the history of radio astronomy and the national radio astronomy observatory: evolution toward big...

The History of Radio Astronomy and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory: Evolutiontoward Big Science by Benjamin K. MalphrusReview by: Jon AgarIsis, Vol. 88, No. 2 (Jun., 1997), pp. 359-361Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/236626 .

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BOOK REVIEWS-ISIS, 88: 2 (1997) 359

point historians of science. The authors make lit- tle attempt to situate the story of Lincoln Labo- ratory in a wider context: larger political and cultural issues are given scant or superficial cov- erage, and the extensive relevant scholarship on related subjects, in particular the history of other defense laboratories, is largely ignored. The information about the laboratory itself is also open to question, as the text includes few footnotes. Because the authors fail to explain how their study proceeded, historians of science will won- der whether the resulting research was per- formed in an acceptable scholarly manner. The book does not state who initiated the study or how it was funded. In addition, apart from re- marking that some information was excluded for security reasons, the authors give no indication of how much freedom they had in framing issues, gathering facts, or making historical judg- ments. Incredibly, even their own identities are shrouded in mystery. The book has an editor, Eva C. Freeman, but she does not explain her role; the only clue about authorship appears in an acknowledgment, which lists thirty-eight peo- ple "who wrote or coordinated portions of the book" (p. xii).

Given these omissions, perhaps it is best to judge the book on its own terms-as an effort to showcase the accomplishments of Lincoln Lab- oratory-rather than as an attempt at historical scholarship. The assembled success stories do make pleasant reading, and the authors repeat- edly note that problems were difficult and the solutions remarkable. In the telling, however, problem solving is pictured as a snap: staff mem- bers smoothly solve one problem after the other. The authors carefully gloss over or omit the in- evitable embarrassing mistakes, unflattering confusion and conflict, and frustration that char- acterize cutting-edge technological problem solving. Thus, instead of showcasing accomplishment, the book demonstrates what is lost when painful details are edited out of history. In addition to depriving the history of its credabil- ity, such editing robs achievers of the full credit they deserve.

CATHERINE WESTFALL

Benjamin K. Malphrus. The History of Radio Astronomy and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory: Evolution toward Big Science. viii + 199 pp., frontis, illus., figs., tables, bibls., index. Malabar, Fla.: Krieger Publishing, 1996.

Benjamin Malphrus's history of radio astronomy is a popular account of the formation and work

of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). It focuses mainly on the construction of the telescope systems that constitute the NRAO and celebrates the observations and discoveries that have been made with these instruments. Malphrus begins with a thumbnail history of the emergence of radio astronomy, describing the isolated researches of radio engineers Karl Jansky and Grote Reber; he then turns to the postwar radio astronomy projects in Britain, Australia, the Netherlands, and the United States.

In Malphrus's view, the NRAO's roots lie in a "social philosophy of science"-essentially the promotion of federal funding of large-scale basic science-that was embodied in new institutions such as the National Science Foundation (NSF). In January 1954, at an international meeting jointly sponsored by the NSF, the California In- stitute of Technology, and the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism of the Carnegie Institu- tion, it was suggested that a large radio telescope for shared use should be constructed. As Allan Needell has discussed in Osiris (1987, 3:261- 288), two rival alliances articulated two different conceptions of what a shared national radio astronomy facility might be like. The first group, the Associated Universities for Research in As- tronomy (AURA), composed primarily of south- eastern universities, revolved around physicist Merle Tuve. The second association, the primarily northeastern Associated Universities Incor- porated (AUI), was directed by Lloyd Berkner and managed the Brookhaven laboratories. Fol- lowing Needell, Malphrus describes the conflict between Tuve, a supporter of "pure science" but also chair of an influential NSF subcommittee on radio astronomy, and Berkner, for whom science had become "an essential political, eco- nomic, and military force." The AUI conducted a feasibility study that recommended the future telescope should measure up to 600 feet in di- ameter and should be located within 300 miles of Washington. This huge instrument was to be the central instrument of an observatory man- aging a series of large, fully steerable radio telescopes, beginning with one 140 feet in diame- ter. The AUI proposals were approved in November 1956, and construction of the NRAO began at Green Bank, West Virginia, the follow- ing year.

The NRAO started out with a small staff directed by Otto Struve, who replaced the interim head, Berkner. A steerable 85-foot telescope, built by the Blaw-Knox Company in just two years and capable of operating at relatively high frequencies, allowed the NRAO to establish it-



360 BOOK REVIEWS-ISIS, 88: 2 (1997)

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Erection of the 180-ton superstructure of the 140-foot National Radio Astronomy Observatoiy near Green Bank, West Virginia, in 1964 (reprinted from Malphrus, History of Radio Astronomy and the National Radio Astronomy Laboratory).

self quickly. NRAO radio astronomers were soon contributing to ongoing research: observing a nonthermal component of radio emissions from Jupiter, for example, and producing de- tailed surveys of intense sources such as the galactic center. Struve also approved high-risk, high-gain projects, in particular Frank Drake's Project Ozma to search solar-type stars for un- usual signals. Although no "exobiological life forms" were found, Malphrus claims Drake's project introduced new techniques (parametric amplification and digital data processing) to radio astronomy.

Malphrus devotes much of his book to describing the construction and use of three telescope systems: a 140-foot, all-purpose, high-pre- cision instrument; a 300-foot transit telescope; and an interferometer-the original 85-foot telescope combined with extra dishes.

