Scope and Content Note
The papers of Cornell H. Mayer (1921-2005) span the years 1940-2005, with the bulk of the material dated 1943-1990. Mayer was a pioneering radio astonomer working for the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D. C., who first measured the surface temperature of the planet Venus in 1958. He determined that Venus had a surface temperature too hot to sustain life on Earth. He installed a maser, a laser foreunner, invented by his collaborator Charles H. Townes on a radio telescope to greatly improve the range and accuracy of the instrument.
Scientific notebooks in the collection document his measuring the surface temperature of Venus and other planets, his efforts toward improving the radio telescope, and other scientific work. Other files include general correspondence, biographical material, printed matter, photographs, and topical files. Some of the topical files document Mayer's participation in expeditions to observe solar eclipses from Attu in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, and Sweden.