The light switch was a Kerr cell that hacl electrical delay lines differing in length between the activating voltage, which opener! the switch, and the spark gap, which shorted out the voltage anct thus closed the switch. This system proved capa- ble of measuring time intervals clown to a hundrect-millionth of a second. By employing liquids of very low viscosity for the

JESSE WAKEFIELD BEAMS 7 isotropic medium in the Kerr cell, he found that the switch- ing time within the cell itself could be macle negligible. He used these devices to measure, among other things, the rela- tive interval of time between the excitation and the emission of certain fluorescent spectra and the relative times of the appearance of different lines of a spectrum after excitation. THE YALE YEARS, 1926-1928 . Upon receiving the Ph.D. at Virginia in 1925, Beams was awarded a National Research Fellowship, which he hell! for two years, the first year at Virginia arch the second at Yale. He hac! the good fortune at Yale to meet anct work with Ernest 0. Lawrence, a young experimental physicist of considerable imagination and skill, who, like himself, had been reared on an isolated midwestern farm. Their elementary education, or lack of it, was quite similar. Both attended small midwestern colleges, obtained the M.A. degree from a midwestern uni- versity, and receiver! the Ph.D. degree in 1925 from an eastern university (Ernest, from Yate). But these two young physicists hacT something in common that was far more im- portant than their parallel experiences in farm life and eclu- cation. Both were Erect with insatiable curiosity about the physical worm, and both possessed exceptional talent for ex- ploring it. They were clestinec3 to become leacTing experi- mental physicists of the twentieth century. At Yale, Beams and Lawrence collaborates! on several stuclies, primarily on experiments concerned with measure- ments of short time intervals, which probably evolved from Jesse's Ph.D. research. After further refinement of the tech- niques that he clevelopecl at Virginia, Beams, with Lawrence, returned to the problem assigned to him by Professor Spar- row for his Ph.D. thesis: measurement of the time interval between the light quantum and the ejection of the electron in the photoelectric effect. By this time, physicists, including

8 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS Beams and Lawrence, had become more aware of their limi- tations with respect to gaining experimental information about the interactions of individual quanta with single elec- trons. They consequently adopted the more realistic goal of measurement of the time between impending flashes of light and the onset of photoelectric emission. Although this in- terval of time proved too short for them to measure, they were able to set definitive upper limits for the intervals. They concluded, for example, that photoelectric emission begins in less than 3 x 10-9 seconds after the beginning of illumination of a potassium hydride surface. Probably the most widely known collaborative effort that Beams and Lawrence made was their attempt to chop light quanta into segments by means of an air-driven, high-speed, rotating mirror. In a related experiment, they tried to mea- sure the length of a light Bantam ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ These experiments, though doomed to fail, were bold, suggestive ones at this stage in the development of quantum theory. Evidence that Beams and Lawrence recognized these experiments as far out on the border line of the knowable is revealed in their statement: "There is no definite information on the length of ume elapsing cturlng the process of absorption of a quantum of energy photo-electrically by an electron, and [further- more] the so-called length of a light quantum if such a concept has meaning- is equally unknown experimentally." ~ , 1 ~ 1 _ 1 · 1 · . RETURN TO VIRGINIA After the expiration of his National Research Fellowship and a year spent as an instructor at Yale, Jesse Beams re- turned to the UniversitY of Virginia in the fall of 1928 as an assocla~e processor or physics. 1 nls appointment proved to be :~ rid ~_1 ~ /.1 · · . J. W. Beams and E. O. Lawrence, "On the Nature of Light," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 13(1927):207.

J ESSE WAKEFI ELD B EAMS 9 fortunate for the university as well as for Jesse Beams. At that time, L. G. Hoxton, chairman of the Physics Department, was concerned about the state of the program of graduate studies and research in physics and was anxious to build them up. As future events proved, he coup not have clone better than to attract young Beams back to his alma mater, even at a two- rank promotion over his Yale instructorship. In his history of the Physics Department of the University of Virginia, F. L. Brown, professor of physics at the University of Virginia from 1922 to 1961, began the chapter concerning the period from 1928 to 1936 with this statement: "With the return of Dr. I. W. Beams to the University of Virginia as associate professor a new period of growth and clevelopment can truly be said to have begun."2 Increasing numbers of physics stu- clents of high quality chose Virginia as their graduate school and Beams as the director of their thesis research. These students came first from the southern states, then later from throughout the nation as Beams's reputation as a clever experimentalist spread. Two students who came early to work with him were Edward P. Ney of the University of Minnesota and I. C. Street of Harvard, both now members of the National Academy of Sciences. There were no government grants when Jesse returned to Virginia in 1928 and apparently no state funds allocatect for research in physics. At that time graduate students supported themselves by teaching the unclergraduate laboratories. For- tunately, minimal funds were requires! for research equip- ment and supplies. A year later the financial outlook was notably improved; the Du Font Company established several fellowships at the University, some of which were available for physics. About the same time, a fund for research in the physical sciences was established by the General Eclucation 2F. L. Brown, A Brief History of the Physics Department of the University of Virginia, 1922-1961 (Charlottesville: University of Virginia, 1967), ch. 5, p. 1.

10 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS Board, apparently with an agreement that the State of Vir- ginia would contribute enough to maintain the fund at a level of $45,000 a year, of which the physics (department was to receive a maximum of $1 1,670.3 Although paltry indeed in comparison with present levels of support for physics re- search, these funds in support of the ingenious experiments of Jesse Beams had an enormous impact on the development of science in this country. What influence Jesse's return had on these encouraging clevelopments in the physics program at Virginia I clo not know, but ~ suspect it was considerable. Evidence that the administration recognized Beams's worth to the University was his promotion to a full professor- ship in 1930, only five years after he receive(1 his doctorate there. Lest the reader conclude that the administrators of the University of Virginia in the predepression years differed from university administrators today in their rapid, vol- untary recognition of the worth of a young staff member, ~ shall briefly indicate how Jesse's promotion to professorship came about. According to his wife, Maxine, while Jesse was an associate professor at Virginia he received a "wonclerful offer" from another university. Though she did not mention the name of the university, T concluclect that it was somewhere in the Mid- west, near his native Kansas. The offer was so attractive that he went for an extended visit to consider it. While away he became inclined to accept the offer. Upon his return, he went to the president of the Univer- sity of Virginia to resign his position. The president re- sponded, "Young man, you are just causing me much trou- ble." Then he quickly offered to raise lessees salary and to promote him to full professorship. 3Ibid .

JESSE WAKEFIELD BEAMS 11 Having concrete evidence that his talents were appre- ciatecT by the highest levels of the university administration, Jesse never again came so close to leaving the University of Virginia, despite the many wonderful offers he received through the years. Whenever he receiver! an enticing offer with a considerably higher salary than he was receiving, Jesse wouIcI ask Maxine what he should C3O. Each time she gave him the same answer, "Jesse, you should do what you want to do, what you think is best." Each time the result was the same he refused the offer and after the decision was made, again to quote Maxine, "He was so happy." DEVELOPMENT OF THE ULTRACENTRIFUGE After 1930 Beams's principal research programs were concerned with axially rotating systems from the very, very fast to the very, very slow. This does not mean that his pro- grams lacked breadth and diversity far from it. Under his continuous cultivation the centrifuge became a family of in- struments capable of solving a variety of basic problems in chemistry and biology as well as in physics; it had many im- portant technological or inclustrial applications, from testing the strength of materials to the separation of uranium iso- topes for nuclear energy. He converted the centrifuge, capa- ble of rotating only a few thousand times a minute, to the ultracentrifuge, capable of rotating a hundred! million times a minute (A I.5 million rotations per second), with peripheral speeds greater than 2500 miles an hour. At the highest speed, the peripheries of some of the small, spherical rotors experi- ence a force of acceleration a billion times that of the earth's gravitation. The speecI is limitecI only by the strength-to- density ratio of the material composing the rotor. The rotor is magnetically suspencled in a highly evacuated container, in which the resistance to rotation is so small that the rotor, once

