The photograph was in a large group of pictures from a trip to Sacramento Peak that were taken by a scientist in Marcus O'Day's Laboratory, Jules Aarons; History Office Files, Hanscom AFB, Mass.
2.
For the coronagraph, see HufbauerKarl, “Artificial eclipses: Bernard Lyot and the coronagraph, 1929–1939”, Historical studies in the physical and biological sciences, xxiv (1994), 337–94.
3.
BogdanThomas J., “Donald Menzel and the beginnings of the High Altitude Observatory”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xxxiii (2002), 157–92.
4.
HufbauerKarl, Exploring the Sun: Solar science since Galileo (Baltimore, 1991), 129–35.
5.
Menzel, Autobiography, a 681-page double-spaced typescript (copies have been deposited at the Niels Bohr Library, American Institute of Physics, College Park, Maryland, and the Harvard University Archives), chapter on Sacramento Peak Observatory, 1. See also Menzel's letter to David Bushnell, Air Force historian, 9 August 1962 (History Office Files, Hanscom AFB, Mass).
6.
KojanJohn S., Capt. U.S. Signal Corps, at ISIB, England, to Dr J. A. Fleming, Director, Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institute, 2 May 1944 (Harvard University Archives (henceforth cited as HUA), Menzel Papers, General Correspondence, 1945–50, HUG 4567.5.2), 1945, Folder F. The wartime support for Climax was indirect, coming from the Carnegie Institute's Department of Terrestrial Magnetism.
7.
For the German activities in wartime, see Hufbauer, Exploring the Sun (ref. 4), 120–4.
8.
Memorandum, MenzelD. H., Lt Cdr, USNR, to Op-20-G-4C, subj: Coronagraphs and Ionospheric Studies — Procurement of equipment for, 7 August 1945 (HUA, Menzel Papers, General Correspondence, 1945–50, HUG 4567.5.2), 1945, Folder N. For the outcome, see Walter Orr Roberts, Oral History Interview with David H. DeVorkin, 25–26 July 1983 (henceforth cited as Roberts, “Interview”), Typescript deposited with the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, 63–64.
9.
SapolskyHarvey, Science and the Navy: The history of the Office of Naval Research (Princeton, NJ, 1990). See also Silvan SchweberS., “The mutual embrace of science and the military: ONR and the growth of physics in the United States after World War II”, in MendelsohnEverett (eds), Science, technology and the military (Dordrecht, 1988), i, 3–45.
10.
See DykeH. G., Office of Research and Inventions, Navy Dept, to Donald Menzel, 15 March 1946, with Menzel's proposal attached (HUA, Menzel Papers, General Correspondence, 1945–50, HUG 4567.5.2), 1946, Folder N-R.
This was the study Towards new horizons, which included monographs on future areas for research. For Von Karman, see GornMichael H., The universal man: Theodore von Karman's life in aeronautics (Washington, DC, 1992).
13.
For a summary of the geophysical programs planned and implemented by the Air Force, see LiebowitzRuth P., Air Force geophysics, 1945–1995: Contributions to defense and to the Nation, PL-TR-97-2034, Special Reports, No. 280 (Hanscom AFB, Mass., Geophysics Directorate), 8 April 1997.
14.
As of 1949, the Cambridge Field Station's name was changed to the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories. The headquarters address was 224 Albany St. Until 1963, AFCRL was composed of an Electronic Research Directorate and a Geophysics Research Directorate.
15.
For the post-war V-2 program and O'Day's part in it, see DeVorkinDavid H., Science with a vengeance: How the Military created the US space sciences after World War 11 (New York, 1992).
16.
Some of the key individuals in this group, who were attached mainly to the Air Staff, the Air Materiel Command, or the Air Weather Service, were Lt Gen. Laurence C. Craigie, Gen. Donald Putt, Gen. Donald Yates, Brig. Gen. Tom C. Rives, Col. (later Brig. Gen.) Benjamin Holzman, Col. Oscar Maier, Col. Marcellus Duffy, Col. Albert Trakowski, and Col. Joseph Fletcher.
