WEBVTT - TechStuff Profile: Alfred Loomis 0:00:04.160 --> 0:00:07.160 Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from how 0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:13.720 stuff Works dot Com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:13.720 --> 0:00:16.800 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer here 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:19.599 at how Stuff Works in not Love All Things Tech. 0:00:19.680 --> 0:00:23.959 In today's episodes, another listener request, listener Chris asked that 0:00:24.000 --> 0:00:27.600 I do a profile on an important person in tech history, 0:00:28.160 --> 0:00:31.160 someone who's often overlooked by a lot of people. His 0:00:31.320 --> 0:00:35.000 name is not terribly recognizable outside of a certain group 0:00:35.080 --> 0:00:39.479 of scientists and people who are fans of science. That 0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:45.239 would be Alfred Lee Loomis. Loomis would become incredibly important 0:00:45.240 --> 0:00:48.520 to the development of technology and science in the early 0:00:48.600 --> 0:00:51.680 twentieth century in America, and yet his name is not 0:00:51.840 --> 0:00:55.240 familiar to many, even those who do pursue science as 0:00:55.280 --> 0:00:59.760 a career. So Chris, here we go first. One of 0:00:59.800 --> 0:01:02.920 the many resources I used while researching this episode was 0:01:02.960 --> 0:01:07.360 a biography that was written by Louis W. Alvarez. He 0:01:07.440 --> 0:01:12.800 wrote this shortly after Louis's death. Loomis passed away in 0:01:12.840 --> 0:01:19.039 nineteen Alvarez likened Alfred Lee Loomis to wealthy individuals who 0:01:19.120 --> 0:01:22.679 used their financial independence to support themselves as they pursued 0:01:22.760 --> 0:01:28.120 intellectual interests. So in the days before organized science, when 0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:32.120 you had folks like Sir Isaac Newton or Charles Darwin 0:01:32.680 --> 0:01:37.480 who were really pursuing these these intellectual challenges, they were 0:01:37.520 --> 0:01:40.039 trying to push back ignorance and really learn how the 0:01:40.120 --> 0:01:45.000 universe works. A lot of them were independently wealthy. That's 0:01:45.040 --> 0:01:47.480 why they were able to do this. They didn't have 0:01:47.520 --> 0:01:49.919 to work for a living because they already had money, 0:01:50.240 --> 0:01:53.400 so they could actually pursued that. Not that they weren't working, 0:01:53.400 --> 0:01:56.440 but they were pursuing science which didn't have a salary 0:01:56.520 --> 0:01:59.720 attached to it. These were people who they could rely 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:02.000 on their fortune to give them the time and energy 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:04.920 to devote to pursuing knowledge. There was no need to 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:08.840 demonstrate that this pursuit of knowledge would ultimately produce something 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:13.359 of financial value. That's a big problem in funding sciences 0:02:13.400 --> 0:02:16.320 in general, especially if you're looking for government funding. A 0:02:16.360 --> 0:02:19.440 lot of government agencies want to know what the end 0:02:19.480 --> 0:02:22.480 result of your work is supposed to be. In other words, 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:25.959 how can they apply whatever it is you are looking into. 0:02:26.680 --> 0:02:29.519 And it may be that you're doing exploratory research where 0:02:29.560 --> 0:02:33.080 you don't know what applications, if any, there might be 0:02:33.240 --> 0:02:36.320 to your work, but the work itself is still important 0:02:36.360 --> 0:02:38.240 so that we can actually have a deeper understanding of 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:41.360 how our universe works. When you are telling that to 0:02:41.400 --> 0:02:45.040 someone who writes the checks, they say, well, yeah, but 0:02:45.200 --> 0:02:48.400 I need to have a reason why I'm going to 0:02:48.440 --> 0:02:51.320 give you money, as opposed to a reason that's bigger 0:02:51.320 --> 0:02:53.760 than just I wonder why this works the way it does. 0:02:54.160 --> 0:02:55.880 I need a better reason than that. I need a 0:02:55.880 --> 0:02:58.639 reason