RADIO's 100 Men of Scie

Home , Arthur Korn, CQD, Emile Berliner, Gal (unit), John Howard Dellinger

RADIO'S 100 Men of Scie

tiinieaphirni Norf. otiore of Pathfinders

in itritlio, Mertrortirt,, arse' Trierisinn

ORRIN E. DI, ILtP Jr.

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1112 TO HELEN A. DUNLAP CONTENTS

APPRECIATION 9 PREFACE 11

THE GENESIS OF RADIO 15

PART 1—PIONEERS OF ELECTRICITY

640 B.c.-548 a.c. THALES OF MILETUS—Fatriarch of Electricians 23

1544-1603 WILLIAM GILBERT —Supreme Experimenter of His Day 25 1602-1686 OTTO VON GUERICKE—Invented a Static Machine 28 1692-1761 PIETER VAN M USSCHENBROEK —Discovered the Leyden Jar 29 1698-1739 CHARI.ES FRANÇOIS Du FAY—Recognized Two Kinds of Electricity 30 1706-1790 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN—Found the Key to Static 32 1736-1796 CHARLES AUGUSTIN DE COULOMB—Applied Mathematics to Electricity 36

1737-1798 LUIGI GALVANI—Discovered Electricity Flows 38 1745-1827 ALESSANDRO VOLTA—Invented the Electric Battery 40 1775-1836 ANDRÉ MARIE AMPÈRE—The Newton of Electricity 42 1777-1851 HANS CHRISTIAN OERsTED—Liberated a Mighty Force 45 3 1789-1854 GEORG SrmoN OHM—Found a Golden Rule for Electric:ans 43 1791-1872 SAMUEL F. B. MORSE—Inventor of the Telegraph 49 1791-1867 MICHAEL FARADAY—Columbus of the Electrical Age 56 1797-1878 JOSEPH HENRY—America's Faraday 62 1803-1877 HEINRICH DANIEL RUHMKORFF—Improved th e> Induction Coil 67 1821-1894 HERMANN L. F.VON HELMHOLTZ—He Gave Hertr, a Problem 69 1824-1907 WILLIAM THOMSON (LORD KELVIN)—Natural Philosopher and Inventor 70

1826-1886 M.AHLON LOOMIS—Pioneer in Aerial Telegraphy 73

PART 2—PI ONEERS OF THE RADIO AGE

1831-1900 DAVID EDWARD HUGHES—Pioneer of the Microphone 75 18M -1879 JAMES CLERIC MAxwELLDiscoverer of the Ether 77 1832-1919 WILLIAM CROOKES—Invented the Cathode-ray Tube SI 1834-1913 W ILLIAM HENRY PREECE—Pioneer iirfelegraphy by Inelyection 84 1837-1910 Amos EMERSON DOLBEAR—Invented an Electrostatic Telephone 87 1844-1940 EDOUARD BRANLY—Inventor of the Coherer .. 89 1847-1 Ç31 THOMAS ALVA EDISON—America's Greatest Inventor 93 1847-1922 ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL—Inventor of the Telephone 98 1849-1913 ADOLPH K.H .SLABY—Germany's Marconi 101 1849-1945 Jorrx AMBROSE FLEMING—A Detector Won Him Knighthood 104

e• 1850-1920 AUGUSTO R1/14. . 't and Teacher 109

'1850-1925 OLIVER HEAVISIDE—. ..., "Roof" Ill

1850-1918 KARL FERDINAND BRAUN—lit..., _ - the Cathode-ray Tube 113 1861-1929 EMILE BERLINER—Maker of the Microphone 115 1851-1940 OLIVER LODGE—Great Physicist and Thinker ...‘ 118 1853-1937 Eerau THomsoN—Scientist, Inventor, Philosopher 122 1856-1940 JOSEPH JOHN THOMSON—Discoverer of the Electron 126

1857-1894 HEINRICH RUDOLPH HERTZ—Discoverer of Electric Waves 130 1857-1943 Nixou TESLA—Genius Was Applicable to Him 134 1858-1935 MICHAEL IDVORSKY PUPIN—Immigrant, Inventor, Teacher 140 1858-1937 JAGADIS CHUNDER Bose—Pioneer in Wave-Telegraphy 142 1859-1906 ALEXANDER STEPANOVITCH Poroee—Russia's Marconi 145 1860-1940 Pave NIPKOW—Inventor of the Television Disk 146 1861-1939 ARTHUR EDWIN KENNELLY—hit a Ceiling on Radio 148

1865-1934 GEORGE OWEN SQUIER—Champion of Wired-Wireless 149 1865-1923 CHARLES PROTEUS STEINMETZ—Electrical Wizard 151

1.1866-1932 REGINALD AUBREY FESSENDEN—American Pioneer in Wireless 156 •1867-1934 CHARLES FRANCIS JENKINS—Put Pictures on the Air 161 1867-1932 Louis WrNseow AusTIN—Correlated Radio With Nature 162

•1868- Weems Roo>rev WHITNEY—Leader in Research 165 •• 1869-1943 JOHN STOri STONE—Sharpened the Wireless Tuners 169 - 1869-1942 %.ALDEMAR POULS EN—Harnessed the Arc to Wireless 173 1870- ARTHUR KoRN—Pioneer in Picture Transmission 175 1871-1937 ERNEST RuTHERFoRD—The Newton of Atomic Physics 177 1872- GEORGE WASHINGTON PIERCE—Wireless Pioneer, Teacher and invent. • 182 1875- LEE DE FoREsT—Inventor of the Audion 185

1873- WILLIAM DAVID COOLIDGE—Physico-Chemist in EICCil0111CS 190 1874-1937 GUGLIELMO MARCONI—Inventor of Wireless 193 1874-1941 FRANK CONRAD—Pioneer Broadcaster 202 1875- WILLIAM HENRY EccLEs—Radio Physicist 206 1877- GREENLEAF WHITTIER PIcKARD—Introduced Crystal Detectors 209 1878- ERNST F. W .ALEXANDERSON—Developed the Alternator 212 1879- ALBERT HOYT TAYLOR—The Navy's Radar Pioneer 217 1879- CHARLES SAMUEL FRANKLIN—Beamed the Wireless Waves 220 1880- ALBERT WALLACE HULL—Prolific Inventor of Electron Tubes . 222 1881- IRVING LANGMUIR—Chemist, Physicist, Electronist 225 1881-1942 ROY ALEXANDER WEAGANT—Engineered to Conquer Static 228 1881- ILIA EMMANUEL MouRomrsEFF—Delved into Microwaves 232 1882- HERBERT EUGENE IVES—Applied Electro -Optics to Radio 234 1883- FREDERICK AUGUSTUS KOLSTER—Perfected the Radio Compass 237 1883-1933 HAROLD DEFOREST Amow—Designer of Electron Tubes 240

1885- EMOR1 LEON CEIAFFEE—Solved Electronic Problems •- ,• 243 6 1886- JOHN t JwARD DELLINGER—/nvest‘ b tior of Radio Phenomena 245 1886- Louis ALAN HAZELTINE—Inventor of the Neutrodyne .247 1887- ALFRED NORTON GOLDSMITH—Engineer, Inventor, Teacher 150

1887- HENDRIX JOHANNES VAN DER BIJL—A Pioneer in Electronics 253 1888- JoriN HAYS HAMMOND, JR. —Controlled Torpedoes by Radio 255 1888- WILLIAM DUBILIER—Mastercraftsman in Condensers 257 1888- RAYMOND ALPIIONSUS HEISING—A Proficient itt-entor 260 1888- JOHN LOGIE BAIRD—Scottish Television Pioneer 261 1889- LLOYD EsRENscHIED—Radio Imagineer 263

1889- RICHARD HOWLAND RANGER—A Pi oneer in Rod- iophotos 266

1889- VLADIMIR KOSMA ZWORYKIN—Inventor of the Iconoscope .268 1890- JOHN VINCENT LAWLESS HOGAN—Invented a Uni-Control Tune; 272

1890- GEORGE CLARK SOUTFIWORTH—Guided Waves Through Pipes .274

1890- EDWIN HOWARD ARMSTRONG—Invented Revolutionary Radio Circuits ...278

1891- RALPH BowN—Specialist in Overseas Radiotelephony .282 1892- ROBERT ALEXANDER WATSON-WATT—Britain's Hero in Radio-Location 284 1893- HAROLD HENRY BEvEcAGE—Explorer of the Wavelengths 286

1894- IRVING WOLFF—A Pioreer in Radar .291

1895- Nuis ERIK LiNoENBLAD—Antenna Designer and Engineer 293 .. 1897-1944 STUART BALLANTINE—Radio Physicist and Inventor 296

1898- CLARENcE WESTON HANSELL—Radio Transmitter Designer 2.99

7 1893- RUSSELL HARRISON VARIAN—One of II Klystron J'oy.- •-.: 302 1899-> CHARLES JACOB . YouNc—Printed by Radio 305 1901- ALLEN BALCOM DUMONT—Skilled in Electronics 306 1902- HARRY FERDINAND OLSON—.4n Authority on Sound 303

1901- BROWDER JULIAN TIIOMPSON—Excelled in Electron Tubc.s 310

1906- PHILO TAYLOR FARNSWORTH—Linked His Name with Tilevisio - 312 1906- JOSEPH LYMAN—Applied Eadto to Air Navigation 314 1908- GEORGE HAROLD BROWN—Pioneer in Radiothermics 316

a APPRECIATION

M ANY of the radio pioneers have read their ence who followed to make radio. One of the "careerographs" as presented here, and to most helpful sources of information was the them the author expresses sincere apprecia- splendidly written little book, Pioneers of tion for their interest and for the time taken Electricity, by J. Munro, published in 1890 from their busy days to make the stories —on the threshold of wireless, when the authentic as a historic record. From Mar- world little suspected what the men of sci- coni, Branly, Fleming, De Forest, Armstrong, ence were then planning for the generations Zworykin and others much of the informa- ahead. tion came to the author first-hand. For the Many thanks are due George Clark, avet- story of those who have passed on, as Fara- eran of wireless, for his friendly interest and day remarked "to the glorious hope," the helpfulness in the search for dates and data. author has consulted their writings and sci- Also, to Hazel C. Souhami for the careful entific papers. typing of the manuscript—a painstaking To those authors who across the years bio- process. To Louise L. Dunlap for her graphically recorded the work and pictured thoughtful reading and editing of the manu- the personalities of the front-rank men in script, and for many excellent suggestirms electrical discovery, the author is extremely which added immeasurably to the complete- grateful, for he has drawn upon their observa- ness and inspirational value of the story, the tions and linked them with the men of sci- author is most grateful.

PREFACE

To HAVE met and talked with radio pioneers neat: always the diplomat moving within a and to have corresponded with others adds small circle of his own choice, keeping his to the pleasure of recounting their scientific thoughts and observations much to himself, missions in life—their contributions to com- wondering when he might find a few leisure munication and to civilization. From their hours. brains sprang great industries with employ- De Forest—restless, °enthusiastic; in his ment for millions of people, new comforts, shirt sleeves testing some new idea in a maze conveniences and services. In one year the of wires, oblivious to those waiting for him American public has spent $130,000,000 for at the doorway; a tenacious fighter, a good electric light bulbs, and in that same period letter writer—a man who enjoyed the strife American industry has expended more than of life. $300,000,000 in research. Thomas A. Edison. Zworykin —quiet, daring, awizard in elec- it has been estimated, created fifteen billions tronics, telling of new wonders in television of dollars of wealth that might never have and no more excited about it than when re- existed had it not been for his genius. Mar- lating his experience of being lost in the fog, coni's invention of wireless begot billions skimming New York Harbor while flying his toa. own land plane; ascientist with agood sense Memory recalls these impressions of sev- of humor. Ask him if he ever dreamed about eral personalities: electrons and he would answer, "I sleep Marconi—reserved, modest, punctual and soundly1" Pupin—immigrant to inventor and teacher, shaped room in his medieval castle overlook- introducing Marconi at a meeting of the ing Gloucester Harbor, revealing the details Institute of Radio Engineers, humorously of a television "eye" for airplanes and talk- telling him that the crowd had gathered not ing about radio-controlled torpedoes; a good so much to hear what he had to say as to host on board his laboratory schooner, the see his boyish smile; enthusiastically dis- Odysseus III, using for his cabin a once- cussing television, superbly confident of its secret chamber below decks. future and suggesting that "televisioner" Edison—tireless, endowed with fine sim- might be a parallel term for radio listener. plicities, broadcasting in an improvised glass Alexanderson—a hard worker, friendly but studio in Madison Square Garden, throwing never a prophet; rushing hither and yon up his hands over his head as if surrendering across open fields in the Mohawk Valley to the mystery of it all, then smiling bash- which were covered with a web of his an- fully like a boy caught talking to himself as tennas; a family man, a father sitting at he hurried away from the microphone to sit home showing his children how television alongside Mrs. Edison and his cronies, Henry pictures are plucked from the air. Ford and Harvey Firestone. Tesla—tall, mysterious octogenarian, Sir Robert Watson-Watt—England's radar seemingly disappointed with much of the expert, visiting Radio City as the head of a past, looking with a cynical eye on the fu- distinguished British Scientific Commission. ture, in his frock coat delivering a sermon- Flanked by admirals, generals, wing corn - like speech on the ether, on light, on . the mai other officers resplendent in transmission of power by wireless, and on the _,.aid and starred uniforms, the immortality. si -.T., spectacled Sir Robert appearing more John Hays Hammond, Jr.—seagoing Yale as the typical professor than as a warrior man turned scientist, sitting in a turret- of science who had done so much to save RADIO'S- 100 MEN OF SCIENCE 52 Ilritain from being blitzed to defeat. Ex- they show promise; they are running a good tremely friendly, radiating a quick sense of race. humor, most gracious in manner, thanking Inventors have their own individual styles his host for "that amazing spectacle—a most as do artists, authors, composers and song delightful luncheon served on one of New writers. There are two classes of inventors— York's wartime, meatless Tuesdays." those who create systems and those who in- • vent devices. Maxwell and Marconi were systemic. They dealt with a broad general The selection of scientists and pathfinders field, or association of things into vast func- for a place in this book necessarily includes tional aggregations. Edison and De Forest the pioneers in electricity, for they were the were device inventors, whose achievements trail blazers of radio. There is only one Fara- greatly stimulated systemic developments-- day, one Edison, Morse, Bell, Marconi, or Edison, electric lighting, the phonograph and De Forest. Science is a marathon that never the motion picture; De Forest, broadcast- ends; as leaders in the race drop out new ing. ones come in to set the pace. Marconi won If, from radio's too pioneers in science, first prize in wireless, but his death did not the most outstanding were to be listed, ac- signal the end of the race in radio any more cording to their contributions to the advance than the telephone stopped development of the art, the "Big Ten" would be: Fara- with Bell, the telegraph with Morse, or the day, Henry, Maxwell, Hertz, Marconi, Fes- airplane with Wright. senden, Fleming, De Forest, Armstrong and Progress goes on. Contemporaries are run- Zworykin. ning far beyond Marconi. Time has yet to While "science moves, but slowly creeping measure their pace and to deal out the prizes. on from point to point," the men named in So a number of them are listed here because this book have played important parts to

BY ORRIN P. DUNLAP, JR. 13 effect in radio a radical change or entire ently watched for unexpected hints from It, change; they have reconstructed or rebuilt and were forever cross-examining the union new lines. They drove stakes along the verse to learn Nature's secrets. Most of them pathways of progress; they erected mile- responded to the thrill of the sunset, the posts. They built stairways, not merely steps, lightning, birds, mountains, forests and the from floor to floor in the mighty and tower- sea. ing structure of radio. Each man was a pio- Curiosity and persistence, versatility and neer in his particular field—an originator of imagination, marked their characters; hard a new device or a new method which went work and study, simplicity and faith, marked beyond merely skilled technique and exerted their days and nights. Their love of Nature a profound influence on one or more of the was closely linked with a devout spirit. Al- arts. Their charm was and is in their sim- most all in their study of science and Nature plicity; their fame in electricity, radio and found evidence of aSupreme Architect of the electronics. universe—in the words of Oersted: Study of their lives reveals that most of The universe is amanifestation of ^n Infinite them had poetical minds; they thirsted for Reason. and the laws of Nature are the thoughts knowledge from early youth right up to the of God. closing days of their lives. Entranced by the beauties and mysteries of Nature, they rever- New York, r944 0. E. D. JR.

RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 14 THE GENESIS OF RADIO

RADIO is the creation ef a long line of sci- twenty years had passed—a twinkling as entists whose work goes back more than zoo science measures time. But wireless had been years. In the beginning they discovered mys- on the way long before Maxwell. Its be- terious sparks and strange electrical effects, ginning goes back to the discovery of "elec- but years passed before they were able to trum" by Thales of Miletus, and from his day interpret the practical significance of the on across the centuries Nature dropped many electric spark. a clue that led to wireless. Each discoverer In 1867 Maxwell calculated existence and inventor in turn received inspiration of an all-pervading medium—the ether— from predecessors and contemporaries. Even through which light, heat and electric waves Edison is said to have remarked, "I begin traveled. Without knowing it, the scientific where the other fellow left off." world was on the threshold of wireless. Hertz Contending that the discoveries of science then produced electric waves and demon- are the discoveries of the laws of Nature, and strated that they would at least cross a room, like Nature do not go by leaps. Justice thereby proving Maxwell's mathematics were Frankfurter of the United States Supreme correct. Branly next invented the coherer to Court observed that even Newton and Ein- detect the invisible impulses. Marconi linked stein. Harvey and Darwin, built on the past all three ideas to give to the world his new and on their predecessors.' system of signaling. Thus, in 1896, wireless 'Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of Amer- telegraphy was born. ica vs. United States, Julie 21, 1943, Justice Feliz From Maxwell's discovery to Marconi's, Frankfurter dissenting in part.

