Background
Chaffee, Emory Leon was born on April 15, 1885 in Sommerville, Massachusetts, United States. Son of Emory Franklin and Belle Genevieve (Carter) Chaffee.
engineer physicist university professor
Chaffee, Emory Leon was born on April 15, 1885 in Sommerville, Massachusetts, United States. Son of Emory Franklin and Belle Genevieve (Carter) Chaffee.
Bachelor of Science, Massachusetts Institute Technology, 1907. Master of Arts, Harvard, 1908, Doctor of Philosophy, 1911 (Bowdoin) Prize), South Dakot, (honorary) Harvard, 1944. Doctorate. Engineering (honorary), Chase Institute of Technology, 1955.
He was made an instructor in electrical engineering in 1911 and got a position as assistant professor of physics in 1917. In 1923 he became an associate professor and a professor in 1926. He was appointed Rumford Professor of Physics in 1940, and Gordon McKay Professor of applied physics in 1946.
Chaffee became chairman of the Department of Engineering Sciences and Applied Physics from 1949 till 1952.
He was best known for his work on thermionic vacuum tubes. In 1911 he invented the concept of the Chaffee Gap which was a way of producing continuous oscillations for long-distance telephone transmissions and in 1924 he started to work on controlling weather, using aircraft to break up clouds with electrically charged grains of sands.
Chaffee died in Waltham, Massachusetts.
Fellow American Academy Arts and Sciences, American Physical Society, American Institute Radio Engineers (vice president 1925). Member Tau Beta Pi, Sigma Xi.
Married Alice Hampson, March 25, 1924.