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Ira Sprague Bowen Papers, 1940-1973

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Ira Sprague Bowen Papers, 1940-1973 http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf2p300278 No online items Inventory of the Ira Sprague Bowen Papers, 1940-1973 Processed by Ronald S. Brashear; machine-readable finding aid created by Gabriela A. Montoya Manuscripts Department The Huntington Library 1151 Oxford Road San Marino, California 91108 Phone: (626) 405-2203 Fax: (626) 449-5720 Email: [email protected] URL: http://www.huntington.org/huntingtonlibrary.aspx?id=554 © 1998 The Huntington Library. All rights reserved. Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington Collection Inventory of the Ira Sprague 1 Bowen Papers, 1940-1973 Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington Collection Inventory of the Ira Sprague Bowen Paper, 1940-1973 The Huntington Library San Marino, California Contact Information Manuscripts Department The Huntington Library 1151 Oxford Road San Marino, California 91108 Phone: (626) 405-2203 Fax: (626) 449-5720 Email: [email protected] URL: http://www.huntington.org/huntingtonlibrary.aspx?id=554 Processed by: Ronald S. Brashear Encoded by: Gabriela A. Montoya © 1998 The Huntington Library. All rights reserved. Descriptive Summary Title: Ira Sprague Bowen Papers, Date (inclusive): 1940-1973 Creator: Bowen, Ira Sprague Extent: Approximately 29,000 pieces in 88 boxes Repository: The Huntington Library San Marino, California 91108 Language: English. Provenance Placed on permanent deposit in the Huntington Library by the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington Collection. This was done in 1989 as part of a letter of agreement (dated November 5, 1987) between the Huntington and the Carnegie Observatories. The papers have yet to be officially accessioned. Cataloging of the papers was completed in 1989 prior to their transfer to the Huntington. There is no evidence that Bowen passed on his literary rights to anyone. The Carnegie Observatories, as part of the 1987 letter of agreement, have given the Huntington Library the right to provide permission to publish from the papers. Access Collection is open to qualified researches by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information please go to following URL . Publication Rights In order to quote from, publish, or reproduce any of the manuscripts or visual materials, researchers must obtain formal permission from the office of the Library Director. In most instances, permission is given by the Huntington as owner of the physical property rights only, and researchers must also obtain permission from the holder of the literary rights In some instances, the Huntington owns the literary rights, as well as the physical property rights. Researchers may contact the appropriate curator for further information. Preferred Citation [Identification of item], Ira Sprague Bowen Papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California. Biography Inventory of the Ira Sprague 2 Bowen Papers, 1940-1973 Ira Sprague Bowen, a physicist by training, was the third director of the Mount Wilson Observatory. As director, he led the Observatory through its biggest transition since its founding in 1904: its joint operation of the largest telescope in the world, the 200-inch Hale Telescope, with the California Institute of Technology. Even though his formal scientific output fell off as director, his position of responsibility for the Mount Wilson and Palomar Observatories marks him as a very important figure in the history of American science. Ira Bowen was born on December 21, 1898, in Seneca Falls, New York. His father, James H. Bowen, was pastor of the local Wesleyan Methodist Church. His mother, Philinda Sprague Bowen, was a licensed teacher in New York State. In 1900, the family moved to Millview, Pennsylvania, and five years later James Bowen became business agent of the Wesleyan Methodist Church. This latter position resulted in the family moving around quite a bit when Ira Bowen was still very young, and he was educated at home until 1908. In 1908, James Bowen died, and Ira entered the Houghton Wesleyan Methodist Seminary where his mother had become a teacher. Ira Bowen's interest in science grew during his stay at Houghton where he became adept at devising many experimental arrangements with the limited resources of the school and his family. He stayed on to attend the junior college at the seminary and he was placed in charge of the high school physics laboratory. After three years of college courses at Houghton, Bowen transferred to Oberlin College for his senior year, receiving his A.B. degree in 1919. Bowen's aptitude for research was quickly recognized and in the fall of 1919 he was given a scholarship and began to pursue his graduate studies at the University of Chicago. He soon took the vacant position as laboratory assistant to the eminent physicist Robert A. Millikan, a figure who became a tremendous influence on Bowen. Under Millikan, Bowen gained expertise in spectroscopy and atomic physics. In 1921, Millikan was tempted by George