Call Number:

Ms. Codex 1776

Repository:

University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts

Extent:

1 volume (+1 leaf)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Wallace E. Frank notebook, 1945, Ms. Codex 1776, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania

Date:

1945 (inclusive)

Creator:

Frank, Wallace E. (Wallace Everett)

Form:

Laboratory notebooks, Field notes, and Codices (bound manuscripts)

Abstract:

A green cloth volume, manufactured by the U.S. Government Printing Office, containing field notes written by Wallace E. Frank in 1945 while he was assigned to the United States Public Health Service at the Carter Memorial Laboratory in Savannah, Georgia.

Wallace E. Frank was the son of Harry S. and Alda Miller Frank. He was raised in Manhattan, New York, received his diploma from Stuyvesant High School, and graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1942 with a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering. Frank received his Masters degree in mechanical engineering from New York University while working on propulsion systems for naval ships. In 1945 he was commissioned to the United States Public Health Service and assigned to work at Carter Memorial Laboratory in Savannah, Georgia where he studied the dispersal of DDT for malaria control. Following his discharge Frank worked for The Franklin Institute Labaratories for Research and Development where he developed aids for the blind and visually impaired. In addition, Frank worked on early fiber optic applications. In 1950 Frank became president of Spitz Labratories in Yorklyn, Delaware after serving as principal designer of the AP3 Planetarium Projector. In 1986 Frank started his own engineering company in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He later lived in Kintersville, Pennsylvania with his wife Helen Swain.

This green cloth volume, manufactured by the U.S. Government Printing Office, contains field notes written by Wallace E. Frank in 1945 while he was assigned to the United States Public Health Service at the Carter Memorial Laboratory in Savannah, Georgia. On the first leaf is written "W. E. Frank, U.S.P.H.S., Log, 5/19/45, Carter Memorial Lab." The ruled volume contains the daily field notes and observations of testing spraying systems and atomizers using several combinations of gases and propulsions to gain the maximum dispersal of DDT to exterminate mosquitoes. The goal of the observations and testing was to control malaria in war areas. After the thermal aerosol was tested Frank observed the effects on mosquito larvae. Also mentioned in the volume is typhus dusting. Frank mentioned working with assistant engineer Harry Stierli. The notebook spans the months from May to August 1945. A majority of the volume is blank. Laid in the volume is Frank's membership card for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers dated 1942.