Layers of Brilliance: The Breakthrough - Episode Four
About this episode
The episode explores Katharine Burr Blodgett's groundbreaking work on non-reflecting glass during the 1930s at The General Electric Company.
The 1930s prove to be an exceptional decade for research at The General Electric Company. Katharine Burr Blodgett works closely alongside her boss, Irving Langmuir who, in 1932, wins the Nobel Prize for Chemistry . In 1938, Katharine’s meticulous experiments with thin film coatings on solid surfaces lead to her most important breakthrough: non-reflecting glass. The General Electric Company’s public relations machine kicks into high gear. Katharine becomes an overnight sensation, both in the scientific community and in the press, which dub her discovery “invisible glass.” The assistant to the Nobel Prize winner, long invisible herself, takes center stage. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Topics covered
- scientific breakthroughs
- women in science
- Nobel Prize
- thin film coatings
- non-reflecting glass
Keywords
- Katharine Burr Blodgett
- Irving Langmuir
- Nobel Prize
- non-reflecting glass
- General Electric
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: The General Electric Company
More episodes of Lost Women of Science
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- Conversation: If I Am Right, and I Know I Am: Inge Lehmann, the Woman Who Discovered Earth’s Innermost Secret
- BONUS: Agnes Pockels and the Kitchen Sink Myth
- Layers of Brilliance: Vanishing Act -- Episode Six
- Layers of Brilliance: The Self You Have to Live With - Episode Five
- Layers of Brilliance: The Air She Breathed -- Episode Three
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