DOCSLIB.ORG

Photography & Harold

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Photography & Harold MIT 150 | Warren Seamans Interview - Photography & Harold ‘Doc’ Edgerton 1995 [MUSIC PLAYING] INTERVIEWER: I'm Jim Sheldon. It's February 15, 1995. And I'm with Warren Seamans, director of the MIT Museum. And we're going to talk today about Harold Edgerton, one of MIT'S most famous folks. So I just thought it was important that we get some of the history down, so that it doesn't go by the boards. And you're someone who knew Doc very well, was connected with him over what? The last 40 years of his life? SEAMANS: No. 30 years. INTERVIEWER: 30 years of his life. So why don't you tell us a little bit about that. SEA MANS: I guess I first met Doc very shortly after I came to MIT because I was in personnel. And personnel offices at MIT, at those days, were in the basement right where his lab was. And he just moved to Building 4, what we think of Strobe Alley, he'd moved there just shortly before. And I always had an interest in sort of exploring and electrical engineering was one of the departments that I worked closely with. So I got through Strobe Alley and I met him like almost every everybody else did in those days, by simply walking down Strobe Alley and there he was. He'd come out and say hello, or you'd see him and that not only ultra friendship, but sincere friendship that he managed to exude with anybody he came in touch with, whether if he would ever see you again, or whether he'd never seen you before, you were his friend. We actually worked in trying to, while I was in personnel, trying to find some sort of technician for some short-term program that he was in. I don't recall much about that. But shortly thereafter, I moved to the Department of Humanities. And one of my first things I remember was Doc trying to save the birds that were dying because they were flying into this glass breezeway between the library building, where humanities was, and Building 2. So he put these big cutouts of birds, of hawks, to scare the birds that were flying into this glass thing. So Doc's presence was always, always around you. You knew he was here. And even in those days, he was obviously, he was a mythical character. He wasn't just another professor. You knew that he was somebody that was very important in MIT's history. After we started what is now known as the Museum in the summer of '71, and we moved into where we are now, in this Building, in 52, in February of '72, one my very first visitors in this very fledgling program was Doc. Doc came along because he'd heard that there was something trying to save MIT's history. And Doc, by this time, obviously was relatively certain where his place in history around MIT was going to be. But he was concerned that we were only going to save paintings, and portraits, and vases, and that sort of thing. He thought MIT stood for a lot more than that. We didn't even know what we were saving at that point. We were saving anything we could get. And one of the things we'd found early on, in this scouring of the MIT campus to find MIT memorabilia, was an exhibit that Doc had worked with with [? John ?] [? Mealy, ?] a photographic exhibit that had been taken in the late '50s to try and document the student body at that time. And this eventually came out in a little booklet. But it was actually a photographic exhibit that had been done and [? Mealy ?] gave that to MIT. And we found it. And it was in terrible condition. But we put it up around our very makeshift offices. And Doc heard about that. And so it was probably the second time he ever came around, just poking around, and he brought [? John ?] [? Mealy ?] in with him. So we all hit it off very readily from that point of view. And it's at that point he said, we've got to save the history of the Institute. And the history's in the instruments. It's not in this other stuff. So really, he was a big supporter of our operation from the very beginning. And I would say over the next-- as we developed, and as I was able to spend more and more time in this, and as I got to know the Institute better, I would get a call probably oh, at least twice a week if Doc was around asking about something or other. Do you want this? Or should I throw these photographs out? You don't really want this sort of stuff do you? It developed into a relationship that was-- I was always able to say yes to. And that's an unusual relationship because he was helping us to build our collections and he spread word far and wide about what we were trying to do. So he had the ear to the president, to the upper administration. And they were always there to listen to what Doc said. INTERVIEWER: What do you think-- right now, it hasn't been that many years since Doc passed away-- but what do you think the long-term legacy of Edgerton is going to be to the Institute? SEAMANS: Well, I think Doc personifies what was traditionally the MIT's way of teaching people, of the way that MIT thought people learned best. I think Doc personified that when he came here in 1926, I guess it was, the learn by doing, the hands-on method, all of these things. I think Doc not only