Molecular structure and the genesis of the American quantum physics community, 1916-1926

The thesis tells two intertwined histories: A national history of an American research community and an intellectual history of the theory of molecular structure. Chapter one focuses on those institutional developments that allowed for the growth of the research community. It was the Rockefeller Foundation that decided to support American research in the physical sciences; with the help of scientists in the National Research Council, the Foundation gave money to departments of physics and chemistry, paid for European lecturers to tour the United States, bought equipment and, perhaps most importantly, created a new academic post for young researchers--the postdoctoral fellow. Chapter two focuses on the conceptual development of a dynamic theory of molecular structure, that research area which the American physics community collectively chose in its bid for first-rank status in the world scientific community. Edwin C. Kemble, the physicist who introduced the problem of molecular structure to the United States, first appears in this chapter. Chapters two and three consider the history of quantum theory from the viewpoint of a molecular structuralist. These chapters follow the evolution of the explanations given to one simple but representative spectrum--the vibrational-rotational band of hydrochloride. Taking this viewpoint, rather than that of the atomic physicist, makes for a richer, more complex history of the early quantum theory, 1911-1918. The third chapter limits itself to the American research community in molecular structure. The work was centered around three universities, Harvard, the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Michigan. The focus is on American research scientists. These men felt themselves inferior to the Europeans, but believed they could achieve equality, especially through the work of their younger members. The aspiring quantum scientists chose a research program with which they felt comfortable: molecular structure became the conscious vehicle for promoting American physics and for developing talent in theory and quantum science. The push toward research began in the twenties and by the third generation the Americans had achieved prominence as physical scientists and respect from their European colleagues. The legacy of the drive to create a first-rank American research community was the discipline of quantum chemistry, born of the research program of the molecular structuralists in the twenties.