Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how
Speaker 1: stuff Works dot Com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer here
Speaker 1: at how Stuff Works in not Love All Things Tech.
Speaker 1: In today's episodes, another listener request, listener Chris asked that
Speaker 1: I do a profile on an important person in tech history,
Speaker 1: someone who's often overlooked by a lot of people. His
Speaker 1: name is not terribly recognizable outside of a certain group
Speaker 1: of scientists and people who are fans of science. That
Speaker 1: would be Alfred Lee Loomis. Loomis would become incredibly important
Speaker 1: to the development of technology and science in the early
Speaker 1: twentieth century in America, and yet his name is not
Speaker 1: familiar to many, even those who do pursue science as
Speaker 1: a career. So Chris, here we go first. One of
Speaker 1: the many resources I used while researching this episode was
Speaker 1: a biography that was written by Louis W. Alvarez. He
Speaker 1: wrote this shortly after Louis's death. Loomis passed away in
Speaker 1: nineteen Alvarez likened Alfred Lee Loomis to wealthy individuals who
Speaker 1: used their financial independence to support themselves as they pursued
Speaker 1: intellectual interests. So in the days before organized science, when
Speaker 1: you had folks like Sir Isaac Newton or Charles Darwin
Speaker 1: who were really pursuing these these intellectual challenges, they were
Speaker 1: trying to push back ignorance and really learn how the
Speaker 1: universe works. A lot of them were independently wealthy. That's
Speaker 1: why they were able to do this. They didn't have
Speaker 1: to work for a living because they already had money,
Speaker 1: so they could actually pursued that. Not that they weren't working,
Speaker 1: but they were pursuing science which didn't have a salary
Speaker 1: attached to it. These were people who they could rely
Speaker 1: on their fortune to give them the time and energy
Speaker 1: to devote to pursuing knowledge. There was no need to
Speaker 1: demonstrate that this pursuit of knowledge would ultimately produce something
Speaker 1: of financial value. That's a big problem in funding sciences
Speaker 1: in general, especially if you're looking for government funding. A
Speaker 1: lot of government agencies want to know what the end
Speaker 1: result of your work is supposed to be. In other words,
Speaker 1: how can they apply whatever it is you are looking into.
Speaker 1: And it may be that you're doing exploratory research where
Speaker 1: you don't know what applications, if any, there might be
Speaker 1: to your work, but the work itself is still important
Speaker 1: so that we can actually have a deeper understanding of
Speaker 1: how our universe works. When you are telling that to
Speaker 1: someone who writes the checks, they say, well, yeah, but
Speaker 1: I need to have a reason why I'm going to
Speaker 1: give you money, as opposed to a reason that's bigger
Speaker 1: than just I wonder why this works the way it does.
Speaker 1: I need a better reason than that. I need a
Speaker 1: reason like I wonder why this works the way it does.
Speaker 1: And once I know I'm going to be able to
Speaker 1: build you a killer robot that can lay waste to
Speaker 1: your enemies, then I'm totally gonna fund your research. Well,
Speaker 1: if you're independently wealthy, you can research whatever the heck
Speaker 1: you want and you don't have to worry about producing
Speaker 1: results that are going to make anyone any money. You
Speaker 1: might still do that down the line, but that's not
Speaker 1: the reason why you're actually looking into things so alwardly.
Speaker 1: Loomis kind of falls into that category. That's how science
Speaker 1: progressed for centuries, by the way, before we get to
Speaker 1: organize science. Once you did get to the part of
Speaker 1: organized science, you begin to actually have universities forming these
Speaker 1: formalized scientific departments. Then you had the ability to earn
Speaker 1: a living as a professor and still pursue science on
Speaker 1: the side, so you could do experimental research as well
Speaker 1: as teaching. Right, you would teach in order to fund
Speaker 1: your scientific research pursuits. Uh. So you have two different
Speaker 1: eras the independent wealthy or maybe you found a patron
Speaker 1: who would uh support your scientific research. Leonardo da Vinci,
Speaker 1: for example, was someone who would get patrons and the
Speaker 1: patronage would afford him the ability to think like the
Speaker 1: smarty pants person he was. Or you got to the
Speaker 1: point where you were a teacher and that's how you
Speaker 1: afforded it. Alfred Lee Lomis came from a family where
Speaker 1: he didn't have to worry about this too much. Uh.
