NATIONAL RADIO ASTRONOMY OBSERVATORY ARCHIVES

Preliminary Finding Aid to the Papers of Ronald N. Bracewell, 1938-2007

The Archives at The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is the repository for Ronald N. Bracewell's papers on radio astronomy. All other materials related to his career and activities at Stanford University are held by the Stanford University Special Collections and University Archives.

Processing of the materials at National Radio Astronomy Observatory is ongoing. The extensive radio astronomy collection, to be received over a period from May 2008 through 2009, includes correspondence, technical reports, publications and manuscripts, photographs and moving images, and subject files. Preliminary inventory and sorting of the collection was begun in June 2008 after receipt of the first shipment, containing approximately 75 linear feet. For more detailed information about materials and availability, please contact the NRAO Archivist.

See also the complete listing of Bracewell's publications, 1942-2006.

Contents:

• Location of collection
• Title and dates of the collection
• Size of the collection
• Creator of papers/records
• Short description
• Selected search terms
• Biography
• Accession history
• Access to collection
• Restrictions on use of collection
• Publication rights
• Preferred citation
• Processing notes
• Scope and contents: Australia and Cambridge
• Scope and contents: Stanford
• Scope and contents: Bracewell Publications
• Scope and contents: Stanford University Publications
• Scope and contents: Collected Publications
• Scope and contents: Conference Proceedings
• Scope and contents: Subject Files
• Scope and contents: Patents
• Scope and contents: Photographs and Moving Images
• Scope and contents: Additional materials about Bracewell

Location of collection: National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Archives, 520 Edgemont Rd., Charlottesville, VA. Phone: 1-434-296-0203, email: archivist at nrao.edu

Title and dates of the collection: Papers of Ronald N. Bracewell, 1938-2007

Size of the collection: The collection is currently being processed, and has not all been received. The unprocessed material received in May 2008 measured 75 linear feet.

Papers/Records created by: Bracewell, Ronald Newbold (1921-2007)

Short description of collection: The papers document the radio astronomy career and research of Ronald N. Bracewell, including with his doctoral work at University of Cambridge in the late 1940s, his work at Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Organization, Australia, and his career at Stanford University. The papers include professional correspondence and papers, notes and papers on antenna design, drafts of books and professional publications, photographs, and other materials covering a period from 1938 until Bracewell's death in 2007.

Top

Selected search terms:

• Ronald Newbold Bracewell, 1921-2007
• Radio astronomy - History
• Radio telescopes
• Antennas (Electronics)
• Stanford University
• Heliopolis
• Fourier analysis
• Hartley transforms
• Interferometry
• Image processing

Top

Biography: Ronald Newbold Bracewell was born in Sydney, Australia, on July 2, 1921. During the years 1933-1937 Bracewell attended the Sydney Boys High School. Languages were one of his interests, and he passed oral exams in French and German. In 1937 he was awarded the Alliance Française prize and came third in the state in French. He then attended the University of Sydney and in 1941 graduated with a degree in physics and mathematics. He continued studies in engineering and communication and received a Bachelor in Engineering degree in 1943. During the war years (1942-45) he worked at the Radiophysics Laboratory of the CSIR (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research), in Sydney, on research and development in radio communications and radar. In 1948 he received a Master of Engineering with First Class Honours from Sydney University for work done at CSIR. In 1946, when the war had ended, he went to England, to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, as a graduate student of J. A. Ratcliffe. He received his PhD for work on the ionosphere. Bracewell’s interest in Fourier Transforms, which was initiated by mathematics courses at Sydney University, was further stimulated by Ratcliffe who was a recognized authority on the subject. The ionospheric work resulted in the discovery that the D layer ionization consists of two components, for which Bracewell was awarded the Duddell Premium of the Institute of Electrical Engineers in 1952. The effect of solar activity on the ionosphere was one of the factors that initiated Bracewell’s lifelong interest in the sun.

