Oral history interview with Harvey Fletcher, 1964 May 15.

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Oral history interview with Harvey Fletcher, 1964 May 15.

Concentrates on oil-drop experiment. Family background and early education; undergraduate at Brigham Young University (physics); graduate at University of Chicago, Robert Millikan and Albert A. Michelson as physicists and teachers. Extensive coverage of the work and relationship with Millikan on the "oil-drop" techniquew︣ith two versions of the nature of the collaboration presented by Vern Knudsen, one from Millikan's autobiography and Fletcher's own account. Work on modification of Stokes' law and Brownian motion. Impact of electric charge measurement. Teaching at Brigham Young 1911-1916; acoustics work at Western Electric Co.(later Bell Labs) on the determination of the critical bands of hearing; dynamics of the cochlea; development of stereophonic sound. Role in formation of Acoustical Society of America. Interests in electronic reproduction of musical tones. Successful effort to develop a school of engineering at Brigham Young. Discussion of Millikan's Nobel Prize, comments by Knudsen. Achievements of son. Also prominently mentioned are: Louis Begeman; Science (journal), and United States Bureau of Standards.

Transcript, 54 pp.

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 8296516

Related Entities

There are 11 Entities related to this resource.

Bell Telephone Laboratories, inc.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6650fn9 (corporateBody)

Brigham Young University.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6p30m9j (corporateBody)

Plans for the David O. McKay building began in 1952 after an evaluation by the Brigham Young University College of Education concluded that the existing building for the College of Education were no longer meeting the growing needs of the program. Plans were officially announced in February of 1954 with the completion deadline being set for December of the same year. The building was officially dedicated on December 14, 1954 by President and Sister McKay along with members of the First Presidenc...

Millikan, Robert Andrews, 1868-1953

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6pk0hdg (person)

Physicist (photoelectricity, ions) and educator. On the physics faculty at the University of Chicago, 1896-1921; on the faculty at California Institute of Technology: director, Norman Bridge Laboratory of Physics and chairman of the Executive Council, 1921-1946, emeritus professor of physics and chairman of the Board of Trustees from 1946; Nobel Prize in physics, 1923. From the description of Papers [microform], 1847-1953. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 77594601 Millikan was...

King, W. James (William James), 1915-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w63r12cg (person)

Knudsen, Vern Oliver, 1893-1974

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w67m09nf (person)

Physicist. From the description of Papers, 1922-1974. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 82998070 From the description of Oral history interview with Vern Oliver Knudsen 1964. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 82908057 Vern Oliver Knudsen was born December 27, 1893 in Provo, Utah. As a young adult, Knudsen was taught mathematics and physics by Harvery Fletcher, a renowned American physicist. Following his graduation from Brigham Young University in 1915, Knudsen followed t...

United States. National Bureau of Standards.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6kw99kt (corporateBody)

After World War II the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) was charged with the task of following developments in computing. In response, NBS began to index and abstract books, journals, reports and other literature covering a broad range of computer-related topics beginning in the mid-1940s. Eventually the enormity of the task forced NBS to abandon this work in 1978. From the description of Computer Literature Collection, 1956-1978. (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis). WorldCat re...

Western electric company

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6cr9nwr (corporateBody)

The Western Electric Company was a subsidiary of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company. The firm manufactured a wide variety of telephone equipment at its Hawthorne Works in Chicago, Illinois. A notable series of worker efficiency experiments known as the Hawthorne Studies were staged at the plant between 1924 and 1933. From the description of Photograph album, 1925. (Harvard Business School). WorldCat record id: 52815587 From the description of Western Electric Com...

Michelson, Albert A. (Albert Abraham), 1852-1931

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6833vkf (person)

Albert Abraham Michelson (December 19, 1852 – May 9, 1931) was an American physicist known for his work on measuring the speed of light and especially for the Michelson–Morley experiment. In 1907, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics, becoming the first American to win the Nobel Prize in a science. He was also the founder and the first head of the physics department of the University of Chicago....

University of Chicago.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6449cnx (corporateBody)

Most of the records in the collection pertain to the $400,000 raised by the American Baptist Education Society in 1889-1890 in order to obtain a 600,000 grant from John D. Rockefeller for the creation of an endowment for the University of Chicago. The first volume in the inventory, Record of Pledges for the University of Chicago, contains an alphabetical numbered listing of subscribers, amounts pledged, and payments made through 1906. The subscription forms and letters (1:4-13) are numbered to c...

Acoustical society of America

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6fr3r31 (corporateBody)

A professional society of physicists and engineers in all fields of acoustics: electroacoustics, ultrasonics, architectural acoustics, physiological and psychological acoustics, musical acoustics, noise, vibration control, underwater acoustics, biological response to vibration, and speech communication. Founded in 1929, its purpose is to increase and diffuse the knowledge of acoustics and promote its practical applications. The Society was a founding Member Society of the American Institute of P...

Fletcher, Harvey, 1884-1981

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6n88172 (person)

Fletcher died in 1981. From the description of Autobiographical notes, 1956. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 84131911 Engineer and acoustics researcher at Bell Laboratories. From the description of Interview conducted by Oliver Daniel, May 9, 1979 [sound recording]. (University of Pennsylvania Library). WorldCat record id: 155861761 Died 1981. From the description of Oral history interview with Harvey Fletcher, 1964 May 15. (Unknown). WorldCat...