Kristian Birkeland: The First Space Scientist

230 Pages·2005·9.578 MB·English

by  Alv Egeland, William J. Burke (auth.)

A
S ASTROPHYSICS AND
S
S
L SPACE SCIENCE LIBRARY
L
KRISTIAN BIRKELAND
The First Space Scientist
ALV EGELAND
WILLIAM J. BURKE
KRISTIANBIRKELAND
ASTROPHYSICS AND
SPACE SCIENCE LIBRARY
VVVOLUME325
EDITORIALBOARD
Chairman
W.B.BURTON,NationalAstronomyObservatory,Charlottesville,Virginia,U.S.A.
([email protected]);UniversityofLeiden,TheNetherlands([email protected])
ExecutiveCommitte
J.M.E.KUIJPERS,FFFacultyofScience,Nijmegen,TheNetherlands
E.P.J.VANDENHEUVEL,AstronomicalInstitute,UniversityofAmsterdam,TheNetherlands
H.VANDERLAAN,AstronomicalInstitute,UniversityofUtrecht,TheNetherlands
MEMBERS
I.APPENZELLER,LandessternwarteHeidelberg-KKKo¨¨nigstuhl,Germany
J.N.BAHCALL,TheInstituteforAdvancedStudy,Princeton,U.S.A.
F.BERTOLA,Universittta´´diPPPadova,Italy
J.P.CASSINELLI,UniversityofWisconsin,Madison,U.S.A.
C.J.CESSARSKY,Centred’EtudesdeSaclay,Gif-sur-YvetteCedex,France
O.ENGVOLD,InstituteofTheoreticalAstrophysics,UniversityofOslo,Norway
R.MCCRAY,UniversityofColorado,JILA,Boulder,U.S.A.
P.G.MURDIN,InstituteofAstronomyCambridge,U.K.
F.PACINI,IstitutoAstronomiaArcetri,Firenze,Italy
V.RADHKRISHNAN,RamanResearchInstitute,Banglore,India
K.SATO,SchoolofScience,TheUniversityofTokyo,Japan
F.H.SHU,UniversityofCalifornia,Berkeley,U.S.A.
B.V.SOMOV,AstronomicalInstitute,MoscowStateUniversity,Russia
R.A.SUNYAEV,SpaceResearchInstitute,Moscow,Russia
Y.TAAANNNAKA,InstituteofSpace&AstronauticalScience,Kanagawa,Japan
S.TREMAINE,CITA,PrincetonUniversity,U.S.A.
N.O.WEISS,UniversityofCambridge,U.K.
KRISTIAN BIRKELAND
The First Space Scientist
by
ALVEGELAND
UniversityofOslo,Norway
and
WILLIAMJ.BURKE
AirForceResearchLaboratory,USA
AC.I.P.CataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheLibraryofCongress.
ISBN-101-4020-3293-5(HB)SpringerDordrecht,Berlin,Heidelberg,NewYork
ISBN-101-4020-3294-3(e-book)SpringerDordrecht,Berlin,Heidelberg,NewYork
ISBN-13978-1-4020-3293-6(HB)SpringerDordrecht,Berlin,Heidelberg,NewYork
ISBN-13978-1-4020-3294-3(e-book)SpringerDordrecht,Berlin,Heidelberg,NewYork
PublishedbySpringer
P.O.Box17,3300AADordrecht,TheNetherlands.
Printedonacid-freepaper
CaptiontoFrontPlate:ProfessorKristianBirkelandwithhislefthandrestingonanelectric
dischargetubeofthehigh-voltagedeviceusedin1896togenerateartificialauroraldisplaysin
hislaboratory.AstaNørregaard(1853–1933)paintedthisportraitin1906(100×83cm).
AllRightsReserved
(cid:1)C 2005Springer
Nopartofthisworkmaybereproduced,storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted
inanyformorbyanymeans,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,microfilming,recording
orotherwise,withoutwrittenpermissionfromthePublisher,withtheexception
ofanymaterialsuppliedspecificallyforthepurposeofbeingentered
andexecutedonacomputersystem,forexclusiveusebythepurchaserofthework.
PrintedintheNetherlands.
