Alfred Victor De Forest was an American metallographer and expert in the field of metal testing and inspection.
Background
Alfred Victor De Forest was born on April 7, 1888 in New York City. He was the second of three children and the first son of Lockwood and Meta (Kemble) de Forest. He was a nephew of Robert Weeks de Forest, New York lawyer and social welfare leader. Alfred's maternal grandmother had been a Du Pont, and an uncle, Peter Kemble, who worked at the Du Pont mills, lived with the family and maintained a workshop and darkroom, as did another uncle, Henry Wheeler de Forest, who lived nearby. These men gave Alfred his introduction to science and engineering. His father was a noted artist and interior decorator and an avid devotee of sailing.
Education
Young De Forest was a sailing enthusiast, and after graduating from the Middlesex School in 1907, he enrolled as a student of naval architecture at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, obtaining the Bachelor of Science degree in 1912.
Career
In 1913, after a brief term as draftsman for the New London Ship & Engine Company, De Forest accepted a position as instructor in thermodynamics and graphics at Princeton University. There he met Donald P. Smith, professor of metallography and physical chemistry, through whose influence he acquired his deep and lifelong interest in those subjects.
In the fall of 1915 he served as a metallographic laboratory assistant to William Campbell at Columbia University. From 1916 to 1918 he was employed by the Remington Arms Company in Bridgeport, Connecticut Then in 1918 he moved to the American Chain Company, also in Bridgeport, as a research engineer.
For the next twelve years de Forest was actively engaged in experimental developments in welding and machine building and in applications of electrical and magnetic principles to inspection techniques. He wrote papers for the American Society for Metals, the American Institute of Metallurgical Engineers, the Iron and Steel Institute, the American Society for Testing Materials, and the International Society for Testing Materials.
When the depression of the 1930s dried up funds for research, de Forest turned to consulting as a full-time occupation, his clients including John Chatillon Sons in New York, Wyckoff Drawn Steel and Spay Chalfont companies in Pittsburgh, and the Walworth Company.
The most significant development of his consulting period was the invention of a method of detecting, by magnetic means, defects or cracks in a piece of iron or steel caused in the process of forging or welding or by fatigue or wear. This led to the founding, in 1930, of the Magnaflux Corporation, which he headed as president.
In 1934, prompted by a concern for his son's undergraduate work at Harvard and for the entire nature of engineering education, de Forest accepted a position as a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, upon the urging of Vannevar Bush, then a dean, and Jerome Hunsaker, head of the mechanical and aeronautical departments. "Of teaching I knew nothing and I was familiar with little of the content of mechanical engineering, " he confessed, but the challenge of working with engineering students and the opportunity for close association with the M. I. T. faculty were too tempting to resist. It was a position perfectly suited to his fertile mind and dynamic personality, and he filled it with skill and imagination until his death.
While at M. I. T. he joined with Prof. Arthur C. Ruge to found (1939) the Ruge-de Forest Company, and their partnership turned out significant inventions and ideas relating to the fields of inspection and testing. The most important of these involved the bonded wire strain gauge, which found critical application in the aircraft and shipbuilding industries in World War II.
Achievements
Religion
De Forest's religious affiliation was with the Episcopal Church.
Personality
To his students, Professor De Forest, partially crippled by a bout with polio, presented a striking appearance. His high, rounded forehead topped off by a wild mane of gray-white hair, his flashing blue eyes, and the permanent trace of a smile about his lips rightly suggested a man of wisdom who very much enjoyed life. His associates were continually amazed by the speed and precision of his mind and his boundless enthusiasm and energy.
Connections
On August 22, 1912, at Bar Harbor, Maine, de Forest married Izette Taber of Philadelphia, a noted lay psychoanalyst and student of Freud and Sandor Ferenczi. They had two children, a son, Taber (1913), and a daughter, Judith Brasher (1915).