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. Is Seldom indeed has a great discoverez or in- was working is not questioned. They were, I ventor wandered lonely as a cloud [said Justice suppose, men of genius. The fact is that they did Frankfurter]. Great inventions have always "not have the "flash" that begot the idea in Mar- been parts of an evolution, the culmination at a coni which he gave to the world through the particular moment of an antecedent process. So invention embodying the idea. true is this that the history of thought records striking coincidental discoveries—showing that Discovery after discovery, invention after the new insight first declared to the world by a invention, has been heralded as revolution- particular individual was "in the air" and ripe ary, yet looking back across the years, each for discovery and disclosure. appears as but astep—some, of course, more The real question is how significant a jump is important than others in the evolution of a the new disclosure from the old knowledge. Re- miraculous system of communication: radio. construction by hindsight, making obvious some- Ideas and instruments which seem mo- thing that was not at all obvio -is to superior minds -antil someone pointed it out—this is too mentous at the time of their conception are often a tempting exercise for astute minds. The worn thin by the years. Where are the feeble result is to remove the opportunity of obtaining sparks that sputtered the messages of Mar- what Congress has seen fit to make available. coni's triumph in the nineties; the famous The inescapable fact is that Marcon: in his sparks that were the voices of such ships as basic patent hit upon something that had eluded the Titanic and Lusitania? Where are the the best brains of the time working on the prob- crystal detectors that transformed electric lem of wireless communication—Clerk Maxwell impulses from the air back into sound? and Sir Oliver Lodge and Nikola Tesla. Genius Where are the powerful arcs that whistled is a word that ought to be reserved for the history-making code dispatches and casualty rarest of gifts. Iam not qualified to say whether Marconi was a genius. Certainly the great emi- lists across the Atlantic during the World pence of Clerk Maxwell and Sir Oliver Lodge War from 1914 to 1918? and Nikola Tesla in the field in which Marconi For the passing moment, all those historic

16 RAMOS 100 MEN OF SCIENCE devices were given front-page importance, practical frame of mind the pattern of the yet none was imbedded deeply enough in the instruments needed to put a skin of unseen foundation of radio science to withstand the waves around the globe. onslaught of progress. Each in turn was dis- The pre-Marconi men, who believed that carded to make way for new instruments, they had found clues for electric communica- which in a short time would meet the same tion without wires, generally did so by acci- fate. dent. While experimenting in the field of Many a man across the century con- electricity, they observed that its effects were tributed a revolutionary idea, theory or in- not necessarily bound to a wire. More or less strument; yet when fitted to the wheel of mystified, they groped around "wireless" communication it became but one of the through induction, conduction (current leak- cogs of progress. The world and the heavens age) and electrostatic coupling. These influ- have been the laboratory of radio as men ences led them astray from the real clue. of many nations experimented on land and Preece and Lodge, for instance, were en- sea, on deserts and on mountains, to learn tranced by magnetic induction, Morse by the secrets of Nature in which wireless is conduction and Dolbear by electrostatic effects. They failed to recognize the fact that wrapped. The most significant developments, the radiation was the great clue to wireless. biggest steps in the evolution of radio, have Marconi grasped that idea, and made elec- been born out of tiny clues which scientific tromagnetic radiation a practical method of wireless communication. The pre-Marconi minds wrested from Nature. Mathematics and scientific calculations started the old or- men pursued will-o'-the-wisps, but they clung der of things tumbling, as an inquisitive to the idea that some system of wireless sig- mind reached into the emptiness of incom- naling lurked in the cards dealt by science municable space to show to those of a more to the world. Those who followed Marconi 17 BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. improved upon what his practical mind that the riddle o' radio is endless. Research achieved. leads man on, bt no one ever completes the The driving forces of radio—electromag- unfinished symp ny of science. netic waves, electrons, wavelengths and Naturally, so men are pre-eminent in sound itself—have been elusive, unseen and the scientific c lcade. The timeliness of puzzling. By studying the faint glow of their entrance on the stage of science, electrical effects, by unraveling the mystery their persisten initiative, financial re- of tiny sparks, by watching and listening to sources, econo, affiliations, courage and simple things—even an insignificant cricket- ability to keer terlastingly at it were the like click or some peculiar magnetic action— factors which tried recognition for them, man has pieced together the science of a new for their discc ies and for their machines. pattern of international communications: ra- Behind each who has helped to envelop dio and television. the earth wi invisible messages, music, Thousands of patents demonstrate that voices and p res have marched the re- radio is by no means the conception of a serves—the p oters, financiers, statesmen, single mind. Man did not make the "ether." businessmen, al specialists, industrialists, He did not invent electricity, magnetism or opportunists .showmen. electrons. They have existed since the crea- Also supp ng the pioneers of science tion of the world. But man had to fashion were the thu inds of indefatigable experi- the tools to enliven and harness these forces menters and 1pers, who toiled behind the with which the earth and the air are en- scene to nur the germ of a big idea and dowed. The disagreement on theories, the to make it .k. Some paved the way for continuous stream of new instruments, the discovery. C .rs fitted the key of invention quick obsolescence of apparatus, the con- to the lock iractical usefulness. Such men tinual cropping up of new ideas are proof worked for ison and for Marconi. Their 18 ADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE patient toil from day to day, the joy they trons were a great mystery. Nevertheless, in won from seeing a dream come true, is all a the mauve decade, men triumphed in wire- part of the romance of radio. The most .hum- less. ble of these is saluted when an S 0 S is The roaring 1840's produced Edison, Bell, answered, or when man snaps a simple Fleming and Branly. In the fifties Lodge, switch and picks up music from a far corner Pupin, Thomson and Tesla were born. The of the earth. sixties called up Fessenden and Steinmetz. Today radio, no longer confined to send- In the seventies came Marconi, De Forest, ing and receiving messages, enlists men from Alexanderson and Rutherford. The eighties many fields of science. The radioman in the brought Hull, Hammond, Langmuir, Arnold latest sense of the word may be a specialist and Zworykin; the gay nineties, Armstrong, in electfon optics, photography, thermionic Beverage, Watt and others. emission, chemistry, lenses, acoustics, plastics But where are the master minds of the and metallurgy, or he may be an expert in twentieth century? More than forty years power-supply devices, fluorescent materials, have passed. Too early? Scarcely is that the magnetism or electron multipliers. Men from explanation, for Marconi was in his teens all these fields work in the modern radio when he scored, and only twenty-seven when laboratories. he sent the first signal across the Atlantic. The roll call of radio's leaders in science This may lead some to believe that the reveals that the master minds of wireless day is gone when an individual can triumph were born in the nineteenth century. Fame alone; that never again will a man's name was achieved through simple, comparatively be attached to his invention as Marconi, crude tools; they had no radio-electron Edison, Morse, and Bell. tubes, no microphones, no electronic "eyes." Since their pioneering days invention has Knowledge of the "ether" was scant. Elec- become more complex; it calls for team play

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 19 by experts in numerous fields, who concen- to the defense of his invention against those trate their talents and skills to achieve the who would pirate. ultimate result. Such co-operative research By no means does the modern blending assures success more quickly; it saves time of individuals and individual efforts in well- and eliminates the necessity of a lone in- organized laboratories mean that gone for- ‘entor groping in fields foreign to his knowl- ever is the attic, cellar, woodshed or garage edge and capabilities. The splendidly workshop. Neither has the drama and ro- equipped laboratory makes available the mance been stripped from invention. So long tools, resources and experiences so vital to as there is ii:centive, as there is in America; invention. so long as young minds have an aptitude for The modern inventor is not pictured as science and are schooled along that line, there impoverished and forlorn, fighting without will be no end of opportunity. Ideas may food and funds for recognition and support well be born in humble surroundings, on a of his ideas. In contrast with the inventor farm for that matter, far away from any of the past he works in an atmosphere con- great laboratory. The day has not gone when ducive to clear thinking. He enjoys freedom the best-equipped laboratories in the world from worry regarding the necessities of life; will bow to the genius of a lone inventor— he has a security in his adventure in science to patient, plodding perseverance. and in the future that many of the pioneers Since the turn of the century radio has missed through disappointment and sorrow. been in a period of transition, a period of Even Morse waged such astruggle; his whole development and assimilation—and in war. energies were called upon to extricate him- It may be expected 'hat after the gains self from the confusion and hardship in of the prewar and war periods are consoli- which he was unhappily placed. He, like dated, the period of assimilation will end. many other inventors, had to devote time Radio never will be stagnant. There will

20 RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE come a day in the postwar era when new man enthusiastically interested, with an apti- wonders will appear and with them new tude for science and an ardor for work. For wizards. Certainly, during the remainder of him radio-electronics is a field that will be the twentieth century, new master minds will forever new and unlimited as the lives and come forward. They are active in the field achievements of radio's many men of science today, but it is difficult to appraise their attest. work in relation to the future. Then, too, Limitless in its scope, infinite in its oppor- their achievements in the late thirties and tunities, the future of radio is as unfathomed early forties have been secrets of war. and uncharted as the boundless space in Geniuses of tomorrow may be but boys which it performs. Its past is as if measured today. Radio will call upon them for the by seconds, and its wonders are as if worked fresh ideas they can contribute. Powerful are within a passing moment compared to the the tools they will have to work with com- vastness of its future and the miracles to be pared with those of their predecessors. Youth expected in the years to come. today has the radio-electron tube; Marconi "We are living in a generation that has had but the coherer. given science the green light," said David Nothing is new in radio for long. What is Sarnoff, President of the Radio Corporation new today is old tomorrow. Unlike the sur- of America, to the research and engineering face of the earth the ethereal spectrum is still staff of RCA. 2 We are fortunate to live and unexplored. The new frontiers of the world work in acountry that has come to look upon are the far-flung frontiers of science. The change and invention, new methods and new realm of the microwave is a wide-open and services, as an inherent part of American cul- mysterious empery across which will be ture and civilization, rather than something blazed the trails of the future of radio. No to deny or to obstruct or to prevent. barrier is there to block the alert young 2 March 12, 1941.

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 21 We happen to be living at a time when the tlemen are producing with tubes and circuits world is determined to move forward. We are will electronize industries and create the Elec- not likely to go back to the methods of yester- tronic Age. day. We must not stand in the way of change. It is not the invention of yesterday, but the Our aims should be to help direct change along research of tomorrow, that will chart the future useful lines and to strike the happy balance of radio and determine its destiny. . The ad- between those who would destroy everything, vances of the next fifty years will make those because they belonged to yesterday, and those of the last fifty pale into insignificance. who would try anything because it had not been tried before. That is the balance where experi- In the infinitesimal electron is found the ence and integrity count most. .. . great promise of radio's future; the electron The services of radio are many—many more is to radio what a second is to time and what than we can comprehend even with our daily time is to the future. It has been called the contact with the art. Anything that can make cornerstone of a billion-dollar wartime indus- a sound, or a mark on a piece of paper, or con- try traveling on ameteoric path brilliant with trol some device at a distance, and transmit prospects. sound and sight through space, lends itself to a Oddly enough, to pick up the electron multiplicity of uses 'epending upon the needs stream and trace back to its source leads to of the time and upon the orportunities of the ancient Greece. The science of electronics has moment. trickled down through the ages. Scientists, New inventions are geared to the times and grasping the electron's significance, have in- to the generations in which people live. There vented devices to harness its magic and was the Steam Age, then the Electrical Age, and power. As a result, the stream has broadened later came the Radio Age. Nos. I think we are on the eve of a new age—the Electronic Age. into a mighty river, which produces electrical just as electricity electrified industries and life power as it flows through the great man- in general, so these developments that you gen- made generator—the electron tube!

22 RADIO'S 100 MEN OF SCIENCE PART ONE—PIONEERS OF ELECTRICITY

THALES OF MILETUS PATRIARCH OF ELECTRICIANS BORN: 640 B.C. DIED: 548 B.C. Greece Greece

THALES OF M ILETUS, philosopher, astrono- ing an electrical charge by friction later sug- mer and mathematician, also won title to gested the word "electricity," for the Greeks "the Patriarch of Electricians" through his had a word for amber; they called it "elek- observations of the phenomena of frictional tron" from the Greek for sun-god, because electrtsity and magnetism. Entranced by the amber had, a sunny luster. The lodestone. magic power of amber when rubbed by silk, also classed with amber because of its attrac- and by the attractive property of the lode- tive property, was obtained at Heraclea in stone, Thales, according to the classic au- Lydia, hence was called the Heraclean stone. thors, thought that possibly a"soul" or spirit Its later namé, magnet, came from Magnesia dwelt within them. Otherwise, how could it on the Meander, or from Magnesia ad Sipy- be explained that tiny straws and feathers lum, where it was also found as magne- would leap to the excited amber? tite. The strange phenomenon of amber acquir- Diogenes Laertius relates that Thales was

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 23 active in politics before he became aphiloso- Greeks; he shook their faith in omens and pher whose mental training was stimulated stimulated an interest in natural science and by the mysterious elektron sparks. Aristotle, the forces of Nature. At the age of ninety- Plutarch and Herodotus wrote about him, for two, while aspectator at the Milesian games, his fame extended through all Hellas. One he died, overcome with the heat. Demophilus story has it that Thales was of Phoenician remarked, "To those who run in the stadium descent, belonging to the clan of Thelidae, the prize is in the end of the race; to those while another describes him as a native who labor in wisdom the reward is an old Miksian of noble birth." age." Recognized as the father of Grecian geoin- From Plutarch it is learned that Thales by etry, astronomy and philosophy, 'Thales, ac- his own wish was buried in a neglected part cording to Plutarch, knew that the earth was of the Milesian fields, which he had pt e- globular; he defined the magnitude of the dicted would become the marketplace. Lut sun as being 720 times as great as the moon, not so, for the site was buried under time and predicted the solar eclipse. He also silt of the Meander, which partially filled up taught that water was the elemental fluid the Latmian Gulf. An inscription on the and material source of all things. Several tomb of Thales reminded the passer-by of theorems are attributed to him, for example, ancient Greece that although it was lowly, "a circle is bisected by its diameter." But the fame of Thales ascended to the skies. His it was his familiarity with the simple phe- statue, erected by the Milesians, carried nomenon of frictional electricity in amber — these words: -Miletus, fairest of Ionian a fossil resin—that gave him senority among cities, gave birth to Thales, great astronomer, electronic scientists. wisest of mortals in all kinds of knowledge.' Thales' predictions appear to have cre- Centuries later, "elektron" flowing through ated profound impressions among the the arteries of telegraph, telephone and radio

RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE would become the life blood of communica- tures, and the electron tube would beat as fions. Electrons would "paint" television pic- the heart of a new science—electronics.

WILLIAM GILBERT

SUPREME EXPERIMENTER OF HIS DAY BORN: May 24, 1514 DIED: November 30, 1603 Colchester, England Colchester, England

W ILLIAM GILBERT, or as he spelled it, G:1- pointed Physician to the Court of Queen berd, is remembered as the most distin- Elizabeth. guished man of science during the reign of Gilbert's tomb in the chancel near the Queen Elizabeth—"the scientific star of Eliz- Church of Holy Trinity, in Colchester, bears abeth's glorious reign, and one of the first a Latin inscription that he composed a book experimentalists that England ever pro- concerning the magnet. It was that cele- duced." brated treatise Of the Magnet and Magnetic William was the eldest of Hier.e.1 Gilberd's Bodies, and that Great Magnet the Earth, sons; he studied at both '_:.ambridge and Ox- published in 1600 which is described as "the ford. From St. 1.." -Is College, Cambridge, treasury of Gilbert's fame." It reported on which he entered in 1558, he took his A.B. his many experiments in electricity and mag- degree, and later became mathematical ex- netism, and his renowned discovery that the aminer of the College. In 1569 he achieved earth itself is a huge globular magnet; he his degree of M.D., and in i600 was ap- explained that this accounted not only for BY ORRIN E DUNLAP, JR. 25 the direction of the magnetic needle pointing tion toward an "electroscope," which he in- north and south, but also for the dipping of vented. It was a straw pivoted like a com- the needle. Also in his De Magnete treatise pass needle so that it indicated the approach Gilbert used the term "electric" (after the of an electrically charged body. For example, Greek word elektron) to describe the attrac- he found glass, sealing wax, the diamond and tion of amber and other bodies for certain other crystals to be electrics, while ivory, light objects, when subject to friction. More flint, marble, metals and the emerald were than 2,000 years had passed since Thales nonelectric. Scientists have since learned that of Miletus, and little new had been added all bodies are capable of becoming electric to the science of electrified amber and the when "frictionized," if they are properly in- lodestone, but Gilbert took it up and opened sulated. the way into the future. Gilbert and the scientists of his time were In the Middle Ages fables of magic and unaware of another property, that of con- witchcraft were linked with this strange force ducting electricity; neither did they know elektron, and that had aretarding effect. Gil- that metals as well as glass can be electrified bert discarded such ideas, appealed to ra- by friction but they must be insulated from tional thinking and "sifted the grain of elec- the hand, otherwise the electricity escapes to trical and magnetic phenomena from the earth through the body of the experimenter. zhaff of medieval phantasy and legend; he Gilbert noticed that dry weather and anorth laid the foundations of a true science." wind were favorable to his experiments, while He discovered that many materials besides moist weather and a south wind were detri- amber had the power to attract light things mental. Apparently he did not recognize after being rubbed, while others did not. To water as aconductor; neither did he suspect prove it he held the particles excited by fric - that moisture by condensing on the cold Pioneers of Electricity, J. Munro, 1890. surface of the electrified rod or crystal en-

26 RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE abled the electricity to escape to earth. it is life; and God Himself (by Whose will It is interesting to recall that before Gil- all things are ruled) is intelligence, is mind." bert's magnetic experiments the mariner's In tribute to Gilbert, Galileo said, "I ex- compass was in general use, in fact was tremely admire and envy the author of 'De known in Europe during the twelfth century Magnete.' Ithink him worthy of the greatest and is reported to have originated in China praise for the many new and true observa- by way of Arabia. The first European com- tions which he has made." pass was a piece of lodestone floated in a Bacon, however, is said to have character- cup of water so that it pointed approximately ized Gilbert's treatise as,a "painstaking ex- north and south. The pivoted needle came perimental book; an instance of extravagant later, and also the graduated scale. speculation founded on insufficient data." "The magnet is wonderful in innumerable Gilbert bequeathed his books and%nstru- experiments," said Gilbert, -and, as it were, ments to the College of Physicians, but they a living force. .. . I think that the whole were all consumed in the great fire that broke creation, all globes, all stars, and the glorious out in 1666. earth itself, are governed from the beginning Described as stoical but not cynical, Gil- by a proper and determinate life, and have bert was reserved but not morose. In his their movements of self-preservation. Al- book Worthies of England, Thomas Fuller though there are not any organs in the stars, of London wrote in reference to Gilbert, in the sun, or the planets, which can be rec- 1662, "The memory of this Doctor will never ognized by us, yet they live. If there be fall to the ground, which his incomparable anything of which man can boast, assuredly book, 'De Magnete,' will support to eternity."

