H. VICTOR NEHER (1904 – 1999) INTERVIEWED BY RACHEL PRUD’HOMME April 27 and 28, 1982 H. Victor Neher, 1970 ARCHIVES CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Pasadena, California Subject area Physics Abstract An interview in two sessions, April 27 and 28, 1982, with Henry Victor Neher, professor of physics, emeritus, in the Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy. Dr. Neher received a BA in physics from Pomona College (1926) and became a graduate student at Caltech in 1928, earning his PhD three years later. In this interview, he recalls his undergraduate years at Pomona, his growing acquaintance with Caltech, and his work as a graduate student on the scattering of high-energy electrons. Recollections of Robert A. Millikan, Earnest Watson, William H. Pickering. He describes Caltech’s cosmic-ray group—Millikan, Carl Anderson, Seth Neddermeyer, Ira S. Bowen—and the plane trips he made throughout North and South America to measure cosmic rays. Recollections of Richard Chace Tolman. Comments on his PhD orals, on teaching undergraduates, on some of his memorable students (Kip Thorne, Howard Berg, H. Guyford Stever). The 100-to-1 Shot Club; John Anderson and Russell Porter. The effect of the Depression on Caltech. War work at the MIT Radiation Laboratory. Changes at Caltech during presidency of Lee Dubridge. Postwar balloon flights http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Neher_H to study cosmic rays. Comments on Frank and J. Robert Oppenheimer and their political difficulties during the McCarthy era. Early campus atmosphere and changes over the years. Donald Glaser and development of the bubble chamber. Administrative information Access The interview is unrestricted. Copyright Copyright has been assigned to the California Institute of Technology © 1982, 2017. All requests for permission to publish or quote from the transcript must be submitted in writing to the University Archivist and Head, Special Collections. Preferred citation Neher, H. Victor. Interview by Rachel Prud’homme. Pasadena, California, April 27 and 28, 1982. Oral History Project, California Institute of Technology Archives. Retrieved [supply date of retrieval] from the World Wide Web: http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Neher_H Contact information Archives, California Institute of Technology Mail Code B215-74 Pasadena, CA 91125 Phone: (626)395-2704 Fax: (626)395-4073 Email: [email protected] Graphics and content © 2017 California Institute of Technology. http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Neher_H CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY ARCHIVES ORAL HISTORY PROJECT INTERVIEW WITH H. VICTOR NEHER BY RACHEL PRUD’HOMME WATSONVILLE, CALIFORNIA Copyright © l982, 2017 by the California Institute of Technology http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Neher_H Neher–ii TABLE OF CONTENTS INTERVIEW WITH H. VICTOR NEHER Session 1 1-20 Family background; education; Pomona; introduction to Caltech. Switch from engineering to physics; graduate studies at Caltech; R. C. Tolman. R. A. Millikan as teacher and scholar. Teaching; cosmic-ray research; C. Anderson and S. Neddermeyer. Millikan v. A. H. Compton; Millikan and I. S. Bowen; balloon flights and data collecting of high-altitude cosmic rays. Comments on Bowen and Tolman; orals. Pike’s Peak cosmic-ray experiments. Travel and work with Millikan. Funding for research; Caltech’s ambience. Session 2 21-46 100-to-l Shot Club; R. Porter’s Palomar drawings; Depression’s toll on faculty and research. WW II; MIT’s Radiation Laboratory; microwave receivers. Postwar return to Caltech. Change in Caltech with advent of L. A. DuBridge; students; changes in departmental structures. l947-l948 balloon flights; equipment; graduate students. F. Oppenheimer; J. R. Oppenheimer; McCarthyism. J. R. Oppenheimer as teacher; loss of his security clearance. Vatican conference, 1962. A. Klein and R. Knapp. Social life as a faculty member. Famous visitors to Caltech: Einstein, Lorentz, Sommerfeld. Changes in students over past decades. Interesting students: K. Thorne, H. Berg, G. Stever. Development of courses and equipment in cosmic-ray research; data accuracy. D. Glaser and bubble chamber. Anecdote about G. Holton and Newton quotation. http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Neher_H CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY ARCHIVES ORAL HISTORY PROJECT Interview with H. Victor Neher by Rachel Prud’homme Watsonville, California Session 1 April 27, 1982 Session 2 April 28, 1982 Begin Tape 1, Side 1 PRUD’HOMME: Professor Neher, tell me a little bit about yourself. Where were you born and brought up? NEHER: Well, I was born in Kansas. My folks had been back there about four years before I was born, so my older brother and older sister were also born there. We moved back to California when I was nine months old. So I