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ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION Title Collection Number OCLC Number Creator Provenance Extent, Scope, and Content Note Arrangement and Processing Note Language Restrictions on Access Rights and Permissions Citation Historical Note Clarence Weston Hansell was born on January 20, 1898 at Medaryville, Indiana. As an Indiana farm boy he attended the one room elementary school of White Post Township, Pulaski County, and the Medaryville high school, from which he graduated in 1915. He attended Purdue University, receiving the Bachelor's of Science degree in Electrical Engineering in 1919 and an honorary Doctorate of Electrical Engineering in 1952. From the age of thirteen he served during summer vacations as a farm hand on various Indiana farms. In 1917 he spent the summer as a lathe operator for Ross Gear and Tool Company in Lafayette, Indiana. In the summer of 1918 he took an operations training course with the Commonwealth Edison Company in Chicago. In the fall of the same year he was enrolled in the Student Army Training Corps of the U.S. Army, stationed at Purdue University, until after the end of the first World War. After graduation, from June 1919 to May 1920, he was employed in the test training course of the General Electric Company at Schenectady, N.Y., during a portion of which time he was in charge of factory tests of Alexanderson high frequency generators. Urged by the U.S. Navy, the General Electric Company organized and incorporated the Radio Corporation of America for the U.S. application of Alexanderson's generators. From May to September 1920 he was in the Radio Engineering Department of General Electric Company, engaged in testing and placing in service trans-oceanic radio transmitting stations for the Radio Corporation of America. Some of this work was done at the former Marconi Station, located on the Raritan River between New Brunswick and Bound Brook, New Jersey. From September 1920 until 1929 he was employed by the Radio Corporation of America, during which time he was engaged in developing and placing in service the transmitting facilities with which RCA established its world-wide public service radio communications business. His activity was taken over by RCA Communications, Inc. in 1929 and then by RCA Laboratories in 1942. In 1925 Hansell founded the RCA Radio Transmission Laboratory at Rocky Point, Long Island, N.Y. This laboratory developed the world's largest radio transmitting station, which was located adjacent to its facilities. The Rocky Point Laboratory had an active part in RCA developments of radio and television broadcasting and radio relaying systems, which have grown to services of great magnitude. During the second World War the laboratory was engaged in development of radio communications equipment, radio navigational equipment, and radar and low drag antenna systems for high speed military aircraft. In 1932 Hansell became interested in ionized air and its biological effects after having observed powerful effects produced by strongly ionized air upon one of his associates in the Rocky Point Laboratory. In 1945, while serving as a scientific investigator with the Technical Industrial Intelligence Committee in Germany for the U.S. Government, he obtained and reported information concerning air ionization investigations there. This led to an association with Mr. W. Wesley Hicks of San Francisco. President of Wesix Electric Heater Company, Mr. Hicks soon became one of the most active promoters and the most effective supporter of air ionization research in the United States. This association continued until the death of Mr. Hicks on December 8, 1960. Many others were brought into the field and have made important contributions. The present result is that the utilization of artificially ionized air seems to be ready to assume great importance in air conditioning and in therapeutics. A nonprofit membership organization called The American Institute of Medical Climatology has been organized in Philadelphia. One of its purposes is to promote air ionization medical research and to spread knowledge of its results. Hansell was General Chairman for an International Conference on Ionization of the Air sponsored by the Institute in 1961, at the Franklin Institute, in Philadelphia. Hansell was a Fellow of RCA Laboratories, The American Institute of Electrical Engineers and The Institute of Radio Engineers. He was a member of the Franklin Institute, Electrochemical Society, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Sigma Xi, and American Institute of Medical Climatology. He was the author and co-author of technical papers and was issued more than 300 United States patents and many more in other countries. Before moving to Princeton, New Jersey, in 1958, he was President of the Board of Education of Union Free School District No. 6, Port Jefferson, Long Island, N.Y. He also was President of the Port Jefferson area Planning Commission and was a member of the Port Jefferson Rotary Club. Mr. Hansell retired from RCA in 1963 and moved to Florida. Until his death in 1967 he spent a great deal of time in Port Jefferson, N.Y., with his married daughter and her family. During his retirement he worked on several manuscripts on ionization and the nature of energy and matter. Subjects INVENTORY Box 1 Biographical and personal files February 8, 1937-January 21, 1939. Rocky Point, New York, RCA Communications, Inc.,
Transmitter Research and Development Laboratory. 121 p. Report on Trip to England. October, 1937. Hansell Docket 8018 - Chemical Process of Separation Pulse system patents RCA Laboratories Planning Committee, Television and Frequency Modulation Sub-Committee,
Group VI-Radio Relay. 1943-1944. RCA Laboratories Planning Committee, Television and Frequency Modulation Sub-Committee,
Group VI-Radio Relay. 1943-1944 (continued). “History of Frequency Shift Keying,” (by Mr. Hansell?) Typescript carbon. 75 p. Correspondence, notes, memoranda, applications, etc. 1943-1946. Includes 20 p. “Suggestions”
on “How to make a success of RCA Laboratories.” Typescript carbon memorandum. (2f) Box 6 Combined Intelligence Objectives Subcommittee Evaluation Reports. Also other reports. Guellich, G.E., Optical Industries in Germany. July, 1945. FB-15955. Facsimile of typescript, prepared for Technical Industrial Intelligence Committee (T.I.I.C.) Hansell, C.W., Miscellaneous Developments in German Science and Industry. PB-1638.
