Oral history interview with H. M. Mott-Smith, 1977 March 1 and 2.

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Oral history interview with H. M. Mott-Smith, 1977 March 1 and 2.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/82998001

Deals mainly with his career at General Electric Company in Schenectady, NY. Early interest in science leads to first (summer) job at age 15, with Irving Langmuir at G.E.; comments on Langmuir's work. Undergraduate studies at Cornell University interupted by military service, 1918; switches from chemistry to physics at Cornell in 1919. Returns to G.E. in 1921; collaborations with Langmuir on, among other work, mercury arc rectifiers (plasma), space charge equations (leading to a Langmuir patent for the thyratron) hydrogen-welding (R. W. Wood). Comments on Langmuir as a scientist and as a co-worker (Katie Blodgett); ideas far ahead of his time: the linear acelerator, the neutron. Comments on Whitney as head of the Lab and on other members of the staff, such as Coolidge (who succeeded Whitney as Head), John Payne and Dewey Simonds (vacuum tube work). Work atmosphere at G.E.; outside activities. Leaves G.E. for Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, Zurich, in pursuit of doctoral degree.

Notes, 14 pp.

American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library

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SNAC Resource ID: 8293447

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