Caltech was a stimulating environment, full of interesting scientists at the
top of their fields, but Beckman grew restless over the course of his first
year.Despite his love for California
and Caltech, his attention constantly returned to Mabel Meinzer.She was gainfully employed in New York, and
Beckman did not feel that he could ask her to come to California to share his
uncertain life as a graduate student.Thus,
in 1924, he drew deeply on the self-confidence he gained in his Western summers
and left for New York to seek gainful employment.He took the cheapest passage he could find,
by steamship through the Panama Canal, but the stateroom that his hundred-dollar
passage bought was so uncomfortable that he spent most of the voyage on the
deck.
Beckman’s
first thought was to work as a chemist at Standard Oil of New Jersey’s Bayonne
refinery.He was offered the job almost
immediately, but a friend from Caltech who was working for the newly-formed
Bell Labs in Manhattan reportedly told him “Oh, you don’t want to work out in
Bayonne, the mud flats.Why don’t you
get a job right here in New York with Western Electric?”Almost immediately, Beckman became the first technical employee of Walter
A. Shewhart, known as the father of modern statistical quality control.Even though his two-year career at Bell Labs is often treated as a sidebar
in his life, he learned important lessons about electronic technology and quality
control in manufacturing as it was practiced in the most renowned of industrial
research centers.Beckman learned the
importance of intellectual integrity in business from Shewhart, as well as a
commitment to scientific objectivity.But most of all, Beckman learned the awesome potential power of
electronics when they were built to exacting standards of quality.The easy familiarity that he gained with the
vacuum tube, a Bell Labs invention, would pay off significantly later in his
life.His experience with electronics
at Bell Labs provided important knowledge for the partnership of chemistry and
electronics that he was later to make so successfully.
Beckman’s relationship with his fiancée only deepened with his arrival in New
York, and Arnold and Mabel were married in June of 1925.They took a honeymoon to Niagara Falls and
the Great Lakes, and returned to New York to set up housekeeping.Despite the opportunity and variety offered
by New York, Beckman was restless for California.When Arthur A. Noyes, the chairman of Caltech’s chemistry division,
arrived in New York and demanded a meeting with Beckman to convince him to come
back and finish his degree, Beckman needed little prompting.Arnold and Mabel set out for California in
the fall of 1926 in Arnold’s Model T.The
journey took six weeks, and Arnold set a personal record in the Badlands of
South Dakota: nineteen flat tires in one day.This was all a new experience for Mabel, who
had always been a city dweller, but she and they arrived safely at Pasadena.
Beckman’s
first thought was to work as a chemist at Standard Oil of New Jersey’s Bayonne
refinery. He was offered the job almost
immediately, but a friend from Caltech who was working for the newly-formed
Bell Labs in Manhattan reportedly told him “Oh, you don’t want to work out in
Bayonne, the mud flats. Why don’t you
get a job right here in New York with Western Electric?”
Almost immediately, Beckman became the first technical employee of Walter
A. Shewhart, known as the father of modern statistical quality control.
Even though his two-year career at Bell Labs is often treated as a sidebar
in his life, he learned important lessons about electronic technology and quality
control in manufacturing as it was practiced in the most renowned of industrial
research centers. Beckman learned the
importance of intellectual integrity in business from Shewhart, as well as a
commitment to scientific objectivity. But most of all, Beckman learned the awesome potential power of
electronics when they were built to exacting standards of quality. The easy familiarity that he gained with the
vacuum tube, a Bell Labs invention, would pay off significantly later in his
life. His experience with electronics
at Bell Labs provided important knowledge for the partnership of chemistry and
electronics that he was later to make so successfully.
The
University of Illinois