Dr. Morgan

Thank all of you ah. I appreciate the applause, ah, it makes me appear old, ah, or maybe, ah, I feel very proud, and I do, to be ah, sort of a celebrity in the field of health physics, having been perhaps the first health physicist. And ah, I'd like to speak to you very briefly this afternoon on health physics and its beginning as a science and profession back in 1942.

Health physics had its beginning at the University of Chicago in '42 under Dr. Arthur Compton and Bob Stone. And while I was a professor of physics at [...?...] College I was carrying on cosmic ray research. At that time, ah, geiger counters and ion chambers were ah, something new, I guess ah, Compton and I were the only people at that time that ah, were making geiger counters and ion chambers and making measurements on high mountains and deep underground. I worked in [Linville?] Caverns ah, underground and on Beach Mountain, Mount Mitchell, all in North Carolina and later, I carried my geiger coun--geiger counter equipment to Mt. Evans in Colorado. And I published a number of papers--all of them in the ah, Physics, ah, Today and Physical Review and ah, most of them were in cooperation with my former major professor Dr. Walter Nielsen of Duke University.

In that early period there was almost nothing in the literature that suggested ionizing radiation might be harmful but ah, my mother had taught me to be cautious with fire and with chemicals and I fortunately put on ionizing radiation in the same list. I still got a little too much exposure on my right hand but I have full use of it, thank goodness. And ah, so, ah, I knew almost nothing about the risks that I might be exposed to, so I carried my [source?] ah, two foot string and perhaps, had I not done that I'd not be lecturing to you today, because ah, some of my colleagues aren't quite that cautious.

I'm sure that ah, all of you would be appalled if your employees were what today would seem so careless and reckless, but I always, ah, kept my source ah, in a lead container and when I was out exploring in the--in the deserts or in the mountains, I would keep my source hidden in the woods a few hundred yards from my tent.

In the summer of 1942, while a professor--while I was a professor at [Anoron?] College, I was invited to take my cosmic ray equipment--it was all home made equipment that I had made up sometimes with the help of ah, the scientists at the [Barto?] Laboratory in Philadelphia, but I was invited to take my equipment and work in Dr. Arthur Compton's facility on Mt. Evans in Colorado. And ah, this led to close contact with Arthur Compton and Ernie [Wallen?]. Also, I made contact with Martin D. Whittaker, who had been a former classmate of mine when I was at the University of North Carolina.

One day, ah, while I was ah, working at the physics department at the University of Chicago, Martin Whittaker came to me and said, ah, Carl, how would you like to go back south. Well, I almost ah, jumped through the ceiling, ah, being a born southerner, ah, I was longing to get back below the Mason-Dixon line, and so, a few days later, my wife and I found ourselves on the [L&N?] train headed for a little place called Clinton, Tennessee. Well, the train stopped at a siding and ah, we got off and were met by someone in a black coat and black had and he ah, drove us in a company car out past many layers of barbed wire fences and finally we ended up in a little town that was later to be called Oakridge, Tennessee. We went in this little office and appeared before ah, an officer in army uniform and he ah, handed me a key and said, ah, ah, you and your family are assigned a "D" house. Houses were classed A, B, C, D, and F. The quality and size of the house increased with the ah, alphabet, and so I was lucky to be classed for a D house. The F houses always went to Union Carbide and Monsanto Officials. I guess, today you are familiar with that, too. Company officials certainly normally take second class place to ah, scientists, but ah, we were happy. The D house was only the second best house listed in Oakridge. And ah, during the first year, I really felt that I was a pioneer in more ways than one. Especially after killing the third copperhead snake in my front yard.

One day, ah, my son, who's sitting up to my right, ah, Dr. Eric Morgan--he was a little ah, two year old boy at the time--we were sitting on the back steps and he was s--sitting beside me wiggling his toes and I happened to look, two feet away was a copperhead snake. Well, it only took seconds for me to grab a nearby hoe and pretty soon the snake was wiggling in two parts.

Following the initial period of living in our frontier house, our furniture arrived and while we were there, it had been kept in--where I'd former taught at ah,--at ah, Hickory North Carolina and so, ah, now we settled down in this frontier town of Oakridge. Ah, I still feel that I have very strong ties with ah, Oakridge Tennessee, and I spend a good part of my life there today. I ah, spend what time I can on the Gulf of Mexico in the cold winter months and we have a place in the mountains of North Carolina when it gets too hot, but still, Oakridge Tennessee, is ah, the first place in my heart.