like I wonder why this works the way it does. 0:02:58.680 --> 0:03:00.000 And once I know I'm going to be able to 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:02.680 build you a killer robot that can lay waste to 0:03:03.000 --> 0:03:07.160 your enemies, then I'm totally gonna fund your research. Well, 0:03:07.400 --> 0:03:10.519 if you're independently wealthy, you can research whatever the heck 0:03:10.560 --> 0:03:12.720 you want and you don't have to worry about producing 0:03:12.760 --> 0:03:15.160 results that are going to make anyone any money. You 0:03:15.240 --> 0:03:17.920 might still do that down the line, but that's not 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:22.079 the reason why you're actually looking into things so alwardly. 0:03:22.200 --> 0:03:25.680 Loomis kind of falls into that category. That's how science 0:03:25.720 --> 0:03:29.040 progressed for centuries, by the way, before we get to 0:03:29.160 --> 0:03:32.520 organize science. Once you did get to the part of 0:03:32.800 --> 0:03:36.800 organized science, you begin to actually have universities forming these 0:03:36.840 --> 0:03:41.800 formalized scientific departments. Then you had the ability to earn 0:03:41.840 --> 0:03:45.840 a living as a professor and still pursue science on 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:49.280 the side, so you could do experimental research as well 0:03:49.320 --> 0:03:52.720 as teaching. Right, you would teach in order to fund 0:03:53.040 --> 0:03:58.320 your scientific research pursuits. Uh. So you have two different 0:03:58.320 --> 0:04:03.160 eras the independent wealthy or maybe you found a patron 0:04:03.440 --> 0:04:07.520 who would uh support your scientific research. Leonardo da Vinci, 0:04:07.560 --> 0:04:11.680 for example, was someone who would get patrons and the 0:04:11.720 --> 0:04:15.800 patronage would afford him the ability to think like the 0:04:15.800 --> 0:04:19.120 smarty pants person he was. Or you got to the 0:04:19.120 --> 0:04:21.320 point where you were a teacher and that's how you 0:04:21.400 --> 0:04:24.719 afforded it. Alfred Lee Lomis came from a family where 0:04:24.720 --> 0:04:28.440 he didn't have to worry about this too much. Uh. 0:04:28.480 --> 0:04:32.760 He was born on November fourth, seven and was born 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:37.080 into a prestigious and well connected family. His grandfather, also 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:42.359 named Alfred, had been a pioneer in treating tuberculosis. The 0:04:42.560 --> 0:04:47.280 Loomis Laboratory at Cornell Medical College and the Loomis Sanatorium 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:50.520 in Liberty, New York were both named for Grandpa Loomis. 0:04:51.160 --> 0:04:55.560 Alfred's father was Dr Henry Patterson Loomis, and he was 0:04:55.640 --> 0:04:58.600 also a medical doctor and a professor of Clinical medicine 0:04:58.600 --> 0:05:02.960 at Cornell and New York Medical Colleges. In addition, Loomis's 0:05:03.200 --> 0:05:07.120 uncle on his mother's side was also a physician, and 0:05:07.200 --> 0:05:10.479 his cousin, Henry L. Stimpson, would serve as the Secretary 0:05:10.520 --> 0:05:13.640 of State under Herbert Hoover and as the Secretary of 0:05:13.640 --> 0:05:18.760 War during World War Two. So uh Loomis learned early 0:05:18.920 --> 0:05:23.000 on to leverage the relationships he made throughout his life 0:05:23.320 --> 0:05:27.400 for the benefit of many people, not just himself. Loomis's 0:05:27.440 --> 0:05:30.159 family was doing really well when he was a kid. 0:05:30.200 --> 0:05:33.800 They weren't ridiculously wealthy, but they were certainly a family 0:05:33.880 --> 0:05:37.680 of substantial means. From the ages of nine to thirteen, 0:05:38.200 --> 0:05:42.799 young Alfred Lee Loomis attended the St. Matthew's Military Academy 0:05:42.920 --> 0:05:46.280 in New York, but at thirteen he transferred to Phillips 0:05:46.279 --> 0:05:49.960 Academy and Over in Massachusetts, and that's a boarding school 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:53.680 that's designed to prepare students for university. Loomis became an 0:05:53.680 --> 0:05:57.280 eager student of many fields. His two big loves as 0:05:57.279 --> 0:06:01.680 a child were chess and stage magic. Now, according to 0:06:01.720 --> 0:06:05.080 Louis Alvarez, Loomis was capable