Origins of RAND - Radar development at Tuxedo Park - Alfred Lee Loomis - multimillionare and the ultimate insider - after the war and retiring he never gave an interview (the unknown Howard Hughes)(Tuxedo Park ) Radar won the War - (Manhattan Project) Atomic Bomb ended the war
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/id/131054Tuxedo ParkMs. Conant talked about her book, Tuxedo Park: A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science That Changed the Course of World War II, published by Simon and Schuster. The book is the story of
Alfred Lee Loomis, a wealthy businessman who was also a scientist. He
helped establish a top-secret laboratory at M.I.T. where
advanced radar systems were developed that helped the Allies defeat Germany in World War II.
http://www.amazon.com/Tuxedo-Park-Street-Science-Changed/dp/0684872870http://www.rand.org/about/history/The Origins of RAND
World War II had revealed the importance of technology research and development for success on the battlefield and the wide range of scientists and academics outside the military who made such development possible. Furthermore, as the war drew to a close, it became apparent that complete and permanent peace might not be assured. There were discussions among people in the War Department, the Office of Scientific Research and Development, and industry who saw a need for a private organization to connect military planning with research and development decisions.
In a report to the Secretary of War, Commanding General of the Army Air Force H. H. "Hap" Arnold wrote:
"During this war the Army, Army Air Forces, and the Navy have made unprecedented use of scientific and industrial resources. The conclusion is inescapable that we have not yet established the balance necessary to insure the continuance of teamwork among the military, other government agencies, industry, and the universities. Scientific planning must be years in advance of the actual research and development work."
In addition to General Arnold, key players involved in the formation of Project RAND were:
Edward Bowles of M.I.T., a consultant to the Secretary of War;
General Lauris Norstad, then Assistant Chief of Air Staff, Plans;
Major General Curtis LeMay;
Donald Douglas, President of Douglas Aircraft Company;
Arthur Raymond, Chief Engineer at Douglas;
Franklin Collbohm, Raymond's assistant.
(During the war, both Raymond and Collbohm had been brought to the Pentagon by Bowles to work on a special project that analyzed ways to improve the effectiveness of the B-29.)
...
In May 1946, the first RAND report appeared, Preliminary Design of an Experimental World-Circling Spaceship,[1] concerned with the potential design, performance, and possible use of man-made satellites. A year later, Project RAND moved from the Douglas plant at Santa Monica Airport to offices in downtown Santa Monica. Also in 1947, a symposium was held in New York as part of Project RAND's Evaluation Section as a
first step in enlisting social scientists for the staff.
By early 1948, Project RAND had grown to 200 staff members with expertise in a wide range of fields including:
mathematicians engineers aerodynamicists physicists chemists economists
psychologists ....
On May 14, 1948, RAND was incorporated as a nonprofit corporation under the laws of the State of California. The Articles of Incorporation set forth RAND's purpose in language that was both remarkably brief and breathtakingly broad:
To further and promote scientific, educational, and charitable purposes, all for the public welfare and security of the United States of America.
The three signatories — Franklin Collbohm,
H. Rowan Gaither, Jr., and L.J. Henderson, Jr., RAND associate director — together with eight other prominent individuals selected from academe and industry, constituted RAND's original Board of Trustees.
The other eight members were: Charles Dollard, president, Carnegie Corporation of New York; Lee A. Dubridge, president, California Institute of Technology; John A. Hutcheson, director, research laboratories, Westinghouse Electric Corporation;
Alfred L. Loomis, scientist; Philip M. Morse, physicist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Frederick F. Stephan, professor of social statistics and director, Office of Survey Research and Statistics, Princeton University; George D. Stoddard, president, University of Illinois; and
Clyde Williams, director, Battelle Memorial Institute.
Informal discussions with representatives of the Ford Foundation led to an agreement at the end of July 1948 for an interest-free loan from the Foundation and its guarantee of a private bank loan to RAND. A total of $1 million was secured for operating the new corporation. Four years later, an expansion of the Foundation's loan enabled the establishment of a RAND-Sponsored Research Program, which furnished staff with the means to conduct small non-military research projects. This marked the beginning of the diversification of RAND's agenda and was the first of many grants to RAND by the Ford Foundation to support important new research initiatives.
On November 1, 1948, the Project RAND contract was formally transferred from the Douglas Aircraft Company to the RAND Corporation.http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=574&page=308BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS With that brief introduction to the remarkable career of Alfred L. Loomis, we will now examine the man himself, to find, as one might expect, that he was indeed as extraorcli- nary as his unique accomplishments would suggest.
He was born in New York City on November 4, 1887.
His father was Dr. Henry Patterson Loomis, a well-known physician and professor of clinical medicine at New York and
Cornell medical colleges.
His grandfather, for whom he was named, was the great nineteenth century tuberculosis specialist whose work was commemorated in the naming of the
Loomis Laboratory at Cornell Meclical College, and the Loomis Sanatorium at Liberty, New York. His maternal uncle was also a physician, as well as the father of Alfred Loomis' favorite cousin,
Henry L. Stimson, who was Secretary of State uncle Herbert Hoover, and
Secretary of War throughout World War II.
From Alfred Loomis' eclucational background, one would correctly judge that he came from a prosperous, but not exceedingly wealthy family. He attended St. Matthew's Military Academy in Tarrytown, New York from the age of nine until
he entered Andover [S&B Prep school] at thirteen.