Speaker 1: He was born on November fourth, seven and was born
Speaker 1: into a prestigious and well connected family. His grandfather, also
Speaker 1: named Alfred, had been a pioneer in treating tuberculosis. The
Speaker 1: Loomis Laboratory at Cornell Medical College and the Loomis Sanatorium
Speaker 1: in Liberty, New York were both named for Grandpa Loomis.
Speaker 1: Alfred's father was Dr Henry Patterson Loomis, and he was
Speaker 1: also a medical doctor and a professor of Clinical medicine
Speaker 1: at Cornell and New York Medical Colleges. In addition, Loomis's
Speaker 1: uncle on his mother's side was also a physician, and
Speaker 1: his cousin, Henry L. Stimpson, would serve as the Secretary
Speaker 1: of State under Herbert Hoover and as the Secretary of
Speaker 1: War during World War Two. So uh Loomis learned early
Speaker 1: on to leverage the relationships he made throughout his life
Speaker 1: for the benefit of many people, not just himself. Loomis's
Speaker 1: family was doing really well when he was a kid.
Speaker 1: They weren't ridiculously wealthy, but they were certainly a family
Speaker 1: of substantial means. From the ages of nine to thirteen,
Speaker 1: young Alfred Lee Loomis attended the St. Matthew's Military Academy
Speaker 1: in New York, but at thirteen he transferred to Phillips
Speaker 1: Academy and Over in Massachusetts, and that's a boarding school
Speaker 1: that's designed to prepare students for university. Loomis became an
Speaker 1: eager student of many fields. His two big loves as
Speaker 1: a child were chess and stage magic. Now, according to
Speaker 1: Louis Alvarez, Loomis was capable of playing two games of
Speaker 1: chess simultaneously while blindfolded. Although Alvarez said he never witnessed
Speaker 1: Loomis playing chess personally. Alvarez was a friend of Loomis,
Speaker 1: but he did hear these stories. But apparently Loomis was
Speaker 1: able to envision both games in his mind's eye. He
Speaker 1: didn't need to see the boards. He could keep track
Speaker 1: of all the moves just in his brain and be
Speaker 1: able to play both games. Uh, technically, I can do this,
Speaker 1: but I would lose track of the pieces and I
Speaker 1: would never win a game. But still I can play
Speaker 1: chess blindfolded, not by following the rules, and I'll never win,
Speaker 1: but I could do it. I do have a feeling
Speaker 1: that I would have enjoyed his company at this stage
Speaker 1: in his life a great deal, because I think we
Speaker 1: would compare magic tricks. Louis Alvarez knew Loomis for thirty
Speaker 1: five years. He was surprised by this story about chess
Speaker 1: because he had never seen a chess board and Loomis's possession,
Speaker 1: but he would eventually ask Loomis's wife about the game,
Speaker 1: and she replied that Alfred did keep a small chess set,
Speaker 1: but he did so for purposes of creating and then
Speaker 1: solving chess problems rather than to actually play games against
Speaker 1: other people. He did keep his love of magic throughout
Speaker 1: his life, though he would only perform for his children
Speaker 1: and grandchildren, not to adults. I can respect that too,
Speaker 1: because children delight in the performance of magic, while adults
Speaker 1: just bug you with attempts to suss out how you
Speaker 1: did it, or they ask you flat out how you
Speaker 1: did it, which is not the point of magic. In
Speaker 1: Alfred Lee Loomis enrolled in Yale University. He studied mathematics,
Speaker 1: but did not yet plunge himself into deep scientific studies.
Speaker 1: He did enjoy tinkering with technology and was known to
Speaker 1: build gliders, model airplanes, and even remote controlled automobiles. He
Speaker 1: also developed a strong interest in artillery weapons and their operation.
Speaker 1: Oh and he would spend afternoons throwing boomerangs outside with
Speaker 1: one of his professors while they tried to come up
Speaker 1: with ways to create a theorem that would describe the
Speaker 1: boomerangs flight behaviors, which I think is pretty charming and interesting.