For the 140-foot system the AUI and NSF considered very different designs, by Jacob Feld, H. C. Husband, and D. S. Kennedy, but rejected them all in favor of one by Ned Ashton, who had previous experience with a Naval Research Lab-

oratory telescope. Although Malphrus describes this decision as "controversial," he does not explain the controversy adequately. Instead he ex- amines the "fundamental" discoveries made with this telescope after its completion in 1965, in particular the measurement of a galactic mag- netic field and the detection of molecular spectral lines within galactic gas clouds, including the organic molecule formaldehyde in 1969.

The decision to build the 300-foot transit telescope was intimately connected with progress on the 140-foot telescope. The latter was a complex instrument; its construction was impeded by de- lays; and it was controlled by the AUI. Accord- ing to Malphrus, staff at the NRAO "saw a need to quickly build a telescope whose concept, design and construction they could oversee" and therefore pushed for the relatively simple, but large, transit paraboloid. Designed by Rohr Air- craft Corporation, the 300-foot telescope was completed in 1962, three years before the smaller steerable telescope. It was used extensively for surveys of the radio sky, uncovering a quarter of the known pulsars in the process, before spec-



BOOK REVIEWS-ISIS, 88: 2 (1997) 361

tacularly collapsing in 1988 because of a failed gusset plate, a photograph of which Malphrus includes.

In common with other radio astronomy groups across the world, the NRAO developed interfer- ometry techniques to achieve high resolution of radio sources through the combination of radio signals from several aerials. From the late 1960s, the 140-foot telescope was used in Very Long Baseline (VLBI) experiments in conjunction with instruments elsewhere. The VLBI line of research culminated with the completion of a Very Long Baseline Array involving ten 25-me- ter antennas from Hawaii to Puerto Rico. Simi- larly, duplicates were added to the 85-foot telescope to produce an interferometer system that was the prototype of the NRAO's Very Large Array, completed in 1980 at San Augustin, New Mexico, and, Malphrus says, "undisputedly the world's most powerful and advanced aperture synthesis radio telescope."

Declarations of brilliance, and lists of "major contributions," recur throughout Malphrus's book. But I think it less interesting to identify areas where a more sophisticated historiograph- ical approach would have been fertile (Malphrus, for example, shows no awareness of the problems entailed in the term "big science") than to consider the way in which radio astronomy institutions have made use of history. Reber's sol- itary prewar research, for instance, has been ap- propriated by the NRAO: his "first true telescope" is on display at Green Bank, along with "other historical radio telescopes." For the observatory at Jodrell Bank in the United King- dom, radio astronomers invoked the history of science, and of the nation, to secure essential re- sources. But displays of material culture (to demonstrate, for example, a long lineage of American radio astronomy) and written histories are not just records of the past; they are inter- ventions in the present. And, even as a popular institutional history, this volume could perhaps have been made more appealing: although many of the black-and-white photographs and design drawings are excellent, the scarcity of color pic- tures will not encourage those with room on the coffee table to buy this book.

JON AGAR

John M. Logsdon (Editor). Exploring the Un- known: Selected Documents in the History of the U.S. Civil Space Program. Volume 1: Organiz- ing for Exploration. With Linda J. Lear, Jan- nelle Warren-Findley, Ray A. Williamson,

and Dwayne A. Day. (NASA History Series.) xxvi + 795 pp., illus., figs., tables, apps., index. Washington, D.C.: NASA, 1995.

This book is the first in a series of volumes aimed at making the seminal documents of the U.S. civilian space program more widely available. Based on the official records of NASA, and aug- mented by research in other government repos- itories, personal papers, and corporate collec- tions, the volume contains 113 of the more than 2,000 documents that were collected, copied, and indexed by a team at the George Washington University Space Policy Institute. Some of the remaining material will appear in succeeding volumes organized around programmatic devel- opments, NASA's relations with other organi- zations, space science, and applications; the complete set will be available for consultation at the NASA Headquarters History Office and at George Washington University.

Each of the four sections in this volume contains a selection of edited documents and an in- troductory essay that provides some historical context. The wide-ranging "Prelude to the Space Age," by NASA Chief Historian Roger D. Lau- nius, addresses the pre-Sputnik period and intro- duces a variety of speculative science fiction writings, discussions of scientific and engineering research in rocketry and space travel, pro- motional tracts by enthusiasts, and other mate- rials. Putting the accomplishment of spaceflight into the broadest cultural and historical context, it serves well to remind the reader that space travel was about far more than just engineering and science. "Origins of U.S. Space Policy: Ei- senhower, Open Skies, and Freedom of Space," introduced by Air Force Historian R. Cargill Hall, presents documents on the tangled origins of military and civilian space programs through the 1950s; some of these documents have only recently been declassified. This section shows just how much was going on behind the scenes during those formative years and how long it takes to put the puzzle pieces together when so many of them remain hidden behind the screen of national security. "The Evolution of U.S. Space Policy and Plans," by political scientist and space policy expert John M. Logsdon, deals largely with decisions at the presidential level, from the Eisenhower administration to that of Reagan. Here one can see plainly the varying fit between NASA's ambitions and fortunes and those of the succession of chief executives, each with his own set of domestic and foreign con- cerns. "Organizing for Exploration," by former NASA Chief Historian Sylvia K. Kraemer, con-

