On this date in 1887, Alfred Lee Loomis was born in Manhattan, New York. During WWI he invented the first instrument able to accurately measure the muzzle velocity of artillery shells and portable enough to be carried on the battlefield. Prudent investing led him to become quite wealthy during and after the Great Depression and he used his wealth to found a private laboratory which led to his collaboration with a range of significant physicists. In the image, you can see him to the far right with Ernest O. Lawrence, Arthur H. Compton, Vannevar Bush, James B. Conant, and Karl T. Compton during a planning meeting for the construction of Lawrence's 184-inch cyclotron at UC-Berkeley. (Image credit: DOE)
