Kenneth Bainbridge

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Kenneth Bainbridge
Trinity nuclear test
Scientific career
FieldsPhysics
InstitutionsHarvard University
Doctoral advisorHenry DeWolf Smyth
Doctoral studentsEdward Mills Purcell
Signature

Kenneth Tompkins Bainbridge (July 27, 1904 – July 14, 1996) was an American physicist at

Trinity nuclear test, which took place July 16, 1945. Bainbridge described the Trinity explosion as a "foul and awesome display".[2] He remarked to J. Robert Oppenheimer immediately after the test, "Now we are all sons of bitches."[2]
This marked the beginning of his dedication to ending the testing of nuclear weapons and to efforts to maintain civilian control of future developments in that field.

Early life

Kenneth Tompkins Bainbridge was born in

ham radio which inspired him to enter Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1921 to study electrical engineering. In five years he earned both Bachelor of Science (S.B.) and Master of Science (S.M.) degrees. During the summer breaks he worked at General Electric's laboratories in Lynn, Massachusetts and Schenectady, New York. While there he obtained three patents related to photoelectric tubes.[3][4][5][6]

Normally this would have been a promising start to a career at General Electric, but it made Bainbridge aware of how interested he was in

element 87 by analysis of positive rays" under the supervision of Henry DeWolf Smyth.[8]

Early career

Bainbridge enjoyed a series of prestigious fellowships after graduation. He was awarded a

W. F. G. Swann, an English physicist with an interest in nuclear physics.[9] Bainbridge married Margaret ("Peg") Pitkin, a member of the Swarthmore teaching faculty, in September 1931.[9] They had a son, Martin Keeler, and two daughters, Joan and Margaret Tomkins.[10][11]

In 1932, Bainbridge developed a

mass spectrometer with a resolving power of 600 and a relative precision of one part in 10,000.[12] He used this instrument to verify Albert Einstein's mass–energy equivalence, E = mc2.[13] Francis William Aston
wrote that:

By establishing accurate comparisons of the masses of the light particles concerned in nuclear disintegrations, particularly that of 7Li, discovered by Cockcroft and Walton, he achieved a noteworthy triumph in the experimental proof of the fundamental theory of Einstein of the equivalence of mass and energy.[14]

In 1933, Bainbridge was awarded a prestigious

Cambridge University. While there he continued his work developing the mass spectrograph, and became friends with the British physicist John Cockcroft.[9]

When his Guggenheim fellowship expired in September 1934, he returned to the United States, where he accepted an associate professorship at Harvard University. He started by building a new mass spectrograph that he had designed with at the Cavendish Laboratory. Working with J. Curry Street, he commenced work on a cyclotron.[9] They had a design for a 37-inch (940 mm) cyclotron provided by Ernest Lawrence, but decided to build a 42-inch (1,100 mm) cyclotron instead.[15]

Bainbridge was elected a Fellow of the

E. Bright Wilson to help. There was little interest in their work because research was being carried out elsewhere.[17] In 1943, their cyclotron was requisitioned by Edwin McMillan for use by the U. S. Army. It was packed up and carted off to Los Alamos, New Mexico.[9][15]

World War II

Bainbridge's Los Alamos badge

In September 1940, with

pulse modulators.[20] Working with the Navy, he helped develop high-powered radars for warships.[10]

Video of the
Trinity nuclear test

In May 1943, Bainbridge joined

Robert Oppenheimer's Project Y at Los Alamos.[15] He initially led E-2, the instrumentation group, which developed X-ray instrumentation for examining explosions.[21] In March 1944, he became head of a new group, E-9, which was charged with conducting the first nuclear test. In Oppenheimer's sweeping reorganization of the Los Alamos laboratory in August 1944, the E-9 Group became X-2.[22]

On July 16, 1945, Bainbridge and his colleagues conducted the

atomic bomb went off without such drama, in what he later described as "a foul and awesome display".[2][23][24] He turned to Oppenheimer and said, "Now we are all sons of bitches."[2]

Bainbridge was relieved that the Trinity test had been a success, relating in a 1975 Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists article, "I had a feeling of exhilaration that the 'gadget' had gone off properly followed by one of deep relief. I wouldn't have to go to the tower to see what had gone wrong."[2]

For his work on the

Presidential Certificate of Merit for his work at the MIT Radiation Laboratory.[25]