of playing two games of 0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:12.120 chess simultaneously while blindfolded. Although Alvarez said he never witnessed 0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:16.600 Loomis playing chess personally. Alvarez was a friend of Loomis, 0:06:17.200 --> 0:06:20.040 but he did hear these stories. But apparently Loomis was 0:06:20.080 --> 0:06:23.279 able to envision both games in his mind's eye. He 0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:25.440 didn't need to see the boards. He could keep track 0:06:25.480 --> 0:06:28.080 of all the moves just in his brain and be 0:06:28.120 --> 0:06:32.120 able to play both games. Uh, technically, I can do this, 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:33.880 but I would lose track of the pieces and I 0:06:33.920 --> 0:06:36.760 would never win a game. But still I can play 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:41.240 chess blindfolded, not by following the rules, and I'll never win, 0:06:41.480 --> 0:06:44.919 but I could do it. I do have a feeling 0:06:45.120 --> 0:06:48.159 that I would have enjoyed his company at this stage 0:06:48.200 --> 0:06:50.640 in his life a great deal, because I think we 0:06:50.680 --> 0:06:55.200 would compare magic tricks. Louis Alvarez knew Loomis for thirty 0:06:55.240 --> 0:06:58.239 five years. He was surprised by this story about chess 0:06:58.279 --> 0:07:01.800 because he had never seen a chess board and Loomis's possession, 0:07:02.320 --> 0:07:05.320 but he would eventually ask Loomis's wife about the game, 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:09.280 and she replied that Alfred did keep a small chess set, 0:07:09.520 --> 0:07:11.920 but he did so for purposes of creating and then 0:07:11.960 --> 0:07:16.720 solving chess problems rather than to actually play games against 0:07:16.760 --> 0:07:19.600 other people. He did keep his love of magic throughout 0:07:19.600 --> 0:07:22.720 his life, though he would only perform for his children 0:07:22.720 --> 0:07:26.680 and grandchildren, not to adults. I can respect that too, 0:07:26.720 --> 0:07:30.120 because children delight in the performance of magic, while adults 0:07:30.200 --> 0:07:33.160 just bug you with attempts to suss out how you 0:07:33.240 --> 0:07:35.720 did it, or they ask you flat out how you 0:07:35.760 --> 0:07:38.040 did it, which is not the point of magic. In 0:07:39.120 --> 0:07:43.680 Alfred Lee Loomis enrolled in Yale University. He studied mathematics, 0:07:43.960 --> 0:07:48.040 but did not yet plunge himself into deep scientific studies. 0:07:48.320 --> 0:07:51.240 He did enjoy tinkering with technology and was known to 0:07:51.280 --> 0:07:55.560 build gliders, model airplanes, and even remote controlled automobiles. He 0:07:55.640 --> 0:07:59.880 also developed a strong interest in artillery weapons and their operation. 0:08:00.520 --> 0:08:03.680 Oh and he would spend afternoons throwing boomerangs outside with 0:08:03.680 --> 0:08:05.640 one of his professors while they tried to come up 0:08:05.640 --> 0:08:08.440 with ways to create a theorem that would describe the 0:08:08.480 --> 0:08:12.360 boomerangs flight behaviors, which I think is pretty charming and interesting. 0:08:12.760 --> 0:08:16.960 After completing his initial education, he enrolled in Harvard Law 0:08:17.000 --> 0:08:19.800 School to study law. He felt law was a good 0:08:19.840 --> 0:08:23.960 spring board for numerous career opportunities and he focused primarily 0:08:24.040 --> 0:08:27.520 on corporate law. His cousin, Henry Stimpson, who had a 0:08:27.600 --> 0:08:31.760 law firm called Winthrop and stinsom Uh, promised Loomis a 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:34.000 space in the firm as a law clark. Right out 0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:37.160 of school. Loomis graduated in the top ten percent of 0:08:37.240 --> 0:08:40.120 his class in nineteen twelve, having also served as the 0:08:40.240 --> 0:08:43.960 editor for the Harvard Law Review. A few years later, 0:08:44.240 --> 0:08:47.920 he was a successful lawyer living in Tuxedo Park in 0:08:48.000 --> 0:08:51.079 New York. He married Ellen Farnsworth, and together they had 0:08:51.120 --> 0:08:53.920 three sons. When his sons reached the age of fourteen. 