Edwin C. Kemble
Encyclopedia
Edwin Crawford Kemble was an American
physicist
who made contributions to the theory of quantum mechanics
and molecular structure and spectroscopy
. During World War II
, he was a consultant to the Navy on acoustic detection of submarines and to the Army on Operation Alsos
.
, but he stayed there only one year. He then transferred to the Case School of Applied Science, where he received his B.S. in physics
in 1911. At Case, Kemble was a student of Dayton C. Miller, a nationally recognized scientist working in the field of acoustics. Upon graduation from Case, he spent the following year as a physics instructor at the Carnegie Institute of Technology
in Pittsburgh, a school founded in response to the growing demand for education in technology, as was Case. During that year, Miller obtained a graduate fellowship for Kemble at Harvard; the fellowship was personally financed by Harvard Professor Wallace Sabine, a fellow colleague of Miller’s in acoustics. Kemble entered graduate school in 1913, with Percy Bridgman as his thesis advisor. This was the year Niels Bohr
submitted his first paper on the Bohr model
of the hydrogen atom. Universities in Europe were in the process of making the transition from the predominance of experimental physics to that of theoretical physics, as was the case in the United States. Bridgman, a well-known experimentalist, did, however, champion Kemble’s interest in pursuing theoretical interests in physics. Kembel was draw to the new quantum theories in a course on radiation by G. W. Peirce. It was while considering thesis topics that Kemble was drawn to the recently introduced quantum theory of molecular spectra. He received his Ph.D. in physics from Harvard in 1917.
in progress, he spent a short time doing work which contributed to the war effort developing aircraft engines at Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company
. As the War ended, he was laid off. While he did want to return to Harvard, a position could not immediately be found, so he spent a half semester teaching at Williams College
, in Williamstown
, Massachusetts
. Bridgman had a plan to build up theory at Harvard, which consisted of restructuring from the emphasis on electromagnetism
(radiotelegraphy, optics
, and wave propagation
) to radiation theory
, quantum theory
, photo-electricity
, specific heats, X-ray crystal structure
, and special topics in physics theory. Kemble accepted the challenge and returned to Harvard in 1919 as an assistant professor in the physics department, the year Arnold Sommerfeld
published Atombau und Spektrallinien, which became the “bible” of atomic theory for the new generation of physicists who developed atomic and quantum physics.
Kemble remained there the rest of his career as Instructor (1919-1924), Assistant Professor (1924-1927), Associate Professor (1927-1930), and Professor (1930-1957). He was made chairman of the department in 1940. His first graduate student was John Van Vleck. Many other doctoral students and postdoctoral students/researchers followed in the next fifteen years, including Robert S. Mulliken
, John C. Slater
, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Clarence Zener
, James H. Bartlett, Eugene Feenberg
, and J. L. Dunham.
Kemble was at the center of research and development of the theory of molecular structure. Having been instrumental in introducing quantum theory in the United States, he went on to chair the National Research Council’s Committee on Radiation in Gasses, which took three years (1923-1926) to prepare the report Molecular Spectra in Gases and served as a coordinating group for national research programs. Kemble represented the east coast and Harvard, Harrison Randall’s infrared spectroscopy laboratory at the University of Michigan
was represented by Walter F. Colby, and Raymond T. Birge spoke for the west coast and the University of California, Berkeley
.
The rise of quantum mechanics was greatly fostered in Europe in the 1920s by the consortium consisting of the three Institutes for Theoretical Physics which were under Arnold Sommerfeld
at the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich
, Max Born
at the Georg-August University of Göttingen
, and Niels Bohr
at the University of Copenhagen
. Sommerfeld taught many of the leading young scientists then developing quantum mechanics or sorting out atomic and molecular structure from spectroscopic data. In 1925, Born and Werner Heisenberg
, who got his doctorate from Sommerfeld in 1923 and completed his Habilitation
under Born in 1924, introduced the matrix mechanics
formulation of quantum mechanics. This was followed in early 1926, by Erwin Schrödinger
introducing the wave mechanics
formulation of quantum mechanics. So, it was into this stimulating environment that Kemble went to study and do research with both Sommerfeld in Munich and Born in Göttingen, on a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1927-1928. Upon his return to the United States, he wrote, with E. V. Hill, two lengthy reviews of quantum mechanics in the first issues of Reviews of Modern Physics.
