Lyman James Briggs
Lyman James Briggs | |
---|---|
Edward U. Condon | |
Personal details | |
Born | National Bureau of Standards | May 7, 1874
Thesis | On the absorption of water vapor and of certain salts in aqueous solution by quartz (1901) |
Doctoral advisor | Henry Augustus Rowland |
This article needs additional citations for verification. (April 2023) |
Lyman James Briggs (May 7, 1874 – March 25, 1963) was an American engineer, physicist and administrator. He was a director of the
Life and work
Briggs was born on a farm in
Briggs entered
In 1896 Briggs married Katharine Cook whom he met as an undergraduate at Michigan Agricultural College. Lyman and Katharine Cook Briggs had two children, a boy, Albert (known as "Bertie") and a girl, Isabel. Albert died in infancy, and Isabel would eventually marry Clarence Myers and go on to generate the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator with her mother.[3]
In 1896 he also joined the
US Department of Agriculture
In Briggs' first professional position he was put in charge of the Physics Laboratory (later the
World War I
Briggs was detailed by an
National Bureau of Standards (1917–1945)
In 1920 Briggs officially left the
He also retained an interest in navigational devices, and with
In 1926 Briggs was appointed assistant director for research and testing by National Bureau of Standards Director
Briggs took over the Bureau during difficult times. It was the height of the depression and his first task was to reduce costs 50%. He managed to save the jobs of about 2/3 of the career employees by putting many on part-time employment and transferring others to the
Uranium Committee (1939–1941)
In 1939, President
Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom German refugees
Britain was at war and felt an atomic bomb should have the highest priority, especially because the Germans might soon have one; but the US was not at war at that time and many Americans did not want to get involved. One of the members of the MAUD Committee,
Oliphant then met the whole Uranium Committee. Samuel K. Allison was a new committee member, a talented experimentalist and a protégé of Arthur Compton at the University of Chicago. "Oliphant came to a meeting", Allison recalls, "and said 'bomb' in no uncertain terms. He told us we must concentrate every effort on the bomb and said we had no right to work on power plants or anything but the bomb. The bomb would cost 25 million dollars, he said, and Britain did not have the money or the manpower, so it was up to us." Allison was surprised that Briggs had kept the committee in the dark.
Oliphant visited other physicists to galvanise the USA into action. As a result, in December 1941 Vannevar Bush, director of the powerful Office of Scientific Research and Development, undertook to launch a full-scale effort to develop atomic bombs. As the scale of the project became clearer, it came under direct military control as the Manhattan Project.
World War II
Briggs sought new business for the Bureau. In 1939 he sent
Briggs retired from the Bureau in 1945, at the age of 72. He was appointed director emeritus of NBS after working for 49 years in federal government. Bureau employees erected a bronze sundial in his honor through their Employees Welfare Association. At his request the names of the first three directors of Bureau are cast onto the rim of the instrument:
In 1948 Briggs received the Medal of Merit from
At the request of
Later life
In his retirement Briggs returned to research, establishing a laboratory for studying fluids under negative pressure at the
Briggs' love for baseball triggered another piece of research. During World War II the government had mandated that rubber in baseballs be replaced by cork. Complaints about the new balls led Briggs to test them, and in 1945 he demonstrated that the new baseballs were inferior. This was done by addressing the issue of whether or not a pitched baseball could curve out of the plane of the pitch. With the help of two pitchers from the
Another of Briggs many interests was the
Briggs died March 25, 1963, aged 88, after a diverse life of scientific exploration and service. He is remembered for his range of interests. Briggs was almost universally liked, and had a reputation for levelheadedness and serenity.
In 2007, Michigan State University honored the Lyman Briggs school, named for Briggs, by allowing it to become the Lyman Briggs College.