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:58.280 By that eight time, Loomis was a successful businessman and 0:08:58.360 --> 0:09:02.959 was making an enormous sum of money. Loomas decided he 0:09:03.000 --> 0:09:06.720 would grant each of his son's a big old wad 0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:09.600 of cash when they turned fourteen, with the instruction that 0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:11.960 they could do with it whatever they wished, but it 0:09:12.000 --> 0:09:16.200 was meant for them to manage their own needs, essentially saying, 0:09:16.679 --> 0:09:19.240 this is what I'm giving you. It's meant to help 0:09:19.320 --> 0:09:22.319 you pursue whatever career path you want, but you can 0:09:22.360 --> 0:09:25.920 spend it however you like. It's your responsibility. Those three 0:09:26.000 --> 0:09:29.000 sons went on to become distinguished members of society. The 0:09:29.000 --> 0:09:33.679 oldest became a financier and an accomplished sailor, The middle 0:09:33.760 --> 0:09:37.440 son became a professor of biochemistry, and the third became 0:09:37.480 --> 0:09:40.800 the president of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Anyway back 0:09:40.840 --> 0:09:44.319 to Loomis. When the United States entered World War One, 0:09:44.640 --> 0:09:48.200 Alfred Lee Loomis would join the army. He demonstrated to 0:09:48.240 --> 0:09:51.240 his peers that he had a deep knowledge of artillery 0:09:51.520 --> 0:09:53.439 just because he had been fascinated by it and he 0:09:53.480 --> 0:09:56.240 had been studying it. He also had many connections in 0:09:56.280 --> 0:09:59.240 the financial world, and through them he was able to 0:09:59.280 --> 0:10:03.000 put together information about the equipment that each country in 0:10:03.040 --> 0:10:05.559 Europe had at their disposal during the war, just based 0:10:05.559 --> 0:10:09.040 on their purchases. So he'd say, hey, based upon all 0:10:09.040 --> 0:10:11.160 this information I have, I can tell you how much 0:10:11.240 --> 0:10:16.480 how many UH guns this one country has artillery guns 0:10:16.480 --> 0:10:20.720 like the big big guns. This circumspect method of gathering 0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:23.800 intelligence proved to be quite valuable, and the army assigned 0:10:23.880 --> 0:10:28.360 him to the Aberdeen Proving Grounds to conduct research on ballistics. 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:31.040 He earned the title of Major while he was there, 0:10:31.320 --> 0:10:35.000 and at Aberdeen he began to work with distinguished scientists, 0:10:35.080 --> 0:10:40.079 including astronomers and physicists, his appreciation for science grew as 0:10:40.080 --> 0:10:43.000 a result. Now, one thing that was a challenge for 0:10:43.040 --> 0:10:47.640 ballistics experts was measuring the muzzle velocity of guns, That is, 0:10:47.880 --> 0:10:52.199 how fast does a projectile leave the weapon once it's fired. 0:10:52.640 --> 0:10:55.840 Only by knowing that information can you make precise charts 0:10:55.880 --> 0:10:58.800 that will predict where a fired shell will land, how 0:10:58.840 --> 0:11:01.880 far away from the gun land based upon its trajectory 0:11:02.160 --> 0:11:05.640 and muzzle velocity. These ballistic charts could help soldiers in 0:11:05.679 --> 0:11:08.959 the field make efficient use of their equipment, and without them, 0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:11.600 the matter of firing our artillery would come down to 0:11:11.760 --> 0:11:14.480 trial and error, which is not terribly safe or efficient 0:11:14.480 --> 0:11:16.280 when you're in the middle of a war zone. But 0:11:16.440 --> 0:11:20.400 this was an era before lasers, which are incredibly useful 0:11:20.440 --> 0:11:23.600 for measuring the speed of an object, particularly very fast 0:11:23.679 --> 0:11:27.360 moving objects. It was before photo electric cells, so there 0:11:27.400 --> 0:11:30.000 needed to be some way to measure the speed of 0:11:30.040 --> 0:11:34.000 those shells as they left the artillery, and Alfred Lee 0:11:34.080 --> 0:11:37.440 Loomis was about to come up with a solution. What 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:39.600 was it. I'll tell you in just a moment, but 0:11:39.720 --> 0:11:42.920 first let's take a quick break to thank our sponsor. 