17.
For some of these connections, see DennisMichael A., “Our first line of defense: Two university laboratories in the postwar American state”, Isis, lxxxv (1994), 427–55.
18.
As of December 1949, the contract budget for O'Day's Upper Air Laboratory ran close to $3.5 million. “Index to Electronic and Geophysical R&D Projects, 31 December 1949”, prepared by MCREE02 Electronic Subdivision, Engineering Division, Air Materiel Command, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio (History Office Files, Hanscom AFB, Mass).
19.
Menzel, Autobiography (ref. 5), typescript copy, chapter on Sac Peak, 1–2. See also Menzel to Bushnell, 9 August 1962. The Air Force officer's allusion to O'Day's “grandiloquent ideas” probably refers to O'Day's belief in the possibility of travel to the Moon, which he enthusiastically advocated; personal communication from Catherine Burke Rice, formerly coordinator for O'Day's rocket experiments, 15 November 2001.
20.
BushnellDavid, The Sacramento Peak Observatory, 1947–1962 (Washington, DC, 1962). In his first chapter, “Origins”, Bushnell covered the progress on siting the new observatory and its instrumentation, but he had very little to say about the personalities, institutions, and politics involved.
21.
Menzel to Bushnell, 9 August 1962 (ref. 5).
22.
Landsberg was an eminent climatologist. For his post-war work with the military, see LiebowitzRuth P., “Post-war military sponsorship of geophysical research: The role of Helmut E. Landsberg, 1946–1954”, Advances in geosciences, ed. by SchröderWilfried (Bremen-Roennebeck, 1990).
23.
Walter Orr Roberts to Donald H. Menzel, 22 January 1952, and Menzel to Roberts, 12 February 1952 (HUA, Harvard College Observatory (HCO), Research Contract Files (Sacramento Peak), UAV 630.280, Box VI).
24.
Report on Fremont Pass Observatory of Harvard University, August 1940 (HUA, HCO, UAV 631.10.2, High Altitude Observatory, Files of Professor Menzel, Box I).
25.
The Proposal, together with drafts of similar material, is in HUA, HCO, UAV 630.280, Astronomical Observatory, Box I. Another copy is at Hanscom AFB, AFRL Research Library, in the Technical Reports Collection.
26.
The two-page summary of the informal conference held on 18 October 1948 is to be found in HUA, HCO, UAV 630.280, Box I.
27.
Marcus O'Day, Biography and list of publications, with autobiographical comments, 17 January 1961 (History Office Files, Hanscom AFB, Mass.), Exhibit III.
28.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Five years at the Radiation Laboratory, reprinted for the 1991 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium, 24, 143, 147.
29.
O'Day, Biography (ref. 27), Exhibits I and III.
30.
For O'Day's program to develop a biaxial solar pointing control and its importance for later space science, see DeVorkin, Science with a vengeance (ref. 15), 221–32.
31.
Menzel to Bushnell, 9 August 1962 (ref. 5).
32.
Documents and some reports from this contract are in Harvard College Observatory, Research Contract Files (Sacramento Peak) (HUA, HCO, UAV 630.280, Astronomical Observatory, Boxes I and II). Some reports are also in the Technical Reports collection at the Air Force Research Library, Hanscom AFB, Mass.
33.
Evans had finished his graduate work just as Roberts was beginning it. He had a position at Mills College and other work before coming to Climax. See Roberts, “Interview” (ref. 8), 20, 37.
34.
RobertsWalter Orr, “Report I, December 1, 1947”, under Contract No. W28–099 ac 364, Section III, b and c (Hanscom AFB, AFRL Research Library, Technical Reports Collection).
35.
The first two observers at the Peak were Rudy Cook, who wrote an informal history of the first days of Sac Peak, and Lee Davis.