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 27 OTTO VON GUERICKE

INVENTED A STATIC MACHINE DIED: May 11, 1686 BORN: November 20, 1602 Hamburg, Germany Magdeburg, Germany

other. - Little did he realize that the tiny dis- OTTO VON GUERICKE, burgomaster of Magde- charges of static he generated were of the burg and philosopher, to establish proof of same stuff as the electric bolts that leap dur- atmospheric pressure built an "electric" generating machine consisting of a globe of sul- ing thunderstorms. Stephen Gray, a Brother of the Charter- phur mounted on ashaft so it could be turned house, predicted that means would be found by a crank. As it rotated against a glove on for collecting larger quantities of "electric the dry palm of the hand, the friction caused fire." which seemed to be of the same nature sufficient "electrification" to attract small as lightning. Later discovery of the Leyden particles. The device later became known as jar, or electric bottle for collecting electricity, an electrostatic machine for it generated static electricity; it transformed mechanical fulfilled Gray's prophecy. Von Guericke's primitive frictional ma- work into electrical energy. chine was changed in later years by various While experimenting with the machine, von Guericke was puzzled by the fact that experimenters, among them Sir Isaac New- ton, S. A. Varley, W. T. B. Holtz and James after ashort time the attracted particles were Wimhurst, who so improved it in 1878 that repelled. Unknown to him, a feather or light it became known as a Wimhurst machine. particles assumed a like charge to that of In the process of evolution the frictional the sulphur ball, and when that occurred they machines were superseded by "influence" were repelled because "like charges repel each RADIO'S MO MEN OF SCIENCE 28 machines. Operated by electrostatic induction less telegraphy practical. to convert mechanical work into electrostatic Von Guericke also invented the air pump. energy, they made use of a small initial and thereby contributed a most useful tool charge, replenished or reinforced accumula- to research and to development of the tively. These static machines helped many a vacuum tube. His friction-type electrostatic physicist to pave the way for development generator might well be called the first elec- of devices which some day would make wire- trical machine.

PIETER VAN MUSSCHENBROEK

DISCOVERED THE LEYDEN JAR BORN: March 11, 1O92 DIED: Seeember 9, 17')I Leyden, Holland Leyden, Hollan.1

PIETER VAN M USSCHENBROEK, physicist and one of his pupils, held the bottle in his right professor at Leyden University, while at- hand while the water was connected by wire tempting to confine or "store up .'electricity to the main conductor of the electric machine. by charging water in a bottle, discovered Innocently, Cuneus withdrew the wire with one of the main units of radio—the con- his left hand and received such a violent denser. shock that he dropped the jar. NIusschea- A wire attached to an insulated conductor, broek, anxious to try it himself, received a kept charged by africtional-electric machine, livelier shock. He found that when the jar was dipped into the water. One day Cuneus, of water was on a table it could not be elec- BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. - 29 trifled, but when a hand was placed around they were when Cuneus tried to move the the bottle, the phenomenon recurred. Seeking wire away, the positive rushed to the nega- a substitute for the hand, he tried a metal tive, and caused the shock to the body. coating and it did the trick. In later years, further experiments revealed The Leyden jar, as the bottle was named, that a dry bottle with the lower part coated became a scientific mystery. It remained for inside and out with tinfoil produced a more Benjamin Franklin to clear it up. He ex- violent discharge. The bottle was still called plained that when the inner coating or con- a Leyden jar when wireless came into use ductor, which corresponded to the water in and needed electrostatic condensers—the the orginal Cuneus experiment, was posi- lungs of radio. 1 tively charged, the outer coating (the hand Von Kleist of Germany is credited with the same of Cuneus) became negatively charged. discovery, working at the same time independently When these were joined by a conductor as of Musschenbroek.

CHARLES FRANÇOIS DU FAY RECOGNIZED TWO KINDS OF ELECTRICITY BORN: September 4, 1698 DIED: July 16, 1739 France France

CHARLES FRANÇOIS Du FAY, French savant differed from an electrified glass rod. He and member of the French Academy of Sci- called one "resinous" and the other "vitre- ences, discovered that sealing wax became ous." He recognized two kinds of electricity electrified when rubbed with cat's fur and and noticed that 'ike kinds repel each other; RADIO'S MO MEN OF SCIENCE 30 unlike attract. Later, Benjamin Franklin in- Du Fay, in his Fifth Mémoire described troduced the terms "positive" and "nega- the effect of his electric experiments on hot, tive" electricity. compressed and rarefied air, the effect being Du Fay found that metal wires or wet ob- produced by rubbing glass tubes with silk. jects were the best conductors of electricity, He noted that a candle flame could tot be although they were the most difficult to elec- electrified and that it was not attracted by trify. He is believed to have erected the first an electrified body. He said: electric transmission line when he strung a This singularity merits aclose examination, in thread across a quarter of a mile, suspended which we will perhaps enter into the question of it on glass tubes (as insulators), wet the leakage; but of this we can assure ourselves, for thread and conveyed impulses from one end the present, that this [phenomenon] is not due to the other. to the heat nor to the burning; for a red hot It was about this time that Stephen Gray, iron and aglowing coal, placed on the glass table, an Englishman, observed that the attracting become electrified exceedingly. power of amber, etc., for other bodies could Basing their work upon the findings of be transferred by contact from one body to Stephen Gray and Du Fay, scientists in another, and transmitted from one part of France and Germany started to improve the certain bodies to all parts of it. Désaguliers tools of electrical science and conducted nu- (1736) called such bodies "conductors." merous experiments. Among them were Abbé Gray, however, is generally recorded as dis- Jean Antoine Nollet of France, Johann H. coverer of the effect and differences of con- Winckler and George M. Bose of Germany, ductors and insulators. Bodies which con- Andreas Gordon of Scotland, von Kleist of ducted electricity better than others he called Pomerania, John Canton of England and Ti- electric's; the others, nonelectrics. berio Cavallo of Italy.

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 31 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

FOUND THE KEY TO STATIC

BORN: January 17, 1706 DIED: April, 17, 1790 Boston, Mass. Philadelphia, Pa.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, American statesman, improve his children." Because of this Ben printer, philosopher, scientist, writer and was always indifferent to the kind of food signer of the Declaration of Independence, he ate. grew up with athirst for knowledge. In 1685 He was apprenticed to the printing trade his father, Josiah, having joined the Non- with his brother James. Ben's ingenuity and conformists in England, emigrated to New diligence substituted for the lack of fortune England where he found religious freedom. and education. He saved every possible cent Benjamin was Josiah's fifteenth child, his sec- to buy books. He became an expert printer ond wife, Abiah Folger, adding ten children and turned his attention to prose. When his to Josiah's first flock of seven. brother started a newspaper, the New Eng-- Benjamin was sent to school at the age of land Courant, Ben printed it. But there came eight in preparation for the ministry. Read- a day when the brothers disagreed. Ben left ing and writing he liked, but he failed in Boston by sloop for New York, soon to move arithmetic. His passion was reading; his boy- to Philadelphia to find work as a printer. ish love was for the sea. Schooling was cut He married Deborah Read, and in 1724 went short because of the family burdens upon to London. Two years later he returned to .his father. but Benjamin nourished his mind Philadelphia and in 1729 became editor and by reading good books. And his father publisher of the Pennsylvania Gazette, which "turned the table-talk on subjects likely to later became the Saturday Evening Post.

32 RADIO'S TOO MEN OF SCIENCE Ben had gone forth in the world with a with electricity aroused his interest and led proverb of Solomon which his father so often him into electrical researches. The flash of had repeated: "Seest thou a man diligent in lightning was still a mystery, yet some elec- his calling, he shall stand before kings." Ben trical experiments seemed to indicate that never forgot it, as is indicated by a friend's electricity created by friction machines was remark: "I see him still at work when I of "the same nature as thunder and light- go home from the club, and he is at work ning." again before his neighbors are out of bed." "Of what use are these experiments?" The day came when Solomon's proverb asked an onlooker. rang true for the diligent Franklin; he at- "Of what use is an infant?" replied Frank- tended the coronation of George III. In 1778 lin, sensing the great future of electricity. he served as American ambassador to France, Apparently he suspected some such force where his plain but venerable personality as the electron, for in about 1749 he said, distinguished him among the powdered and "The electrical matter consists of particles laced courtiers of Versailles. extremely subtile, since it can permeate com- Franklin catalogued many rules to guide mon matter, even the densest metals, with himself, for example, "Eat not to dullness; such ease and freedom as not to receive any -drink not to elevation." His Poor Richard's perceptible resistance." Almanac, widely read throughout the colo- Franklin invented the lightning rod—to nies, was a collection of wisdom, wit and ease the cloud by a slow discharge, or to useful hints, and from it he made a fortune. carry off a sudden flash. He wrote to the He found himself in public affairs and poli- Royal Society of London in 175o suggesting tics. Indicative of his versatility, in 1742 he that "electrical fire might be drawn silently invented an open stove. He later met a Dr. out of a cloud before it came nigh enough Spence from Scotland, whose experiments to strike." In the summer of 1752, he set

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 33 out "to draw down fire from the clouds." Leyden jar or condenser. Did this science have a future? Franklin He made a kite with a wire projected from was confident: "A turkey is to be killed for the upright stick, and to the end of the kite string he attached a length of silk rib- our dinner by an electrical shock, and roasted bon for holding it, and a metal key from by the electrical jack, before a fire kindled which to draw the sparks. One day there by the 'electrical bottle, when the healths of all the famous electricians in England, Hol- came a thunderstorm, and up went the kite lane, France and Germany are to be drunk while Franklin sought shelter in a shed. He in electrified bumpers iglasses of wine] unnoticed the floss on the twine bristling as der the discharge of guns from the electric if electrified, and as the kite string was moistened by the rain, it became a better battery." Despite all of his other activities, Franklin conductor and yielded sparks to the key. occupied himself with science at odd times, Thus Franklin founded the study of static, or and "investigated a variety of matters." To atmospheric electricity, and was cartooned as anew Prometheus; his fame as ascientist him the scientific spirit of all things, even a spread to Europe, for he had "snatched the grain of sand, was food for thought. He was called the patron saint of the lightning from heaven, and the sceptre from electrical sciences. Speaking of his researches tyrants." in electricity, when that science was in its Franklin established the law of conservation of the electric charge and determined that infancy, he said: there is a "positive" and a "negative" kind On some further experiments Ihave observed of electricity. His theories led later experi- aphenomenon or two that Icannot at present menters to discover that air could be sub- account for, and am therefore become a little stituted as the dielectric (insulating material ) diffident of my hypothesis, and ashamed that I In place of glass in the construction of a expressed myself in so positive a manner. IA RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 34 going on with these experiments, how many in 1189, "I should have died two years ago." pretty systems do we build which we soon find But despite painful sufferings, his ever-curi- ourselves obliged to destroy! If there is no other ous and fertile mind was unimpaired until use discovered of electricity, this, however, is something considerable: that it may help to the last. Near the end, his daughter expressed make a vain man humble. hope that he might recover and live many years. "I hope not," replied Franklin. and when urged to shift his position that he At the age of eighty-two he remarked, "I might breathe easily he said, "A dying man have lived a long time and the longer Ilive can do nothing easy." the more convincing proofs Isee of this truth, It was said that Franklin, in making his that God governs in the affairs of men. And way through life, pursued his own advantage, if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground with- but never at the cost of truth and honesty. out His notice, is it probable that an empire "My rule," he explained, "is to go straight can rise without His aid?" forward in doing what appears to me to be In his last years Franklin suffered much right, leaving the consequences to Provi- pain, and he wrote to President Washington dence."

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 3$ CHARLES AUGUSTIN DE COULOMB APPLIED MATHEMATICS TO ELECTRICITY DIED: August 23, 1796 BORN: June 14, 1736 Paris, France Angoulême, Fran, -

CHARLES AUGUSTIN DE COULOMB, pioneer of wires under a twisting stress. In these ex- experimental science in Fraace, achieved periments he observed that a very feeble fame through electrical and magnetic re- force was sufficient to twist a long thin wire searches. In France, he was what Gilbert was through a large angle, and this led to the in England two centuries earlier. Coulomb, invention of his well-known torsion balance. described as "a mathematician and engineer Essentially it comprised a light needle sus- with the love of definition and the habit of pended by a fine wire and protected from measurement," arrived at quantitative re- currents of air by aglass cover. A graduated sults, while Gilbert's were chiefly qualitative. scale indicated the turns of the counter-twist, He measured the force of attraction and re- and the rate of oscillation of the needle when deaected also enabled one to calculate the pulsion between electrified bodies or magnetic poles and formulated the laws which disturbing force. This torsion balance found many uses, and governed them. Coulomb was schooled at Paris, where he Cavendish used it to determine the density revealed an aptitude for mathematics, then of the earth by comparison with that of a ball of lead. Coulomb, however, made the entered the army as a military engineer. In 1779 he shared with van Swinden a prize most successful applications of his invention offered by the Academy for the best design when he used it to measure the feeble force of amariner's compass. He presented apaper of frictional electricity and magnetism. It will be recalled that Gilbert had used at the Academy in 1784 on the elasticity of RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 36 a pivoted needle to detect these forces, but poles were situated near but not quite at the he did not measure their intensity. Coulomb's end of a magnet. He was of the opinion needle was much more sensitive and could that every magnet was made up of tiny par- be deflected through a right angle by a rod ticles, each a magnet, and he demonstrated of rubbed sealing wax held a yard away. He that iron surrendered its magnetic virtue made the great discovery that electrical force when heated to 700 ° centigrade—red hot. obeyed the same law as the force of gravita- All of these discoveries by Coulomb paved tion. the way for other scientists to follow new Presenting electrified bodies to the needle, lines of research. The International Congress which could itself be electrified, Coulomb of Electricians, in 1884 at Paris, recognizing discovered that the force of attraction or the great importance of his scientific con- repulsion between two quantities of elec- tributions, selected his name to designate the tricity was directly proportional to the quan- practical unit of electric quantity—a "cou- tides and inversely proportional to the square lomb." of the distance between them. In other words, Magnetism fascinated him to the end; just if the distance between the bodies was before his death he modified his opinion that doubled, trebled or quadrupled, the force the magnetic property was common to all they exerted in each other was respectively bodies in some degree. He came to this con- a fourth, a ninth or a sixteenth of what it clusion by observing that a grain of iron bad been. could communicate magnetism to twenty Further, Coulomb proved that the force pounds of another substance. As history re- of attraction or repulsion between two mag- cords, Coulomb was the first to apply mathe- netic poles is directly proportional to the matics to the phenomenon of electricity; his strength of the poles. He showed that the experimental work was exact and profound.

