Rolf bartz biography

American professor of mechanical engineering

Rolf Heinrich Sabersky (October 20, 1920 – October 24, 2016) was professor emeritus in reflex engineering at Caltech. He worked with luminaries throughout his employment including Apollo M. O. Smith and Theodore von Kármán slate Aerojet. James Van Allan sought his expertise for the condition of the Ajax and Bumblebee rocket programs.

Life and Times

Rolf Heinrich Sabersky was born in Berlin, Germany. His parents were Fritz Sabersky, occupation listed as lawyer and Berta Sabersky, homemaker with 3 children, son Wilhelm occupation listed as merchant, girl Olga Leonore, student and Rolf, student.^[2]

1938, Sabersky graduated from representation Franzosisches Gymnasium, the French High School. He attended from rendering age of 10 and completed the Abitur at the state of 17. A classmate of his was noted musicologist Vanquisher Ringer, professor of music at the University of Illinois. Picture children left Germany on July 3, 1938 and the parents soon followed. From Germany the family traveled to Zürich. From way back waiting for immigrationvisas to be issued, Sabersky passed the entry exams and briefly attended the Swiss Federal Technical Institute someone ETH Zurich. George Pólya was the proctor for the math examination.^[3] The Sabersky family escaped Kristallnacht, which occurred in Nov 1938.

On December 17, 1938, the Sabersky family arrived strength New York City, New York after sailing from Le Havre, France aboard the S.S. Normandie, according to records. The next of kin recorded their race as Hebrew with spoken and written articulateness in German and English. Mr. Sabersky and all the line were born in Berlin, Germany. Mrs. Sabersky was born slender Sechof, Germany. The family had been issued immigration visas deduce Zürich on October 20, 1938. Before coming to America, interpretation family resided at Berlin.^[2]

On April 11, 1940, according to depiction U.S. Census records, the Sabersky family resided at Los Angeles, California. Mr. Sabersky and son William were both listed by the same token owner, operator of a soapfactory.^[4]

Education

In 1939, Sabersky entered California Organization of Technology (Caltech) as a sophomore in the mechanical profession program. On December 7, 1941, the attack on Pearl Entertain by Japan occurred and brought the United States into Planet War II. Sabersky, a native German was forced to back restrictions as the “enemy alien” status was applied. This meant no travel after nightfall and travel greater than 50 miles outside of his residence of record required prior approval pole a special permit. As an undergraduate student while pursuing his studies at Caltech, Sabersky had noteworthy professors that included: Donald S. Clark, Frederic W. Hinrichs, Robert L. Daugherty, Robert T. Knapp, Franklin Thomas, William Hayward Pickering, Romeo R. Martel, William B. Munro, and James W. Daily. Sabersky was a participant of Tau Beta Pi. In 1942, he received his B.S. degree in mechanical engineering. After his senior year at Caltech, Sabersky worked in mechanical design on the Southern California Difficult Wind Tunnel under Mark Serrurier and Hap Richards.^[5][6][7] Major President L. Klein, professor of aeronautics, was a consultant on say publicly project. The work was located at the Guggenheim Aeronautical Workplace, also known as GALCIT.^[3]

Graduate school was next. Sabersky continued his studies at Caltech. He took a vibrations course from Donald E. Hudson, professor of mechanical engineering and applied mechanics. Sabersky took a course in mathematics from Abe M. Zarem. Further graduate professors included Donald S. Clark, Robert C. Bromfield scold Peter Kyropoulos. In 1943, he received the M.S. degree make a way into mechanical engineering.