Postwar

Bainbridge returned to Harvard after the war, and initiated the construction of a 96-inch (2,400 mm) synchro-cyclotron, which has since been dismantled.[26] From 1950 to 1954, he chaired the physics department at Harvard. During those years, he drew the ire of Senator Joseph McCarthy for his aggressive defense of his colleagues in academia. As chairman, he was responsible for the renovation of the old Jefferson Physical Laboratory, and he established the Morris Loeb Lectures in Physics. He also devoted a good deal of his time to improving the laboratory facilities for graduate students.[27]

Throughout the 1950s, Bainbridge remained an outspoken proponent of civilian control of

hydrogen bomb.[10] Bainbridge retired from Harvard in 1975.[27]

Bainbridge's wife Margaret died suddenly in January 1967 from a blood clot in a broken wrist. He married Helen Brinkley King, an editor at William Morrow in New York City, in October 1969.[28] She died in February 1989. A scholarship was established at Sarah Lawrence College in her memory.[29] He died at his home in Lexington, Massachusetts, on July 14, 1996. He was survived by his daughters from his first marriage, Joan Bainbridge Safford and Margaret Bainbridge Robinson.[10] He was buried in the Abel's Hill Cemetery on Martha's Vineyard, in a plot with his first wife Margaret and his son Martin.[28] His papers are in the Harvard University Archives.[30]

In popular culture

In the 2023 film Oppenheimer, he is portrayed by Josh Peck.[31]

See also

  • Bainbridge mass spectrometer

Notes

  1. doi:10.1063/1.881651
    .
  2. ^
    ISSN 0096-3402
    . Retrieved February 10, 2010.
  3. ^ a b Pound & Ramsey 1999, p. 4.
  4. ^ US 1901577  Photo-electric tube
  5. ^ US 1901578  Method of preparing photo-electric tubes
  6. ^ US 2206713  Photoelectric apparatus
  7. ^ Pound & Ramsey 1999, p. 5.
  8. ^ "Kenneth Tompkins Bainbridge (1904–1996) Ph.D. Princeton 1929" (PDF). University of Notre Dame. Retrieved February 9, 2014.
  9. ^ a b c d e Pound & Ramsey 1999, p. 6.
  10. ^ a b c d Freeman, Karen (July 18, 1996). "Kenneth Bainbridge, 91, Chief Of First Test of Atomic Bomb". The New York Times. Retrieved February 9, 2014.
  11. ^ Pound & Ramsey 1999, pp. 7, 9.
  12. S2CID 13236732
    .
  13. S2CID 120612103
    .
  14. ^ Aston 1933, p. 85.
  15. ^ a b c "Oral History Transcript — Dr. Kenneth T. Bainbridge". American Institute of Physics. Archived from the original on January 1, 2014. Retrieved February 9, 2014.
  16. ^ "Book of Members, 1780-2010: Chapter B" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved May 5, 2011.
  17. ^ Pound & Ramsey 1999, p. 7.
  18. ^ Conant 2002, pp. 209–213.
  19. ^ Conant 2002, p. 201.
  20. ^ Conant 2002, p. 213.
  21. ^ Hoddeson et al. 1993, p. 142.
  22. ^ Hoddeson et al. 1993, p. 174.
  23. ^ "Los Alamos National Laboratory: History: Building the Atomic Bomb: Trinity". Los Alamos National Laboratory. Archived from the original on August 27, 2010. Retrieved May 11, 2009.
  24. Ramsey, Norman (May 7, 1998). "Memorial Minute -- Kenneth Tompkins Bainbridge". Harvard University Gazette. Archived from the original
    on September 6, 2008. Retrieved July 16, 2009.
  25. ^ Pound & Ramsey 1999, p. 14.
  26. ^ Wilson, Richard. "A Brief History of the Harvard University Cyclotrons". Harvard University Press. Archived from the original on February 26, 2011. Retrieved September 15, 2008.
  27. ^ a b Pound & Ramsey 1999, pp. 11–12.
  28. ^ a b Pound & Ramsey 1999, pp. 12–13.
  29. ^ "Endowed and Sponsored Undergraduate Scholarship Funds". Sarah Lawrence College. Retrieved February 8, 2014.
  30. ^ "Bainbridge, Kenneth T. (Kenneth Tompkins), 1904-1996. Papers of Kenneth Tompkins Bainbridge : an inventory". Retrieved February 9, 2014.
  31. ^ Moss, Molly; Knight, Lewis (July 22, 2023). "Oppenheimer cast: Full list of actors in Christopher Nolan film". Radio Times. Retrieved July 24, 2023.

References

External links
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