0:11:50.559 --> 0:11:53.559 Loomis's solution to figuring out the muzzle velocity of these 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:58.040 artillery guns was called the Aberdeen chronograph, and Loomis took 0:11:58.040 --> 0:12:00.960 the problem of measuring muzzle velocity and worked backward to 0:12:01.000 --> 0:12:04.680 create the methodology. It was itself an improvement on a 0:12:04.760 --> 0:12:09.160 previous chronograph called the Boulange chronograph. The principle is actually 0:12:09.200 --> 0:12:11.960 pretty simple. You stake out a couple of spots in 0:12:12.080 --> 0:12:15.680 front of an artillery gun. You know the distance between 0:12:15.720 --> 0:12:18.640 those two spots. You fire the gun so that it 0:12:18.679 --> 0:12:21.800 passes through those two spots, and you invent a way 0:12:21.840 --> 0:12:25.600 to measure when the projectile passes through it. By measuring 0:12:25.679 --> 0:12:28.800 the difference in time between when the projectile arrives at 0:12:28.840 --> 0:12:31.600 the first spot and the second spot, you know how 0:12:31.679 --> 0:12:35.280 fast the projectile is traveling. You then know the muzzle 0:12:35.320 --> 0:12:38.080 velocity of that piece of artillery. Now, in the case 0:12:38.120 --> 0:12:40.720 of the Aberdeen chronograph, here's how it worked. You had 0:12:40.720 --> 0:12:45.720 a pair of frames, large gigantic frames really, with wires 0:12:45.800 --> 0:12:48.280 attached to the frames and the other end of the 0:12:48.280 --> 0:12:51.840 wires went to the chronograph apparatus and a battery. Each 0:12:51.880 --> 0:12:55.319 frame had two sheets of ten and they were separated 0:12:55.320 --> 0:12:58.320 by a thin layer of building paper and paraffin. So 0:12:58.320 --> 0:13:01.680 when a projectile pierced the sheets. It would bring the 0:13:01.679 --> 0:13:05.160 two layers of tin in contact with one another, and 0:13:05.200 --> 0:13:08.800 this would form a circuit that would allow electric current 0:13:08.840 --> 0:13:12.120 to pass through one wire into the frame, through the 0:13:12.120 --> 0:13:15.160 other wire, and back to the chronograph. The chronograph had 0:13:15.160 --> 0:13:17.280 a metal disc on it, and on top of this 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:21.120 metal disc was a roll of waxed paper tape. It 0:13:21.160 --> 0:13:24.440 was spooled there and it would slowly unwind, or not 0:13:24.520 --> 0:13:27.520 really slowly, but it would unwind and the disc would turn. 0:13:27.920 --> 0:13:30.600 It moves the paper tape. As the disc turns. When 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:33.920 the incoming signal hit the chronograph, it would cause a spark, 0:13:34.200 --> 0:13:37.040 and the spark would make a burn mark on the tape. 0:13:37.520 --> 0:13:40.120 So let's say you're trying to measure the muzzle velocity 0:13:40.200 --> 0:13:43.200 on a particular piece of artillery. You'd started the muzzle 0:13:43.240 --> 0:13:45.920 of the artillery piece. You would measure out of space 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:49.520 that's fifty feet or fifteen point two four meters in 0:13:49.640 --> 0:13:52.800 front of the artillery piece, and that's where you would 0:13:52.840 --> 0:13:55.160 place the first frame. You would stake it down and 0:13:55.400 --> 0:13:57.640 your first frame would be right there. You would then 0:13:57.679 --> 0:14:01.360 measure an additional fifty feet or fifteen point two four 0:14:01.440 --> 0:14:05.000 meters further out from the gun and place the second 0:14:05.040 --> 0:14:08.160 frame in line with the first, So the guns operator 0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:11.160 would aim down the sites at the frame with the 0:14:11.200 --> 0:14:14.240 goal of having the shell passed through both frames through 0:14:14.280 --> 0:14:18.360 its path. So you would fire the gun, the shell 0:14:18.400 --> 0:14:20.920 would fly out at fifty ft, it would hit the 0:14:20.960 --> 0:14:24.160 first frame, it would continue and in another fifty feet 0:14:24.160 --> 0:14:26.760 it would hit the second frame. And each time it 0:14:26.840 --> 0:14:29.960 hits it would create that electrical circuit that would cause 0:14:29.960 --> 0:14:33.360 a spark to burn a spot on the paper tape. 0:14:33.720 --> 0:14:36.080 So then you go back to the chronograph and you 0:14:36.120 --> 0:14:38.960 look at the paper tape, and by knowing how fast 0:14:39.000 --> 0:14:42.280 the paper tape is moving inside the chronograph, you can 0:14:42.280 --> 0:14:44.600 do some math to find out how much time it 0:14:44.640 --> 0:14:47.680 took the shell to pass through each of those frames. 