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Charlie Townes was a really great man. I remember how he used to somewhat regularly show up to the undergrad physics seminar 5 minutes late, grab a slice of piz
by cshimmin 12y ago
Charlie Townes was a really great man. I remember how he used to somewhat regularly show up to the undergrad physics seminar 5 minutes late, grab a slice of pizza, and then leave 5 minutes later. At ~92 years old, nobody could do anything but smile! One time a seminar speaker, bemused by his sudden appearance then disappearance, decided to share with us a cool anecdote:
Back during WWII, Townes was working on Radar navigation tech for bombers. He and another scientist were sitting in the back of a military plane, doing experiments off the cost of Florida or someplace. They had finished their measurements and told the pilot to turn around and head home. They were continuing to play around with their toys when they realized that, according to their radar, they were heading _away_ from the coast.
The two scientists went up to the cockpit, claiming there had been a navigation error, insisting they must turn around. The pilot must have been crazy to listen to these two geeks, frantically trying to explain radar (which basically didn't exist yet!), but eventually agreed. If they hadn't turned around, that plane would have run out of fuel and crashed somewhere over the Atlantic. In that world, perhaps the laser still would not have been invented!
- tmuir 12y ago>In that world, perhaps the laser still would not have been invented! Actually, the maser/laser is one of those innovations that had multiple independent developers, at multiple points of it's development. Various components can be attributed to different people, but the true "Inventor of the Laser" is somewhat murky and disputed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser#History http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser#History
- cshimmin 12y agoFair enough! It's always interesting to hear these cases of ideas that must have been in the air. I've heard it said that if Einstein got hit by a bus, Lorentz (or someone) probably would have gotten Special Relativity wrapped up eventually, but that perhaps nobody else would have come up with General Relativity even yet.
- adamio 12y agoI'm not familiar with plane tech, but wouldn't the pilot have a compass?
- visakanv 12y agoSounds like he had lived an amazing, rich, full life. May we all be half as fortunate (and hardworking!)
- mark_l_watson 12y agoGreat story. I remember him, a little, from my childhood (my Dad was in the physics department at Berkeley with him, and a friend). He was an amazing inventor, including an idea for a contact lens vending machine. Really a creative guy.