Speaker 1: After completing his initial education, he enrolled in Harvard Law
Speaker 1: School to study law. He felt law was a good
Speaker 1: spring board for numerous career opportunities and he focused primarily
Speaker 1: on corporate law. His cousin, Henry Stimpson, who had a
Speaker 1: law firm called Winthrop and stinsom Uh, promised Loomis a
Speaker 1: space in the firm as a law clark. Right out
Speaker 1: of school. Loomis graduated in the top ten percent of
Speaker 1: his class in nineteen twelve, having also served as the
Speaker 1: editor for the Harvard Law Review. A few years later,
Speaker 1: he was a successful lawyer living in Tuxedo Park in
Speaker 1: New York. He married Ellen Farnsworth, and together they had
Speaker 1: three sons. When his sons reached the age of fourteen.
Speaker 1: By that eight time, Loomis was a successful businessman and
Speaker 1: was making an enormous sum of money. Loomas decided he
Speaker 1: would grant each of his son's a big old wad
Speaker 1: of cash when they turned fourteen, with the instruction that
Speaker 1: they could do with it whatever they wished, but it
Speaker 1: was meant for them to manage their own needs, essentially saying,
Speaker 1: this is what I'm giving you. It's meant to help
Speaker 1: you pursue whatever career path you want, but you can
Speaker 1: spend it however you like. It's your responsibility. Those three
Speaker 1: sons went on to become distinguished members of society. The
Speaker 1: oldest became a financier and an accomplished sailor, The middle
Speaker 1: son became a professor of biochemistry, and the third became
Speaker 1: the president of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Anyway back
Speaker 1: to Loomis. When the United States entered World War One,
Speaker 1: Alfred Lee Loomis would join the army. He demonstrated to
Speaker 1: his peers that he had a deep knowledge of artillery
Speaker 1: just because he had been fascinated by it and he
Speaker 1: had been studying it. He also had many connections in
Speaker 1: the financial world, and through them he was able to
Speaker 1: put together information about the equipment that each country in
Speaker 1: Europe had at their disposal during the war, just based
Speaker 1: on their purchases. So he'd say, hey, based upon all
Speaker 1: this information I have, I can tell you how much
Speaker 1: how many UH guns this one country has artillery guns
Speaker 1: like the big big guns. This circumspect method of gathering
Speaker 1: intelligence proved to be quite valuable, and the army assigned
Speaker 1: him to the Aberdeen Proving Grounds to conduct research on ballistics.
Speaker 1: He earned the title of Major while he was there,
Speaker 1: and at Aberdeen he began to work with distinguished scientists,
Speaker 1: including astronomers and physicists, his appreciation for science grew as
Speaker 1: a result. Now, one thing that was a challenge for
Speaker 1: ballistics experts was measuring the muzzle velocity of guns, That is,
Speaker 1: how fast does a projectile leave the weapon once it's fired.
Speaker 1: Only by knowing that information can you make precise charts
Speaker 1: that will predict where a fired shell will land, how
Speaker 1: far away from the gun land based upon its trajectory
Speaker 1: and muzzle velocity. These ballistic charts could help soldiers in
Speaker 1: the field make efficient use of their equipment, and without them,
Speaker 1: the matter of firing our artillery would come down to
Speaker 1: trial and error, which is not terribly safe or efficient
Speaker 1: when you're in the middle of a war zone. But
Speaker 1: this was an era before lasers, which are incredibly useful
Speaker 1: for measuring the speed of an object, particularly very fast
Speaker 1: moving objects. It was before photo electric cells, so there
Speaker 1: needed to be some way to measure the speed of
Speaker 1: those shells as they left the artillery, and Alfred Lee
Speaker 1: Loomis was about to come up with a solution. What
Speaker 1: was it. I'll tell you in just a moment, but
Speaker 1: first let's take a quick break to thank our sponsor.