0:14:48.040 --> 0:14:51.160 By knowing the amount of time it took, and knowing 0:14:51.240 --> 0:14:54.520 already that the distance between those two frames is fifty feet, 0:14:54.920 --> 0:14:59.000 you could then measure the shells speed. You'd say, all right, 0:14:59.040 --> 0:15:02.440 it took this amount of time to pass through fifty 0:15:02.480 --> 0:15:05.200 ft worth of space. That gives me the velocity of 0:15:05.240 --> 0:15:10.680 the shell. Loomis's improvement to chronographs was significant. His chronograph 0:15:10.720 --> 0:15:13.640 became a standard piece of testing equipment for both the 0:15:13.760 --> 0:15:17.000 U S Army and the Navy. While working at Aberdeen, 0:15:17.360 --> 0:15:22.880 Loomis became well acquainted with a scientist named Dr Robert W. Wood. 0:15:23.280 --> 0:15:27.240 Wood's specialty, at least starting out, was an optics and 0:15:27.280 --> 0:15:30.680 work with infrared and ultra violet light. He was famous 0:15:30.720 --> 0:15:34.480 for debunking the claims of prosper Rene blonde Lott, who 0:15:34.560 --> 0:15:38.080 had claimed he discovered a form of energy similar to 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:44.040 X rays that he called in rays. While while Wood 0:15:44.120 --> 0:15:47.880 was visiting blonde Lot's lab to witness a demonstration of 0:15:47.920 --> 0:15:52.720 the supposed in rays, he very quietly removed a prism 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:56.480 from blonde Lot's device, and when blonde Lot claimed to 0:15:56.520 --> 0:16:01.680 observe the mysterious energy after activating his machine, Would calmly 0:16:01.760 --> 0:16:05.400 pointed out that the prism, which was supposedly integral to 0:16:05.480 --> 0:16:08.480 the operation of the gadget, wasn't even in it. It 0:16:08.600 --> 0:16:12.520 was absent, and therefore the effects that were supposedly observed 0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:16.760 could not possibly have been there. It's essentially saying, hey, 0:16:16.800 --> 0:16:19.760 I took the batteries out of that device, so therefore 0:16:19.800 --> 0:16:22.200 it could not have work. There was no power source, 0:16:22.240 --> 0:16:26.160 so your claims are invalid. During World War One, would 0:16:26.160 --> 0:16:29.840 began to study the work of another scientist named Paul Langevin, 0:16:30.200 --> 0:16:34.960 who had been using ultrasonic frequencies in an effort to 0:16:35.000 --> 0:16:40.280 create a detection device that could detect submarines, would observed 0:16:40.440 --> 0:16:44.320 that high powered ultrasonic signals would cause bubbles to form 0:16:44.440 --> 0:16:48.600 in a process called cavitation. Those bubbles would grow and 0:16:48.760 --> 0:16:52.760 eventually implode in water, and they would release a tremendous 0:16:52.840 --> 0:16:56.800 amount of heat and pressure in the process. So would 0:16:56.800 --> 0:16:59.600 and Loomis struck up a friendship during this time, and 0:16:59.680 --> 0:17:02.880 Loomis would later become something of a patron for Woods 0:17:02.920 --> 0:17:07.040 continued experimentation in the field of ultrasonic applications. More on that. 0:17:07.080 --> 0:17:10.879 In just a second after World War One, Loomis entered 0:17:10.880 --> 0:17:14.919 the world of finance. He made a tremendous fortune in 0:17:14.920 --> 0:17:18.359 the process. He and his brother in law, Landon Thorn, 0:17:18.640 --> 0:17:22.919 began to cater to companies in the burgeoning electrical power industry, so, 0:17:22.960 --> 0:17:27.800 in other words, they became financiers for public utilities. And 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:31.280 this was during a time of rapid growth in that industry, 0:17:31.320 --> 0:17:35.800 and they earned millions of dollars all in the years 0:17:35.880 --> 0:17:38.520 leading up to the stock market crash of nineteen twenty 0:17:38.640 --> 0:17:41.800 nine and the Great Depression in fact, Loomas even made 0:17:41.920 --> 0:17:46.000 a huge profit while millions of people were finding themselves 0:17:46.000 --> 0:17:48.440 out of work in the process, not in the process, 0:17:48.480 --> 0:17:50.880 but during the Great Depression. It wasn't that the two 0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:55.439 