The bronze statue of a man sitting on a bench at the corner of South Main Street and Falls Park Drive is familiar to most Greenville locals. Visitors are intrigued by it and often sit on the sculpture’s bronze bench to get a selfie or a picture with the guy holding the pen and scribbling on an envelope. Locals and visitors alike are all well aware of the sculpture’s secondary subject, the laser, but less are familiar with the primary subject and laser inventor, Charles H. Townes. The work of Charles Townes has reached and influenced millions of lives throughout the world — perhaps more than any other native in Greenville’s history. Townes grew up on the “West View Farm” in the rural area of Vardry Heights. His father, Henry K. Townes, was in partnership with Wilton H. Earle and James H. Price, and their attorney office was at Court Square at the heart of Main Street.
Charles Townes attended Greenville High School and went on to graduate with a degree in physics and language from Furman University (then still located on its original campus overlooking the Reedy River Falls) in 1935. Townes began his quest to research microwaves and molecules at Columbia University, leading to his development of the laser’s predecessor — the maser. “Maser” is an acronym for “microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation.” He later applied this field of inquiry into the optical and infrared realm, leading to the development (in 1960) of the laser — acronym for “light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation.” The groundbreaking research and developments behind these two inventions are the reason Townes was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1964.
The background of the scene represented in the statue is when Townes was attending the last meeting of a naval committee in Washington, D.C., which was trying to figure out how to attain the shortest wavelengths for microwaves. Research results remained disappointing to the members, so Townes woke up early one morning and took a walk in Franklin Square Park to clear his head and think about the project. His “eureka” moment for harnessing beams of molecules came while sitting on a bench, and he scrawled the original formula for the maser on an envelope from his pocket, which is what he is doing in the statue. If you’ve never looked closely at the pen he’s holding or seen the statue at night, a green light emanates out of the pen to represent the look of a laser.
In discussing the early stages of the statue’s planning, Mayor Knox White told me the original plan was to depict Charles Townes in a standing position since the two earlier sculptures at Court Square (Joel Poinsett and Vardry McBee) showed their subjects sitting. However, when Townes heard of the plan, he refused it because, as a stickler for detail, he was not standing when he made the discovery but was sitting on a park bench. Consequently, another statue was destined to show a seated figure. Mayor White also relayed that when Zan Wells was working on the sculpture’s details, Townes would call her up and mention details he would like included in the depiction — things like the wingtip shoes and the “Parker” brand name on the pen. One day, Wells picked up the phone and all she heard come over the line was a raspy voice saying, “Argyle socks.” Confused, Wells said, “Excuse me?” to which Townes replied, “This is Charles Townes. I remembered I was wearing argyle socks and I’d like to you put them in the statue.” Wells gladly complied and provided yet one more detail to discover in the likeness.
An interesting tie to the momentous occasion of the maser’s discovery is the ironwork holding up this statue. It is from an original bench from Franklin Square Park, where Townes made his discovery. Phil Hughes, who helped finance the creation of this statue, called the Parks and Recreation Department in Washington, D.C., to see if they could obtain an original bench from the park. Officials said they happened to have a few left after recently replacing all of the old ones. The bench ironwork in the statue and the three surrounding benches were all originally in Franklin Square Park.
Commemorating Charles Townes’s invention of the laser serves as an inspiration to any who will dare to dream, work hard and take educated risks with their ideas. Visitors can discover that a Greenville native is behind the technology in CDs and DVDs, laser eye surgeries, precision welding and drilling, weapon targeting, cancer treatments and various communication systems, to name a few.
John M. Nolan is owner of Greenville History Tours (greenvillehistorytours.com) and author of “A Guide to Historic Greenville, SC” and “Lost Restaurants of Greenville, SC.”
https://greenvillejournal.com/history/glimpses-of-greenville-stories-behind-the-charles-townes-statue/
2022-08-04 13:31:13Z
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