Katharine Burr Blodgett: Difference between revisions

{{shortShort description|American physicist (1898–1979)}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=January 20202023}}

| image_size = 250px

Blodgett was born on January 10, 1898, in Schenectady, New York. She was the second child of Katharine Buchanan (Burr) and George Reddington Blodgett. Her father was a [[patent attorney]] at General Electric where he headed that department. He was shot and killed in his home by a burglar just before she was born. GE offered a $5,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of the killer,<ref>{{cite web |title=Timeline of Schenectady History |url=http://www.schist.org/localhist/schenectady/schdates.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110929023107/http://www.schist.org/localhist/schenectady/schdates.htm |archive-date=September 29, 2011 |url-status=dead |publisher=The Schenectady County Historical Society |access-date=July 10, 2013 }}</ref> but the suspected killer hanged himself in his jail cell in [[Salem, New York]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Covington |first=Edward J. |title=Katharine B. Blodgett |url=http://home.frognet.net/~ejcov/blodgett2.html |work=ejcov |publisher=FrogNet.Net |access-date=July 10, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131121235540/http://home.frognet.net/~ejcov/blodgett2.html |archive-date=November 21, 2013 }}</ref> Her mother was financially secure after her husband's death,{{citation needed |date=July 2013}} and she moved to New York City with Katharine and her son George Jr. shortly after Katharine's birth.

Blodgett was hired by the company General Electric as a research scientist in 1918 after receiving a master's degree from the [[University of Chicago]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Women scientists in America : struggles and strategies to 1940|last=W.|first=Rossiter, Margaret|date=1982|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|isbn=978-0801825095|location=Baltimore|oclc=8052928}}</ref> She was the first woman to work as a scientist for General Electric Laboratory in Schenectady, NY. She often worked with [[Irving Langmuir]], who had pioneered a technique for creating single-molecule thin films on the surface of water. Blodgett and Langmuir explored the application of similar techniques to lipids, polymers, and proteins, creating [[monolayer|monomolecular]] coatings designed to cover surfaces of water, metal, or glass. These special coatings were oily and could be deposited in layers only a few [[nanometer]]s thick.<ref name=Roberts2014>{{cite journal|last1=Roberts|first1=Jacob|title=The Invisible Woman|journal=Chemical Heritage Magazine|date=Spring 2014|volume=32|issue=1|page=7|url=https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/magazine/the-invisible-woman|access-date=March 21, 2018}}</ref>

Using this technique, Blodgett developed practical uses for Langmuir's gossamer films. Blodgett used a barium stearate film to cover glass with 44 monomolecular layers, making the glass more than 99% transmissive and creating "invisible" glass. The visible light reflected by the layers of film canceled the reflections created by the glass.<ref name=Roberts2014/> This type of nonreflective coating is now called [[Langmuir–Blodgett film]] and is widely used.<ref name=Venezia>{{cite news|last1=Venezia|first1=Jessica|title=Katharine Burr Blodgett: An Innovative, Accomplished Schenectady Native|url=http://thefreegeorge.com/thefreegeorge/schenectady-katharine-burr-blodgett/|access-date=October 15, 2014|work=The Free George}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=January 10, 2019 |title=SHE INSPIRES Katharine Burr Blodgett |url=https://www.pbs.org/video/katharine-burr-blodgett-she-inspires-marl6o/ |website=pbs}}</ref> The first major cinematic production to use Blodgett's invisible glass was the popular film ''[[Gone with the Wind (film)|Gone with the Wind]]'' (1939), noted for its crystal-clear cinematography. Once introduced, nonreflective lenses were used for projectors and cameras by the post-war movie industry.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pollard |first=J. |date=2014-11-01 |title=The Eccentric Engineer |url=https://digital-library.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/et.2014.1035 |journal=Engineering & Technology |language=en |volume=9 |issue=10 |pages=94 |doi=10.1049/et.2014.1035 |issn=1750-9637}}</ref> Blodgett's glass was also used for submarine periscopes and airplane spy cameras during World War II.<ref name=Roberts2014/>

Blodgett also invented the color gauge, a method to measure the molecular coatings on the glass to one millionth of an inch. The gauge employs the concept that different thicknesses of coatings are different colors. While examining the layering of stearic acid on a glass plate, she realized that the addition of each layer, about 2/10,000,000 inch thick, reliably changed the color of the plate. Before her invention, the best measurement instruments were only accurate to a few thousandths of an inch. Her glass "ruler" much more precisely showed the progression of colors and their corresponding thicknesses. Measuring thickness became as simple as matching colors.<ref name=FOFBlodgett>{{cite web|title=Blodgett, Katharine|url=http://www.fofweb.com/History/MainPrintPage.asp?iPin=AHBio0299&DataType=AmericanHistory&WinType=Free|publisher=Facts on File|access-date=October 15, 2014|archive-date=March 4, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304195004/http://www.fofweb.com/History/MainPrintPage.asp?iPin=AHBio0299&DataType=AmericanHistory&WinType=Free|url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[Category:WomenAmerican women inventors]]