Family background; undergraduate and graduate studies at Princeton University: electrical engineering 1921, graduate research on ionization of argon and HCl, spectroscopic interests (M.A. 1924, Ph.D. 1925); developmental research as engineer for A T&T Laboratories, 1921-1923; National Research Council Fellow at Harvard University, 1925-1927; Bartol Research Foundation Fellow, 1927-1929, research on impact of protons on atoms and molecules. Assistant professor at Cornell University, 1929-1931; high voltage x-ray research, visit to Cavendish Laboratory; founding Director of the American Institute of Physics (AIP), 1931-1957: discussions on the origins, nature and funding of AIP; early associations with the Chemical Foundation and American Chemical Society; history of selected AIP journals; public relations to promote physics; impact of Depression on physics; Depression and post-WW II studies on physics manpower and industries. Also prominently mentioned are: E. P. Adams, Francis William Aston, Howard Blakeslee, Karl Compton, Charles D. Ellis, Paul D. Foote, Waldemar Kaempffert, Alfred Loomis, Robert Andrews Millikan, Donald Mueller, Robert Mullikan, George B. Pegram, Floyd Richtmyer, Henry N. Russell, Harry D. Smyth, William Francis Gray Swann, John T. Tate, Robert Jamison Van de Graaff; American Physical Society, Bartol Research Foundation, Cornell University, Journal of Applied Physics, Journal of Chemical Physics, Physical Review, Physics Abstracts, and Review of Scientific Instruments.