Dr. John Bardeen

One of the most beloved men at the University Of Illinois Physics Department was Noble Prize Laureate John Bardeen. The graduate students fondly called him either smiling Jack or silent John (both are apt, he almost always smiled and was thoughtful and quiet). In one of the seminar courses I took Professor Bardeen attended regularly. After any presentation he had amazing questions and comments on the science. The following are stories about Dr. John Bardeen, the first is department mythology and the second is one of my lecture encounters with smiling Jack. He had won two Noble Prizes, the first for the invention of the transistor (with two others) and the second in superconductivity (also with two others).

In 1972 Prof. Bardeen was awarded his second Noble Prize. After that announcement the department decided to throw him a party at Loomis Labs (the main physics building on campus). The party was set for 3:00 pm.. Well 3 pm came and went and the Professor failed to show up. Everyone thought this to be odd as he was usually prompt. Finally after about 20 minutes his friends were getting worried. Dr. Shriver volunteered to call his house to see if anything was amiss. He ran up to his office to place the call. After five minutes Dr. Shriver could be heard laughing uproariously. When he got back to the gathering he told about his call.

It turns out that Dr. Bardeen had got himself ready for the party and was going to leave his house at a half hour before 3 pm. He went to his garage, pressed the button to open the door and nothing happened. His transistorized garage door opener failed him. He was too embarrassed to call the lab to get a pick up. He was trying to fix the door opener when Dr. Shriver called.

The second story involves his visit to China as part of Richard Nixon’s normalization of relations with that country. When he got back the physics department asked him to give a lecture on his trip to China and his views of the state of science in Communist China.

Posters of the lecture were posted all over the engineering campus at Illinois. On the day of the lecture Dr. Shriver came down to the graduate offices (actually zoo’s with 10-12 of us to a room) and he indicated that we were to attend the lecture. Well, duh. We were all rather excited about the event. But even weirder he asked us to sit in the back and watch the front left of the lecture hall (stadium style seating). And off he went. I went to the lecture with 4 of my friends and being obedient we sat in the last row. The lecture started and finished with a slide show. We saw pictures of Jack with the President, Jack at the airport in Beijing, the Great Wall of China, the Forbidden City, his hosts, etc. I was happy watching the lecture and forgot to look at the front left. About two-thirds of the way through the lecture one of my friends jabbed me in the ribs and pointed to the front left. Sitting there were a couple of engineering professors and they were clearly agitated.

When the lecture was over and before Dr. Shriver had a chance to thank Dr. Bardeen a red faced engineering professor shot up and started to sputter. “Professor Bardeen, this was supposed to be a lecture on the state of science in Communist China and all you give us is a damned travel log.” Frankly, I thought he was going to pop a vein. With his usual smile Prof. Bardeen addressed the gentleman, “ I thought it was perfectly clear, there is no science in Red China” The lecture hall erupted with laughter as half a dozen angry men stormed out of the lecture hall. And yet again silent John was our hero. By the way, it was clear to me that Dr. Bardeen believed there was no science in China at that time.

River Cherry Cobbler

This will complete the Middle Fork of the Salmon River series (the first two being the Waldo series). The last supper on any major river trip was called the formal supper. In order to be served you needed to wear a tie. It could be a regular tie, a knife sheaf, a folded Playboy Centerfold, etc. I usually tied a rope into a noose.

Anyway, on this trip we came across an abandoned sour cherry orchard. The cherries were ripe. We now had cherries, sugar and a iron Dutch oven (an advantage of boats over backpacks). Unfortunately we had finished the Bisquick that morning as dad made another batch of his notoriously bad pancakes (really, truly bad and he made them every year). While coming down the river we saw several houses on the other side of the river. Near our camp site was a footbridge across the river. I was told to take a pail of sour cherries and try to barter for Bisquick or flour (we had the other needed ingredients). So I took my pail and wandered off. The first couple of houses did not answer my knock (and I suspect at least one was occupied). Finally at a rather large two story house an elderly man answered my knock. I told him what we needed and he invited me in, but he was not interested in the cherries. Instead he told me all of his stories of his life.

He had come to Idaho in the mid-1930’s during a small silver rush (he was sad that he missed the Alaskan gold rush and wasn’t going to miss this one). He had mined the area for several years making just enough to make ends meet. He built his house by hand and had a family (though his wife got tired of the lifestyle and took his two kids and went to the "city"). He lived here because he had no use for the federal government and in particular the IRS. This was kind of ironic as when I met him he was living on social security and monthly food packages from his kids. I sat there for almost 2 hours listening to some really good story telling. Sadly I cannot remember any of them (we did not blog in the late 60's). As I left he gave me a box of Bisquick. I offered the cherries again but he said no.

So I went back to camp where we made cherry cobbler. I never have had a tastier cobbler.

Recipe for River Cherry Cobbler:

For best results use an iron dutch oven and a huge fire. Before starting, light the fire with enough wood to leave a bushel or more of ashes.

2 Cups Bisquick (see below to make your own cobbler)
1 Cup Milk (more can be added if mixture is too crumbly, perhaps 1 Tablespoon more)
5 Cups pitted sour cherries (2-20 oz cans sour cherries or cherry pie filling)
1 and 1/2 Cup sugar (this needs to vary for individual tastes)
1 Tablespoon Water
3 Tablespoons of corn starch (or a little more flour)

In bowl mix the 2 cups Bisquick with the milk. Stir until completely blended.

In the dutch oven combine the cherries, the water, the sugar, and the corn starch (add sugar to taste). You may wish to add 1/2 teaspoons of your favorite extract (almond, vanilla, etc) or 2 teaspoons of lemon or lime juice to the cherries. Heat this mixture until it boils, stirring the whole time. Continue to boil the mixture for one minute. Mixture should be thick.

Cover this mixture with the dumplings (drop dumplings on mixture with a an over full tablespooon).

Campfire Method:
Put the cover on the Dutch oven. When the fire has burned down to burning ash (some flames but little if any unburned wood left). With a shovel dig a hole in the ashes for the Oven. Place dutch oven in hole, making sure there are hot ashes below and around the oven. Cover the oven with hot glowing ashes to about 3 inches of ash. If the ashes seem to be too cool, building a small fire on top of the oven is fine.

Allow cobbler to cook for 20 minutes. Check the cobbler to see if the bread is done and the cherries bubbling (probably not). If not cook for another 10 minutes (be sure not to get ashes in the mixture). When the cherries are bubbling and the bread is browning cook for an additional 5 minutes uncovered. Serve family and nearby campers.

Oven method: Heat oven to 400. Place in oven without cover for 25-30 minutes. You can check all you want to see if it is done.

Making your own cobbler (you can over time play with this recipe until you get exactly the right taste and texture for you):

2 Cups Flour
3 Teaspoons baking powder
1 Teaspoon salt (or less)
6 Tablespoons Shortening

1 Cup Milk (from recipe)

Mix the flour, baking powder, salt and milk. Cut in the shortening one tablespoon at a time. thoroughly mix and then roll into a smooth ball. Again you drop the dumplings onto the cherries one tablespoon at a time.