Awards, honors and distinctions
Positions:
- Philosophical Society of Washington, President, 1916
- Washington Academy of Sciences, President, 1917
- Federal Specifications Board, Chairman, 1932
- Federal Fire Council, Chairman, 1933–1939
- National Bureau of Standards, Director, 1933–1945
- National Geographic Society, Life Trustee, 1933–1964
- Special Advisory Committee for Stratospheric Balloon Flights, Chairman, 1935–1936
- National Conference on Weights and Measures, Chairman, 1935
- American Physical Society, President, 1938
- Uranium Committee S-1 of the National Defense Research Committee, Chairman, 1939
- Research Committee of the National Geographic Society, Chairman, 1937
- National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, Vice-chairman, 1942
- National Bureau of Standards, Director Emeritus, 1945–1963
Honorary doctorates by the following institutions:
- Michigan State Collegein Science (1932)
- South Dakota School of Mines, Engineering (1935)
- University of Michigan, Law (1936)
- George Washington University, Science (1937)
- Georgetown University, Science (1939)
- Columbia University, Science (1939)
Briggs received the following honors:
- American Philosophical Society, Magellanic Premium (1922)[7]
- American Philosophical Society, Elected Member (1935)[8]
- American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Elected Member (1939)[9]
- National Academy of Sciences, Elected Member (1942)[10]
- Medal of Merit by President Harry S. Truman (1948)
- Franklin R. Burr Award, National Geographic Society (1954, 1962)
Served as president of:
- American Physical Society
- Washington Academy of Sciences
- Philosophical Society of Washington
- Cosmos Club, Washington, D.C.
- Federal Club, Washington, D.C.
Publications
- Lyman J. Briggs with:
- J. W. McLane, The moisture equivalents of soils USDA Bur. Soils Bull. 45. (1907)
- J. W. McLane, Moisture equivalent determinations and their application, Proc. Am. Soc. Agron. 2:138–47. (1910)
- H. L. Shantz, A wax seal method for determining the lower limit of available soil moisture, Bot. Gaz. 51:210–19. (1911)
- H. L. Shantz, The wilting coefficient for different plants and its indirect determination, Bot. Gaz. 53:20–37 (1912)
- P. R. Heyl. The earth inductor compass. Proc. Am. Philos. Soc. 61:15–32. (1922)
- G. F. Hull and H. L. Dryden. Aerodynamics of airfoils at high speeds. Natl. Adv. Comm. Aeron. Rep. 207. (1925)
- Lyman J. Briggs:
- Summary of the results of the stratosphere flight of the Explorer II. Natl. Geogr. Soc. Technol. Pap. Stratosphere Series. 2:5–12. (1936)
- NBS War Research: The National Bureau of Standards in World War II. NIST archives (1949)
- Methods for measuring the coefficient of restitution and the spin of a ball. J. Res. Natl. Bur. Stand. 34:1–23. (1945)
- Lyman J. Briggs, Effect of spin and speed on the lateral deflection (curve) of a baseball and the Magnus effect for smooth spheres. Am. J. Phys. 27:589–96. (1959)
- Lyman J. Briggs, Limiting negative pressure of water, J. Appl. Phys. 21:721–22. (1950)
- The limiting negative pressure of mercury in Pyrex glass. J. Appl. Phys. 24:488–90. (1953)
See also
References
- Peter Briggs Myers and ISBN 0-309-06644-1
- R. C. Cochrane, Measures for Progress, a History of the National Bureau of Standards, Washington, D.C., U.S. Government Printing Office, 1966, 1974
- Richard Rhodes, "The Making of the Atomic Bomb", New York, Simon & Schuster, 1986.
- ISBN 978-0-309-06644-0.
- ^ "Briggs, Lyman J. (Lyman James), 1874-1963". history.aip.org. Retrieved 2023-04-01.
- ^ "The Story of Isabel Briggs Myers - CAPT.org". www.capt.org. Retrieved 2023-04-01.
- OCLC 1049951927 – via ProQuest.
- ISBN 978-0-7624-7126-3.
- ^ "Introduction - The Bat Missile Exhibit, NIST Virtual Museum". 2010-05-27. Archived from the original on 2010-05-27. Retrieved 2023-04-01.
- ^ "The Magellanic Premium of the American Philosophical Society". www.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 2023-06-07.
- ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 2023-06-07.
- ^ "Lyman James Briggs". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. 2023-02-09. Retrieved 2023-06-07.
- ^ "Lyman Briggs, Jr". www.nasonline.org. Retrieved 2023-06-07.
External links
- Lyman Briggs College of Science at Michigan State
- Lyman James Briggs, namesake of Lyman Briggs College of Science
- The Lyman Briggs Sundial
- The Earth Inductor Compass
- Baseball Photos
- NIST Proves It: The Ball Does Curve
- Introduction—The Bat Missile Exhibit, NIST Virtual Museum
- Information from NIST
- Biography (by a grandson)
- Annotated bibliography for Lyman Briggs from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues
- National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir