Oral history interview with J. Lamar Worzel, 1996, January 2 and 3 and May 14 and 15.

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Oral history interview with J. Lamar Worzel, 1996, January 2 and 3 and May 14 and 15.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/80180915

Recollections of childhood in New York; father's interest in science and literature; recollection of upbringing during the Great Depression; high school science courses; attending Lehigh University as undergraduate; impressions of W. Maurice Ewing as physics professor at Lehigh, early 1930s, detailed recollections of work as student assistant with Ewing and Alvyn Vine on refraction seismology, and impressions of George P. Woollard, Richard M. Field, William Bowie; impressions of science teaching at Lehigh. Recollections of research on undersea acoustics at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Ewing's mathematical abilities; impressions of Felix A. Vening-Meinesz and of field research. Extended recollections of summer research with Ewing involving seismic profiling and underwater photography; recollections of hurricane of 1938 at Woods Hole; involvement in wartime research, including acoustics studies and experience with bathythermographs; experience in equipment design and modification including award of patents. Recollections of undersea photography in the early 1940s, impressions of Ewing's appointment at Columbia University, and transfer of research program to Columbia in 1946; post-war researach program at Woods Hole; impressions of graduate courses in geology and geophysics at Columbia including seminars taught by Walter Bucher, Marshall Kay, and Ewing; becomes consultant to ONR. Recollections of Angelo Ludas and his role in fashioning geophysical instruments; experience with deep-sea coring, impressions of relations between geophysicists and geologist at Columbia. Impressions of the founding and initial research programs of Lamont Geological Observatory (LGO), including geochemical and radiocarbon studies by J. Laurence Kulp and reactions of local townspeople to Lamont; social life at LGO; relations between Ewing and Harry H. Hess; gravity research of ocean floor, and impressions of isostacy debate in 1930s; growth of LGO in 1950s and changing relations between research groups; comparison of LGO with competing research centers in the U. S. and Great Britain; recollections of gravity research program at Texas, mid-1970s.

Transcript (4 sessions), 689 pp.

American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library

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SNAC Resource ID: 8240562

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Kulp, J. Laurence (John Laurence), 1921-

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Harry Hammond Hess, the son of Julian S. and Elizabeth (Engel) Hess, was born in New York City on 24 May 1906. Hess received a B. S. degree from Yale in 1927 and then went to Princeton to pursue a Ph.D. in geology (1932). Through the years, Hess held an assortment of positions, primarily academic, relating to geology. After completing his degree at Princeton, he taught at Rutgers University for one year (1932-1933), and assisted with research in the geophysical laboratory in the Carnegie Ins...

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