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Chauncey Starr
1912 - 2007
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In
Memoriam
This page is dedicated to the memory of Chauncey Starr, my
late-life mentor, inspiration, collaborator, and virtual
grandfather, but most importantly, a patriotic
American,
a member of our Nation's Greatest Generation. |
| "Chauncey
Starr (1912-2007), Physicist, engineer and leader in
the development of nuclear power," P. M. Grant, Nature 447,
789 (2007). [When I retired from IBM to
join EPRI, I was already in my late 50s. Little did I
know I was about to encounter a mentor two decades older!
Chauncey took me under his wing and taught me the realities
of the electric utility industry. He passed on in
April, 2007, and I had the melancholy honor and privilege to
write this and the following two obituaries. Please
take a moment to read all...each one relates different
aspects of this remarkable man.] |
| "Chauncey
Starr," P. M. Grant, Physics Today, June 2007, p79.
[Chauncey and I were both
"alumni" (separated by one generation!) of the Harvard high
pressure physics group founded by Percy Bridgman in the
early decades of the 20th century. Read how Chauncey saved
Bridgman from possible embarrassment over a measurement of
the latter which seemed to violate the Wiedemann-Franz Law.
Chauncey's office mate at Harvard in the mid-1930s was none
other than John Bardeen. Chauncey once told me the
story of why Bardeen didn't get tenure at Harvard which I'll
relate at the appropriate time and place.] |
| "Chauncey
Starr: A Personal Memoir," P. M. Grant, Power Magazine
151, 20 (2007). [Focus here is more on
Chauncey's role in the Manhattan District Project,
jumpstarting the nuclear power industry and the founding of
EPRI. It turned out one of the young engineers who
worked under Chauncey on the Calutron at Oak Ridge was my
cousin and godfather, Richard Whalen, later to become a
regional vice-president of IBM. This piece relates the
rather amusing circumstances Chauncey and Wally Zinn agreed
to combine efforts and midwife the birth of nuclear power.] |
Contents
|
The Physics Years
(1936 - 1943)
From RPI to Harvard to MIT |
|
"The
Copper Oxide Rectifier," Chauncey Starr, Physics 7, 15
(1936). [] |
|
"An
Improved Method for the Determination of Thermal
Diffusivities," Chauncey Starr, Rev. Sci. Inst. 8, 61
(1937). [] |
|
"The
Pressure Coefficient of Thermal Conductivity of Metals,"
Chauncey Starr, Phys. Rev. 54, 210 (1938).
[] |
| "Thermal
Conductance of Metallic Contacts," R. B. Jacobs and C.
Starr, Rev. Sci. Inst. 10, 140 (1939).
[] |
| "The
Magnetic Properties of Metallic Cerium," C. Starr and A.
R. Kaufmann, Phys. Rev. 58, 657 (1940).
[] |
| "The
Magnetic Properties of the Iron Group Anhydrous Chlorides at
Low Temperatures I. Experimental," C. Starr, F. Bitter
and A. R. Kaufmann, Phys. Rev. 58, 977 (1940).
[] |
| "The
Magnetic Properties of the Iron Group Anhydrous Chlorides at
Low Temperatures II. Theoretical," C. Starr, Phys. Rev.
58, 984 (1940). [] |
| "Magnetic
Studies of Solid Solutions II. The Properties of Quenched
Copper-Iron Alloys," F. Bitter, A. R. Kaufman, C. Starr
and S. T. Pan, Phys. Rev. 60, 134 (1941).
[] |
| "Paramagnetic
Dispersion Measurements at 77.3 K," C. Starr, Phys. Rev.
60, 241 (1941). [] |
| "The
Design of Hydrogen Liquifiers," Chauncey Starr, Rev.
Sci. Inst. 12, 193 (1941).
[] |
| "Magnetic
Properties of Solid Solutions III. The Paramagnetic Alloys
of Copper and Nickel," A. R. Kaufman and C. Starr, Phys.
Rev. 63, 445 (1942). [] |
| Back to Contents |
|
The EPRI Years
(1972 - 2007)
Reaping the Grapes of Wisdom and (Sometimes)
Wrath |
| "The
Green Book," Report of the R&D Goals Task Force to the
Electric Research Council, June, 1971.
[Organized in 1965 by a small
group of utilities, 8 from investor-owned utilities and 5
from government-run entities, in order to support R&D
efforts in the public and private sectors on behalf of the
industry as a whole, the Electric Research Council in 1971
proposed a greatly expanded agenda which became the "Magna
Carta" for EPRI. Much in the report was motivated by
the spectacular Eastern States power outages of the late
1960s, which resulted in the introduction of congressional
legislation to nationalize all such efforts under Federal
authority.] |
| "Applying
for the Job," Chauncey Starr to Jack Horton, 12 May
1972. [One afternoon,
while packing up for one of EPRI's periodic "space
rearrangements," Chauncey called over to me, "Paul, come
take a look at this. I thought I had lost it."
It was essentially Chauncey's application letter for the job
of EPRI's founder, written to J. K. Horton, then board
chairman of Southern California Edison Company, and also a
member of the ERC. Note Chauncey also copied Shearon Harris,
CEO of Carolina Power and Light, who Chauncey confided that
he credited as the original inspiration for what became EPRI. |
| |
|
"Powerful
Reactions,"
Chauncey Starr, Nature 406, 679 (2000).
[Nuclear power has taken a
meandering route, but it is here to stay.] |
|
"National
Energy Planning for the Century: The Continental SuperGrid,"
Chauncey Starr, Nuclear News 45, 31 (2002).
[Chauncey Starr's call to construct, over the next five decades,
a combined national energy generation, transmission and
distribution system based on nuclear, hydrogen and
superconducting technologies.] |
|
"A
Power Grid for the Hydrogen Economy," P.
M. Grant, C. Starr and T. J. Overbye, Scientific American,
July 2006, p.76.
[Explores the vision of cryogenic, superconducting conduits
connected into a SuperGrid that would simultaneously deliver
electrical power and hydrogen fuel.] |
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"Chauncey
Starr, 1912-2007,"
EPRI Journal, Summer, 2007, p. 4.
[EPRI Obituary.
Contains factual error in associating Chauncey with the Los
Alamos project under Robert Oppenheimer. Chauncey's
Calutron effort was carried out at Oak Ridge.] |
| Back to Contents |
|
Videos & Visuals
Caution: Some of these files are real
big, like > 100 MB. Be sure you have a streaming
client...I recommend Windows Media Player and Internet
Explorer. |
| "I
Did It My Way," Celebrating the 90th Birthday of Chauncey Starr,
EPRI, Spring 2002.
[24 minute documentary on the
founding of EPRI and the role Chauncey played at the
beginning and throughout its formative years.] |
| "Welcome
to SuperGrid II," Chauncey Starr, Interview by Paul
Grant, Fall 2004.
[11 minute introduction to
the UIUC-hosted SuperGrid II Workshop, 25-27 October 2004.
Lots of humorous anecdotes.] |
| "Diego
Grant With Chauncey Starr," Diego Grant's 8th Grade
History Project, Spring 2005. [36
minute interview of Chauncey (93) by Diego (14) on the
development of the first atomic bomb and its consequences.
Note Chauncey's answer to the question regarding Truman's
decision.] |
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| Back to Contents |
(Page
Still Under Construction)
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