1935: Pickering Follows Cosmic Rainbow Home to New Zealand
March 16, 2020
By AHNZ
William Pickering, who died yesterday in history (b. 24/12/1910, d. 15/3/2004) was “New Zealand’s greatest gift to America.” Like fellow physicist Ernest Rutherford, Bill was also from Havelock in Marlborough. When Bill’s father started at Havelock School, Rutherford was already a student there. Young Bill’s pathway led him from New Zealand to gain his PhD in physics from The California Institute of Technology. The work to complete this doctorate involved Pickering sailing home to New Zealand in 1935 on the hunt for cosmic rays. This background is also what made the young New Zealander one of the fathers of America’s space programme.
Boosters are Jettisoned
Bill was barley off the ground when his young family met with catastrophic failure. A State pharmacologist father and businesswoman mother were taken away soon after Bill’s only brother died aged c.2ys. That same year, 1915, 5yo Bill’s mother died. It was left up to the Pickering grandparents to continue raising young Bill as his dad followed his job to Western Samoa.
However much a tragedy, the jettisoning of Bill’s family unit propelled him into a unique independence. In the eras of Gallipoli Slave Culture and Great Wrong War Honour Culture intelligent and scientific children were not highly prized. Rutherford was born into a period of Dignity Culture New Zealand but Bill was set to be raised differently until he was passed into the hands of his grandparents.
Grandpa Pickering was a prominent citizen who ran a coach service at the top of the South Island. He had settled in New Zealand in 1860 and become a success. William Snr Snr’s coach was the first to make the journey from Blenheim to Nelson¹. Interestingly, Bill would also run a coach service but with rockets not horses and his was a round-trip into space and home again! Bill’s grandmother, Kate, was also well-connected in the Empire. Her father was a Blenheim Borough Councillor, her Uncle an engineer whose achievements included building the grave of none other than Cecil Rhodes². Young Bill would now be raised by parents who were geared to raise Dignity Culture kids.
The Cosmic Ray Voyage Home
Just like his fictional alma mater at Caltech, the physicists of the Big Bang Theory TV show, Bill Pickering worked away as an academic and researching scientist. The young Kiwi had found the perfect international institution to reward his high achievements in the New Zealand educational system. Bill also found a wife and set about completing his PhD by dedicating himself to cosmic ray research. Not until 1941 did Bill turn in his British Citizenship for that of the USA, and then only because the conditions of the war demanded it.
On Monday morning, 22 July, 1935, Bill and his wife Murial arrived in New Zealand for a short visit. On the S.S. Makura (the same liner that took Pickering to California in the first place) the young scientist conducted his final experiments in cosmic ray detection over the different latitudes of the planet. It just so happened that this experiment from California to Wellington brought the scientist back to his homeland. (Nice two-for-one there.)
As a reminder that the cultural era of the time were was Physical Culture, a shipmate on Makura’s voyage was Jaget Singh, Hindu wrestler. New Zealand’s real attention was not on egghead science guys but on athleticism (and, soon, war.) Perhaps this is, again, why Pickering stood out from his peers. He was doing advanced work before it was cool. When the time came for someone with his talents to be needed, Pickering would be a top choice.
Pickering gets some good press now he is home, discussing his work and US politics (eg Huey Long,) the Depression, and US education. He lectures at Canterbury College, visits the Waitomo Caves, then returns to America on 21 August to cash in his new PhD the following year.
Kiwi Cosmic Rays Lead to Space Programme
When the Soviets launched not just one but two satellites into orbit it caught the world by surprise. Rival superpower, the USA, turned to their own experts to demonstrate that they too could wield space power. The man in charge of that response was Bill Pickering.
“The reaction in this country (US) was amazing. People were startled to realise that this darn thing was going overhead about ten times per day and there was not a thing they could do about it- and realising that what was thought to be a nation of peasants could do something like this- with this amount of technical complexity.”- Pickering; Ref. Mudgeway (2007)
“But he didn’t know our mighty men,
This was something new.
But it wasn’t long ‘ere he found out
That he’d made a blue.
Jimmy tossed them up and up
And Len from left to right,
While Manny up upon the load
Stacked them neat and tight.
Still those bales went up and up,
It got so high and wide,
Till Manny shouted for his bike
To reach the other side.
[…]
“Thats enough” yelled Manny
But Jimmy turned deaf ear.
And then a scream – a scream t’was edged with fear,
“For God’s sake get me out of this,
There’s satellites up here.”– Ref. NZ Poem about carting hay by my granddad, c.1957
Sputnik (launched 4 October 1957) was visible all over New Zealand and the world. Pickering’s work with cosmic ray detectors in atmospheric balloons led to his expertise in radio telemetry, which in turn led to his expertise with guided missiles. As head of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pickering was a (or the) leader in the Western response to Sputnik 1 and 2.
By December 6th, his team ‘launched’ the Vanguard TV3 before full media coverage. Dubbed ‘Flopnik’ the rocket exploded on the pad at Cape Canaveral! Total failure.
Pickering’s team did better late at night on 31 January the following year. Fearful of another media embarrassment Missile 29 was only dubbed Explorer 1 the following day when it had become a clear success. Pickering even pretended to be absent and giving lectures so nobody would know Uncle Sam was trying again. On 1 February, Pickering, William Hayward Pickering, James Van Allen, and Wernher von Braun held a press conference in Washington DC to proclaim what they had done. From this moment a public figure, Pickering went on to lead the Space Race and send probes to the moon, Venus, and Mars.
Pickering, I think, is far more appreciated in American than he has been in New Zealand. Apart from the prominent William Pickering Drive in Albany, Auckland, he doesn’t crop up much at all. Still less, the 1935 cosmic ray experiment that is a New Zealand story and an essential chapter in Pickering’s professional arc and so the history of space exploration.
—
1 Ref. In 1885; p4 Mudgway (2007)
2 Ref. Auckland Star, 16 September 1933
Image ref. Explorer 1 model held aloft by Pickering, Van Allen, von Braun; NASA P8485
Image ref. Royal Mail Liner Makura in Auckland; Auckland Weekly News; Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections
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