5637 S Woodlawn Ave
Chicago, IL 60637, USA

Arthur H. Compton House - National Register of Historic Places

Statement of Significance:

In a brief biographical sketch of the life and accomplishments of Arthur Holly Compton, Isaac Asimov, the distinguished author and scientist, writes that, "Compton brought to fruition the view that electromagnetic radiation had both a wave and a particle. aspect. Ill. Compton Is contribution to one of the major new concepts of 20tn century physics -came in his discovery of what has become known as the "Compton effect," i.e., the increase in wave length, or the reduction in frequency, of X--rays and gamma rays that nave been scattered by electrons. The' Compton effect is today recognized as one · of the basic phenomena of physics. in 1927 the Nobel committee recognized Compton's contribution to physics when it awarded him its prestigious prize. accompanied oy the simple statement "for his discovery of the effect named after him.

LIFE
Arthur Holly Compton was born September 10, 1892, in Wooster, Ohio. His father, a Presbyterian minister, taught at Wooster College. Both his father and his mother devoted considerable time to the education of their children. Arthur's brother Karl also enjoyed distinguished career in physics and served as president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1930 to 1948. (In recognition of the accomplishments of her sons, Mrs. Compton was named mother of the year in 1939.) While still a child Arthur's interest in nature became apparent in his fascination with mechanical toys and in his devotion to stone and butterfly collecting.

After attending local schools Compton entered Wooster College where he studied paleontology and astronomy. Upon graduating from Wooster in 1913 he decided to pursue graduate work in physics at Princeton. Compton received his master's degree in 1914 and completed work for the Ph.D. in 1916. After leaving school he first taught for a year at the University of Minnesota and then went to work for Westinghouse for a year as a research physicist. In 1919 he was appointed a fellow of the National Research Council, an honor that was destined to play a major role in Compton's later career. The, fellowship included provisions for a year of study abroad. Aware of the existing work being done in physics by Ernest Rutherford and J. J. Thomson at the new famous Cavendish laboratory at Cambridge, Compton headed for England. During his year at Cambridge Compton participated in investigations involving X-ray scattering, an area of research that a few years later led him to the Compton effect.

Returning to the United States Compton took a teaching position at Washington University in St. Louis. In addition to his teaching responsibilities, he continued his research on X-ray scattering. In 1923 the University of Chicago offered him a position and Compton joined the physics department of the Illinois school which counted among its faculty. members Robert Millikan. The University -of Chicago remained Compton's academic home for the next twenty-two years. In 1929 he was appointed the Charles H. Smith Distinguished Service Professor and in other ways enjoyed a stimulating and distinguished academic career. In addition to teaching and conducting research Compton also during these years served as a consultant to the General Electric Company. Like other American physicists he early recognized the military significance of nuclear fission and he strongly supported Enrico Fermi's successful self-sustaining chain reaction experiments. When World War II came Compton assumed a leading position in the Manhattan Engineering District as Director of the Metallurgical Project. Compton was one of the scientists Secretary of War Henry Stimson consulted about the desirability of dropping the atomic bomb on Japan. Compton answered in the affirmative.

In 1945 Compton left the University of Chicago to accept the chancellorship of Washington University in St. Louis. The move marked the end of his career as a research physicist. Compton guided Washington University until 1954. He resigned as chancellor but remained at the university as Distinguished Service Professor of Natural Philosophy. Between 1954 and 1961 Compton's attention focused primarily on the social and moral implications of science's impact on modern civilization. In 1961 he resigned from Washington University. Compton intended to spend the remaining years of his life as a professor-at-large dividing his time among Washington University, the University of California at Berkeley, and his alma mater, Wooster College. His plans were canceled by his untimely death at Berkeley on March 15, 1962.

Arthur Holly Compton, recipient of the 1927 Nobel Prize in physics and numerous other awards and honors, was a leading American 20th century scientist. Although Compton made contributions as an academic administrator and as an influential member of scientific organizations and governmental special committees, he is best remembered for his work in pure science physics research. Within the history of physics his fame rests on his discovery of the "Compton effect."

Wilhelm Roentegn 's 1895 discovery of X-rays was a stimulug .. to physicists throughout Europe and America. Among others the distinguished British physicist J. J. Thomson recognized that X-rays would be a powerful source for investigating the nature of matter. Thomson and other British physicists turned their attention to investigating the scattering of X-rays by matter (in a sense X-raying matter and then observing the scattering of the rays by the matter). When Arthur H. Compton arrived at the Cavendish laboratory in Cambridge in 1919, he joined in this work. In assimilating the knowledge derived from previous experimentation, Compton learned that in previous experiments X-rays had been scattered without changing their wave length or frequency but also that in other experiments secondary X-rays possessed a longer wave length than before being scattered. When Compton returned to the United States, he continued his investigations of X-ray scattering both at Washington University and the University of Chicago.

In 1923 Compton published a full discussion of the changes produced in X-rays by scattering. He found that secondary X-rays lengthened their wave length. Although this phenomena was previously known, Compton's theoretical explanation for it was new. Compton held that the radiation had a corpuscular nature in which a quantum or photon of light struck an electron in the matter. The electron then "recoiled" subtracting some energy from the photon and therefore increasing the photon's wave length. The photon thus behaved not like a wave but rather like a particle. The significance of the Compton effect and its explanation was that it suggested that light has both a particle aspect and a wave aspect.

The discovery of the Compton effect created a sensation in physics. For a while some physicists felt it would be necessary to abandon the basic laws of conservation of energy and momentum in atomic processes. The Compton effect stimulated physicists to find a theoretical answer to the wave-particle dilemma. Such was subsequently arrived at in the development of quantum mechanics. The Compton effect thus became a basic phenomenon of modern physics.

Beginning in 1930 Compton's interest turned to cosmic rays. His most important achievement in this phase of his career was his discovery of the latitude effect, i.e., cosmic ray intensities are less near the equator than at the poles. Toward the latter part of the 1930's Compton began directing groups of investigators in cosmic rays and spent less time himself in the laboratory.

At the end of the 1930's Compton's energies turned to philosophical and religious matters and he also became deeply involved with the development of nuclear energy. As a prestigious physicist he lent his influence and support to promoting the development of Fermi's famous first self-sustaining atomic chain reaction at the University of Chicago. He fully supported the use of atomic power for military purposes and played a major role in the vast uranium project associated with the Manhattan Engineering District. In his later years in addition to his duties as university chancellor Compton lectured widely and wrote on philosophical and personal subjects.

Arthur Holly Compton's bibliography of books and papers is long. Among his best known works are: Secondary Radiations Produced by X-rays (1922), Freedom of Man (1935), X-Rays in Theory and Experiment (1935, with S. K. Allison), Human Meaning of Science (1940), and Atomic Quest: · A Personal Narrative (1956). Compton received most of the prizes and awards society bestows on a distinguished scientist. He was an influential member of all the important scientific organizations and numerous colleges and universities awarded him honorary degrees.