When he returned from Cambridge to Australia in 1949, Bracewell initially continued his work on the ionosphere. He shared an office with radio astronomers W. N. Christiansen and H. Minnett, and became interested in their solar observations. Christiansen had built grating arrays in N-S and E-W directions along the edges of a reservoir at Potts Hill near Sydney. These produced fan-beam scans of the sun at a series of angles each day, from which it was possible to derive a two dimensional map of the sun. Bracewell was interested in this analysis and also in the possibility of using two grating arrays in a Mills cross configuration to produce a matrix of pencil beams. J. L. Pawsey, leader of the radio astronomy group, asked him to be coauthor of the book Radio Astronomy, and Bracewell surmised in retrospect that this was partly a device to get him more interested in the subject. Pawsey also asked him to produce a pictorial dictionary of Fourier transforms, which later led to his most important book, The Fourier Transform and its Applications. Bracewell spent the academic year 1954-1955 lecturing on radio astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley, at the invitation of Otto Struve. During the summer of 1955 he lectured at Stanford University, and joined the Electrical Engineering department at Stanford in December 1955. An interesting account of this period and the initial years at Stanford can be found in Bracewell’s paper, "Early Work on Imaging Theory in Radio Astronomy," in The Early Years of Radio Astronomy, W. T. Sullivan III ed., Cambridge Univ. Press, 1984, pp. 167-190.

During the period 1949-63, from his return to CSIRO through his early years at Stanford, Bracewell produced a number of papers in the general area of interferometer theory, imaging and data analysis that established his expertise in this area. A paper on "Aerial Smoothing in Radio Astronomy" (1954) was particularly important, and explained the scanning of a source by an antenna as a convolution of the brightness function and the point-source response of the antenna. In "Strip Integration in Radio Astronomy" (1956), Bracewell considered the relationships involved in reconstructing two-dimensional images from one-dimensional scans. "Radio Interferometry of Discrete Sources" (1958) provided a precise development of the interferometer response and the Fourier transform relationship between the fringe visibility and the brightness distribution, unifying material discussed in earlier publications by various authors. "Tolerance Theory of Large Antennas" precedes by several years the famous paper on the same subject by Ruze (Proc. IEEE, 54, 633-640, 1966). Although it is difficult to be sure about precedence of ideas on this subject, which was developing during the 1950s, Bracewell’s paper is one of the earliest detailed analyses.

At Stanford, Bracewell established a radio astronomy observatory which he named Heliopolis, and he founded a Radio Astronomy Institute. The first instrument developed at Heliopolis was a crossed grating array for solar observations. The solar cross consisted of 32 parabolic antennas arranged in two linear arrays and operated at 9.1 cm wavelength. This instrument is described in "The Stanford Microwave Spectroheliograph Antenna, a Microsteradian Pencil Beam Antenna" (Bracewell and Swarup, 1961). The Stanford cross was used to make daily maps of the sun from June 1962 to August 1973, and resulted in several papers on radio emission from the solar corona. Phase adjustment of the cross led to the invention of round-trip phase measurement, which has subsequently been used in almost all large radio astronomy arrays. The round-trip technique is described by Swarup and Yang, in "Phase Adjustments of Large Antennas" (IRE Trans. AP, 9, 75-81, 1961). The east-west arm of the cross was also extended to form a compound interferometer which produced a fan beam of width 52 arcsec.

In the early 1960s Bracewell was involved in several short papers on Centaurus A, which provided a good example of a radio galaxy that was strong, optically identified, and of sufficient angular width that it could be studied in some detail with the solar cross. In April 1962, during a trip to Australia, Bracewell had the opportunity to observe Centaurus A with the Parkes telescope at 10 cm wavelength and was able to resolve the two components in the central part by driving the dish in both azimuth and elevation simultaneously so as to scan in the direction of the component separation. He was also able to rotate the feed and discover the linear polarization. However, this observation may not have been made during an officially granted observing time, and Bracewell’s letter to Nature was not published until September 29, 1962. Other observations made shortly after Bracewell’s, also reporting polarization of Centaurus A, appeared in print a few weeks before Bracewell’s letter. A more detailed account of these circumstances can be found in Explorers of the Southern Sky: A History of Australian Astronomy, by R. Haynes, D.Malin, and R. McGee, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1996, pp. 251-2.

The second major instrument developed at Heliopolis was a five-element array for galactic and extragalactic astronomy. It consisted of five 18.3 m (60 ft) diameter antennas made to Bracewell’s design at the Heliopolis site. The antennas were configured as an east-west, minimum-redundancy, linear array devised by Bracewell, in which all spacings up to nine times the unit spacing are included. The operating frequency was 10.7 GHz. The array resulted in a number of papers and theses by Bracewell’s students, including further work on Centaurus A. It was in operation from 1972 until funding for the Heliopolis observatory was discontinued in 1979, as a result of the general policy of supporting a single national observatory rather than a number of smaller ones operated by individual universities.

