- Collection Overview
- Collection Description & Creator Information
- Access & Use
- Collection History
- Find Related Materials
Collection Overview
- Creator:
- Project Matterhorn
- Title:
- Project Matterhorn Publications and Reports
- Repository:
- Engineering Library
- Permanent URL:
- http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/q237hs02n
- Dates:
- 1951-1958
- Size:
- 3 boxes and 3 linear feet
- Language:
- English
Abstract
These are reports or publications originating from Project Matterhorn.
Collection Description & Creator Information
- Description:
Reports or publications originating from Project Matterhorn were issued starting with 1951 with New York Operations Office (NYO) numbers under various listings such as PM-S, PM, PM-Q, Technical Memorandum and Publication Numbers. This collection contains reports and publications issued between 1951 and 1958. Beginning with 1959, all publications issued stopped using NYO numbers (and the corresponding designations mentioned above). All future publications from 1959 on, would bear the prefix MATT.
- Collection Creator Biography:
Project Matterhorn
Project Matterhorn was the code name for the controlled thermonuclear research effort started by Princeton University in 1951 under the leadership of Lyman Spitzer. Spitzer was born on June 26, 1914 in Toledo, Ohio. He earned a BA in Physics at Yale University in 1935 and later studied Astrophysics with Henry Norris Russell at Princeton University. Following his PhD. in Astrophysics in 1938, Spitzer held the position of a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University.
In 1951, Spitzer outlined the basic concept for creating the steallarator, a device for confining and heating ionized hydrogen gas to release fusion energy for the production of power. He was able to receive support from the US Atomic Energy Commission as well as Princeton University which lay the foundation for starting Project Matterhorn. Project Matterhorn (PM) became later Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (1961), which Spitzer directed until 1967. During his tenure, Spitzer would oversee major breakthroughs in a field he helped develop. Many of his contributions to the field are to be found in his renowned book, Physics fo Fully Ionized Gases (Wiley, 1956).
Lyman Spitzer Jr. died on March 31, 1997. He left behind many grateful friends and admiring colleagues he had inspired during his exemplary career. His legacy is to be found largely in the technology that still struggles to catch up to his visions.
Collection History
- Acquisition:
Scientific and technical information produced by PPPL employees is disseminated by the laboratory's Publications and Reports (P&R) Office.
- Accruals
Further accruals are expected. A circulation copy and an archival copy of each publication issued by the Laboratory through its Publications and Reports Office is retained by the library.
- Processing Information
Report pages were detached from their original bindings and filed in archival containers
Finding aid written by Adriana Popescu in September, 2004. Revised by Adriana Popescu on November 11, 2004. Contributions by Daniel Adiletta, July, 2004.
Access & Use
- Conditions Governing Access
The collection is open for research use.
Bibliographic records describing the publications in the PM-S series are available in the library's Main Catalog: http://catalog.princeton.edu.
Access is by appointment only. Visit http://library.princeton.edu/plasma-physics/about#directions for more information.
PDF scans are available by clicking the View Content button for a report.
- Conditions Governing Use
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. Researchers are responsible for determining any other copyright questions.
- Credit this material:
Project Matterhorn Publications and Reports; Technical and Scientific Reports, Engineering Library, Princeton University Library
- Permanent URL:
- http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/q237hs02n
- Location:
-
Engineering LibraryEngineering LibraryFriend Center for Engineering EducationPrinceton, NJ 08540, USA
Find More
- Existence and Location of Copies
Digital reproductions of the reports in the PM-S series are available at http://www.pppl.gov/library/archive/reports/
- Other Finding Aids
Bibliographic records describing the publications in the PM-S series are available in the library's Main Catalog: http://catalog.princeton.edu.
- Existence and Location of Originals
The originals are located at Furth Plasma Physics Library.
- Bibliography
The research activities conducted at Project Matterhorn have been described in Tanner, Earl. "Project Matterhorn: an informal history" [Princeton, N.J.]: Princeton University Plasma Physics Laboratory (1977).
Tanner, Earl. "Project Matterhorn: an informal history" [Princeton, N.J.]: Princeton University Plasma Physics Laboratory (1977), consulted during preparation of scope and biographical note.
- Subject Terms:
- Controlled fusion
Difference equations
Fusion reactors--Design and construction
Ionization
Magnetic fields
Mathematical physics
Particles (Nuclear physics)
Plasma (Ionized gases)
Plasma confinement
Plasma heating
Plasma instabilities
Plasma oscillations
Stellarators
Stellarators--Design and construction