things were directly related. Loomas actually was quite concerned about 0:17:55.600 --> 0:17:58.640 the Great Depression, and he also wasn't really fond of 0:17:59.119 --> 0:18:01.480 the whole cons of of making all this money. He 0:18:01.560 --> 0:18:04.080 was really good at it, but that wasn't really where 0:18:04.080 --> 0:18:07.679 he was focused. He wasn't obsessed with making money. In 0:18:07.800 --> 0:18:12.760 nine Loomis began visiting Robert Wood's home laboratory, which was 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:16.000 inside a barn on Wood's property, and Loomis became a 0:18:16.080 --> 0:18:20.080 frequent visitor. Clearly he was interested in scientific pursuits, and 0:18:20.080 --> 0:18:22.840 he told Dr Wood that he would be willing to 0:18:23.040 --> 0:18:27.480 underwrite scientific experiments if Dr Wood had any projects he'd 0:18:27.520 --> 0:18:30.040 like to tackle that he otherwise would have trouble funding. 0:18:30.320 --> 0:18:34.719 So Dr Wood told Loomis about his ultrasonic experimentation and 0:18:35.040 --> 0:18:37.760 the effects that had on water, and he indicated that 0:18:37.840 --> 0:18:41.879 there could be significant applications in the fields of chemistry, biology, 0:18:41.920 --> 0:18:45.200 and physics. So Loomis thought this was a fascinating idea, 0:18:45.240 --> 0:18:47.000 and he decided to put money behind it. So he 0:18:47.080 --> 0:18:50.120 created a lab at his home and he invited Dr 0:18:50.200 --> 0:18:54.399 Wood to work at this lab. Later, Loomis would purchase 0:18:54.480 --> 0:18:58.679 an enormous estate in nineteen seven in the community of 0:18:58.720 --> 0:19:01.639 Tuxedo Park. He was already living in Tuxedo Park, but 0:19:01.640 --> 0:19:04.440 now he built this or He bought this enormous estate 0:19:04.480 --> 0:19:07.720 called the Trask Estate, and he converted it into his 0:19:07.800 --> 0:19:11.920 own private laboratory. Was space to house scientists who came 0:19:11.960 --> 0:19:15.480 there to do work, so a visiting scientists might find 0:19:15.560 --> 0:19:21.880 himself with a ladging at Loomis's enormous estate. He would 0:19:21.920 --> 0:19:25.240 host various scientists working on all sorts of interesting problems. 0:19:25.280 --> 0:19:29.360 He also hosted some of the world's most famous scientific minds, 0:19:29.359 --> 0:19:32.280 like Albert Einstein, for example. He would get involved in 0:19:32.320 --> 0:19:35.119 these pursuits as well on occasion. Among them were the 0:19:35.200 --> 0:19:38.360 ultrasonic experiments that his friend Dr Would was heading up. 0:19:38.520 --> 0:19:41.280 According to Dr Wood, and I apologize for this next 0:19:41.280 --> 0:19:43.920 bit because it makes me a little nauseated. The two 0:19:44.040 --> 0:19:48.200 used ultrasonic frequencies and tested their effects on numerous fish 0:19:48.240 --> 0:19:51.880 and mice, killing a whole lot of them in the process, 0:19:52.160 --> 0:19:55.520 and trying to determine exactly what the mechanism was that 0:19:55.680 --> 0:20:00.480 was killing the animals charming right, This was in a 0:20:00.480 --> 0:20:05.480 different time anyway. The point is that he was very 0:20:05.560 --> 0:20:09.159 much interested in funding scientific research, and there was a 0:20:09.160 --> 0:20:12.600 lot of work in various fields that would not have 0:20:12.800 --> 0:20:16.320 happened without his support. Now I've got more to say 0:20:16.359 --> 0:20:19.720 about Loomis and his involvement with technology and science, but 0:20:19.800 --> 0:20:21.920 before I go into the next section, let's take another 0:20:22.000 --> 0:20:32.960 quick break to thank our sponsor. When Loomas turned forty three, 0:20:33.000 --> 0:20:36.360 he retired from Wall Street. The Great Depression had hit, 0:20:36.480 --> 0:20:39.480 the stock market had crashed in ninety nine, and Loomis 0:20:39.560 --> 0:20:41.959 didn't care for the political direction the US was taking. 0:20:42.000 --> 0:20:46.080 As FDR spoke out against big business, he began dedicating 0:20:46.160 --> 0:20:48.919 his time and energy to science and tinkering. One of 0:20:49.000 --> 0:20:52.840 Loomis's failures was in the design of a racing yacht 0:20:53.119 --> 0:20:55.480 that competed in the America's Cup. So this is one 0:20:55.520 --> 0:20:57.960 of those times that I have trouble reconciling things, because 0:20:57.960 --> 0:21:00.760 the Great Depression is on. People are out of where. Meanwhile, 0:21:01.000 --> 0:21:04.600 rich people like the Vanderbilts and Loomis are spending huge 0:21:04.600 --> 0:21:08.560 amounts of money to construct racing yachts that have no purpose. 