780 THE BELL SYSTEM TECHNICAL JOURNAL, OCTOBER 1951 



build-up in production. All of the tubes employed an oxide-coated cathode, 

 which was later to become the universal standard the world over for low- 

 power thermionic vacuum tubes. 



Davisson early took a position of leadership in problems of fundamental 

 physics relating to the emitter and high-vacuum techniques. We were forced 

 to move so rapidly that much of the work was necessarily empirical. Even 

 in this atmosphere of empiricism Davisson's work was unusually funda- 

 mental and analytical. Increasingly all of us went to him to discuss funda- 

 mental problems that were in urgent need of an answer. He was always 

 available and displayed a friendly interest; we rarely left him without bene- 

 fit from the discussion. Frequently he would continue his study of the 

 problem and come later to give the benefit of his more mature consider- 

 ation. 



During this period of intensive work performed in an atmosphere of 

 urgency, Davisson displayed the characteristics that were important in 

 determining the pattern of his work through the years and the nature of 

 his contributions to our laboratories and to science. His inner driving force 

 was always seeking complete and exact knowledge of the physical phe- 

 nomena under study. Thoroughness was an outstanding characteristic. The 

 rapid tempo of the work with the necessity of accepting partial answers 

 and following one's nose in an empirical fashion were foreign to his way of 

 doing things. As a war necessity he yielded to it, and performed as a good 

 soldier. His interests were almost wholly scientific, but the needs of the 

 situation forced upon him somewhat of an engineering role for which he 

 had little appetite. As an adviser and consultant, he was unusually effec- 

 tive. In this he has few equals among scientists of my acquaintance. I be- 

 lieve that his success here is due to the high level of his interest in solving 

 problems, to his broad area of curiosity about physical phenomena, and to 

 his warm, friendly, and unselfish interest in the scientific aspects of the 

 work of his associates. 



Industry's scientific and technologic support of the war effort led to a 

 rapid expansion of industrial laboratories in the postwar period. Our lab- 

 oratories had expanded during the war period, and this was continued at a 

 rapid rate throughout the following decade. The scientists who had come 

 to the Laboratories during the war and the years immediately preceding it, 

 with few exceptions moved out of the laboratory and assumed places of 

 management and leadership in the research and development sections of 

 the Laboratories' organization. At that early period in the life of industrial 

 laboratories, the major emphasis was on applied research and development; 

 there was very little research of a pure scientific nature. 



Davisson was one of the few who did not gravitate to positions of man- 



