Carl Trueblood Chase (7 August 1902,

Lewiston, Maine Lewiston (; ) is the List of municipalities in Maine, second most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine, with the city's population at 37,121 as of the 2020 United States census. The city lies halfway between Augusta, Maine, Augusta, the sta ...

– 2 November 1987,

Delaware County, Pennsylvania Delaware County, colloquially referred to as Delco, is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. With a population of 576,830 as of the 2020 census, it is the List of counties in Pennsylv ...

) was an American physicist, known for his 1926 confirmation of the

Trouton–Noble experiment The Trouton–Noble experiment was an attempt to detect motion of the Earth through the luminiferous aether, and was conducted in 1901–1903 by Frederick Thomas Trouton and H. R. Noble. It was based on a suggestion by George FitzGerald tha ...

, which disconfirmed the

luminiferous aether Luminiferous aether or ether (''luminiferous'' meaning 'light-bearing') was the postulated Transmission medium, medium for the propagation of light. It was invoked to explain the ability of the apparently wave-based light to propagate through empt ...

. After graduating from Kennebunk High School, Chase attended

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

, where he graduated with B.S. in physics in 1924. He then became a graduate student at

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...

, where he worked at the Norman Bridge Laboratory of Physics and graduated with an master's degree in 1926. He received his Ph.D. from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

(NYU), where he became an assistant professor of physics in 1934. During his career, he taught physics and astronomy at several colleges. In the 1940s he worked at the

Franklin Institute The Franklin Institute is a science museum and a center of science education and research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is named after the American scientist and wikt:statesman, statesman Benjamin Franklin. It houses the Benjamin Franklin ...

. R. T. Cox was Chase's thesis advisor at NYU. In 1959

Lee Grodzins Lee Grodzins (July 10, 1926 – March 6, 2025) was an American physicist and inventor who was a longtime professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The family settled in Manchester, New Hampshire, where his father ra ...

pointed out that a 1928 experiment by R. T. Cox, C. G. McIlwraith, and B. Kurrelmeyer on double scattering of β rays from radium experimentally demonstrated

parity violation In physics, a parity transformation (also called parity inversion) is the flip in the sign of ''one'' spatial coordinate. In three dimensions, it can also refer to the simultaneous flip in the sign of all three spatial coordinates (a point ref ...

, although the significance of the experiment was not appreciated until the late 1950s. In 1929 and 1930, Chase performed more precise experiments which confirmed the 1928 experiment. He married Margaret Armstrong on 21 August 1927 in Maine. Upon his death he was survived by his widow, a son, and a granddaughter.

Selected publications

* * * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chase, Carl T. 1902 births 1987 deaths People from Lewiston, Maine 20th-century American physicists Princeton University alumni California Institute of Technology alumni New York University alumni Fellows of the American Physical Society