Percy Williams Bridgman

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Percy Williams Bridgman, 1946

Percy Williams Bridgman (born April 21, 1882 in Cambridge , Massachusetts , † August 20, 1961 in Randolph , New Hampshire ) was an American physicist. Bridgman received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1946 for his work in the field of high pressure physics.

He is also known for his studies of electrical conductivity in metals and the properties of crystals. He has also written works on the philosophy of modern science, specifically operationalism .

Life

Bridgman was born in Cambridge , Massachusetts . He went to school in the nearby town of Newton . He began studying physics at Harvard University in 1900 .

From 1905 he began his research, with which he investigated the effects of high pressure on materials and their thermodynamic behavior. Due to a malfunction, he changed his printing apparatus with the result that he invented a new device that allowed him to produce pressures in excess of 10 GPa. Until then, only pressures of up to 0.3 GPa ( Giga - Pascal ) could be achieved. A wealth of new research has been carried out with this new apparatus, including the effects of pressure on compressibility, electrical resistance, thermal conductivity, tensile strength and viscosity of various materials.

In 1908 he received his doctorate in physics from Harvard University. Here he spent his professional career until 1954. From 1910 he taught at Harvard University, from 1913 as an assistant professor, from 1919 he was a professor until he was 1926 Hollis professor of mathematics and natural philosophy . From 1950 he was there Higgins University professor .

In 1954 he retired.

In 1946 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics: "For the invention of an apparatus for generating extremely high pressure and for the discoveries he made with it in the field of high-pressure physics".

He is the inventor of two processes for the production of single crystals ( crystal growth ): the horizontal Bridgman process (HB) and the vertical Bridgman process (VB). In both processes, material is moved horizontally or vertically through a heating furnace in a boat or an ampoule. The material is melted and crystallizes again when it cools down. By controlling the cooling, single crystals can be produced. A further development of the vertical process by Donald C. Stockbarger is known as the Bridgman-Stockbarger method , which uses a multi-zone oven with different temperature zones.

Suffering from Paget's bone disease, he committed suicide on August 20, 1961 by being shot in the head. Before that he left behind the words often quoted in ethical literature: "It is not appropriate if a society forces you to do this yourself. Perhaps today is the last day on which I will be able to do this myself."

Bridgman was a major influence on Robert Oppenheimer , who studied at Harvard University. Bridgman married Olive Ware in 1912. Their daughter Jane was born in 1914, their son Robert in 1915. He was friends with BF Skinner , the most prominent proponent of radical behaviorism .

Honors and memberships

In addition to the Nobel Prize, Bridgman received numerous other scientific awards:

  • the Rumford Medal from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
  • the Franklin Institute's Cresson Medal
  • the Roozeboom Medal of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences
  • the Comstock Prize in Physics from the National Academy of Sciences (1933)
  • and the New York Award from Research Corporation.

Bridgman has also been awarded several honorary doctorates: Stevens Institute of Technology (1934), Harvard (1939), Brooklyn Polytechnic (1941), Princeton (1950), Sorbonne (Paris, 1950) and Yale (1951).

In 1942 he was president of the American Physical Society . In 1912 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 1916 to the American Philosophical Society . From 1918 he was a member of the National Academy of Sciences . He was a foreign member of the Royal Society and an honorary member of the Physical Society (London).

The Bridgman Award is presented in his memory . In addition, Mount Bridgman in Antarctica and the lunar crater Bridgman bear his name.

Since 2014, the most abundant mineral on earth with a volume share of around 38% has been named bridgmanite , which only forms under extreme pressure conditions and therefore usually in inaccessible depths after it was isolated and analyzed for the first time from a natural source.

Works

  • PW Bridgman: Dimensional Analysis . Revised. AMS Press, Inc., 1931, ISBN 0-404-14774-7 .
    • PW Bridgman: Theory of Physical Dimensions: Considerations of Similarity in Physics . Revised. Teubner, Leipzig 1932.
  • PW Bridgman: The Logic of Modern Physics . The Macmillan Company, New York 1927 ( excerpt ).
    • PW Bridgman: The Logic of Today's Physics . Hueber, Munich 1932.
  • PW Bridgman: The Physics of High Pressure . G. Bell, London 1931.
  • PW Bridgman: The Thermodynamics of Electrical Phenomena in Metals . 1934.
  • PW Bridgman: The Nature of Physical Theory . 1936.
  • PW Bridgman: The Intelligent Individual and Society . 1938.
  • PW Bridgman: Nature of Thermodynamics . 1941.
  • PW Bridgman: Reflections of a Physicist . 1955.
  • PW Bridgman: The Way Things Are . 1961.

literature

For literature on operationalism see there.
  • Maila L. Walter: Science and cultural crisis: an intellectual biography of Percy Williams Bridgman (1882–1961) , Stanford University Press, Stanford 1990, ISBN 0-8047-1796-6 .
  • Paul F McMillan: Pressing on: the legacy of Percy W. Bridgman. . In: Nature materials . 4, No. 10, 2005 Oct, pp. 715-8. doi : 10.1038 / nmat1488 . PMID 16195758 .

Web links

Commons : Percy Bridgman  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Klaus-Thomas Wilke, Joachim Bohm: crystal growth . Harri Deutsch Verlag, 1988, ISBN 3-87144-971-7 , pp. 655 ff .
  2. ↑ "It isn't decent for society to make a man do this thing himself. Probably this is the last day I will be able to do it myself.", Quoted here. n. Kemble / Birch 1970, 48; Walter 1990, 308. Eg also cited by Hugo Tristram Engelhardt : The foundations of bioethics , Oxford University Press, Oxford 1996, 349; Sissela Bok: Euthanasia , in: Gerald Dworkin , Raymond Gillespie Frey, Sissela Bok (eds.): Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide , Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1998, 107–127, here 111; David Lester: Suizid , in: Wilhelm Heitmeyer / John Hagan (ed.): International Handbook of Violence Research , Westdeutscher Verlag, Wiesbaden 2002, 942–957, here 943.
  3. ^ Member History: Percy Williams Bridgman. American Philosophical Society, accessed May 20, 2018 .
  4. ^ Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature
personal data
SURNAME Bridgman, Percy Williams
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American physicist, Nobel Prize winner
DATE OF BIRTH April 21, 1882
PLACE OF BIRTH Cambridge , Massachusetts
DATE OF DEATH August 20, 1961
Place of death Randolph , New Hampshire