12 B I OGRAPH I CAL MEMOI RS set in motion and allowed to coast, would continue to rotate for many years without a driving force. To appreciate the difficulties Beams and his group had to overcome to produce the ultracentrifuges that rotate up to I.5 million times a second, let us review briefly the history of the (development of the centrifuge to the time he began work- ing with it. The simplest centrifuge is one mounted on a shaft and rotates! by some external system attached to the shaft, such as the motor-ciriven wheels of an auto or the rotating blacles of an electric fan. Alternately, a moving fluid may be used to cirive the shaft-mountecT rotor, as was done for cen- turies in waterwheels and wincimilIs. Serious difficulties are encountered when one attempts to spin the shaft-mounted rotors at speeds up to a few huncired rotations a second. These ctifficulties come from inability to make the inertial axis of the rotor coincide exactly with the axis of the shaft about which it is forced to turn. Anyone driving a car at high speeds knows the problems caused by wheel imbalance, but the wheels of a car driven at the national speed limit make only a clozen turns a seconct. In ~ SS3 a Swedish engineer, Car! G. P. cle Lava, overcame some of the clifficulties by mounting a steam-ciriven turbine rotor on a tong, flexible shaft that could shift under the force of an imbalance to the inertial axis of the turbine wheel. With this innovation, do Laval constructed a small steam turbine capable of turning at seven hundred rotations a second. Be- tween 1920 and 1925, Theodor Sveciberg, at the University of Uppsala, with meticulous design and exceptional work- manship, constructed small centrifuges mounted on non- flexible shafts, which achieved rotational speeds of the order of a thousand rotations a second. When the rotor was mounted uncler hydrogen gas at subatmospheric pressures to recluce frictional heating, Svedberg succeeded in separating out and weighing large biological molecules through the

JESSE WAKEFIELD BEAMS 13 molecular sedimentation producecl by centrifugal fields up to approximately a million times the gravitational field. His welI-known experiments won for him the Nobel Prize in 1926. The early design of the centrifuge from which Beams learned most appears to be that made by two BeIgian scien- tists, E. Henriot and E. Huguenar(l, who produced a shaft- less, air-driven rotor and suspencled it in space by a jet of air. The unattached rotor was free to spin in stable equilibrium about its own inertial axis of rotation. The suspension of the rotor in space is an application of Bernoulli's principle, which will be familiar to those who have hack a first course in physics. With this type of centrifuge, rotors an inch in diameter can be spun up to four thousand rotations a second. The prin- cipal deterrent is the frictional resistance of the air. This brief summary brings the history of the centrifuge to the time when Jesse Beams became involvec} with its develop- ment and applications. In his article, "Ultrahigh-speed Rota- tion,"4 he wrote: It was this system [referring to that of Henriot and Huguenard] that came to our attention in the late 1920's when Ernest O. Lawrence and I were looking for a way to make high-speed photographs of the breakdown of electric sparks and of other phenomena of very brief duration. By mounting a mirror on an air-driven rotor we were able to build a high- speed camera that met our needs. This was my introduction to high-speed rotations Back at Virginia in the early thirties, Jesse had begun to dream of the many important new applications that would be possible if the rotational speed of the centrifuge could be increased from the few thousand rotations a second then available to a million or more rotations a second. Conse- 43. W. Beams, "Ultrahigh-speed Rotation," Scientific American, 204(1961): 135-47. 5Ibid., pp. 138, 140.

14 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMO-IRS fluently, he concentrated on the factors that restricted the speed of previously designed rotors and began his protracted efforts to overcome them. It is interesting that his close friend and coworker, E. O. Lawrence, whom he had left at Yale, was at the same time concentrating his inventive talents on making electrons whir! in circles, faster and faster, about a common axis. At Virginia I was told that a friencIly competi- tion existed between Beams and Lawrence, who was then at Berkeley, to see which one could increase the rotational speeds of their respective systems at a faster rate. I clo not know the final score, but history seems to indicate that they both won. Jesse succeeded in increasing the speed of centri- fuge rotations a thousandfoIcI, from a few thousand! rotations a second to more than a million rotations a second. Beams realizer! that the rotor must be enclosed in a rela- tively high vacuum if his model was to achieve higher rota- tional speeds than the previous "ultra" centrifuges. The high vacuum wouIc3 also eliminate the frictional heating of the liquicT solutions, which seriously interfered with the sedi- mentation experiments. In his first designs the rotor was suspenclec! in an evacuated container by a flexible shaft that passed through a heavy oil seal to the outsicle, where it was attached to an air-driven turbine. The flexible shaft coup shift its position slightly, thus allowing the rotor to spin about its own inertial axis, as in the system of cle Laval. Because of the externally rotating parts, this mode! was far from friction- less, but it diet eliminate the troublesome problem of fric- tional heating of the samples in the rotor, ant! it did permit rotors as much as a foot in diameter to be spun thousands of rotations a second. Beams stated that one of his most difficult problems was the clevelopment of a practical, vacuum-tight oil gland through which the rotating shaft wouIct pass. Once this problem was solved, the design became a mode} for many commercial centrifuges for separation of molecules in solu-

lESSE WAKEFIELD BEAMS 15 tion. In 1961 Beams stated that ultracentrifuges of this gen- eral type had been the "workhorses" of molecular sedimen- tation experiments in this country for twenty-five years.6 Although this evacuated, shaft-supported ultracentrifuge proved to be enormously useful, it was not the ultimate one that Jesse was seeking. His desired ultracentrifuge was one in which the spin rate would be limited only by the tensile strength of the rotor itself. To reach this ultimate limit, Jesse knew that the rotor must spin in a very high vacuum and that it must not be impeded by a supporting shaft. About 1934 he and his associates began to experiment with magnetic field support of a rotor that was constructed of, or implanted with, a ferromagnetic material. The field of an electromagnet, located outside and directly above the evacuated container, could penetrate the walls of the container and lift the rotor. This ferromagnetic rotor wouIct seek the region of strongest field, that in line with the magnet's core, and, when spinning freely, would also seek to rotate about its own inertial axis of symmetry. Consequently, Jesse cleverly hung the cylindrical core of the external electromagnet by a flexible wire in a loose-fitting oil container so that the spinning ferromagnetic rotor could pull the axis of the supporting magnetic field exactly into line with its own axis of rotation. This feature in the design solved the troublesome problem of stabilization of the spin axis at very high rotational speeds but other prob- lems remained to be solved. A symmetrical rotor completely stabilized along a vertical axis could still shift up or down along this axis if the critical balance between the lifting magnetic field and the gravita- tional pull was not maintained exactly. Beams and his group first solved this problem by focusing a horizontal light beam across the rotor onto a photoelectric cell. If the rotor moved 6Ibid., p. 140.

16 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS slightly upward or downward, the light intensity on the photoelectric cell would increase or decrease in such a way as . to produce a correcting current in the electromagnet that would restore the original position. In later models they achieved stabilization with a conducting Too p placed above the rotor. if the rotor should move upward toward the loop, the current would increase; if it should move downward, the loop current would decrease. A servomechanism connected to the loop sent a correcting signal to the electromagnet. With the rotor thus stably suspended entirely by exter- nally applied fields in its closed, evacuated container, the only remaining problem, that of finding a satisfactory method of spinning the rotor without introducing the mechanical driv- ing shaft, was solved elegantly when Beams and his associates constructed the rotor in such a way that it could be driven by electromagnetic induction fields produced by "field" coils outside the container. In effect, the rotor became the turning armature of a synchronized induction motor. This was the ultimate ultracentrifuge of which Jesse had dreamed. It would spin rotors ranging in diameter from less than a thousandth of an inch to more than a foot, and rang- ing in weight from a billionth of a pound to more than a hundred pounds. The rotors could be spun without detect- able instability ("steeping tops") to speeds of more than a million rotations a second, speeds at which they would ex- plode under the enormous centrifugal fields of more than a billion G that could be easily produced. The resistance to spin was due almost entirely to residual air in the container. With the vacuums easily obtainable, this amount was so small that a freely coasting rotor would lose only one revolution per second of speed in an entire day. So little was the resistance, that by painting a spherical rotor with one side dark (absorb- ing) and one side light (reflecting), Jesse was able to increase

JESSE WAKEFIELD BEAMS 17 the speed simply by shining a light beam on the spinning rotor. He thus achieved a new and sensitive measure of light pressure. This completely stabilized, almost resistanceless rotor developed at Virginia under Jesse Beams's guidance macle possible many new experiments. Although the instrument was used in other laboratories, some of the more significant applications were carried out by Beams and his group at Virginia. For example, Beams was the first to succeed in separating atomic isotopes with a centrifuge. I shall give further details about this later. By driving the rotors to explo- sive speeds, he and his group usecI the new ultracentrifuge for extensive measurements of the strength of materials. Of particular importance was their finding that thin metallic films (with thickness of the order of atomic dimensions) were proportionally much stronger than the corresponding bulk metals. They found, for example, that the tensile strength of a silver film thinner than 0.000025 cm is thirty times that of the bulk silver. Extensive application of the ultracentrifuge is maple in the purification of materials in solution by the sedimentation process and in the separation of organic and biological mole- cules and measurement of their molecular weight. Such mea- surements as these had been macle with earlier centrifuges, but the new Beams ultracentrifuge macle the separations more complete and the measurements more precise. The centrifugal fields of the Beams ultracentrifuge proved to be sufficiently large to produce sedimentation in all known substances in either the gaseous phase or in liquic! solution. It was thus able to purify almost any known substance that can exist in a liquid or a gaseous phase at a temperature ranging from that of liquid helium to well above room temperature. Molecular weights can be measured to a precision of much

