<\/p>\n
In 1920, Cottrell briefly served as the chief of the
\nBureau of Mines for 8 months. Beginning in 1921 Cottrell also served as the chairman of
\nthe National Research Council’s Division of Chemistry and Chemical Technology. The
\nNational Research Council was funded by the Carnegie and Rockefeller Foundations, among
\nothers. This put him in touch with Rockefellers and Carnegies – two family names
\nhighly correlated with the New Manhattan Project.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
With the exception of an early grant to Cottrell as
\npart of a company promotion, the Research Corporation didn’t really start giving
\nout money for the advancement of science until 1923. In 1923 the Research Corporation
\nmade their first real grant when they paid $5K toward the atmospheric sounding rocket
\nexperiments of the American rocketry pioneer Robert H. Goddard (1882-1945). This was an
\ninvestment in the atmospheric sciences as sounding rockets are used to gather
\natmospheric data. From the beginning, the Research Corporation was funding projects
\nhighly relevant to the New Manhattan Project. As we will soon see, many others were
\nfunded later.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
At the Research Corporation, the way it worked was
\nthat Howard Poillon ran day-to-day operations while Cottrell was largely responsible for
\ndeveloping new inventions and ideas, accepting new patents, and the granting of funds.
\nCottrell’s official status was that of a paid consultant.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Another early recipient of Research Corporation money
\nwas Ernest Orlando Lawrence (1901-1958): Manhattan Project scientist and the father of
\nthe cyclotron. In 1931 the Research Corporation made the first of many grants to Ernest
\nLawrence for the development of his cyclotron.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In late July of 1931, after Lawrence had successfully
\nproduced a million-volt proton with an eleven inch accelerator, Fred Cottrell encouraged
\nhis friend from UC Berkeley to ask the Research Corporation for funding. Before the end
\nof the month, Lawrence was in New York, asking the Research Corporation for $10-$15K.
\nCottrell came along to personally introduce Lawrence and plead his case before the board
\nof directors. The Research Corporation was impressed with Lawrence and they decided to
\nmake a $5K grant, even though they had to go to the bank and borrow the funds because
\nthey were in the throes of the Great Depression. William Buffum of the Chemical
\nFoundation followed up with a promise of another $2.5K.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
On different occasions between 1931 and 1940, the
\nResearch Corporation gave to Lawrence’s work at the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory:
\n$5K, $1.8K, $2K, $2K, $3K, $1K, $5K, $1.7K, $7.5K, $5K, and $50K. That’s a grand
\ntotal of $84K, or, conservatively, about $1.5M in today’s dollars.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Research Corporation, as the assignee, also
\napplied for one of Lawrence’s patents for him. Their collaborative patent
\n“Method and Apparatus for the Acceleration of Ions” covers methods
\nof the cyclotronic production of radioactive substances discovered by Lawrence.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Cottrell’s biographer Cameron writes,
\n“In the thirties, when the period of intensive study of atomic energy began,
\nthe earliest diversified support and encouragement of the development of the techniques
\nof nuclear physics in America came from Research Corporation.” He also writes,
\n“The Lawrence patent had, by 1949, been licensed free of royalties to twenty-eight
\nuniversities and scientific institutions to build cyclotrons. More than that, it was
\nincome from the precipitation patents that helped in several instances to build or
\noperate these cyclotrons which the corporation licensed.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Along with funding Lawrence, the Research Corporation
\nfunded other early cyclotron work at: Columbia University, the University of Rochester,
\nthe University of Chicago, and Cornell University.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Research Corporation also funded Robert Van de
\nGraaff’s (1901-1967) electrostatic generator, also known as a Van de Graaff-Trump