BY ORRLN E. DUNLAP, JR. 37 LUIGI GALVANI

DISCOVERED ELECTRICITY FLOWS DIED: December 9, 1798 BORN: September 9, 1737 Bologna, holy Bologna, Italy

LUIGI GALVANI, Italian physiologist, by vir- an invention, it might go unnoticed if the tue of his discovery in electricity gave his experimenter failed to have both eyes and name to galvanic current, galvanism and the ears open as well as mind. Galvani proved this to be true, and his revealing tale is as galvanometer. From the Galvani family had come several follows: The legs of frogs were skinned to make noted men of letters, but Luigi turned to theology in his studies at the University of nourishing soup for Madame Galvani, who Bologna. There, at the age of twenty-three was in delicate health. As they were lying he fell in love with Lucie Galeazzi, daughter in Galvani% laboratory, an assistant hap- of a professor. He changed from theology to pened to touch one of them with a scalpel; medicine, receiving his doctor's degree in greatly to his amazement the frog's leg con- vulsed. At the same time sparks were being 1762. His eloquent lectures at the Institute of Bologna won him the professorship of drawn from a near-by friction-electric ma- anatomy at his alma mater. chine, and at every flash the leg twitched. The story of Galvani and his discovery has Subsequently, he noticed a similar twitching several versions; basically each is the same in frogs' legs hung on copper wires from an and each illustrates how a simple observa- iron railing. But in this instance no electric tion may lead to a great discovery. No mat- contrivance was in action. Galvani also ter whether intuition or accident spotlights touched the nerve of the frog's leg with a RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 38 zinc rod and the muscle with a copper rod, battery, always acknowledged with admira- then contacted both metals. He concluded tion his indebtedness to Galvani, although that he had discovered "animal electricity"; the latter believed Volta's interpretation of his announcement created a profound sensa- the frog's-legs experiment was wrong, and he tion in scientific circles, as well as among the would never give up the idea that it was any- public. Perhaps, it was reasoned by some, thing but "animal electricity." Time revealed Galvani had solved the mystery of life— how he held a great discovery between his electricity. They substantiated this conclu- hands and let it slip away through a mission by the fact that the dead frog's legs interpretation. He clung to his mistaken -the- moved as if alive. ory until the end, concluding that perhaps Alessandro Volta challenged the theory of even the brain itself was asource of "animal "animal electricity"; he refuted Galvani's electricity." hypothesis. What Galvani really discovered Broken in heart and fortune, Galvani had was that electricity is acurrent; that it flows. sorrow heaped upon him in 1797 when his Electricians learned to recognize that gal- wife died; he returned to his brother's home, vanic electricity is that caused by two dis- where a year later he passed away, little similar metals in contact. Volta, who took realizing that electricity would carry his this clue from Galvani and built the electric name through the ages.

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 39 ALESSANDRO VOLTA

INVENTED THE ELECTRIC BATTERY DIED: March 5, 1827 BORN: February 18, 1745 Como, Italy Como, Italy

ALESSANDRO GIUSEPPE VOLTA, Italian physi- in 1774, he had new opportunities of re- cist, invented the voltaic cell, or battery, and search and the following year announced his in recognition of his achievement, the prac- discovery of the electrophorus, which he tical unit of eletromotive force—the volt— found by studying the insulating property of wood. Continuing the study of electricity was given his name. he became interested in the condenser in Described as "a child of dull wit," he was unable to speak until four years old when 1778. and employed marble or varnished he found his tongue and his intellect sharp- wood as the dielectric in preference to resin. ened. Overjoyed, his father, a poor patri- In Voltas hands the condenser was a useful cian, said, "I had a diamond in the house instrument for it enabled him to accumulate and did not know it... In school Alessandro feeble charges of electricity until they could was a leading student in rhetoric; he had a produce a strong effect. splendid memory. He played parts in school Appointed professor of physics in the Uni- dramas, composed verses and wrote on the versity of Pavia in 1779, Volta traveled widely, collecting equipment for his labora- phenomena of chemistry. After graduation from the Royal Seminary tory and talking with noted men of science. in Como, he devoted much time to the gen- When in Paris, he showed Lavoisier and eration of electricity by chemical action. Ap- Laplace that electricity could be produced by the evaporation of water in a basin; he pointed Rector of the Royal School in Como RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 40 thought possibly he had discovered the similar metals which had come into play source of atmospheric electricity. He wrote during Galvani's experiment. Between Gal- on "Meteorologia Electrica, - which revealed vani and Volta a great controversy raged, that he had improved the electrometer for but in the end it was said that Volta won, measuring electrical attraction. and that his victory opened a new realm Volta married Teresa Peregrini. a of of science. He had discovered a new method noble birth, and they had three sans. It vas of generating electricity by the simple con- about this time that Volta started on ti? tact of two dissimilar bodies, without the work that made him immortal- the discovery aid of friction. of the voltaic "pile," or chemical source of In building his first battery Volta used a electricity. He was convinced. ag was Frank- series of cups containing a saline solution, lin, that electricity resided in all natural in which plates of zinc and silver were dipped. bodies in a state of equilibrium, and becarie Each silver plate of a cup was connected active when that balance was disturbed, for with a wire to the zinc plate of the next cup, instance by friction. His idea was to set it and the terminal plates of the series—zinc in motion by chemical action. and silver—formed the poles of the battery, His compatriot Luigi Galvani supplied a from which electricity flowed. His next bat- good clue by his famous frogs'-legs experi- tery, known as the "pile," comprised plates ment, which showed the existence of "animal of zinc and copper laid one above the other, electricity." Volta, however, challenged the with moistened cloth between them. It was theory of animal electricity for he believed like a pile of coins. The electricity flowed the frog's legs were merely adelicate electro- from the terminal plates of copper and zinc, scope that detected the presence of electric- or the positive and negative poles of the ity. He caught the idea that the electricity battery. was generated by the contact of two dis- Up to this time electricity cause' by fric- BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, 41 - tion had shown great promise, but it did not for "an ardent love of home and science had flow in acontinuous current easily controlled purified his heart from worldly dross." In as did electricity from the battery. his last years he lived secluded from the When Napoleon entered Italy in 1796, world. He was buried with great pomp in the Volta was sent as a deputy from Pavia to churchyard of Compora, and his first "pile" solicit protection. Bonaparte never forgot was preserved in the Palace of Brera, at him, and in 18or he summoned Volta to Milan. Paris to exhibit his battery before the In- Those who knew Volta said that he was stitute of France. Napoleon presented him gifted with genius and was not denied the with no end of honors in the years that fol- spirit of order and perseverance; he excelled lowed; in fact, it was said that Napoleon's as an experimenter because of sound reason- interest in Volta had something of affec- ing, based upon clear observation of facts. He tion. was not a theorist, nor was he a mathemati- Renown never turned Volta's head; he cian, but he left to the world a great engine clung to the simple habits of his boyhood, of research—the battery.

ANDRÉ MARIE AMPÈRE

THE NEWTON OF ELECTRICITY DIED: June 10, 1836 BORN: January 22, 1775 Marseilles, France Lyons, France

ANDRÉ M ARIE AMPÈRE, French physicist and by his flair for figures. He no sooner learned mathematician, as achild amazed his parents to read than he was into algebra, and at the RADIO'S TOO MEN OF SCIENCE 42 age of twelve borrowed books on calculus out of the dust, as he described it, but falling from the college in Lyons. The fact that they in love with Julie Carron really revived his were written in Latin did not stop André. spirit. They moved to Bourg where he taught There was no school in the village of Pole - physics and chemistry in the Central School. mieux where he lived, so it is recorded that In 1803 he was appointed to the chair of "Ampère had no teacher but his own genius" mathematics and astronomy in the lyceum Later in life he reckoned that he knew as at Lyons. Broken by the news of his wife's much mathematics at eighteen as he ever d:c1; failing health, on June 7. 1804. in his diary he had a retentive memory and read books he prophetically wrote: "This day has de- on every subject. dded the rest of my life." On July 13, Julie When his father perished by the guillotine was dead. in r793—when Lyons was taken by the army Ampère went to Paris as tutor at the Poly- of the Convention—his farewell note to his technic School. He married again in i8D6, wife recalled that the books and instruments and continued his work as a professor. He of geometry for André had been their great- published numerous papers pertaining to est expense, but advised her to regard it as mathematics, chemistry, natural history and wise economy "since he has never had any physics. other master than himself." 1 September ir, 1820, was-another day that "As to my son," he added, "there is noth- decided the rest of his life. He learned of ing that I do not expect of him." For a long time, his father's death seemed Oersted's discovery of the relation of elec- to blight André's existence; in fact, he con- tricity and magnetism. fessed he was "without eyes or thought." An Soon Ampère proved by a series of new interest in botany and poetry brought him experiments that all magnetic effects men- Pioneers of Electricity, J. Munro. 1890 tioned by Oersted could be produced by the BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 43 electric current alone. He formulated a defi- dynamics. His discoveries led to many de- nite rule for finding the direction in which velopments based upon magnets, especially a compass needle turns when a wire convey- the electromagnet, the heart of the tele- ing a current is held near it. Also he demon- graph. strated the important fact that two parallel The power of his intellect was so vast and wires, carrying electric currents, attract each his tongue was so eloquent that Ampère was other when the currents flow in like direc- said to qualify as the absent-minded profes- tions, and repel each other when they flow in sor and as a long-winded talker. Someone unlike or opposite directions. He proved that remarked that his absence of mind to the the force of attraction or repulsion is directly outer world came from his presence of mind proportional to the strength of the currents, to the inner. His consciousness had the power of sharp forms and concentration that made and inversely proportional to the square dis- him a great thinker. He had universality of tance between them. James Clerk Maxwell called him "the mind, a fact which historians attribute to his lack of sustained effort in any particular Newton of electricity." Ampère showed that a spiral conductor, direction, for he was generally wandering when fed by a current, behaved like a mag- into fresh fields, working in fits and starts. net; that it had e north and a south pole. He "Doubt," said Ampère, "is the greatest offered the theory that every atom in a mag- torment a man can endure on earth." net was magnetized by virtue of a circular Ampère died at Marseilles while on quest electric current surrounding it. He went fur- of improved health, and it is reported that ther to suggest that the earth's magnetism "his death was transmitted to Paris by the might be caused by currents circulating semaphore." Yet to come was the telegraph, around it from west to east. It was in this telephone and radio for which he had helped discussion that he coined the term electro- RADIO'S I00 RIEN OF SCIENCE 44 to lay the groundwork. In appreciation of pere. 2 He asked that these. words be inscribed his contribution, the International Congress upon his tomb: Happy at Last! of Electricians adopted his name for the An ampere will flow through one ohm when one practical unit of electric current—the am- volt is applied.

HANS CHRISTIAN OERSTED

LIBERATED A MIGHTY FORCE BORN: August 14, 1777 DIED: March 0, 1851 Rudkjiibing, Denmark Copenhagen, Denmark

HANS CHRISTIAN OERSTED, Danish professor the wavering of a compass needle when he of physics, discovered that a wire carrying a chanced to put a wire parallel to the needle. current exerts a force upon a magnetized According to another version, while he was needle, that is. it produces a magnetic field; demonstrating a tine platinum wire heated he discovered the relation between electricity to aglow by the passage of acurrent through and magnetism, and liberated a mighty force it, he noticed the needle of a compass un- upon the world. derneath the wire began to swing as if influ- Having read of Benjamin Franklin's re- enced by another magnet.' port that he had noticed a mysterious effect After the students departed he investi- of electricity on a compass needle, Oersted gated further by using astronger battery and experimented for twelve years or more to larger wires. He succeeded in turning the solve the riddle. While lecturing to a class in first feeble impulse into an unmistakable de- Copenhagen in the winter of 1819, according flection, thus proving that a current flowing to one story, his attention was directed to Pioneers of Electricity, J. Munro, 1890. BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 45 in a wire pr9duces a magnetic effect in a Oersted started scientists throughout the circular direction around the wire. He proved world thinking and experimenting along new that an electric current gives rise to a cir- lines. William Sturgeon, in England, was led cular magnetic field around the conductor to construct electromagnets comprising a through which it is passing, so that if a mag- spiral of bare wire wound upon an insulated netic needle is brought near the conductor iron core. Also, Sir Humphry Davy was in- it will tend to set itself at a tangent to the spired to the study of electromagnetism; he circular field around it, that is, at right an- deduced that terrestrial magnetism might gles to the direction of the current. Here was be caused by electric currents circulating in the basis for determining magnetic lines of the earth, and that the aurora borealis force—the foundation for great practical de- might be caused by electrical discharge. velopments in the use of electricity—as well Oersted's discovery had cut a clear path 4. as for the development of measuring or indi- into the future to developments which made cating instruments. practical use of electricity, eventually the Some said his discovery was an accident— telegraph, electric light, telephone, transmis- the windfall of an experimenter—but others sion of electric power and radio. said accident or no accident Oersted dis- Oersterd's parents had a large family; he cerned its true significance. As a result, the and his brother Anders were taught by an year 1820 was a happy one for him; his dis- old German wigmaker and his Danish wife. covery was verified and honors were heaped Both boys were eager to learn; their zeal for upon him. Sir John Herschel, noted astrono- improvement never ceased. Their thirst for mer, remarked, "In science there was but one knowledge led to borrowing every book direction which the needle would take, when within reach. In 1793, they enrolled at the pointed toward the European continent, and University of Copenhagen. Anders became that was towards Professor Oersted." one of Denmark's most distinguished jurists. RADIO'S 100 MEN OF SCIENCE 46 Hans, at the age of twenty, won a Uni- to preserve the courage and the power which versity medal for an essay on "Limits of your calling requires, tnd which you will fruit- Poetry and Prose"; he passed his pharma- lessly seek in incentives from without. . ceutical examination, following in the foot- Many among you may find honor which carries steps of his father, an apotbecary. That led a name over the waves of time to distant races. When you diffuse knowledge, you are instru- him into chemistry and before long he was mental in the consolidation of God's kingdom lecturing to medical students at the Univer- on earth. sity. Volta's discovery of the "pile" led him to investigate the possible use of various acids and alkalis in the battery. Then for several Students of Copenhagen laid a silver years he traveled widely throughout Europe, wreath upon his coffin on March 16, 185r; the bells tolled and all Denmark was in finally, in 1806, obtaining the chair of mourning for an ardent patriot who had once physics at the University of Copenhagen. In 1814, he married; the Oersteds had seven written to Goethe, "I am by birth, memory and language bound to Denmark. It is there children—three boys, four girls. As the years passed, Oersted pointed to above all other spots on earth that I shouhi the cultivation of science as an exercise of like my memory to be kept green and my race flourish." religion, and he warned students: Denmark had lost, but would never forget, It is only the conviction that while you devote this "true man of science, who worked piously yourselves to science you are, at the same time, and purely at the discovery of truth in na- honoring God, that will nable you constantly ture."

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 41 GEORG SIMON OHM FOUND A GOLDEN RULE FOR ELECTRICIANS DIED: July 7, 1854 BORN: March 16, 1789 Munich, Germany Erlangen, Germany

GEORG SIMON OHM, German physicist, the conductor is directly proportional to the dif- eldest son of a locksmith, was also intended ference of "potentials" between its ends. He to be a locksmith, but having "learnt the showed that with the same difference of po- value of knowledge" from a student of the tentials, the current in different conductors Protestant University who lodged in the is inversely proportional to the internal re- Ohms' home, Georg and his brother Martin sistance of the conductor, or circuit. Thus he took up mathematics and physics. Martin gave to the electrical world a golden rule— became a professor of mathematics in Ber- Ohm's law: lin; Georg formulated the law which governs "A current flowing in any closed circuit is the flow of electric current and thereby im- proportional to the force or voltage and inversely proportional to the resistance of the mortalized the family name. Georg was anatural-born teacher. In 1817 wire." The formula is written 1:---E/R. The law was published in Berlin in 1827. he instructed in mathematics at the Jesuit High School of Cologne. It was about this Critics said Ohm was unworthy to teach time that he learned how the "flux of heat" physics; his law was absurd. Rebuffed, Ohm retired to private life. Ten years passed be- in ametal bar is directly proportional to the difference of temperature between its ends. fore scientists who had scoffed at him began Ohm set out to investigate what law regu- to see the light; they began to support Ohm's lated the flow of electricity in a conductor. law, and in 1841 he was recognized by the He discovered that the electric current in a Royal Society of London. RADIO'S 100 MEN OF SCIENCE 48 • -.%¡. 1111rierste,"7*

Deeply touched by this tribute from Brit- asimple, modest, and highly gifted man, who ain, his genius was stirred anew; he took lived only for science." to the study of molecular physics, wrote Ever since z861, the electrical world has textbooks on physics and lectured. Over- called the practical unit of electrical resist- work undermined his health, and as Dr. La- ance the ohm. In 1884, the Congress of Elec- mont, of the Royal Observatory at Munich, tricians, which met in Paris, made it inter- remarked: "So ended the noiseless career of nationally official.

