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
5 - The Fleming transition
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
When the Carnegie returned to its home port on 10 November 1921 after Cruise VI, the goal of a comprehensive global mapping of the geomagnetic field had been largely accomplished. It was by any measure a triumph for the Department and indeed for Bauer personally, as the organization, planning and conduct were to a high degree his alone. He had brought into the work a large group of remarkable individuals and had inspired them with his zeal. Every expedition, every cruise came about because he had willed it; letters and cables from Washington kept things moving as he wished; his occasional participation at sea and in the field provided personal inspiration and supplied him with knowledge of what needed altering. He was at the peak of his career.
In 1920 the Trustees elected a new President, John C. Merriam, to replace Robert Woodward. Woodward and Bauer had come to the Institution together in 1904, and Woodward's work as a geographer made him a consistent supporter of Bauer's goals. Merriam, a paleontologist famous for his studies of the La Brea tar pits near Los Angeles, began to question the future of the Department that to him seemed to offer little more than a continuation of admittedly successful studies. On becoming President he could have hardly missed noting the expense of the cruises and expeditions, and he set new allocations of funds, which led to the cessation of the cruises.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005