Another of Bracewell’s astronomical interests was the cosmic background radiation (CMB) which had been discovered in 1964. His graduate student E. K. Conklin made observations to look for variation of the background temperature, and upper limits were published in 1967. Bracewell and Conklin also calculated the variation to be expected from the motion of the earth with respect to the CMB, and in 1969 Conklin published a determination of the velocity of the Earth from measurement of variation of the observed CMB temperature at the mK level. This was the first detection of the effect, and a notable achievement considering that it was made with a simple system using two small horn antennas with an uncooled receiver. The observations were started at Heliopolis, but to achieve the sensitivity required, the later measurements were made at a high elevation site in the White Mountains of California.

About 1967, Bracewell’s work on reconstruction of images from one-dimensional scans became recognized as having an important application in tomography. This work started with his paper on "Strip Integration in Radio Astronomy" (1956), and was further advanced in the paper with graduate student A. C. Riddle on "Inversion of Fan-Beam Scans in Radio Astronomy" (1967). In this later paper the computation required is simplified by the avoidance of the need to compute Fourier transforms. Bracewell wrote two further papers specifically on tomography, one with graduate student J. Verley. He also devoted a chapter to tomography in his book Two Dimensional Imaging. For his contribution to tomography, Bracewell was awarded associate membership in the Institute of Medicine of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 1992.

After the closing of Heliopolis and the Radio Astronomy Institute in 1979, radio astronomical observation at Stanford was discontinued, but Bracewell’s contributions to radio astronomy and related sciences continued unabated. The use of interferometery in space for detection of nonsolar planets was suggested by Bracewell in a paper in 1978, and is discussed in six further papers extending over a number of years. These describe a proposed application of infrared interferometry in space in which a null in the fringe pattern is steered onto the position of a star to allow a search for much fainter images of planets. Although this idea remains untested it has been widely discussed as a possibility for a future space mission.

Starting in 1983, Bracewell published 16 papers and a book on mathematical development of the transform introduced by Hartley, which is similar to the Fourier transform but does not involve complex factors. He developed Hartley versions of the numerous theorems and relationships that are well known in Fourier transform theory, and also a fast Hartley transform (FHT) algorithm, which could in many cases be used as an alternative to the fast Fourier transform (FFT). The avoidance of complex quantities for transformation of real data in the FHT allowed it to perform twice as fast as the versions of the FFT in use at the time, but later improvements in the FFT have given it the advantage in speed.

During the period 1985-1989 Bracewell published a number of papers on sunspot statistics and the solar cycle. In a much earlier paper, in 1953, he had pointed out that since the magnetic polarization of sunspots changes sign in alternate 11-year sunspot cycles, the sign of the sunspot number should be reversed in alternate 11-year cycles. This reversal has the effect of removing the rectification of the activity function that is introduced by considering only the magnitude of the sunspot numbers, and results in a 22-year cycle. This important step was included in his later work in the 1980s. As part of this work he also considered the statistics of the Elatina varves, a series of geological strata in an area of South Australia. These had been studied by a geologist G. E. Williams who suggested that they were formed by an annual release of meltwater. The thickness of the varves showed periodic variations which could be interpreted as indicating a time scale similar to that of sunspot numbers, and the thickness was interpreted an indication of an annual variation in the strength of solar radiation. Similar varves were later found in a different region of South Australia (Sonnett et al., Nature, 335, 806-808, 1988) in which the geological situation suggested a tidal mechanism rather than a solar one, so the solar cycle interpretation of the varve data became questionable. Bracewell also discovered a three-halves power law nonlinearity in the annual mean sunspot numbers, which he considered to be one of the more important results of the analysis.

Bracewell retired from teaching in 1991, but continued to be active in radio astronomy and related research projects.