Original typescript. Other Correspondence and reports related to investigations made
in Germany, 1945-1947. PB-1638, photostatic copy, with various correspondence and maps attached. 1945-1947. Correspondence and papers concerning arrangements for the trip to Germany and correspondence
on further investigation of material microfilmed in Germany. 1945-1947. U.S. Publication Board. Report. 1945: No: 28, 31, 55, 58, 59, 60, 67, 69, 70, 76, 77, 78, 81, 93, 95, 113, 115, 124, 128, 132, 145, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155, 157, 158, 159, 164, 166, 185, 197, 199 Box 8 List of unclassified reports by TICC, TIIB, TIDD, October 14, 1946. U.S. Publication Board. Report. 1945: 202, 205, 215, 232, 234, 243, 272, 273, 295, 301, 303, 305, 308, 309, 310, 330, 331, 332, 333, 334, 336, 337, 338, 354, 358, 359, 361, 371. (Hansell was co-author of no. 303) Combined Intelligence Objectives Subcommittee (C.I.O.S.); Telefunken G.M.B.H. Item
no. 1, 7 and 9. File no. XXXI-52. London, 1945. Correspondence and notes, 1946-1947 Correspondence, notes, and clippings, ca. 1946. Hansell, C.W., A Proposed Model to Explain Creation of Matter and the Interchange
of Matter and Energy. Princeton, New Jersey, RCA, 1959. duplicated. PEM-1388 Correspondence,
copies of correspondence, carbon typescripts and other materials included. PEM-1399, with notes, corrections, correspondence, etc. 1959. Atmospheric Ionization... (see Box 10, f.7), Chapter 3, with notes, correspondence,
articles, offprints, extracts, etc. “Hansell's Handbook.” Reading and research notes, reference information, etc. ca. 1941-196? Matter and energy papers and drafts, as well as notes and correspondence on ionization.
ca. 1950-1962 King, G.W.K., Ionization of the air and electrical field effects in biology; bibliography
of published references, 1962-1966. 3d ed. Princeton, New Jersey, Radio Corporation
of America, Astro-Electronics Division, November, 1966. duplicated. Hansell, C.W., comp, Ionization of the air and its biological effects; bibliography of published references. Princeton, New Jersey, RCA Service Company, Government Service Department, June, 1962. Hansell, C.W., comp, Ionization of the air and its biological effects; bibliography of published references. Original typescript, with memoranda. Hansell, C.W., comp., Bibliography of published references relating to ionization of the air and its biological effects. Princeton, New Jersey, RCA Laboratories, December 15, 1960. Duplicated. Hansell, C.W., Air ionizers and ionization instruments offer new business for RCA. August 5, 1960. 14 p. Duplicated. Hansell, C.W., Some notes relating to therapeutic application of ionized air. Princeton, New Jersey, RCA Laboratories, November 15, 1960. 7 p. Duplicated. Hansell, C.W., Ionization of the air and its biological effects. Rocky Point, New York, RCA Laboratories Division, Radio Transmission Section, October 31, 1951. 114 p. Engineering Memorandum 62-42. Typescript carbon. Correspondence and notes about PEM-1755, Atmospheric ionization and its biological effects. 1960. PEM-1755, Atmospheric ionization...with collections of supplementary materials, xeroxed
articles, etc. Various holograph manuscript drafts. Drafts of two articles and miscellaneous notes. Box 15 Subject files. These alphabetically arranged files include clippings, articles, working
papers, correspondence, and related materials. Box 16 Electrofax Box 17 Psychology Box 18 Ionization: 1952 Box 20 Ionization: 1956 Box 21 Box 22 Ionization: popular publications (4f) Box 23 Box 24 Ionization: 1961 Box 25 Ionization: 1963 Box 26 Compilation of publications, undated Box 27 Publications, ca. 1926 Box 28 Publications: 1949 (2f) Box 29 Box 30 Publications: 1961 Box 31 Proceedings of the International Conference on Ionization, October 16-17, 1961, vol.
2 Box 32 Unidentified publications, undated Box 33 Photographs: equipment, undated (1-68) |