MIT Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science

MIT's Building 20: The Magical Incubator Story, Anecdote, or Reminiscence

A Cold Beer on a Hot Day

Jeff Shapiro
jhs@mit.edu

When I was a Master's student in RLE's Processing and Transmission of Information Group during the late 1960's, the faculty and students in the group had their offices in Building 26. However, those of us who were working on optical communications--for Bob Kennedy or Estil Hoversten--used lab space in Building 20.

My Master's thesis involved taking photographic measurements of a helium-neon laser beam that had propagated from the Museum of Science tower on Charles River Dam to a lab at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory behind Harvard Square. In the summer of 1968 it came time for me to develop the final photographic prints that were to go into my S.M. thesis. We had a dark-room setup in a penthouse on the roof of Building 20. It was, as I recall, a little cube on top of A-Wing. It was, as I also recall, a VERY hot day when I was doing this work. Indeed, I had a tough time keeping my chemicals within the temperature range I wanted. I also had a tough time keeping my sweat from dripping on everything I was doing. That little cube atop MIT's magical incubator had become a real "cooker," and the recipe being used was simple but effective: insert one graduate student, bake for five hours, remove when thesis photos (and graduate student) are done.

I had started work early in the morning. By the time I was finished, a late lunch was very much in order. John Moldon was the doctoral student who had taught me how to develop and print my films, and somewhat of a junior advisor for much of my Master's thesis. So the two of us went out for lunch at the old F&T--another landmark no longer with us--to celebrate. I had turned 21 during the previous winter, so the drink I had with lucnh was my first "legal" beer at the F&T. That cold beer was a welcome end to a very hot day. I have never forgotten it.