SAMUEL F.B . MORSE INVENTOR OF THE TELEGRAPH BORN: April 27, 1791 DIED: April 2, 1872 Charlestown, Mass. New York City

SAMUEL FINLEY BREESE M ORSE invented the early presidents of Princeton University. electric telegraph. Born with a genius for At the age of four, Samuel revealed an mechanics, he came from a long line of an- aptitude for drawing and painting and at cestors distinguished for intelligence, energy, fourteen he was quite an accomplished artist. original thinking, perseverance and unbend- After attending grammar school at Andover, ing integrity.' he went to Phillips Academy there, prepara- His father was the Rev. Jedidiah Morse, a tory to entering Yale College, his father's militant orthodox clergyman, author and alma mater. There he helped to support him- publisher. Morse's mother was the grand- self by painting portraits of professors and daughter of Dr. Samuel Finley, one of the students for $5.00 apiece. Lectures on natural 'Life of S F. B Morse, S. I. Prime. 1875. philosophy acquainted him with electricity, BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 49 Because of slowness in communication, seven but when he was graduated from Yale in days passed after his wife's funeral before r8ro, Morse put science aside and went to he received word of her death. London to study art. Nevertheless, as he The painting of Lafayette, which now later remarked, his early interest in electric- hangs in the New York City Hall, won rec- ity contained "the crude seed which took ognition for Morse as one of the first-rank- root in my mind and grew up in form and ing American painters. With financial diffi- ripened into the invention of the telegraph." cult ies dispelled temporarily. he found time Meager finances plagued Morse for the to revert to his old hobby—electricity. In next thirty years, forcing him to end his art 1329 he attended Columbia College to hear work in London and return to America in a series of lectures on the subject, but art 1816. He traveled through New Engla-td still dominated his interest and in 1829 he painting portraits for $15.00 apiece. His returned to Europe to continue his art studies fame as a portrait painter spread, and his and to paint in famous galleries. picture of President James Monroe hangs to- Sailing from Havre, France, on October 6, day in the City Hall at Charleston, South 1332, on board the packet ship Sully, Morse, Carolina, where Morse resided for three years one evening in the dining salon, met a group after his marriage to Lucretia P. Walker of of men including Dr. Charles T. Jackson of Concord, New Hampshire in 1819. Boston, who were discussing Ampère's ex- Returning to New York from the South, periments in electromagnetism. Dr. Jackson Morse opened a studio and obtained an as- explained that the electromagnet "consists of &gnment from the City of New York to paint a piece of iron bent in the shape of a horse- a portrait of General Lafayette who sat for shoe and wound with wire. When an electric the artist in the White House at Washington. current is sent through the wire the magnet While Morse was at work on this picture, will pick up a small bar of iron. Electricity Mrs. Morse died in New Haven, Connecticut. RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 50 travels instantly through the entire length of grasped an invention at its inception. wire, and causes the magnet to act." There on shipboard he penciled sketcnes Could electricity be made to go over many of the telegraph in his ever-present sketch miles of wire almost instantaneously? Dr. book. And before the Sully docked in New Jackson said "Yes," and Morse is said to York, he said to its Captain, "Well, if you have commented, "If the pl•esence of elec- should hear of the telegraph one of these tricity can be made visible in any part of days, as the wonder of the world, remember the circuit, I see no reason why intelligence the discovery was made on board the good may not be transmitted instantaneously by ship Sully." electricity." Tele-graph—writing at a distance! That A great idea seemed at that very moment was the goal! to take possession of Morse. He withdrew Upon returning to New York, Morse again from the table and went out on deck to be confronted financial worries, and he was alone with his thoughts. There, as he stared forced to paint for his living so that there out over the deep, the telegraph was taking was a lapse of three years before he could shape in his creative mind- -eminently in- do anything about his electromagnetic tele- ventive and mechanical. He would transmit graph idea. In 1825 he began work as Pro- messages and record them at a distance! fessor of the Literature of Arts of Design at Morse wag 41. His soul was aglow with dis- the University of the City of New York. 2 covery. He saw the telegraph from begin- As part of the fee, he was provided quarters ning to end, at the very beginning. If the in the university's building on Washington electric spark in alphabetical form would Square. During the winter of 1835-1836, he travel ten miles without stopping, he saw no built his first telegraph instruments. He reason why he could not make it encircle the stretched 1700 feet of wire around his room earth. Seldom had an inventor so completely 2 Name changed to New York University in 1896. BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 51 at the university, and transmitted signals public. They went to New York University from the sending instrument at one end to and on January 24, 1838, demonstrated to the receiving instrument at the other end of a group of New Yorkers, sending a message from one room to the other: "Attention, the the wire. Universe; By Kingdoms Right Wheel!" This Alfred Vail, a New York University grad- humorous militaiy command was inspired by uate, was one of Morse's friends who was the presence of General Thomas S. Cum- impressed with the "machine" and its possibilities. He convinced his father, Judge mings of the United States Army. Stephen Vail, owner of the Speedwell Iron Two weeks later, Morse and Va-il displayed Works at Morristown, New Jersey, of the their telegraph at, the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. Shortly afterwards permission value of Morse's idea. Judge Vail advanced ¶2,000 and machine-shop facilities to build was granted to demonstrate the telegraph in the Capitol at 'Washington before President a set of telegraph instruments, although he Martin Van Buren and members of his cabi- was skeptical about the fantastic idea. On January 6, 1838, the young telegraphers in- net. Ten *miles of wire were strung around a room in the Capitol and the test was a vited him to write a message which they would send over three miles of wire stretched success. Congressman F. O. J. Smith, Chair- man of the Committee on Commerce, im- around the Morristown factory. Judge Vail pressed by the idea, introduced • a bill in wrote, "A patient waiter is no loser." He told Morse that if he could send the message Congress for construction of an experimental interurban line in 1838. Congressmen turned and teceive it at the other end of the wire it down and Morse went to England to seek he would believe that the telegraph was support but failed. Broke again, he returned practical. The message came through all right and Judge Vail encouraged the two to New York in 1840 and resumed teaching men to demonstrate the telegraph to the art. RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 52 ardipe

Two years later Morse and his friends Vail was in charge. At the instrument in the again went to Washington and installed a Supreme Court chamber in the Capitol, a telegraph exhibit to exploit the invention. prominent crowd gathered, including Henry As a result a bill was introduced in the Clay and Dolly Madison, wife of James House of Representatives for an appropria- Madison, 4th President of the United States. tion of $3o,000 to build an experimental tele- When Morse sat down at the telegraph graph line from Washington to Baltimore. key, Miss Ellsworth arrived with the message ('ongress acted favorably before the end of which she and her mother had selected, the session in 1843. Morse heard the good "What Hath God Wrought"—a Biblical news from Annie Ellsworth, daughter of his quotation. Morse slowly tapped out the mes- friend, the United States Commissioner of sage. Vail received it in Baltimore and im- Patents. President Tyler signed the bill, and mediately sent it back to Washington, where Morse grateful for the good news promised it was received with great cheers. That was Miss Ellsworth that she would have the the beginning of the telegraph industry as a honor of composing the first telegram. No service to the public and it was heralded as time was lost in beginning construction of having great possibilities for binding the the line over the right-of-way obtained along young American nation of twenty-six States the tracks of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. 3 more closely together. May 24, 1844, was selected as the day This success enabled Morse and his asso- for the opening, with one terminal in the ciates to raise enough money to extend the Capitol and the other in the Baltimore & line to Philadelphia and New York. Hr Ohio Railroad station in Baltimore, where licensed others to use the invention, and

3 Today more than 200,000 miles of pole lines are soon there were many small companies op- on railroad r:ghts-of-way; trains were first dis- erating short telegraph lines in the East and patched by telgraphy in 1851. Middle West offering limited service and BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 53 idea of recording the messages was not far charging separate rates. In 1851, Hiram Sib- ley and a group of businessmen at Roches- wrong. ter, N. Y., formed a company to build a line When wireless came, it adopted the telegraph's ways; its key and its code. Later, in the Mid-West. It became known as West- ern Union in 1856, because it represented a however, the Continental Code, as used in union of the western lines, with uniform telegraphy on the Continent of Europe, was adopted because it contained more dashes rates and a uniform standard of service. In 1861, Western Union built the first conti- and no spaced-letters, hence less likely to be misunderstood or lost amidst static and in- nental telegraph line, mostly along railroad terference. Therefore, in the United States rights-of-way. the term International Morse or Continental It is interesting to note that Morse did Code signifies radio as distinguished from not start out with the idea of a roanual the Morse telegraph alphabet, although the transmitting key and an aural uceiver, the latter is faster since' it contains fewer dashes. forms accepted when the telegraph came into At the age of seventy-seven, the weight general use; instead he, as well as others who experimented with the telegraph, tried to of years began to show upon Morse, yet his faculties were as sharp and vigorous as ever. design automatic machines. But as he put it, he was "watching for the Alfred N. Vail, Morse's co-worker, discov- .morning." And in 1868 he wrote to his grand- ered that it was possible to read the messages by sound so that a pen or stylus was not son: "The nearer I approach the end of my pilgrimage, the clearer is the evidence of the necessary; asound sufficed. Years later, how- divine origin of the Bible, the grandeur and ever, with the advent of high-speed teleg- sublimity of God's remedy for fallen men raphy and radio, the automatic recorders, handling more than 600 words a minute, are more appreciated, and the future is il- came back, revealing that M )rse's original lumined with hope and joy." RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 54 With all humility, when honors and praise When he devised his first instruments Morse were bestowed upon him, Morse would say knew nothing of the successful telegraphs that "'Not unto us, not unto us, but to God be had been invented before him by Gauss, Stein- all the glory.' Not what hath man, but 'What heil and Wheatstone. Nor was the famous code hath God wrought?'" attributed to Vail strikingly original. Like many As he lay ill, among the physicians in- another pioneer, Morse experimented in techni- specting his lungs, one tapped upon his chest, cal inno,cence, fortunately along lines that led to and another remarked, "That is the way we ultimate success and that brought him richly de- doctors telegraph." served honors. Who thinks of the chicanery, the "Very good," said Morse. He had received patent suits, the frustration and poverty that his last message. The .ong, skilled fingers, embittered his early career and that were ulti- which created electric messages annihilating mately surmounted? For decades he has been time and space, were at rest; Morse's key looked upon as something less than the perfect was silent. hero painted in the standard biography and some- The telegraph sounders that ticked on thing finer than the grasping monopolist that April 2, 1872, tapped sad news—S. F. B. Horace Greeley accused him of being. .. . Morse had passed away in the dawn—a Today there are seven million miles of tele- great, good heart had ceased to beat, but he graph wire in the world—one-third of them in left to his fellowmen the legacy of the tele- the United States. .. . Judged by its social graph which would click on and on as a effects the telegraph is one of the outstanding pulse of the world. inventions. With it begins that shrinking of the Marking the Telegraph Centenary, The planet which has been accelerated by radio and New York Times observed: 4 which is part of the technological unification of 4 May 24, 1944. mankind.

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 55 MICHAEL FARADAY

COLUMBUS OF THE ELECTRICAL AGE PIED. August 25, 1g67 BORN: September 22, 1791 London, England London, England

M ICHAEL FARADAY, English chemist and Nights as easily as the Encyclopedia, but physicist, was the third child of ablacksmith, facts were important to me and saved me. James Faraday, who aimed to give his chil- Icould trust a fact and always cross-examine dren the three R's in day school. Early in an assertion." Faraday. at nineteen, attended lectures on life, Michael gained a reputation as a great questioner. At thirteen, he was an errand boy natural philosophy: he made notes, illus- for a bookseller, who after a year advanced trated them with his own drawings of the e-:1 -, eriments, then bound them into book young Faraday to apprentice bookbinder. Surrounded by slich books as Watt's Im- form. In 1812, Sir Humphry Davy lectured at the Royal Institution, and Mr. Riebau, p;•ovement of the Mind and Mrs. 'Marcet's Cvnversations in Chemistry and articles on the bookman for whom Faraday worked, tcyik him to the lectures. Again he made e:,,:tricity, Michael's thoughts turned to ci:emistry and simple electrical gadgets with notes and bound them. Faraday became fascinated with science. v.1‘..ch he experimented. He wrote to Sir Humphry Davy for a job -Do not suppose ;le I was a very deep thir,':er, or was marked as a precocious per- at the Royal Institution. Davy advised him said Faraday later injecalling the early to stick to his trade; science was impecu- niary. But Fate played ahand—three months years of his life. "I was a very lively, imagi- later Davy's laboratory assistant was dis - native person who could believe the Arabian RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 56 c7targed and he offered the job to young first steps was to arrange for weekly meet- Iaraday, and thus Sir Humphry, as he later ings of members to discuss new discoveries remarked, made the greatest of his discov- and inventions. As time went on, Faraday e.-ies. became very much in demand as a lecturer, Faraday went to work at the Royal In- yet more and more he devoted time to re- stitution on March r, 1813, his first assign- search, and in 1831 he made the greatest ment being to assist lecturers and to keep of his discoveries—production of electricity the apparatus polished. Soon he became from magnetism. Davy's experimental assistant. Ampère's ex- Gradually, Faraday's work in chemistry eriments attracted his attention, and he also was eclipsed by his electrical discoveries, yet tr;ed to make the magnetic needle rotate his three laws of electrolysis alone would around a wire carrying a current. To his have made him famous. Picking up where great delight it worked, and in order to get Ampère left off, Faraday proved that a con- adear insight into the subject, he considered ductor carrying a current also induced cur- the best thing to do was to write a paper rents in neighboring conductors. On two about it. wooden cores he wound insulated wire, and Full of hope and happiness, he married sent electricity through one, while the other Sarah Barnard, on June 12, 1821, and took was connected to a galvanometer which his bride home to the Royal Institution,. measured the current. He noticed that while. where he had been appointed superintendent. the battery current flowed steadily through Taking up original work in chemistry, the coil, or helix, the needle of the g- alvanom- Taraday made a number of discoveries, eter did not move, but when the current was among them benzol, a basis for aniline dyes. started or stopped, the needle jerked back Davy, recognizing his talents, made him di- and forth. Thus he discovered that when a rector of the laboratory, where one of his current starts in a conductor, it induces a BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 57 -,-

current in a neighboring conductor, which Faraday refrained from applying these discoveries to practical use. He said he was continues for a moment and flows in the op- more desirous of discovering new facts. His posite direction to the existing current. In faith that the forces he had discovered would brief, Faraday discovered it is only during -a lead to epochal developments was justified change in the relations of the two conductors by the induction coil, the electric generator, that induction manifests itself. Concluding that since electricity produced the magneto-telephone, and wherever the magnetism, so magnetism might produce electric dynamo is used. Faraday continued research and conducted electricity, Faraday set out to test the idea; a series of electro-chemical experiments to be wound a coil of insulated wire on each learn more about the electric battery. He half of an iron ring. One coil was connected introduced the terms "electrode," "anode" to a galvanometer, the other to a battery in and "cathode." His investigations caused order to magnetize the iron. When the cur- him to wonder if some invisible force ex- rent flowed in the magnetizing coil, the galvanometer needle whirled several times and isted between the inducing body and the induced. He found that induction between stopped. He proved that the induced current one charged conductor and another was in- was caused by magnetism and not by induc- Ouenced by an intervening medium, or "di- t-ion. This great discovery—that electricity eleçtric"; also that electricity penetrated the could be produced by magnetism—was dated dielectric and it seemed to be absorbed for in Faraday's notebook as August 29, 1831. atime and then restored. From this discovery Faraday called it "magnetic-electricity." He the name "farad" was given to the unit of reported his two discoveries of electrody- electrical capacity. For example, the capacity namic induction and magnetoelectric induc- of a condenser may be rated at .002 farads, tion to the Royal Society on -November 24, or 2,000 microfarads. 1831. RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE s8 To Faraday, induction was a powerful trusted to chance. He planned his experi- force linked with the future and progress. ments. An associate said, "He moved quickly; One day he remarked to an assistant, who yet calm and sure, like the process of his was experimenting with a magnet, "How mind." He would never tolerate carelessness. wonderful and mysterious is that power you He was extremely cautious and neat. It was lave here. The more I think over it, the said that forethought, skill and tidiness en- Uss Iseem to know." . abled Faraday to save both time and mate- Faraday's use of a horseshoe magnet and rials. Mingling with society had no appeal for a Nicol prism was a magnificent experiment him. His evenings were usually spent at home which showed that magnetism was capable with his Wife, for he had no children. cf affecting the luminiferous ether—the me- Faraday's honors would fill several pages c;!um of light. It was the first proof of a of a book. Offered the presidency of the relationship between light and electricity. Royal Society, he declined it. Knighthood Faraday's three volumes, Experimental was offered him and he declined that also, Researches in Electricity, covering his dis- saying, "I must remain plain Michael Fara- coveries from 1831 to 1855, have been ac- day." He said that the sweetest reward of cepted as classics, and are described as "one his work "is the sympathy and good-will of the richest treasuries of knowledge which which it has caused to flow in upon me from has ever .been presented to the world by a all quarters of the world." single intellect." Not only did he direct his When a student inquired of Faraday the thoughts to scientists, but his lectures to secret of success, he replied, "Work, finish, juveniles were extremely popular, as were his publish." His fellow scientists regarded him reports•on the chemical history of the candle as a born investigator with the gift of genius and other simple things of life. and a noble character. He boasted that he No random experimenter, Faraday never never made a mathematical calculation in BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 59 a revolutionary idea far removed from the his life, for he was not amathematician. old "elastic solid theory of light." Could the A crowning satisfaction of Faraday's life electrical action between two bodies be con- was to see the electric light of Davy pro- veyed through a field of magnetic force? He duced as the result of his own discovery of thought that might explain it. magneto-electricity, on June 6, 1862. In 1845 he was on the outer frontier of Of Faraday it is written "he discovered wireless, as was realized years later when electromagnetic induction between two en- Sir William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) said: tirely separate circuits." He reasoned that if an electric current in a wire caused a We all know how Faraday made himself acage magnetized needle to rotate, then a magnet six feet in diameter, hung it up in mid-air in the should cause a wire carrying current to do theatre of the Royal Institution, went into it, and likewise. He formulated the laws of mag- as he said, lived in it and made experiments. It netic induction, and by suspending a con- was acage with tinfoil hanging all around it; it ductor so that it could rotate between mag- was not acomplete metallic enclosing shell. Fara- netic poles, he demonstrated the basic prin- day had a powerful machine working in the ciple of the electric motor, which led him neighborhood, giving all varieties of gradual' working-up and discharges by "impulsive rush"; to invent the first electric generator. and whether it was a sudden discharge of ordi- An invisible, mysterious force was at work. nary insulated conductors or of Leyden jars in Electricity playing in one circuit caused the neighborhood outside the cage itself, he saw something to happen in another coil or cir- no effects on his most delicate gold-leaf electro- cuit not attached to it. Wireless? scopes in the interior. What caused this mysterious transfer of His attention was not directed to loo.lt for energy? Was there an all-pervading medium? Hertz sparks, or probably he might have found Faraday experimented in quest of proof. them in the interior. Edison seems to have no- And as aresult, he suggested anew theory- ticed something of the kind in what he called 6o RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE "etheric force." His name "etheric" may, thir- speakable gift. I cannot think that death teen years ago, have seemed to many people has to the Christian anything in it that should absurd. But now we are beginning to call these make it rare, or other than a constant inductive phenomena "etheric." thought; out of the view of death comes the view of life beyond the grave." ‘Vhile lecturing at the Royal Institution Paralysis crept upon him. Watching the late in June, 1862, Faraday accidentally sunset was one of his final pastimes, and burned his notes. At the conclusion he bade one day as a rainbow spanned the sky he a pathetic farewell to his audience saying said, "He bath set His testimony in the that he had been before them too long. heavens." Those who had known him when "the heat Faraday passed "almost imperceptibly of a volcano was beneath his intelligence" away," as his end was described by friends began to detect that his powers were failing. about him, and he was buried in perfect Writing to his niece Faraday said, "My silence in the Highgate Cemetery, London. worldly faculties are slipping away day by "Nature, not education," said Dr. A. M. day. Happy is it for all of us that the true Tyndall, "rendered Faraday strong and re- good lies not in them. As they ebb, may fined. .. . England contained no truer p,en- they leave us as little children trusting in tleman than he. Not half his greatness was the Father of mercies and accepting His un- incorporated in his science, for science could ' Speech at a meeting of the Inst:tution of Dec- not reveal the bravery and delicacy of his trical Engineers, London, May 16, 1889. heart."