Speaker 1: Loomis's solution to figuring out the muzzle velocity of these
Speaker 1: artillery guns was called the Aberdeen chronograph, and Loomis took
Speaker 1: the problem of measuring muzzle velocity and worked backward to
Speaker 1: create the methodology. It was itself an improvement on a
Speaker 1: previous chronograph called the Boulange chronograph. The principle is actually
Speaker 1: pretty simple. You stake out a couple of spots in
Speaker 1: front of an artillery gun. You know the distance between
Speaker 1: those two spots. You fire the gun so that it
Speaker 1: passes through those two spots, and you invent a way
Speaker 1: to measure when the projectile passes through it. By measuring
Speaker 1: the difference in time between when the projectile arrives at
Speaker 1: the first spot and the second spot, you know how
Speaker 1: fast the projectile is traveling. You then know the muzzle
Speaker 1: velocity of that piece of artillery. Now, in the case
Speaker 1: of the Aberdeen chronograph, here's how it worked. You had
Speaker 1: a pair of frames, large gigantic frames really, with wires
Speaker 1: attached to the frames and the other end of the
Speaker 1: wires went to the chronograph apparatus and a battery. Each
Speaker 1: frame had two sheets of ten and they were separated
Speaker 1: by a thin layer of building paper and paraffin. So
Speaker 1: when a projectile pierced the sheets. It would bring the
Speaker 1: two layers of tin in contact with one another, and
Speaker 1: this would form a circuit that would allow electric current
Speaker 1: to pass through one wire into the frame, through the
Speaker 1: other wire, and back to the chronograph. The chronograph had
Speaker 1: a metal disc on it, and on top of this
Speaker 1: metal disc was a roll of waxed paper tape. It
Speaker 1: was spooled there and it would slowly unwind, or not
Speaker 1: really slowly, but it would unwind and the disc would turn.
Speaker 1: It moves the paper tape. As the disc turns. When
Speaker 1: the incoming signal hit the chronograph, it would cause a spark,
Speaker 1: and the spark would make a burn mark on the tape.
Speaker 1: So let's say you're trying to measure the muzzle velocity
Speaker 1: on a particular piece of artillery. You'd started the muzzle
Speaker 1: of the artillery piece. You would measure out of space
Speaker 1: that's fifty feet or fifteen point two four meters in
Speaker 1: front of the artillery piece, and that's where you would
Speaker 1: place the first frame. You would stake it down and
Speaker 1: your first frame would be right there. You would then
Speaker 1: measure an additional fifty feet or fifteen point two four
Speaker 1: meters further out from the gun and place the second
Speaker 1: frame in line with the first, So the guns operator
Speaker 1: would aim down the sites at the frame with the
Speaker 1: goal of having the shell passed through both frames through
Speaker 1: its path. So you would fire the gun, the shell
Speaker 1: would fly out at fifty ft, it would hit the
Speaker 1: first frame, it would continue and in another fifty feet
Speaker 1: it would hit the second frame. And each time it
Speaker 1: hits it would create that electrical circuit that would cause
Speaker 1: a spark to burn a spot on the paper tape.
Speaker 1: So then you go back to the chronograph and you
Speaker 1: look at the paper tape, and by knowing how fast
Speaker 1: the paper tape is moving inside the chronograph, you can
Speaker 1: do some math to find out how much time it
Speaker 1: took the shell to pass through each of those frames.
Speaker 1: By knowing the amount of time it took, and knowing
Speaker 1: already that the distance between those two frames is fifty feet,
Speaker 1: you could then measure the shells speed. You'd say, all right,
Speaker 1: it took this amount of time to pass through fifty
Speaker 1: ft worth of space. That gives me the velocity of
Speaker 1: the shell. Loomis's improvement to chronographs was significant. His chronograph
Speaker 1: became a standard piece of testing equipment for both the
Speaker 1: U S Army and the Navy. While working at Aberdeen,
Speaker 1: Loomis became well acquainted with a scientist named Dr Robert W. Wood.
