Emory Leon Chaffee (April 15, 1885 – March 8, 1975) was an American

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 ...

. He was a professor at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

from 1911 to 1953. Chaffee was born in

Somerville, Massachusetts Somerville ( ) is a city located directly to the northwest of Boston, and north of Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge, in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the city had a total population of 81, ...

. He studied

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

and received his bachelor's degree from MIT in 1907. Afterward he made further studies at the

and took his master's degree and his Ph.D. He was made an instructor in electrical engineering in 1911 and got a position as assistant professor of physics in 1917. In 1923, he became an associate professor and a professor in 1926. He was appointed Rumford Professor of Physics in 1940, and Gordon McKay Professor of applied physics in 1946. Chaffee became chairman of the Department of Engineering Sciences and Applied Physics from 1949 till 1952. Chaffee was awarded the IEEE Medal of Honor in 1959. He was best known for his work on thermionic

vacuum tube A vacuum tube, electron tube, thermionic valve (British usage), or tube (North America) is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric voltage, potential difference has been applied. It ...

s. In 1911, he invented the concept of the Chaffee Gap which was a way of producing continuous oscillations for radio transmissions, and in 1924, he started to work on controlling weather, using aircraft to break up clouds with electrically charged grains of sands. Chaffee died in Waltham,

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

External links

Oral history interview transcript with Emory Leon Chaffee on 31 January 1964, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives
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IEEE
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chaffee, Emory Leon 1885 births 1975 deaths 20th-century American physicists 20th-century American engineers Harvard University alumni Harvard University faculty IEEE Medal of Honor recipients MIT School of Engineering alumni