Evening star., 1932-12-04

NE HlOEUllls LlilCC WCCho oSN
the New York correspondent
of a Swedish newspaper hur.
~ riedly telephoned the Genera
Electric laboratory In Sche-
nectadv He had just received from
Stockholm report that the Nobel
prize in Chemistry had been awarded
to Irving Langmuir of the laboratory.
Would DR.. Langmuir please give state
ment that he could dispatch to his
newspaper?
Nobody at Schenectady knew any
thing about the report, and the lnc1-
nation was to doubt it. But soon the
reporter was on the wire again. He
had received a second message. The
rumor was a fact. The Swedish Acad-
emy of Sciences had publicly announced
the award, carrying gold medal and
a cash prize of 172,000 kroner (about
$50 900 at the present rate of ex-
change. A few minutes later formal
notification reached Schenectady.
And so, on Saturday, this 1.-the,
straight. square, jawed American, a
quiet man with graying hair and the
deep-set eyes of a dreamer, this atom
chaser and electron driver, who pilots
his own airplane and climbs mountains
for relaxation, will stand in the digni-
fed silence of the Great Hall in Stock
holm to receive his award.
1t is the very throne room OF science.
Langmuir will stand where EinStein
has stood. on ground hallowed by the
presence of Roontgen (discoverer OF
X-,avs). the two Curies (diScovererS
of radium). Sir j. J. Thomson (discov-
erer of the electron). Sir Ernest Ruth
erford (discoverer of the proton), and
other famous adventurers, pioneering
professors, trail-blaZers in the mystery
that everywhere surrounds us-"the
great secret" as Goethe called it, 'the
open secret" open to all, seen by almost
none
Five American scientists have pre-
ceded Langmuir here in the 30-odd
years since the Nobel Prizes were estab-
lished.
All of these came from universities
or laboratories of pure science. Lang
muir comes from an industrial labora-
tory one that has spawned machines
by the millions-many of them based
directly on discoveries or inventions
made by him.
Indeed, it may be questioned whether
any other Nobel Prize man has so many
practical scientific applications to his
credit. The automatic hydrogen flame
for welding metals, the gas-filled incan-
descent lamp, the high vacuum radio
tube which gives added power and an
almost limitless reach to wireless COM
munication-these are some of the
practical results of Langmuir's years in
the Schenectady laboratory.
Pure Science Main Interest.
And are these his achievements that
the Nobel Committee appraises as hav-
ing conferred the greatest benefit on
mankind"-as the most important con-
tributions of American chemistry since
1914?
No" answered DR.. Langmuir, and
the toss of his head gave an added
emphasis to the sharp monosyllable
My primary interest has been in pure
science, in the borderland of chemistry
and physics. and it is this fundamental
work that the Nobel Prize recognizes" :"
He was not trying to make better
lamps or better radio tubes or better
welding apparatus when he hit upon
these Improvements. He was simply
trying to learn Of natures hidden ways
eagerly pursuing some path of investi-
cation for the fascination of the chase
for the satisfaction of knowing-for
the fun of it! t-
Whatever has come as industrial
applications has come incidentally to
experiments followed for their interest
alone. To the research man, scientific
curiosity Is usually greater incentive
than the hope of commercially useful
results
But the commercially useful results
must come. or the research, the scien-
tiflc curiosity, cannot long be sustain
ed?" 1 interrupted.
Not necessarily" answered DR..
Langmuir; perhaps this Is the best
way, after all, to get commercially USE
full results"
Certainly it is a method that has
worked wonders here. Langmuir came
here in 1909, young college professor,
to spend his vacation researching. 1t
was an exciting Summer for him. He
liked the freedom of the place, the
completeness of the equipment at his
disposal. the opportunity to experiment
unhampered by academic interruptions.
The vacation heightened into Fall. he
stayed on into Winter, giving up his
ambition to teach and happily embrac-
ing the opportunity to do as he pleased
and be paid for the privilege.
Langmuir Is sort of scientific Mary
whose visionary experiments must have
shocked many scientific Martha prone
" iIlCoouiC lCoulCo ny tIlc IcSG VI ulUllC-
tary return. Fortunately the chief Of
the laboratory, the big-hearted and far
sighted DR.. Willis Rodney Whitney, was
no money-reckoning Martha. Again
and again, when Langmuir came to
him apologetic and protesting that his
experiments were not getting anywhere,
doubling If it were right for him to
spend the resources or an industrial
corporation on efforts that promised
no commercial return, Whitney answer
ed, 1T is not necessary that your work
get any where, so far as am con-
cerned."
Thinker and Doer.
His keen appraising eye had taken
Langmuir's measure. He had seen in
the young chemist. as he later con-
fessed, the rare combination of think
er who was also a doer, and he was
willing TO trust the lightning Of genius
to strike where 1t willed Time has
confirmed the wisdom Of Whitney S
policy, and richly rewarded the indus
try that risked money on Langmuir S
scientific curiosity.
Take, for example, the improvement
of the incandescent lamp. Prior to DR.
Langmuir's experiments it was every
where believed in the electrical industry
tIldJ WlldI Ndo IlCCOC0 W d DCb-
ter lamp was better vacuum within
the lamp bulb. Langmuir says he didn't
know how to produce better vacuum,
so proposed instead to study the ef-
fects of gases by deliberately putting
gas in the bulb Hydrogen displayed a
variety Of peculiarities and SO fasci-
mating became his chase of the hydro
gen atoms that soon he was off on a
prolonged study of them. 1t looked as
though the lamp problem were forgot
ten, but eventually, out of the hydrogen
explorations, came the discovery that a
lamp filled with inert nitrogen or argon
burned with a brighter light and for
longer time than a vacuum lamp
Langmuir found way to coil the fila
ment so that it gave off minimum OF
heat and a maximum of light, and the
pressure of the inert gas within the
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