FRANK E. MARBLE (1918–2014) INTERVIEWED BY SHIRLEY K. COHEN January–March, 1994, April 21, 1995 By Floyd Clark, 1974. Courtesy CIT Public Relations ARCHIVES CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Pasadena, California Subject area Engineering, aeronautical engineering Abstract An interview in seven sessions, January 1994-April 1995, with Frank E. Marble, Richard L. and Dorothy M. Hayman Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Professor of Jet Propulsion, Emeritus. Marble discusses his undergraduate and early graduate study at Case School of Applied Science, his work at the NACA Engine Research Lab in Cleveland, where he was in charge of large-engine research project for B-26 bomber, and his arrival at Caltech in 1946 to complete his doctoral degree in 1948. He discusses his graduate students, including Benoit Mandelbrot and Chuang Feng-kan, his colleagues Clark Millikan, Hans Liepmann, Duncan Rannie, and Arthur Erdélyi; and the beginning of his close and enduring friendship with Theodore von Kármán. Recalls his first visit to Europe in 1949, his meeting with Moe Berg in Switzerland, and his appointment that same year as the first new faculty member of Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Center, and the group of courses in jet propulsion he developed for the Center. Besides his discussion of his work in combustion in jet-propulsion systems, flame stabilization, and propagation of acoustic waves, the interview contains his recollections of Tsien Hsue-shen and McCarthy-era politics, the army’s refusal to renew Tsien’s security clearance in 1950 and Dan Kimball’s role in the Tsien case, and Tsien’s deportation five years later. Recalls his visiting professorship at http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Marble_F Cornell University, spring and summer 1956; his involvement with the Advisory Group for Aeronautical Research and Development of NATO; the development of engineering at Caltech; influence of Felix Klein; and Robert Knapp and the Hydrodynamics Lab. Comments on the GALCIT complex; Homer Joe Stewart; Ed Zukoski; and Ann Karagozian, his only female PhD student. Concludes the interview with his work on compressors; development of supersonic transport and jet noise; turbulent flow; vortex-combustion theory; work in the 1980s; “The Marble Problem;” very-high-speed flight; invitation to teach in China (1982) and seeing Tsien and his family again; Lee DuBridge; and the Caltech Flying Club. Administrative information Access The interview is unrestricted. Copyright Copyright has been assigned to the California Institute of Technology © 1997, 2007. All requests for permission to publish or quote from the transcript must be submitted in writing to the University Archivist. Preferred citation Marble, Frank E. Interview by Shirley K. Cohen. Pasadena, California, January- March, 1994, April 21, 1995. Oral History Project, California Institute of Technology Archives. Retrieved [supply date of retrieval] from the World Wide Web: http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Marble_F Contact information Archives, California Institute of Technology Mail Code 015A-74 Pasadena, CA 91125 Phone: (626)395-2704 Fax: (626)793-8756 Email: [email protected] Graphics and content © 2007 California Institute of Technology. http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Marble_F CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY ORAL HISTORY PROJECT INTERVIEW WITH FRANK E. MARBLE BY SHIRLEY K. COHEN PASADENA, CALIFORNIA Caltech Archives, 1997 Copyright © 1997, 2006 by the California Institute of Technology http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Marble_F Marble–ii TABLE OF CONTENTS INTERVIEW WITH FRANK E. MARBLE Family Background, Childhood, 1918-1936 1-6 Grandfather, Frank E. Marble; parents, Louis C. Marble and Blanche Rayburn; sister, Rosalind; boyhood in Cleveland; fly fishing; musical ability, trombone; early interest in mathematics, physics; operas, the public library; early interest in airplanes; National Air Races at Cleveland; model airplanes. Undergraduate Education, 1937-1940 6-10 Decision to go to Case School of Applied Science; mathematics, aeronautics; John R. Weske, Lionel Marks; Richard Burington; class size; hears of Theodore von Kármán; Burington’s anti- Semitism; Robert Shankland and Dayton Miller’s work on ether drift experiments; Shankland’s friendship with William Houston. Early Graduate Study, Marriage, NACA, 1940-1946 10-14 Desire to go to Caltech; summer research at Harvard wind tunnel; met William Bollay; returned to Case for master’s degree; Pearl Harbor; hired to work at the NACA Engine Research Lab in Cleveland; marriage to Ora Lee; honeymoon, received draft induction notice; Ora Lee’s education. 