R. B. Abbott papers

Dr. R. B. Abbot was a Professor of Physics at Purdue University. Raymond Barrington Abbott joined the Physics Department at Purdue in the 1920s as an Assistant Professor. He and his colleague, Wiliam Henry Bair, were the first physics faculty to have received doctorates, both from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1919. In addition to his teaching, Professor Abbott provided public lectures on topics ranging from Einstein's theory of relativity to the workings of an electrical stethoscope. By 1929, he had published four research items. In 1922, he developed the first radio stethoscope, which magnified the sounds of a beating heart. In 1936 the Physics Department was reorganized by the new Department Head, Karl Lark-Horovitz. He put Abbott in charge of the Acoustics division, as well as the Teaching Program. Abbott's His book, "Instructions in Physical Measurements: Mechanics, Property of Matter, Heat, Magnetism, Electricity, Wave Motion, Sound and Light," (D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., 1939) was selected by scholars as being culturally important to the knowledge base of civilization.

Sources: Gartenhouse, Solomon, Arnold Tubis, and David Cassidy. "Early Years of the Purdue Physics Department." Department of Physics and Astronomy Website, April 29, 2016. /www.physics.purdue.edu/about/history/early_years.html> Keiper, George F. "A Multiple Electrical Stethoscope for Teaching Puroposes." Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 81, No. 8 (August 25, 1923): 679. /jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/235639> Banning, Kendall, ed. "Heart Throbs that Shake the House." Popular Radio, Vol. 5, (January 1923): 204. /books.google.com/books?id=ePnNAAAAMAAJ&ppis=_c&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false> Abbott, Raymond Barrington. Instructions In Physical Measurements: Mechanics, Properties of Matter, Heat, Magnetism, Electricity, Wave Motion, Sound And Light. 2nd ed. New York: D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., 1940. /babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89102006962&view=1up&seq=1>