\naccelerator after the Donald’s uncle, John G. Trump (1907-1985). Van de
\nGraaff’s work was conducted at MIT. Cameron writes, “[The Van de Graaff
\ngroup of patents on the electrostatic generator] were assigned to Research Corporation
\nunder a general agreement with Massachusetts Institute of Technology and in turn were
\nultimately licensed back to the High Voltage Engineering Corporation formed by Van de
\nGraaff and his associates.” Van de Graaff’s associates included John
\nTrump. As readers of this work already know, John Trump was the MIT professor who looked
\nover Nikola Tesla’s posthumously confiscated documents.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In 1938 it was reported that the Research Corporation
\nhad donated funds to Columbia University in order to support their program of supplying,
\n“artificial radioactive materials for use as tracers in biochemical
\nprocesses.” Today the New Manhattan Project uses atmospheric radioactive
\ntracers along with satellites to actively map atmospheric activity.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
At some point during this time, the Research
\nCorporation moved out of its original offices on Wall St. and moved into offices in the
\nsteeple of the Chrysler Building in Manhattan.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In the early thirties, the Smithsonian had
\nestablished a laboratory for Cottrell’s use. In this laboratory Cottrell installed
\na man by the name of Chester Gilbert who was formerly the president of the American Coal
\nCorporation. At the Smithsonian laboratory, after receiving an anonymous donation of
\n$6K, Gilbert initially investigated the production of lime-gypsum plaster based on some
\nResearch Corporation patents. Gilbert’s lime-gypsum work led him to work
\npertaining to the use of coal fly ash. This work put Gilbert and Cottrell among the
\npioneers in the field of coal fly ash utilization, a field that continues to this day.
\nGilbert and Cottrell figured that coal fly ash could be processed and then used as a
\nfiller in cements and plasters. They also went about processing coal fly ash for use as
\na household cleaning powder.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The author of Cottrell’s biography, Frank
\nCameron describes the Research Corporation’s Smithsonian laboratory in a very
\ninteresting way. Cameron describes the Smithsonian laboratory as analogous to a
\nphenomenon germane to weather modification and the atmospheric sciences: nucleation.
\nCuriously, when referring to the laboratory where Gilbert and Cottrell performed
\npioneering work in the field of coal fly ash utilization, Cameron writes,
\n“They [Gilbert and Cottrell] did not foresee it as the mote, the speck of dust
\naround which Cottrell’s ideas and those of his protégés, like so many
\nparticles of moisture, would begin to coalesce to form the drop of
\nrain.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It may have been during this time that Gilbert,
\nCottrell, or other pioneers in the field of coal fly ash utilization noticed or figured
\nthat the smoke from coal-fired, electrical power plants causes precipitation. It had
\nbeen noted for many years previously that explosions and smoke from burning fires cause
\nprecipitation. Maybe the Research Corporation and their Smithsonian laboratory attempted
\nto determine the validity of these claims by doing a study about whether or not, under
\nthe appropriate atmospheric conditions, the smoke from coal-fired electrical power
\nplants can be scientifically proven to cause precipitation. It is known today that if
\ncoal is finely pulverized before combustion, then many of the resultant fly ash
\nparticles will be the optimum size for atmospheric nucleation (.1 micron). Maybe they
\neven collected some of this coal fly ash from one of their electrostatic precipitators
\nand dumped it out of an airplane to see if it caused atmospheric precipitation. Just
\nsayin’. And if the reader is aware of just how many of the author’s
\nspeculations have turned out to be directly over the target, then the reader should be
\njust listenin’.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
As the years went on, the Research
\nCorporation’s electrostatic precipitator business grew and grew. In 1928 Research
\nCorporation had 43 contracts in hand to build and install electrostatic precipitators.