His early interests were chess and magic; in both fields, he attained near professional status. He was a
child prodigy in chess, and could play two simultaneous blindfold games. He was an expert card and coin manipulator, and he also possessed a collection of magic apparatus of the kind used by stage magicians.
On one of the family summer trips to Europe, young Alfred spent most of his money on a large box filled to the brim with folded paper flowers, each of which would spring into shape when released from a confined hiding place. His unhappiest moment came when a customs inspector, noting the protective manner in which the box was being held, insisted that it be opened over the strong protests of its owner. It took a whole afternoon to retrieve all the flowers.
http://nndb.net/people/223/000170710/Alfred Lee Loomis
Born: 4-Nov-1887 Birthplace: New York City
Died: 1-Aug-1975
Alfred Lee Loomis was a wealthy investment banker whose philosophy was to remain as liquid as possible, and as a result he made it through the 1929 stock market crash largely unscathed [Inside information].
When not playing the financial markets, his hobby was science -- he invented an artillery chronograph to measure muzzle velocity of fired shells, and patented an early electroencephalograph. He conducted experiments and research into such topics as sound waves, spectrometry, and the very exact measurement of time, doing all of his work at a lavish laboratory on the grounds of his estate in Tuxedo Park, New York.
His cousin was Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, and from his scientific work and underwriting he counted Vannevar Bush, Robert W. Wood, and John D. Rockefeller, Jr. among his friends. On the basis of this and an advanced (for its time) microwave radar set Loomis had designed and installed in a motor vehicle, he was asked to head the National Defense Research Committee's microwave radar project.
His funding, connections, and not insignificant scientific work were instrumental in the development of more advanced radar that gave Allied forces a military advantage during World War II. He was also involved in development of the
centrifuge microscope, and attended preliminary meetings of the Manhattan Project.
While already married, Loomis had a long affair with his best friend's wife, Manette Hobart, and they married the same day that his divorce from his first wife was finalized. His son, Alfred Loomis Jr., won a gold medal in the yachting competition in the 1948 Olympics.
Another son, Henry Loomis, was appointed by Richard M. Nixon to head the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in the 1970s. His grandfather, Alfred Lebbeus Loomis, was a physician of moderate renown, and Alfred Lee Loomis was a great-uncle of Julie Stimson Thorne, the first wife of US Senator John Kerry.
Father: Henry Patterson Loomis (professor of medicine, b. 1859, d. 1907)
Mother: Julia Stimson Loomis (b. 1861, m. 1887)
Wife: Elizabeth Ellen Farnsworth Loomis ("Betty", d. 1975)
Son: Alfred Lee Loomis, Jr. (venture capitalist, d. 1994)
Son: Henry Loomis (President of Corporation for Public Broadcasting, b. circa 1919)
Son: William Farnsworth Loomis ("Farney", biochemist, b. 1914, d. 1973)
Wife: Manette Seeldrayers Hobart Loomis Christie (d. 1991)
High School: Phillips Academy Andover (1905)
University: BA, Yale University (1909) Law School: LLD, Harvard Law School (1912)
American Astronomical Society
American Association for the Advancement of Science
American Chemical Society
American Philosophical Society
American Physical Society
IEEE
National Academy of Sciences
RAND Corporation Consultant Royal Astronomical Society
National Defense Research Committee
Manhattan Project http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Alfred_Lee_Loomis
Alfred Lee Loomis (November 4, 1887 – August 11, 1975) was an American attorney, investment banker, physicist , philanthropist and patron of scientific research. He established the Loomis Laboratory in Tuxedo Park, New York , and his role in the development of radar is considered instrumental in the Allied victory in World War II . He invented the Aberdeen Chronograph for measuring muzzle velocities, proposed the LORAN navigational system, contributed significantly (perhaps critically, according to Luis Alvarez ) to the development of a ground-controlled approach technology for aircraft, and participated in preliminary meetings of the Manhattan Project .
Loomis also made contributions to biological instrumentation—working with Edmund Newton Harvey, he co-invented the microscope centrifuge, and pioneered techniques for electroencephalography .
In 1937 he discovered the sleep K-complex [REM] brainwave.
...
In 1917
Alfred Loomis and Landon K. Thorne, the wealthy husband of Loomis's sister Julia, purchased of Hilton Head Island, which they established as a private preserve for riding, boating, fishing and hunting.
...
They became very wealthy by financing electric companies as these began to establish the electrical infrastructure of rural America, and Loomis sat on the boards of several banks and electric utilities.
Loomis and Thorne pioneered the concept of the holding company, consolidating many of the electric companies that operated on the East Coast of the United States .
Loomis further increased his fortune via insider trading practices that are now illegal.In anticipation of the Wall Street Crash of 1929, he had converted most of his investments into cash after the market had risen so dramatically that he and his partner decided it was unsustainable. Once the stock market crash had bankrupted the majority of speculators, while Wall Street floundered,
he became even wealthier as a result of purchasing stocks cheaply after they had plummeted in value and few people had the cash to reinvest.
Loomis, always
a very private person who avoided publicity,
retreated from public life entirely after closing the Rad Lab and
finishing his related obligations in 1947. He retired to East Hampton with Manette, and never granted another interview