During World War II
, Kemble supervised the teaching of basic physics to military officers, consulted with for the Navy on acoustic detection of submarines, and near the end of the war consulted for the Army on Operation Alsos
. The objective of Alsos was to investigate the German nuclear energy efforts, seize German nuclear resources, materials and personnel to further American research and to prevent their capture by the Soviets, and to discern how far the Germans had gone towards creating an atomic bomb. Samuel Goudsmit, a quantum physicist from the University of Michigan
, was the scientific leader of ALSOS, and Lt. Col. Boris Pash, a former Manhattan Project security officer, was its military leader.
At the end of WW II, Kemble had the opportunity to continue his war-time interest in teaching physics to non-physicists. In reacting to the role science played in the war, James B. Conant, president of Harvard and former high-level administrator in the Manhattan Project
, proposed teaching science to all Harvard undergraduates by teaching them the history of science
and highlighting the importance of science to social change. Kemble joined I. Bernard Cohen
, Gerald Holton
, Thomas S. Kuhn, Philipe Le Corbeiller, and Leonard K. Nash in this project.
In 1957, Kemble retired from Harvard, where he had spent all but three years since he entered graduate school. For the next three years, he was the director of Harvard’s Academic Year Institute, where high-school teachers studied with university professors. He had served as chairman of the Physics Section of the National Academy of Sciences
(1945-1948) and as a member of the Executive Committee of the National Research Councils’ Division of Physical Sciences.
Edwin C. Kemble died on March 12, 1984.
fiancée from graduate student days.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
physicist
Physicist
A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
who made contributions to the theory of quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics, also known as quantum physics or quantum theory, is a branch of physics providing a mathematical description of much of the dual particle-like and wave-like behavior and interactions of energy and matter. It departs from classical mechanics primarily at the atomic and subatomic...
and molecular structure and spectroscopy
Spectroscopy
Spectroscopy is the study of the interaction between matter and radiated energy. Historically, spectroscopy originated through the study of visible light dispersed according to its wavelength, e.g., by a prism. Later the concept was expanded greatly to comprise any interaction with radiative...
. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he was a consultant to the Navy on acoustic detection of submarines and to the Army on Operation Alsos
Operation Alsos
Operation Alsos was an effort at the end of World War II by the Allies , branched off from the Manhattan Project, to investigate the German nuclear energy project, seize German nuclear resources, materials and personnel to further American research and to prevent their capture by the Soviets, and...
.
Education
Kemble began college in 1906 at Ohio Wesleyan UniversityOhio Wesleyan University
Ohio Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college in Delaware, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1842 by Methodist leaders and Central Ohio residents as a nonsectarian institution, and is a member of the Ohio Five — a consortium of Ohio liberal arts colleges...
, but he stayed there only one year. He then transferred to the Case School of Applied Science, where he received his B.S. in physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
in 1911. At Case, Kemble was a student of Dayton C. Miller, a nationally recognized scientist working in the field of acoustics. Upon graduation from Case, he spent the following year as a physics instructor at the Carnegie Institute of Technology
Carnegie Institute of Technology
The Carnegie Institute of Technology , is the name for Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Engineering. It was first called the Carnegie Technical Schools, or Carnegie Tech, when it was founded in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie who intended to build a “first class technical school” in Pittsburgh,...
in Pittsburgh, a school founded in response to the growing demand for education in technology, as was Case. During that year, Miller obtained a graduate fellowship for Kemble at Harvard; the fellowship was personally financed by Harvard Professor Wallace Sabine, a fellow colleague of Miller’s in acoustics. Kemble entered graduate school in 1913, with Percy Bridgman as his thesis advisor. This was the year Niels Bohr
Niels Bohr
Niels Henrik David Bohr was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. Bohr mentored and collaborated with many of the top physicists of the century at his institute in...