CONTENTS
Preface......................................................... ix
Introduction..................................................... 1
PartI:BackgroundandEducation.............................. 11
1Atthe19thCentury’sEnd....................................... 11
1.1UnionofNorwayandSweden ............................... 11
1.2TheRoyalFrederikUniversityinKristiania................... 12
1.3EarlyInvestigationoftheAuroraandGeomagnetism........... 13
2ANewAbel................................................... 17
2.1TheBirkelandFamily....................................... 17
2.2HighSchoolandUniversityEducation........................ 19
2.3PostgraduateResearchinFrance,Switzerland,andGermany.... 22
PartII:GeomagneticandSolarSystemResearch ................ 27
3AurorainaVacuumChamber................................... 27
3.1ElectromagneticWaveExperiments.......................... 27
3.2EarlyLaboratorySimulations................................ 28
3.3Birkeland’sOfficesandLaboratoriesattheUniversity.......... 34
3.4TerrellaasAnodeExperiments .............................. 36
4TheNorwegianAuroralExpeditions............................. 45
4.1Birkeland’sFirstExpeditions ................................ 45
4.2ArcticExpeditionof1902–1903 ............................. 57
4.2.1TheFourStations...................................... 61
4.2.2Birkeland’sMainResearchContribution................. 66
4.3ClassificationofGeomagneticDisturbances................... 70
4.3.1PolarElementaryStorms............................... 72
4.3.2EquatorialPerturbations................................ 73
4.3.3Cyclo-MedianPerturbations............................ 74
4.3.4Field-AlignedCurrentsinSpace........................ 75
4.4ThePermanentStationatHalddeMountain................... 77
4.5ControversieswiththeBritishSchool......................... 80
5TheUniverseinaVacuumChamber............................. 87
5.1TerrellaasCathodeExperiments............................. 87
5.2SunspotsandtheSolarMagneticField........................ 87
5.3CometTails................................................ 90
5.4Saturn’sRings.............................................. 93
5.5ZodiacalLight ............................................. 94
5.6ConflictswithCarlStørmer.................................. 98
vi CONTENTS
PartIII:TechnologyandAppliedPhysics........................ 101
6 FastSwitchesandElectromagneticCannons.................... 101
7 InasLittleasFourYears...................................... 109
7.1PlasmaTorchandNitrogenFixation...................... 109
7.2FoundationofNorskHydro.............................. 115
7.3ConflictwithSamEyde.................................. 120
7.4MarcusWallenberg ..................................... 123
7.5OtherTechnicalApplications............................. 125
7.5.1X-Rays ........................................... 126
7.5.2AtomicEnergy .................................... 126
7.5.3RocketPropulsion ................................. 128
7.5.4RadiowavePropagation............................. 128
7.5.5ProductionofMargarine............................ 129
7.5.6HearingAid....................................... 129
7.5.7CodCaviar........................................ 130
7.5.8RadiationTreatment................................ 130
PartIV:BirkelandtheMan..................................... 131
8 AsSeeninHisOwntime ..................................... 131
8.1TeacherandExperimenter ............................... 132
8.2BirkelandasaPopularAuthor............................ 135
8.3PositionsandHonors.................................... 137
8.4NominationsfortheNobelPrize.......................... 138
8.4.1NobelPrizeinChemistry........................... 139
8.4.2NobelPrizeinPhysics.............................. 140
9 Consummatusinbrevi,explevittemporamulta.................. 141
9.1Birkeland’sHealth....................................... 141
9.2MarriageandDivorce ................................... 143
9.3SojourninEgypt........................................ 145
9.4DeathinTokyo......................................... 148
9.5ManyFriends........................................... 156
9.6Birkeland’sWill......................................... 162
PartV:Birkeland’sHeritage.................................... 165
10 FromSmallAcorns........................................... 165
10.1ScienceEducationinNorway ............................ 166
10.2InfluenceonSolar-TerrestrialResearch.................... 167
11 InMemoriam................................................ 175
11.1KristianBirkelandResearchFund ........................ 175
11.2BirkelandSymposium................................... 176
CONTENTS vii
11.3BirkelandLectureSeries................................. 176
11.4TheNorwegian200KronerBanknote..................... 179
Appendix1 Birkeland’sScientificPublications.................... 181
Appendix2 ArchivesandUnpublishedSources................... 189
OlafDevik’sPersonalArchive................................. 189
TheBirkeland-EydeIndustrialMuseumatNotodden............. 189
NorwegianTechnicalMuseuminOslo.......................... 190
TheNationalLibraryArchive ................................. 191
NorskHydroArchive......................................... 191
SamEydeArchive ........................................... 191
NorwegianStortingArchives.................................. 192
UniversityofOslo,CentralAdministration...................... 192
StockholmEnskildaBankenArchives.......................... 192
NorwegianAcademyofScienceandLettersArchive............. 192
PrintedSourcesfromNorwegianNewspapersandJournals....... 192
Biographies.................................................. 194
Appendix3 Patents ............................................ 195
Appendix4 Letters............................................. 201
Letter:BirkelandtoKajaGeemuyden.......................... 201
ExtractsfromTerada’sDiaryConcerningKristianBirkeland
inMay–June1917............................................ 203
Letter:TeradatoBirkeland(writteninEnglish).................. 205
Letter:TeradatoBirkeland(writteninEnglish).................. 206
Letter:NagaokatoBirkeland(writteninEnglish)................ 207
Letter:TeradatoBirkeland(writteninEnglish).................. 208
Letter:NagaokatoBirkeland(writteninEnglish)................ 209
Letter:GerdaThomsentoKarlDevik .......................... 210
Letter:EriksentoBirkeland................................... 213
Bibliography.................................................... 215
Index........................................................... 219
PREFACE
This scientific biography of Kristian Birkeland (1867–1917) was written to
bring the story of a Norwegian national hero to the attention of the English-
speaking world. Birkeland’s heroic stature was established not on a field of
military battle, but in the bitter cold of the Artic wilderness as he sought to
answerbasicquestionsabouthowtheSuncontrollednorthernlightsandmag-
netic storms. He was also a father of Norsk Hydro one of Norway’s largest
industries.Birkelanddiedbeforereachingtheageof50.
