Viewing page 62 of 169

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

There is good news about the theses and all, although not entirely definite Jack will give his thesis to the typist (who also makes the reproductions in her home) on January 22. He will not formally receive his degree in February but in June. This will however not affect the pay. He won't be able to take the finals until some time in February anyway, no matter when he gets the thesis in, because the committee members will be hard to find around the end of the semester. He will probably start at the first of the semester to get the grand new salary of $5700 a year until he leaves, which is more than twice what he was getting; a research associate, I guess. The G. I. will stop in February, having finally been replaced by something. It was really worth being in that "war"!

In the meantime Jack is at work settling some points in his mind before he writes the final bits. I don't know whether or not I mentioned our trip to Indiana University? We went a week ago Friday t see Konapinski, a theoretician who is one of the most expert people in the country on Jack's subject. Frauenfelder, not being a theoretician, when unable to answer Jack's question suggested going to see Konapinski. So we got a University vehicle, took along a new Swiss physicist who wanted to visit the place, and I cut one class to go too. It was a rather eventful trip. A rainy, mild day. We had a 1958 Ford with power brakes and automatic transmission. Jack is familiar with these cars, having used the University vehicles several times before. He has never gone through a trip without some trouble. This time we had travelled about an hour when horrible noises began to issue from the transmission area, a grinding noise and the feeling of a flat tire--although there was none. They got so steadily worse that we just didn't dare to drive to the next town 4 miles away. So we stopped and called the University garage. In less than an hour they had come out with a fresh car and a truck to tow the old one back. The trouble was indeed one which we should not have continued with, which would have done a lot of damage to the car and possibly to us. So an hour and a half lost and on we went. No further troubles in that respect.