8 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS better than one percent in a range from fifty to more than a million molecular weight units.7 It requires little imagination to visualize the widespread chemical and biological applica- tions of such a tool. GAS CENTRIFUGE CONCENTRATION OF ATOMIC ISOTOPES. ESPECIALLY THOSE OF URANIUM The Beams contribution that is likely to have an enor- mous eventual impact on the industry and the economy of this and other nations is his pioneering use of the ultracentri- fuge for separation of atomic isotopes, especially those of uranium. Sir J. }. Thomson invented the first atomic-beam mass spectrometer in 1907 anct five years later used it to show that neon consists of two stable isotopes, 20Ne ant! 22 Ne. Then F. W. Aston, one of his stuclents, greatly improved this type of mass spectrometer and used it to measure the masses of most of the stable isotopes. Other scientists among them A. ]. Dempster, K. T. Bainbridge, anct A. O. Nier further refined the beam-cleflection type of mass spectrometer for precise measurements of all known stable isotopes and for concentration of certain isotopes in very small quantities for important tracer studies. This method was recognized as in- adequate, however, for the large-scale concentration of the heavier isotopes needled for inclustrial uses. The possibility of using the centrifuge for isotopic separa- tion was proposed by F. A. Lindemann and F. W. Aston as early as ~ 9 ~ 9. Several physicists, including Aston, followed their proposal with theoretical papers and experimental ef- forts to separate isotopes by centrifugal methods. All the attempts failed until 1937, when Beams and his students succeeded with his newly developed ultracentrifuge in sepa- rating 35Ci and 37 C} in chlorine gas. To justify his use of the 75. W. Beams, "High Centrifugal Fields," The Physics Teacher, I (1963):103-7.

JESSE WAKEFIELD BEAMS 19 centrifuge for isotopic separation after others had met with failure and abandoned it, Jesse said: "This seemed worth- while because according to theory the separation factor should depend principally upon the differences in the masses of the isotopes rather than upon their absolute values so that the method, if successful, could separate the isotopes of the heavier as well as the lighter felements]."8 In his early history of isotopic separation with the gas centrifuge, Beams further wrote: "Soon after the announce- ment of uranium fission by neutrons in March 1939, the writer and L. B. Snoddy, at the University of Virginia, like many other workers, became interested in the separation of 235 U and 238 U isotopes."9 For their initial work they obtained a small grant-in-aid (March 1940) from the Carnegie Institu- tion of Washington and later, in 11940 and 1941, grants total- ing $6,353.57 from the Naval Research Laboratory. With this - modest support, in 1941 Beams and his group succeeded in making the first separation of uranium isotopes with the gas centrifuge. After the formation of the Manhattan Project, governmental support of experimental work on centrifugal separation of uranium isotopes increased, as did the restric- tions for security of the projects. Throughout the war, the project under Beams's direction was maintained at Virginia, although work was started at other places. ~ shall outline briefly the methods that evolved from these early efforts at 235 U concentration. Rapidly spinning cylin- drical tubes were used to centrifuge circulating columns of UFO gas. These tubes were vertical, and the temperature was maintained somewhat higher at the lower ends than at the upper ends. Convection currents circulated up the center of the tubes and down along the outside wails. The centrifugal J. W. Beams, Early History of the Gas Centrifuge Work in the U.S.A. (Charlottesville: University of Virginia, 1975), p. 2. 9Ibid., p. 15.

20 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS forces increased the 235 UF6 concentration along the axis and the 238 UF6 along the outer walls of the tubes. The concen- trated samples Of 235 UFO were drawn off from the axial center of the tubes and passed on to other tubes where the concen- tration was increased further. This process was repeater! in a series of tubes until the 235 UF6 tract reached the desires! con- centration. To provide the desired capacity, parallel systems of tubes were arranged. Details of the system may be founcI elsewhere.l° Near the end of WorIct War Il. the U.S. Army clecidec3 to adopt gaseous diffusion as the principal method of separa- tion of uranium isotopes. Consequently, support of the gas centrifuge project was terminated in January 1944. During the following decade, work on the project was dormant, ac- cording to Beams, primarily because of strict security cIas- sif~cation. Work on the method proceecled, however, in Germany and in Russia. A team of Germans and Russians, working in Russia, apparently ma(le substantial progress in simplification of the technique. Dr. G. Zippe, a leading member of the team, an Austrian who hacT been allowed to return to Germany, ciescribec! the work in an interview with M. Shutte, who reported it to K. Brewer of the Naval Re- search Laboratory. Possibly because of reported progress in other countries, the centrifuge method was reappraised in this country in the late ~ 940s, and funds were made available to reactivate the project on a small scale at the University of Virginia. A. R. KuhIthau, who had worked on the project during the war, was given responsibility for obtaining person- nel and getting the work started. He was instrumental in bringing Zippe to Virginia in August 1958 to work with the project until tune 1960, when he returned to Germany. This ~° l. W. Beams, A. C. Hagg, and E. V. Murphree, Development in Centrifuge Separa- tion, Report 5230, AEC, Washington, D.C., 1951.

JESSE WAKEFIELD BEAMS 2 association allowed the Virginia group to become familiar with the Russian experiments macle during the period when gas centrifuge work was inactive in this country. To summa- rize ~ quote from Beams's account: While Zippe was still at Virginia, Dr. Ralph Lowry, who was soon to follow Kuhlthau as director when the latter became associate provost of the University, and Dr. Alwyn Lapsley joined the Virginia group and together they set about to assemble and utilize all of the advantages of their own, the Zippe and all other known techniques. As a result it soon became clear (to a number of optimists) that the gas centrifuge might possibly eventually become a competitor with the diffusion method. The progress made at Virginia soon persuaded the AEC to add a group at Oak Ridge and one at the AIR Research Company in California to the project also to shift the responsibility for the project from the Division of Research to the Produc- tion Division. The wholehearted cooperation of the three contractors to- gether with the amazing developments in the method since that time is striking testimony not only to the wisdom of this action but to the adminis- trative skill and devotion to excellence on the part of the directors and staffs of the three projects as well as the AEC staff that has had the AEC administrative responsibility. After his formal retirement at the University of Virginia in 1969, Beams continued to work with the gas centrifuge program as a consultant to the overall program of the AEC, as well as to the project at Virginia. He had the satisfaction of seeing the process brought to the point of acceptance by our government as a major source Of 235 U concentration for our nation's nuclear energy requirements. In April 1977, three months before [esse's cleath, President Carter authorized the conversion to the gas centrifuge process of a large-scale plant at Portsmouth, Ohio, originally planned in the mid 1970s as an expansion of the gaseous diffusion facility. This first large-scale gas centrifuge separation plant in the United States is uncler construction at the time of this writing ~ ~ 9801. t~ I. W. Beams, Early History of the Gas Centrifuge, p. 39.