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 6t JOSEPH HENRY

AMERICA'S FARADAY DIED: May 13, 1878 BORN: December 17, 179/ Washington, D. C. Albany, N. Y.

and physiology. He also became interested in JOSEPH HENRY, American physicist, conducted experiments in electromagnetism engineering, and this led to another shift in which formed the basis for development of his career in 1825, when he was appointed to survey aroad across New York State from the telegraph, telephone and wireless. In a letter dated 1831 he wrote: "I have lately the Hudson River to Lake Erie. Later he returned to the Albany Academy succeeded in producing motion in a little to teach mathematics, and it was there that machine by power, which, I believe, has electromagnetism won his interest. While ex- never before been applied in mechanics— perimenting with magnets, he made anumber by magnetic attraction and repulsion." He of discoveries and revolutionized the feeble called this machine "a philosophical toy." The same year Faraday, experimenting inde- electromagnet developed by William Stur- geon of England. Using such amagnet in an pendently in England, built his first small electric circuit containing a mile of wire, dynamo; he observed the phenomenon of Henry in 1830 caused a small bell to ring mutual inductance and by formally going on at the end of the line. This is believed to record won priority over Henry, who de- have been the first electrical magnetization layed in recording his discovery. of iron at a remote point, which was funda- Henry began his career as awatchmaker's mental to the telegraph. apprentice. But as a student at the Albany Transferring to the College of New Jersey Academy he turned to chemistry, anatomy RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 62 (later Princeton University) in 1832, Henry and electricity by Dr. Faraday, in 1831. But he startled the students and other men of science was at that time urged to the exploration of new in that vicinity by setting up a telegraph line and apparently richer "ems of science, and left be:ween the laboratory and his house. He this branch to be traced by others. added the "relay" to his telegraph machine, Since then, however, attention has been almost and is believed to have been the first to use exclusively directed to one part of the subject, the earth return conductor. Adding to his namely, the induction from magnetism, and the magic and to his fame, he constructed an perfection of the magneto-electrical machine; e!ectromagnetic motor, recognized as a"fore- and Iknow of no attempts except my own, to runner of all electric motors." review and explain the purely electrical part o1 Dr. Faraday's admirable discovery. Faraday and Henry paralleled in research, but were independent in the discovery of mutual induction and self-induction. Accord- Accounting for Henry's failure to gain general recognition of his important work, ing to their dates of publication, Faraday is friends said that it was no doubt his own credited with the discovery of mutual induc- fault, for he was always dilatory about pub- tion and Henry with self-induction. For this lication. For example, he showed his magnets he was immortalized by the International to the Albany Academy, but at the time pub- Electrotechnical Commission which adopted fished nothing about them. He delayed re- the term "henry" for the unit of inductance. porting his observations of the induced cur- Henry learned, from reports in two popular rent, and was anticipated by Faraday. Henry journals, of Faraday's discovery of the in- seems to have underestimated the importance duced current. He made no claims to priority. of his achievement, and did not realize that In explaining his experiments, he said: it was the forerunner of one of the most ex- The secondary currents, as it is well known, tensive applications of electricity. were discovered in he introduction of magnetism After a trip to Europe in 1837, Henry BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 63 actions, backward and forward, each more feeble began acomprehensive study of induced cur- than the preceding, until equilibrium is obtained. rents, in which he made his most important discoveries. He tested the apparent direction Further reports on his experiments con- of the current in a circuit through which a tained ideas of a "wireless" nature: Leyden jar was discharged. It led him to the .. . a single spark .. . thrown on the end of a important conclusion that the current in the circuit wire in an upper room, produced an in- spark gap was not asimple flow of electricity duction sufficiently powerful to magnetize needles from one pole to another, but a succession in aparallel circuit of wire placed in. the cellat of flows alternating in direction and rapidly beneath, at aperpendicular distance of 30 feet diminishing in strength. It was while en- with two floors and ceilings .. . intervening. gaged in these experiments that he found Henry's discovery was of vastly greater im- the inductive action could be transmitted portance than anyone guessed at the time. over considerable distances. Reiss, Wollaston and Helmholtz were quick As early as 1840, Henry produced high- to duplicate the Henry experiments, but it frequency currents with which he continued was not until 1853 that William Thomson to experiment until his important announce- (Lord Kelvin) presented the first mathemati- ment in a paper submitted to the American cal conception of the nature of the condenser Philosophical Society on June 17, 1842: discharge. As in the case of numerous other discoveries, the full utility of the condenser The discharge (electric) whatever may be its appeared only after other discoveries were nature, is not correctly reiveesented by the single made, and relationships identified between transfer from one side of the jar (Leyden jar the condenser discharge and phenomena pre- condenser) to the other. The phenomena require viously thought of as something apart. us to admit the existence of a principal discharge in one direction, and then several reflex On October 21, 1842, in the hall of the RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 64 11111111,7,1WOICÇ'ne.e,r, ••-

Américan Philosophical Society in Philadel- two actions, it may be further inferred that the phia, Henry "communicated orally" by what diffusion of motion in this case is almost com- he called -induction at a distance." He suc- parable with that of a spark from a flint and ceeded in magnetizing needles by the sec- steel in the case of light. ondary current in a wire more than 220 feet One of his students at Princeton made distant from the wire through which the notes as follows: primary current was passing, excited by a .. . Hence, the conclusion that every spark of single spark from an electrical machine. electricity in motion exerts these inductive effects In the later experiments, a wire for trans- at distances indefinitely great (effects apparent mitting was stretched across the campus of at distances of half a mile and more); and an- Princeton University, in front of Nassau other ground for the supposition that electricity Hall, grounded at one end by a plate buried pervades all space. Each spark sent from the in the ground. A second wire for receiving electrical machine in the College Hall sensibly was erected in the back campus. A high- affects the surrounding electricity through the frequency oscillatory current was produced whole village. A fact no more improbable than in the transmitting wire when a battery of that light from a candle (probably merely another kind of wave vibration of the same me- Leyden jars discharged. A small steel needle dium) should produce a sensible effect on the in the center of a spiral of wire formed a eye at the same distance. part of the receiving circuit. This needle was magnetized when the discharge took place Henry's announcement in 1842 identifying in the transmitting circuit. the condenser's discharge as oscillatory In reporting his experiments, Henry said: helped to open the way ..for Maxwell's work in predicting "ether" wave phenomena .. . when it is considered that the magnetism twenty years later. Why not chop the sparks of the needle is the result of the difference of or "current flow" into dots and dashes and

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 65 •,- r use them for signaling? Some day, someone century before Bell's birth, now listening tb it talk. Henry turned to Bell and said, "You would do just that—would use electromag- are in-possession of the germ of a great in- netic waves, not induction. But there would have to be a detector. The coherer, as the vention." Bell replied with a confession that he first detector, would come along later, and lacked electrical knowledge. then there would be wireless! Resigning the professorship of natural phi- "Get it!" said Henry. Many times after that, Bell related how losophy at Princeton in December. 1846. to those words were a lifetime inspiration to become first secretary of the Smithsonian In- stitution, Henry is said to have remarked, him. It has been noted of Henry that he re- "If I go, I shall probably exchange perma- vealed "the greatness of his nature by being nent fame for transient reputation." accurate in his descriptions of observed fact, Deeply interested in meteorology, while but tentative, rather than cocksure, in his in Washington he also helped to organize deductions." For instance, he wrote: the United States Weather Bureau. During Man, with his finite faculties, cannot hope in the Civil War he directed mobilization of this life to arrive at a knowledge of absolute scientific effort. truth; and were the true theory of the universe The story is told that when Dorn Pedro or in other words, the precise mode in which de Alcantara of Brazil made his historic dis- Divine Wisdom operates in producing the phe- covery at the Philadelphia •Centennial in nomena of the material world, revealed to him. 1876, that Bell's telephone actually talked. his mind would be unfitted for its reception; it Bell invited Professor Henry to hold the re- would be too simple in its expression and too general in its application, to be understood and ceiver to his ear. Here was the man who had applied by intellects like ours. e\ -Ived the theory of the telephone a half-

RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 66 HEINRICH DANIEL RUHMKORFF

IMPROVED THE INDUCTION COIL BORN: January 15, 1803 DIED: December 20, 1877 Hannover, Germany Paris, France

HEINRICH DANIEL RUHMKORFF, physicist, which he built in 1867, featured a secondary while specializing in precision instruments containing sixty-two miles of wire and it such as galvanometers in the early fifties, flashed a spark sixteen inches long. made important improvements in the induc- In tracing the evolution of the induction tion coil by increasing the number of turns coil we recall that Joseph Henry was the first of wire on the secondary coil, and by winding to discover the electromotive force of self- it on aglass cylinder to improve its insulation induction, which he announced in 1832. He from the primary coil. Perfected by Ruhm- used acopper tape wound in spiral form, and korff, the induction coil became a "key" in upon passing a current through the spiral experimental work in connection with the and suddenly interrupting it, he obtained a discharge of electricity through gases, with bright spark. In 1836, the Rev. N. J. Callan. production of electrical oscillations, Hertzian of Maynooth College, built an electromagnet waves, cathode rays and Roentgen rays. with two separate insulated wires, one thick Ruhmkorff was recognized as a skillful and the other thin, wound on the same iron mechanician of Paris who made many me- coil. The thick wire was copper, and through chanical improvements in construction of the it the current passed. The thin wire was iron, induction coil. So many of these coils were and one end was connected to the copper constructed by Ruhmkorff that the coil was winding. In 1837, Sturgeon, inventor of the named after him. One of the largest coils, electromagnet, constructed a coil on Callan's BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 67 plan, but made use of an iron wire coil. A. coni, and hundreds of ships used the induc- Appes, in 1876, built acoil with asecondary tion coil to crash the spark across the gap; consisting of 280 miles of wire in 341,850 hundreds of amateurs from 1900 to 1915 turns; it produced a 42-inch spark. built wireless stations employing the spark Evolution of the alternating current trans- coil, in many cases discarded from old auto- former from the induction coil was a short mobiles, to stir the "ether" with dots and step. The first intimation of it came in 1856, dashes. when S. A. Varley of London patented an While experimenting with the induction induction coil in which the iron wire coil coil in 1853, Armand H. L. Fizeau,' French was extended and folded back on itself out- physicist. was the first W shunt a condenser side the coil, so that the ends overlapped across the terminals of the interrupter, in- and completed the magnetic circuit. creasing the length of the spark and the As an electrical instrument for producing coil's efficiency. He also made valuable ob- high electromotive force, the induction or servations regarding the velocity of light and "spark" coil, consisting of two coils of wire experimented to determine if any relative wound one over the other, on a core formed motion of the "ether" and matter could be of a bundle of thin iron wires or a number detected. of thin iron sheets, pumped life into wireless. 'Born September 23, 1819. Paris. France; died Many apioneer experimenter, including Mar- September 18, 1896. Venteuil, France.

68 RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 1-11111nMeomm.rn.r-,

HERMANN L.V ON HELMHOLTZ

HE GAVE HERTZ A PROBLEM BORN: August 31, 1821 DIED: September 8, 1894 Potsdam, Germany Charlottenburg, Germany

HERMANN L. F. VON HELMHOLTZ, German mony that "he studied under Helmholtz." philosopher and physicist, is recorded as -one His monograph Sensations of Tone, pub- of the most distinguished men of science of lished in 1863, was considered the most im- the nineteenth century." portant work on acoustics of the nineteenth Helmholtz's father directed his thoughts century. An ardent student in various toward the study of natural phenomena. His branches of science, especially acoustics and parents were poor, so he could not pursue a optics, he is regarded as one of the founders strictly scientific career, and that turned him of the well-known law of the conservation of to the study of medicine. He became assistant energy. in the Berlin Anatomical Museum, and apro- Lecturing on "The Conservation of Force" fessor of physiology at Königsberg, at Bonn before the Berlin Physical Society on July 23, and later (1858-71) at Heidelberg. Then, as 1847, von Helmholtz said, "We assume that professor of physics at the University of Ber- the discharge of a jar [Leyden] is not a lin, he attracted considerable attention simple motion of the electricity in one direc- through experimental as well as mathemati- tion, but a backward and forward motion cal physics. between the coatings. .. ." In the classroom he inspired his students; Von Helmholtz contributed to the develop- in the biographical records of more than one ment of the electromagnetic theory of light noted man of radio science is proud testi- and indicated its general possibilities; he BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP. JR. 69 determined the velocity of the propagation pupil, Heinrich Hertz, who demonstrated the of electromagnetic induction as 314,000 kilo- existence of electromagnetic waves. Helm- meters asecond. It was this research into the holtz encouraged him to study the problem, phenomena of electrical oscillations and elec- pursue the invisible impulses, prove that they tromagnetic induction that fascinated his existed and measure their length.

WILLIAM THOMSON (LORD KELVIN ) NATURAL PHILOSOPHER AND INVENTOR DIED: December 17, 1907 BORN: June 26, 1824 Largs, Scot!and Belfast, Ireland

W ILLIAM THOMSON (LORD KELVIN), —until 1899. through a rare combination of natural phi- The study of electricity attracted him as losophy, brilliant mathematical reasoning, early as his student days, and the articles he inventive ability, an insatiable curibsity and contributed to various scientific journals outstanding skill as an electrical experi- gained the interiest and admiration of sci- menter, won world renown as a physicist. entists. His discoveries in the mathematical His father, James Thomson, was professor of theories of magnetism, electricity, elasticity mathematics at the University of Glasgow. and heat were outstanding. He invented the mirror galvanometer used for cable signaling, Graduating in 1845 from St. Peter's College, Cambridge, William was appointed professor developed the siphon recorder and as an elec- of natural philosophy at Glasgow, and con- trical engineer for the Atlantic cables, 1857- tinued in that position for fifty-three years 58 and 1865-66, made numerous contribu- RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE tions to the advance of communication over would impair the scenic wonder. Said Kel- the cables, for which he was knighted in yin: "I look forward to the time when the 1866, and later raised . to the peerage in whole water from Lake Erie will find its way 1892. to the lower level of Lake Ontario through Lord Kelvin's inventive talents were by no machinery doing more good for the world means confined to the cables; he invented than that great benefit which we now possess many electrical instruments, methods of in the anticipation of the splendid scene measurement and deep-sea sounding appa- which we have presented before us at the ratus, as well as a mariner's compass de- present time by the waterfall of Niagara. I signed to be unaffected by the magnetic ac- wish I could think it possible that I could tion of iron in a ship. His work on thermo- live to see this grand development." 1 dynamics was of tremendous value. The past This comment was printed far and wide, and future age of -the earth, the electron for the world respected Kelvin's opinions and • theory, the wave theory of light, radium and bestowed many honors upon him. He was wireless, the atom and the molecule, all en- the first to receive the Order of Merit in- tranced him. stituted by Edward VII in 1902; and the Kelvin had a brilliantly original mind, Grand Cross of the Victorian Order was and as Sir Ernest Rutherford remarked, awarded to him as were many honors from "Kelvin hankers about information on every leading scientific societies and universities. side." Glasgow celebrated his jubilee as professor While on a visit to Niagara Falls he tossed in 1896, and three years later he retired, a bombshell into the controversy of scenic but maintained his link with the University beauty versus electric power, at a time when 1 Interview by Orrin E. Dunlap, Sr., August 14, it was being argued that to divert too much 1897, printed in the Electrical Engineers, August 26, water from the river for power production 1897.

