ARTHUR HOLLY COMPTON
Head - Chicago Met Lab
Arthur Holly Compton was born at Wooster, Ohio, on September 10th, 1892,
the son of Elias Compton, Professor of Philosophy and Dean of the College of
Wooster. He was educated at the College, graduating Bachelor of Science in 1913,
and he spent three years in postgraduate study at Princeton
University receiving his M.A.degree in 1914 and his Ph.D. in 1916. After
spending a year as instructor of physics at the University
of Minnesota, he took a position as a research engineer with the
Westinghouse Lamp Company at Pittsburgh until 1919 when he studied at Cambridge
University as a National Research Council Fellow. In 1920, he was appointed
Wayman Crow Professor of Physics, and Head of the Department of Physics at the Washington
University, St. Louis; and in 1923 he moved to the University
of Chicago as Professor of Physics. Compton returned to St. Louis as
Chancellor in 1945 and from 1954 until his retirement in 1961 he was
Distinguished Service Professor of Natural Philosophy at the Washington
University.
In his early days at Princeton, Compton devised an elegant method for
demonstrating the Earth's rotation, but he was soon to begin his studies in the
field of X-rays. He developed a theory of the intensity of X-ray reflection from
crystals as a means of studying the arrangement of electrons and atoms, and in
1918 he started a study of X-ray scattering. This led, in 1922, to his discovery
of the increase of wavelength of X-rays due to scattering of the incident
radiation by free electrons, which implies that the scattered quanta have less
energy than the quanta of the original beam. This effect, nowadays known as the Compton
effect, which clearly illustrates the particle concept of electromagnetic
radiation, was afterwards substantiated by C. T. R. Wilson who, in his cloud
chamber, could show the presence of the tracks of the recoil electrons. Another
proof of the reality of this phenomenon was supplied by the coincidence method
(developed by Compton and A.W. Simon, and independently in Germany by W. Bothe
and H. Geiger), by which it could be established that individual scattered X-ray
photons and recoil electrons appear at the same instant, contradicting the views
then being developed by some investigators in an attempt to reconcile quantum
views with the continuous waves of electromagnetic theory. For this discovery,
Compton was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1927 (sharing this with C. T.
R. Wilson who received the Prize for his discovery of the cloud chamber method).
In addition, Compton discovered (with C. F. Hagenow) the phenomenon of total
reflection of X-rays and their complete polarization, which led to a more
accurate determination of the number of electrons in an atom. He was also the
first (with R. L. Doan) who obtained X-ray spectra from ruled gratings, which
offers a direct method of measuring the wavelength of X-rays. By comparing these
spectra with those obtained when using a crystal, the absolute value of the
grating space of the crystal can be determined. The Avogadro number found by
combining above value with the measured crystal density, led to a new value for
the electronic charge. This outcome necessitated the revision of the Millikan
oil-drop value from 4.774 to 4.803 X 10-10 e.s.u. (revealing that
systematic errors had been made in the measurement of the viscosity of air, a
quantity entering into the oil-drop method).
During 1930-1940, Compton led a world-wide study of the geographic variations of
the intensity of cosmic rays, thereby fully confirming the observations made in
1927 by J. Clay from Amsterdam of the influence of latitude on cosmic ray
intensity. He could, however, show that the intensity was correlated with
geomagnetic rather than geographic latitude. This gave rise to extensive studies
of the interaction of the Earth's magnetic field with the incoming isotropic
stream of primary charged particles.
Compton has numerous papers on scientific record and he is the author of Secondary
Radiations Produced by X-rays (1922), X-Rays and Electrons (1926,
second edition 1928), X-Rays in Theory and Experiment (with S. K.
Allison, 1935, this being the revised edition of X-rays and Electrons), The
Freedom of Man (1935, third edition 1939), On Going to College (with
others, 1940), and Human Meaning of Science (1940).
Dr. Compton was awarded numerous honorary degrees and other distinctions
including the Rumford Gold Medal (American
Academy of Arts and Sciences), 1927; Gold Medal of Radiological Society of
North America, 1928; Hughes Medal (Royal Society) and Franklin Medal (Franklin
Institute), 1940.
He served as President of the American Physical
Society (1934), of the American Association of Scientific Workers
(1939-1940), and of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science (1942).
In 1941 Compton was appointed Chairman of the National
Academy of Sciences Committee to Evaluate Use of Atomic Energy in War. His
investigations, carried out in cooperation with E.
Fermi, L. Szilard, E.
P. Wigner and others, led to the establishment of the first controlled
uranium fission reactors, and, ultimately, to the large plutonium-producing
reactors in Hanford, Washington, which produced the plutonium for the Nagasaki
bomb, in August 1945. (He also played a role in the Government's decision to use
the bomb; a personal account of these matters may be found in his book, Atomic
Quest-a Personal Narrative, 1956.)
In 1916, he married Betty Charity McCloskey. The eldest of their two sons,
Arthur Allen, is in the American Foreign Service and the youngest, John Joseph,
is Professor of Philosophy at the Vanderbilt
University (Nashville, Tennessee ). His brother Wilson is a former President
of the Washington State University, and his
brother Karl Taylor was formerly President of the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology.
Compton's chief recreations were tennis, astronomy, photography and music.
He died on March 15th, 1962, in Berkeley, California.
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