Edson R. Wolcott papers,
1899-1965
Repository
American Institute of Physics. Niels Bohr Library & Archives.
Papers created by
Wolcott, Edson Ray, 1877-1966.
Size of collection
4 linear feet
8 manuscript box(s)
Short description of collection
This collection consists of the papers of Edson Ray Wolcott, spanning from 1899 to 1965. The collection contains materials from Wolcott's days as a student at the University of Wisconsin, teaching at the Colorado School of Mines and as the owner of a private laboratory in Los Angeles beginning in 1924. This collection includes research notebooks, personal diaries and three drafts of the manuscript Evolution of Electricity.
Language(s) of collection
English
German
Collection number:
AR247
Edson Ray Wolcott (1877-1966) was a physicist, metallurgist and inventor. He developed processes in mining and metallurgy, invented a number of electrical instruments and spent many years working on a history of electricity and its applications. Born in Sharon, Wisconsin, Wolcott attended the University of Wisconsin where he graduated with special honors in physics in 1900. From 1900 to 1902 he taught physics at the University of Wisconsin as special assistant to the professor of physics, Robert Williams Wood. He spent the school year 1902-1903 at the University of Berlin doing research on electrolytic condensers under Emil Gabriel Warburg. At that time he also worked with Jacobus Hendricus Van't Hoff, Emil Fischer and Max Planck. His doctoral dissertation on a method for measuring electrolytic resistance was published in Annalen Der Physik (1903). On his return to the United States in 1903, Wolcott became professor of physics (and also later of electro-metallurgy) at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado. During this period he worked with Robert Millikan and A.A. Michaelson at the University of Chicago on methods for the accumulation of electrostatic charges to obtain high voltages.
Wolcott left teaching and moved to Chicago in 1908. As a consulting engineer, he developed electric furnaces for treating gases, methods of using nitrogen oxides to treat ores and methods to control smelter fumes and smoke. From 1914 to 1922 he was employed by the Western Precipitation Company in Los Angeles as Research Engineer. He was in charge of the development of the Cottrell Process for the recovery of dust and fumes from smelters and industrial plants. He invented an electrostatic voltmeter and an air-blast rectifier, developed the Slater leaching process for ores and began research on the volatilization of metals from ores. Having sold a process for the production of anhydrous aluminum chloride to the Texas Company, Wolcott was charged in 1922-1924 with building a plant at the company's refinery in Port Arthur, Texas. In 1924 Wolcott returned to Los Angeles and set up a private laboratory. For the remainder of his career he conducted research on the volatilization of metals and on other processes and inventions and acted as a consultant for corporations. In the late 1920s he used the million-volt laboratory at California Institute of Technology to conduct tests for the oil companies on how to protect tanks from lightening. A colorful character, full of plans for future enterprises, he hoped, even at the time of this death, to reap a great profit for his pet project, a patented process for recovering gold and platinum by ion concentration from low-grade ores.
Wolcott was a fervent believer in the progress of science and civilization, the virtues of self-education and the usefulness of the historical viewpoint in teaching science. Relatively early in his career, in the Chicago period, he began the compilation if a book, Evolution of Electricity. It was intended to teach the principles of electricity, as much as possible, in the words of the great discoverers. The work traced the history of electricity and its applications from antiquity to modern times, concentrating on the late 19th and the early 20th centuries. A first draft was sent to Macmillan Publishing Company in 1912, but was presumably not accepted. Wolcott was again occupied with the work in the early 1930s revising his draft and bringing it up to date. His final version of the manuscript, containing over 650 pages of text, 415 "paragraphs" and illustrations, was left incomplete in 1933.
This collection contains the personal and professional papers of Edson Ray Wolcott. The personal papers include three diaries and two scrapbooks, which contain media clippings from newspapers documenting his scientific activities and discoveries and family member's obituaries. The professional portion of the collection includes reprints of his publications and patents related to his work; his laboratory notes on physics, radioactivity, electrometallurgy and experiments; and his unpublished manuscript relating to the history of electricity. In addition, there are subject files on corrosion, oil burners, refractors and X-ray applied to the examination of metals. The collection consists of notes, manuscripts, technical reports, reprints, laboratory notes and bibliographies.
