9/12/2011:
Robert Andrews Millikan was a physicist of the early 1900s. Born in 1868 to a Midwestern minister, he determined the amount of charge in an electron in 1909, and received a Nobel Prize in 1923. In 1925, he was credited for the phrase “cosmic rays” for the high-energy particles in the universe, although some of his concepts regarding these particles differed from what we know today. Millikan completed a series of tests on the intensity of cosmic rays at various altitudes in 1932. On this date in 1944, the Bismarck Tribune reported that Millikan believed he could to measure hydrogen rays in North Dakota, and was on his way to Bismarck.
The Tribune reported that Millikan conducted his studies by sending “a frame-like contraption containing numerous delicate instruments” up into the air on two helium-filled balloons. The instruments would radio back a count of the “bullet-like rays” he said were “bombarding” the earth. The instruments rose close to 100,000 feet into the air at a rate of 500 feet per minute.
Before Millikan arrived, area meteorologist Frank Bavendick received a report that two flying discs had been spotted southeast of Bismarck. It was presumed that these sightings were actually the balloons carrying Millikan’s instruments.
Millikan’s travels in these experiments also included visits to Texas, New Mexico, and Rapid City. He had also done work at the equator. He and his assistants were only in Bismarck for a day, starting their work at 4 in the morning and finishing at 4 in the afternoon. Afterward, they drove two hundred miles on to Saskatoon, so they could begin again early the next day. However, while in Bismarck, meteorologist Bavendick had a moment to converse with the famed scientist, and asked him if he had any particular fondness for the places he had travelled to. “I have told my students that they should not let any preference of location interfere with their work,” Millikan replied. He said he liked everywhere he had been, though he added, “I find proportionately more intelligent people in small towns than large cities.”
And the newspaper also reported this: “Dr. Millikan thinks the scenery around Belfield in western North Dakota is about the most beautiful he has seen anywhere.”
Dakota Datebook written by Sarah Walker
Sources:
http://helios.gsfc.nasa.gov/hist_1900.html
http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l1/cosmic_rays.html
http://eands.caltech.edu/articles/Millikan%20Feature.pdf
The Bismarck Tribune, September 12, 1944—page 1
The Bismarck Tribune, September 16, 1944—page 1