submitted his first paper on the Bohr model
Bohr model
In atomic physics, the Bohr model, introduced by Niels Bohr in 1913, depicts the atom as a small, positively charged nucleus surrounded by electrons that travel in circular orbits around the nucleus—similar in structure to the solar system, but with electrostatic forces providing attraction,...
of the hydrogen atom. Universities in Europe were in the process of making the transition from the predominance of experimental physics to that of theoretical physics, as was the case in the United States. Bridgman, a well-known experimentalist, did, however, champion Kemble’s interest in pursuing theoretical interests in physics. Kembel was draw to the new quantum theories in a course on radiation by G. W. Peirce. It was while considering thesis topics that Kemble was drawn to the recently introduced quantum theory of molecular spectra. He received his Ph.D. in physics from Harvard in 1917.
Career
After Kemble received his doctorate, with World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
in progress, he spent a short time doing work which contributed to the war effort developing aircraft engines at Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company
Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company
Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company was an American aircraft manufacturer that went public in 1916 with Glenn Hammond Curtiss as president. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, the company was the largest aircraft manufacturer in the United States...
. As the War ended, he was laid off. While he did want to return to Harvard, a position could not immediately be found, so he spent a half semester teaching at Williams College
Williams College
Williams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams. Originally a men's college, Williams became co-educational in 1970. Fraternities were also phased out during this...
, in Williamstown
Williamstown, Massachusetts
Williamstown is a town in Berkshire County, in the northwest corner of Massachusetts. It shares a border with Vermont to the north and New York to the west. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 7,754 at the 2010 census...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
. Bridgman had a plan to build up theory at Harvard, which consisted of restructuring from the emphasis on electromagnetism
Electromagnetism
Electromagnetism is one of the four fundamental interactions in nature. The other three are the strong interaction, the weak interaction and gravitation...
(radiotelegraphy, optics
Optics
Optics is the branch of physics which involves the behavior and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behavior of visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light...
, and wave propagation
Wave propagation
Wave propagation is any of the ways in which waves travel.With respect to the direction of the oscillation relative to the propagation direction, we can distinguish between longitudinal wave and transverse waves....
) to radiation theory
Electromagnetic radiation
Electromagnetic radiation is a form of energy that exhibits wave-like behavior as it travels through space...
, quantum theory
Quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics, also known as quantum physics or quantum theory, is a branch of physics providing a mathematical description of much of the dual particle-like and wave-like behavior and interactions of energy and matter. It departs from classical mechanics primarily at the atomic and subatomic...
, photo-electricity
Photoelectric effect
In the photoelectric effect, electrons are emitted from matter as a consequence of their absorption of energy from electromagnetic radiation of very short wavelength, such as visible or ultraviolet light. Electrons emitted in this manner may be referred to as photoelectrons...
, specific heats, X-ray crystal structure
X-ray crystallography
X-ray crystallography is a method of determining the arrangement of atoms within a crystal, in which a beam of X-rays strikes a crystal and causes the beam of light to spread into many specific directions. From the angles and intensities of these diffracted beams, a crystallographer can produce a...
, and special topics in physics theory. Kemble accepted the challenge and returned to Harvard in 1919 as an assistant professor in the physics department, the year Arnold Sommerfeld
Arnold Sommerfeld
Arnold Johannes Wilhelm Sommerfeld was a German theoretical physicist who pioneered developments in atomic and quantum physics, and also educated and groomed a large number of students for the new era of theoretical physics...
published Atombau und Spektrallinien, which became the “bible” of atomic theory for the new generation of physicists who developed atomic and quantum physics.
Kemble remained there the rest of his career as Instructor (1919-1924), Assistant Professor (1924-1927), Associate Professor (1927-1930), and Professor (1930-1957). He was made chairman of the department in 1940. His first graduate student was John Van Vleck. Many other doctoral students and postdoctoral students/researchers followed in the next fifteen years, including Robert S. Mulliken
Robert S. Mulliken
Robert Sanderson Mulliken was an American physicist and chemist, primarily responsible for the early development of molecular orbital theory, i.e. the elaboration of the molecular orbital method of computing the structure of molecules. Dr. Mulliken received the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1966...