was raised in the San Joaquin Valley, almost due east of Watsonville. I went through grade school in a one-room schoolhouse. We lived in the country. My father was a grain farmer and farmed several thousand acres—mostly barley and some wheat. PRUD’HOMME: And you went to Pomona? NEHER: I went to Pomona College, yes, largely on the recommendation of one of my high school teachers. PRUD’HOMME: What did you study there? NEHER: Well, I thought I was going to be an electrical engineer, so I began taking courses in physics. I took a general course in physics my first year. My teacher was Mr. [George Gale] Hitchcock, who had a Model-T Ford. He would take us over to Caltech for the Friday evening demonstration lectures given in 201 Bridge [Norman Bridge http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Neher_H Neher–2 Laboratory of Physics]. So my first contact with Caltech was in the fall of 1922. There was not much then at Caltech. The east wing of Bridge had been built, and they were in the process of building the west wing. Of course, Throop Hall was there. PRUD’HOMME: What made you decide to go there, as opposed to some other institution? NEHER: Well, I thought it was a good school. And [Robert A.] Millikan [Caltech’s head (chairman of the Executive Council), 1921-1946] impressed me. He gave one of the evening demonstration lectures there that we heard in the fall of 1922. I was very much impressed with his lecture and what he had to say. PRUD’HOMME: Can you remember what the lecture was about? NEHER: Yes. At least part of it was on magnetism. At one stage, he asked a question of the audience: “How does the strength of a magnetic field, like the Earth’s, change with distance?” He looked right at me, so I took it rather personally. [Laughter] My knowledge of physics was rather slim at the time. Anyhow, he used to do this; he would pose questions to the audience. PRUD’HOMME: Is he the one who persuaded you to change to physics from engineering? NEHER: No. I didn’t know him personally all through my Pomona years, although I went over to Pasadena on a good many occasions for the Friday evening lectures. PRUD’HOMME: What was Caltech’s application process then to be a graduate student? Did you have to go through rigorous interviews and tests and so on? NEHER: While I was at Pomona, I got to know some of the people at Caltech. I received my bachelor’s degree from Pomona in 1926. In 1925, there was a new instructor in physics, who had come from Colorado College. His name was [Roland R.] Tileston. He was an extraordinary teacher. He is the one, I suppose, more than anybody else, who got me changed from engineering to physics. He used to load his Dodge up with his students, http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Neher_H Neher–3 and take them over to these Friday evening demonstration lectures and also to other lectures. So I gradually got to know some of the staff at Caltech. One of his students at Colorado College was [William R.] Ralph Smythe, who was, of course, on the faculty at Caltech [professor of physics, emeritus; d.1988]. I knew him early on. Then I stayed on at Pomona for two years after I got my bachelor’s degree, to help out in the physics department; Tileston was expanding the department and needed some help. He was getting in a lot of new equipment for the laboratories and for his lectures and so on. That was a great opportunity. There was an interesting episode in connection with that. During my senior year at Pomona—in fact it was in the early spring of 1926—Tileston had said that Dartmouth would take any student he recommended for graduate work. This was because Tileson had come from Dartmouth, and they were anxious to get graduate students. He wanted me to go to Dartmouth. However, I had already made up my mind to go to Caltech. I was talking with him one day, and he said he had to get somebody to go back to Dartmouth rather soon, because this position would not be open very long. He asked me if I knew anybody who might be interested. Well, my roommate [M. Stanley] Livingston was majoring in chemistry. I thought maybe he might be persuaded to go into physics. So I went over to the chemistry lab and asked him if he wanted to be a physicist instead of a chemist; I told him what the situation was. He came over and talked with Tileston. Tileston gave him twenty-four hours to make up his mind whether he would take this or not. He decided within twenty-four hours that he was going to be a physicist! Livingston later worked with [Ernest O.] Lawrence at UC Berkeley on cyclotrons and ended up at MIT. He became one of the country’s experts on high-energy particle machines. PRUD’HOMME: When you came here as a graduate student, what was the campus like? Where did you live? What did you do with your social life? When you wanted to get away from it all, where did you go? NEHER: Well, I lived up on Del Mar Boulevard.