Speaker 1: Wood's specialty, at least starting out, was an optics and
Speaker 1: work with infrared and ultra violet light. He was famous
Speaker 1: for debunking the claims of prosper Rene blonde Lott, who
Speaker 1: had claimed he discovered a form of energy similar to
Speaker 1: X rays that he called in rays. While while Wood
Speaker 1: was visiting blonde Lot's lab to witness a demonstration of
Speaker 1: the supposed in rays, he very quietly removed a prism
Speaker 1: from blonde Lot's device, and when blonde Lot claimed to
Speaker 1: observe the mysterious energy after activating his machine, Would calmly
Speaker 1: pointed out that the prism, which was supposedly integral to
Speaker 1: the operation of the gadget, wasn't even in it. It
Speaker 1: was absent, and therefore the effects that were supposedly observed
Speaker 1: could not possibly have been there. It's essentially saying, hey,
Speaker 1: I took the batteries out of that device, so therefore
Speaker 1: it could not have work. There was no power source,
Speaker 1: so your claims are invalid. During World War One, would
Speaker 1: began to study the work of another scientist named Paul Langevin,
Speaker 1: who had been using ultrasonic frequencies in an effort to
Speaker 1: create a detection device that could detect submarines, would observed
Speaker 1: that high powered ultrasonic signals would cause bubbles to form
Speaker 1: in a process called cavitation. Those bubbles would grow and
Speaker 1: eventually implode in water, and they would release a tremendous
Speaker 1: amount of heat and pressure in the process. So would
Speaker 1: and Loomis struck up a friendship during this time, and
Speaker 1: Loomis would later become something of a patron for Woods
Speaker 1: continued experimentation in the field of ultrasonic applications. More on that.
Speaker 1: In just a second after World War One, Loomis entered
Speaker 1: the world of finance. He made a tremendous fortune in
Speaker 1: the process. He and his brother in law, Landon Thorn,
Speaker 1: began to cater to companies in the burgeoning electrical power industry, so,
Speaker 1: in other words, they became financiers for public utilities. And
Speaker 1: this was during a time of rapid growth in that industry,
Speaker 1: and they earned millions of dollars all in the years
Speaker 1: leading up to the stock market crash of nineteen twenty
Speaker 1: nine and the Great Depression in fact, Loomas even made
Speaker 1: a huge profit while millions of people were finding themselves
Speaker 1: out of work in the process, not in the process,
Speaker 1: but during the Great Depression. It wasn't that the two
Speaker 1: things were directly related. Loomas actually was quite concerned about
Speaker 1: the Great Depression, and he also wasn't really fond of
Speaker 1: the whole cons of of making all this money. He
Speaker 1: was really good at it, but that wasn't really where
Speaker 1: he was focused. He wasn't obsessed with making money. In
Speaker 1: nine Loomis began visiting Robert Wood's home laboratory, which was
Speaker 1: inside a barn on Wood's property, and Loomis became a
Speaker 1: frequent visitor. Clearly he was interested in scientific pursuits, and
Speaker 1: he told Dr Wood that he would be willing to
Speaker 1: underwrite scientific experiments if Dr Wood had any projects he'd
Speaker 1: like to tackle that he otherwise would have trouble funding.
Speaker 1: So Dr Wood told Loomis about his ultrasonic experimentation and
Speaker 1: the effects that had on water, and he indicated that
Speaker 1: there could be significant applications in the fields of chemistry, biology,
Speaker 1: and physics. So Loomis thought this was a fascinating idea,
Speaker 1: and he decided to put money behind it. So he
Speaker 1: created a lab at his home and he invited Dr
Speaker 1: Wood to work at this lab. Later, Loomis would purchase
Speaker 1: an enormous estate in nineteen seven in the community of
Speaker 1: Tuxedo Park. He was already living in Tuxedo Park, but
Speaker 1: now he built this or He bought this enormous estate
Speaker 1: called the Trask Estate, and he converted it into his
Speaker 1: own private laboratory. Was space to house scientists who came
Speaker 1: there to do work, so a visiting scientists might find
Speaker 1: himself with a ladging at Loomis's enormous estate. He would
Speaker 1: host various scientists working on all sorts of interesting problems.
Speaker 1: He also hosted some of the world's most famous scientific minds,
Speaker 1: like Albert Einstein, for example. He would get involved in
Speaker 1: these pursuits as well on occasion. Among them were the
Speaker 1: ultrasonic experiments that his friend Dr Would was heading up.
Speaker 1: According to Dr Wood, and I apologize for this next
Speaker 1: bit because it makes me a little nauseated. The two
Speaker 1: used ultrasonic frequencies and tested their effects on numerous fish
Speaker 1: and mice, killing a whole lot of them in the process,
Speaker 1: and trying to determine exactly what the mechanism was that
Speaker 1: was killing the animals charming right, This was in a
Speaker 1: different time anyway. The point is that he was very
Speaker 1: much interested in funding scientific research, and there was a
Speaker 1: lot of work in various fields that would not have
Speaker 1: happened without his support. Now I've got more to say
Speaker 1: about Loomis and his involvement with technology and science, but
Speaker 1: before I go into the next section, let's take another
Speaker 1: quick break to thank our sponsor. When Loomas turned forty three,
Speaker 1: he retired from Wall Street. The Great Depression had hit,
Speaker 1: the stock market had crashed in ninety nine, and Loomis
Speaker 1: didn't care for the political direction the US was taking.