Researchers must have an approved access application on file in order to access archival materials. https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/item-request.
These papers have been indexed in the
International Catalog of Sources for History of Physics and Allied Sciences (ICOS)
using the following terms. Those seeking related materials should search under these terms.
Persons
Wolcott family.
Wolcott, Edson Ray, 1877-1966.
Institutions
Colorado School of Mines.
University of Wisconsin -- Students.
Universität Berlin -- Students.
Subject terms
Atomic theory.
Corrosion and anti-corrosives.
Corrosion of metals.
Electricity -- History.
Geophysics.
Nuclear physics.
Petroleum mining.
Physics -- Study and teaching.
Radioactivity.
Relativity (Physics)
X-rays.
Occupation terms
Physicists.
Genre terms
Diaries
Scrapbooks.
This collection is organized into three series:
- Series I: Personal records
- Series II: Research
- Series III: Evolution of Electricity manuscript
Each series is arranged chronologically.
This collection was processed by
Lara D'Agaro in
2007.
Box [number], Folder [number], Edson R. Wolcott papers, . American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives, College Park, MD 20740, USA.
Title
Finding Aid to the Edson R. Wolcott papers, 1899-1965
Publisher
American Institute of Physics Niels Bohr Library & Archives
One Physics Ellipse
College Park, MD 20740
USA
nbl@aip.org
2012
Encoding Information
Machine-readable finding aid encoded by Melanie J. Mueller in 2007. Any revisions made to this finding aid occurred as part of the editing and encoding process.
| Box 1 |
Folder 1 |
Notes on readings and diary, 1900-1904 |
|
Folder 3 |
"Early Personal Papers" scrapbook, 1903-1926 |
|
Folder 4 |
Scrapbook - photocopy, 1903-1926 |
|
Folder 5 |
Scrapbook - original, 1903-1926 |
|
Folder 6 |
Diary and notes, 1904 |
|
Folder 7 |
Loose pages from scrapbook, 1905-1940 |
|
Folder 8 |
"Personal and Physics" notebook, 1922-1929, undated |
|
Folder 9 |
"Synopsis of diaries 1927 to date" and "Condensation of my diaries summary", 1927-1958 |
|
Folder 10 |
Loose pages from "Early Personal Papers" scrapbook, 1931-1965, undated |
|
Folder 11 |
Wolcott family history, undated |
| Box 2 |
Folder 1 |
Optics, Professor R.W. Wood, University of Wisconsin, 1899 |
|
Folder 2 |
"Resume of Wolcott Process of Volatilization of AU and PT metals", 1900-1959 |
|
Folder 3 |
"On the sensitiveness of the coherer" Bulletin of the University of Wisconsin, 1901 |
|
Folder 4 |
Correspondence, 1901-1965 |
|
Folder 5 |
"Wood's lectures on heat and light/electrical engineering laboratory notes" , 1902, undated |
|
Folder 6 |
"Uber die Anwendung von Gleichstrompolaisation bei Kohlrauschs Methode zur Messung elektrolytischer Leitungswiderstande" Annalen der Physik, 1903 |
|
Folder 7 |
Laboratory notebook IV: "Radioactivity," "General," and "Experimental", 1903-1906 |
|
Folder 8 |
Texas Co. reports on various subjects: corrosion, 1903-1924 |
|
Folder 9 |
Colorado School of Mines, biennial report, 1904 |
|
Folder 10 |
Colorado School of Mines, Catalogue, 1904-1905 |
|
Folder 11 |
Laboratory notebook 6: "Radioactivity" and "Electrometallurgy", 1904-1907 |
|
Folder 12 |
Apparatus catalogs, 1905-1923, undated |
|
Folder 13 |