Ellery Hale to transfer to the new California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Bowen accompanied Millikan and became a lecturer in the physics department while assisting Millikan in his cosmic-ray research. In addition, Bowen also found time to continue his own atomic physics research, especially in the fields of vacuum ultraviolet and x-ray spectroscopy. Bowen did not obtain his Ph.D. degree until 1926, mainly because of his heavy research and teaching load. The future importance of the degree finally caused him to take it with a thesis on a project alien to his main interests. While guiding a student on a project dealing with evaporation, the student lost interest, but Bowen maintained his own excitement and completed the research. Since he was working on the evaporation project when he decided to take his degree, he used this research, "The Ratio of Heat Losses by Conduction and by Evaporation from Any Water Surface," as his thesis. Bowen's entry into the astrophysical world came when he read about the dilemma of the "nebulium" lines. Since the 1860's astronomers had been unable to identify many of the emission lines in the spectra of galactic nebulae. As a result they postulated the existence of an element, "nebulium," unknown on earth, which produced the mysterious spectral lines. For various reasons, the nebulium explanation was unsatisfactory and astronomers continued to search for a better answer. In 1927, after reading a possible explanation advanced by Henry Norris Russell, Bowen realized that the nebulium lines could be explained by electron transitions that were only possible in a rarefied gas. The nebulium lines would never have been observed on earth since no gas was rarefied enough to prevent electron collisions from interfering with the infrequent transitions which produced the lines. Since Bowen had the necessary spectroscopic data on hand from his earlier research, he quickly calculated the wavelengths of the spectral lines of these "forbidden" transitions of various light elements. After obtaining the wavelengths, he compared them to those of the nebulium lines and saw that they were indeed the same. Bowen's reputation in astrophysics was made and he now had a new field in which to turn his tireless research activities. It was during this new burst of activity that Bowen married Mary Jane Howard in 1929. No personal letters exist in this collection, but that is not surprising since they were very rarely separated. Mary Bowen's position as a child psychologist often prevented her from going with Ira on his journeys to Washington, D.C. for Carnegie Institution of Washington (CIW) meetings or other astronomical council meetings, but these trips were of short duration. They had no children. Although Bowen continued with his laboratory spectroscopy and cosmic-ray work, he fell deeper into astrophysics. Collaborations with William Hammond Wright at the Lick Observatory led to his appointment in 1938 as Morrison Research Associate. During his summer at Lick, he worked with Arthur B. Wyse on the study of the spectra of galactic nebulae. Due to the difficulty of taking spectra of the faint nebulae, Bowen developed the "image slicer," a device that essentially enabled more of the light of the target nebula to enter the narrow spectrograph slit. This keen aptitude for instrumentation and optics would prove invaluable in the development of observational astronomy. Bowen soon got a chance to apply his expert knowledge of optics when he was placed on the Policy Committee of the 200-inch telescope. The 200-inch project got underway in 1928 when George Ellery Hale obtained funding from the Rockefeller Foundation to build the world's largest telescope. During the 1930s Bowen played an important part in many of the design decisions for this enormous undertaking. He did not realize that he would eventually be the central figure in the telescope's completion. Inventory of the Ira Sprague 3 Bowen Papers, 1940-1973 His involvement with the 200-inch telescope had to be put aside during the Second World War. As did most scientists, Bowen joined the war effort by signing on with the Caltech ordnance rocket project, where he found himself working alongside many of the Mount Wilson astronomers. Until 1945, he helped in the research on all aspects of rocketry as well as producing a high-speed camera and taking part in studies on the transparency of seawater. He was also appointed a project supervisor of several Office of Scientific Research and Development contracts on the West Coast. One of these was the contract that involved the Mt. Wilson Observatory in war work. The turning point in Bowen's career came in July, 1945, as the War was coming to an end. Vannevar Bush, head of the Office of Scientific Research and Development and president of the CIW, informed Bowen that he had been chosen to be the new director of the CIW's Mount Wilson Observatory. The Observatory's second director, Walter Sydney Adams, was retiring on January 1, 1946, and in the discussions concerning his successor, Bowen's name had come up practically from the start.
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