physics

Kenneth Mees

Kenneth Mees is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Kenneth Mees rather than just read about it. In short: Charles Edward Kenneth Mees FRS (26 May 1882 – 15 August 1960) was a British scientist and photographic researcher. Early life and education Mees was born in Wellingborough, England, the son of a Wesleyan minister.

Key takeaways

Kenneth Mees belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Kenneth Mees to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Kenneth Mees from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Charles Edward Kenneth Mees FRS (26 May 1882 – 15 August 1960) was a British scientist and photographic researcher.

Early life and education Mees was born in Wellingborough, England, the son of a Wesleyan minister. He attended the University of London. In 1906 he was awarded his D.Sc. with a dissertation on photographic theory.

Career From 1906 until 1912, Mees worked for Wratten and Wainwright, Ltd., assisting Frederick Wratten in developing the first panchromatic photographic plates, as well as light filters and safelights for the darkroom. In 1912, Eastman Kodak Company acquired Wratten and Wainwright because they were interested in the skills Mees provided. George Eastman convinced Mees to move to Rochester, New York, United States, where Mees created the Kodak Research Laboratories, becoming its first director. Mees helped the US military in World War I in its instruction of photography. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Mees became an American citizen so that he could have access to high security war projects and information during World War II. Later, he was named vice president in charge of Research and Development for Eastman Kodak; he remained at that position until he retired in 1955. During his career, he published 100 scientific papers and 60 other works. Among his accomplishments was the development of sensitive photographic emulsions for use in astronomy. He also delivered the 1935 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures on Photography. Mees served as the first president of the board of trustees of George Eastman House from 1947 until 1954. He died suddenly in Honolulu in 1960.

Personal life He married in 1909 Alice Crisp, and together they raised two children: Graham (1910) and Doris (1912). They were married for 45 years. In 1951 he suffered a massive thrombosis in one leg and lost it to amputation. Despite that, he became adept at using an artificial limb and even managed to drive his own car.

Selected works C.E. Kenneth Mees, An Atlas of Absorption Spectra, 1909. C.E. Kenneth Mees, The Photography of Colored Objects, 1909. C.E. Kenneth Mees, F. M. Hamer and L. G. S. Brooker. Recent advances in sensitizers for the photography of the infrared. J. Opt. Soc. Am., 23:216., 1933 C.E. Kenneth Mees, Photography, Macmillan Co., New York, 1942. C.E. Kenneth Mees, The Theory of the Photographic Process, Macmillan Co., New York, 1942. C.E. Kenneth Mees & S. Sheppard, Investigations on the Theory of the Photographic Process. C.E. Kenneth Mees, The Path of Science, J. Wiley & sons, inc., 1946. C.E. Kenneth Mees and John A. Leermakers, The Organization of Industrial Scientific Research, McGraw-Hill, 1950. C.E. Kenneth Mees, From dry plates to Ektachrome film: a story of photographic research, Ziff-Davis Pub. Co., 1961.

Awards and honors Progress Medal, Royal Photographic Society, Great Britain, 1912 and 1952 Hurter and Driffield Medal, 1924 Henry Draper Medal, National Academy of Sciences, 1936. Progress Medal, Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, 1936 Member of the American Philosophical Society, 1937 Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1941 Member of the United States National Academy of Sciences, 1950 Franklin Medal, 1954 Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society Fellow of the Royal Society, 1939 Inductee, International Photography Hall of Fame, 1972 Honorary Member of the Optical Society of America, 1957

Legacy The C.E.K. Mees Award is the highest research honor given by Kodak. The C.E.K. Mees Medal, awarded in odd-numbered years by the Optical Society of America, is named after him and was endowed by the Mees family. It has been rewarded annually since 2017. The University of Rochester's C.E.K. Mees Observatory is named after him. The crater Mees on the Moon is named after him. Mees Solar Observatory on the summit of Haleakala is named after him.

References

Further reading James, Thomas H. (1990). C. E. Kenneth Mees: Pioneer of Industrial Research. Photographic Research Laboratory, Eastman Kodak Company. ISBN 0879856572.

External links Dr. C.E. Kenneth Mees (1882–1960) Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine at iphf.org "Historically speaking - tribute to C.E. Kenneth Mees, scientist and photographer, and former VP at Eastman Kodak". PSA Journal. 60 (7). Archived from the original on 11 March 2007 – via FindArticles. Charles Edward Kenneth Mees 1882-1960 Mees' role in history of infrared photography development and Kodachrome National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Kenneth Mees

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Kenneth Mees claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Kenneth Mees before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Kenneth Mees ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Kenneth Mees

In research: Kenneth Mees appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Kenneth Mees in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Kenneth Mees is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1882 births, 1960 deaths, 20th-century British physicists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Kenneth Mees outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Kenneth Mees in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Kenneth Mees means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Kenneth Mees out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Kenneth Mees in simple terms?

Charles Edward Kenneth Mees FRS (26 May 1882 – 15 August 1960) was a British scientist and photographic researcher. Early life and education Mees was born in Wellingborough, England, the son of a Wesleyan minister.

Why does Kenneth Mees matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Kenneth Mees?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Kenneth Mees.