0:21:09.400 --> 0:21:13.159 Other than to race each other. I have a problem 0:21:13.160 --> 0:21:16.439 with that, but anyway, so it was something of a 0:21:16.520 --> 0:21:20.240 custom for stinking rich people to purchase and staff a 0:21:20.400 --> 0:21:23.719 J class yacht at this time for the purposes of 0:21:23.800 --> 0:21:27.520 racing in the prestigious America's Cup race. A J class 0:21:27.600 --> 0:21:31.320 yacht had a single mast and had to follow the 0:21:31.480 --> 0:21:36.399 universal rule, as established by Nathaniel Hairschoff. So what is 0:21:36.440 --> 0:21:40.399 the universal rule? Was actually a formula, and it told 0:21:40.440 --> 0:21:45.080 you the relationship of various parts of a yacht's dimensions, 0:21:45.160 --> 0:21:48.280 and if that relationship all fell within the same zone, 0:21:48.800 --> 0:21:51.840 then two different yachts would be said to belong to 0:21:51.880 --> 0:21:55.080 the same class, even if they were of drastically different 0:21:55.160 --> 0:21:58.280 size and shape. So the formula goes something like this. 0:21:59.200 --> 0:22:01.920 You take the link of the boat, you multiply that 0:22:02.040 --> 0:22:05.520 by the square root of the sale area, and you 0:22:05.600 --> 0:22:09.520 multiply that by point one eight. That number, by the way, 0:22:09.560 --> 0:22:12.119 would change over time, sometimes it was point to but 0:22:12.200 --> 0:22:14.760 point when it's a good rule of thumb. You take 0:22:14.800 --> 0:22:17.440 that product, that whole number that you just got from 0:22:17.480 --> 0:22:20.080 doing what I said, and you divide it by a 0:22:20.280 --> 0:22:24.159 third of the square root of the ship's displacement, Which 0:22:24.240 --> 0:22:28.480 sounds complicated, but the point of this whole thing was 0:22:28.520 --> 0:22:31.760 to determine what was called the rating for the yacht. 0:22:32.200 --> 0:22:35.000 Ratings are measured in units of distance, and if the 0:22:35.080 --> 0:22:38.200 yacht had a rating of between sixty five and seventy 0:22:38.200 --> 0:22:41.960 six feet, it qualified as a J class yacht. The 0:22:42.000 --> 0:22:45.240 system allowed yachts of different sizes and dimensions to potentially 0:22:45.320 --> 0:22:48.520 race against each other as long as those ratings fell 0:22:48.600 --> 0:22:52.120 within the same range. So it's all the different proportions. 0:22:52.160 --> 0:22:54.960 If they matched up properly, you would get the same rating, 0:22:55.040 --> 0:22:58.280 even though they might be a very different sizes. Loomis 0:22:58.400 --> 0:23:01.800 and his business partner Thorn, wanted to use scientific principles 0:23:01.840 --> 0:23:04.600 to create a superior J class yacht. They had in 0:23:04.720 --> 0:23:07.720 mind a system in which all the yachts operations could 0:23:07.800 --> 0:23:12.760 be performed below decks using various winches and controls, and 0:23:13.040 --> 0:23:16.399 the idea was that clearing the decks of people the 0:23:16.440 --> 0:23:20.159 top deck would improve the yachts speed. They worked with 0:23:20.160 --> 0:23:23.479 the m I T. Naval Architecture Department to design and 0:23:23.560 --> 0:23:27.399 build the yacht, paying for the construction themselves. Their yacht 0:23:27.480 --> 0:23:31.000 was called the Whirlwind. It launched in nineteen thirty. It 0:23:31.119 --> 0:23:34.439 was not a success and Ultimately, it was scrapped in 0:23:34.600 --> 0:23:37.720 nineteen thirty five. This I also have a problem with 0:23:37.800 --> 0:23:40.840 to spend that much money on something that lasts five years. 0:23:41.560 --> 0:23:44.720 Loomis and Thorn also made another purchase together. It was 0:23:44.800 --> 0:23:48.520 more than half of Hilton Head. That's an island off 0:23:48.560 --> 0:23:51.640 the coast of South Carolina. At the time, hilton Head 0:23:51.720 --> 0:23:54.600 was undeveloped, and the two used it for their own 0:23:54.720 --> 0:23:59.600 personal recreation, mostly riding around and hunting. Loomis's interests remained 0:23:59.720 --> 0:24:03.760 very He was particularly fascinated with time keeping and consistently 0:24:03.840 --> 0:24:06.000 was on a quest to find more accurate means of 0:24:06.119 --> 0:24:09.680