The Structure of the Atom

New York (1923): Harcourt Brace & Co., 1923. First American Edition . Blue Cloth. Very Good. 314 Pp. First Printing. This Is Andrade's First Book, Originally Published In England In 1923, Intended As An Introduction To Atomic Structure For The "Serious Student". Andrade Was Quain Professor Of Physics At The University Of London 1928-1950, And A Highly Honored Historian Of The Physical Sciences. This Copy Signed By Robert F. Bacher And Dated In April 1925, While Bacher Was A Student. Bacher Later Followed Hans Bethe To Cornell In 1935, Where He Started Doing Experimental Work In Nuclear Physics With Bethe And Left Theoretical Work Behind. He Was Quickly Promoted To Full Professor And Director Of The Laboratory Of Nuclear Studies. Early On, He Had Felt That The United States Needed To Start Doing War Work, And When Lee Dubridge, Head Of The Radiation Lab Working On Radar At Mit, Summoned Him There In 1941, He Went. Then, Late In 1942, Oppenheimer, Who Had Been One Of Bacher's Instructors Earlier At Caltech, Approached Bacher About A New Lab For Nuclear Weapons Work That Was Just Starting Up And The Following Spring Asked Him To Join The Manhattan Project. Bacher Declined Initially, Telling Oppenheimer That What He Needed Was Engineers. Ultimately, When Oppenheimer Made A Commitment To Hiring More Engineers And Made Him Head Of The Experimental Physics Division, Bacher Signed On. From The Beginning, Bacher Was Firmly Opposed To Making Los Alamos A Military Lab And Persuaded Oppenheimer, Who Had Agreed To Take A Commission As Lieutenant Colonel And Had Already Ordered His Uniforms, To Keep It Under Civilian Control, At Least Until They Had Enough Fissionable Material For A Bomb. When The Project Was Reorganized In July 1944 To Speed Work On Implosion, Bacher'S Experimental Physics Division Was Split, And He Was Put In Charge Of The G (For "Gadget," The Code Name For The Bomb) Division. Bacher Personally Escorted The First Bomb To The Test Site In July Of 1945. In 1946 He Was Awarded The President'S Medal For Merit For His Work On The Manhattan Project. Bacher Returned To Cornell, Hoping To Get Back To High-Energy Physics, But The Bomb'S Aftermath Continued To Involve Him. He Felt Strongly That There Should Be Some Sort Of International Control Of Atomic Weapons And Worked Hard On Negotiations With The Soviet Union. He Admitted In His Oral History That This Was Perhaps Idealistic, But Thought That Getting This Technology Out In The Open Might Have Avoided The Subsequent Cold War. When The Atomic Energy Commission Was Established, Bacher Served As The Only Scientist Among Its Members; He Had Tried To Decline The Post But Took It On When He Learned That There Would Be No Scientist At All If He Didn'T Accept. While A Member Of The Aec, He Pushed For The Development Of Nuclear Submarines And Breeder Reactors For Commercial Power. In The Meantime, Lee Dubridge, Now President Of Caltech, Offered Him A Position As Chairman Of The Division Of Physics, Mathematics And Astronomy Or As Just A Professor, Whichever He Preferred. "The Decision I Came To Was A Fateful One And Probably Illustrates A Major Failing In My Makeup," Bacher Said In The Oral History. What He Saw As A Major Failing In His Makeup Was, In Fact, A Superb Talent For Envisioning The Future And Leading The Institute Into It. After Getting A Commitment That The Institute Would Support A Program In High-Energy Physics, Both Theoretical And Experimental, Bacher Arrived In 1949. One Of His First Hires In High-Energy Physics Was Robert Walker, Whom He Had Known At Los Alamos And Cornell. Another Of Bacher'S Early Recruits Was Richard Feynman, Who Was Reportedly Feeling "Unsettled" At Cornell; Bacher Persuaded Him To Sign On At Caltech With A Sabbatical Year In Brazil In Between. Feynman Then Settled In Pasadena In 1951 For The Rest Of His Career. Now, With Feynman And Robert Christy, Who Had Come In 1946, Bacher Felt He Had The Two Most Outstanding Theorists From Los Alamos. Then In 1955 He Also Hired Murray Gell-Mann.