[Continuing Dr. Hickman's story of some of his life in his own words.]

It was while working on the multiple charge rocket that I had one of
the charges explode in my hands, losing several fingers on the left hand
and parts of those on the right hand.  I was so grateful that I did not
lose my hands and eyes that I never grieved over the loss.  I only
missed a little over one day of work.  I had a man to work under my
directions.  Fortunately, I had been so pleased with the climate and
country that I wanted Mabel to see it and had persuaded her to join me
out there.  We had a lovely little apartment house in Rhineway Court.
She was there when the accident occurred.

After we began to concentrate on a single charge rocket we developed
what we called a recoilless gun.  From this gun we could fire rockets
either by lobbing them or by using a sight and shooting the rockets
straight at tanks or other targets.  This was the forerunner of the
Bazooka that will be mentioned later.

In the fall of 1918, we went to Aberdeen Proving Grounds to demonstrate
the rockets we had developed.  I had charge of the small recoilless gun
and the multiple charge rocket together with a three inch rocket to be
fired from planes.  While we were at Aberdeen, the war ended.  However,
the Army Air Force was much interested in the 3-inch rocket to be fired
from planes.  They thought they would be able to get funds to start
work on such a development.  For that reason, Dr. Goddard asked me not
to go back into teaching but to take some other job where I could be
released when the funds were made available.  He made arrangements with
the Bureau of Standards to take me on in the Inductance and Capacitance
Laboratory, working for Dr. H. C. Curtis.  I started this work early
in 1919.  My only child was born June 8, 1919 in New Albany, Indiana.

In the fall of 1920 I left the Bureau of Standards to work at Clark
University in an organization known as The Industrial Research Labora-
tories.  I was one of the directors in the company and began work on
my Ph.D. degree under Dr. A. G. Webster.  My plans had been changed as
it seemed to be definite that the Army Air Force was never going to
be able to obtain funds for the development of the airplane rocket.
The other directors of the Industrial Research Laboratory were
Dr. L. T. E. Thompson, Dr. R. H. Goddard and Nils Riffolt.  We had
as consultants Dr. A. G. Webster, Dr. Crous, etc.  We did work for the
Winchester Arms Co., LaFrance Fire Engine Co., Witherbee Igniter Co.,
etc.  This work continued until the fall of 1921 when the depression
shut off funds and we had to give up this work.

In the fall of 1921 I returned to the Bureau of Standards, working as
before, in the Inductance and Capacitance Laboratory.  I also worked on
some of the Navy programs.  While at the Bureau I attended classes and
continued my studies toward my doctor's degree.

In June of 1922 I obtained my doctor's degree under Dr. Arthur Gordon
Webster at Clark University.  I used as my theses the work that I did
at the Bureau of Standards.  The subject of my theses was "Alternating
Current Resistance and Inductance of Single Layer Coils".  This was a
mathematical paper with confirming laboratory measurements.

In the fall of 1922, I left the Bureau to work at the Mine Building
in the Washington Navy Yard.  We were developing submarine mines.
I continued this work until the spring of 1924 when I took a position
with the American Piano Co. to work on the development of a better
Ampico Reproducing piano, which had been invented by Charles Fuller
Stoddard.   I also worked on improving pianos.

While working in this laboratory, I became interested in the
physics of bows and arrows.  I made many measurements in the laboratory
and wrote several papers which were published in scientific and archery
magazines.  I also became interested in collecting books and magazines
on archery.  I have what I believe to be the largest private collection
on this subject in the United States.  I have a complete run of most
every archery magazine published in England and the United States.
These magazines are bound and provided with indexes which I laboriously
compiled.  I have donated this collection to Indiana University,
Bloomington, Indiana.  The books were shipped in June of 1967.

My contributions to the Model B Ampico reproducing piano are too many
to enumerate.  I developed a system for recording the intensity with
which an artist plays each note.  This system is partly described in one
of my papers.