Speaker 1: As FDR spoke out against big business, he began dedicating
Speaker 1: his time and energy to science and tinkering. One of
Speaker 1: Loomis's failures was in the design of a racing yacht
Speaker 1: that competed in the America's Cup. So this is one
Speaker 1: of those times that I have trouble reconciling things, because
Speaker 1: the Great Depression is on. People are out of where. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: rich people like the Vanderbilts and Loomis are spending huge
Speaker 1: amounts of money to construct racing yachts that have no purpose.
Speaker 1: Other than to race each other. I have a problem
Speaker 1: with that, but anyway, so it was something of a
Speaker 1: custom for stinking rich people to purchase and staff a
Speaker 1: J class yacht at this time for the purposes of
Speaker 1: racing in the prestigious America's Cup race. A J class
Speaker 1: yacht had a single mast and had to follow the
Speaker 1: universal rule, as established by Nathaniel Hairschoff. So what is
Speaker 1: the universal rule? Was actually a formula, and it told
Speaker 1: you the relationship of various parts of a yacht's dimensions,
Speaker 1: and if that relationship all fell within the same zone,
Speaker 1: then two different yachts would be said to belong to
Speaker 1: the same class, even if they were of drastically different
Speaker 1: size and shape. So the formula goes something like this.
Speaker 1: You take the link of the boat, you multiply that
Speaker 1: by the square root of the sale area, and you
Speaker 1: multiply that by point one eight. That number, by the way,
Speaker 1: would change over time, sometimes it was point to but
Speaker 1: point when it's a good rule of thumb. You take
Speaker 1: that product, that whole number that you just got from
Speaker 1: doing what I said, and you divide it by a
Speaker 1: third of the square root of the ship's displacement, Which
Speaker 1: sounds complicated, but the point of this whole thing was
Speaker 1: to determine what was called the rating for the yacht.
Speaker 1: Ratings are measured in units of distance, and if the
Speaker 1: yacht had a rating of between sixty five and seventy
Speaker 1: six feet, it qualified as a J class yacht. The
Speaker 1: system allowed yachts of different sizes and dimensions to potentially
Speaker 1: race against each other as long as those ratings fell
Speaker 1: within the same range. So it's all the different proportions.
Speaker 1: If they matched up properly, you would get the same rating,
Speaker 1: even though they might be a very different sizes. Loomis
Speaker 1: and his business partner Thorn, wanted to use scientific principles
Speaker 1: to create a superior J class yacht. They had in
Speaker 1: mind a system in which all the yachts operations could
Speaker 1: be performed below decks using various winches and controls, and
Speaker 1: the idea was that clearing the decks of people the
Speaker 1: top deck would improve the yachts speed. They worked with
Speaker 1: the m I T. Naval Architecture Department to design and
Speaker 1: build the yacht, paying for the construction themselves. Their yacht
Speaker 1: was called the Whirlwind. It launched in nineteen thirty. It
Speaker 1: was not a success and Ultimately, it was scrapped in
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty five. This I also have a problem with
Speaker 1: to spend that much money on something that lasts five years.
Speaker 1: Loomis and Thorn also made another purchase together. It was
Speaker 1: more than half of Hilton Head. That's an island off
Speaker 1: the coast of South Carolina. At the time, hilton Head
Speaker 1: was undeveloped, and the two used it for their own
Speaker 1: personal recreation, mostly riding around and hunting. Loomis's interests remained
Speaker 1: very He was particularly fascinated with time keeping and consistently
Speaker 1: was on a quest to find more accurate means of
Speaker 1: keeping the time, both in short term and long term applications.
Speaker 1: He even conducted experiments that showed the moon's effect on
Speaker 1: pendulum clocks by comparing some extremely high quality clocks against
Speaker 1: a coartz oscillator timekeeping methodology. He also worked with E.