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 71 as a research student; in 190.4 he was ap- Indirectly, Kelvin approached wireless: He pointed chancellor of the University. evolved the telegrapher's equation, which fa- Kelvin, although a"cable man," displayed cilitated systematic studies and predictions great interest and faith in wireless; he be- to be made with long-distance cable teleg- came a friend and admirer of Marconi. In raphy, and greatly stimulated thought in the fact, his enthusiasm for wireless was de- field of blurring or distortion of electromag- scribed as causing "a mild sensation" late netic waves traveling along conductors. Kel- in the nineties, and his recognition gained vin's work in this and allied directions im- considerable prestige for Marconi. proved cable telegraphy, produced improve- When in November, 1897, Marconi rigged ments in telegraph circuits and even today up an aerial mast at Needles, on the Isle of is the ancestor of studies of television image Wight, Lord Kelvin had the distinction, on degradation in normal circuits. June 3, 1898, of sending the first paid Mar- Rutherford, in presenting the Kelvin Gold conigrams to his friends, Sir George Stokes Medal of the Institution of Civil Engineers to and Sir William Preece. Marconi on May 3, 1932, remarked: When Marconi was conducting his first tests of wireless in England, he became eligi- Iam sure that if Lord Kelvin were here to- ble for Italian military service that would day, he would acclaim this award as to akindred spirit, for Lord Kelvin combined to an extraor- cause him to abandon his experiments and dinary degree the quality of great theoretical in- return to Italy, but Kelvin urged Italian sight with the power to realize his ideas in a government officials to permit him to remain practical form. It is interesting to recall on this in England. As a result, he was appointed occasion that Kelvin, in 1853, was the first to an assistant marine attaché of the Italian give the complete theoretical explanation of the Embassy in London, in which capacity he oscillatory discharge of the Leyden jar, later continued his valuable work. verified experimentally by leedderson, a theory RADIO'S 100 MEN OF SCIENCE 72 which lies at the basis of all methods of generat- .Said Marconi in response, "Kelvin always ing waves. believed in nie."

MAHLON LOOMIS

PIONEER IN AERIAL TELEGRAPHY BORN: July 21, 1826 DIED: October 13, 1886 Oppenheint, N. Y. Terre Alta, W. Va.

MAHLoN Loomis, an American dentist, be- From that experiment he observed that a came an experimenter and pioneer in "aerial kite wire sent aloft in one region would telegraphy. - His family moved to Virginia effect the flow of electricity to the ground in the forties, and in 1848 went to Cleveland, in another kite wire some distance away. Ohio, where Mahlon studied dentistry, later As a result, in 1868 he demonstrated this to set up his own practice at Earlville, New type of -wireless" to scientists and members York. On May 2, 1854, he patented a min- of Congress. eral-plate (kaolin) process for making arti- Loomis visualized an -"aura" around the ficial teeth. About 186o, electricity began to globe and termed it "the static sea." He interest him; he tried forcing plant growth drew pictures to show that he knew what by buried metal plates connected to batteries. he was talking about; wireless to him was no His interest shifted from earth to sky for idle dream. His United States Patent No. a study of electrical charges which could be 129,971, dated July 30, 1872, was titled obtained from the upper atmosphere by kites "Improvement in Telegraphing." He sent carrying metal wires. He wondered if natural signals in 1886 from Cohocton Mountain, 'static' might be used to replace batteries. Virginia, to Beorse Deer Mountain, fourteen BY OP_RIN E. DUNLAP, JR. - 73 miles apart, and later between ships two miles convertible ipto human language, the message of the operator at the point of the first disturbance. apart on Chesapeake Bay. The patent covered "aerial telegraphy employing an 'aerial' The Washington Chronicle of Nov. 1, used to radiate or to receive the pulsations 1872, reported how Loomis conducted experi- caused by producing a disturbance in the ments with "kites covered with fine, light electrical equilibrium of the atmosphere," gauze of copper wire, held with a very fine and as such is recorded as "the first patent string or tether of the same material, the for wireless telegraphy issued in the United lower end of which formed a good connec- States." tion with the ground by laying the coil in Congress, on May 21, 1872, listened to a a pool of water." long speech relative to the "Loomis Aerial Loomis almost got the Sso,000 from Con- Telegraph Bill" requesting an appropriation gress to develop his invention, but the idea of 85o,000. The principle of operation of was called "absurd." "aerial telegraphy" was described as follows: It was said of Loomis that there could be .. . causing electrical vibrations or waves to no question of his inventiveness, for his brain pass around the world, as upon the surface of teemed with ideas, some altogether practical, some quiet lake one wave circlet follows another others eminently impractical. It is to be noted from the point of the disturbance to the remotest •that although he produced sparks when he shores, so that from any other mountain top upon touched the kite wire to the ground, and sent the globe another conductor, which shall pierce out electric waves, he had no means of de- this plane and receive the impressed vibration, tecting them. There was no Branly coherer may be connected to an indicator, which will at that time. Loomis was ahead of his time; mark the length and duration of each vibration; and indicate by any agreed system of notation, he died, it is said, heartbroken.

RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 74 - PART Two-PIONEERS OF THE RADIO AGE

DAVID EDWARD HUGHES PIONEER OF THE MICROPHONE BORN: May 16, 1831 London, England DIED: January 22, IMO London, Engtuul DAVID EDWARD HUGHES, Anglo-American the word "microphone" for an acoustic de- physicist, was born in London but spent the vice he developed to amplify feeble sounds. early part of his life in the United States. Hughes, in 1878, revived the term in con- While professor of music at the College of nection with his discovery that a loose con- Bardstown, Kentucky, in 1850. he was led tact in a circuit containing a battery and a to study sound, and that directed him toward telephone receiver (invented by Bell in 1876) science and the transmission as well as the would give rise to sounds in the receiver cor- amplification of sound. The professor turned responding to the vibrations impinged upon inventor, and in 1855 he patented a type- the diaphragm of the "mouthpiece" or trans- printing telegraph instrument that went into mitter. extensive use in America and Europe. Hughes's microphone was built in the form As far as the records reveal, Sir Charles of a carbon rod resting in grooves in two Wheatstone in 1827 was the first to use carbon blocks, the battery and telephone re- Born February, 1802, in England; died October ceiver being wired in series with the blocks. 19, 1875, in England. This "mike" was the forerunner of numerottó BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 75 • rl••••••,•19fflefflirtiele carbon telephone transmitters. Hughes also telephone device, but a court decision reis credited with discovering the principle jected it for testimony is said .to have re- upon which the wireless coherer depended. vealed Dolbear's telephone "would squeak The demands of the radiophone and broad- but not speak." casting, also the talking pictures, brought Emile Berliner in Washington observed in about many refinements and improvements 1877 that the resistance of a loose contact that led to a long line of microphones de- varies with pressure and he applied the prin- signed for realistic and high-quality sound, ciple to microphone design for "sending the free of inherent noises. Development of the volee by electricity." microphone has never ended. Edison in 1887 patented atelephone trans- Philip Reis of Germany designed a make- mitter of a variable-resistance amplifying and-break platinum contact microphone in type in which the resistance element was a 1861, but it proved incapable of transmitting button of solid carbon. anything except the pitch of tones or the The next year Francis Blake offered a pitch of speech; it did not transmit their telephone transmitter utilizing a block of quality, only a musical buzz. It did not talk. hard carbon and a vibrating diaphragm. In Nevertheless, his epitaph reads "Der Er finder 1884, Ader of France developed a multiple des Telephons." He devised avibrating mem- carbon pencil microphone for picking up brane carrying a contact which made and music. Then Edison applied for a patent on broke an electric circuit to a small magnet a telephone transmitter filled with granules wound with wire, when the membrane was of hard coal. vibrated by any sound wave in its vicin- Oddly enough music, which led Hughes to experiment with the microphone in 185o, has ity. Professor Amos E. Dolbear of Tufts Col- paced the research workers and inventors lege contended that he had improved Reis's ever since, and with increased intensity since RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 76 radio, the films and television took on music phone and radio in conjunction with the and speech. Evidence of the microphone's electron tube opened not only new demands remarkable advance is found in the thousands upon the microphone but new ways to im- of patents which have mutiplied as the tele- prove it.

JAMES CLERK MAXWELL

DISCOVERER OF THE ETHER BORN: November 13, 1831 Edinburgh, Scotland DIED: Novembe.- 5, 1879 Cambridge, England

JAMES CLERK M AXWELL, Scottish physicist, recorded in his biography,' that Maxwell's author, natural philosopher and eminent memory went back to when he first remem- mathematician, discovered the ether. Mod- bered lying in the field, "looking at the sun estly he referred to himself as an interpreter and wondering." of Michael Faraday's ideas, but the world The inquisitive lad was incessantly asking, of science knew better, for his life was 'What's the go o' that?" He read every book crowned by extraordinary electrical inves- he could get. Childhood marked by solitude tigations. in the country tended to make him shy. His Maxwell was well descended. His father mother died when he was nine, and in 1841 had an aptitude for the mechanical arts, and The Life of James Clerk Maxwell, Lewis Camp- his mother possessed artistic talents. It is bell and William Garnet. BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 77 his father entered him in the Academy at in 186o they moved to London, where Max- Edinburgh. When, in 1844, he began the well taught natural philosophy at King's Col- study of geometry, his talent became evident, lege. In his attic "laboratory" at Kensington, and versatility marked his work for he also he wrote scientific papers and conducted nu- liked to draw and to versify. He left the merous experiments. For his researches on Academy in 1847, with the first prize in light Maxwell was awarded the Rumford English and mathematics, and enrolled at the Medal of the Royal Society in 186o, and a University of Edinburgh where his professors year later delivered his first lecture at the soon saw evidence of apenetrating mind. Royal Institution on the theory of the three Electricity, magnetism, chemistry and op- primary colors. tics led him into deep mathematical study, Resigning from King's College in 1865, he and the year 185o found him at Cambridge retired to write, producing in 2870 his noted steeped in science. His tutor is said to have treatise on heat. described him as "a most extraordinary pupil, Fascinated by an idea gleaned from ex- aman of genius with all its eccentricities, and periments that the attraction or repulsion a scientific luminary of the future." And he produced by electricity and magnetism were added, "It is not possible for that man to caused by some "action at a distance"—by an unseen medium in space—Maxwell was think incorrectly on physical subjects." Said Maxwell: "He that would enjoy life determined to find the "missing link," mathe- and act with freedom, must have the work matically at least. 2 As a result, he identified the ether—the medium of light and heat be- of the day continually before his eyes."

In 1856 he was appointed professor of 2 Christiaan Huygens, physicist and astronomer natural philosophy in the Marischal College (born April 14, 1629, at The Hague; died June 8, of Aberdeen. A year later he married Kath- 1695), worked out a theory of undulation of light in an unseen conveying medium—an airy nothing fill- erine Dewar, daughter of the principal, and RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 78 lieved to permeate the universe. Light and from a source of origin. heat, he concluded, were electromagnetic un- Therefore, the history of wireless registers dulations in the ether. Maxwell was said to Maxwell as the discoverer, in 1867, of the have discovered "an elemental ocean in which ether, described as "an imponderable, electric the truth may yet be founçl." medium supposed to pervade all space as His masterful treatise Electricity and well as the interior of solid bodies; the in- Magnetism, presented to the Royal Society visible, odorless, tasteless substance assumed in 1864, and in fully developed form in 1873, to exist, through which light, heat and radio on the electrodynamic theory of light is re- waves are transmitted." membered as "one of the most splendid mon- Heinrich Hertz later produced the electro- uments ever raised to the genius of a single magnetic waves and proved Maxwell's theory individual." In that treatise he evolved the to be correct. famous equation from which he predicted, By the time Marconi came along, Max- solely from mathematical reasoning, the ex- well's theory made it possible for teachers istence of ether waves; he speculated on the to compare the ether with a pond, so th.it possibility of the production of electromag- laymen might understand the mystery •)f netic waves which would detach themselves wireless. The ether was pictured as a placid pool; toss in a stone and there is a series ing the emptiness of space. He disclosed his theory of ripples or waves, depending upon the force at a time when scientists and philosophers wt. le pondering the problem of a medium to account ter with which the stone strikes the water. That the phenomenon of light. Otherwise how could light stone is the "transmitter." If tiny floating travel from the sun to the earth? Could interstel:ar objects such as pieces of wood or cork float space be filled with an invisible substance, a sort of liquid-filling matter? Huygens also won fame by on the surface, they bob up and down in applying the pendulum to clocks and through his re- accordance with the waves; they are the searches in physical optics. "receivers." BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 79 It was all that simple! tleman," was removed to his old home Glen- Maxwell continued to contribute numerous lair and buried in the churchyard of Par- papers to scientific societies; he wrote on ton. atoms and molecules, on matter and motion. A century later, the hundredth anniversary In 1874 the Cavendish Physical Laboratory, of Maxwell's birth was celebrated by the designed and built under his direction, was scientific world's "digging a grave for the opened at Cambridge. theory of luminiferous ether," but at the same It was said that Maxwell contemplated the time honoring his mathematical genius. In inner scene of Nature and envisaged an 1931, his ether theory was called "that su- ethereal bond uniting the most diverse forms preme paradox of Victorian science and yet of matter. In 1877 his health failed; his brain a triumph of the scientific imagination," refused new tasks. which as convenient fiction helped physicist Near the end he remarked, "I have been and layman to bridge a mysterious gap, thinking, how very gently Ihave always been closed when the world realized that wireless dealt with: Ihave never had a violent shove waves are electromagnetic, lot "ether." in all my life. The only desire which I can In fact, it was remarked: have is like David, to serve my own gen- Maxwell could not believe in "action at a eration, by the will of God, and then fall distance." To see a star the eye must touch it asleep." His doctor said, "No man ever met death in asense. To attract aneedle amagnet must be "connected" with it. Maxwell invented an ether more consciously or calmly," although he suffered great pain in his illness. After a that satisfied the conditions. .. . Just as New- memorial service in the Trinity College ton's laws of gravitation unified the heavens so Chapel. the body of Maxwell, who had lived the ether unified energy and matter. .. . Max- "a most perfect example of a Christian gen- well's fate is much like Newton's. .. . Were he RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 8o alive he would probably concede that his ether tion without which science of his day was help- was no more real than the equator of the geogra- less. 3

phers—that it was necessary and convenient fic- 3 The New York Times, October 5, 1931.

WILLIAM CROOKES

INVENTED THE CATHODE-RAY TUBE BORN: June 17, 1832 DIED: April 14, 1919 London, England London, England

SIR W ILLIAM CaooxEs, British chemist and contain no possibilities of transmitting and re- physicist, invented one of the earliest forms ceiving intelligence. of X-ray tubes, known as the Crookes tube. Rays of light will not pierce through a wall, Although his career was devoted chiefly to nor, as we know only too well, through aLondon fog. But the electrical vibrations of a yard or chemical research, he conducted original in- more in wavelength .. . will easily pierce such vestigations in wireless, and as a result, his mediums, which to them will be transparent. prophetic writings were an inspiration and a Here, then is revealed the bewildering possibility chart for younger men of science, among of telegraphy without wires, posts, cables or an,, them Marconi and De Forest, both fascinated of our present costly appliances. by such words as -these: Granted a few reasonable postulates, the whole thing comes well within he realms of possible Here is unfolded to us a new astonishing fulfillment. At the present time experimentalists world, one which is hard to conceive should are able to generate electrical waves of any de- BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 81 sired wavelength from a few feet upwards, and the ordinary Morse code.' to keep up a succession af such waves radiating Crookes had pictured radio; he suggested into space in all directions. This is no mere dream of avisionary philoso- practical application of theories. His was a pher. All the requisites needed to bring it within "road map" to broadcasting. grasp of daily life are well within the possibilities The Crookes tube was generally loolsed of discovery, and are so reasonable and so clearly upon as a scientific plaything. In. 1895, in the path of researches which are now being Roentgen changed that appraisal. He discov- actively prosecuted in every capital of Europe ered that when a Crookes tube was enclosed that we may any day expect to hear that they in a darkened box, mysterious rays were have emerged from the realms of speculation to emitted which rendered fluorescent materials those of sober fact. .. . What remains to be discovered is .. . firstly, outside luminous. For lack of adefinite name, asimpler and more certain means of generating he used the algebraic symbol for the un- electrical waves of any desired wavelength. .. . known quantity and called them X-rays. Secondly, more delicate receivers which will re- Cathode rays, incidentally, are streams of spond to wavelengths between certain defined negatively charged particles shot out from limits and be silent to all others. Thirdly, means negatively charged electrodes, or cathodes. of darting the sheaf of rays in any desired When streams of electrons in the form of direction, whether by lenses or reflectors. .. . cathode rays are directed against a target, Any two friends living within a radius of the sudden loss of velocity causes radiation sensitivity of their receiving instruments, having —the more sudden the stop the shorter the first decided on their special wavelength and wavelength of the emergent X-rays. attuned their respective receiving instruments to Crookes' cathode-ray tube sprang from a mutual receptivity, could thus communicate as 1"Some Possibilities in Electricity," in the London long and as often as they wished by timing the Fortnightly Review, 1892. impulses to produce long and short intervals on RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 82 study of creation of vacua within a sealed demonstrate that in general Crookes' hypoth- glass vessel by means of electricity. Through esis was correct, and to define the nature improvements in the air pump he made it of the cathode ray—electrons. The cathode- possible to get an almost perfect vacuum, ray tube became the "eye" of television. which swept many an obstacle from inven- The Crookes tube contained the germ of tors' paths. incandescent lighting and, of course, the 'While experimenting with the cathode-ray X-rays. True, he missed identification of tubes, Crookes recognized the existence of X-rays, but he revealed conclusions which particles of matter smaller than the hydrogen upset the whole doctrine of chemistry. At atom. The luminous streams of cathode rays the time of his death Crookes was called the appeared to him as "a storm of projectiles"; greatest of British scientists in the realm of he called them "-a new or fourth state of exact knowledge. Knighted in 1897, he also matter." Although the precise nature of the received the Order of Merit in 191o; the particles was a mystery, he sensed the fact Royal Society elected him president from that they were different from ordinary mole- 1913-15. cules. It remained for J. J. Thomson to Ubi Crookes ibi lux!

