Melville Clark was an American physicist and electrical engineer whose career ranged from wartime nuclear research and controlled-fusion studies to plasma physics, technical consulting, and musical acoustics. He taught nuclear engineering at MIT, co-authored books on fusion and reactor analysis, developed expressive electronic instruments, and received more than twenty patents.
Background
Melville Clark was born on December 19, 1921, in Syracuse, New York, to Melville Clark Sr. and Dorothy Drew (Speich) Clark. His father was a harpist and entrepreneur, while his mother was a pianist. The family connection with music later intersected with Clark's scientific work on musical tone, electronic instruments, and the physical properties of sound.
Clark grew up in Syracuse, a New York industrial and cultural center with an established tradition of musical manufacturing and performance. He maintained ties to the Clark musical-enterprise tradition through the Clark Music Company and related businesses while pursuing a career in physics and nuclear engineering.
Education
Clark received a Bachelor of Science degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1943. MIT's engineering and scientific programs were closely connected with the industrial and military research mobilization of the Second World War, and Clark entered professional laboratory work during that period.
He later earned master's and doctoral degrees in physics from Harvard University. His graduate work followed wartime laboratory service and coincided with the rapid development of nuclear physics in the United States. He also undertook postgraduate work at Princeton University, including association with its research environment and fellowship support during the late 1940s.
Career
Clark began his scientific career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Radiation Laboratory, where he worked from 1942 to 1945 during the wartime expansion of radar and applied physics. He then joined the Manhattan District at the University of California's Los Alamos laboratory from 1945 to 1946. Los Alamos was the principal wartime center for the development of nuclear weapons, and Clark's work there placed him within the formative period of American nuclear science.
After graduate study, Clark worked at Brookhaven National Laboratory from 1949 to 1953 and at the University of California Radiation Laboratory in Livermore from 1953 to 1955. Brookhaven was a major national laboratory for reactor and nuclear research, while the Livermore laboratory became an important center for advanced nuclear and plasma investigations. His documented technical work included studies of reactor shielding, fuel-element temperatures, reactor transients, and cooling problems.
Clark joined the MIT Department of Nuclear Engineering in 1955 and became an associate professor. From 1955 to 1962 he taught nuclear engineering and directed theoretical and experimental research in thermonuclear processes, fission-reactor physics, controlled fusion, and plasma theory. With David J. Rose, he co-authored Plasmas and Controlled Fusion, a 1961 graduate-level treatment of plasma physics and fusion research. He later co-authored Numerical Methods of Reactor Analysis, published in 1964, which presented numerical methods for solving reactor-physics problems.
Alongside his academic and nuclear work, Clark remained involved with the Clark Music Company in Syracuse, serving as director from 1948 to 1960 and vice president from 1957 to 1960. He was president of Melville Clark Associations in Wayland, Massachusetts, in 1949 and president of Meldor Corporation in Cazenovia, New York, from 1960 to 1966. He also worked as a specialist at Sylvania Electric Products in Waltham from 1962 to 1964 and as a scientist at Avco in Wilmington from 1964 to 1967.
Clark later worked with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Electronics Research Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he was associated with plasma and radiation research from 1967 to 1970. His 1969 NASA technical note examined the feasibility of detecting radiation scattered from a plasma and proposed measurements based on Doppler-shifted spectral lines. After leaving MIT and government laboratory work, he continued as a physicist and consulting engineer, including work connected with Combustion Engineering, Raytheon, and the law firm Pennie and Edmonds, where he served as an expert witness from 1984.
Clark's later scientific interests centered on musical acoustics and electronic sound reproduction. He developed the Expressor, an electronic instrument intended to reproduce the expressive tonal qualities of orchestral instruments, and continued refining it from analog versions to later digital designs. His patents covered musical instruments, signal processing, tone generation, and systems for controlling musical expression. In 1992 he established the nonprofit Institute for Scientific Research in Music, which supported continuing study of the relationship between acoustics, perception, and musical performance.