Speaker 1: Newton Harvey to develop a microscope centrifuge. The microscope made
Speaker 1: it possible to observe the effect of high g forces
Speaker 1: on the deformation of cells. In other words, this device
Speaker 1: would spin samples at very high speeds to simulate a
Speaker 1: strong gravitational pull, whilst simultaneously allowing scientists to observe the
Speaker 1: effects on the cells inside the samples, which is pretty neat.
Speaker 1: He also became interested in the work of a guy
Speaker 1: named Hans Burger, who had discovered the existence of brain waves.
Speaker 1: The existence of such waves was still a matter of
Speaker 1: some debate in the nineteen thirties, and so Loomis, who
Speaker 1: had a deep wallet and and inquisitive mind, set up
Speaker 1: a testing lab in his own personal laboratory with a
Speaker 1: special screen cage designed to block electromagnetic interference during experiments
Speaker 1: so that they didn't have to worry about false positives.
Speaker 1: Loomis's work ended up validating Burgher's findings and paved the
Speaker 1: way for the e G. One other major project Loomas
Speaker 1: was involved in was creating the long range navigation system
Speaker 1: called Lauren l O R A N. I'll do a
Speaker 1: full episode on Lauren next, but it's too big a
Speaker 1: topic to tackle in this episode. It's pretty darn cool, however,
Speaker 1: and it's a really interesting means of navigating overseas. Work
Speaker 1: continued at his private laboratory until nineteen forty. Now by
Speaker 1: that time, World War two was in full swing in Europe,
Speaker 1: but America had not yet formally entered the War, however,
Speaker 1: Allied powers were trying to advance the science and technology
Speaker 1: of radar. Robert Watson Watt, a physicist and engineer, developed
Speaker 1: the first practical aid our system in nine but while
Speaker 1: it worked, it had some big drawbacks. One of those
Speaker 1: was that the wavelengths that they were using for radio
Speaker 1: signals in this radar system were very, very long, and
Speaker 1: that required enormous antennas, and it limited how accurate the
Speaker 1: system was. You'd be able to detect that there was
Speaker 1: an incoming aircraft, but pinpointing exactly where it was was
Speaker 1: much more difficult. British engineers named John Randall and Harry
Speaker 1: Boot created a technology called the cavity magnetron that they
Speaker 1: suspected would be a solution, but they needed help. Britain
Speaker 1: sent an envoy to the United States to enlist the
Speaker 1: help of American scientists and engineers to produce radar systems
Speaker 1: that could take advantage of the cavity magnetron. Now, a
Speaker 1: cavity magnetron is a special type of vacuum tube. The
Speaker 1: vacuum tube has special metal cavities, and when powered, the
Speaker 1: vacuum tube begins to eject electrons. I talked about vacuum tubes.
Speaker 1: In a recent episode of tech Stuff, these objected electrons
Speaker 1: would move have passed these metal cavities and they would
Speaker 1: be interacting with a magnetic field. And as the electrons
Speaker 1: would pass the cavities, this interaction would cause radio waves
Speaker 1: to oscillate inside those cavities and produced microwaves, the frequency
Speaker 1: of which would depend upon the physical dimensions of the cavities.
Speaker 1: The version that Randall and Boot created could produce microwaves
Speaker 1: at a wavelength of ten centimeters. The shorter wavelengths meant
Speaker 1: the antenna could be smaller and the waves could detect
Speaker 1: smaller objects as well and with greater precision. The reception
Speaker 1: in the US was positive. They said this is something
Speaker 1: that we will collaborate on, and a new lab began
Speaker 1: to take shape. Loomis had a hand in the creation
Speaker 1: of this lab, and it became known as the m
Speaker 1: I T Radiation Laboratory. Loomis himself became the head of
Speaker 1: the Radar Division for the US under the newly formed
Speaker 1: National Defense Research Committee or in d r C, and
Speaker 1: he oversaw the lab. He shut down his own personal
Speaker 1: lab in the meantime to focus solely on the RAT lab.
Speaker 1: As it was called. The lab was able to refine
Speaker 1: the design of radar, and the collaborative effort between the
Speaker 1: English and American engineers and scientists help spawn a technology
Speaker 1: that was instrumental no pun intended in war efforts. It
Speaker 1: also eventually led to the development of the microwave oven,
Speaker 1: but that's another story. Loomiss contributions were often behind the scenes.
