Oral history interview with Walter M. Elsasser, 1986 March 12.

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Oral history interview with Walter M. Elsasser, 1986 March 12.

Studies at California Institute of Technology; Robert Millikan; early research in atmospheric radiation; development of the regular band model; contact with other scientists doing research in atmospheric radiation; the greenhouse effect; influence of John Strong; C. G. Rossby and the Caltech Physics Department; conflicts between Millikan and Theodore von Kármán; comments about Charles Brooks, head of Blue Hill Observatory. Work at University of Utah. Interaction with John Von Neumann; discussion of fluid mechanics and Elsasser's theory of terrestrial magnetism; development of his atmospheric radiation tables. Admiration of James Franck and reminiscences about J. Robert Oppenheimer and Max Born. Differences in educational systems in Germany and the United States. Meeting with Albert Einstein, Einstein's opinion of Elsasser's theory of terrestrial magnetism.

Audiotape: 1 cassette.Preliminary transcript: 29 pp.

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SNAC Resource ID: 8223579

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California Institute of Technology

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Millikan, Robert Andrews, 1868-1953

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