, John C. Slater
John C. Slater
John Clarke Slater was a noted American physicist who made major contributions to the theory of the electronic structure of atoms, molecules and solids. This work is of ongoing importance in chemistry, as well as in many areas of physics. He also made major contributions to microwave electronics....
, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Clarence Zener
Clarence Zener
Clarence Melvin Zener was the American physicist who first described the property concerning the breakdown of electrical insulators. These findings were later exploited by Bell Labs in the development of the Zener diode, which was duly named after him...
, James H. Bartlett, Eugene Feenberg
Eugene Feenberg
Eugene Feenberg was an American physicist who made contributions to quantum mechanics and nuclear physics.-Education:...
, and J. L. Dunham.
Kemble was at the center of research and development of the theory of molecular structure. Having been instrumental in introducing quantum theory in the United States, he went on to chair the National Research Council’s Committee on Radiation in Gasses, which took three years (1923-1926) to prepare the report Molecular Spectra in Gases and served as a coordinating group for national research programs. Kemble represented the east coast and Harvard, Harrison Randall’s infrared spectroscopy laboratory at the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
was represented by Walter F. Colby, and Raymond T. Birge spoke for the west coast and the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
.
The rise of quantum mechanics was greatly fostered in Europe in the 1920s by the consortium consisting of the three Institutes for Theoretical Physics which were under Arnold Sommerfeld
Arnold Sommerfeld
Arnold Johannes Wilhelm Sommerfeld was a German theoretical physicist who pioneered developments in atomic and quantum physics, and also educated and groomed a large number of students for the new era of theoretical physics...
at the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich
Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich
The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich , commonly known as the University of Munich or LMU, is a university in Munich, Germany...
, Max Born
Max Born
Max Born was a German-born physicist and mathematician who was instrumental in the development of quantum mechanics. He also made contributions to solid-state physics and optics and supervised the work of a number of notable physicists in the 1920s and 30s...
at the Georg-August University of Göttingen
Georg-August University of Göttingen
The University of Göttingen , known informally as Georgia Augusta, is a university in the city of Göttingen, Germany.Founded in 1734 by King George II of Great Britain and the Elector of Hanover, it opened for classes in 1737. The University of Göttingen soon grew in size and popularity...
, and Niels Bohr
Niels Bohr
Niels Henrik David Bohr was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. Bohr mentored and collaborated with many of the top physicists of the century at his institute in...
at the University of Copenhagen
University of Copenhagen
The University of Copenhagen is the oldest and largest university and research institution in Denmark. Founded in 1479, it has more than 37,000 students, the majority of whom are female , and more than 7,000 employees. The university has several campuses located in and around Copenhagen, with the...
. Sommerfeld taught many of the leading young scientists then developing quantum mechanics or sorting out atomic and molecular structure from spectroscopic data. In 1925, Born and Werner Heisenberg
Werner Heisenberg
Werner Karl Heisenberg was a German theoretical physicist who made foundational contributions to quantum mechanics and is best known for asserting the uncertainty principle of quantum theory...
, who got his doctorate from Sommerfeld in 1923 and completed his Habilitation
Habilitation
Habilitation is the highest academic qualification a scholar can achieve by his or her own pursuit in several European and Asian countries. Earned after obtaining a research doctorate, such as a PhD, habilitation requires the candidate to write a professorial thesis based on independent...
under Born in 1924, introduced the matrix mechanics
Matrix mechanics
Matrix mechanics is a formulation of quantum mechanics created by Werner Heisenberg, Max Born, and Pascual Jordan in 1925.Matrix mechanics was the first conceptually autonomous and logically consistent formulation of quantum mechanics. It extended the Bohr Model by describing how the quantum jumps...
formulation of quantum mechanics. This was followed in early 1926, by Erwin Schrödinger
Erwin Schrödinger
Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger was an Austrian physicist and theoretical biologist who was one of the fathers of quantum mechanics, and is famed for a number of important contributions to physics, especially the Schrödinger equation, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1933...
introducing the wave mechanics
Schrödinger equation
The Schrödinger equation was formulated in 1926 by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger. Used in physics , it is an equation that describes how the quantum state of a physical system changes in time....
formulation of quantum mechanics. So, it was into this stimulating environment that Kemble went to study and do research with both Sommerfeld in Munich and Born in Göttingen, on a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1927-1928. Upon his return to the United States, he wrote, with E. V. Hill, two lengthy reviews of quantum mechanics in the first issues of Reviews of Modern Physics.