Speaker 1: Uh he knew the right people in business and the
Speaker 1: patent office to help streamline efforts and make it easier
Speaker 1: for the engineers and scientists to do their work. While
Speaker 1: he didn't necessarily get involved in the labs with the
Speaker 1: research efforts, he made sure that the work could continue
Speaker 1: with as few obstacles in the way as possible. The
Speaker 1: rad Lab bustled with activity, but after America entered World
Speaker 1: War Two following Pearl Harbor, Loomis saw his lab rated
Speaker 1: for talent. On more than one occasion, several of his
Speaker 1: bright stars were leaving to go work for another project.
Speaker 1: It was a top secret project, one with a purpose
Speaker 1: only a few people knew. It was called the Manhattan
Speaker 1: Project and the purpose was to build a nuclear bomb.
Speaker 1: Loomis would continue to fund scientific work, going to Berkeley
Speaker 1: to help Ernest Lawrence raise funds to build a cyclotron
Speaker 1: particle accelerator. After World War Two ended, Loomis divorced his
Speaker 1: wife Ellen, and he married Minette sil Dreer's Hobart. He
Speaker 1: and Hobart had had an extramarital affair and decided to
Speaker 1: divorce their respective spouses and marry each other. The whole
Speaker 1: thing was a huge scandal in New York society, and
Speaker 1: Loomis and his new wife largely withdrew from public life
Speaker 1: to move into a single household. Now, I say all
Speaker 1: this not to drag Loomis's name through the mud, but
Speaker 1: to illustrate that while he was a remarkable person in
Speaker 1: both business and science, he was by no means perfect.
Speaker 1: In his later years, Loomis became more interested in biology.
Speaker 1: He spent time with his son Farnie, studying hydra, for example,
Speaker 1: and by that I mean the small organisms that demonstrate
Speaker 1: remarkable lity to regenerate from injuries. They also do not
Speaker 1: appear to age. Loomis lived long enough to tinker with computers,
Speaker 1: or at least calculators, owning a Hewlett Packard Modeled sixty
Speaker 1: five that's a handheld card programmable calculator that debuted in
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy four. It costs about four thousand dollars in
Speaker 1: today's money to buy one, and it could hold up
Speaker 1: to one instructions of six bits each. Loomis would pass
Speaker 1: away on August eleven nine, and he had very few
Speaker 1: friends at that point, not because he had alienated them,
Speaker 1: but just that he naturally gravitated to a fairly small
Speaker 1: social circle. But he was known as a very generous friend,
Speaker 1: someone who enjoyed spending time with his friends and supporting
Speaker 1: scientific endeavors. In fact, he was known for funding all
Speaker 1: sorts of scientific research throughout his lifetime and became part
Speaker 1: of the UH, the whole society of scientists in America,
Speaker 1: despite the fact that he was largely known as someone
Speaker 1: who worked behind the scenes and he kind of eschewed
Speaker 1: the public spotlight. So, Chris, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: this suggestion. It was fascinating looking into the life of
Speaker 1: Alfred Lee Loomis, And in our next episode we will
Speaker 1: look more closely at Lauren, the long range navigation tool
Speaker 1: that he designed, and talk about how it works and
Speaker 1: the math behind it, because it's pretty fascinating stuff. I
Speaker 1: look forward to doing that because despite being an English
Speaker 1: Lit major back in my youth, I also really love math,
Speaker 1: specifically algebra, and there's a whole lot of algebra when
Speaker 1: it comes to Lauren. So I'm looking forward to talking
Speaker 1: about that. If you guys have any subjects you would
Speaker 1: like me to tackle on episodes of tech Stuff, maybe
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Speaker 1: on as a guest, send me an email. The address
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Speaker 1: slash tech Stuff on Wednesdays and Fridays. Just go to
Speaker 1: that u r L. You'll see the schedule there. You
Speaker 1: can join me and make fun of me as I
Speaker 1: tell terrible jokes to my producer Torii. I look forward
Speaker 1: to seeing you there and I'll talk to you again
Speaker 1: really soon for more on this and thousands of other topics.
Speaker 1: Because it how stuff Works dot com