MILLIKAN, Robert Andrews The Autobiography of Robert A. Millikan. New York: Prentice Hall, Inc. 1950.
8vo. Publisher's blue cloth titles in gilt to spine; pp. 334, 3, black and white photograph plates; wrapper slightly rubbed to front hinge, otherwise very good indeed.
First edition, presentation copy to a colleague.
In the present volume Robert Millikan provides "…valuable accounts of his childhood and education, work on the electric charge and the photoeffect, and the involvement in the mobilization of science during World War I; curiously, he devoted little space to his research in hot spark spectra or cosmic rays…" [D.S.B.]. This is surprising because it was he who coined the term "cosmic rays" and determined their source. He had plenty of other ground to cover in his account of his career, though. He was a hugely influential researcher, his work on the charge of the electron and the photoelectric effect winning him the 1923 Nobel Prize for physics and providing conclusive proof of the particulate nature of electrons and atoms. He was also a skilled administrator, helping to establish Caltech as one of the country's leading academic centres, and a renowned educator and advocate for science in the public sphere. During a period which saw great debate about the teaching of science and creationism - culminating in the high-profile Scopes trial - Millikan was also a spokesperson for the reconciliation of science and religion. His 1926-27 Terry Lectures at Yale, printed as Evolution in Science and Religion, promoted a theist theory of evolution and revealed the Christian convictions of this pioneer of particle physics.
Provenance: front free endpaper inscribed by the author to Patricia McCune, with McCune's bookplate to front pastedown. There is very little information about the recipient but she may have been the Patricia McCune acknowledged for her help with the manuscript of the paper "Infrared Spectrophotometry Of Three Seyfert Galaxies And 3C 273" ( The Astrophysical Journal 245:818-828, 1981 May 1), which was co-written by Caltech researchers.
SKU: 2125147