Achievements
Clark conducted wartime nuclear and radiation research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Radiation Laboratory and Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory during the Second World War.
As an MIT associate professor of nuclear engineering, Clark directed research in thermonuclear processes, fission-reactor physics, controlled fusion, and plasma theory.
Clark developed the Expressor electronic instrument and related systems for reproducing orchestral tone, musical expression, and performer-controlled variation.
Clark held more than twenty patents involving electronic musical instruments, signal processing, tone generation, and musical control systems.
Clark founded the Institute for Scientific Research in Music in 1992 to support scientific study of acoustics, musical perception, and sound reproduction.
Works
journal article
A Preliminary Experiment on the Perceptual Basis for Musical Instrument Families
(Article co-authored with Paul Robertson and David Luck ex...)
(Co-authored with Kent F. Hansen, this work presented nume...)
Views
Clark's scientific and musical work reflected a sustained interest in the relationship between physical measurement and human perception. His research in musical acoustics treated expressive performance as a problem that could be examined through sound analysis, electronic control, and the reproduction of instrumental tone. The Expressor project pursued the idea that electronic instruments should preserve not only pitch and timbre but also the performer-controlled variations associated with orchestral expression.
Membership
Clark was associated with the American Physical Society, the American Institute of Physics, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Acoustical Society of America, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the Association for Computing Machinery, the Society for Music Perception and Cognition, the Fusion Power Association, and Sigma Xi. These organizations represented the scientific, engineering, acoustical, computing, and research communities in which his work developed.
American Physical Society
,
United States
American Institute of Physics
,
United States
Fusion Power Association
,
United States
American Association for the Advancement of Science
,
United States
Acoustical Society of America
,
United States
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
,
United States
Member of the Greater Boston chapter.
Association for Computing Machinery
,
United States
Society for Music Perception and Cognition
,
United States
Sigma Xi
,
United States
Interests
Musical acoustics, electronic instrument design, musical perception, and the scientific study of sound.
Music & Bands
Clark had experience playing the trombone and organ and pursued the physics of musical tone and orchestral sound reproduction.
Connections
Clark was the son of Melville Clark Sr., a harpist and entrepreneur, and Dorothy Drew (Speich) Clark, a pianist. His family background connected him with the Clark Music Company and with a longstanding interest in musical instruments and performance. He later worked with David J. Rose on Plasmas and Controlled Fusion and with David A. Luce on patents concerning electronic musical instruments and signal processing.
Father:
Melville Clark Sr.
Harpist and entrepreneur associated with the Clark musical-enterprise tradition.
Mother:
Dorothy Drew (Speich) Clark
Pianist and mother of Melville Clark.
References
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory memorial biography
Documents Clark's birth and family background, wartime laboratory work, MIT teaching, controlled-fusion research, Expressor instrument, patents, consulting career, and founding of the Institute for Scientific Research in Music.
MIT Institute Archives appointment announcement
Documents Clark's appointment as an assistant professor at MIT and summarizes his previous work at the MIT Radiation Laboratory, Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and the University of California Radiation Laboratory.
1955
MIT Press: Plasmas and Controlled Fusion
Provides bibliographic and biographical information about Clark's co-authored 1961 book and his academic and musical-acoustics work.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology scholar,
United States
Clark held scholar status at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology during 1939–1943 while completing his undergraduate education and entering wartime scientific work.
Clark held scholar status at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology during 1939–1943 while completing his undergraduate education and entering wartime scientific work.
National Research Council predoctoral fellowship,
United States
Clark received National Research Council predoctoral fellowship support associated with Harvard University from 1946 to 1949.
Clark received National Research Council predoctoral fellowship support associated with Harvard University from 1946 to 1949.
Hercules Powder Company fellowship,
United States
Clark received National Research Council predoctoral and Hercules Powder Company fellowship support associated with Princeton University during the late 1940s.
Clark received National Research Council predoctoral and Hercules Powder Company fellowship support associated with Princeton University during the late 1940s.
