Rolf H. (Rolf Heinrich) Sabersky Oral History Interview
Interviewed by Charlotte E. (Shelley) Erwin
Interview Sessions from 1990
- April 3, 1990
- April 12, 1990
Abstract
An interview in two sessions, in April 1990, with Rolf Heinrich
Sabersky, professor of mechanical engineering, emeritus, in the Division
of Engineering and Applied Science. Dr. Sabersky received his
undergraduate and graduate education at Caltech (BS, 1942; MS, 1943;
PhD, 1949). He joined the Caltech faculty in 1949 and became a full
professor in 1961 and emeritus professor in 1988. In this interview, he
discusses his early education in Berlin and his family’s flight from
Germany in 1938 to Switzerland and thence to Los Angeles. He entered
Caltech in 1939 as a sophomore; recalls his professors there: Donald S.
Clark, Frederic W. Hinrichs, Robert L. Daugherty, Robert T. Knapp,
Franklin Thomas, William H. Pickering, Romeo R. Martel, William B.
Munro, and James W. Daily. Recollections of Thomas Mann. Pearl Harbor
and Caltech campus in wartime; restrictions applying to him as an “enemy
alien.” He discusses his work on the Southern California Cooperative
Wind Tunnel under Mark Serrurier; recalls visits to that project by
Arthur (Maj.) Klein. Becomes a graduate student; lives in the Old Dorm
and joins the campus fire brigade. Courses from Donald E. Hudson, Robert
C. Bromfield, Peter Kyropoulos. After the MS degree, he goes to work at
Aerojet Engineering Corp. at invitation of A.M.O. Smith; works with
Martin Summerfield on sustained-duration liquid rocket engines.
Recollections of Theodore von Kármán, Clark B. Millikan. Guggenheim Jet
Propulsion Center and H. S. Tsien. Recollections of Fritz Zwicky in his
Aerojet days. The influence of Aerojet’s William E. Zisch. Becomes
acquainted with James Van Allen in early 1946, at Applied Physics Lab,
Johns Hopkins; their work together on the Aerobee rocket. Back to
Caltech for the PhD; comments on advent of Frederick C. Lindvall and
changes in the engineering division. Recalls his work with Duncan Rannie
on axial flow compressors. Courses with Carl Anderson, H. Victor Neher,
Charles Lauritsen. Receives his PhD, joins the faculty; consults for
Aerojet. Comments on changes in engineering curriculum, drop in
engineering enrollment in the late 1950s, the rise of environmental
engineering. He discusses division problems with accreditation; assesses
student quality and effect of the admission of women. Comments on
increasingly cumbersome process of faculty recruitment. He discusses his
work on boiling heat transfer, on fluids near the critical point, on
fluid flow in rough tubes, on polymer solutions and non-Newtonian
fluids, on flowing granular material. Talks about his “extracurricular”
research on indoor pollution with Frederic Shair. He concludes with an
assessment of current prospects facing graduating engineers.
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Rolf H. (Rolf Heinrich) Sabersky Oral History Interview, interviewed by Charlotte E. (Shelley) Erwin, Caltech Archives Oral History Project, April 3, 1990, April 12, 1990, http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechOH:OH_Sabersky_R.