United States Patent Office, process of locating and extracting metals beneath the earth's surface, 1906 |
|
Folder 14 |
Laboratory notebook 5: "Experimental", 1906-1907 |
|
Folder 15 |
Colorado School of Mines, Quarterly, 1906-1908 |
|
Folder 16 |
Colorado School of Mines, Book of Views, 1907 |
| Box 3 |
Folder 1 |
United States Patent Office, railway signal apparatus, 1907 |
|
Folder 2 |
Notebook titled "Fixation of Nitrogen", 1910-1920 |
|
Folder 3 |
Texas Co. reports on various subjects: refractories, 1912-1923 |
|
Folder 4 |
"Effects of dielectries on the sparking voltage" reprinted from the Physical Review, 1918 |
|
Folder 5 |
Various reprints, 1918-1926, undated |
|
Folder 6 |
"A new crystalline form of potassium chlorate" reprinted from the Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, 1921 |
|
Folder 7 |
X-ray examination of metal, 1923-1924 |
|
Folder 8 |
Texas Co. reports on various subjects: oil burners, 1924 |
|
Folder 9 |
United States Patent Office, apparatus for pumping liquids, 1924 |
|
Folder 10 |
Quarterly Journal Science Religion Philosophy, Institute of Religious Science and School of Philosophy, 1930 |
|
Folder 11 |
United States Patent Office, ultrasonic transducer, 1956 |
|
Folder 12 |
United States Patent Office, solid separation by electrophoretic means by Kenneth A. Metcalfe and Robert J. Wright, 1959 |
|
Folder 13 |
United States Patent Office, process for recovering valuable rare metals by volatilization, 1959 |
|
Folder 14 |
Brochure for Wolcott Electrostatic Voltmeter, undated |
|
Folder 15 |
Brochure for Wolcott Volatilization Unit, undated |
|
Folder 16 |
Colorado School of Mines, Hall of Engineering illustration, undated |
|
Folder 17 |
Miscellaneous material, undated |
|
Folder 18 |
United States Patent Office, briefs on patent interference suit, undated |
Subseries A: First draft
| Box 4 |
Folder 1 |
First draft: correspondence and introduction, 1912 |
|
Folder 2 |
First draft: preface, introduction and content list, 1912 |
|
Folder 3 |
First draft: paragraphs 1-125, 1912 |
|
Folder 4 |
First draft: paragraphs 126-220, 1912 |
|
Folder 5 |
First draft: paragraphs 221-265, 1912 |
|
Folder 6 |
First draft: paragraphs 266-299, 1912 |
|
Folder 7 |
First draft: paragraphs 300-333, 1912 |
|
Folder 8 |
First draft: biographical notes, name index and references, 1912 |
Subseries B: Second draft
| Box 4 |
Folder 9 |
Second draft: index to paragraphs, undated |
|
Folder 10 |
Second draft: paragraphs 1-65, undated |
|
Folder 11 |
Second draft: paragraphs 66-120, undated |
|
Folder 12 |
Second draft: paragraphs 121-166, undated |
|
Folder 13 |
Second draft: paragraphs 167-206, undated |
|
Folder 14 |
Second draft: paragraphs 207-237, undated |
|
Folder 15 |
Second draft: paragraphs 238-260, undated |
|
Folder 16 |
Second draft: paragraphs 261-275, undated |
|
Folder 17 |
Second draft: paragraphs 276-293, undated |
|
Folder 18 |
Second draft: paragraphs 294-315, undated |
|
Folder 19 |
Second draft: paragraphs 316-332, undated |
| Box 5 |
Folder 1 |
Second draft: references, undated |
|
Folder 2 |
Second draft: illustrations, undated |
|
Folder 3 |
Second draft: expanded index to paragraphs 1-172, undated |
|
Folder 4 |
Second draft: expanded index to paragraphs 173-332, undated |
|
Folder 5 |