\nIn 1941 Research Corporation had 95 contracts to build and install electrostatic
\nprecipitators. In 1942 Research Corporation had 130 contracts.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
During WWII something called the Research
\nConstruction Company, which was formed by the Research Corporation, served as a
\n‘model shop’ for MIT’s Radiation Laboratory. Under contract to MIT,
\nthe Research Construction Company produced over $12M worth of radar apparatus. In their
\nbook commemorating their centennial anniversary, the Research Corporation for Science
\nAdvancement tells us, “Research Construction Company made small production
\nruns for immediate military needs. Successful prototypes were turned over to government
\ncontractors for mass production.” This is significant because the wartime MIT
\nRadiation Laboratory has serious implications for the New Manhattan Project.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Cottrell eventually returned to Berkeley and died in
\nhis chair during a morning meeting of the National Academy of Sciences on the campus of
\nUC Berkeley in November of 1948. Cameron writes, “About nine-thirty he slumped
\nin his chair, his head back, an audible rattle in his throat.<\/p>\n
He died among friends. Hildebrand, of the
\nuniversity’s chemistry department, helped Farrington Daniels lay him on the floor,
\nand it was thought that death had come instantly. A doctor arrived and after the body
\nhad been removed it was the sentiment of those attending that Cottrell would have wished
\nthe meeting to go on.<\/p>\n
The session continued.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Research Corporation for Science Advancement
\nwrites of significant developments in the post-war era, “In 1954, as a result of
\n[a] change in the tax law, Research Corporation reorganized its precipitator business as
\nResearch-Cottrell, a wholly-owned but taxable subsidiary.” The authors continue,
\n“From 1957 to 1967 Research Corporation was supported mainly by the earnings
\nof its commercial precipitation subsidiary, Research-Cottrell, and royalties from
\ninventions in its patent portfolios.” “By the mid-1960s, further
\nfederal efforts to limit nonprofit control over commercial activities prompted Research
\nCorporation to lower the percentage of its ownership in the precipitator business, and
\nResearch-Cottrell became a publicly held company in 1967.\u02ee<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“The [Research Corporation]
\nFoundation’s endowment was established during the second half of the twentieth
\ncentury, coming primarily from the Research-Cottrell stock offering. Research
\nCorporation finally divested itself of all of the precipitator firm’s stock in the
\n1980s.” “The Foundation’s precipitator business, Research-Cottrell,
\nsurvives as Hamon-Research Cottrell, a public corporation headquartered in New Jersey
\nthat is a major provider of air-pollution control technology.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Research Corporation has historically given many
\ngrants to scientific studies conducted in areas relevant to the New Manhattan Project.
\nThe Research Corporation has consistently funded work in the areas of: plasma physics,
\nastrophysics, microwave spectroscopy, radioactive tracers, atmospheric physics,
\nelectromagnetic fields, particle physics, meteorology, ionospheric research, nucleation,
\nbiology, and more.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Famous scientists implicated in the New Manhattan
\nProject such as Merle Tuve (1901-1982), Isidor Rabi (1898-1988), and CalTech’s Lee
\nDuBridge (1901-1994) have all been Research Corporation grantees.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Merle Tuve<\/p>\n
In 1965 Alfred Y.F. Wong of the University of
\nCalifornia at Los Angeles’ Plasma Physics Lab received $6K for work in,
\n“Experimental studies of fundamental plasma physics.” Again in 1972
\nWong received $10K from the Research Corporation. The following year Barrett H. Ripin,
\nReiner L. Stenzel, and the aforementioned Alfred Wong of UCLA got $10,200 to study ion
\nbeam-plasma wave interactions.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This is the same Alfred Y.F. Wong who went on, in the
\n1980s, to found and direct the High Power Auroral Stimulation (HIPAS) ionospheric heater
\nin Alaska. The HIPAS ionospheric heater was a precursor to the infamous High-Frequency
\nActive Auroral Research Program (HAARP) antenna. Further, my science advisor tells me
\nthat weather modification work prominently mentioned by Vice Admiral William F. Raborn,
\nJr. was conducted at the HIPAS facility.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This is the same Alfred Y.F. Wong that got busted for
\nfraudulently producing phony invoices pertaining to U.S. government contract work. He
\npled guilty, was sentenced to 5 days behind bars, as well as six months home detention,
\nand was ordered to pay nearly $1.7M in restitution.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Wong is currently listed on UCLA’s website as a
\nProfessor Emeritus of ‘Exp. Plasma & Environmental Physics.’<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n