Katherine Blodgett

By Andrew Impey

Katherine Blodgett
(1898-1979)

In 1926 Katherine Blodgett became the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in Physics from Cambridge University, but this was merely the start of an amazing career and a whole string of other firsts. She was the first woman to be hired by General Electric’s research lab and also the first woman to receive the Photographic Society of America Award; while in 1951 she was the first industrial scientist to be awarded the American Chemical Society's Garvan Medal.

All very impressive, but believe it or not, the best was yet to come; Blodgett’s research on single molecule glass coatings was to be her shinning glory. She knew from her research that molecular coatings could be incredibly thin; over 30,000 could be laid down one on top of the other and still only measure the thickness of a piece of paper.

In 1938, in a revolutionary breakthrough, she applied coatings to metal and glass layer by layer forming a very thin film. The process reduced glare on these reflective surfaces and resulted in the world’s first 100% transparent or invisible glass. This procedure has since been crucial in the development of spectacles, microscopes, telescopes and camera lenses.

There was no stopping Blodgett now and the inventions kept coming, including a colour gage for measuring the thickness of the molecular coatings; poison gas absorbents and methods for de-icing aircraft wings.

Upon her death, aged 81, one of her co-workers recalled "the methods she developed have become classical tools of the science and technology of surfaces and films. She will be long, and rightly, hailed for the simplicity, elegance and the definitive way in which she presented them to the world."

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