36.
Roberts, “Report I, December 1, 1947” (ref. 34).
37.
RobertsWalter Orr, “Special report: Report and inspection and planning trip to preliminary project at Sacramento Peak”, 22 March 1948, 11–14 (Hanscom AFB, AFRL Research Library, Technical Reports Collection).
38.
The record of the RDB's Committee on Geophysical Sciences are located at the National Archives and Records Administration (henceforth NARA), in Record Group 330, Box 20, Folders 226–8.
39.
According to Bushnell, another possible site was the Big Bend area of western Texas to the Sierra Nevada; Bushnell, The Sacramento Peak Observatory (ref. 20), 4.
40.
RobertsWalter Orr, “Special report: A comparative survey of Sacramento Peak and White Mountain as potential coronagraphic sites”, 30 March 1948, 18–20. See also the Special Report by Dr Theodore Dunham, consultant to the High Altitude Observatory, “A comparative survey of the Sacramento Peak area and the White Mountain area from the standpoint of expected seeing conditions”, 20 April 1948, 9, 11–12. Both reports under Contract No. W28–099 ac 364 (HUA, UAV 630.280, Box II, and Hanscom AFB, AFRL Research Library, Technical Reports Collection). See also Bushnell, The Sacramento Peak Observatory (ref. 20), 5–7.
41.
Documents and reports from AF Contract No. 19–122 ac 17 are in the HCO Research Contract Files (Sacramento Peak) (HUA, UAV 630.280, Boxes I-VI). Some of the contract reports are also at Hanscom AFB, AFRL Research Library, in the Technical Reports collection.
42.
The final contract report written under the preliminary contract, W28–099 ac 364, is dated 1 August 1948 (HUA, UAV 630.280, Box I).
See, for example, the lengthy memorandum from Dr Donald H. Menzel and Dr Walter Orr Roberts to Dr Marcus O'Day, subject: Separation of contracted obligation on AMC Contract W19–122 ac 17 and ONR Contract N8onr 64801, 23 January 1950 (HUA, UAV 630.280, Box III).
46.
See the heated and unresolved debate in 1949 in the RDB Committee on Geophysics and Geography's Panel on the Atmosphere over which service should be assigned these programs (NARA, Records Group 330, Box 72, Folder 108).
47.
For the documents on this episode, see NARA, Records Group 330, Box 113, Folder 112 GG.
48.
Memo, Menzel and Roberts to O'Day, subject: Curtailment of activity relating to Upper Air Research Station at Sacrament Peak, New Mexico, 23 November 1949 (HUA, UAV 630. 180, Box I, Folder marked “Curtailment Report”).
Menzel's correspondence with Odium runs through his General Correspondence, 1945–52, by year in folders covering the letter O. Menzel and his wife visited the Cochran-Odlum Ranch in California at least once or twice.
51.
The correspondence is in HUA, Menzel, General Correspondence, 1945–1950, HUG 4567.5.2, Box for 1949, N-Z, Folder N-O. For the final letter on this matter, see Menzel to Odium, 18 January 1950, in General Correspondence, HUG 4567.5.2, Box for 1950, J-Z, Folder M-R.
52.
Harvard University, “Final report for the operation of a solar observatory at Sacramento Peak, New Mexico” (henceforth cited as “Final report”), under ARDC Contract AF 19(604)-146, 22 December 1958, 3–7 (History Office Files, Hanscom AFB).
53.
Report III, 1 June 1948, 11. See also the Revised Master Plan for the AMC V-2 Rocket Firing (Round #41, 24 March 1949), “Descriptions of experiments”, 23–24; and the request for Field Test (including the Master Plan, V-2 Rocket No. 32 with Blossom IC-C), 1 August 1949, 4, 5, 21, in Hanscom AFB, AFRL Research Library, Historical Section.
54.
