Lewi Tonks (1897–1971) was an American
quantum
In physics, a quantum (plural quanta) is the minimum amount of any physical entity ( physical property) involved in an interaction. The fundamental notion that a physical property can be "quantized" is referred to as "the hypothesis of quantizat ...
physicist
A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe.
Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...
noted for his discovery (with
Marvin D. Girardeau) of the
Tonks–Girardeau gas In physics, a Tonks–Girardeau gas is a Bose gas in which the repulsive interactions between bosonic particles confined to one dimension dominate the system's physics. It is named after physicists Marvin D. Girardeau and Lewi Tonks. It is not a B ...
.
Tonks was employed by
General Electric
General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable ene ...
for most of his working life, researching
microwave
Microwave is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths ranging from about one meter to one millimeter corresponding to frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz respectively. Different sources define different frequency ra ...
s and
ferromagnetism
Ferromagnetism is a property of certain materials (such as iron) which results in a large observed magnetic permeability, and in many cases a large magnetic coercivity allowing the material to form a permanent magnet. Ferromagnetic materials ...
. He worked under
Irving Langmuir
Irving Langmuir (; January 31, 1881 – August 16, 1957) was an American chemist, physicist, and engineer. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1932 for his work in surface chemistry.
Langmuir's most famous publication is the 1919 ar ...
on
plasma physics, with a special interest in
ball lightning,
nuclear fusion,
tungsten
Tungsten, or wolfram, is a chemical element with the symbol W and atomic number 74. Tungsten is a rare metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively as compounds with other elements. It was identified as a new element in 1781 and first isol ...
filament
light bulb
An electric light, lamp, or light bulb is an electrical component that produces light. It is the most common form of artificial lighting. Lamps usually have a base made of ceramic, metal, glass, or plastic, which secures the lamp in the soc ...
s, and
laser
A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word "laser" is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The ...
s.
Tonks advocated a
logarithm
In mathematics, the logarithm is the inverse function to exponentiation. That means the logarithm of a number to the base is the exponent to which must be raised, to produce . For example, since , the ''logarithm base'' 10 ...
ic
pressure
Pressure (symbol: ''p'' or ''P'') is the force applied perpendicular to the surface of an object per unit area over which that force is distributed. Gauge pressure (also spelled ''gage'' pressure)The preferred spelling varies by country a ...
scale for
vacuum
A vacuum is a space devoid of matter. The word is derived from the Latin adjective ''vacuus'' for "vacant" or " void". An approximation to such vacuum is a region with a gaseous pressure much less than atmospheric pressure. Physicists often ...
technology to replace the
torr
The torr (symbol: Torr) is a unit of pressure based on an absolute scale, defined as exactly of a standard atmosphere (). Thus one torr is exactly (≈ ).
Historically, one torr was intended to be the same as one " millimeter of merc ...
.
Tonks was notable for his high ethical standards and concern with social problems. Several times, he put up
bail money for people who could not afford to do so. He provided career counselling for the poor, and after retiring from GE worked as a volunteer for the
Schenectady Human Rights Commission. He also campaigned on
Vietnam war
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
issues.
Death and professional papers
In July 1971, Tonks died of a heart attack at the age of seventy-four. He left his wife Edna and three children, Mary Lew, Joan and Bruce L. Tonks.
After his death, his collected papers containing correspondence, both personal and professional, research notes, drafts of papers and completed research papers from 1930's to the 1960s passed to his wife. Shortly thereafter, the collection was deposited at the Niels Bohr Library of the
American Institute of Physics in
College Park, Maryland
College Park is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, and is approximately four miles (6.4 km) from the northeast border of Washington, D.C. The population was 34,740 at the 2020 United States Census. It is best known ...
.
See also
*
Plasma oscillation Plasma oscillations, also known as Langmuir waves (after Irving Langmuir), are rapid oscillations of the electron density in conducting media such as plasmas or metals in the ultraviolet region. The oscillations can be described as an instability ...
*
ZETA (fusion reactor)
External links
* https://web.archive.org/web/20041214062739/http://www.aip.org/history/esva/catalog/esva/Tonks_Lewi.html
* https://web.archive.org/web/20050217184515/http://www.aip.org/history/ead/aip_tonks/20030130.html
1897 births
1971 deaths
20th-century American physicists
Quantum physicists
Fellows of the American Physical Society
{{US-physicist-stub