Tuve, Merle

Professor of Physics, Princeton University Tuve, Merle... 

In the 1960s, we proposed to the NIH that we reactivate a 60-inch cyclotron built in 1939 by Merle Tuve at the Carnegie Institute of Washington. It was identical to the 60-inch cyclotron built by Ernest Lawrence in Berkeley, CA. 

The proximity fuse was a miniature radar unit shaped to replace the ballistic nose of anti-aircraft shells. It sensed its proximity to a target— an enemy plane— and exploded the shell it rode at a preset range, often turning a miss into a kill. Its development was another of Bush s responsibilities and it was one of science s most important contributions to the war. Merle Tuve, Richard Roberts and most of the physics team at the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism of the Carnegie Institution had turned from fission research in August 1940 to develop it. 

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