22 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS Gas centrifuge plants for 235 U enrichment are already in operation or under construction in Europe. The primary considerations that lee! to the decision by our government to construct its first centrifuge plant for 235 U enrichment was the significantly lower energy consumption of the centrifuge method as compared with the gaseous clif- fusion process. According to information given me by P. R. Vanstrom, vice-presiclent for engineering and clevelopment of Union Carbide Corporation, the gas centrifuge plant be- ing constructed at Portsmouth will require about 145 MW of power, whereas the same capacity provided by the gaseous diffusion process would require about 2700 MW, almost twenty times that required for the gas centrifuge process. At the time of the original choice of the diffusion process and the cessation of work on the centrifuge process, we were an energy-rich nation working under the urgency of a world war. Now when this country and the entire world face a serious energy crisis, the pioneering work of Beams and his group at Virginia offers great hope for efficient production of our most promising form of energy. PRECISE MEASUREMENT OF THE GRAVITATIONAL CONSTANT With the clevelopmental work on the gaseous centrifuge safely in other hands, Beams again concentrated his thinking on basic new problems. That he was approaching, or past, the normal age for retirement seemed to make no difference to him nor in the results he achieved. IndeecI, at this advanced age he may have conceived the most important experiment of his career one with the potential for increasing the accuracy of measurement of the gravitational constant G a thousandfold. The first laboratory measurement of the gravitational constant G was made in 1798 by Henry Cavendish, of Cam- bridge. His beautifully simple experiment is known to all

lESSE WAKEFIELD BEAMS 23 physicists. Two equal spherical masses connected by a rigid, symmetrical bar were suspended at the center of the bar by a fiber to make a torsional balance. Two much heavier spher- ical masses were then placed on opposite sides of the two suspended balls so that the gravitational attraction between the fixed and suspended masses produced a twisting torque on the fiber. With the measured angle of twist, the torsional constant of the fiber, and the separation of the centers of the spheres, the gravitational constant could be calculated from Newton's gravitational formula. Since that time, the Caven- dish experiment has been repeated many times by many physicists with some variations and some improvement of equipment but with little improvement in the accuracy of the constant. The best of these values is considered to be 6.670 + 0.015 dyn cm2gm-2, obtained by P. Hey] and coworkers at the National Bureau of Standards in 1942. This was the ac- cepted value of G at the time Beams began his experiments; Cavendish's value is 6.674. It is astonishing that in the space age, when many new tests of Einstein's general relativity theory were being planned, the basic cosmic constant, G (if it is a constant!), was known to only three significant figures. The space-age need for a better G must have challenged Jesse as much as had the need to find a way to produce nuclear energy without wasting so much energy in the process. The method that Beams designed represents the greatest advance in the technique for measurement of the gravita- tional constant since the Cavendish experiment in ~ 798. Superficially, his apparatus appears to be similar to that of Cavendish. There are the two very heavy spheres on opposite sides of a smaller, suspended-mass system. In the Beams experiment, the smaller system is in an airtightjar. The grav- itational attraction tends to align the suspended bar between the centers of the two large spheres outside the jar. Unlike

24 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS those of the Cavendish system, these spheres are mounted on a table that can be rotated with the smaller-mass system. The rotation of the table is controlled by the suspenclecI-mass system through a servomechanism. A light beam that comes from a source mounted on this table is reflected from a mir- ror attached to the suspen(lecl cylinder and falls on a photo- cell mounted on the same table. When the suspended mass system starts to rotate toward the heavier mass system, the reflected light beam begins to move off the photocell, thus sending a signal through the servomechanism to the motor that turns the table. In response to the signal, the motor rotates the table so as to maintain the beam of light on the photocell. The spherical-mass system, mounted on the table, is then rotated so that a constant angle is maintained between the two attracting systems. As the suspenclec! bar is acceler- ated to align with the massive spheres, the latter system is given the same angular acceleration by rotation of the table. It is just as though the earth, which accelerates a falling apple, were to accelerate away from the apple at the same rate. To a person on the earth, the apple would not appear to fall, but to an "outside" observer, the apple would appear to be unsuc- cessfully chasing the earth at an ever increasing speecI. Like- wise, an observer off the rotating table sees the two inertial systems on the table as turning together at a slowly increasing velocity, the rate of increase of which is cleterminecl by gravi- tational attraction between the two systems. The Beams method has two important advantages that make it potentially orders of magnitude more accurate than previous methods for measurement of G. The first results from the fact that one can obtain G from measurement of a relatively large angular velocity accumulated from a very small gravitational acceleration continuously appliecl over a long period of time. Within a few days, the system achieves a visible rotation and a velocity measurable with high accuracy.

ESSE WAKEFI ELD B EAMS 25 From the measured time for acquiring a given angular veloc- ity, the gravitational acceleration is easily obtained. With this acceleration and the effective separation of the two mass systems, G can be calculatecI. Although in the first experi- ments the smaller mass system was suspended by a quartz fiber to damp out possible oscillation, the torsional constant of the fiber floes not enter into the calculations. The second important advantage is that effects of surrounding masses in the laboratory ant! elsewhere in the universe can be averaged out by a known, constant rotation imposed on that caused by the gravitational acceleration. While the Beams method for measurement of G probably will be refined eventually to achieve its potential accuracy, estimated to be of the order of one part in a million, only one part in 4000 was achieved by Beams ant! his associates before his death. In 1975 they reported the value 6.6699 + 0.0014 dyn cm2gm-2, with an order of magnitude greater accuracy than that achieved with other methods. Efforts are continuing at the University of Virginia and at the National Bureau of Standards to realize more fully the potentialities of the Beams method. Some theorists, including P. A. M. Dirac, have proposed that G may not be exactly constant but decreasing perhaps by one part in 10~° per year because of expansion of the universe. The Beams method appears inherently capable of measuring variations in G with greater accuracy than its absolute value. At the University of Virginia, R. C. Ritter is leacling attempts to adapt the method for detection of the predicted changes in G with time. An ingenious methocT for testing the assumption of con- tinuous creation of matter was designed by Beams and his associates: R. C. Ritter, G. T. Gillies, and R. T. RoocI. Two At, FIG. G. Luther et al., "Initial Results from a New Measurement of the Newtonian Gravitational Constant," in Atomic Masses and Fundamental Constants, vol. 5 (1976), pp. 62~35.

26 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS cylinclers are concentrically rotates] in an evacuates! chamber that is acoustically and magnetically shieldect. The outer cyI- inder is rotated with a precise, constant angular velocity, co. The inner cylinder is magnetically suspendecI like the rotor in the Beams ultracentrifuge anc! is given a rotational velocity co' by phonons of a laser beam. Creation of matter within the inner cylincler wouIc! increase its moment of inertia and de- crease its angular velocity, however slightly, relative to that, co, of the outer cylinder. In normal operation, co' is main- tained equal to ~ by means of a laser pulse sensor and phonon driver with a feedback correcting signal. The amount of correcting signal to maintain co' equal to co gives evidence for matter creation. This proposed experiment, under construction at the time of Jesse's death, is being con- tinued by R. C. Ritter. A NEW INSTRUMENT FOR BIOPHYSICAL STUDIES The many applications of the Beams ultracentrifuge for isolation and molecular weight measurement of large mole- cuTes of biological significance are widely known and have been mentioned earlier in this biography. Less known is the powerful new instrument for studies of the interactions of such molecules that Beams invented in the later years of his life. This new instrument, a magnetic-suspension densim- eter-viscometer, described by Hoclgins and Beams,~3 mea- sures simultaneously ancI with quickness and exceptional pre- cision the density and viscosity of a quit! system. The density is measured to one part in a million and the viscosity to one part in ten thousand. The idea for this new instrument must have come to Jesse from his magnetically suspended ultracentrifuge. A small i3M. G. Hodgins and I. W. Beams, "Magnetic Densimeter-Viscometer," Review of Scientific Instruments, 42(1971): 1455-57.

JESSE WAKEFIELD BEAMS 27 cylindrical buoy is magnetically suspended in the fluid. The calibrates! electromagnet required to support it gives the fluid density. The buoy is rotated slowly by an induction field externally applied, as in the ultracentrifuge. The period of rotation at a constant power input gives the viscosity. In one design the buoy is helct fixed ancT the fluid container slowly rotated to measure changes in viscosity. The crevice is capable of measuring viscosities without introducing significant shearing stresses in the liquicl. Among other things, measure- ments with it have revealed that dilute solutions of viruses, when uncler extremely small shearing stresses, exhibit solid- like behavior. Jesse worked on the refinement and application of the clensimeter-viscometer up to the time of his death. In fact, on the day he ctiecI, his longtime friend and collaborator, D. W. Kupke, a professor of biochemistry in the Virginia Me(lical School, came at lessees request to his bedside to complete their latest collaborative paper on the application of this in- strument. This paper reported mollifications of the magnetic suspension densimeter-viscometer that made possible contin- uous and accurate recording of the variations in viscosity anct density of solutions undergoing change. The results obtained revealed conformation of changes of ribonuclease in the presence of guanicTinium chloride and a clisulficle cleaving agent. Kupke relates that Jesse was exciter! and elated over the results. They completer! the paper, ant! eviclently Jesse signed the accompanying letter contributing it to the Acad- emyProceedings, for it appears in the October issue for 1977 with the statement, "Contributed by Jesse W. Beams." PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES AND PERSONAL ATTITUDES Jesse Beams was a respected leacler in professional socie- ties devotect to the advancement of science. He helcI the high- est office to which his fellow physicists could elect him, the