personified that, but then went on to develop it by his own personality pulling people in. I think, if anything over Doc's period of time, and that probably there were some things that weren't particularly happy in Doc's career here, was that MIT moved very far away from that with influx of computers in one sense and so forth, And with various people who wanted much more of a theoretical Institute, MIT moved away from the hands-on thing. And Doc ended up, toward the end of his life, as one of the really last outposts of where a person, a student, could go and actually do something with his hands, his or her hands, at the end. I think Doc's legacy is to really show the importance of that. And what Kim Vandiver and the whole Edgerton Center now is doing is pulling that back in. Now it's an ongoing thing. And there's a lot of other people like Steinberg and, well, I can't think of the names right at this point, but that really see this importance and are pulling people back in, teaching people, students, MIT students, that there is something beyond theory. That there's something you need to-- as for example, and Doc used this example himself, that in his age, and certainly in my age, the average kid that came to MIT would have known how to take his Model A or his '49 Ford apart and repair it. Well, in the last few years, you just don't take most cars apart today and get them back to run. So the average student coming in today doesn't have that hands-on experience. So not only was the Institute moving away, but society itself was moving away. You can't take your digital alarm clock apart and put it back together and hope to have it run. So Doc, I think, was very disappointed toward this and did everything he could to keep his course alive, bringing in Charlie Miller and other people to help keep that thread alive. And of course, his own magnetic attraction throughout-- Doc in his darkest days of health could pull himself back together to give the most phenomenal lecture that would fill any auditorium at MIT or wherever else he gave. So he, by his own personal magnetism, he held this spirit of learning by doing, hands-on thing together. And now again, now people see the importance of this thanks to again, as I said, the-- INTERVIEWER: Not just here at the Institute, but really across all of education to some extent. SEAMANS: I think that's true to some degree. I don't think most of the probably other technical institutes got as far away from-- well, Caltech's probably an exception to that-- but most of the others did not get as far away from hands- on education as MIT did for a long period of time. And a lot of Doc's contemporaries, I think particularly Jay Stratton, Julius Stratton, who was president and exact contemporary of Doc's felt very strongly that MIT was moving much too far away from the method you actually need to teach to understand technology basically. And I think a lot of those people, I think their opinion is being upheld very strongly today by a lot of things, not only Edgerton Center, but other things are showing a movement back toward hands-on approach. INTERVIEWER: What do you think about the sort of-- what kind of influence did Doc, when we try to describe him oftentimes, some people will say engineer. Then they'll say artist. Then they'll say entrepreneur.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • New Books on Art & Culture
    S11_cover_OUT.qxp:cat_s05_cover1 12/2/10 3:13 PM Page 1 Presorted | Bound Printed DISTRIBUTEDARTPUBLISHERS,INC Matter U.S. Postage PAID Madison, WI Permit No. 2223 DISTRIBUTEDARTPUBLISHERS . SPRING 2011 NEW BOOKS ON SPRING 2011 BOOKS ON ART AND CULTURE ART & CULTURE ISBN 978-1-935202-48-6 $3.50 DISTRIBUTED ART PUBLISHERS, INC. 155 SIXTH AVENUE 2ND FLOOR NEW YORK NY 10013 WWW.ARTBOOK.COM GENERAL INTEREST GeneralInterest 4 SPRING HIGHLIGHTS ArtHistory 64 Art 76 BookDesign 88 Photography 90 Writings&GroupExhibitions 102 Architecture&Design 110 Journals 118 MORE NEW BOOKS ON ART & CULTURE Special&LimitedEditions 124 Art 125 GroupExhibitions 147 Photography 157 Catalogue Editor Thomas Evans Architecture&Design 169 Art Direction Stacy Wakefield Forte Image Production Nicole Lee BacklistHighlights 175 Data Production Index 179 Alexa Forosty Copy Writing Sara Marcus Cameron Shaw Eleanor Strehl Printing Royle Printing Front cover image: Mark Morrisroe,“Fascination (Jonathan),” c. 1983. C-print, negative sandwich, 40.6 x 50.8 cm. F.C. Gundlach Foundation. © The Estate of Mark Morrisroe (Ringier Collection) at Fotomuseum Winterthur. From Mark Morrisroe, published by JRP|Ringier. See Page 6. Back cover image: Rodney Graham,“Weathervane (West),” 2007. From Rodney Graham: British Weathervanes, published by Christine Burgin/Donald Young. See page 87. Takashi Murakami,“Flower Matango” (2001–2006), in the Galerie des Glaces at Versailles. See Murakami Versailles, published by Editions Xavier Barral, p. 16. GENERAL INTEREST 4 | D.A.P. | T:800.338.2665 F:800.478.3128 GENERAL INTEREST Drawn from the collection of the Library of Congress, this beautifully produced book is a celebration of the history of the photographic album, from the turn of last century to the present day.
