Arthur Compton
Arthur Compton | |
---|---|
PhD) | |
Known for | |
Spouse |
Betty Charity McCloskey
(m. 1916) |
Children | 2, including Nobel Prize for Physics (1927) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Physics |
Institutions | |
Doctoral advisor | Hereward L. Cooke |
Doctoral students | |
Signature | |
Arthur Holly Compton (September 10, 1892 – March 15, 1962) was an American physicist who won the
In 1919, Compton was awarded one of the first two
During World War II, Compton was a key figure in the Manhattan Project that developed the first nuclear weapons. His reports were important in launching the project. In 1942, he became head of the Metallurgical Laboratory, with responsibility for producing nuclear reactors to convert uranium into plutonium, finding ways to separate the plutonium from the uranium and to design an atomic bomb. Compton oversaw Enrico Fermi's creation of Chicago Pile-1, the first nuclear reactor, which went critical on December 2, 1942. The Metallurgical Laboratory was also responsible for the design and operation of the X-10 Graphite Reactor at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Plutonium began being produced in the Hanford Site reactors in 1945.
After the war, Compton became chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis. During his tenure, the university formally desegregated its undergraduate divisions, named its first female full professor, and enrolled a record number of students after wartime veterans returned to the United States.
Early life
Arthur Compton was born on September 10, 1892, in
They were an academic family. Elias was dean of theCompton was initially interested in astronomy, and took a photograph of Halley's Comet in 1910.[6] Around 1913, he described an experiment where an examination of the motion of water in a circular tube demonstrated the rotation of the earth, a device now known as the Compton generator.[7] That year, he graduated from Wooster with a Bachelor of Science degree and entered Princeton, where he received his Master of Arts degree in 1914.[8] Compton then studied for his PhD in physics under the supervision of Hereward L. Cooke, writing his dissertation on The Intensity of X-Ray Reflection, and the Distribution of the Electrons in Atoms.[9]
When Arthur Compton earned his PhD in 1916, he, Karl and Wilson became the first group of three brothers to earn Ph.D.s from Princeton. Later, they would become the first such trio to simultaneously head American colleges.[4] Their sister Mary married a missionary, C. Herbert Rice, who became the principal of Forman Christian College in Lahore.[10] In June 1916, Compton married Betty Charity McCloskey, a Wooster classmate and fellow graduate.[10] They had two sons, Arthur Alan Compton and John Joseph Compton.[11]
Compton spent a year as a physics instructor at the
In 1919, Compton was awarded one of the first two
From 1926 to 1927, he taught at the department of chemistry of the University of the Punjab where he was a Guggenheim Fellow.[14][15]
For a time Compton was a deacon at a Baptist church. "Science can have no quarrel", he said, "with a religion which postulates a God to whom men are as His children."[16]
Career
Compton effect
Returning to the United States, Compton was appointed Wayman Crow Professor of Physics, and head of the department of physics at Washington University in St. Louis in 1920.
