Thursday, March 3, 2011

Mystery History -- Solved!


Jean wins with her 7:36 a.m. Tuesday guess "Caltech with Charles Richter, showing off his seismographs."

In the photo above, Dr. Charles Richter makes a post-retirement visit in 1976 to the Seismology Lab at Caltech, where his Richter Magnitude Scale was in full swing for quantifying the size of earthquakes.

Richter, who died in 1985 (and is buried at Mountain View Cemetery), was a Caltech seismologist for 42 years until his retirement as professor emeritus in 1970.

A year before finishing his doctorate degree in 1928 in theoretical physics, he applied for an opening for a physicist at the new seismological laboratory.


He invented the Richter Scale in 1935.

He never won the coveted Nobel Prize, but it has been awarded to more than 30 Caltech professors and researchers.

And now the spotlight is on the Caltech Men's Basketball Team, which finally ended its 310-game, 26-year losing streak last week when the freethrow shot heard 'round the world earned the Caltech Beavers a 46-45 victory over Occidental in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletics Conference (SCIAC).

What, you didn't know there were sports teams at Caltech? Well, look again.




Last year Caltech competed in the first annual Pasadena Collegiate Field Tournament against Art Center College of Design, Fuller Theological Seminary, Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts, Pacific Oaks College and Pasadena City College:



Caltech seized the day!



The 2011 Pasadena Collegiate Field Tournament will be on Friday, April 8, at 6:30 p.m. at Pasadena City College's Robinson Stadium. Come cheer on your favorites!


Many thanks to Caltech for the photos of Dr. Richter and the Men's Basketball Team.

6 comments:

Cafe Pasadena said...

Yes, congrats to The Artist aka Jean! I enjoy cking out her blog & the comments she makes on mine.

Ditto congrats to CalTech for finally winning their 1st conference game since way back in the last century! I've known some CalTechers over the years so it beats me why it took so long for them to finally get a conference win. I think they wooda done better had they been in the Pac-10 conference.

Pasadena Adjacent said...

You've got to love it when Jean wins. So whats it gonna be Jean; a fabulous city hall ornament or a pen holder?

Petrea Burchard said...

Congratulations, Jean!

That big field sports event looks like such a blast.

Mister Earl said...

The amazing thing is how does a school field a team for 26 years without a win? At some point you'd wonder whether it's a good use of your time. It's difficult to go that long without winning a game.

Jean Spitzer said...

Yay! I can use a win, after the past week.

And Caltech can use a win, after the past decades.

Pasadena Adjacent said...

my father was on the Cal Tech football team. They never won a game. "All brains/no bronze" as I recall him saying