    [Show full text]
  • Annual Report 1995
    19 9 5 ANNUAL REPORT 1995 Annual Report Copyright © 1996, Board of Trustees, Photographic credits: Details illustrated at section openings: National Gallery of Art. All rights p. 16: photo courtesy of PaceWildenstein p. 5: Alexander Archipenko, Woman Combing Her reserved. Works of art in the National Gallery of Art's collec- Hair, 1915, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1971.66.10 tions have been photographed by the department p. 7: Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, Punchinello's This publication was produced by the of imaging and visual services. Other photographs Farewell to Venice, 1797/1804, Gift of Robert H. and Editors Office, National Gallery of Art, are by: Robert Shelley (pp. 12, 26, 27, 34, 37), Clarice Smith, 1979.76.4 Editor-in-chief, Frances P. Smyth Philip Charles (p. 30), Andrew Krieger (pp. 33, 59, p. 9: Jacques-Louis David, Napoleon in His Study, Editors, Tarn L. Curry, Julie Warnement 107), and William D. Wilson (p. 64). 1812, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.15 Editorial assistance, Mariah Seagle Cover: Paul Cezanne, Boy in a Red Waistcoat (detail), p. 13: Giovanni Paolo Pannini, The Interior of the 1888-1890, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon Pantheon, c. 1740, Samuel H. Kress Collection, Designed by Susan Lehmann, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National 1939.1.24 Washington, DC Gallery of Art, 1995.47.5 p. 53: Jacob Jordaens, Design for a Wall Decoration (recto), 1640-1645, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, Printed by Schneidereith & Sons, Title page: Jean Dubuffet, Le temps presse (Time Is 1875.13.1.a Baltimore, Maryland Running Out), 1950, The Stephen Hahn Family p.
    [Show full text]
  • Guide to the Martin Klein Collection
    Guide to The Martin Klein Collection The Francis Russell Hart Nautical Collections Compiled by Anna Britton The Francis Russell Hart Nautical Collection MIT Museum Cambridge, Massachusetts 1 © 2019 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced without written permission of the publisher. Published by The MIT Museum 265 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 TABLE OF CONTENTS 2 Acknowledgments 4 Biographical Note 5 Scope and Content 6 Series Description I: Technical Literature and Archival Material 7 Series Description II: Manuals 27 Series Description III: Slides 30 Appendix A: Artifacts 37 Appendix B: Sonar and Personal Files 38 Appendix C: Reference Books 40 Appendix D: Interviews and Transcripts 44 Acknowledgments The MIT Museum wishes to thank Martin Klein for his long service to the MIT Museum as a member of the Collections Committee and for his interest in assisting the Museum to acquire significant collections documenting undersea sensing technologies. Klein’s own extensive professional and personal collection of archives and slides is the core collection defined in this guide. 3 We also acknowledge Martin Klein’s major support in providing resources to catalog and digitize substantial elements of the Martin Klein Collection. He has also maintained a keen interest in the work and advised on priorities for digitization. The majority of the collection was processed and entered in the Museum’s database by Freya Levett between 2016 and 2017. Additional archival materials were digitized and added to the database by Anna Britton from 2018 to 2019. Anna Britton organized and compiled the content in this guide based on her knowledge of the collection, its database records, and related materials not yet cataloged.