In 1923, Compton published a paper in the
where
- is the initial wavelength,
- is the wavelength after scattering,
- is the Planck constant,
- is the electron rest mass,
- is the speed of light, and
- is the scattering angle.[18]
The quantity h⁄mec is known as the Compton wavelength of the electron; it is equal to 2.43×10−12 m. The wavelength shift λ′ − λ lies between zero (for θ = 0°) and twice the Compton wavelength of the electron (for θ = 180°).[20] He found that some X-rays experienced no wavelength shift despite being scattered through large angles; in each of these cases the photon failed to eject an electron. Thus the magnitude of the shift is related not to the Compton wavelength of the electron, but to the Compton wavelength of the entire atom, which can be upwards of 10,000 times smaller.[18]
"When I presented my results at a meeting of the American Physical Society in 1923", Compton later recalled, "it initiated the most hotly contested scientific controversy that I have ever known."[21] The wave nature of light had been well demonstrated, and the idea that it could have a dual nature was not easily accepted. It was particularly telling that diffraction in a crystal lattice could only be explained with reference to its wave nature. It earned Compton the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1927. Compton and Alfred W. Simon developed the method for observing at the same instant individual scattered X-ray photons and the recoil electrons. In Germany, Walther Bothe and Hans Geiger independently developed a similar method.[17]
X-rays
In 1923, Compton moved to the University of Chicago as professor of physics,[8] a position he would occupy for the next 22 years.[17] In 1925, he demonstrated that the scattering of 130,000-volt X-rays from the first sixteen elements in the periodic table (hydrogen through sulfur) were polarized, a result predicted by J. J. Thomson. William Duane from Harvard University spearheaded an effort to prove that Compton's interpretation of the Compton effect was wrong. Duane carried out a series of experiments to disprove Compton, but instead found evidence that Compton was correct. In 1924, Duane conceded that this was the case.[17]
Compton investigated the effect of X-rays on the sodium and chlorine nuclei in
Compton's first book, X-Rays and Electrons, was published in 1926. In it he showed how to calculate the densities of diffracting materials from their X-ray diffraction patterns.
Cosmic rays
By the early 1930s, Compton had become interested in
Manhattan Project
In April 1941,
The final draft of Compton's November report made no mention of using plutonium, but after discussing the latest research with
In June 1942, the
When labor disputes delayed construction of the Metallurgical Laboratory's new home in the Argonne Forest preserve, Compton decided to build Chicago Pile-1, the first nuclear reactor, under the stands at Stagg Field.[34] Under Fermi's direction, it went critical on December 2, 1942.[35] Compton arranged for Mallinckrodt to undertake the purification of uranium ore,[36] and with DuPont to build the plutonium semi-works at Oak Ridge, Tennessee.[37]
A major crisis for the plutonium program occurred in July 1943, when
Compton was at the
Return to Washington University
After the war ended, Compton resigned his chair as Charles H. Swift Distinguished Service Professor of Physics at the University of Chicago and returned to Washington University in St. Louis, where he was inaugurated as the university's ninth chancellor in 1946.
Compton retired as chancellor in 1954, but remained on the faculty as Distinguished Service Professor of Natural Philosophy until his retirement from the full-time faculty in 1961. In retirement he wrote Atomic Quest, a personal account of his role in the Manhattan Project, which was published in 1956.[40]
Philosophy
Compton was one of a handful of scientists and philosophers to propose a two-stage model of free will. Others include William James, Henri Poincaré, Karl Popper, Henry Margenau, and Daniel Dennett.[42] In 1931, Compton championed the idea of human freedom based on quantum indeterminacy, and invented the notion of amplification of microscopic quantum events to bring chance into the macroscopic world. In his somewhat bizarre mechanism, he imagined sticks of dynamite attached to his amplifier, anticipating the Schrödinger's cat paradox, which was published in 1935.[43]
Reacting to criticisms that his ideas made chance the direct cause of people's actions, Compton clarified the two-stage nature of his idea in an A set of known physical conditions is not adequate to specify precisely what a forthcoming event will be. These conditions, insofar as they can be known, define instead a range of possible events from among which some particular event will occur. When one exercises freedom, by his act of choice he is himself adding a factor not supplied by the physical conditions and is thus himself determining what will occur. That he does so is known only to the person himself. From the outside one can see in his act only the working of physical law. It is the inner knowledge that he is in fact doing what he intends to do that tells the actor himself that he is free.[44]
