Bausch & Lomb Hall

John J. Bausch	Henry Lomb

Plaque in Bausch & Lomb Hall

Bausch & Lomb Annex

Bausch & Lomb Hall opened in October 1930 on the south side of Eastman Quadrangle as the John J. Bausch Henry Lomb Memorial physics building.  It was named for John Jacob Bausch and Henry Lomb, founders of the Bausch and Lomb Optical Company and funded by a $300,000 gift made by the company and members of their families. 

The balcony on the back of the building was requested by Professor Brian O’Brien to allow him to "study the sun’s rays from sun rise to sun set” using a spectroscope weighing 800 pounds that was connected to equipment within the building.  It was completed in November 1930 at a total cost of $891.

The Institute of Optics occupied the fourth floor of the building until moving to the Space Science building (now Wilmot Hall) in the winter of 1977-1978.

A 7-million-Volt cyclotron was installed in the building in 1936 and was joined by a 250-million-Volt cyclotron installed in a separate building that began operating in 1949.  The smaller cyclotron was shut down on October 11, 1965, and shipped one year later to India as a teaching tool at Kurukshetra University. Within a few years it was relocated to Chandigarh, where it continues to operate.

A five-story wing was added to the south side of the building in 1962.  The penthouse of this wing contained a Carrier single-effect steam absorption chiller and cooling tower that provided chilled water to air condition the new wing and also the nearby Hoyt Auditorium.  A similar chiller had been installed earlier in the Administration Building.  Chilled water was later provided by an expanded Central Utilities plant, and the absorption chiller and tower were removed.

References
1930 "Preliminary Inspections of New College Plant," Rochester Review 9(1):21 (October-November 1930)
Bausch and Lomb Ceremony.  As early as July 25 a large group of executives and employees of the Bausch & Lomb Optical Company gathered in the early evening with University officials and friends to dedicate the John J. Bausch Henry Lomb Memorial physics building, which, it will be remembered, was built with the gift of $300,000, made by members of those two families during the Greater University Campaign and designated for that purpose.
A memorial placque of bronze on the side wall of the vestibule, suitably engraved and bearing the likenesses of the two founders of Rochester's great optical industry, was unveiled, and the further ceremony took place on the steps of the building. Carl F. Lomb, vice-president of the company, made the formal presentation of the completed building, which was accepted for the University by Joseph T. Alling, '76, first vice-president of the Board of Trustees. Professor T. Russell Wilkins, of the physics department and director of the Institute of Applied Optics housed on the top floor of the building, made a speech descriptive of the new equipment and the work which the University hopes to accomplish with it. The date of the ceremony had special significance as marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of Mr. Bausch, who died in 1925 at the age of 95.

1936 "Moving of Cyclotron to Bausch Started," Campus Times, Marsh 27, 1936, Page 8.
Huge Magnets Being Moved in Eight Parts, Will Use Special Structure

1936 "Exploring the Atom," by Lee A. Du Bridge, Rochester Review 14(3):55-57 (February-March 1936)

1936 "Cyclotron," Rochester Review 15(1):10 (October-November 1936)
The University of Rochester's atom-smasher is completed and in operation.

1946 "Physics Department Boosts Plant," Rochester Review 23(8):16 (April-May 1946)
It has appropriated $550,000 for an addition to the Physics Department's plant and equipment.  The general plan is to build equipment that will produce particles of 100 million volts, either through a modified form of the cyclotron or a betatron.  The University's present cyclotron, or atom-smasher, if seven-million volt equipment.

1955 "UR Pioneered in Building Atom Smasher; Cyclotron Being Rebuilt after 20 Years," Rochester Review 16(4):9 (March 1955)

1959 "Cyclotron Explores Secrets of Atomic Nuclei Particles," Campus Times, February 6, 1959, Page 2.

1960 "Contracts Let by UR For Two Additions," Democrat and Chronicle, December 30, 1960, Page 14.
Five-story addition to Bausch & Lomb Hall and a new lecture-demonstration hall.

1961 "UR Contracts Construction of Five-Story B&L Addition," Campus Times, January 10, 1961, Page 3.

1962 "Two Nobel Winners To Appear at UR," Democrat and Chronicle, October 12, 1962, Page 26.
Two Nobel prize winners. Dr. John Bardeen and Dr. I. I. Rabi. will take part today in ceremonies dedicating the $1.7 million five-story addition to Bausch & Lomb Hall of the University of Rochester.

1962 "New Library Opens in B&L Addition," University Record 2(10):7 (November 1962)
The Physics-Mathematics Library in the new Bausch & Lomb wing is now in operation with 4500 sq. feet of space and room for 30,000 volumes.
The library moved from its cramped quarters in the Bausch & Lomb Building Oct. 9 and was ready for business Oct. 10. Director of all science libraries is Dr. Phyllis Richmond.
In charge of the Physics-Mathematics Library is Catherine Delahanty.
Louis E. Martin, assistant director of UR Library, said the library will contain important journals and books from the Institute of Optics as well as Physics and Mathematics.