    [Show full text]
  • Engineering Odysseys
    © 2001 Michael Hawley ([email protected]) in: MIT Technology Review, October 2001 see: http://www.media.mit.edu/~mike/tr Things That Matter Engineering Odysseys Finish your summer book list? Mine included The Travels of Ibn Battuta (1325-1354), translated by H.A.R. Gibb; The Voyage of the H.M.S. Beagle, by Charles Darwin; and a pair of books by Boston’s most enduring and adoring couple, Brad and Barbara Washburn (The Accidental Adventurer: Memoir of the First Woman to Climb Mt. McKinley, by Barbara; and Exploring the Unknown: Historic Diaries of Bradford Washburn’s Alaska/Yukon Expeditions). The pattern is obvious. I’m a bit of a Fernschmecker. Burning with wanderlust, having O.D.’ed on in-flight magazines, I’ve gone to the primary sources in search of a fix. This may seem odd. For the last decade, I’ve schlepped around the world, visiting every state, about half the world’s countries, and every continent but Antarctica. One might think I’d long for homey books by Bob Vila or Martha Stewart. Instead, I am following the footsteps of many other curiosity seekers. And since science is essentially a curiosity-seeking business, it isn’t surprising that so many scientists have wandered out of the laboratory and into faraway places. Arduous, ambitious trips don’t just build character. They jar your thinking. They spur new ideas. Many a creative work, whether in science or the arts, begins with a boondoggle. Sometimes just going someplace far away, to blow the stink off, is what you need.
    [Show full text]
  • Are Turbo-Like Codes Effective on Nonstandard Channels?* Robert J
    IEEE Information Theory Society Newsletter Vol. 51, No. 4, December 2001 Editor: Lance C. Pérez ISSN 1059-2362 2001 ISIT Plenary Lecture Are Turbo-like Codes Effective on Nonstandard Channels?* Robert J. McEliece California Institute of Technology Pasadena, California USA E-mail: [email protected] Abstract sition at R = C. For R < C, the minimum attainable p is 0+, Turbo codes and their close relatives, e.g. Gallager and RA whereas for RC>=,/p H−1 1 −CR, where H (x)is codes, have been shown to be extraordinarily effective on the min 2 () 2 the binary entropy function. ”standard”channel models, e.g. the binary erasure, binary symmetric, and the AWGN channels. In this paper we discuss Shannon’s theorem is an existence theorem, and as engi- the possibility of using turbo-like codes on a variety of other neers we naturally ask, ”how hard is it to communicate channel models, including some that are nonsymmetric, at rate R and decoded error probability p?” We will re- nonbinary, and multiuser. Our basic conclusion is that binary strict ourselves to the case R < C, for if R > C we would turbo-like codes with graph-based iterative decoding have need to consider source coding, which is beyond the great potential on nearly all such channels. scope of this paper. We are especially interested in com- municating reliably at rates very near capacity, so let us 1. How Hard is it to Approach Channel assume in fact that Capacity? RC=−()1⑀, We begin at the beginning, with Shannon’s celebrated where ⑀ is a small positive number.
