Historical note: Warren P. Mason (1900-1986) physicist, engineer, inventor, author, teacher

This paper is based on an invited talk in the Warren P. Mason Memorial Session at the 117th meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Syracuse, NY, May 22-26, 1989. Warren Perry Mason, a Charter Member, Fellow, President, and Gold Medalist of the Acoustical Society of America, consistently applied his understanding of fundamentals to explain physical processes and create practical devices. As a physicist, he led us to a better understanding of fundamental effects in liquids and solids. He made the first measurement of shear elasticity in liquids and helped establish the type of motion that polymer chains can make. In solids, he contributed to quantitative understandings of phonon drag on charge carriers in semiconductors, fatigue of metals, and damping of acoustic waves in metals, insulators, semiconductors, alloys, and rocks. As an engineer and inventor, he led advances in mufflers and noise control, electromechanical filters for carrier frequency telephony, piezoelectric crystals and ceramics for electromechanical transducers, and semiconductor strain gauges. With about 200 patents, he is the most prolific inventor in the history of Bell Labs. As an author and teacher, he wrote more than 200 papers and four reference books that teach fundamental concepts, give complete tensorial descriptions of numerous physical interactions in crystals, describe research results, and guide the reader to the related literature. In this paper, we show some early pictures of Mason and his family, transmit some stories, and give an example of a communication device in which Mason would surely have been interested, namely an acoustically tuned optical filter.<<ETX>>

[1]  David A. Smith,et al.  Polarization‐independent acoustically tunable optical filter , 1990 .

[2]  W. P. Mason,et al.  Observation of acoustic harmonics generated by long‐range motion of dislocations , 1978 .

[3]  W. P. Mason,et al.  Fatigue Mechanism in fcc Metals at Ultrasonic Frequencies , 1968 .

[4]  W. P. Mason,et al.  Damping of Dislocations in Niobium by Phonon Viscosity , 1971 .

[5]  W. P. Mason,et al.  Fatigue Mechanism in Iron at Ultrasonic Frequency , 1969 .

[6]  Kwok-Wai Cheung,et al.  Two-stage integrated-optic acoustically tunable optical filter with enhanced sidelobe suppression , 1989 .

[7]  Twinning of Zn and Sn during ultrasonic deformation , 1974 .

[8]  Acoustic emission caused by large alternating strains , 1975 .

[9]  W. P. Mason.  Internal friction, acoustic emission and fatigue in metals for high amplitude ultrasonic frequencies , 1976 .

[10]  W. P. Mason.  The Propagation Characteristics of Sound Tubes and Acoustic Filters , 1928 .

[11]  Robert S. Feigelson,et al.  CaMoO4 ELECTRONICALLY TUNABLE OPTICAL FILTER , 1970 .

[12]  Emil Wolf,et al.  Principles of Optics: Contents , 1999 .

[13]  J. T. Kuo,et al.  Internal friction of Pennsylvania slate , 1971 .

[14]  Kwok-Wai Cheung,et al.  Integrated-Optic Acoustically-Tunable Filters for WDM Networks , 1990, IEEE J. Sel. Areas Commun..

[15]  J. T. Kuo,et al.  Internal friction of metal spheres showing the effect of the anisotropy of the component metals , 1977 .

[16]  W. P. Mason.  Electromechanical transducers and wave filters , 1942 .

[17]  David A. Smith,et al.  Multiple channel operation of integrated acousto-optic tunable filter , 1989 .

[18]  Warren Perry Mason.  A study of the regular combination of acoustic elements, with applications to recurrent acoustic filters, tapered acoustic filters, and horns , 1927 .

[19]  W. P. Mason,et al.  Internal friction during ultrasonic deformation of alpha‐brass , 1976 .

[20]  Second‐Order Strain Accumulation at Ultrasonic Frequency , 1968 .

[21]  R. D. Mindlin.  Bechmann's Number for Harmonic Overtones of Thickness/Twist Vibrations of Rotated‐Y‐Cut Quartz Plates , 1967 .

[22]  W. P. Mason,et al.  Mechanical Properties of Long Chain Molecule Liquids at Ultrasonic Frequencies , 1948 .

[23]  W. P. Mason,et al.  Measurement of Shear Elasticity and Viscosity of Liquids at Ultrasonic Frequencies , 1949 .

[24]  J.J. Johnson,et al.  Surface-acoustic-wave directional coupler for apodization of integrated acoustooptic filters , 1993, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control.