Although many of Bracewell’s contributions resulted from his mathematical expertise, he can also be seen as a very able physicist in publications such as "Rotation of Artificial Earth Satellites" (with O. K.Garriot, 1958) and "An Observer Moving within the 3° K Radiation Field" (with E. K. Conklin, 1967). In a 1991 paper, Bracewell and his student D. Mihovilic introduce the concept of chirplets as a representation for ionospheric signals and similar data in a time-frequency domain. His ability as a practical engineer can be seen in the design of the antennas of the five-element array, which he was able to build for a relatively low cost. The remarkably wide range of Bracewell’s scientific interests can be clearly seen in the diversity of the subjects of his publications and lectures. Throughout his career he had a long term interest in the possibility of the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence, and the practicality of extraterrestrial communication. This resulted in 19 papers and the book The Galactic Club. An example of his interest in the history of science and engineering can be seen in the paper "Planetary Influences on Electrical Engineering" (1992). He designed sundials, one of which was installed at the Terman building on the Stanford campus. He taught for many years in Stanford’s Western Culture program in Values, Technology, Science and Society. Bracewell had a lifelong interest in trees, particularly those native to Australia, and in California he identified more than seventy species of the introduced eucalypts. He wrote two books on trees of the Stanford area and had some fine examples of banksias growing in the garden of his house at Stanford.

Some of Bracewell’s own descriptions of his work can be found in his publications "Early Work on Imaging in Radio Astronomy" (1984), "Radio Astronomy at Stanford" (2005), and the text of a recorded interview by Ragbir Bhathal on June 10, 2000, for the Oral History Section of the National Library of Australia.

During his career Bracewell published nine books and more than 200 papers. He received the Duddell Premium of the Institute of Electrical Engineers (1952), London, the Hertz Medal of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (1994) for pioneering work in antenna aperture synthesis and image reconstruction as applied to radio astronomy and to computer-assisted tomography, and in 1998 was named to the Order of Australia for his service to science in radio astronomy and image reconstruction. For his work on imaging in tomography he was elected to Associate Membership of the Institute of Medicine of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. He was a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (1950), Fellow and Life Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (1961), Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1989). When alumni awards were first instituted in 1992, Bracewell was one of Sydney University's three honorees, receiving a citation for brain scanning.

Bracewell married his wife Helen in 1953, and they had a son, Mark, and daughter, Wendy.

Bracewell died in Stanford on August 12, 2007.

[Biographical note written by A. Richard Thompson, with assistance from Ellen N. Bouton.]

Top

Accession history: Discussions with W. Miller Goss after Bracewell's death led to the family decision to donate Bracewell's radio astronomy papers to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory Archives. The first shipment of material was received in May 2008, and additional material is expected in 2009. Top

Access to collection: No restrictions. The Archives are open part-time; contact the Archivist for appointment.

Top

Restrictions on use of collection: None.

Top

Publication rights: Copyright has been assigned to The National Radio Astronomy Observatory. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Archivist.

Top

Preferred citation: [Identification of item, box, and file], Papers of Ronald N. Bracewell. Archives, National Radio Astronomy Observatory / Associated Universities, Inc.

Top

Processing notes: Initial inventory of this collection was done in summer 2008 by Ellen N. Bouton, with assistance from A. Richard Thompson. Final arrangement, description, indexing, foldering and boxing of this material was begun in fall 2008 and is ongoing. During the processing, photocopies were made to replace thermofax sheets and newspaper clippings, fasteners were removed, and materials were removed from binders of various types. Duplicates were discarded. Materials related to aspects of Bracewell's life, career, and work at Stanford outside the area of radio astronomy were sent to the Stanford University Special Collections and University Archives. Materials of a personal nature were returned to the Bracewell family.

Top

Scope and Contents of Collection

Australia and University of Cambridge Series, 1938-1956: This series includes material dated 1938-1956, including Bracewell's work at Sydney University, University of Cambridge, and at Council for Scientific and Industrial Research/Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, all prior to his move to the United States in 1954.

• Sydney University and Council for Scientific and Industrial Research Unit: Bracewell attended the University of Sydney and in 1941 graduated with a degree in physics and mathematics. He continued studies in engineering and communication and received a Bachelor in Engineering degree in 1943. During the war years (1942-45) he worked at the Radiophysics Laboratory of the CSIR (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research), in Sydney, on research and development in radio communications and radar. In 1948 he received a Master of Engineering with First Class Honours from Sydney University for work done at CSIR. This unit contains materials dated 1938-1948, and includes Sydney University course lecture notes, reports and instrument blueprints from CSIR, lab notebooks, and other miscellaneous materials. Bracewell's folder titles have been retained. Size: 1.0 linear feet. Click here for a listing of folders, or use the NRAO Archives online catalog to search for specific items or across multiple series/collections.

