Pages 229-230

An interest in the atmosphere and all its phenomena held the attention of Irving Langmuir throughout his lifespan. His initial interest was probably aroused while taking hikes and climbs in the Alps of Switzerland when, as a young boy, he spent considerable time exploring those mountains.

He once told me that his parents gave him considerable freedom to travel alone in the mountains, after obtaining his promise to observe several inflexible rules. One was that he learn to read a map and that he always have a map of the area in his pack; another that he was never to devote more than half of the available time for climbing. This assured him adequate time to return. With these simple rules he was often able to climb high into the mountains and to know them better than many older mountaineers. Because of these expeditions his self-reliance developed at a very early age and it was natural that he should become well-versed in the ways of the weather.

As a student in Germany, he continued his interest in atmospheric effects, and while hiking in the Hartz Mountains, he noted and became quite interested in the phenomena related to subcooled clouds. Many years later, while working with him at Mount Washington on aircraft icing problems, he recalled these experiences in Germany and noted that the nature of the rime deposits and degree of subcooling tended to be similar, although the winds on Mount Washington were much more severe.

Shortly after joining General Electric at Schenectady, Langmuir, in company with his new friend "Appie" (John S. Apperson of Schenectady), made one of the earliest winter ascents of Mount Washington in the White Mountains, and Mount Marcy and Whiteface Mountain in the Adirondacks. It was due to this active interest and knowledge of mountains, gained from first-hand experience, that led him early in 1943 to suggest to the writer that we utilize the high winds of Mount Washington for conducting studies of precipitation static. It was this work which led us into aircraft icing studies and, subsequently, to the much broader investigations of subcooled clouds, growth of cloud particles, and cloud seeding techniques.

In the early 1930s, Langmuir became interested in aviation and purchased the first of several small single-engine airplanes. One of the first experiences I had with him was in his open cockpit Waco monoplane. I had known Dr. Langmuir for several years previously, having been introduced to him by John Apperson, an ardent conservationist with whom I was associated in efforts to preserve the State Constitution's provisions that protected the Adirondack Forest Preserve from persistent developers. I had just organized a winter sports club and was in the process of negotiating with several railroad companies toward operating a snow train from Schenectady. Langmuir offered to take me on an exploratory flight to search for suitable ski areas.

I met him at his home and went to the airport where, with some apprehension, I climbed into the two-seater open cockpit airplane. Incidentally, this exploratory flight was he sire experience a hair my seat ot, a mechal eper fore propeller; her anual time, we were airborne. 

The day of our flight was cold and, of course, colder at the 2,000-5,000 foot level where we flew. Reaching about 5,000 feet, Langmuir showed me the basic maneuvers, the stick and rudder controls, and then told me to take over! After flying until I had the feel of the aircraft, he had me stall and recover, bank, turn, climb, and dive. We then headed for the Catskills and spent the next several hours exploring the area for suitable ski slopes near railroad facilities. During this part of the flight I took my first aerial photographs. 

The flight lasted about an hour, but with the novelty of a first experience, I didn't notice that I was getting cold. When we landed and parked the plane at the Schenectady County Airport, I suddenly realized how cold I was. My teeth were chattering and I was feeling a bit groggy- the first phases of hypothermia. I didn't get warm for a half hour or more. Marion Langmuir plied me with hot tea and cookies when we reached Langmuir's home, so that before heading home, I was feeling quite normal.

During the flight we found several excellent ski slopes which were among those con-sidered, when we finally selected North Creek and Gore Mountain as the destination of our Snow Train, which first ran on March 4, 1934. Throughout all of this period, Langmuir was most helpful at critical times in our negotiations with railroad officials.

One of Langmuir's joys in flying consisted of "cloud dodging." On a day with the skies well-populated with cumulus or stratus clouds, he would go aloft alone, or with a friend, and made a game of brushing the clouds with the wing or wheels or cockpit of the plane.

It was during one such flight he noticed that stratus clouds were often so stable that persistent wheel tracks could be made on their upper surface when touched during precision flying. During these maneuvers, he also became familiar with some of the optical effects produced by sunlight falling on clouds. I learned a great deal from him about coronas, glo-ries, halos, sun pillars, sun dogs, under suns, and related phenomena. He never tired of telling about these effects, photographing them, and getting others to notice them. During his visit to Russia in 1945, one of his major interests on the flight across Siberia was in observing cloud structures and optical effects.

During the period of his active interest in aviation, Langmuir became quite concerned about improvements needed in producing better light signals to increase the safety of aerial navigation. With Westendorp, 46 who had recently arrived from Holland to join the Research Laboratory staff, he conducted a series of simple but very pertinent experiments dealing with the light signals. Such things as the relative visibility of various colored lights, the comparative value of steady versus blinking lights, light intensity, and visual acuity were explored. 

The results of these studies had a considerable influence on the development of adequate facilities in the then rapidly expanding field of aerial navigation. In these recent years when Doppler navigation, the use of radar, radio beams, and many other electronic aids are in commonplace usage, the importance of the pioneering work of Langmuir toward improving flight facilities during the "kerosene lantern and fencepost" period has all but been forgotten. Langmuir finally decided to abandon private flying. His reasons were adequate. He became convinced that the uncertain weather of the northeastern United States made the use of a private plane of questionable value for business trips. Perhaps the more important reason for his decision lay in the increasing number of rules and regulations that more and more restricted the flier who flew for the fun of it. The crowning blow, as I remember it, was a ruling that flight log books not only had to be of a certain size, but must have a cover of a certain color. This to Langmuir was too much, and he went out and sold his plane!