Because Birkeland never kept a diary, documented information about his
fffamilyandprivatelifeissparse.Beforehedied,OlafDevik,thelastofBirke-
land’s close friends, gave a long interview and graciously transferred his per-
sonal archive to A.E. Birkeland’s 82 scientific papers and three book-length
publications map the progress of his investigations. We are grateful for the
access granted to review the contents of many different archives. We greatly
benefited from discussions with Professors Leiv Harang and Hannes Alfve´n
as well as members of the Norsk Hydro staff. We are very grateful to Profes-
sor Naoshi Fukushima for translating and making available to us Birkeland-
relatedsegmentsofTorahikoTerada’sdiary.A.E.wouldalsoliketothankEspen
TTrondsen(UniversityofOslo)forcomputerassistanceandMrsL.Hedlundfor
languageadvice.
We also extend special thanks to the staffs at The Norwegian Technical
Museum,theAltaMuseumresponsiblefortheHalddeObservatory,andtothe
Birkeland-Eyde Industrial Museum at Notodden for providing useful illustra-
tions.
The authors express our special thanks to Ms Louise C. Gentile of Boston
College Institute for Scientific Research for proofreading and editing our
manuscript.
Thisbookwouldhavebeenimpossibletowritewithouttheconstantencour-
agement of our families, professional colleagues, and friends. Our gratitude
extendstoallwhomadethisbookpossible.
AlvEgeland
WWWilliamJ.Burke
INTRODUCTION:TEMPORAMUTANTETNOSCUM
ILLISMUTAMUR
Our lives pass within confines that are brief in time and limited in range.
Miraclesofmodernmedicineprolongourdays;modernmeansofcommunica-
tionandtransportationextendourreachacrosstheglobe.Stillweknowlimits.
Personal influence is restricted in duration and locality. Yet there are people,
Mozart comes to mind, whose contributions to collective human experience
extend beyond their prescribed times and places. We place before readers of
thisbook,asynopsisofthelifeandcontributionsofsuchaman,OlafKristian
Bernhard Birkeland, a Professor of Physics at The Royal Frederik University
in Kristiania,1 the capital of Norway, near the beginning of the 20th century.
OursubtitleTheFirstSpaceScientist,placesBirkeland’slifeinthecontextof
space exploration, half a century before “Sputnik” and “Apollo” entered our
vocabularies.
Over the course of the 20th century “space” evolved in the public con-
sciousnessfromthecaptivatingsciencefictionofJulesVerne(1828–1905)to
apracticalrealitythattouchesinnumerableaspectsofmodernliving.Weplan
ouractivitiesaroundweatherforecastsbasedonimagesfromsatelliteshovering
about36,000kilometersabovetheEarth’ssurface.Howdidthistransformation
comeabout?Whileitrepresentsatriumphofrockettechnology,muchmoreis
involved. Scientists had to devise and miniaturize electronic devices. This re-
quiredthedevelopmentofnewmaterialsthatcouldwithstandandoperateinthe
harshradiationenvironmentsofspace.Industryhadtocreatenewmanagement
and quality assurance skills to meet schedules of unprecedented complexity.
Everysinglemechanicalandelectroniccomponenthastoworkwithinexacting
specifications.Oncelaunched,repairservicesarenotavailabletoreplacefailed
components on a 100 million dollar spacecraft. The extraordinarily high cost
of entry to space requires national and international investments and visions
of future possibilities. The critical alliances among science, government, and
industryneededtounderstandandoperateinspaceweresimplyunimaginable
asthe20thcenturybegan.
Atthetimescientistsconstitutedaverysmallpercentageofthetotalpopula-
tion.Thevastmajorityofthesewereeitherassociatedwithuniversitiesorinde-
pendentlywealthy.Oftheformer,teachingresponsibilitiesusuallyoutweighed
1In1925,Norway’scapitalrevertedtoOslo,itsnamebeforethedevastatingfirein1624.King
KristianIVofDenmarkrebuilttheregionandrenamedthecity.For300years,thecitywascalled
Christiania,butduringthelastperiodwasspelledKristiania,asusedhere.