Religious views
Compton was a Presbyterian.[45] His father Elias was an ordained Presbyterian minister.[45]
Compton lectured on a "Man's Place in God's World" at Yale University, Western Theological Seminary and the University of Michigan in 1934–35.[45] The lectures formed the basis of his book The Freedom of Man. His chapter "Death, or Life Eternal?" argued for Christian immortality and quoted verses from the Bible.[45][46] From 1948 to 1962, Compton was an elder of the Second Presbyterian Church in St. Louis.[45] In his later years, he co-authored the book Man's Destiny in Eternity. Compton set Jesus as the center of his faith in God's eternal plan.[45] He once commented that he could see Jesus' spirit at work in the world as an aspect of God alive in men and women.[45]
Death and legacy
Compton died in
Compton received many awards in his lifetime, including the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1927, the Matteucci Gold Medal in 1930, the Royal Society's Hughes Medal and the Franklin Institute's Franklin Medal in 1940.[48] He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1925,[49] the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1927,[50] and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1928.[51] He is commemorated in various ways. Compton crater on the Moon is co-named for Compton and his brother Karl.[52] The physics research building at Washington University in St Louis is named in his honor,[53] as is the university's top fellowship for undergraduate students studying math, physics, or planetary science.[54] Compton invented a more gentle, elongated, and ramped version of the speed bump called the "Holly hump", many of which are on the roads of the Washington University campus.[55] The University of Chicago remembered Compton and his achievements by dedicating the Arthur H. Compton House in his honor.[56] It is now listed as a National Historic Landmark.[57] Compton also has a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.[58] NASA's Compton Gamma Ray Observatory was named in honor of Compton. The Compton effect is central to the gamma ray detection instruments aboard the observatory.[59]
Bibliography
- Compton, Arthur (1926). X-Rays and Electrons: An Outline of Recent X-Ray Theory. New York: D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc. OCLC 1871779.
- Compton, Arthur; OCLC 853654.
- Compton, Arthur (1935). The Freedom of Man. New Haven: Yale University Press. OCLC 5723621.
- Compton, Arthur (1940). The Human Meaning of Science. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. OCLC 311688.
- Compton, Arthur (1949). Man's Destiny in Eternity. Boston: Beacon Press. OCLC 4739240.
- Compton, Arthur (1956). Atomic Quest. New York: Oxford University Press. OCLC 173307.
- Compton, Arthur (1967). Johnston, Marjorie (ed.). The Cosmos of Arthur Holly Compton. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. OCLC 953130.
- Compton, Arthur (1973). OCLC 962635.
Notes
- ^ Hockey 2007, p. 244.
- ^ "Past National Mothers of the Year". American Mothers, Inc. Archived from the original on March 23, 2011. Retrieved July 23, 2013.
- ^ Amstutz, J. E.; Steiner, Samuel J. (February 2012). "Compton, Otelia Augspurger (1859-1944)". In Roth, John D. (ed.). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online.
- ^ a b Compton 1967, p. 425.
- ^ "The Official History of the Beta Beta Chapter of the Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity". Alpha Tau Fraternity. Archived from the original on October 16, 2014. Retrieved August 10, 2013.
- ^ Compton 1967, pp. 11–12.
- PMID 17838837.
- ^ a b c "Arthur H. Compton – Biography". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved March 19, 2013.
- ^ "Arthur Holly Compton (1892–1962)" (PDF). University of Notre Dame. Retrieved July 24, 2013.
- ^ a b c Allison 1965, p. 82.
- ^ a b Allison 1965, p. 94.
- ^ a b Allison 1965, p. 83.
- ^ a b Compton 1967, p. 27.
- ^ "University of the Punjab – Science". pu.edu.pk. Retrieved August 29, 2023.
- ^ Newspaper, the (October 15, 2014). "Nobel Laureates from Lahore". DAWN.COM. Retrieved August 29, 2023.
- ^ "Science: Cosmic Clearance". Time. January 13, 1936. Archived from the original on October 24, 2012.
- ^ a b c d Allison 1965, pp. 84–86.
- ^ .
- ^ Gamow 1966, pp. 17–23.
- University of California Riverside. Archived from the originalon November 10, 1996. Retrieved August 18, 2013.
- ^ Compton 1967, p. 36.
- ^ a b Allison 1965, pp. 87–88.