• University of Cambridge and Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization Unit: In 1946 Bracewell went to England, to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, as a graduate student of J. A. Ratcliffe. He received his PhD for work on the ionosphere. Bracewell’s interest in Fourier Transforms, which was initiated by mathematics courses at Sydney University, was further stimulated by Ratcliffe, who was a recognized authority on the subject. The ionospheric work resulted in the discovery that the D layer ionization consists of two components, for which Bracewell was awarded the Duddell Premium of the Institute of Electrical Engineers in 1952. The effect of solar activity on the ionosphere was one of the factors that initiated Bracewell’s lifelong interest in the sun. Upon completion of his doctoral work at Cambridge, Bracewell returned in 1949 to Radiophysics in what was now called Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, continuing his work on the ionosphere and beginning work in radio astronomy. He left CSIRO in 1954 to lecture on radio astronomy at University of California, Berkeley. This unit contains materials dated 1946-1956, on sudden phase anomalies and sudden ionospheric disturbances, very long wavelength, and solar work, as well as lab notebooks, lecture notes, Bracewell's quarterly research reports sent to CSIR, and drafts and correspondence for papers published during the period. Bracewell's folder titles have been retained. Size: 2.5 linear feet. Click here for a listing of folders, or use the NRAO Archives online catalog to search for specific items or across multiple series/collections.

Stanford University Series, 1955-2007:

• General Correspondence Unit
• Air Force Office of Scientific Research Contract Work Unit
• Heliopolis Unit
  • General Heliopolis Subunit
  • 32-Dish Microwave Spectroheliograph and Compound Interferometer - Construction and Operation
    • Solar data [NB: Stanford Daily Maps of Solar 9.1 cm Microwave Emission for June 1962-August 1973 are archived at the National Geophysical Data Center. The NRAO Archives has kept a representative sample of data formats.]
  • 5-Element Interferometer - Construction and Operation Subunit
  • Demolition Subunit
  • Friends of the Bracewell Observatory Association Subunit
• Cosmic Background Observations Unit
• Centaurus A Research Unit

Bracewell Publications Series: This series includes materials related to books authored or edited by Bracewell: drafts, proofs, and correspondence related to the writing and editorial process. Also included are Bracewell's Bachelor of Science and Master of Engineering degree theses, both from Sydney University. The Archives does not have a copy of his doctoral dissertation from University of Cambridge. Bracewell filed drafts and correspondence related to his papers published in the open literature either in his subject files or with material from the appropriate time period, and those filing locations have been retained. See the complete listing of Bracewell's publications, 1942-2006.

• Theses Unit: Bracewell's Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and Master of Engineering degrees were both received from Sydney University, in 1943 and 1948. The ME degree was awarded for work Bracewell did while working at CSIR between 1942 and 1946.
  • Ronald N. Bracewell. Some Nomographic Methods and Their Application to Engineering Problems, November 1942.
  • Ronald N. Bracewell. The Theory and Application of Certain Special Types of Ultra-High Frequency Transmission Lines, January 1947 (degree awarded 1948).

• Books Unit
  • Radio Astronomy Subunit: Radio Astronomy, by J.L. Pawsey and R.N. Bracewell, was published by Oxford University's Clarendon Press in 1955. Pawsey, who headed the Radiophysics Laboratory at Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization of which Bracewell was a member, asked him to be co-author, and Bracewell surmised in retrospect that this was partly a device to get him more interested in the subject. The book was one of the earliest texts on radio astronomy, which the Preface called, "a completely new branch of science." In spring 1958 Pawsey and Bracewell corresponded with Clarendon Press, considering a reprinted or revised edition, deciding to work towards a 2nd edition after the upcoming Paris Symposium on Radio Astronomy. Pawsey proposed asking J.P. Wild to collaborate on the new edition. Although some revision and rewriting was begun, the authors were all involved in other projects, and, with Pawsey's illness and death in 1962, efforts to publish another edition ended. This unit includes notes and drafts of chapter 8 ("Thermal Radio Waves from the Moon") from the original edition, 35mm negatives of original edition illustrations, along with galley proofs with mark-up for the entire book. Materials relating to the proposed second edition include correspondence, an outline indicating which chapters were to be written and/or revised by Bracewell or Wild, notes and drafts for chapters 2 and 3 ("Technique for Observations of Extraterrestrial Radio Waves" and "Theory of Radio Waves in Ionized Gases"), and materials for chapters 2 and 3 returned to Bracewell by Wild in 1965. Material is dated 1951-1965. Size: 0.5 linear feet plus one filmstrip cannister.