1965 "A 'Iron Horse' at End of Line," Democrat and Chronicle, October 12, 1965, Page 31.
26-inch Cyclotron at UR was shut down

1965 "UR Phases Out the Old," Campus Times, October 26, 1965, Page 8.
UR's 26-inch cyclotron — believed to be the oldest active nuclear accelerator in the world —was turned off at 8 a. m. October 11, bringing to a close 28 years of operation.
The instrument was designed and built on the Rochester campus in 1937 under the direction of Prof. Sidney W. Barnes of the University's department of Physics and Astronomy and Lee DuBridge, former faculty member and now president of California Institute of Technology.
Aside from a few temporary shut-downs for rebuilding, the cyclotron has been used continuously for research and instruction by both faculty and graduate students.
Many of the programs have been supported by the Atomic Energy commission. Experiments of the type which were performed with the so-called "small cyclotron" will be carried out with the university's new Tandem Van de Graaff accelerator. (The University also has a 130-inch cyclotron, built in 1949, which is still in use.)

1965 "Old UR Cyclotron is Shut Down Forever," University Record. 5(10):3 (November 1965)
New accelerator to take over now.

1966 "Cyclotron Books Passage to India to Aid Research," Campus Times, November 11, 1966, Page 5. | Part 2 |

1967 "Rochester Cyclotron Again Active in Indian Research," Physics Today 29(3):97 (March 1, 1967)

1977 History of the University of Rochester, 1850-1962, by Arthur J. May.  Expanded edition with notes
Chapter 22, Oak Hill Becomes River Campus
Families connected with the Bausch and Lomb Optical Company requested that their contributions should be applied to erecting a building on Oak Hill carrying the names of the founders of the firm, John J. Bausch and Henry Lomb.
On the south side were erected the Bausch and Lomb Memorial for physics and optics
Chapter 26, The Depression Decade
Fortunate, too, was the U. of R. in the acquisition of young Lee A. DuBridge as professor of physics, a post he held from 1934 to 1946, except for a wartime leave of absence. He turned down lucrative offers from industry, choosing to build a strong department at Rochester, and to carry forward his researches in biophysics, nuclear disintegration, photoelectric emission, and radar. As dean of the faculty of arts and sciences (1938-1941), DuBridge was sympathetic and accessible, highly respected by colleagues and undergraduates alike. In Valentine's evaluation, DuBridge, his close friend, proved that "science and humanity, mind and emotion, can be brought into almost perfect balance in one man." From the directorship of the radiation laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology during the Second World War, he returned briefly to Rochester withdrawing (1946) to take the president's chair at California Institute of Technology.
On the recommendation of DuBridge, Sidney W. Barnes began what proved to be a thirty-three year tenure in 1934. Concerned with nuclear physics and x-ray line widths, Barnes also designed cyclotrons for the U. of R., the first of them in 1935. He contributed generously to technical journals and shared in government research connected with the atomic bomb in the early 1940s.
The 1930's saw several noteworthy additions to the institutional facilities on the River Campus. First in point of time was a maintenance building erected (1934) on the south side of the campus. Next, several Rochester firms united in financing the construction of a cyclotron or atom smasher in the Bausch and Lomb Building. It produced radioactive substances helpful in diagnosis and treatment of specific human ailments, and it was an important tool in fluoride investigations.
Chapter 37, In Pursuit of Excellence
For physics and astronomy, optics, and mathematics a five-story wing was attached (1962) to Bausch and Lamb Memorial Laboratory.

1979 "Institute of Optics 1929–1979: a brief commemorative," by Hilda G. Kingslake, Applied Optics 18(19):3223-3229 (1979)
The Institute was housed then and for the next forty-eight years on the fourth floor of the new Bausch & Lomb Hall, built for the physics department and not yet occupied. Partitions had to be decided, laboratory apparatus accumulated, and courses started.
The fourth floor of Bausch & Lomb Hall was already too small, and this condition of outgrownness, which became more acute as the years went by, was only partially remedied in 1961 by a considerable enlargement of Bausch & Lomb Hall.  By 1970 the Institute was occupying laboratories and offices in several other buildings on the campus, including the relatively new Space Science Center. At last, early in 1979, the housing problem seems to be solved for some years to come for, during his term as Director of the Institute, Brian Thompson managed to persuade the Administration that the five-story Space Science Building would indeed be exactly the place for the Institute of Optics. The move was made in the winter of 1977–78 just after the arrival of Nicholas George, Thompson’s successor as Director.

2017 "Where Have All the Cyclotrons Gone?," by Melissa Mead, Rochester Review 80(2):21 (November-December 2017)
The small cyclotron, installed in Bausch & Lomb Hall, was designed and built by Professor Sidney Barnes. It had a 26-inch diameter and began operation in 1935. By the time you worked with it, the device had been converted by Professor Fulbright from its original purpose to a “variable energy machine.” It was shut down on October 11, 1965, and shipped one year later, as you recall, to India as a teaching tool at Kurukshetra University. Within a few years it was relocated to Chandigarh, where it continues to operate.

2018 The Great Academic Hoaxer:  U R Who You Say U R!

2020 ‘Cyclotron’ – a Tribute To the Quiet Work of India’s Unsung Scientists

© 2021 Morris A. Pierce