Interview with Frank Oppenheimer - Caltech Oral Histories

Oppenheimer–23OPPENHEIMER: Well, there was that group from my brother that would come down. I rememberLawrence coming to the Cavendish and giving a talk once, when he was really confused aboutwhat was going on, when they first found neutrons from bombarding deuterium. I don’tremember his coming down to Pasadena and giving a talk. Who else?GOODSTEIN: Well, there was [M. Stanley] Livingston.OPPENHEIMER: Yes. Well, we were doing very different sorts of things really. Who was thecosmic ray expert up at Berkeley at that time?GOODSTEIN: I don’t know. At Caltech it was [Carl] Anderson and [Seth] Neddermeyer and [Ike]Bowen.OPPENHEIMER: Yes. And then my brother and his group were interested in trying to find out[what cosmic rays were]. Millikan was sure they were gamma rays. And it just didn’t work.GOODSTEIN: Did you ever hear Millikan lecture?OPPENHEIMER: Yes.GOODSTEIN: What was he like?OPPENHEIMER: Very dogmatic! Terribly dogmatic! Pretty clear, but not always believable.GOODSTEIN: Would people challenge him from the floor?OPPENHEIMER: No. I don’t remember. What else do I know?GOODSTEIN: Do you remember the discovery of the muon by Anderson and Neddermeyer?http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Oppenheimer_F