    [Show full text]
  • Then, Now, and Beyond
    ThenNowAndBeyond052419.docx - Last edited 5/24/19 2:40 PM EDT Then, Now, and Beyond We were there 1960-2019 A book of essays about how the world has changed written by members of the MIT Class of 1964 ii Copyright @ 2019 by MIT Class of 1964 Class Historian and Project Editor-in-chief: Bob Popadic Editors: Bob Colvin, Bob Gray, John Meriwether, and Jim Monk Individual essays are copyright by the author. A Note on Excellence by F. G. Fassett From the June 1964 issue of MIT Technology Review, © MIT Technology Review Authors Jim Allen Bob Blumberg Robert Colvin Ron Gilman Bob Gray Conrad Grundlehner Leon Kaatz Jim Lerner Paul Lubin John Meriwether Jim Monk Lita Nelsen Bob Popadic David Saul Tom Seay David Sheena Don Stewart Bob Weggel Warren Wiscombe iii Table of Contents Table of Contents ................................................................................................................................ iii Preface ................................................................................................................................................... vii Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... ix Arts and Culture .................................................................................................................................... 1 Then and Now - Did our world get better? Maybe yes. ...................................................................... 2 Period of Awareness .....................................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Omni Magazine
    : onnrui' SEPTEMBER 19/9 %2 D9 FANTASTIC^ HIGH-SCHOOL BEINGS: CONFIDENTIAL: THE ORBITING __-j PLUS: ;60JtiHMsT:v?;.,;; >«.>. SKINNER: IMhI(nWI onnrui SEPTEMBER 1979 EDITOR & DESIGN DIRECTOR: BOB GUCCIONE EXECUTIVE EDITOR: FRANK KENDIG ARl DIRECTOR: FRANK DEVINO EUROPEAN Eu "I OR: DR 3-^MARD DIXON FICTION EDITOR BEN BOVA DIRECTOR OF ADVI-P" S \'G BFVERLEY WARDALE EXECUTIVE VICE-PRESIDENT: IRWIN E. BILLMAN ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER KATHY KEETON ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER (INTL): FRANCO ROSSELLINI CONTENTS PAGE FIRST WORD Opinion Stan Kent 6 OMNIBUS Contributors 8 COMMUNICATIONS Correspondenc 10 FORUM Dialogue 12 EARTH Environment Kenneth Brawe r 16 SPACE Astronomy Mark R. Ctiartrand III ia LIFE Biomedicine Bernard Dixon 20 THE ARTS Media 22 UFO UPDATE Report James Oberg 32 CONTINUUM Data Bank 35 "DOC" Article Stephen Davis 44 KINSMAN Fiction Ben Bova 52 GEOSCAPES Pictorial Douglas Faulkner 56 LIFE IN DARWIN'S UNIVERSE Article Gene Bylinsky 63 GRAVESIDE WATCH Fiction Edward H. Gandy 66 B. E SKINNER Interview Michael Hollingshead 76 EYEWITNESS TO SPACE Pictorial FC. Durantlll 82 SARASWATI IN THE BRONX Article William K. Stuckey 90 THE VACUUM-PACKED PICNIC Fiction Rick Gauger 94 FOOD FOR ZERO-G Article Dava Sobel sa EXPLORATIONS Travel Dava Sobel 37 SCHLIEREN PHOTOGRAPHY Phenomena Gary Settles 40 GAMES Diversions Scot Morris 44 LAST WORD Opinion Stuart Diamond 46 PHOTO CREDITS Cover art for this month's Omni OWN,. 1979 f:SSN 0-49-an ;. US v,-,lj-e \ Number 12 Coi xjnl-vy n ir-s Ut:«; =r«:s= aic £i''„. = Is a watercotor by the "snajjsiv r -TJanada 10022 Tel (2121 593-33D1 Prin-od ir :h B U.S> O; [i'ere::ii American artist Alan Magee.