Second draft: name index, undated |
|
Folder 6 |
Second draft: subject index, undated |
|
Folder 7 |
Second draft: illustrations, undated |
|
Folder 8 |
Second draft: corrections, undated |
|
Folder 9 |
Second draft: chronology to 1921, undated |
|
Folder 10 |
Second draft: sciences and electricity subfields chronologies, undated |
|
Folder 11 |
Second draft: notes and corrections, undated |
|
Folder 12 |
Second draft: new sheets for text, undated |
|
Folder 13 |
Second draft: explanatory footnotes, undated |
|
Folder 14 |
Second draft: books of electricity, undated |
|
Folder 15 |
Second draft: atomistics, undated |
|
Folder 16 |
Second draft: electrical conductivity of gases, undated |
|
Folder 17 |
Second draft: electricity and magnetism, undated |
|
Folder 18 |
Chronology to 1928, 1932 |
Subseries C: Final draft
| Box 5 |
Folder 19 |
Final draft: index to paragraphs, 1933 |
|
Folder 20 |
Final draft: preface and paragraphs 1-24, 1933 |
|
Folder 21 |
Final draft: paragraphs 25-56, 1933 |
|
Folder 22 |
Final draft: paragraphs 57-84, 1933 |
| Box 6 |
Folder 1 |
Final draft: paragraphs 85-110, 1933 |
|
Folder 2 |
Final draft: paragraphs 111-134, 1933 |
|
Folder 3 |
Final draft: paragraphs 135-154, 1933 |
|
Folder 4 |
Final draft: paragraphs 155-169, 1933 |
|
Folder 5 |
Final draft: paragraphs 170-174, 1933 |
|
Folder 6 |
Final draft: paragraphs 175-182, 1933 |
|
Folder 7 |
Final draft: paragraphs 183-196, 1933 |
|
Folder 8 |
Final draft: paragraphs 197-206, 1933 |
|
Folder 9 |
Final draft: paragraphs 207-217, 1933 |
|
Folder 10 |
Final draft: paragraphs 218-230, 1933 |
|
Folder 11 |
Final draft: paragraphs 231-242, 1933 |
|
Folder 12 |
Final draft: paragraphs 243-250, 1933 |
|
Folder 13 |
Final draft: paragraphs 251-255, 1933 |
|
Folder 14 |
Final draft: paragraphs 256-266, 1933 |
|
Folder 15 |
Final draft: paragraphs 267-275, 1933 |
|
Folder 16 |
Final draft: paragraphs 276-286, 1933 |
|
Folder 17 |
Final draft: paragraphs 287-293, 1933 |
|
Folder 18 |
Final draft: paragraphs 294-306, 1933 |
| Box 7 |
Folder 1 |
Final draft: paragraphs 307-314, 1933 |
|
Folder 2 |
Final draft: paragraphs 315-323, 1933 |
|
Folder 3 |
Final draft: paragraphs 324-328, 1933 |
|
Folder 4 |
Final draft: paragraphs 329-334, 1933 |
|
Folder 5 |
Final draft: paragraphs 335-347, 1933 |
|
Folder 6 |
Final draft: paragraphs 348-355, 1933 |
|
Folder 7 |
Final draft: paragraphs 356-361, 1933 |
|
Folder 8 |
Final draft: paragraphs 362-363, 1933 |
|
Folder 9 |
Final draft: paragraphs 364-368, 1933 |
|
Folder 10 |
Final draft: paragraphs 369-373, 1933 |
|
Folder 11 |
Final draft: paragraphs 374-376, 1933 |
|
Folder 12 |
Final draft: paragraphs 377-390, 1933 |
| Box 8 |
Folder 1 |
Final draft: paragraphs 391-393, 1933 |
|
Folder 2 |
Final draft: paragraphs 394-398, 1933 |
|
Folder 3 |
Final draft: paragraph 399, 1933 |
|
Folder 4 |
Final draft: paragraphs 400-401, 1933 |
|
Folder 5 |
Final draft: paragraphs 402-403, 1933 |
|
Folder 6 |
Final draft: paragraphs 404-408, 1933 |
|
Folder 7 |
Final draft: paragraphs 409-410, 1933 |
|
Folder 8 |
Final draft: paragraphs 411-414, 1933 |
|
Folder 9 |
Final draft: chronology circa 1000 BC to 1933, 1933 |
|
Folder 10 |
Final draft: notes and corrections, 1933 |
|
Folder 11 |
Final draft: references, 1933 |