“Review by Donald H. Menzel of the history of the Loyalty Hearings (1950)” and the large transcript of the hearing, with Menzel's corrections to the transcript, and testimonial statements: HUA, Menzel Papers, Military Correspondence, 1941–1975, HUG 4567.35. Thomas Bogdan has retrieved Menzel's extensive correspondence relating to the hearings, together with official letters and related documents, from Menzel's papers in the archives at the University of Denver.
55.
LukensJohn F., Executive Secretary of the Air Force Central Loyalty-Security Board, to Donald H. Menzel, 6 April 1950, and Lukens to Menzel, 11 January 1951; documents courtesy of Thomas Bogdan.
56.
E-mail communication from Thomas Bogdan, 7 November 2001.
57.
Roberts, “Interview” (ref. 8), 82. A 1945 letter of Menzel's shows him extremely concerned about the unauthorized release of some solar data that the military had classified as part of the war effort. See Menzel's correspondence with Charles Federer, editor of Sky & telescope, in February–March 1945 (HUA, Menzel Papers, General Correspondence, 1945–50, HUG 4567.5.2, 1945, Folder F).
58.
Marcus O'Day was aware of the accusations but apparently had no involvement in the proceedings. See Roberts, “Interview” (ref. 8), 82.
59.
Bushneil, The Sacramento Peak Observatory (ref. 20), 8.
60.
Personal communication from Catherine Rice, 15 November 2001.
61.
Bushnell, The Sacramento Peak Observatory (ref. 20), 7–8.
62.
Harvard University, “Final report” under ARDC Contract AF19(604)-146, 22 December 1958 (History Office Files, Hanscom AFB), 8.
63.
Aarons had been working under Menzel on a study for his master's degree in physics at Boston University. He went on to get his doctorate from the Sorbonne. Then he returned to AFCRL and became an authority on trans-ionospheric propagation.
64.
AaronsJules, Oral History Interview with David DeVorkin, 12 December 1983, deposited in National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, 1–6.
65.
Bushnell, The Sacramento Peak Observatory (ref. 20), 44–48. The director of the program in Texas was Dr Alan Maxwell.
66.
Menzel, December 1947Proposal, 35–39, in HUA, UAV 630.280, Box I.
67.
Bushnell, The Sacramento Peak Observatory (ref. 20), 11–13.
68.
Bushnell, The Sacramento Peak Observatory (ref. 20), 34, 38–39.
69.
The main research contract with the Harvard College Observatory, which had started already in 1951 and ran until 1958, was the Air Research and Development Command Contract AF 19(604)-146. Reports from this contract are in HUA, HCO, Research Contract Files, UAV 630.280, Boxes VII-XII. Menzel's later contracts carried the numbers AF19 (604)-1394, 4961, and 4962.
70.
For a discussion of Menzel and Whipple's military funding in the 1950s in its Harvard context, see DoelRon, Solar system astronomy in America: Communities, patronage, and interdisciplinary research, 1920–1960 (Cambridge, 1996), 198–209.
71.
The Final Report on ARDC Contract W19–122 ac 17 was dated 29 May 1953 (HUA, UAV 630.280, Box IV).
72.
Interview with Dr Milton Greenberg, formerly GRD Director (mid-1950s), 31 October 1986.
73.
Conference on Solar-Terrestrial Relationships, GRD, AFCRC, 5–6 April 1954. The typed transcript of the meeting is in the History Office Files, Hanscom AFB.
74.
Bushnell, The Sacramento Peak Observatory (ref. 20), 51–52.
75.
Bushnell, The Sacramento Peak Observatory (ref. 20), 67–70. See also AFCRL, “Vacuum Telescope Solar Observatory”, Planning Booklet, Project 7649 [undated, about 1963], History Office Files, Hanscom AFB.
76.
Menzel was a Harvard representative on the AURA Organizing Committee; EdmondsonFrank K., AURA and its US National Observatories (Cambridge and New York, 1997), 73–74, 78.