28 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS presidency of the American Physical Society. A listing of the many offices he helct, the many councils ant! boarcts on which he served, is given at the end of this memoir. He received numerous awards, prizes, and mecials, including the National Medal of Science, and honorary degrees from several univer- sities, the last from Yale, where he and E. O. Lawrence worked together as young postdoctoral fellows. These var- ious honors are also listed at the end. How click Jesse fee! about his various decorations and awards? I think he felt humbly grateful for the evidence they gave him that his friends and fellow scientists held him in high esteem. He craved their approval and good will, but he was troublecl about being singled out and rated, so to speak, above his friends. Perhaps the Thomas Jefferson influence at Virginia hacT something to do with his attitude, but ~ think that humility was a part of lessees basic nature. It seems most appropriate that one of the honors he received was the Thomas Jefferson Award. I asker! Mrs. Jesse Beams (Maxine) how Jesse felt about his many honorary clegrees, menials, awards, ant! citations. She toIcl me, "less was very moclest about these things. He never would let me have these framed. They were always tucked away. I often couIcin't tell his mother about them. She'd feel proud anal put it in the local paper in Kansas. Naturally Efor Bessel, this was just too much!" Although Jesse Beams's contributions to discoveries in physics belong to the world and are known and used throughout the world, the influence of his educational and professional leaclership is national. Probably no other physi- cist had so great an impact on the development of physics in the southeastern states as Jesse Beams had. He was one of the organizers of the Southeastern Section of the American Phys- ical Society and served as its first chairman (19371. In 1973 the Southeastern Section established the Jesse Wakefield

JESSE WAKEFIELD BEAMS 29 Beams Award, to be given each year for significant research in physics. For sixteen years Beams served on the Board of Directors of the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies. One can hardly visit a university in the southeastern states without encountering a professor who was a Beams student, or the student of a Beams student. It is understandable that his impact was greatest on the University of Virginia, where it was indeed abnormally great. In the spring of 1980 when T went to Charlottesville to learn all ~ conic! about lessees life ant! work there, ~ encountered Beams Ph.D. students all over the place. Frank Hereford, president of the University, took an hour of his time to talk with me about Jesse even though he was preparing for commencement ceremonies to be held the next day. Dexter Whitehead, clean of the Graduate School, did the same. This was not surprising; both were Beams's students. ~ met other students of his who are now professors of physics or engineering there. It is evident that the University of Virginia recognized Jesse Wakefield Beams as one of the greatest professors in the long history of the University. He was elected! to their most select societies the Raven Society, the Thomas Jeffer- son Society, and the Colonnacle Club. He was given the Dis- tinguishec! Virginian Awarcl by the State of Virginia. How was Beams's laboratory regardect by scientists abroad? I answer this by relating an incident that occurred in the late sixties. Sir Harold Thompson, then Foreign Sec- retary of the Royal Society, when on a tour of scientific insti- tutions in America, stopper! for a visit with us at Duke. During the course of our conversation I asked him which laboratory that he had seen during his visit in the States had impressed him most. Of course ~ expected him to name one of the large laboratories of an institution such as Berkeley, Cal Tech, or MIT; to my surprise, he said that he was most impressed by the laboratory of Jesse Beams at the University

30 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS of Virginia. He went on to say that the floors of the Rouss Laboratory were rotting through in places and the wails were cracked and unpainted but that the instruments for Beams's ingenious experiments were firmly mounted on con- crete piers and that their vital working parts were cleverly designed, made from materials of the highest quality, and constructed with the greatest care and precision. I couldn't resist adding"in the true Oxford-Cambridge manner?" In his personal relationships Jesse Beams maintained the same high stanciarcTs that he did in his laboratory experi- ments. He spoke freely, but softly, and always in a kincIly manner. In my many years of association with him ~ never once heard him make an unkind remark about anyone. He expected his students and associates to work hard, very hard ant! they usually dicI but Jesse never coerced them into doing so. Rather, he enticed them by his enthusiasm and encouragement, by his exciting projects and ideas, and, most of all, by his own example of persistence and hard work. For fourteen years, from 1948 to 1962, Jesse served as chairman of the Department of Physics at the University of Virginia. This was a period of rapid growth and development of the department, and I was puzzled! that Jesse could man- age all the business of the department and continue working for long hours in the laboratory with his students and asso- ciates, as he is reported to have done. Consequently, I asked John Mitchell, a professor in the department during this period, how Jesse, with all his other duties, managed the department. He immecliately replied, "With benevolent lais- sez faire!" This confirmed opinions others had given me. President Frank Hereforc! remarked that he was a good chairman who kept the departmental meetings short and saw to it that nothing distracted the staff from physics. From Hereford, and also from Dexter Whitehead, dean of the Graduate School, I heard the following example of how Jesse

JESSE WAKEFIELD BEAMS 31 handled difficult departmental problems. Sometime earlier, Jesse had persuaded C. J. Davisson (of the Davisson-Germer experiment) to come to Charlottesville after his retirement from the Bell Telephone Laboratories. Davisson was given an office in the Physics Department, which he used less and less as he grew older. Meanwhile the physics staff grew, and office space became scarce. There was increasing pressure on Jesse to ask Davisson to give up his office. Instead of doing this, he called a meeting of all the physics faculty members. When they were assembled, Jesse quietly asked "Will all of you who are in favor of throwing old Dr. Davisson out of his office, please hold up your right hands." None did, and the meeting was promptly adjourned. Donalc! W. Kupke, one of lessees colleagues with whom he collaborated for sixteen years on biophysical problems, best expressed in his tribute to Jesse the sentiments of those with whom I talkocl at Virginia. These are his words: Anyone who knew Jesse Beams even slightly would agree that his first concern was for others. This concern was genuine; invariably, he would stop his work, listen attentively without interruption or haste, and be sup- pori~ve to any who came to him—whether they were of high rank or of no rank at all. He was a gentle, guileless person who sought to be helpful in whatever matter large, small or even nonsense which was brought to him. He displayed a remarkably constant good humor, sick or well, troubled or elated. He was also a quiet man who thought deep thoughts about the universe and the role of mankind, but he did no preaching; his lifestyle and deeds preached his scriptural convictions most eloquently.~4 It is sometimes said that besicle every great man of achievement there is an equally great woman. Although this statement probably does not apply for every great man, it certainly seems to have been so for Jesse. Upon her marriage to Jesse in 1931, Maxine Sutherland Beams resigned the t4 D. L. Kupke, "Obituary, Jesse W. Beams," Trends in Biochemical Sciences, 2( 1977):N284.

32 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS teaching position she enjoyed and devoted her entire time to assisting Jesse in any way she could. She soon found that he wanted to be free of the business matters of living so that he could more freely devote his time and thought to his experi- ments. To give him this freedom, she took care of business matters, the household, and transportation. When they built their house, it was she who dealt with the architect and the contractor. She kept the records and paid the bills, even those for Jesse's dues in professional societies. Statements of pro- fessional dues and other bills that came to him at the labora- tory he simply brought home and dumped on a table or sometimes in the middle of the bed. The purchase of clothes that required fitting often necessitated prior arrangement with the clothier, some selections by Maxine, and consider- able maneuvering and coaxing before she was able to get Jesse to leave the laboratory to visit the clothier. He said that he simply did not have time to do it. Once there, he wanted to buy two or three suits so that he would not have to come again soon. Even more difficult for Maxine than buying Jesse's clothes or taking care of business matters was inducing him to stop work long enough to get adequate relaxation. In efforts to do this Maxine tried many approaches, one of which I shall describe. His students wanted to attend the home football games but felt guilty about doing so while their professor continued to work in the laboratory. Maxine detected this situation and concluded that by attending the games Jesse could improve his relationships with his students and at the same time get much needed recreation for himself. She secretly purchased two season tickets and confronted him with pleas to take her to the games. Somewhat to her surprise, he agreed, but at the half-time intermission he insisted on returning to the laboratory to check on the experiments. Maxine also encouraged Jesse to participate in social activi-

