James Van Allen: The First Eight Billion Miles

Notes

Notes Quotes from interviews with the author are generally not cited in the chapter notes below. Clarity necessitated some exceptions. A complete list of interview sources and dates is included in the bibliography. The transfer of papers from his office to the existing James A. Van Allen Papers and Related Collections at the University of Iowa Special Collections was still underway as this book went to publication. This applies to any documents cited as “Van Allen office papers.” The author recommends inquiry at Special Collections and University Archives. University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City, to check for documents in the future. Documents cited as “Van Allen family papers” are in family collections. Introduction “Thecosmicrayceiling”:JamesVanAllen,“ExploratoryCosmicRayObservations at High Altitude by Means of Rockets,” Sky and Telescope 7 (1948): 171–175. 1. Frontier Roots “If you would have your machine”: George Clinton Van Allen, February 24, 1848 journal entry, Van Allen family papers. “One term was all that I dared hope”: George Clinton Van Allen, 1851–1852 journal , “Introduction,” September 10, 1851. “Getting lazy”: journal, October 1, 1851. “The same routine of study”: journal, September 12, 1851. “The Lord’s presence”: letter, September 2, 1851. “O! God, parent of all good”: journal, September 25, 1851. “I have $2.55 and Mart has 38 cents”: letter, September 2, 1851. “It cost me about $10,”: George Van Allen, undated letter. “I have let him have control”: Martin Van Allen, undated letter. Van Allen left home before dawn: journal, December 26, 1851. “I am afraid if I go home”: journal, June 2, 1853. “You will shorten your life”: George Van Allen, undated letter. “Sarah too feared the trap”: George Van Allen, letter, October 24, 1853. “One of my little girls”: George Van Allen, letter, January 1, 1854. “He returned to Falley”: Henry County Biographical Review. Chicago: Hobart, 1906, 16. “The building boom”: George Van Allen, letter, May 23, 1856. “The disaster”: Henry County Biographical Review. Nearthecountycourthouse:PortraitandBiographicalAlbum,HenryCounty,Iowa, Chicago: Acme Publishing, 1888. “One of the novel improvements”: Mount Pleasant Daily News, July 26, 1886. “Standardized title search procedures”: Alfred Van Allen, journal, undated inserted typewritten essay, Van Allen family papers. “Some fishermen hang out the hook”: George Van Allen, letter, October 1992. “The ring rule”: Mount Pleasant Daily News, September 20, 1897. “Mr. AMVA called me”: Alma Olney journal, January 19, 1907, Van Allen family papers. 2. Heartland Boyhood The girls of Phi Mu sorority: Alfred Van Allen journal, May 29, 1923. “George furnished two small cedar trees”: Alfred Van Allen journal, typed insert. “Exactly in the center”: James Van Allen, elementary school notebook at the Van Allen House Heritage Center, Mount Pleasant, Iowa. “There was much beating of the bushes for students”: Thomas Poulter, unpublished memoir, Van Allen office papers. “Sardines . . . Little America lived, ate”: C. J. V. Murphy account of Byrd rescue, “Night Journey,” chapter in Richard Byrd, Discovery, The Story of the Second Antarctic Expedition, New York: G. P. Putnam Sons, 1935, 217. “Please don’t ask me crank”: Ibid., 236. “Come on down”: Ibid., 237. 3. The Making of a Scientist “A sedate game of croquet”: Stow Persons, The University of Iowa in the Twentieth Century, Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 23. McLean revamped: Ibid., 26. Alexander Ellett came on board . . . “Atoms à la Bohr”: James Wells, Annals of a University of Iowa Department: From Natural History to Physics and Astronomy, Iowa City: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Iowa Publication 80-19, 1980, 119. But he brought luster to the physics department . . . multidisciplinary themes such as “Physics and Society”: Ibid., 124. “He took me on . . . a purchase order”: James Van Allen interview with David De Vorkin, and Allan Needell, February-August, 1981, Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum, The Space Astronomy Oral History Project, transcript, 70. “There are 21 students in the physics class”: Van Allen office papers. He“foundthatthetrend...reactionchamberwasfaulty”:JamesVanAllen,“What Is a Space Scientist?” Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, June 1989, reprinted in The James A. Van Allen Papers and Related Collections, Iowa City: University of Iowa Archives, 1993, 19. “My appointment”: Van Allen office papers. While the “young Turks” at DTM: James Van Allen, editor, Cosmic Rays, the Sun and Geomagnetism: The Works of Scott E. Forbush, Washington, D.C.: American Geophysical Union, 1993, viii. 278 Notes to Pages 19–47 “Passionate and solitary”: Ibid., viii. “He regarded the old timers”: Ibid., viii. Millikan found that he: William Pickering, draft of a speech in celebration of the seventy-fifth anniversary...