This is a slide and lecture presentation, prepared by Stephen Kramer, on the Rittenhouse orreries at the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University. Included is a transcript of the lecture (APS Archives 8/14/81).

As a junior and senior at Princeton in 1857-1858, John Howard Wurts was enrolled in the two semester sequence of courses on natural philosophy taught by the astronomer Stephen Alexander. The polished version of Wurts' lecture notes provide a detailed record of Alexander's presentation of both statics and the applications of statics, including thebasic principles of natural philosophy, the physical properties of matter, forces, and methodology. The notes are illustrated throughout with finely rendered pencil and ink drawings of physical apparatus and experiments.

Val Logsdon Fitch, (1923-2015)was born on March 10, 1923, in Merriman, Nebraska, in the remote Sandhills region in the north of the state. During WWII, he was drafted and sent to Los Alamos, N.M., to work as a technician on the Manhattan Project. While there, he helped design the detonator for the atomic bomb that was tested at Alamogordo and later dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. He shared the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physics with James Cronin for work that revealed a surprising imbalance in the laws of nature and helped explain why the collision of matter and antimatter has not destroyed everything in the universe. Their discovery of CP (charge parity invariance) violation was the result of experiments that included four objectives: to test the anomalous results of Adair, et al, to study the regeneration phenomena under a variety of conditions in different materials, to set new limits on the decay of the long-lived neutral K to two pions, and to check for the presence of neutral currents in strangeness changing decays. The Val Logsdon Fitch Papers include his research of K mesons, the innovation of the velocity-selecting Cherenkov counter that separated K+ from protons and pions in the beam, neutral kaons, CP violation in proton-antiproton interactions, the 'gap' method invented by Fitch to take measurements of KL - KS mass difference, a search for short-distance gravitational forces and finally, strange dibaryons. Dr. Fitch used particle accelerators to perform his experiments including the Bevatron, the Cosmotron, the accelerator at the Fermilab and the superconducting super collider at CERN, Geneva, Switzerland. The collection is divided into XV Series.

Louis Hasbrouck was in his last year at Princeton in 1796-1797 when he attended the course of chemistry lectures given by John Maclean. In only his second year at Princeton, Maclean was rapidly becoming known for introducing the latest currents in chemical theory, including the system of Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, and he was one of the first Americans to insist that students take part in active experimentation. Louis Hasbrouck was in his final year at Princeton in 1796-1797 when he attended John Maclean's lectures on chemistry. His notebook from the second half of that course includes a detailed record of the lectures from January 24-March 14 and June 22-24, 1797, covering Maclean's discussion of the chemistry of metals, "chemical combination," combustion, and botanical chemistry. Although his notes are not complete, Hasbrouck was enrolled at a singularly interesting period in the history of American chemistry. This was only the second time that Maclean had offered his course, in which he introduced the new chemical system of Lavoisier, and it includes a relatively complete version of Maclean's most important lecture, "Of combustion." This devastating attack on Joseph Priestley and phlogistic theory appeared in print in 1797 as Two Lectures on Combustion: Supplementary to a Course of Lectures on Chemistry.

One of Philadelphia's most recognized geographers at the turn of the twentieth century, Henry Grier Bryant (1859-1932) was an explorer, traveler, and writer known for an avid interest in the arctic. His financial independence enabled Bryant to devote his life to expanding geographic knowledge, as an officer of the Geographic Society of Philadelphia and Alpine Club of America, and as an explorer and traveler to Labrador, Greenland, the Canadian Rockies, South America, and southern and southeast Asia. The Bryant Letterbooks include an important slice of outgoing correspondence from the geographer and explorer, Henry G. Bryant, documenting his interest in geography and exploration. The four volumes consist of letterpress copies of outgoing correspondence (1884-1890, 1899-1902, 1902-1903, and 1913-1918) concerning personal and financial matters as well as business conducted as an officer of the Geographical Society of Philadelphia and Alpine Club of America. The collection also includes three folders of correspondence addressed to Bryant, 1886-1911, mostly pertaining to the Alpine Club.