In those early days, ah, as I indicated, ah, houses were tabbed A, B, C, D, and F and the quality and the size increased from A to F. Ah, Compton and a few others, ah, rated, ah, ah, D houses. Only company officials rated F houses, but we were all very happy living in Oakridge. We were pioneers and acted like pioneers. Ah, Dr. Stone's secretary Helen Williams, ah, became ah, play-maker director and ah, local people in the area ah, put on plays in the playhouse every two weeks. I felt that they did just as well as professionals and it was a very happy existence in this little frontier town. And ah, Martin D. Whittaker, who'd been a former classmate of mine at Carolina was ah, in charge of the laboratory. Dr. R. S. Stone was ah, medical director and Parker, Herb Parker who later moved to Hanford was in charge of health physics and I was Parker's assistant.

I was still, however, a physicist in--at heart ah, was never willing to be called anything other than a physicist, being brought up at Carolina under german professors. Physics was sort of a holy profession and you never wanted to be left out. And so health physics, to me became a branch of physics and there was a period when a group at Los Alamos wanted to change the name from health physics to health chemistry. I think I would have become a ditch digger or something rather than ah, be in a profession that did not have physics attached to it. So, I managed to [haul?] my way and health physics has become a matured and respected science of which we all know today.

Ah, the ah, after the second month at the [Cli...?] at ah, Clinton Laboratories, Dale Hearst who had come to me from the [Bartol?] Laboratory under Dr. Swann near Philadelphia with a very interesting sort of meter. I can't recall, ah, how the name originated, but we called it "cutie-pie" and this was a type of geiger counter [in a?] circuit which was mounted in a plastic box that looked like a pistol--ah, a pistol from Mars, but it was a very crude sort of instrument, but was very useful and I believe, ah, there--some of them still in use at the present time.

Of course, ah, being a geiger counter, with all the ah, mocking up we did, we could never make it read over the entire energy scale, read in rads or [runtkins?], but it did a very good job to detect sources of contamination and proved most useful as first finders instrument.

Also, within several months, ah, in this frontier town, [CAntrell?], Stone, and [Gammasvelder?] and Parker all left Oakridge and moved out to Hanford where they became very important scientists in the health physics operation there. So now we had two major health physics ah, sources--one at Hanford, one at Oakridge, and a little later the program got started at Brookhaven and several other sites.

H--a Dr. John Werth was put in charge of the medical department at Oakridge National Laboratory, I in charge of health physics and for a few months, my older sister, Dr. Gladys Morgan [Hath--Happer?] was in charge of the medical ah, problems in our laboratory. As my big sister, it was a great ah, pleasure and encouragement to have her there with me. And I always ah, remember the time when we were playing a piano duet together before what to me was a very large audience and I suddenly faltered. I just could not remember what the next notes were, but Gladys said, Carl, You can do it--you can do it. Somehow the message got to my fingers and we finished that duet with a very loud applause from the audience. So it was a big pleasure and encouragement to me to have her there in the medical department at Oakridge National Laboratory. Ah, now when the job looks, ah, too difficult or impossible, her words come back to me--Carl, you can do it, and so I do the best I can. If I still falter, my wife, Helen comes up with similar words, to the rescue, and I forge ahead, even though I've passed the prov--proverbial age of four score and ten.

I continued as the director of the health physics division of Oakridge National Laboratory for a number of years and then when I retired reaching the retirement age, I moved down in Georgia and joined the faculty of the school of nuclear engineering at Georgia Tech. There I continued my research as a health physicist and ah, became associated with ah, several universities there at that time.

Throughout my tenure at the laboratory, the universities and in the private sector, ah, I have ah, witnessed the evolution of the science of health physics to a matured professional organization of which, ah, I'm very proud.

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Day 1 Tape 3 Side 2

organization, of which ah, I'm very proud. You may not call yourself health physicist, maybe you're a health chemist or a medical supervisor or whatnot, but as far as I'm concerned, ah, working in the field of ionizing radiation, you are health physicist and ah, you are ah, persons that deserve the highest of compliments of which ah, our country should be very proud. And I am proud and honored to have the opportunity to be with you and I wish you continue in godspeed in your efforts of radiation protection. I thank you.