- ^ Allison 1965, pp. 88–89.
- ^ "Eastman Professorship". The Association of American Rhodes Scholars. Retrieved July 26, 2013.
- ^ Allison 1965, p. 90.
- ^ Compton 1967, pp. 157–163.
- ^ Hewlett & Anderson 1962, pp. 36–38.
- ^ a b Hewlett & Anderson 1962, pp. 46–49.
- ^ Hewlett & Anderson 1962, pp. 50–51.
- ^ Hewlett & Anderson 1962, pp. 54–55.
- ^ Hewlett & Anderson 1962, pp. 74–75.
- ^ Hewlett & Anderson 1962, p. 103.
- ^ Hewlett & Anderson 1962, pp. 180–181.
- ^ Hewlett & Anderson 1962, pp. 108–109.
- ^ Hewlett & Anderson 1962, p. 174.
- ^ Allison 1965, p. 92.
- ^ Hewlett & Anderson 1962, pp. 190–191.
- ^ Hewlett & Anderson 1962, pp. 304–310.
- ^ "Recommendations on the Immediate Use of Nuclear Weapons". nuclearfiles.org. Retrieved July 27, 2013.
- ^ a b c Allison 1965, p. 93.
- ^ Pfeiffenberger, Amy M. (Winter 1989). "Democracy at Home: The Struggle to Desegregate Washington University in the Postwar Era". Gateway-Heritage. 10 (3). Missouri Historical Society: 17–24.
- ^ "Two-Stage Models for Free Will". The Information Philosopher. Retrieved July 27, 2013.
- S2CID 29126625.
- ^ a b Compton 1967, p. 121.
- ^ JSTOR 23330520.
- ISBN 978-0-8191-1215-6
- ^ "Arthur Holly Compton: Systemwide". California Digital Library. Retrieved May 24, 2017.
- ^ Allison 1965, p. 97.
- ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved August 14, 2023.
- ^ "Arthur H. Compton". www.nasonline.org. Retrieved August 14, 2023.
- ^ "Arthur Holly Compton". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. February 9, 2023. Retrieved August 14, 2023.
- ^ "Compton". Tangient LLC. Retrieved July 27, 2013.
- ^ "Arthur Holly Compton Laboratory of Physics". Washington University in St. Louis. Retrieved July 27, 2013.
- ^ "Honorary Scholars Program in Arts and Sciences". Washington University in St. Louis. Archived from the original on February 15, 2018. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
- ^ "Compton Speed Bumps for Traffic Control, 1953". Washington University in St. Louis. Archived from the original on July 19, 2013. Retrieved July 27, 2013.
- ^ "Compton House". University of Chicago. Archived from the original on December 1, 2005. Retrieved July 27, 2013.
- ^ "Compton, Arthur H., House". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on February 12, 2012. Retrieved July 27, 2013.
- ^ St. Louis Walk of Fame. "St. Louis Walk of Fame Inductees". stlouiswalkoffame.org. Archived from the original on October 31, 2012. Retrieved April 25, 2013.
- ^ "The CGRO Mission (1991–2000)". NASA. Retrieved July 27, 2013.
References
- OCLC 1759017.
- OCLC 11970045.
- OCLC 637004643. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
- Hockey, Thomas (2007). The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. OCLC 263669996. Retrieved August 22, 2012.
Further reading
External links
- Media related to Arthur Compton at Wikimedia Commons
- "Strange Instrument Built to Solve Mystery of Cosmic Rays", April 1932, Popular Science article about Compton on research on cosmic rays
- Arthur Compton biographical entry at Washington University in St. Louis
- Annotated bibliography for Arthur Compton from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues
- Arthur Holly Compton on Information Philosopher
- Arthur Compton on Nobelprize.org
- National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir
- Arthur Compton at Find a Grave
- Guide to the Arthur Holly Compton Papers 1918–1964 at the University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center
- Works by or about Arthur Compton at Internet Archive