Known for his pioneering work on Athens in the fifth century BC, Benjamin Dean Meritt spent most of his career at the Institute for Advanced Study, where he developed a world-renowned center for the study of Attic epigraphy, or Greek inscriptions. Meritt reconstructed, with A.B. West, the inscribed tribute-quota lists of the Athenian Empire and is perhaps best known for his work on fifth century BC Athenian finances, which resulted in the four-volume Athenian Tribute Lists, co-authored with H.T. Wade-Gery and M.F. McGregor.

This collection consists of materials relating to Shull's work commissioned by the Carnegie Institution of Washington to collaborate with their grantee, Luther Burbank, with the aim of analyzing Burbank's data on plant breeding and hybridization and preparing it for publication in suitable scientific journals. Shull visited Burbank's plant-breeding farm in California eight times between 1906 and 1910. There are files for each plant genus involved in Burbank's work. These files contain notes, calculations, clippings from newspapers or periodicals, and an unpublished manuscript of Shull's final report to the Carnegie Institution. There is also a report by Edwin C. MacDowell, which gives background information about the collection.

John Archibald Wheeler (1911-2008) was a leading theoretical physicist of the twentieth century, contributing particularly to the fields of general relativity, gravitation, and quantum mechanics. Wheeler was a pioneer in the study of black holes, celestial phenomena which he named. (He had a penchant for creating new terms in physics, and is credited with naming other phenomena such as geons, wormholes, and quantum foam.) Wheeler is also known for his work in atomic and nuclear physics. In 1939, he and Niels Bohr co-authored a paper that gave the basis for recognizing that Uranium 235 and Plutonium 239 are highly fissile, a milestone in the understanding of atomic energy. Wheeler believed in the importance of public service, assisting in the U.S. war effort to develop the atomic and hydrogen bombs, and served as a scientific advisor to numerous government agencies. During a prolific academic career that spanned seventy years, Wheeler taught physics to thousands of undergraduate students at Princeton University and the University of Texas, and mentored more than fifty Ph.D. students. The Wheeler Papers provide an extensive look into the expansive career of John Archibald Wheeler, the pioneering and award-winning theoretical physicist. Comprised of 150 linear feet, this large collection contains a wide array of materials including correspondence, subject files, manuscripts by Wheeler, papers by colleagues and students, research notes and notebooks, photographs, awards, and audiovisual materials. The collection provides much insight in to Wheeler's lengthy career as a scientist, scholar, and teacher. The bulk of the material is from the 1950s to the 1990s and covers the wide scope of his professional endeavors, from his teaching at Princeton University and the University of Texas, to his many publications, to his consultation work with government agencies, industry, and atomic energy projects, to his numerous public talks and lectures.

One of the most influential statisticians of the twentieth century, John Wilder Tukey (1915-2000) played a key role in both the development and study of statistics. Upon receiving his Ph.D. in mathematics in 1939 from Brown University, he joined the faculty at Princeton; in 1945, he also began work at Bell Laboratories. Equally committed to both Princeton and Bell Labs, Tukey chose to work concurrently at both institutions. He was also a consultant for many companies, such as Merck and Company, Xerox Corporation, and the Educational Testing Service, and was a frequent advisor to the government for such programs as the US Census. From 1960 to 1980 he led the statistical component of NBC's election night projections. Among other projects Tukey analyzed Alfred Kinsey's research and examined data on ozone depletion. Tukey made many important contributions to the field of statistics, such as work in time series analysis, exploratory data analysis, and multiple comparisons. Through his work, Tukey developed statistical applications including the Box-and-Whisker Plot, the Stem-and-Leaf Diagram, Cooley-Tukey Fast Fourier Transforms, Tukey's Paired Comparisons and citation and permutated indices. Tukey's influence extends beyond statistics to everyday language: he was the first to use the word "software" in print and coined words such as "bit" and "linear programming." A prolific writer, John W. Tukey penned more than 500 technical papers and reports and published, among numerous other works. His collected papers amount to eight volumes of work. The Tukey Papers provides a comprehensive perspective into Tukey's professional activities from his days as a graduate student until his death in 2000. Among the material is his correspondence and his published and unpublished works. There is abundant material from Tukey's long careers at Bell Laboratories and Princeton University, including extensive lecture notes and syllabi. Also included are copious materials relating to his professional activities with such agencies as the National Research Council, the Army Records Office, Xerox PARC, Merck and Company, the President's Science Advisory Committee, and the National Academy of Sciences.

