Irving Langmuir and the Pursuit of Science and Technology in the Corporate Environment

Bibliographic Data

ID4025539
AuthorsLeonard S Reich (corresponding author)
Year1983
Volume24
Issue2
Pages199
Publication date1983-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueTechnology and Culture (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0040-165X • E-ISSN: 1097-3729
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/3104037
OpenAlexW2323082878
LanguageEN
Citations received11

An researcher of tremendous capability and diverse interests, Irving Langmuir was at once a chemist, physicist, engineer, and employee of the General Electric Company (GE) for over forty years. He won the Nobel Prize in chemistry (1932) and was awarded sixty-three U.S. patents, some of considerable value. Not surprisingly, understanding Langmuir's work presents a problem to those who approach his career equipped with preconceptions about the roles of scientists and engineers in industry. Physicist Percy Bridgman recognized this dilemma in his introduction to Langmuir's collected works: It is not easy to separate Langmuir's work into physical, chemical, and engineering components, but all three are intertwined with an intimacy not often exhibited in the work of other scientists.1 Bridgman thought of Langmuir as a scientist, not as an engineer or, more broadly, an industrial researcher. Yet the term scientist alone does not clearly describe Langmuir, nor would it fit some of the other excellent American researchers of the

Langmuir · Physical chemistry · Political science · Science, technology and society · Social science · Sociology · Chemistry · Competitive and Knowledge Intelligence · Research, Science, and Academia

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