JESSE WAKEFIELD BEAMS 33 ties, and she accompanied him to the social events of the many scientific organizations of which he was a member. One of the joys my wife anc! ~ anticipated in attending such events was our association with this delightful, kindly mannered couple. Maxine clevotecT forty-six years of her life to being a good wife to Jesse; these years were evidently rewarding and happy for her as well as for him. When ~ asked for her comments about her life with Jesse, she saicI: "less was the most (delightful, kincI, (devoted person in the world, and ~ was so lucky to have been given the wonderful privilege of shar- ing his fascinating, interesting life for forty-six years. Ancl those two years of waiting around to decide, them too, I count in the total for forty-eight—forty-eight wonderful, calm, peaceful, devoted years, filled with excitement and the unex- pected but always with love and devotion." A single-sentence remark made to me by President Here- ford summarizes this memoir, "Jesse Beams was the ultimate gentleman scholar." MANY INDIVIDUALS have provided information used in this memoir. Those whom I asked for help were enthusiastically cooperative. Mrs. Jesse Beams (Maxine) graciously gave me information about lessees life and personality that I could not have learned from anyone else. His former students, Frank Hereford, fir., president of the University of Virginia, and Dexter Whitehead, dean of the Graduate School, took time during a busy commencement weekend to talk at length with me. For essential information about the Beams research programs in physics and nuclear engineering, I am indebted to several of Beams's former students or associates, particularly to John W. Mitchell, Ralph A. Lowry, A. Robert Kuhlthau, John W. Stewart, and D. R. Carpenter, Jr. Information about the biophysical re- search was obtained from Donald W. Kupke, a professor in the Virginia Medical School. I am grateful to Professor Mitchell also for acting as our host and arranging interviews with other staff members at Virginia. On more than one occasion I have had the

34 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS opportunity of discussing the life and accomplishments of Jesse Beams with Howard Carr, one of his students, who served for many years as chairman of the Physics Department of Auburn University. Paul R. Vanstrum, vice-president for engineering and development of the Nuclear Division of Union Carbide, gave me much informa- tion about iesse's role in the development of the gas centrifuge process for concentration of uranium isotopes. He also provided the excellent photograph preceding this article. Finally, I want to thank my wife, Vida Miller Gordy, who helped me in every phase of this memoir.

JESSE WAKEFIELD BEAMS PROFESSIONAL CHRONOLOGY HONORS AND DISTINCTIONS EARNED DEGREES 1921 1922 1925 POSITIONS 1925-1926 1926-1927 1927-1928 1928-1930 1930-1969 1948-1962 35 A.B., Fairmount College (now Wichita State Uni- versity) M.A., University of Wisconsin Ph.D., University of Virginia 1922-1923 Instructor in Physics and Mathematics, Alabama Poly- technic Institute National Research Fellow in Physics, University of Virginia National Research Fellow in Physics, Yale University Instructor in Physics, Yale University Associate Professor of Physics, University of Virginia Professor of Physics, University of Virginia Chairman, Department of Physics, University of Virginia 1953-1969 Francis H. Smith Professor of Physics, University of Virginia 1969-1977 Professor Emeritus and Senior Research Scholar, University of Virginia PROFESSIONAL AND HONORARY SOCIETIES American Academy of Arts and Sciences (fellow, elected 1949) American Association for the Advancement of Science (Chairman, Section B. 1 942; Vice-President, 1 943) American Association of Physics Teachers American Association of University Professors American Philosophical Society (elected 1939; Councilor, 1951- 1954; Vice-President, 196(~1963) American Optical Society American Physical Society (fellow; President, 1958) American Physical Society, Southeastern Section (first Chairman, 1937) National Academy of Sciences (elected 1943) Virginia Academy of Sciences (fellow; President, 1947)

36 B I OGRAPH I CAL MEMOI RS The Honor Five (University of Wichita) Phi Beta Kappa Sigma Pi Sigma Sigma Xi Colonnade (University of Virginia) Raven Society (University of Virginia) Thomas Jefferson Society (fifty years at the University of Virginia) BOARDS AND COMMITTEES 1942-1960 Science Advisory Committee of the Ballistic Research Laboratory, Aberdeen Proving Ground 1933-1940; 1951- 1955 National Research Council (Division of Physical Sciences, NAS Council, NRC Governing Board) 1952-1954 National Science Foundation, Physics Division 194~1954 Board of Directors, Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear 1960-1970 Studies (which became Oak Ridge Associated Universities) 1954- 1960 General Advisory Board of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission 194~1969 Board of Directors, Virginia Institute for Scientific Research AWARDS 1942 1946 1956 1958 1959 Potts Medal, The Franklin Institute U.S. Naval Ordnance Development Award John Scott Award, given by the City of Philadelphia Lewis Award, American Philosophical Society Alumni Achievement Award, Wichita State Uni- versity 1963 Meritorious Award, Virginia Academy of Sciences 1967 National Medal of Science 1971 Life Fellow, The Franklin Institute 1972 Atomic Energy Committee Citation 1972 Distinguished Virginian Award 1972 Jesse W. Beams Lectureship in Biophysics initiated at the University of Virginia Jesse W. Beams Award for Research established by the Southeastern Section of the American Physical Society 1973

JESSE WAKEFIELD BEAMS HONORARY DEGREES 941 946 949 969 976 Sc.D., College of William and Mary Sc.D., University of North Carolina Sc.D., Washington and Lee University Sc.D., Florida Institute of Technology Sc.D., Yale University 37

38 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS BIBLIOGRAPHY 1925 A method for measurement of time intervals of the order of magni- tude 10-8 seconds and its application (1) to the measurement of time interval between excitation and emission in fluorescent solution, and (2) to the determination of the relative times of first appearance of spectrum lines. Doctoral dissertation, Uni- versity of Virginia. With F. L. Brown. The order of appearance of certain lines in the spark spectra of cadmium and magnesium. I. Opt. Soc. Am., 11:11-15. 1926 The time interval between the appearance of certain spectrum lines in the visible region. Phys. Rev., 27:244. The time interval between the appearance of spectrum lines in spark and in condensed discharges. Phys. Rev., 28:475-80. With P. N. Rhodes. The time intervals between the appearance of certain spectrum lines of helium and mercury. Phys. Rev., 28:1147-50. A method of obtaining light flashes of uniform intensity and short duration. I. Opt. Soc. Am., 13:597-600. 1927 With Fred Allison. The difference in the time lags in the disappear- ance of the electric double refraction behind that of the electric field in several liquids. Philos. Mag., 7th ser., 3:1199-04. With Fred Allison. The differences in the time lags of the Faraday effect behind the magnetic field in various liquids. Phys. Rev., 29: 161-64. With E. O. Lawrence. The length of radiation quanta. Phys. Rev., 29:361-62. With E. O. Lawrence. The instantaneity of the photoelectric effect. Phys. Rev., 29:903. With E. O. Lawrence. On the nature of light. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 13:207-12. With E. O. Lawrence. On the lag of the Kerr effect. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 13:505-10.

JESSE WAKEFIELD BEAMS 1928 39 With E. O. Lawrence. On relaxation of electric fields in Kerr cells and apparent lag of the Kerr effect. }. Franklin Inst., 206: 169-79. The time lag of the spark gap. I. Franklin Inst., 206:809-15. The mechanical production of short flashes of light. Nature, 121:863. With E. O. Lawrence. The element of time in the photoelectric effect. Phys. Rev., 32:478-85. 1929 With L. G. Hoxton and F. Allison. An interferometer using plane- polarized light. J. Opt. Soc. Am., 19:90-92. With I. C. Street. The time lags of spark gaps in air at various pressures. Phys. Rev., 33:280. 1930 Spectral phenomena in spark discharges. Phys. Rev., 35:24-33. The propagation of luminosity in discharge tubes. Phys. Rev., 36:997-1001. An apparatus for obtaining high speeds of rotation. Rev. Sci. In- strum., 1:667-71. A review of the use of Kerr cells for the measurement of time intervals and the production of flashes of light. Rev. Sci. In- strum., 1:780-93. 1931 Deviations from Kerr's law at high field strengths in polar liquids. Phys. Rev., 37:781-82. With E. C. Stevenson. The electro-optical Kerr effect in gases. Phys. Rev., 38:133-40. With J. C. Street. The fall of potential in the initial stages of elec- trical discharges. Phys. Rev., 38:416-26. With A. I. Weed. A simple ultracentrifuge. Science, 74:41- 46. 1932 With l. W. Flowers. The initiation of electrical discharges in effec- tively ion-free gases. Phys. Rev., 41:394.

40 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS Some evidence indicating a removal of positive ions from cold sur- faces by electric fields. Phys. Rev., 41:687-88. Electric and magnetic double refraction. Rev. Mod. Phys., 4:133-72. 1933 With L. B. Snoddy. Production of high-velocity ions and electrons. Phys. Rev., 44:784-85. Field electron emission from liquid mercury. Phys. Rev., 44:803-7. With A. T. Weed and E. G. Pickels. The ultracentrifuge. Science, 78:338-40. 1934 With E. G. Pickels and A. }. Weed. Ultracentrifuge. I. Chem. Phys., 2:143. With H. Trotter, fir. Acceleration of electrons to high energies. Phys. Rev., 45: 849-50. Measuring a millionth of a second. Sci. Mon., 38:471-73. 1935 With E. G. Pickels. The production of high rotational speeds. Rev. Sci. Instrum., 6:299-308. 1936 Experiments on the production of high-velocity ions by impulse methods. Proc. Am. Philos. Soc., 76:771-72. With E. I. Workman and L. B. Snoddy. Photographic study of lightning. Physics, 7:375-79. With L. B. Snoddy and I. R. Dietrich. Propagation of potential in discharge tubes. Phys. Rev., 50:469-71. With F. B. Haynes. The separation of isotopes by centrifuging. Phys. Rev., 50:491-92. With W. T. Ham, Jr., L. B. Snoddy, and H. Trotter, Jr. Transmis- sion of high-voltage impulses at controllable speed. Nature, 138:167. 1937 With L. B. Snoddy. The electrically driven ultracentrifuge. Science, 85: 185-86.

