Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword by Richard A. Meserve
- Preface
- 1 Establishment
- 2 Cruises and war
- 3 Expeditions
- 4 Measurements: magnetic and electric
- 5 The Fleming transition
- 6 The last cruise
- 7 The magnetic observatories and final land observations
- 8 The ionosphere
- 9 Collaboration and evaluation
- 10 The Tesla coil
- 11 The Van de Graaff accelerator
- 12 The nuclear force
- 13 Fission
- 14 Cosmic rays
- 15 The proximity fuze and the war effort
- 16 The Tuve transition
- 17 Postwar nuclear physics
- 18 The cyclotron
- 19 Biophysics
- 20 Explosion seismology
- 21 Isotope geology
- 22 Radio astronomy
- 23 Image tubes
- 24 Computers
- 25 Earthquake seismology
- 26 Strainmeters
- 27 The Bolton and Wetherill years
- 28 Astronomy
- 29 The solar system
- 30 Geochemistry
- 31 Island-arc volcanoes
- 32 Seismology revisited
- 33 Geochemistry and cosmochemistry
- 34 The Solomon transition
- 35 The support staff
- 36 Epilogue
- Notes
- Index
35 - The support staff
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword by Richard A. Meserve
- Preface
- 1 Establishment
- 2 Cruises and war
- 3 Expeditions
- 4 Measurements: magnetic and electric
- 5 The Fleming transition
- 6 The last cruise
- 7 The magnetic observatories and final land observations
- 8 The ionosphere
- 9 Collaboration and evaluation
- 10 The Tesla coil
- 11 The Van de Graaff accelerator
- 12 The nuclear force
- 13 Fission
- 14 Cosmic rays
- 15 The proximity fuze and the war effort
- 16 The Tuve transition
- 17 Postwar nuclear physics
- 18 The cyclotron
- 19 Biophysics
- 20 Explosion seismology
- 21 Isotope geology
- 22 Radio astronomy
- 23 Image tubes
- 24 Computers
- 25 Earthquake seismology
- 26 Strainmeters
- 27 The Bolton and Wetherill years
- 28 Astronomy
- 29 The solar system
- 30 Geochemistry
- 31 Island-arc volcanoes
- 32 Seismology revisited
- 33 Geochemistry and cosmochemistry
- 34 The Solomon transition
- 35 The support staff
- 36 Epilogue
- Notes
- Index
Summary
Behind Galileo's amazing discoveries with the telescope was a lens grinder, whose competence made the observations possible. This is a pattern that has repeated itself many times over, and only a few observational and experimental scientists have been able to function without the help of skilled craftsmen, their skills often promoting them into collaborators, acknowledged at the end of a paper rather than among the list of authors. As the industrial age progressed investigators found an ever-growing array of devices useful and even vital to their trade, such that with time the initiation of a new experimental study required an assortment of catalogues near the drawing boards of the designer. This dependence on the industrial base has in recent years even overtaken theory, where electronic computers have changed that pencil-and-paper field in a way that is revolutionary, to use correctly this overworked adjective. Those who are conversant with the various aspects of these new technologies are often more important to the DTM staff than many of their colleagues, and are easily overlooked in a history, which all too often rings with statements such as: “Caesar conquered Gaul.” But didn't he even have a cook with him? Craftsmen were indeed among the first persons mentioned in the early Year Books and thus were clearly appreciated.
As noted in the Preface, the number of persons who made active and important contributions to the Department's functions, both scientific and supporting, is so large as to make mention of more than a small fraction impossible in these pages, if the book is to be kept readable and of reasonable length.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Centennial History of the Carnegie Institution of Washington , pp. 257 - 266Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005