SHARE:  
Join Our Email List
To Celebrate the AVS 60th Anniversary Please Enjoy a Step Back in Time
Vacuum History Fact

March 12, 1824

Birthday of Gustav Kirchhoff, German physicist who, with Robert Bunsen, established the theory of spectrum analysis. He found that when light passes through a gas, the gas absorbs those wavelengths that it would emit if heated, which explained the numerous dark lines (Fraunhofer lines) in the Sun's spectrum.    

   

March 12, 1895  

Birthday of Leo Esaki, Japanese physicist who shared (with Ivar Giaever and Brian Josephson) the Nobel Prize in Physics (1973) in recognition of his pioneering work on electron tunneling in solids. Esaki's discovery led to the creation of the Esaki diode
, with practical applications in high-speed circuits found in computers and communications networks.  

 

March 14, 1939

John Dubrovin files U.S. patent No. 2337849 for a mechanical oil-sealed vacuum pump, sold as the now classic Welch Duo-Seal� pump.    
AVS Trivia Fact

   

Correction:

The Vacuum Technology Division was founded in 1970. Since AVS was established to provide an information exchange on vacuum technology, it had seemed unnecessary to have a division devoted to that topic but the formation of the Vacuum Metallurgy (1961) and Thin Film Divisions (1963) changed minds

 

Which President was Threatened with Imprisonment by the U.S. Government?

 

John Vossen, in 1980 over Chinese attending "The First International Conference on Bubble Memory Materials & Technology"

 

Who was the First Woman to Serve as an AVS President?

 

Dorothy Hoffman in 1974 was the first woman to be President of any scientific society in the USA.

 

Gather all these fun AVS facts to participate in the AVS History Committees Trivia Contest held during the AVS 60th International Symposium & Exhibition this October.     

 

 

 
AVS, 125 Maiden Lane, New York, New York 10038