  • Paris Symposium on Radio Astronomy Subunit: The Paris Symposium on Radio Astronomy (IAU Symposium no. 9 and URSI Symposium no. 1) met in Paris from 30 July to 6 August, 1958. The proceedings were published by Stanford University Press in 1959, edited by Bracewell. A large fraction of scientists active in radio astronomy research attended the symposium, and the proceedings volume, according to Bracewell's introduction, "forms a comprehensive account of the current state of development of the basic aspects of radio astronomy." Bracewell also noted that a special feature of the book was the record of the discussion following each presentation. This subunit includes materials on preliminary planning for the symposium, correspondence on choice of publisher and the publication process, editorial correspondence with authors, copies of book reviews, original typescripts of the 107 papers presented, and discussion comments, questions, and responses handwritten by the participants. These handwritten sheets, which Bracewell had boxed separately with a label identifying them as "Paris Symposium 1958 original autograph discussion by famous radioastronomers," have been filed with the individual papers to which they refer. The typescripts of the 107 papers have been numbered to correspond with paper numbers in the proceedings volume. Material covers the period 1957-1960. Size: 1.5 linear feet.

  • Steinberg and Lequeux Translation Subunit: Bracewell's English translation of Radioastronomie : les méthodes radioélectriques au service de l'astrophysique by Jean Louis Steinberg and James Lequeux, published in 1960 in France by Dunod, was published in the U.S. by McGraw-Hill in 1963. This subunit contains author and editorial correspondence related to the publication of Bracewell's translation. Principal correspondents are Ronald N. Bracewell, Jean Louis Steinberg, James Lequeux, and Charlotte Helander. Materials cover the period 1960-1964. Size: 0.25 linear feet.

Stanford University Publications Series: This series includes a listing of published papers and unclassified technical reports from 1960-1973, as well as publications included in the following three units. Publications are from the Stanford Radio Astronomy Institute, the Radioscience Laboratory of the Stanford Electronics Laboratories, and the Department of Electrical Engineering. Size: 0.25 linear feet.

• Shaddows and Glints Unit: The following is an excerpt from the introduction to Glint 748, June 25, 1997, a listing of the entire series (which apparently ended at that time).

  Glints are internal reports of the Stanford Radio Astronomy Institute. Any member of the Radio Astronomy group could write a Glint and hand it to the Secretary, Mildren Nilsson, and expect copies to be delivered to all members promptly, without review. Apart from providing a written record of minutiae, this custom played a role in giving students experience in succinct technical writing. Not much encouragement proved to be necessary as there was an element of compteition among graduate students not wishing to be underrepresented. Of course, the postdocs and the advanced graduate students, having had dealings with the journal refereeing system, could set good examples. Indeed, many Glints proved to be first drafts of published papers.

  The first forty-nine items in the series were listed as Shaddows, the name assigned by Charles Seeger. It is not known whether this spelling had some secret significance, that Charles never clarified, or whether it was a spelling error. The first report of the series was written by James Picken on October 3, 1961. Starting with number 50, the reports were called Glints, referring to the glint in the eye of a good scientist.

  As of the summer solstice 1997, the number of Glints stood at 748, representing an average production rate of 21 per annum over 36 years.

  The Archives collection lacks nos. 74, 195, 479-480, 568, 600, 667-690, 692-698, 702, 711-722, 724-737, 739-747. For a listing of Shaddows and Glints on which Bracewell was an author, see here. Size: 2.5 linear feet.

