Percy W. Bridgman stereo-photograph, left

Percy Williams Bridgman

1882 - 1961

Percy Williams' Bridgman was a physicist who recieved all of his university degrees from Harvard University (beginning in 1900 and recieving his PhD in 1910). He then began his teaching career, also at Harvard University, becoming a professor in 1919. He became the Hollis Professorship of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in 1926. He remained a professor and researcher at Harvard until his retirement. His research in physics consisted mainly in the production of high pressures and in studying the effects of those pressure on matter. He raised the limit of high pressure production from 3 000 atmospheres (achieved by Emile Amagat in the early 20th century) to 425 000 atmospheres (statistics from George Sarton's introduction to Bridgman's article "Science and Freedom, Reflections of a Physicist" in Isis 37 (1947), p. 128). Bridgman recieved the Nobel Prize for Physics in November 1946 for his work on high pressures and the effects on matter.

Bridgman also worked on synthesizing diamonds from graphite using high pressures and temperatures. Although he was unsuccessful in synthesizing diamonds, he made many contributions to this field as well.

Terms

reference

The Harvard University Archives have an extensive Bridgman Collection whose contents is documented online, "Bridgman, P. W. (Percy Williams), 1882-1961. Papers of Percy Williams Bridgman : an inventory," OASIS, http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/deepLink?_collection=oasis&uniqueId=hua03000 (accessed 08/28/2014)

reference

On Bridgman's career in physics, "Percy W. Bridgman - Biographical," Nobelprize.org, http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1946/bridgman-bio.html (accessed 08/28/2014)

reference

Academic Biographies of Bridgman's Life:

Kenble, Edwin C. & Francis Birch. Percy Williams Bridgman, 1882 - 1961. A biographical memoir. New York: Columbia University Press, 1970.

Walter, Maila L. Science and cultural crisis: an intellectual biography of Percy Williams Bridgman (1882 - 1961). Sanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1990 [1985].

Bridgman also wrote extensively on more philosophical matters. Among them, Bridgman coined the term "operational definition" and advocated operationalism as a philosophy of science.

ibliography of Bridgman's Writings in Natural Philosophy:

Bridgman, Percy W. Physical Review 8 (1916), pp. 423 - 431.
-- Dimensional Analysis. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1922.
-- Logic of Modern Physics. New York: Macmillan, 1927. [German translation (Munich, 1932; Isis 27, 166)].
-- The new vision of science" in Harper's Magazine (March 1929).
-- "Permanent elements in the flux of present-day physics" in Science 71 (1930), pp. 539 - 547.
-- "The recent change of attitude toward the law of cause and effect" in Science 73 (1931), pp. 539 - 547.
-- "Statistical Mechanics and the second law of thermodynamics" in Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society (April 1932), pp. 225 - 245.
-- "The time scale. The concept of time" in Scientific Monthly 36 (1932), pp. 97 - 100.
-- "Nature and limitations of cosmical inquiries" in Scientific Monthly 37 (1933), pp. 385 - 397.
-- "A physicist's second reaction to Mengenlehre" in Scripta Mathematica 2 (1934), pp. 224 - 234.
-- "Energy" in Gamme Alpha Record 24 (1934), pp. 1 - 6.
-- Nature of physical theory. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1936.
-- The intelligent individual and society. New York: Macmillan, 1938.
-- "Operational Analysis" in Philosophy of Science 5 (1938), pp. 114 - 131.
-- "Society and the intelligent physicst" in American Physics Teacher 7 (1939), pp. 109 - 116.
-- "Science: public or private?" in Philosophy of Science 7 (1940), pp. 36 - 48.
-- Nature of Thermodynamics. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1941.
--- "A challenge to physicists" in Jounral of Applied Physics 13 (1942), p. 209.
--- "Science and its changing social environment" in Science 97 (1943), pp. 147 - 150.
--- "Some general principles of operational analysis" in Psychological Review 52 (1945), pp. 246 - 249.
--- "The prospect for intelligence" in Yale Review 34 (1945), pp. 246 - 249.
--- "Science and Freedom: Reflections of a Physicist" in Isis, Vol. 37 (July 1947), pp. 128 - 131. (Lib. 556)
--- The Nature of Some of our Physical Concepts New York: Philosophical Library, 1952.

Book(s) related to this person:

Synthetic Diamonds

Certain Aspects of Plastic Flow Under High Stress

Effects of Pressure on Binary Alloys. Miscellaneous Effects of Pressure on Miscellaneous Substances

The Experiments of Dr. P. W. Bridgman on the Properties of Matter when Under High Pressure

The Nature of Some of Our Physical Concepts, I, II, & III

Science and Freedom: Reflections of a Physicist