During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Kemble supervised the teaching of basic physics to military officers, consulted with for the Navy on acoustic detection of submarines, and near the end of the war consulted for the Army on Operation Alsos
Operation Alsos
Operation Alsos was an effort at the end of World War II by the Allies , branched off from the Manhattan Project, to investigate the German nuclear energy project, seize German nuclear resources, materials and personnel to further American research and to prevent their capture by the Soviets, and...
. The objective of Alsos was to investigate the German nuclear energy efforts, seize German nuclear resources, materials and personnel to further American research and to prevent their capture by the Soviets, and to discern how far the Germans had gone towards creating an atomic bomb. Samuel Goudsmit, a quantum physicist from the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
, was the scientific leader of ALSOS, and Lt. Col. Boris Pash, a former Manhattan Project security officer, was its military leader.
At the end of WW II, Kemble had the opportunity to continue his war-time interest in teaching physics to non-physicists. In reacting to the role science played in the war, James B. Conant, president of Harvard and former high-level administrator in the Manhattan Project
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...
, proposed teaching science to all Harvard undergraduates by teaching them the history of science
History of science
The history of science is the study of the historical development of human understandings of the natural world and the domains of the social sciences....
and highlighting the importance of science to social change. Kemble joined I. Bernard Cohen
I. Bernard Cohen
I. Bernard Cohen was the Victor S. Thomas Professor of the history of science at Harvard University and the author of many books on the history of science and, in particular, Isaac Newton....
, Gerald Holton
Gerald Holton
Gerald Holton is Mallinckrodt Research Professor of Physics and Research Professor of the History of Science, Emeritus, at Harvard University.Born 1922 in Berlin, he grew up in Vienna before emigrating in 1938...
, Thomas S. Kuhn, Philipe Le Corbeiller, and Leonard K. Nash in this project.
In 1957, Kemble retired from Harvard, where he had spent all but three years since he entered graduate school. For the next three years, he was the director of Harvard’s Academic Year Institute, where high-school teachers studied with university professors. He had served as chairman of the Physics Section of the National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
(1945-1948) and as a member of the Executive Committee of the National Research Councils’ Division of Physical Sciences.
Edwin C. Kemble died on March 12, 1984.
Personal
In 1925, Kemble married Harriet May Tindle, who died two years before their 50th wedding anniversary. In 1978, he married Martha Chadbourne Kettelle, his Radcliffe CollegeRadcliffe College
Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was the coordinate college for Harvard University. It was also one of the Seven Sisters colleges. Radcliffe College conferred joint Harvard-Radcliffe diplomas beginning in 1963 and a formal merger agreement with...
fiancée from graduate student days.
Books
- Edwin C. Kemble and others Molecular Spectra in Gases (National Research Council, Washington DC, 1926)
- Edwin C. Kemble Physical Science, Its Structure and Development: From Geometric Astronomy to the Mechanical Theory of Heat (M.I.T. Press, 1966)
- Edwin C. Kemble Physical Science, Its Structure and Development—Vol. 2 (1970)
- Edwin C. Kemble The Fundamental Principles of Quantum Mechanics with Elementary Applications (McGraw Hill, 1937) (Dover, 1958 and 2005)
Selected Literature
- Edwin C. Kemble The Evaluation of Quantum Integrals, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 7 (10) 283-288 ((1921) PNAS 7 (10) 283
- E. C. Kemble and E. L. Hill General Principles of quantum mechanics. Part I., Phys. Rev. 1(suppl.) 157-215 (1929)
- E. C. Kemble and E. L. Hill General principles of quantum mechanics. Part II., Rev. Mod. Phys. 2 1-59 (1930)
- Edwin C. Kemble The General Principles of Quantum Mechanics. Part I, Rev. Mod. Phys. 1 (2) 157 - 215 (1929).