Interview with Frank Oppenheimer - Caltech Oral Histories

CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGYORAL HISTORY PROJECTInterview with Frank Oppenheimer“The Exploratorium,” San Franciscoby Judith R. GoodsteinNovember 16, 1984Begin Tape 1, Side 1OPPENHEIMER: I had met Charlie [Charles C. Lauritsen] before I came to Caltech, because heused to come to the place that my brother and my family rented in New Mexico, Perro Caliente.So, when I got to Caltech that fall [1935], he recognized me as I walked into the building. Hehappened to be right at the door. And he said, “Frank, do you want to smell a vacuum?”[Laughter] He had just taken the X-ray tube apart. In those days, you used shellac to stop leaks,and that sort of decomposed. And it had a real foul smell, even though it was full of air at thetime.GOODSTEIN: Did Lauritsen bring his wife when he would come to New Mexico?OPPENHEIMER: I don’t think so. My recollection is that he was there without Sigrid.GOODSTEIN: You knew when you came to Caltech that your subject was going to be nuclearphysics?OPPENHEIMER: Yes. I had worked in Cambridge on beta—and gamma—ray spectroscopy, usinginternal conversion and the photo-electric effect, to develop energy level systems for those heavynuclei, which was sort of ridiculous, because it was too complicated. So I sort of knew what Iwanted to go on with, which was a wonderful thing for a graduate student, because mostgraduates just take courses, and then somewhere along the way somebody tells them what to door they get interested in something. So, almost immediately, I told Charlie that I would like tohttp://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Oppenheimer_F