Henry Cary (3 May 1908 – 20 December 1991) was an American engineer and the co-founder of the Applied Physics Corporation (later known as Cary Instruments), along with George W. Downs and William Miller. The Cary 14 UV-Vis-NIR and the Cary Model 81 Raman Spectrophotometer were particularly important contributions in scientific instrumentation and spectroscopy. Before starting Applied Physics, Cary was employed by Beckman Instruments, where he worked on the design of several instruments including the ubiquitous DU spectrophotometer. Howard Cary was a founder and the first president of the Optical Society of Southern California.

Personal life

Henry Howard Cary was born on 3 May 1908 in Los Angeles, California to Henry Gardner Cary and Bessie (Brown) Cary.

The 1940 US Census listed Cary as married to Barbara (Ward) Cary from Washington state. His occupation was recorded as research engineer and industry as laboratory.

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In 1991, Cary died of pneumonia after a long illness at Orange, California.

Education

In 1925, after graduating from Los Angeles High School, Cary entered the California Institute of Technology. He missed one year due to illness,

After receiving his degree, Cary went to work in his father's plumbing construction business, H. G. Cary Co. He held a variety of engineering and accounting positions with the company during the early years of the Great Depression. By 1937, Cary was the chief design engineer on Beckman's research team. Cary distinguished himself in work relating to pH meters and glass electrodes, and became vice-president of development. Cary made substantial contributions, including the design of a reliable ultraviolet phototube for the instrument.

The Cary 14 spectrophotometer used a double folded-z-configuration monochromator. Appearing on the market in 1954, it was the first commercial UV-VIS-NIR instrument to fully extend into the near-infrared spectrum.

The Cary Model 81 Raman Spectrophotometer was an important contribution to high-performance Raman spectroscopy. Described as "famous" it gave the field of Raman spectrophotometry a "tremendous boost" in the United States.

Other instruments included nondispersive infrared gas analyzers electrometers such as the Cary Model 31 and 36 Electrometers which used a vibrating reed with an ionization chamber and calorimeters such as the Cary Model 41 Calorimeter.

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File:Cary Model 14 Recording Spectrophotometer back cover crop Cary Model 11 Recording Spectrophotometer.tif | Cary Model 11 Recording Spectrophotometer

File:Cary Model 14 Recording Spectrophotometer page 5 crop Cary Model 14 Rear View Door Open.tif | Cary Model 14 Recording Spectrophotometer (back open)

File:Cary Model 14 Recording Spectrophotometer back cover crop Cary Model 14B Recording Spectrophotometer.tif | Model 14B Recording Spectrophotometer (front)

File:Cary Model 14 Recording Spectrophotometer back cover crop Cary Model 81 Raman Spectrophotometer.tif | Cary Model 81 Raman Spectrophotometer

File:Cary Model 14 Recording Spectrophotometer back cover crop Cary Model 31 Electrometer.tif | Cary Model 31 Electrometer

File:Cary Model 14 Recording Spectrophotometer back cover crop Cary Model 41 Calorimeter.tif | Cary Model 41 Calorimeter

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In 1966 the Applied Physics Corporation was one of a number of companies acquired by Varian Associates during a period of rapid expansion by Varian. Applied Physics Corporation was renamed Cary Instruments as a subsidiary of Varian. Also in 1966, groundbreaking for a new building for the company occurred in Monrovia, California.

In 1972 the company moved to Varian's facilities in Palo Alto, California. In 1982, it moved again, to Varian's Techtron facilities in Melbourne, Australia.

In 1969, Cary was awarded the David Richardson Medal by the Optical Society of America. Cary was honored for: "his painstakingly careful and very valuable contributions to the design and production of highly precise instrumentation in areas which range from spectroscopy to chemical, medical and nuclear research."

In 1977, Howard Cary received the Maurice F. Hasler Award at Pittcon "for his pioneering leadership in the development of instrumentation for absorption and Raman spectroscopy".

Patents

Cary is listed on a considerable number of patents for his work at National Technical Laboratories and Cary Instruments, often as "Henry H. Cary" or "H. H. Cary". They include:

  • "Automatic voltage and pH indicator", February 18, 1941, for the Beckman pH meter
  • "Apparatus for amplifying direct current voltages and currents", February 18, 1941, for the Beckman pH meter
  • "Method and apparatus for winding resistance elements", December 9, 1952, for the Beckman Helipot potentiometer
  • "Infrared spectrophotometer", July 31, 1951, for the Beckman IR-2 spectrophotometer
  • "Double folded-z-configuration monochromator". This monochromator is the heart of the Cary Model 14 UV-VIS Spectrophotometer. The monochromator patent drawings also show the dual beam configuration with the optical chopper, etc. as an example.
  • "Raman spectrophotometer", June 14, 1960.

Publications

Professional service

  • Optical Society of California, co-founder and first president, formed in 1951