Robert Van de Graaff's three older brothers made the family name famous in football, and it seemed that Robert was also headed toward being a sports star. Unfortunately, his football career was cut short by an injury. However, it is interesting to note that principles involved in his most memorable invention have some remarkable analogs in that sport. Few details of Robert's early life have heretofore been published. The purpose of this paper, during the 75th anniversary year of the invention of the Van de Graaff generator, is to provide some of this interesting historical background.
REFERENCES
1.
Jim Young, “Open House with Robert Jemison Van de Graaff,” 124th AAPT National Meeting (Philadelphia, Winter 2002).
2.
Robert O.
Mellown
, “Jemison Mansion and Longwood
,” and Camille Maxwell Elebash, “Jemison Mansion family histories,” Alabama Heritage
26
, 24
–34
35
–43
(Fall 1992
).3.
Winston Groom, The Crimson Tide: An Illustrated History of Football at the University of Alabama (The University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa & London, 2000), p. 21. Many parallels may be made of the Van de Graaff family history to Groom's more famous fictional work, Forrest Gump.
4.
Anthology of documents on Robert Jemison Van de Graaff (unpublished, Jemison-Van de Graaff Mansion, Tuscaloosa, AL).
5.
Interviews with Tee's sons, William and John Van de Graaff, and friend L. Worth Seagondollar.
6.
E. Alfred
Burrill
, “Van de Graaff, the man and his accelerators
,” Phys. Today
20
, 49
–52
(Feb. 1967
).7.
R. J.
Van de Graaff
, K. T.
Compton
, and L. C.
Van Atta
, “The electrostatic production of high voltage for nuclear investigations
.” Phys. Rev.
43
(3
), 149
–157
(1933
).8.
R.J.Van de Graaff, Electrostatic Generator (U.S. Patent-Trade Office, #1,991,236, Feb. 12, 1935).
9.
Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Vol. XIII, edited by Charles Coulston Gillispie (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1976), pp. 445–447.
10.
Ernest
Rutherford
, “Address of the President, Sir Ernest Rutherford, O.M., at the Anniversary Meeting, November 30, 1927
,” Proc. R. Soc. London, Ser. A
117
(777
), 300
–316
(1928
).11.
12.
John Gray, Electrical Influence Machines (Whittaker & Co., London, 1890), Part I, Chap. 5. In his first paper on the generator in the 1933 Physical Review, Van de Graaff referenced this book, which discussed numerous electrostatic generating devices in detail.
13.
J. D.
Cockcroft
and E. T. S.
Walton
, “Experiments with high velocity positive ions II. The disintegration of elements by high velocity protons
,” Proc. R. Soc., Ser. A
,137
, 229
–243
(1932
).14.
Mark M.
Payne
, “Electric fields and football fields
,” Phys. Teach.
28
, 563
(Nov. 1990
).15.
“Proceedings of the American Physical Society, Minutes of the Schenectady Meeting, September 10, 11 and 12,” Phys. Rev. 38, 1915–1923, esp. 1919–1920 (1931).
16.
L. C.
Van Atta
, D. L.
Northrup
, C. M.
Van Atta
, and R. J.
Van de Graaff
, “The design, operation, and performance of the Round Hill Electrostatic Generator
,” Phys. Rev.
49
, 761
–776
(1936
).17.
Leonard
Rubin
and John
Poate
, “Ion implantation in silicon technology
,” Industrial Physicist
10
(3
), 12
–15
(2003
).18.
Peter
Rose
, “In Memoriam: Robert Jemison Van de Graaff
,” Nucl. Instrum. Methods
60
, 1
–3
(1968
).19.
Paolo
Brenni
, “The Van de Graaff Generator: An electrostatic machine for the 20th century
,” Bull. Sci. Instrum. Soc.
63
, 6
–13
(1999
).
This content is only available via PDF.
© 2004 American Association of Physics Teachers.
2004
American Association of Physics Teachers
AAPT members receive access to The Physics Teacher and the American Journal of Physics as a member benefit. To learn more about this member benefit and becoming an AAPT member, visit the Joining AAPT page.