type is positive (Rh-positive) or negative (Rh-nega-
tive). If the mother has a negative Rh factor (Rh-nega-
tive) and the father and fetus are Rh-positive, the
mother can become Rh-sensitized and produce anti-
bodies to combat fetal blood cells that cross the pla-
centa into her bloodstream. These antibodies can
destroy the fetus’s Rh-positive blood cells, putting it at
serious risk of anemia.
In 1939 he became professor emeritus at the Rock-
efeller Institute. On June 24, 1943, he had a heart
attack in his laboratory and died two days later.
Langmuir, Irving (1881–1957) AmericanChemist
Irving Langmuir was born in Brooklyn, New York, on
January 31, 1881, the third of four sons to Charles
Langmuir and Sadie Comings Langmuir. Langmuir’s
early education was scattered among various schools in
the United States and Paris, and he finally graduated
from the Pratt Institute’s Manual Training High School
in Brooklyn. He attended Columbia University in New
York City, where he received a bachelor’s degree in
metallurgical engineering from the university’s school
of mines in 1903. He attended graduate school in Göt-
tingen University in Germany, working with Walther
Nernst, a theoretician, inventor, and Nobel laureate,
and he received his master’s degree and Ph.D. in physi-
cal chemistry under Nernst in 1906.
Langmuir returned to America and became an
instructor in chemistry at the Stevens Institute of Tech-
nology in Hoboken, New Jersey, where he taught until
July 1909. He next took a job at the General Electric
Company Research Laboratory in Schenectady, New
York, where he eventually became associate director of
research and development. In 1912 he married Marion
Mersereau, and they had two children.
While his studies included chemistry, physics, and
engineering, he also became interested in cloud physics.
He investigated the properties of adsorbed films and
the nature of electric discharges in high vacuum and in
certain gases at low pressures, and his research on fila-
ments in gases led directly to the invention of the gas-
filled incandescent lamp and the discovery of atomic
hydrogen. He used his discovery of hydrogen in the
development of the atomic hydrogen welding process.
He formulated a general theory of adsorbed films after
observing the very stable adsorbed monatomic films on
tungsten and platinum filaments, and after experiments
with oil films on water. He also studied the catalytic
properties of such films.
In chemistry, his interest in reaction mechanisms led
him to study structure and valence, and he contributed
to the development of the Lewis theory of shared elec-
trons. In 1927 he invented the term plasmafor an ion-
ized gas. In 1932 he won the Nobel Prize for his studies
on surface chemistry. While at GE, he invented the mer-
cury-condensation vacuum pump, the nitrogen-argon-
filled incandescent lamp, and an entire family of
high-vacuum radio tubes. He had a total of 63 patents at
General Electric. He also worked with Vincent Schaefer,
Bernard Vonnegut, and Duncan Blanchard on a number
of experiments, including the first successful cloud-seed-
ing project (making rain) and the development of smoke
generators for the Second World War effort. Their
smoke generator was 400 times more efficient than any-
thing the military had and filled the entire Schoharie Val-
ley within one hour during a demonstration.
He was given many awards and honors including:
Nichols Medal (1915 and 1920); Hughes Medal
(1918); Rumford Medal (1921); Cannizzaro Prize
(1925); Perkin Medal (1928); School of Mines Medal
(Columbia University, 1929); Chardler Medal (1929);
Willard Gibbs Medal (1930); Popular Science Monthly
Award (1932); Franklin Medal and Holly Medal
(1934); John Scott Award (1937); “Modern Pioneer of
Industry” (1940); Faraday Medal (1944); and Mascart
Medal (1950). He was a foreign member of the Royal
Society of London, a fellow of the American Physical
Society, and an honorary member of the British Insti-
tute of Metals and the Chemical Society (London). He
served as president of the American Chemical Society
and as president of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science. He received over a dozen
honorary degrees.
Langmuir was an avid outdoorsman and skier, and
in his early years he was associated with the Boy Scout
movement, where he organized and served as scout-
master of one of the first troops in Schenectady, New
York. After a heart attack, he died on August 16, 1957,
in Falmouth, Massachusetts. In 1975 his son Kenneth
Langmuir bequeathed the residue of his estate to the
Irving Langmuir Laboratory for Atmospheric Research,
where a great deal of lightning research takes place.
The bequest supports the laboratory, Langmuir Fellow-
ships at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technol-
ogy, and an annual research award.160 Langmuir, Irving