A gifted mathematician, Polish-born Stanislaw Ulam made contributions to set theory, topology, mathematical logic, and number theory, but is most widely remembered for his work in fostering the technical development of thermonuclear weapons. He was associated with Los Alamos Scientific Laboratories for most of the years between 1943 and 1965, and thereafter with the University of Colorado. These papers include personal and professional correspondence, manuscripts of both published and unpublished works, and memorabilia.

Leonard Carmichael was a psychologist whose most significant contributions were made in the fields of child psychology and biopsychology. Educated at Tufts and Harvard, he taught at Princeton, Brown, and Rochester, later returning to Tufts to serve as its President from 1938-1952. An outstanding administrator, Carmichael served as executive officer for the Smithsonian Institute from 1952-1964, and was subsequently vice president for research and exploration at the National Geographic Society. In his later years, he served as President of the American Philosophical Society from 1970-1973. This large and varied collection reflects the entire range of Carmichael's prolific career. It includes a variety of types of records, including correspondence, committee reports and records, long series of articles and speeches, drafts of papers and books, and pocket notebooks. All phases of his professional life are covered, from his years in academia, to his time at the Smithsonian Institute and the National Geographic Society, as well as his involvement in a large number of professional organizations.

The physicist W.F.G. Swann was a pioneer in high energy physics and the study of cosmic rays. Climbing the academic ranks from the University of Sheffield to the Universities of Minnesota, Chicago, and Yale, Swann was selected as the first director of the Bartol Research Foundation of the Franklin Institute in 1927, and remained there until his retirement in 1959. An able administrator and excellent mentor, he was best known for his popular work on the new physics, The Architecture of the Universe (1934) and for his research on cosmic rays. Avocationally, he was an accomplished cellist and in addition to performing, he helped organize and support the Swarthmore Symphony Orchestra and other local groups. He died at his home in Swarthmore in 1962. The Swann Papers consist of 41 linear feet of correspondence, class notes, lectures, and photographs documenting Swann's career at the Bartol Research Foundation from 1927 until the end of his life. The collection is wide ranging, touching on atmospheric electricity, particle acceleration, atomic bomb defense, atomic energy, electrets, electrodynamics, magnetism, music, quantum theory, radiation, relativity and Einstein, science and civilization, stratospheric flights (by balloon and airplane), thermodynamics, psychic science, and wave mechanics. It is particularly rich for study of the history of cosmic ray research and the Bartol Institute, and for study of the popularization of modern physical sciences.

These are chiefly working papers on subjects requiring statistical analysis and letters, reports, and papers relating to professional organizations. There is little personal material.

The Papers of Curt Stern include extensive correspondence, lectures (1920s-1970s, 1.5 boxes), autobiographical material, articles, zoological course notes, photographs, etc. Stern's various areas of scientific interest are documented in the collection: the chromosome theory of heredity, role of gene mutation and chromosome rearrangements in evolution, action and interaction of genes during individual development, and particularly his contribution to the development of human genetics as a discipline (centered on his popular and influential book, Principles of Human Genetics, 1949, 1960, 1973). Both his career in Germany and the United States is documented in his correspondence. After studying with T. H. Morgan at Columbia University on a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship (1924-1926), Stern returned to Richard Goldschmidt's lab at the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute (1926-1932). There is material of note in the collection concerning this period when Stern helped to establish the cytological basis of crossing over. After a short stay at the California Institute of Technology in 1932, Stern's temporary residence in the U. S. became permanent, and his later career at the University of Rochester, 1933-1947 (Chairman, Department of Zoology) and at the University of California, Berkeley, 1947-1970 (there is abundant material on the Department of Zoology) is covered in the collection. There is other material on: American Association for the Advancement of Science Inter-Society Committee on Science Foundation Legislation, 1946-1947; American Society of Human Genetics (Pres., 1957); Atomic Energy Commission (Advisory Committee for Biology and Medicine, 1950-1955); Genetics (journal); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Advisory Committee for Biology, 1955-1968); and the Rockefeller Foundation. Stern's correspondence with friends and colleagues in Germany, England, and the U. S., during the 1920s-1930s, is of particular note as it documents not only the developments in genetics and the institutional and administrative networks supporting research, but it also offers general comments and observations on science, Germany, and politics. The photographs (2 boxes) include pictures of many prominent geneticists and scientists.