Memorandum Regarding Kellogg Radiation Laboratory Research, Future Plans, and Caltech's Physics Curriculum
Dublin Core
Title
Memorandum Regarding Kellogg Radiation Laboratory Research, Future Plans, and Caltech's Physics Curriculum
Description
Lauritsen and Fowler’s 1948 memorandum defines the Kellogg Lab’s post-WWII pivot from high-voltage X-rays toward fundamental nuclear research. This transition is clear when we look at Caltech's 1942 Big T, a student yearbook prior to end of WWII. It emphasized the connection from the High Voltage Laboratory to the broader LA community, like Hollywood recording studios, through Westinghouse and the Southern California Edison Company (California Institute of Technology). However, this emphasis on high-voltage transmission and X-rays faded, as seen through the Kellogg Lab's new goals shown in the memorandum.
Robert Millikan failed at sustaining X-ray medical technology research at Caltech - a key focus of the Kellogg Lab - due to funding challenges and medical X-ray commercialization (Holbrow). Soon afterwards, the memo shows how the lab shifted towards stellar energy research. The institution as a whole responded through the formalization of physics courses like Ph 12abc and Ph 109abc that moved away from high-voltage transmission and urban electrification towards atomic discovery.
Works Cited
Robert Millikan failed at sustaining X-ray medical technology research at Caltech - a key focus of the Kellogg Lab - due to funding challenges and medical X-ray commercialization (Holbrow). Soon afterwards, the memo shows how the lab shifted towards stellar energy research. The institution as a whole responded through the formalization of physics courses like Ph 12abc and Ph 109abc that moved away from high-voltage transmission and urban electrification towards atomic discovery.
Works Cited
California Institute of Technology. The Big T, 1942 - CaltechCampusPubs. resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechCampusPubs:20111024-135709577.
Holbrow, Charles H. “The Giant Cancer Tube and the Kellogg Radiation Laboratory.” Physics Today, vol. 34, no. 7, July 1981, pp. 42–49. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2914646.
Source
Caltech Archives and Special Collections; California Institute of Technology Historical Files, Series A: Academic Division & Programs, Division of Physics, Math & Astronomy, Box A12, Folder 10.
[Accessed March 17, 2026: https://collections.archives.caltech.edu/repositories/2/archival_objects/104749]
[Accessed March 17, 2026: https://collections.archives.caltech.edu/repositories/2/archival_objects/104749]
Date
July 8, 1948
Format
Typed memorandum (3 pages)
Scanned as digital image (.jpg)
Scanned as digital image (.jpg)
Still Image Item Type Metadata
Original Format
Typed memorandum, 3 pages
Citation
“Memorandum Regarding Kellogg Radiation Laboratory Research, Future Plans, and Caltech's Physics Curriculum,” Electrifying Los Angeles, accessed July 2, 2026, https://www.electrifying.collopy.net/items/show/41.