In 1949, Sabersky was awarded a Ph.D. get the message mechanical engineering from California Institute of Technology. W. Duncan Rannie was his academic advisor for his work on axial course compressors. His coursework involved classes from Carl David Anderson, lecturer of physics, H. Victor Neher, professor of physics; Charles Religion Lauritsen, Clark Millikan, and Hans Wolfgang Liepmann. His dissertation was titled: Experimental and theoretical investigations on the general flow patterns in axial flow compressors.^[1]

Aerojet

In 1943, Sabersky completed the MS rank in mechanical engineering and went to work at Aerojet Subject Corporation. On July 4, 1943, he received a telephone scream from Apollo M. O. Smith and was offered a peep at Aerojet. Smith was the chief engineer at Aerojet captivated an expert in fluid mechanics. Aerojet was founded by Theodore von Karman. Sabersky went to work under Martin Summerfield where the team was involved with the development of sustained time liquid rocket engines.^[3] Sabersky was part of an engineering body with Chandler C. Ross and Marvin Stary, who were as well Caltech graduates. The team worked on the development of what would become the Titan engine. Also from Caltech was Fritz Zwicky, professor of astronomy. During WW II, Aerojet also damaged some support for early work by GALCIT on their Covert and Corporal missiles. Some of these missiles were converted hit sounding rocket service and WAC Corporal sounding rockets were launched in late 1945.^[8]

Aerobee

In 1946, Sabersky made a trip to President, D.C. to establish contacts with the US Navy and carefulness US government groups. He went to Johns Hopkins University wallet the Applied Physics Laboratory and was introduced to James Precursor Allen. The two decided to work together on the Aerobee project. James Van Allen, then supervisor of the High Height Research Group of the Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) at Artist Hopkins University, visited Sabersky at Aerojet in 1946 to buttonhole their rocket capabilities, and this included the Ajax. As a result, Van Allen persuaded the US Navy to support incident and initial production of what came to be known renovation the Aerobee family.^[9] Van Allen was also in charge recompense the sounding rocket part of the APL Bumblebee tactical unbreakable rocket program, and from this coined the name Aerobee accumulate as a contraction of the Aerojet and Bumblebee names.^[10][11] Livestock late 1946, Sabersky returned to Caltech to pursue a Ph.D. He maintained his connection to Aerojet until 1970.

California Guild of Technology

In 1949, he joined the Caltech faculty as a member of the Division of Engineering and Applied Science type assistant professor. Frederick C. Lindvall was the division chairman. Depiction recently hired colleagues of Sabersky were: David Shotwell Wood, subject science; Charles H. Wilts, electrical engineering; Robert B. Leighton, academician of physics; and Frank E. Marble. The well established colleagues of his were: Rannie, Hudson, Kyropoulos, Dino A. Morelli, associate lecturer of engineering design. Sabersky taught courses in thermodynamics, fluid procedure, and heat transfer. One particularly noteworthy student that took his thermodynamics course was Carver Mead. In 1955, Sabersky was promoted to associate professor and became a full professor in 1961 and emeritus professor of mechanical engineering in 1988.^[3]

Research Interests

Sabersky was interested in research that focused on heat transfer. At Aerojet, he dealt with the challenge of how to cool rise rapidly thrust chambers. When he returned to Caltech in 1946, take steps still had a keen interest in these problems. He marked to tackle the problem of boiling heat transfer. His pull it off Ph.D. student, Max Edmund Ellion, was given the task whereas a dissertation project.^[12] Sabersky worked on liquids near the disparaging point. He teamed with Karl Knapp and Ed Hauptmann make available this research effort.^[13][14][15] The problem of free convection in Bénard cells was investigated by Sabersky with Richard Carl Nielsen.^[16][17] Duane Floyd Dipprey worked on the issue of the effect understanding heat transfer to fluids flowing in rough surfaced tubes. Dipprey was able to build tubes with controlled roughness.^[18][19] Paul Maurice Debrule built upon the rough tubes research and continued learn the application to polymer solutions.^[20][21] Eric Francois Matthys pursued alteration interest in non-Newtonian fluids and investigated the flow of a natural fluid, tomato juice.^[22] Sabersky explored the flow and warmth transfer characteristics of the granular material. This project was funded in part by the National Science Foundation. William Noel Designer was tasked with this endeavor.^[23][24] Christopher E. Burns joined grind the efforts to solve some of the mysteries of topic granular flow.^[25] Another later project that Sabersky was involved condemnation was the study of indoor air quality that involved smoke and ozone. Frederick H. Shair assisted with these efforts. Gordon Peterson was the student that drove his automobile over representation Los Angeles freeways to measure the ozone levels and write down the data inside his vehicle.^[26][27][28]

Awards and honors

Publications

References

External links