Walker Bleakney Papers

Bleakney, Walker (1901-1992)

Walker Bleakney was a renowned physicist known for his contributions to the fields of atomic physics, molecular physics, and fluid dynamics; his research on the ionization of gases; and his study of blast waves. Born in Elderton, Pa., Bleakney earned his BS degree at Whitman College in 1924 and his PHD at the University of Minnesota in 1930. After working for two years at Princeton as a National Research Fellow, he joined the faculty as an instructor in 1932. Promoted to assistant professor in 1935, he became associate professor in 1938 and professor in 1944. Bleakney was named Cyrus Fogg Brackett Professor of Physics in 1953 and Class of 1909 Professor 10 years later. From 1960 to 1967, he chaired the Department of Physics.

Author of many technical reports, Bleakney was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1959 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1963. During and immediately after World War II, he served with the National Defense Research Committee, the Office of Scientific Research and Development, the National Research Council, and as a consultant to the Army, the Navy, and the Atomic Energy Commission. He was the head of the Princeton Ballistic Project. His research covered various fields of physics, including shock waves, atomic scattering, and nuclear phenomena. He died in 1992.

Princeton University. Dept. of Physics.

This collection contains documents dating from 1909, when the Physics Department was associated with the Engineering School, although the study of physics at Princeton University can be traced to the arrival of Professor of Natural Philosophy Joseph Henry in 1832. Under the leadership of Chairman William F. Magie (1908-1929), the Department gained independence from the Engineering School and increased its faculty to include noted professors such as Henry D. Smyth, Allen G. Shenstone, and Louis A. Turner. The Department became an international center for theoretical physics when Eugene P. Wigner and John von Neumann joined the faculty and when the University's association with the Institute for Advanced Study began in 1930. During the 1930s, the Department began to conduct research in the field of nuclear physics under Milton G. White and convinced the University to build a cyclotron in Palmer Laboratory. During World War II, most of the Physics Department faculty engaged in the war effort by joining the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Radiation Laboratory, becoming involved in the top-secret development of the atomic bomb, and teaching physics to servicemen who trained in Princeton. With the Nazi persecutions in Europe, eminent physicists such as Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, and Rudolf Ladenburg immigrated to the United States and became members of the Institute for Advanced Study, where they maintained close ties with Princeton's Physics Department. During the post-war years, the Department turned its attention back to theoretical physics and continued to expand its research with the help of generous government grants.

Consists of papers of Bleakney, Princeton professor of physics (1932-1969) and chairman of the physics department (1960-1967). Included are published and unpublished reports, drafts of articles, graphic data and photographs of experiments, and other material concerning Bleakney's defense-related research on shock waves at the Princeton Gas Dynamics Laboratory, as well as lecture notes and correspondence. Additions to the papers include personal and general correspondence, reports, research papers, Bleakney's notes while at the University of Minnesota, Princeton University lectures and notes for classes, and correspondence related to his involvement in various research and defense organizations, such as the National Defense Research Committee, the National Research Council, Sandia Corporation, the Atomic Energy Commission, and the Office of Naval Research.

Transferred from Mudd Library in 1990-1991.

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Preferred Citation

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Walker Bleakney Papers, Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Publisher

Manuscripts Division

Date

2002

Creator

Bleakney, Walker (1901-1992)

Subject

Nuclear energy -- United States

Physics -- Study and teaching -- New Jersey -- Princeton -- 20th century

Shock waves -- Research -- New Jersey -- Princeton -- 20th century

World War, 1939-1945 -- Science

Organization

U.S. Atomic Energy Commission.

United States. Office of Naval Research

Sandia Corporation

National Research Council U.S.

Princeton University. Dept. of Physics.

Princeton University. Gas Dynamics Laboratory

Occupation

Physicists -- New Jersey -- Princeton

Language

English

Form

Correspondence

faculty papers

Graphs

Lectures

Photographs, Original

Reports