JESSE WAKEFIELD BEAMS 4 With L. B. Snoddy. A simple method of measuring rotational speeds. Science, 85:273-74. With F. W. Linke and C. Skarstrom. A tubular vacuum type centri- fuge. Science, 86:293-94. High rotational speeds. J. Appl. Phys., 8:795-806. With L. B. Snoddy. The separation of mixtures by centrifuging. J. Chem. Phys., 5:993-94. With L. B. Snoddy, H. Trotter, Jr., and W. T. Ham. Impulse cir- cuits for obtaining a time separation between the appearance of potential at different points in a system. I. Franklin Inst., 223:55-76. With F. T. Holmes. Frictional torque of an axial magnetic suspen- sion. Nature, 140:3~31. With A. Victor Masket. Concentration of chlorine isotopes by cen- trifuging. Phys. Rev., 51:384. With I. R. Dietrich. Propagation of potential in discharge tubes. Phys. Rev., 52:739~6. With F. W. Linke. An inverted air-driven ultracentrifuge. Rev. Sci. Instrum., 8: 16~61. 1938 With }. R. Dietrich and L. B. Snoddy. Impulse breakdown charge tubes. Phys. Rev., 53:923. . . In C .1S- High speed centrifuging. Rev. Mod. Phys., 10:245-63. With F. W. Linke and P. Sommer. A vacuum type air-driven centri- fuge for biophysical research. Rev. Sci. Instrum., 9:248-52. A tubular vacuum type centrifuge. Rev. Sci. Instrum., 9:413-16. Centrifuging of liquids. Science, 88:243~4. 1939 With L. B. Snoddy. Electrical discharge between a stationary and a rotating electrode. Phys. Rev., 55:504. The separation of gases by centrifuging. Phys. Rev., 55:591. With L. B. Snoddy. Spark discharge on surfaces. Phys. Rev., 55:663. With L. B. Snoddy. Progressive breakdown in a conducting liquid. Phys. Rev., 55:879. With C. Skarstrom. The concentration of isotopes by the evapora- tive centrifuge method. Phys. Rev., 56:266-72.

42 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS With S. A. Black. Electrically driven, magnetically supported, vacuum type ultracentrifuge. Rev. Sci. Instrum., 10:5~63. A high resolving power ultracentrifuge. Science, 89:543-44. 1940 With C. Skarstrom. A laboratory study of spark discharge between conducting clouds. Phys. Rev., 57:63. With L. B. Snoddy and Hugh F. Henry. Electrical discharge on liquid surface. Phys. Rev., 57:350. With F. C. Armistead. Concentration of chlorine isotopes by centri- fuging at dry-ice temperature. Phys. Rev., 57:359. With C. Skarstrom. The electrically driven, magnetically sup- ported, vacuum type ultracentrifuge. Rev. Sci. Instrum., 11: 398-403. Ultracentrifuging. In: Science in Progress, Ed Ser., vol.9, p.232. New Haven: Yale University Press. 1941 With A. L. Stauffacher and L. B. Snoddy. A new analytical ultracen- trifuge. Phys. Rev., 59:468. High-speed centrifuging. Rep. Prog. Phys., 8:31-39. 1942 The production and maintenance of high centrifugal fields for use in biology and medicine. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci., 43: 177-93. 1946 With J. W. Moore and J. L. Young. The production of high centrif- ugal fields. I. Appl. Phys. 17:88~90. With I. L. Young III. The production of high centrifugal fields. Phys. Rev., 69:537. 1947 With A. R. Kuhlthau, A. C. Lapsley, I. H. McQueen, L. B. Snoddy, and W. D. Whitehead. Spark light source of short duration. I. Opt. Soc. Am., 37:868-70. High centrifugal fields. J. Wash. Acad. Sci., 37:221-41. With J. L. Young III. Centrifugal fields. Phys. Rev., 71:131. The radial density variation of gases and vapors in a centrifugal field. Phys. Rev., 72:433-34.

JESSE WA KEFI ELD B EA MS 43 Rotors driven by light pressure. Phys. Rev., 72:987-88. With F. W. Linke and P. Sommer. Speed control for the air-driven centrifuge. Rev. Sci. Instrum., 18:57-60. 1948 With A. C. Lapsley and L. B. Snoddy. The use of a cavity oscillator as a Kerr cell electro-optical shutter. J. Appl. Phys., 19: 111- 12. With }. H. McQueen and L. B. Snoddy. Light scattering in super- sonic streams. Phys. Rev., 73: 260; 74: 1551-52. Centrifugal fields. Sci. Mon., 66:25~58. 1949 With L. B. Snoddy. Pulsed electron beam for high-speed photog- raphy. Phys. Rev. 75: 1324. 1950 Magnetic suspension balance. Phys. Rev., 78:471-72. Magnetic suspension for small rotors. Rev. Sci. Instrum., 21: 182-84. 1951 With H. Morton. Transmission line Kerr cell. I. Appl. Phys., 22:523. With l. D. Ross and I. F. Dillon. Magnetically suspended, vacuum type ultracentrifuge. Rev. Sci. Instrum., 22:77-80. 1952 With E. C. Smith and I. M. Watkins. High contrast speed rotating mirror. I. Soc. Motion Pict. Telev. Eng., 58: 159-68. With W. E. Walker and H. Morton. Mechanical properties of thin films of silver. Phys. Rev., 87:524-25. Molecular weight determination by the equilibrium ultracentri fuge. Science, 116:516. 1953 Single crystal metal rotors. Phys. Rev., 92:502. With C. I. Davisson. A new variation of the rotation by magnetiza- tion method of measuring gyromagnetic ratios. Rev. Mod. Phys., 25:246-52.

44 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS With H. M. Dixon. An ultracentrifuge double cell. Rev. Sci. In- strum., 24:228-29. 1954 Technique of spinning high-speed rotors at low temperature. In: Proceedings, Third International Conference on Low Temperature Physics and Chemistry, p. 64 ff. Houston, Tex.: Rice Institute. Shadow and schlieren methods. In: Physical Measurements in Gas Dynamics and Combustion, ed. R. W. Ladenburg, vol.9, pp.2~46. Princeton, N.T.: Princeton University Press. Magnetic suspension ultracentrifuge circuits. Electronics, 27~31: 152-55. With }. H. Hildebrand, B. I. Alder, and H. M. Dixon. The effects of hydrostatic pressure and centrifugal fields upon critical liquid-liquid interfaces. I. Phys. Chem., 58:577-79. With N. Snidow, A. Robeson, and H. M. Dixon. Interferometer for the measurement of sedimentation in a centrifuge. Rev. Sci. Instrum., 25:295-96. Production and use of high centrifugal fields. Science, 120:619-25. 1955 With H. M. Dixon, A. Robeson, and N. Snidow. The magnetically suspended equilibrium ultracentrifuge. J. Phys. Chem., 59: 915-22. Effect of centrifugal field upon the rate of transfer through a helium II film. Phys. Rev., 98: 1138. With I. B. Breazeale and W. L. Bart. Mechanical strength of thin films of metals. Phys. Rev., 100: 1657-61. With C. W. Hulburt, W. E. Lotz, ir., and R. M. Montague, {r Magnetic suspension balance. Rev. Sci. Instrum., 26: 1181-85. 1956 The tensile strength of liquid helium II. Phys. Rev., 104:88~82. 1957 The magnetically supported equilibrium ultracentrifuge. Proc. Am. Philos. Soc., 101: 63-69. .

