0100498774

open access

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神戸大学高圧物理化学研究室の軌跡 1965-1995

Intensifier: News Letter from X-1

English (英語)

1-278

X-1 記念誌編集会

2025-12-20

2025-12-15

【Regarding the Cover, or in lieu of a Preface (i)】 The cover of this book incorporates three elements that symbolize the laboratory. The three elements are: 1. Intensifier : A pressure booster essential for high-pressure equipment (p. 61) 2. Green : The global environment (p. 42) 3. Grapevine : An image of communication connections (p. 166) These three aspects can be said to symbolize the personality of Professor Makita, who presided over the laboratory for many years. 【Chapter 1: Research Activities in the High-Pressure Physical Chemistry Laboratory (p. 1) At the beginning, we distributed “To Graduate Students and Students Coming to the High-Pressure Physical Chemistry Laboratory” (p. 2) to students. This is the essence of the professor’s thinking, which can be found on page 1 of the “Laboratory Manual for Students” (p.254) included in the appendix. We also transcribed Professor Makita’s retirement commemorative lecture, “The Joy of Studying the Thermophysical Properties of Fluids at High Pressures.” This final lecture also offers a glimpse into the wartime and immediate postwar period (p.3) of the Department of Chemistry at Kyoto University’s Faculty of Science, the professor’s alma mater and a source of Japanese science and technological advancement. From 1962, for a year and a half, he stayed at the Thermophysical Properties Research Center (TPRC) as a visiting professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University, a prestigious university in the United States, where he received guidance from the director, Professor Yeram S. Touloukian (p. 10). 【Chapter 2: Selected Works Related to Professor Makita (p.23)】 The standout piece in this chapter is “What I Learned from Professor Makita” by Professor Emeritus Koichi Watanabe of Keio University (p. 38). The following passage evokes the warm camaraderie between the two recipients of the ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) Yeram S. Touloukian Award. “Since the cover was for a collection of thermophysical properties of environmentally friendly alternative refrigerants, Professor Makita said, ‘Let’s use a bright green color.’ I remember being secretly delighted because I have loved green colors since I was a child.” (p. 42) 【Chapter 3: “News Letter from X-1 ‘INTENSIFIER’” by Year (p. 47)】 A newsletter published by the laboratory from 1980 to 1993, with contributions from faculty members and graduates. We transcribed a total of 46 issues of “Intensifier,” totaling 198 pages. This period coincided with what could be considered a peak in Japan’s scientific and technological advancement. The newsletter documents the faculty’s perspectives on scholarship and education, educational and research activities conducted while struggling with research funding even then (p. 97), interactions with Chinese researchers centered around the 1980s, and the achievements of graduates who went on to various fields. A significant number of these individuals also contributed to Chapter 4:Reflections from 2022. Regarding academic exchanges with China in the 1980s, Professor Xiao Yanfan of Tianjin University summarized them in “Professor Makita and Research on Thermophysical Properties of Fluids in China” (1992, p. 185). Professor Zheng Xiyin of Dalian University of Technology also contributed three essays. These professors survived the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) and came to Japan hoping to rebuild the collapsed higher education system. Mr. Shinichi Nishikubo, who would later become a renowned entrepreneur, contributed “Various Aspects of Microcomputers” (1984, p. 82) and “ Recommendations for Leaving Corporate Life “ (1993, p. 197). In the following chapter, “Contrail” (2022, p. 225), he summarizes his journey from the chemical industry to the software industry, and then to the aviation industry. His essay (1993) reveals that around the mid-1980s, on the recommendation of Professor Makita, he enrolled as a research student in the Department of Systems Engineering for about two years, to prepare for a leap into a new field. Professor Makita’s commentary on this essay states: “Isn’t the greatest creative work of a university teacher to discover the brilliance of individuality?” (1993, p. 203). 【Chapter 4: Reflections from 2022 (p. 211)】 This is a retrospective of 21 contributors to this publication in the year 2022, offering insights into the era of the contributors who lived through the first 20 years of the 21st century. The list of contributors starts with the late Professor Emeritus Yoshiyuki Tanaka, who passed away in May 2022 and so, was unable to read this commemorative publication (p. 212), and ends with a special contribution, “Memories of My Father,” by Professor Akifumi Makita of Akita Prefectural University (at the time), son of Professor Tadashi Makita and a forest ecologist (p. 250). Chapters 3 and 4 can be viewed as primary sources documenting the history of Japanese science and technology, universities, and industry over the 75 years since the end of WW Ⅱ , written from the perspective of individual experiences. Like Mr. Nishikubo, Professor Ryoichi Yamamoto of Kyoto University, who authored “Distant Rokkodai” (2022, p. 246), comes to mind as someone who studied again in the Kobe University laboratory and then forged his own career path. His journey—returning to the laboratory from a globally prominent automobile company, experiencing the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, and subsequently conducting research at the University of Cambridge—is detailed within the text. It also cites specific figures illustrating the decline in Japan’s international research standing at the time of writing. 【Appendix: Laboratory Manual for Students (p. 254)】 This 31-page Manual was distributed to students assigned in 1973. It includes handwritten sections, concisely summarizing research mindset, safety precautions, highpressure equipment design data, and more, making it a valuable historical educational document. Professor Koichi Watanabe seemed to recognize the essence of Professor Makita’s laboratory management in this Manual.

The High-Pressure Physical Chemistry Laboratory (abbreviated as X-1) at Kobe University’s Faculty of Engineering existed from 1965 to 1995, graduating 231 students. This book is the digital edition of a self-published volume, planned to preserve the laboratory’s records for posterity and released on April 15, 2022. As a printed work, it was acquired in 2022 by the National Diet Library, Kobe University Library, and other university libraries, as well as Hyogo Prefectural Library and other public libraries. We have now decided to create a digital edition to make it accessible to a wide range of readers. Furthermore, as this year, 2025, marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of the late Professor Emeritus Tadashi Makita, who led the laboratory, we have enhanced the abstracts to also serve as an index. Additionally, to honor the professor’s international achievements, we have included English abstracts.

図書

©2022 Printed in Japan