How GALCIT
Began
Attributed to Clark B. Millikan
From
"GALCIT: The First Fifty Years," p. v-vii, San Francisco Press,
1983
The story really begins some ten years before the construction
of the Guggenheim Laboratory itself. The January, 1917, Catalogue
of the Throop College of Technology (which later became the California
Institute of Technology) contains the following:
Just as this catalogue goes to press, generous and wise friends
of the college have undertaken to provide facilities for research
in the science of Aeronautics, with every prospect of the cooperation
of the United States Government. A wind tunnel will immediately
be built and equipped in the best fashion, and a graduate course
will probably be provided for students desiring to specialize
in this branch of physics and engineering.
Between $5,000 and $6,000 was made available for these purposes,
and during the subsequent year a small NPL type wind tunnel was
constructed having a maximum wind velocity of 40 miles per hour.
The Throop Catalogue for the following year contains the first
mention of two staff members concerned with matters aeronautical.
Mr. A. A. Merrill, one of the very early American pioneers, whose
active participation in aviation dates back to the 1890's, appears
as Research Assistant; he was given the responsibility for designing,
supervising the construction of, and operating the wind tunnel.
(He also doubled in brass as Instructor in Accounting.) Dr. Harry
Bateman, a brilliant Cambridge-trained mathematician, is listed
as Professor of Aeronautical Research and Mathematical Physics.
The catalogues of the next few years list a number of aeronautical
courses given by these two staff members. However, the number
of students must have been very small and there was no Aeronautics
Department, nor were any aeronautical degrees awarded. By the
mid-nineteen-twenties the aeronautical activities of the California
Institute, into which Throop had been transformed, included only
the wind tunnel experiments of Mr. Merrill, assisted by occasional
students, and advanced courses in Theoretical Hydrodynamics and
Elasticity given by Dr. Bateman from time to time to post-graduate
students in physics and mathematics.
At about this time there were two developments of great importance
to the future of aviation. The Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the
Promotion of Aeronautics was established, having as one of its
principal objectives the stimulation of advanced teaching and
research in aeronautics. Second, it was becoming increasingly
apparent that Southern California was destined to become one
of the country's greatest centers of aviation industry. Dr. Robert
A. Millikan, Chairman of the California Institute's Executive
Council, realized the potential significance of these two factors
to the future of the California Institute, and succeeded in October
1926 in obtaining a grant of $300,000 from the Guggenheim Fund
for the construction of a laboratory and the establishment of
a graduate school of aeronautics at the Institute. The eminent
applied mathematician, scientist, and engineer, Dr. Theodore
von Karman, was brought to this country under the auspices of
the Guggenheim Fund and visited many educational and research
institutions with aeronautical interests. In particular, he spent
the fall of 1926 at the California Institute advising its staff
regarding the educational policies and experimental facilities
of the new graduate school and laboratory. During this visit
the essential features which characterized their subsequent development
were largely worked out under Karman's leadership. A cooperative
arrangement was also made with the Douglas Aircraft Company whereby
the airplane design courses would, at least initially, be given
by engineers from its staff.
During the next two years the laboratory was designed and constructed,
having as its major research facility a 200 miles per hour wind
tunnel with a 10-foot test section; and the instructional course
material was developed. In the fall of 1928 the laboratory was
completed, and the GALCIT began in active career in aeronautical
instruction and research. The academic staff consisted of Professor
Harry Bateman and Theodore von Karman (the latter as Research
Associate, dividing his time between Aachen and the Institute),
Assistant Professors Arthur L. Klein, Clark B. Millikan, and
Arthur E. Raymond, and Instructor Albert A. Merrill. Raymond,
then an engineer and later Vice-President of the Douglas Aircraft
Company, served in a part-time capacity and was responsible for
the aircraft design courses. Two years later Dr. von Karman became
Director of the GALCIT on a full-time basis and assumed the continuing
leadership of its educational and scientific program.
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