JESSE WAKEFIELD BEAMS 1958 45 Tensile strength of liquids at low temperature. In: Proceedings Fifth International Conference of Low Temperature Physics and Chemistry, pp. 84-85. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. With L. B. Snoddy and A. R. Kuhlthau. Tests of the theory of isotope separation by centrifuging. In: Proceedings Second U.N. International Conference on Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, vol. 4: pp. 428-34. Geneva: United Nations. 1959 Tensile strengths of liquid argon, helium, nitrogen, and oxygen. Phys. Fluids, 2: 1-4. High-speed rotation. Phys. Today, 12~7~:2~27. Molecular pumping. Science, 130: 140~7. Mechanical properties of thin films of gold and silver. In: Proceed- ings International Conference on Structure and Properties of Thin Films, ed. C. A. Neugebauer, J. B. Newkirk, and D. A. Vermilya, pp. 183-92. New York: John Wiley. 1961 With P. E. Hexner and L. E. Radford. Achievement of sedimenta- tion equilibrium. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 47: 1848-52. With R. D. Boyle and P. E. Hexner. Magnetically suspended equilibrium ultracentrifuge. Rev. Sci. Instrum., 32:645-50. Ultrahigh-speed rotation. Sci. Am., 204: 135-47. Bakable molecular pumps. In: Transactions of Seventh National Sym- posium on Vacuum Technology, pp. 1-5. New York: Pergamon Press. 1962 With P. E. Hexner, D. W. Kupke, H. G. Kim, F. N. Weber, Jr., and R. F. Bunting. Molecular weight of virus by equilibrium ultra- centrifugation. {. Am. Chem. Soc., 84:2457-58. With P. E. Hexner and R. D. Boyle. Molecular weight determina- tion with a magnetically supported ultracentrifuge. J. Phys. Chem., 66: 1948-51. With R. D. Boyle and P. E. Hexner. Equilibrium ultracentrifuge for molecular weight measurement. J. Polym. Sci., 57:161-74.

46 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS With D. M. Spitzer, ir., and I. P. Wade, Jr. Spinning rotor pressure gauge. Rev. Sci. Instrum., 33:151-55. With A. M. Clarke. Magnetic suspension balance method for deter- mining densities and partial specific volumes. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 33:75~53. With A. M. Clarke and D. W. Kupke. Determination of densities and partial specific volumes by magnetic balance methods. Sci- ence, 138:984. With C. E. Williams. A magnetically suspended molecular pump. In: Transactions of the Eighth National Vacuum Symposium Combined with the Second International Congress on Vacuum Science and Tech- nology, ed. Luther E. Preuss, vol. 1, pp. 295-99. New York: Pergamon Press. 1963 With A. M. Clarke and D. W. Kupke. Partial specific volumes of proteins by a magnetic balance technique. J. Phys. Chem., 67: 92~30. With T. K. Robinson. Radio telemetering from magnetically sus- pended rotors. Rev. Sci. Instrum., 34:63-64. Some interferometer techniques for observing sedimentation. Rev. Sci. Instrum., 34: 13~42. Double magnetic suspension. Rev. Sci. Instrum., 34: 1071-74. With F. N. Weber, Jr., and D. W. Kupke. Molecular weight: mea- surement with gravity cells. Science, 139:837-38. High centrifugal fields. Phys. Teacher, 1 (31: 1 03-7, 1 1 9. 1964 Magnetic bearings. In: Transactions of the Automotive Engineering Congress, pp. 1-5. New York: Society of Automotive Engineers. Gas centrifugal separation. In: Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, ed. Anthony Standen, vol. 4, pp. 755-56. New York: Interscience. With D. V. Ulrich and D. W. Kupke. An improved magnetic densi- tometer: the partial specific volume of ribonuclease. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 52:34~56. With W. L. Piotrowski. Centrifugal method of cutting crystals. Rev. Sci. Instrum., 35: 1726-27.

JESSE WAKEFIELD BEAMS 1965 Multiple rotormagnetic suspension system. Rev. Sci. Instrum., 36:95. Magnetic support for nonferromagnetic bodies. Rev. Sci. Instrum., 36:1892. 1966 47 Centrifuge. In: Encyclopedia of Physics, ed. R. M. Besancon, pp. 93-96. New York: Reinhold. With W. L. Piotrowski and D. C. Larson. Plastic deformation of spinning iron whiskers. J. Appl. Phys. 37:3153-56. Speed control of magnetically suspended ultracentrifuge. Rev. Sci. Instrum., 37:667-69. Ultraszybki ruch obrotowy. In: Biblioteka Problemow W Laboratoriach Fizybow, ed. S. Ignatowicz et al., pp. 32~43. Warsaw, Poland: Panstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe. 1968 Potentials on rotor surfaces. Phys. Rev. Lett., 21:1093-96. 1969 With R. D. Rose, H. M. Parker, R. A. Lowry, and A. R. Kublthau. Determination of the gravitational constant G. Phys. Rev. Lett., 23 :655-58. With P. F. Fahey and D. W. Kupke. Effect of pressure on the apparent specific volume of proteins. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 63:548-55. Magnetic suspension densimeter. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 40: 167-68. 1970 With S. H. French. Contact-potential changes produced on metal surfaces by tensile stresses. Phys. Rev., B1:3300-3303. Constancy of inertial mass in a centrifugal field. Phys. Rev. Lett., 24:840-43. 1971 With W. R. Towler, H. M. Parker, R. A. Lowry, and A. R. Kuhlthau. Measurement of the Newton gravitational constant. In: Precision

48 BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS Measurement and Fundamental Constants (National Bureau of Standards Special Publication no. 343), ed. D. N. Langenberg and B. N. Taylor, pp.485-492. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Govern- ment Printing Office. Finding a better value for G. Phys. Today, 24~51:34-40. Improved method of spinning rotors to high speeds at low temper- ature. Rev. Sci. Instrum., 42:637-39. With M. G. Hodgins. Magnetic densimeter-viscometer. Rev. Sci. Instrum., 42: 1455-57. 1972 With R. A. Lowry, W. R. Towler, H. M. Parker, and A. R. Kulthau. The gravitational constant G. In: Atomic Masses and Fundamental Constants, ed. }. H. Saunders and A. H. Wapstra, vol. 4, pp. 521-28. London: Plenum Press. With D. W. Kupke and M. G. Hodgins. Simultaneous determina- tion of viscosity and density of protein solutions by magnetic suspension. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 69:2258-62. With D. W. Kupke. Magnetic densimetry: Partial specific volume and other applications. In: Methods in Enzymology, ed. C. H. W. Hirs and S. N. Timasheff, vol. 26, pp. 74-107. New York: Aca- demic Press. 1973 With M. G. Hodgins and D. W. Kupke. A magnetic suspension osometer. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 70:3785-87. 1974 With }. H. McGee, D. W. Kupke, and W. Godschalk. Equilibrium sedimentation of turnip yellow mosaic virus. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 71:386~68. With I. H. McGee and D. W. Kupke. Constant speed drive for magnetically supported equilibrium ultracentrifuge. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 45: 1607-8. Centrifuge. In: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th ea., vol. 3, pp. 1143- 47. Chicago: Encyclopacdia Britannica. With Kenneth L. Nordvedt and lames E. Failer. Gravitation. In: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th ea., vol. 8, pp. 28~94. Chicago: Encyclopacdia Britannica.

JESSE WAKEFI ELD B EAMS 1975 49 With M. G. Hodgins, O. C. Hodgins, and D. W. Kupke. Quasielastic behavior of solutions of viral capsid and RNA at very low shearing stresses. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 72:3501-4. Early History of the Gas Centrifuge Work in the U.S.~. (Special report: University of Virginia and Union Carbide Corporation Nuclear Division in Oak Ridge). Charlottesville: University of Virginia. 1976 With W. R. Towler. Magnetic suspension for lecture and classroom demonstrations. Am. I. Phys. 44:478-80. With G. G. Luther, W. R. Towler, R. D. Deslattes, and R. Lowry. Initial results from a new measurement of the Newtonian gravi- tational constant. In: Atomic Masses and Fundamental Constants. ed. }. H. Saunders and A. H. Wapstra, vol. 5, pp. 629-35. London: Plenum Press. 1977 With W. D. Kupke. Simultaneous measurements of viscosity and density in solutions undergoing change. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 74:4430_33. 1978 With R. C. Ritter, G. T. Gillies, and R. T. Rood. Dynamic measure- ment of matter creation. Nature, 271:228-29. With Rogers C. Ritter. A laboratory measurement of the constancy of G. In: On the Measurement of Cosmological Variations of the Grav- itational Constant, pp. 29-70. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.

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Biographic Memoirs: Volume 54 contains the biographies of deceased members of the National Academy of Sciences and bibliographies of their published works. Each biographical essay was written by a member of the Academy familiar with the professional career of the deceased. For historical and bibliographical purposes, these volumes are worth returning to time and again.

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