• Reports and Reprints Unit
  • Stanford Radio Astronomy Institute Reprints Subunit: This subunit includes an index listing of the numbered reprint series, R1-R111, 1958-1981, plus a copy of individual reprints from the series retained by Bracewell in his files. Size: 0.25 linear feet.
  • Stanford Radio Astronomy Institute Publications Subunit: This subunit includes individual copies retained by Bracewell in his files of Stanford Radio Astronomy Institute Publications nos. 1-19, 1958-1961. Size: 0.5 linear feet.
• Student Dissertations: This unit includes dissertations submitted to the Stanford University Department of Electrical Engineering by Bracewell's doctoral students and retained by him in his files. Dissertations are by G. Swarup (1961), R.S. Colvin (1961), Z. Fazarinc (1965), S.H. Zisk (1965), A.C. Riddle (1968), G.S. Downs (1968), K.R. Lang (1969), M.P. Hughes (1970), W. Graf (1973), L.R. D'Addario (1974), S.J. Wernecke (1976), C.J. Grebenkemper (1977), J.G. Verly (1980), J.D. Villasenor (1989), D.M.W. Evans (1989), and D.A. Mihovilović (1992). Size: 1.5 linear feet.

Collected Publications Series: This series includes publications received by Bracewell from individuals, institutions, and corporations, as well as items collected by him. Material includes primarily reprints, preprints, and reports, but also journal cuts, photostats, and newspaper clippings. Although some materials were requested by Bracewell, there are many for which it is unclear whether they were received unsolicited or were received in response to his requests. Others, such as the newspaper clippings and journal cuts, were clearly collected by Bracewell. Bracewell grouped these materials in both chronological and topical sequences, and that arrangement has been retained. The largest group of collected publications is arranged chronologically by year, and within each year is alphabetical by author. A topical group of papers on image reconstruction is arranged alphabetically by author. Preservation photocopies have been made of newspaper clippings. Reprints of Bracewell's own publications are included in the Bracewell Publications Series or the Stanford Radio Astronomy Institute Publications Series.

Top

Conference Proceedings Series: This series includes minutes, correspondence, journal articles, notes, agendas, reports, resolutions, objectives, memos, membership applications, reprints, and charts from 1952-1985 for conferences, workshops, symposia, and meetings that Bracewell attended, including two meeting series, the 1st-6th Science Workshop on Interstellar Communication, and the 1952-1967 URSI Conferences. An extensive collection of clippings from local newspapers about the 1952 Sydney URSI meeting includes articles on Sir Edward Appleton and one on Ruby Payne-Scott. Bracewell contributions to some proceedings are included as he filed them. Size: 2.5 linear feet. Click here for a listing of folders, or use the NRAO Archives online catalog to search for specific items or across multiple series/collections.

Top

Subject File Series: Bracewell kept files on a wide variety of subjects, ordered alphabetically by topic. He had two separate alphabetical sequences of subject files, as well as subject groupings not included in the sequences. All files, including the units listed below, have been merged into one alphabetical sequence using Bracewell's folder titles. Materials include reprints, preprints, notes, calculations and drawings, announcements, newspaper clippings, correspondence, and photos. Bracewell also included typescripts for and the editorial correspondence about his own papers in the subject files. Files related to aspects of Bracewell's life, career, and work at Stanford outside the area of radio astronomy were sent to the Stanford University Special Collections and University Archives. Materials in this series are dated 1938-1989. Although shelved within the series alphabetical sequence, subject units of significent size or special interest are described as separate units. Inclusive series size: 8.75 linear feet. Click here for a listing of folders (see below for folder listings for separate units), or use the NRAO Archives online catalog to search for specific items or across multiple series/collections.

• Annual Reviews Article Unit: Bracewell's article on Computer Image Processing appeared in Annual Reviews of Astronomy and Astrophysics, vol. 17, 1979. This unit includes editorial correspondence, notes, and reprints collected by Bracewell during his research. Material is dated 1973-1979. Size: 4 folders.

• Fourier Transform and Related Topics Unit: Bracewell published, The Fourier Transform and Its Applications in 1965, and the book's 2^nd and 3^rd editions appeared in 1978 and 2000. Beginning in 1983, he published 16 papers and a book, The Hartley Transform, on mathematical development of the transform introduced by Hartley, which is similar to the Fourier transform but does not involve complex factors. This unit includes notes, papers, correspondence, reprints, patent applications, and other materials on the Fourier, Hartley, and other transforms. Material is dated 1964-1998. Size: 1.5 linear feet. Click here for a listing of folders, or use the NRAO Archives online catalog to search for specific items or across multiple series/collections.

