James Gilbert Baker
Encyclopedia
James Gilbert Baker was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
astronomer
Astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...
and designer of optics
Optics
Optics is the branch of physics which involves the behavior and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behavior of visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light...
systems.
Biography
He was born in Louisville, KentuckyLouisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
to Jesse B. Baker and Hattie M. Stallard, the fourth child of that couple. He attended Louisville duPont Manual High School then majored in mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
at the University of Louisville
University of Louisville
The University of Louisville is a public university in Louisville, Kentucky. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States and one of the first universities chartered west of the Allegheny Mountains. The university is mandated by the Kentucky General...
. During his time at the university he became interested in astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
and grinding his own mirrors. In 1931 he helped to form the Louisville Astronomical Society
Louisville Astronomical Society
The Louisville Astronomical Society was founded in 1931 in Louisville, Kentucky by amateur astronomers, including James Gilbert Baker. Monthly meetings are held at 8:00 p.m. on the first Friday of each month. Monthly observing sessions , are held at the society's dark sky location, the James G...
. He graduated with a B.A.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in 1935.
He met his future wife, Elizabeth Katherine Breitenstein, while at the university.
Pursuing his interest in astronomy, he studied at the Harvard College Observatory
Harvard College Observatory
The Harvard College Observatory is an institution managing a complex of buildings and multiple instruments used for astronomical research by the Harvard University Department of Astronomy. It is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, and was founded in 1839...
. He earned his M.A.
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
in 1936, gained an appointment as a Junior Fellow of the Harvard Society from 1937 until 1943. It was in 1940 that he developed the Baker-Schmidt telescope, a modification of the schmidt camera
Schmidt camera
A Schmidt camera, also referred to as the Schmidt telescope, is a catadioptric astrophotographic telescope designed to provide wide fields of view with limited aberrations. Other similar designs are the Wright Camera and Lurie-Houghton telescope....
. In 1942 he was awarded his Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
and astrophysics
Astrophysics
Astrophysics is the branch of astronomy that deals with the physics of the universe, including the physical properties of celestial objects, as well as their interactions and behavior...
from Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
.
After the start of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he was recruited to be a civilian optical designer for the Army's newly formed aerial reconnaissance branch under Colonel George W. Goddard. He would design wide-angle camera systems and test them in unpressurized compartments during test flights. He also became a consultant for the Perkin Elmer Corporation. Following the war he then became an advisor for the Air Force Photographic Laboratory.
Living in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
, from 1946 until 1949 he was an associate professor at Harvard University, as well as continuing his research into optics he had pursued during the war. In 1948 he moved to Orinda, California
Orinda, California
-2010:The 2010 United States Census reported that Orinda had a population of 17,643. The population density was 1,389.5 people per square mile . The racial makeup of Orinda was 14,533 White, 149 African American, 22 Native American, 2,016 Asian, 24 Pacific Islander, 122 from other races, and...
to join the Lick Observatory
Lick Observatory
The Lick Observatory is an astronomical observatory, owned and operated by the University of California. It is situated on the summit of Mount Hamilton, in the Diablo Range just east of San Jose, California, USA...
as a research associate. He returned to Harvard in 1950.
Prior to the launch of the Sputnik I spacecraft, Baker collaborated with Joseph Nunn
Joseph Nunn
Joseph Nunn was an American engineer.In 1956 he worked in collaboration with Dr. James G. Baker to design and manufacture a series of satellite tracking cameras. These were called Baker-Nunn cameras after their designers, and consisted of a very precise tracking system combined with an unusually...
to build a series of 12 satellite tracking cameras that would be called the Baker-Nunn camera. Dr. Baker designed the optical system for the cameras, which were fabricated by Perkin-Elmer Corporation.
He and Edwin Land
Edwin H. Land
Edwin Herbert Land was an American scientist and inventor, best known as the co-founder of the Polaroid Corporation. Among other things, he invented inexpensive filters for polarizing light, a practical system of in-camera instant photography, and his retinex theory of color vision...
were instrumental in persuading President Dwight Eisenhower to have the U-2
Lockheed U-2
The Lockheed U-2, nicknamed "Dragon Lady", is a single-engine, very high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft operated by the United States Air Force and previously flown by the Central Intelligence Agency . It provides day and night, very high-altitude , all-weather intelligence gathering...
spy plane built. Baker also designed the lenses and most of the cameras used on the U-2 spy plane and later the SR-71 Blackbird
SR-71 Blackbird
The Lockheed SR-71 "Blackbird" was an advanced, long-range, Mach 3+ strategic reconnaissance aircraft. It was developed as a black project from the Lockheed A-12 reconnaissance aircraft in the 1960s by the Lockheed Skunk Works. Clarence "Kelly" Johnson was responsible for many of the...
. In addition, he designed the lenses and cameras used in the Samos satellite program
Samos (satellite)
The Samos E or SAMOS program was a relatively short-lived series of reconnaissance satellites for the United States in the early 1960s, also used as a cover for the intitial development of the KH-7 Gambit system...
, and a modified version of these optics were later used in the lunar mapping programs.
During the 1960s he designed the folding optics for the Polaroid SX-70
Polaroid SX-70
The SX-70 is a folding single lens reflex Land Camera which was produced by the Polaroid Corporation from 1972-1981.- History :Though Polaroid had considered a Henry Dreyfus-designed SLR for its Colorpack film, the SX-70 was the first instant SLR and the first camera to use Polaroid's new SX-70...
Land Camera
Land Camera
Land cameras are instant cameras with self-developing film named after their inventor, Edwin Land, manufactured by Polaroid between the years of 1947 and 1983. Though Polaroid continued producing instant cameras after 1983, the name 'Land' was dropped from the camera name since Edwin Land retired...
. He also designed the Baker Super-Schmidt camera which was used to track meteor
METEOR
METEOR is a metric for the evaluation of machine translation output. The metric is based on the harmonic mean of unigram precision and recall, with recall weighted higher than precision...
s. In 1960 he became president of the Optical Society of America
Optical Society of America
The Optical Society is a scientific society dedicated to advancing the study of light—optics and photonics—in theory and application, by means of publishing, organizing conferences and exhibitions, partnership with industry, and education. The organization has members in more than 100 countries...
.
Baker was the author of many technical papers and he held more than 50 U.S. patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
s. He was the first person to use a computer
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
for the design of optics.
He died in Bedford, New Hampshire
Bedford, New Hampshire
-Demographics:As of the Census of 2000, there were 18,274 people, 6,251 households, and 5,125 families residing in the town. The population density was 556.6 people per square mile . There were 6,401 housing units at an average density of 195.0 per square mile...
at the age of 90, and was survived by his wife Elizabeth, and his three sons, a daughter, and five grandchildren. (His children have also pursued technical careers).
Awards and honors
- Medal for Merit from the US President.
- Fellow of the National Academy of SciencesUnited States National Academy of SciencesThe National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
, 1946. - Elliott Cresson MedalElliott Cresson MedalThe Elliott Cresson Medal, also known as the Elliott Cresson Gold Medal, was the highest award given by the Franklin Institute. The award was established by Elliott Cresson, life member of the Franklin Institute, with $1,000 granted in 1848...
, 1962 - Frederic Ives Medal, 1965.
- Joseph Fraunhofer Award, 1991.
- Recognition as a Pioneer of National Reconnaissance, 2000.
- Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and SciencesAmerican Academy of Arts and SciencesThe American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
. - Air ForceUnited States Air ForceThe United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
Space and Missile Pioneers Award; inducted into Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers Hall of Fame.
See also
- List of astronomical instrument makers
- Optical Society of America#Past Presidents of the OSA