Measures for Progress: A History of the National Bureau of Standards

BUiLDING AND HOUSING 249
Although it was entirely outside the scope of the division, Stratton
allowed Foote and Mohier remarkable freedom (though no funds) to pursue
this atomic research. Their studies—described in the annual report of 1918
as "investigations in electronics" 83—in experimental phenomena of the
quantum theory of spectra, that is, the excitation and ionization potentials of
simple molecules and photoio'nization of alkali vapors, culminated in their
book published in 1922, The Origin o'f Spectra, a survey of recent experi-
mentatiOn in atomic physics as related to atomic theory.
The year the book came out, Stratton set up an atomic physics sec-
tion, consisting of Foote and Mohier, in the optics division, where it remained
until after World War 11.84 All through the 1920's, Dr. Mohier, with Dr.
Foote and later with Dr. Carl Boeckner, continued their electrical and spec-
troscopic measurements of critical potentials of atoms, ions, and molecules.
In the 1930's, as chief and sole member of 'the section, the smallest at the
Bureau, Dr. Mohier began his pioneer investigations in the then sparse field
of plasma physics, a field that was to have far more meanizig three decades
later than at that time.
The quiet islands of fundamental research at the Bureau in physical
constants, in radiometry, spectroscopy, and atomic physics, particularly in
the years immediately after the war, were in marked contrast to the din of
industrial research going on almost everywhere else at the Bureau.
BUILDING AND HOUSiNG
Ready with a program more appropriate to the Chief Executive than
to the Secretary of Commerce, Hoover entered office determined to recover
the Nation, singlehandedly if necessary, from its wartime splurge, its conse-
quent depletion of resources, and the general economic demoralization into
which it had plunged. Recovery, by raising as rapidly as possible the level
of productivity, was the first essential; reconstruction would follow.
Hoover's plan for recovery, in order to open employment offices again
and start up the wheels of industry, was to stimulate building and housing,
lend direct assistance to both new and established industries, and minister
'3NBS Annual Report 1918, p. 70. This appears to be one of the earliest uses of the
word "electronics," although not in its present connotation. It did not come into' general
use until just before World War II.
84 Apparently challenged to justify such research, Stratton in the annual report for
1922, pp. 85—86, declared that a thorough understanding of the nature of collisions be-
tween atoms and electrons might well lead to the development of more efficient illumi.
nants, better "radio-bulb" design, and extension of the range of X-ray spectroscopy.
Foote and Mohier's first acquisition of equipment, including an ionization chamber, a
beta-ray chamber, electroscopes, and a 1,500-pound electromagnet, waited until 1925
(NBS Annual Report 1925, p. 36).