14-17 NACA Lab—in charge of large engine-research project for B-26 bomber; George W. Lewis; jet propulsion activity; made chief of fundamental turbine-compressor research branch; work on Boeing B-29, Abe Silverstein and Eastman Jacobs, Oscar Schey; father’s death. 17-20 National Research Council predoctoral fellowship; enrolled at Caltech in aeronautics; driving trailer across country with Ora Lee; continued association with John Weske; wartime work at the Engine Research Lab. Graduate Work at Caltech, 1946-1948 21-26 Arrival in Pasadena; first impressions of the Guggenheim Aeronautical Lab; Ernest Sechler, Geraldine Ellis; Franklin Thomas, Fred Lindvall; book series by William Frederick Durand; shared office with Alberta Panpeyan, Harold Martin; impressions of Clark Millikan, Hans Liepmann; students with war experience, Milton Van Dyke and Dean Chapman; Liepmann’s group; transonic flow work, Duncan Rannie and Homer Joe Stewart; work as a teaching assistant for Liepmann and Millikan; Jesse Greenstein; completion of doctoral degree in two years. http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Marble_F Marble–iii 26-29 Physics and math courses: William Fowler, Morgan Ward, Harry Bateman, Arthur Erdélyi. Teaching at Caltech, 1948-1950s 29-33 Persuaded to stay by Clark Millikan; cooling-off with Liepmanns; met von Kármán; Bill Sears; first International Congress of Astrophysics and Gas Dynamics in Paris, 1949; Moe Berg; travel in Europe; Josephine (Pipö) de Kármán. 33-37 Interviewing for jobs; Francis Clauser; Bill Sears; Tsien Hsue-shen; Johns Hopkins, MIT; Guggenheim Foundation support for Jet Propulsion Centers; offer from Caltech; Tsien and Clark Millikan; Sol Penner; Duncan Rannie; work at the ramjet section of JPL (1948-1958). 38-42 Faculty and teaching at the Guggenheim Jet Propulsion Center; Pol Duwez, David Altman, Howard Siefert; ramjet section of JPL; Duncan Rannie, Theodore von Kármán and the Tacoma Bridge failure; Stephen Timoshenko; fundamental combustion research group. Tsien Hsue-shen at Caltech, 1950-1955 42-48 Tsien’s trouble with Immigration and Naturalization (1950)—McCarthy-era politics; 1930s radicalism—Frank Malina, Tsien, Pol Duwez; Toward New Horizons; Tsien in Washington, Dan Kimball; Tsien’s detention, loss of house; Albert Del Guerico; protected by Lee DuBridge; Grant Cooper; Polly and Mark Mills post bail; Richard N. Lewis’s deposition; deportation order; Tsien leaves for five years (1955). Graduate Students 48-51 Gerald Monroe, Benoit Mandelbrot, Chuang Feng-kan; students at the Jet Propulsion Center— Artur Mager, Jack Kerrebrock, Thomas Adamson, Ed Zukoski; socializing with students. Engineering at Caltech, NATO-AGARD, 1950s-1960s 52-55 Tsien’s departure—Duncan Rannie replaces him; Bill Sears encourages Marble to come to Cornell; moved to Cornell for nine months; decision to stay at Caltech, leave JPL (1956-57); growth of JPL, new emphasis on space activities; salary negotiations; Grant Brownlee. 55-58 Melvin Gerstein; AGARD [Advisory Group for Aeronautical Research and Development of NATO]; Jean Fabri, Brian Mullins, Kármán; travel to NATO countries; first AGARD meeting, http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Marble_F Marble–iv Rome 1952; Kármán’s role; Jean Surugue; impressions of political climate in Italy. 58-62 Engineering at Caltech; Fred Lindvall, Theodore von Kármán; applied mathematics at Brown; Richard Courant, Felix Klein; changing name of Division of Engineering; old Hydrodynamics Lab, Robert Knapp; classified work, officer Newton. 62-65 Lab given to Caltech by Aerojet General Corp.; Firestone Laboratory of Aeronautics; description of the GALCIT complex; Kármán’s role in 1946 when DuBridge arrived; Ernest Sechler, Hans Liepmann and Lester Lees; Lees’ involvement with the Environmental Quality Lab. Research at Caltech 66-69 Engineering vs. pure science; master’s at Case School of Applied Science, John Weske; axial- flow fan work; NACA Engine Research Laboratory in Cleveland; engine-cooling work, turbomachinery problems for jet propulsion; doctoral thesis at Caltech; Duncan Rannie, Homer Joe Stewart, Hans Liepmann. 69-73 Combustion work at JPL; Tom Adamson, Ed Zukoski; flame stabilization; support for research at JPL; instability in the combustion process; United Technologies Research Center; Don Rogers and the “screech” phenomenon. 73-75 Return to turbo machinery work; Howard Emmons and work on compressors—compressor-stall phenomenon; laboratory in the Thomas building; C.S. Draper, Edward Taylor and overtures made by MIT; Jack Kerrebrock. 75-80 Combustion process in intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs); multiphase gas dynamics; AGARD Meeting, Braunschweig, 1962; Minuteman rocket; structure of shock waves, George Carrier; low-pressure stages of steam turbines; propagation of acoustic waves (1970-1978); development of supersonic transport and jet noise; Sébastien Candel; David Wooten. 80-81 Year in Cambridge (1972-1973), Whittle