    [Show full text]
  • Harold Edgerton Exhibition
    MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, ST. PETERSBURG FEATURES STELLAR PHOTOGRAPHS BY HAROLD EDGERTON FROM THE COLLECTION, OPENS SATURDAY, MAY 7 MEDIA CONTACT: David Connelly, [email protected] or 727.896.2667, ext. 224 St. Petersburg, Fla.--This exhibition spotlights some of the Museum’s most compelling photographs by Harold “Doc” Edgerton (American, 1903–1990). Robin O’Dell, Manager of Photographic Collections, developed this choice selection of 25 photographs from an impressive collection of 95. Many are now recognized as his most important. They range from rarely seen gelatin silver prints from as early as 1932 to his colorful dye transfer photographs. The high-speed stroboscopic short film about Edgerton, Quicker’n a Wink, which won an Oscar in 1940, will also play in the gallery. Harold Edgerton: What the Eye Can’t See opens Saturday, May 7, and continues through Sunday, July 31 in the second-floor Works on Paper Gallery. Ms. O’Dell will present a Gallery Talk on Sunday, May 8, at 3 p.m., during opening weekend, and a reception will follow in the Membership Garden. The Tampa Bay Times is the Media Sponsor. Known affectionately as “Papa Flash,” Edgerton used photography to extend the capabilities of the human eye and in the process created some of the most memorable photographs ever made. In 1931, he designed a high-speed stroboscope and began experimenting with strobe- flash technology. That device allowed him to overcome the restrictions of a normal camera's fastest shutter-speed and to capture phenomena previously invisible to the naked eye. The shape of a falling drop of liquid, a balloon bursting, or a bullet shot from a gun appear to stand still.
    [Show full text]
  • MIT Briefing Book 2018 January Edition
    MIT Briefing Book 2018 January edition Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT Briefing Book © 2018, Massachusetts Institute of Technology January 2018 Cover images: Christopher Harting Massachusetts Institute of Technology 77 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139-4307 Telephone Number 617.253.1000 Website http://web.mit.edu/ The Briefing Book is researched and written by a variety of MIT faculty and staff, in particular the members of the Office of the Provost’s Institutional Research group, Industrial Liaison Program, Student Financial Services, and the MIT Washington Office. Executive Editors Maria T. Zuber, Vice President for Research [email protected] David Goldston, Director, MIT Washington Office [email protected] Editors Shirley Wong [email protected] Lydia Snover, to whom all questions should be directed [email protected] 2 MIT Briefing Book MIT Senior Leadership President Senior Vice President and Secretary of the Corporation L. Rafael Reif R. Gregory Morgan Chancellor Vice President and Dean for Student Life Cynthia Barnhart Suzy Nelson Institute Community and Equity Officer Vice President for Communications Edmund Bertschinger Nathaniel W. Nickerson Director of Libraries Dean, School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences Chris Bourg Melissa Nobles Vice President for Information Systems and Technology Dean for Digital Learning John Charles Krishna Rajagopal Dean, School of Engineering Executive Vice President and Treasurer Anantha P. Chandrakasan Israel Ruiz Vice President and General Counsel Dean, School of Architecture and Planning Mark DiVincenzo Hashim Sarkis Chief Executive Officer, MIT Alumni Association Vice President of Open Learning Whitney T. Espich Sanjay Sarma Director, Lincoln Laboratory Provost Eric D. Evans Martin A. Schmidt Associate Provost Dean, Sloan School of Management Karen Gleason David C.