• Galaxy, Life in Unit: Bracewell used the heading "Galaxy, Life in" for his files on extraterrestrial life, interstellar communication, space probes, and related topics. Included are preprints and reprints, newspaper articles, outlines of radio programs, and notes for radio talks. Typescripts and drafts, some handwritten, of published papers and lectures by Bracewell on topics related to life in the galaxy are included. Correspondence from 1960-1964 responding to Bracewell's 1960 article in the weekly Sunday news magazine, This Week, is primarily from the general public but includes some letters from professional colleagues. Also included are the Bibliography of Exobiology, and several editions of the Bibliography of Interstellar Flight and its later title, Bibliography of Interstellar Travel and Communication. Reprint authors include Claude W. Anderson, Frank Drake, Freeman J. Dyson, H. Pierre Noyes, Gerard K. O'Neill, Carl Sagan, I.S. Shklovsky, W.T. Sullivan III, Sebastian Von Hoerner, and others. See also related subject file materials under Lunan, Duncan. Inclusive dates are 1959-1980. Size: 1.0 linear feet. Click here for a listing of folders, or use the NRAO Archives online catalog to search for specific items or across multiple series/collections.

• Infrared Interferometry Unit: This unit includes correspondence, notes (including some on paper placemats), reports, and collected reprints from 31 August 1976 through 14 February 1996 regarding Bracewell’s study of infrared interferometry. Robert H. McPhie of Waterloo University worked with Bracewell at Stanford from 1977 through 1978, and the unit includes correspondence with and materials from McPhie. Size: 8 folders.

• Maximum Entropy and Clean Unit: Reprints, preprints, photocopied journal articles, notes, and correspondence for the period 1970-1994. Size: 4 folders.

• Moon Unit: Included are Bracewell's 1959 "Proposal for studying the moon by microwave radar with high angular resolution," bid requests and bids for equipment needed for the proposed experiment, correspondence, and photographs. Material is dated 1959-1960. Size: 4 folders. Click here for a listing of folders, or use the NRAO Archives online catalog to search for specific items or across multiple series/collections.

• National Science Foundation, Advisory Panel for Radio Astronomy Unit: Notes, correspondence, and meeting minutes for the period 1961-1964 related to Bracewell's tenure on the Advisory Panel. Size: 1 folder.

• Pierce Committee Unit: Notes, correspondence, and meeting minutes for the period 1959-1961 leading to the Report of the Advisory Panel on Radio Telescopes. A copy of the final report as published in Astrophysical Journal, vol. 134, November 1961, is included. The Panel, appointed by the National Science Foundation, was asked to study existing and proposed instruments and radio astronomers' needs, and advise NSF on the desirability and feasibility of constructing more powerful instruments. Bracewell was a member of the Panel chaired by J.R. Pierce. Correspondents include John G. Bolton, Ronald N. Bracewell, William E. Gordon, Geoffrey Keller, R. Minkowski, J.R. Pierce, Grote Reber, Otto Struve, and George W. Swenson, Jr. Size: 2 folders.

• Pulsars Unit: Primarily reprints, 1965-1972. One folder of notes and calculations, 1968, Size: 0.5 linear feet.

• Rainfall Experiments Unit: Correspondence, notes, reports, data records, and charts on rainfall experiments and freezing nucleus research from 1953-1976. Principal correspondents are E.K. (Taffy) Bowen and Ronald N. Bracewell. Size: 4 folders.

• Solar Unit: Correspondence, notes, meeting programs, reports, collected reprints, data records, draft manuscripts of published and unpublished papers on solar topics, including sunspots, solar rotation, solar quiescent prominences, solar microwave emission, and solar proposals to the National Science Foundation. Material is dated 1948-1981. Size: 1.5 linear feet. Click here for a listing of folders, or use the NRAO Archives online catalog to search for specific items or across multiple series/collections.

• URSI Unit: This unit includes URSI Commission 5 correspondence, membership applications, and reports from 1962-1976.

Patents Series:

Top

Photographs and Moving Images Series:

• Photographs Unit:

• Moving Images Unit:

Additional Materials about Bracewell: These materials are about Bracewell but were not created or collected by him. Included are obituaries and other biographical materials, as well as copies of 1949 correspondence from the National Archives of Australia (C3830 A1/1/1 part 4 1949). Material from National Archives of Australia may not be copied, and permission to quote must be obtained from them.