The 1930s Science and Technology: Headline Makers

Ruth Benedict
Richard E. Byrd
Amelia Earhart
Philo T. Farnsworth
#Theodore_von_Kármán
Robert A. Millikan
Harold C. Urey
John von Neumann

Ruth Benedict (1887–1948) Anthropologist Ruth Benedict attended Vassar College and graduated in 1909, entering Columbia's Ph.D. program in 1921. Through her work she campaigned for women's rights and against racism. She was an early advocate of the idea that what is unacceptable in one culture might be acceptable in another. Such views made her a controversial figure in the 1930s. But her work on the differences between cultures was a major influence on anthropology, political thought, and cultural studies in the decades that followed.

Richard E. Byrd (1888–1957) After retiring through injury from active service in the U.S. Navy, Richard E. Byrd pursued his interest in exploration. In 1926 he flew to the North Pole, but in the 1930s switched his attention to the Antarctic. Admiral Byrd flew many times to the South Pole, bringing equipment to teams stationed there and providing better living conditions. His flights also began the process of surveying Antarctica. One of the ironies of Byrd's achievements is that by bringing technology to the continent, they helped bring an end to the era of the great explorers.

Amelia Earhart (1897–1937) Amelia Earhart grew up in a well-off Kansas family and first took to the air in 1920 on a pleasure trip. In October 1922, she set her first record, reaching 14,000 feet without wearing an oxygen mask. By the late 1920s the public knew her as "Lady Lindy," a name that stuck when she matched Charles Lindbergh's solo crossing of the Atlantic in 1932. After setting a series of records she disappeared in 1937 while crossing the Pacific. Earhart saw aviation as an arena where men and women could be equal. She succeeded in becoming one of its greatest pioneers.

Philo T. Farnsworth (1906–1971) Often overlooked in the history of television, Philo T. Farnsworth is one of its most important developers. A student at Brigham Young University at the age of sixteen, he soon after designed a system for transmitting moving pictures over the airwaves. He transmitted his first television picture in 1927. Farnsworth was dogged by legal battles with RCA, his major competitor. They finally settled on a joint patent for television, and Farnsworth shared RCA's profits on the system. He was one of the last great independent inventors, holding more than 135 patents in television and other areas.

Theodore von Kármán (1881–1963) Born in Budapest, Hungary, Theodore von Kármán immigrated to California in 1929, where he worked as an aeronautical engineer. He was a key figure in making California the center of the American aviation industry. The Kármán law of turbulence influenced the distinctive shape of the Douglas DC-3 airliner. A teacher at the California Institute of Technology, Kármán managed to have a major influence in all areas of aeronautics. His interest in rocketry earned him membership of what was known at Caltech as the "Suicide Club." But the risks he took with experimental rockets laid the foundation for the space programs of the 1960s.

Robert A. Millikan (1868–1953) In 1923 Robert A. Millikan received the Nobel Prize in physics for his work on Albert Einstein's quantum theory. But his influence on American science was also as an administrator. Under his guidance, Throop College of Technology in Pasadena was renamed the California Institute of Technology. By the 1930s, the name "Caltech" had become a byword for American scientific research. Millikan continued teaching and researching, building Caltech into a world-class institution. He also worked hard to convince the American public of the importance of science.

Harold C. Urey (1893–1981) Harold C. Urey majored in biology at the University of Montana. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1921, after just two years of study. He received the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1934 for the discovery of Deuterium, or "heavy water," used in developing the atomic bomb. After the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Urey campaigned for the control of nuclear power. He was known as a generous man, devoting a great deal of time to his graduate students and loaning money to other scientists to help with their research.

John von Neumann (1903–1957) Born in Hungary, John von Neumann received his Ph.D. in mathematics from Budapest University at the age of twenty-three. He made contributions in a huge number of fields, including chemical engineering, quantum physics, mathematics, economics, logic, and computing. His work on game theory, which describes decision-making processes, remains influential in the twenty-first century. In the 1940s he worked on the atomic bomb and became a member of the Atomic Energy Commission in 1954.