    [Show full text]
  • VOICES of INNOVATION Try Your Hand at Identifying This Photo
    SPRING 2017 VOICES OF INNOVATION Try your hand at identifying this photo. Should you discover classmates you can identify, contact Margi Brown at: D PO Box 801 • Bloomfield Hills, MI 48303-0801 O YOU 248.645.3132 • [email protected] REMEMBER? WINTER 2016: DO YOU REMEMBER? Theodosia Spaeth '74, emailed to identify some of the alumni in the photo, Left side group - Nathan Wimberly ‘74, and another email with several names came from John Carman '74. But the Rowene Weems ‘75, Ray Maturo ‘74 following is an excerpt from an email from Clint Moore '74 who remembered Back of Car - Lawrence Richardson ‘74, the photo vividly, saying, “It was with great amusement and joy that I opened Elizabeth Harvey ‘75 the latest issue of Tradition last Friday, December 30th, to find one of our Brook Front of Car - Sue Kalman Andersen ’74 yearbook ad photos as the subject of your “identify this photo” feature. ‘74, Bill Kraft ‘74, Ruthanne Schwartz Clint remembered the ad sales campaign he waged as an editor of the Brook, Fuller ‘75 asserting that “Our faculty advisor was English Master Berl Rider, who was Behind trunk of car - Dosia Spaeth ‘74, also a professional photographer. He revolutionized the new modern look of Greg Wysocki ‘75 the Brook by urging us to use photographs with students in the ads. This great Right side group - Leslie Petersen Price Dodge Charger ad was shot on the banks of the pond just west of Booth House, ‘74, Clint Moore ‘74, Gary Wycoff ‘74 with the road to the right leading to the boat house.
    [Show full text]
  • Harold Eugene Edgerton 1903– 1990
    NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES HAROLD EUGENE EDGERTON 1903– 1990 A Biographical Memoir by J. KIM VANDIVER AND PAGAN KENNEDY Any opinions expressed in this memoir are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Academy of Sciences. Biographical Memoirs, VOLUME 86 PUBLISHED 2005 BY THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS WASHINGTON, D.C. HAROLD EUGENE EDGERTON April 6, 1903–January 4, 1990 BY J. KIM VANDIVER AND PAGAN KENNEDY AROLD (“DOC”) EDGERTON, born in Fremont, Nebraska, H in 1903, transformed the strobe from an obscure tech- nology to a fixture of American life. He made flashing light cheap and portable, and found endless applications for it, from the airport runway to the office copy machine. But despite his importance as an innovator, Edgerton is best known for the photographs he took. His images have become icons of the twentieth century: the drop of milk exploding into a crown, a bullet hovering beside an apple, an atomic blast caught the instant before it mushroomed, a smudge that might have been the flipper of the Loch Ness monster. His strobe photographs illustrated scientific phenomena in a way that was instantly understandable to millions of people. Later in his career he developed sonar tools that revolu- tionized marine archeology, again using images to explore the unknown. From the 1930s on, Edgerton was the go-to man for anyone who needed a stroboscopic solution. Niels Bohr, golfer Densmore Shute, Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Colonel George Goddard, and a parade of other notables stopped by his lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
    [Show full text]
  • Remembering EG&G
    Remembering EG&G We honor the memory of one of the most remarkable scientific, engineering and business partnerships in American History, Edgerton, Germeshausen and Grier. 0 Remembering EG&G Presented by Michael Hall & Smithsonian Affiliated National Atomic Testing Museum Executive Summary Vita: Using lessons of the past to better understand the present. Central to our mission is preserving the ongoing legacy of the historic Nevada Test Site and nuclear testing. We serve our nation’s Cold War era veterans. We also focus on science and engineering themes for our school-based programming. Our Museum provides collection-based exhibits and related learning activities for greater public understanding and appreciation of the world in which we live. Our collections and programming are inseparably linked to serve a diverse public of varied ages, backgrounds and knowledge. Designated by an act of Congress, the National Atomic Testing Museum is charged by Congress to preserve a unique aspect of our nation’s history and serve its national community. Mission: Educating a multigenerational audience through interdisciplinary programming, engaging exhibits and lectures as we honor the men and women who have addressed the challenges of the nuclear age in war and peace. Vision: Preserving, documenting and teaching all aspects related to the United States’ adoption of nuclear deterrence, which is the credible threat of retaliation to forestall enemy attack. Addressing current issues of proliferation, emergency response and stockpile stewardship. Striving to expand our mission in 2017 with the unveiling of the new Master Interpretive Plan. Developing creative programming, exhibits and publications dealing with geo-political currents involving North Korea, China, Iran and Russia.
    [Show full text]