Arthur Holly Compton was an American physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1927 for his 1923 discovery of the Compton effect, which demonstrated the particle nature of electromagnetic radiation.
41 Facts About Arthur Compton
2.
Arthur Compton is known for his leadership over the Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago during the Manhattan Project, and served as chancellor of Washington University in St Louis from 1945 to 1953.
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In 1919, Compton was awarded one of the first two National Research Council Fellowships that allowed students to study abroad.
4.
Arthur Compton chose to go to the University of Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory in England, where he studied the scattering and absorption of gamma rays.
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Arthur Compton used X-rays to investigate ferromagnetism, concluding that it was a result of the alignment of electron spins, and studied cosmic rays, discovering that they were made up principally of positively charged particles.
6.
Arthur Compton oversaw Enrico Fermi's creation of Chicago Pile-1, the first nuclear reactor, which went critical on December 2,1942.
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Arthur Compton was born on September 10,1892, in Wooster, Ohio, the son of Elias and Otelia Catherine Compton, who was named American Mother of the Year in 1939.
8.
Arthur Compton was initially interested in astronomy, and took a photograph of Halley's Comet in 1910.
9.
In June 1916, Arthur Compton married Betty Charity McCloskey, a Wooster classmate and fellow graduate.
10.
In 1919, Arthur Compton was awarded one of the first two National Research Council Fellowships that allowed students to study abroad.
11.
Arthur Compton chose to go to the University of Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory in England.
12.
Thomson, Arthur Compton studied the scattering and absorption of gamma rays.
13.
Arthur Compton observed that the scattered rays were more easily absorbed than the original source.
14.
Arthur Compton's paper concludes by reporting on experiments that verified his derived relation:.
15.
Arthur Compton found that some X-rays experienced no wavelength shift despite being scattered through large angles; in each of these cases the photon failed to eject an electron.
16.
In 1923, Arthur Compton moved to the University of Chicago as professor of physics, a position he would occupy for the next 22 years.
17.
Arthur Compton investigated the effect of X-rays on the sodium and chlorine nuclei in salt.
18.
Arthur Compton used X-rays to investigate ferromagnetism, concluding that it was a result of the alignment of electron spins.
19.
Arthur Compton was intrigued by the possibilities of the research there into fluorescent lamps.
20.
Arthur Compton's report prompted a research program in America that developed it.
21.
Arthur Compton revised his book with the help of Samuel K Allison to produce X-Rays in Theory and Experiment.
22.
Arthur Compton attributed this to the effect of cosmic rays being made up principally of charged particles, rather than photons as Robert Millikan had suggested, with the latitude effect being due to Earth's magnetic field.
23.
Arthur Compton discussed the prospects for uranium enrichment with Harold Urey, spoke with Eugene Wigner about how plutonium might be produced in a nuclear reactor, and with Robert Serber about how the plutonium produced in a reactor might be separated from uranium.
24.
Arthur Compton hoped to achieve a controlled chain reaction by January 1943, and to have a bomb by January 1945.
25.
That month, Arthur Compton gave Robert Oppenheimer responsibility for bomb design.
26.
When labor disputes delayed construction of the Metallurgical Laboratory's new home in the Red Gate Woods, Arthur Compton decided to build Chicago Pile-1, the first nuclear reactor, under the stands at Stagg Field.
27.
Arthur Compton arranged for Mallinckrodt to undertake the purification of uranium ore, and with DuPont to build the plutonium semi-works at Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
28.
Arthur Compton was at the Hanford site in September 1944 to watch the first reactor being brought online.
29.
Arthur Compton was awarded the Medal for Merit for his services to the Manhattan Project.
30.
Arthur Compton retired as chancellor in 1954, but remained on the faculty as Distinguished Service Professor of Natural Philosophy until his retirement from the full-time faculty in 1961.
31.
Arthur Compton was one of a handful of scientists and philosophers to propose a two-stage model of free will.
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In 1931, Arthur Compton championed the idea of human freedom based on quantum indeterminacy, and invented the notion of amplification of microscopic quantum events to bring chance into the macroscopic world.
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From 1948 to 1962, Arthur Compton was an elder of the Second Presbyterian Church in St Louis.
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Arthur Compton set Jesus as the center of his faith in God's eternal plan.
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Arthur Compton once commented that he could see Jesus' spirit at work in the world as an aspect of God alive in men and women.
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Arthur Compton died in Berkeley, California, from a cerebral hemorrhage on March 15,1962.
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Arthur Compton was outlived by his wife and sons.
38.
Arthur Compton is buried in the Wooster Cemetery in Wooster, Ohio.
39.
Arthur Compton received many awards in his lifetime, including the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1927, the Matteucci Gold Medal in 1930, the Royal Society's Hughes Medal and the Franklin Institute's Franklin Medal in 1940.
40.
Arthur Compton invented a more gentle, elongated, and ramped version of the speed bump called the "Holly hump", many of which are on the roads of the Washington University campus.
41.
The Arthur Compton effect is central to the gamma ray detection instruments aboard the observatory.