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. WILLIAM HENRY PREECE

PIONEER IN "TELEGRAPHY BY INDUCTION" DIED: November 6, 1913 BORN: February 15, 1834 Carnarvon, Wales Carnarvon, Wales

vibrator, or buzzer, at the sending end and SIR W ILLIAM HENRY PREECE, British electri- a telephone receiver as the indicator at the cal and civil engineer, was educated at King's College, London. He began his career as a receivèr. telegraph engineer. Electric signaling became He later approached wireless by means of magnetic induction, using large loops of wire. his profession. For example, in 1877 Ife placed one such In 1854 he was assigned to investigate a loop on the ground and one in a mine shaft system of "wireless" by means of conduction as developed by J. B. Lindsay. It was based and attempted communication. l'reece was commissioned in 1892 to ex- on the theory that communication across a periment with communication between light- body of water could be accomplished by lay- houses and the shore without the use of a ing a wire on both sides of the water, each cable or connecting wire. When acable broke line being grounded at the ends. A battery between the mainland and the island of Mull and telegraph key were inserted in the send- in 1896, by laying lines of wire on the ing wire, while agalvanometer placed in the two shores, Preece telegraphed by induction receiving wire detected the signal impulses. over water and through the air, the distance It was this "wireless" that inspired Preece being 4V2 miles. He sent 156 messages in to use it for signaling between islands and the mainland. He introduced several im- the Morse code. He then experimented with provements in the Lindsay system, chiefly a a conductive system between Flatholm and RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 84 Lavernock in the Bristol Channel. But the He has not discovered any new rays. His re- tests revealed the limitations, and further- corder is based on the Branly coherer. Columbus more, this system was not applicable to ships. did not invent the egg but he showed how to It was about this time that Marconi came make it stand on its end, and Marconi has pro- to London to introduce his system of wireless, duced from known means a new electric eye, more delicate than any known instrument, and and Preece, who had been associated with the anew system of telegraphy that will reach places Post Office as electrician since 1877, and hitherto inaccessible. .. . Enough has been said later as chief electrician, cooperated with the to show that for shipping and lighthouse pur- Italian, for the British were much interested. poses it will be agreat and valuable acquisition. The resources of the Post Office, which had jurisdiction over communications, were Preece was one of the first to recognize placed at Marconi's disposal for experiment that Marconi "had something" of great value and trial. His wireless soon crossed the Bris- to Britain's far-flung empire. Because Britain tol Channel, so successfully that all thoughts gave the young Italian every assistance and of communication by conduction, induction encouragement when he arrived in London to or any other system quickly vanished. demonstrate his invention, the early glory of Nevertheless, the British wondered why wireless was reflected in the news throughout Marconi was declared the inventor, and not periments in the British Navy began in 1896 on Preece or Admiral Henry B. Jackson,' but board H.M.S. Defiance. Using a Hertzian oscillator, Preece explained: energized by an induction coil, and witL a coherer as detector, he established communication across 3/13 Admiral Jackson (Sir Henry Bradwardine), born miles between the Defiance and the gunboat H.M.S. in 1855 at Barnsley, entered the Royal Navy in 1868. Scourge. In 1899, improved apparatus was installed ,While commander of H.M.S. Edinburgh in 1893 he on the Europa, Juno and Alexandria with Marconi conceived the idea of using Hertzian waves for naval in charge of the tests, collaborating with Jackson, signaling. Under his direction the first wireless ex- then a captain. BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 85 the world as coming from England, which and everyone wishes him continued success." became the center of wireless. Evidence of Preece's early pioneering along In June, 1897, Preece lectured at the Royal the frontiers of wireless is found in a state- Institution on "Signaling Through Space ment by John Ambrose Fleming ten years Without Wires," and after referring to other before he filed his application for a patent and older methods of "wireless," including on the valve detector: "This phenomenon his own, he exhibited Marconi's instruments. (the Edison Effect) in carbon incandescent In reference to their capabilities he said: lamps was first observed by Mr. Edison in 1884, and further examined by Mr. W. H. In July last Mr. Marconi brought to England Preece in 1885." a new plan. Mr. Marconi utilizes electric or Hertzian waves of very high frequency. He has Preece was author and co-author of several invented anew relay, which for sensitiveness and books on telegraphy, electricity, incandescent delicacy exceeds all known electrical apparatus. lights and the telephone. In the annals of The peculiarity of Mr. Marconi's system is that, wireless he is remembered among the promi- apart from the ordinary conaecting wires of the nent electricians who were detoured by induc- apparatus, conductors of very moderate length tion and conduction from reaching the goal only are needed and even these can be dispensed of wireless electromagnetically, as did Mar- with if reflectors are used. coni. But in his aid to the young man from "It is impossible to predict what will hap- Bologna, in London to seek support in de- pen in the twentieth century," said Preece veloping his invention, Preece played a role in 1901. "Progress is slow; anticipations are similar to that of Queen Isabella. She aided wild. Mr. Marconi personally is to be con- Columbus. Preece helped Marconi find still gratulated on what he has already done, another route to India—through space.

86 RADIO'S I00 MEN OFSCIENCS AMOS EMERSON DOLBEAR

INVENTED AN ELECTROSTATIC TELEPHONE BORN: November 10, 1837 Norwich, Conn. DIED: February 23, 1910 Medford, Mass.

AMOS EMERSON DOLBEAR, American physi- 1876 he had done considerable experiment- cist and teacher, after village schooling and ing and development work in telephony— boyhood spent on a farm in 1854 went to chiefly the electrostatic telephone, which he work in a pistol factory, and several years patented in 1881. While working with this later in a locomotive works. There he began device a wire became disconnected, yet the to show inventive talent through the design instrument continued to "talk." of a steam whistle that would "play any Studying the cause and effect led him to tune." Determined to have a college educa- patent a system of communication in which tion, he studied to matriculate at Ohio Wes- the line was replaced by two conductors in leyan, from which he was graduated in 1866. the air, such as a tin roof or a wire sus- While at college he was particularly inter- pended from akite. The circuit was grounded ested in physics, the telegraph, magnets and at each end. Dolbear's patent on this was electricity. No. 350,299, dated October 5, 1886. He had In 1867 he was appointed professor of first exhibited this "transfer of speech by natural science at Bethany College West communication without wires" on April t, Virginia, and later taught atKentucky Uni- 1882, at a meeting of the Society of Tele- versity. He went to Tufts College, Medford, graph Engineers and Electricians in London. Massachusetts, in 1874 as professor of phys- By means of his electrostatic telephone, ics, a position he held until his death. By Dolbear signaled across a quarter of a mile BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. between Tufts College and a pond, using a comment upon the achievement, is sa:d to 3oo-foot wire suspended from a kite as the have replied, "If Marconi says he has com- aerial. Later he is said to have added the municated across the sea, Iknow of no reason idea of a spark gap between the aerial and why I should not fully believe that he had ground, thereby increasing the range from solved the problem." Medford to Boston, about 12 miles. Mar- Dolbear at Tufts is remembered as the coni, however, was in the field by this time. man who introduced the idea of wireless to But promoters of wireless who gained control the college, also as "a man in advance of of Dolbear's interests claimed that his use his time." of an elevated aerial pre-dated Marconi by In the announcement of his death, the Bos- ten years. In litigation the court held thit ton Post said: Dolbear in his patent attempted to claim sole ownership of a basic principle, which, Professor Dolbear was the inventor of several it was held, could not be done. telegr2ph and telephone appliances, and always contended that the invention of the telephone While electric radiation may have been should have been credited to him. He engaged present from his elevated aerial, no evidente in several costly suits over certain telephone pat- was found that he recognized it or attempted ents, which he claimed were his, and the loss of to detect the signals as did Marconi. Dol - these in the courts to Professor Bell of telephone bear's chief bid for fame was through the fame preyed on his mind in his declining years. electrostatic telephone—but it was not wire- He always believed that he had been robbed of less in the sense that Marconi developed it. the fruits of his mechanical genius and carried Reported to be sadly disappointed that this conviction to the grave. Marconi, and not he, was first to succeed Professor Dolbear, with all his accomplishments, was probably more an experimenter all in spanning the Atlantic with a wireless sig- his life than anything else. He strode along nal, Dolbear nevertheless, when asked to RADIO'S 100 MEN OF SCIENCE 88 ahead even of inventors, left them ideas to address an audience in every city in the world." apply to commercial and practical use and went The aeroplane and the phonograph ren;tain as on in new fields to discover fresh principles. In mementoes of his prophecies. a book he wrote more than 40 years ago occurs this significant sentence: "Mechanism is all that "His highest pleasure was in pioneer in- stands between us and aerial Lavigation; all that vestigation," remarked a friend. "That was is necessary to reproduce human speech in writ- his life. His last writings on the science of ing, an all that is necessary to realize com- the twentieth century were like the visions pletely the orator mho shall at the same instant of aprophet."

EDOUARD BRANLY INVENTOR OF THE COHERER BORN: October 23, 1814 DIED: March 21, 1940 Amiens, France Paris, France

EDOUARD BRANLY, French physicist, invented in three years. Later he was appointed pro- the coherer, the first detector of wireless fessor at the Institut Catholique in Paris. waves. At the Ecole Normal Supérieure in In his study of electrical conductivity, Paris, Desiré Edouard Branly was abrilliant Branly observed that some materials, in student, also at the Lyceum de St. Quentin powder form, were affected in their electrical where his father was a professor. At the conductivity by electromagnetic waves; he Sorbonne he worked in the physics labora- developed the coherer to study the properties tory and won his Doctor of Physics degree of the waves, little realizing at the time that BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 89 metallic filings in a small, thin glass tube, he had invented an essential element of wire- caused by an electric discharge in the vicin- less telegraphy which, in 1921, would win ity, persisted after a comparatively long him the Nobel prize for Physics. period. It was a fragile-looking device about The idea of the coherer came to Branly like a thermometer in appearance, but as rather accidentally about 1885 while he was improved somewhat by later experimenters, studying medicine, testing different theories as to how nerves carry messages from the it had two silver plugs so close together that a knife blade would scarcely pass between skin to the brain and back again. He learned them. Fine nickel dust was sifted into the that nerves are not continuous fibers, but are formed of neurons, massed closely but not slit, and such particles enjoyed the strange property of being alternately conductors and necessarily in contact. The coherer resulted from the application of that observation and nonconductors of Hertzian waves. When the signals struck the metallic dust it became the first detector of wireless waves particles they cohered (thus the name co- to be used by Marconi and other pioneers. herer). A tapper arrangement was added; a Branly demonstrated it before the French tiny hammer like that of a doorbell struck Academy in 1891, thereby winning member- against the tube and decohered the particles, ship in that body. stopping the current from a local battery. Branly's coherer consisted of a glass tube Each successive impulse reaching the antenna filled with loose iron . filings, a galvanometer produced the same phenomena of coherence and a battery in a closed circuit. Electro- and decoherence, hence the recording of dots magnetic waves were produced twenty-five yards away and the effect caused the filings and dashes. When Branly was ninety-three, Marconi to cohere while the galvanometer revealed the died, and in tribute the Frenchman said, deviation of the current. "He was the only man who could have car- He observed that the conductive effect on RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE. 90 ried on and developed my own finds [the in 1866 by S. A. Varley, who made practical coherer] to the greater glory of science." application of this principle of cohesion in a On his ninety-fifth birthday Branly, irked carbon-dust lightning protector for telegraph by the use of radio for war propaganda pur- lines. Lord Rayleigh, in 1879, investigated poses, was quoted from Paris as saying, in similar effects in meteorological phenomena, reference to broadcasting, "It bothers me to such as the formation of snowflakes under the think that I had something to do with in- influence of atmospheric electricity. venting it." The principle of coherence also was studied In his modest laboratory he caught thc by an Italian professor, Calzecchi Onesti. He chill that brought his death in the spring o: discovered that copper filings between two 1940, and it was recorded that M. Branly brass plates were ordinarily nonconductors died alonely, misunderstood, frustrated man, of electricity, but that they became conduc- "about whom a whole sermon could be writ- tive when subjected to the high-voltage dis- ten." Through the simple, slender coherer charge of an induction coil. Then the resist- he established his rendezvous with fame: ance dropped from millions to hundreds of France gave him a national funeral in Notre ohms. He published his discoveries in Il Dame Cathedral. Nuovo Cimento in 1884, but his work attracted little attention until after the pub- Study of the cohesion of metallic powders lication, six years later, of Branly's re- in a glass tube, caused by the action of a searches. Then the earlier discoveries of Var - near-by electric spark, led to development ley and Onesti were recalled. of the coherer. Branly investigated the variations of con- Guitard, 185o, noticed that when dusty ductivity of a large number of conductors air was electrified, the particles amalgamated under different electric influences. His results into strings and flakes. This was rediscovered were disclosed by him in La Lumière Elec- BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 91 trique, May-June, 1891. He reported that a work in the same direction, was attracted coat, or varnish, of fine copper dust was a by Branly's experiments. He immediately bad conductor under ordinary conditions, but tried Branly's tube of filings and found it fell sharply in resistance when a spark oc- far superior in manageability to the appa- curred in the vicinity. The substances most ratus he had been using. He used it in suitable for demonstrating this effect were demonstrations and lectures at London and filings of iron, aluminum, copper, brass, an- at Oxford in 1894. Lecturing in June, 1894, timony, cadmium, zinc and bismuth. He also at the Royal Institution, he described the found that the conductivity could be made Branly tube and, in referring to it as the to disappear rapidly by a shock, as by tap- coherer, is believed to have been the one to ping the tube in which the filings were con- name it. tained. Marconi improved the Branly tube by Several of Branly's patents of 1890 and modifying its relative dimensions. He used 189; related to the electrical conductivity tightly fitting silver end plugs, slightly amal- of radio-conductors and to the operation of gamated at the ends, and introduced a mix- a local relay circuit from a distance. Branly ture of nickel and silver filings, the propor- made the extremely important observation tion being that giving best results. He also that an electric spark at a distance had the exhausted the air from the tube and sealed power of suddenly changing the conductivity it. This Marconi coherer was far more de- of loose masses of powdered conductors. pendable in its action than any detector Sir Oliver Lodge, who had done some previously designed.

RADIOS 100 MEN OF SCIENCE 92 THOMAS ALVA EDISON

AMERICA'S GREATEST INVENTOR BORN: February 11, 18-17 Milan, O. DIED: October 13, 1931 West Orange, N. I

THOMAS ALVA EDISON, greatest and most He became a popular hero of Port Huron prolific of American inventors, first saw the when he saved the station agent's little boy light of day in Milan, Ohio, and moved north- from an onrushing train. In appreciation, the ward with his parents to Port Huron. Michi- station agent taught him the Morse code, gan, when he was seven years old. The Edi- for Edison had long had his eye on the sons were of Dutch ancestry. Thomas's fore- telegraph. To make good use of the news bears arrived in America before the Revo- items that came over the wire from Detroit, lutionary War. In Ohio his father operated he installed a printing press in the mail car a shingle factory; in Michigan he was a and printed the Weekly Herald en route, dealer in grain and feed. selling it to passengers and at stations along Young Tom was a restless youth, more the way. He also used the mail car as a anxious to work than to go to school. He mobile vegetable stand from which he sold obtained the newspaper concession on the produce from his 'garden. To make even Grand Trunk Railway between Port Huron greater use of the car he built a laboratory and Detroit, not only to sell papers on the in one corner, but a chemical experiment trains but to establish newsstands at the started a fire. That ended the mail car as stations. That enterprise combined with a printing shop, vegetable stand and labora- truck gardening on a vacant lot near his tory. He decided to become a professional home started him on a business career. telegraph operator and for several years BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 9,3 track. He first displayed a flair for invention moved from town to town. in 1864 at Indianapolis by building an auto- While he was working as a newsboy, a matic telegraph repeater, the forerunner of railroad conductor lifted him by the ears his many inventions. In all, he was granted when he was trying to climb into a freight more than 1,200 patents. It was in Boston car with both arms full of papers. Edison that he invented a stock ticker, for which, said he felt something snap inside his head, to his great amazement, he was paid $40,000: and after that his hearing declined. But he he had expected about $3,000. This enabled never looked upon his deafness as a serious him to establish a laboratory at Menlo Park handicap. At times he considered it a bless- and at West Orange, New Jersey. With his ing because it enabled him to think without application for a patent in 1877, on a "pho- disturbance from noise and chatter. nograph, or speaking machine," there was Edison in his teens was described as "a plenty of evidence that inventing was be- typical story-telling, tobacco-chewing, fun- coming a profession for Edison, who, later loving, hard-working telegraph operator, in life, defined genius as "2 per cent inspira- slovenly in dress, awkward in manner, and tion and 98 per cent perspiration." always a great practical joker"—the latter Probably no inventor touched upon wire- often stemming from an imaginative mind. less more indirectly yet with greater effect The most prolific period of his inventive than Edison. As a "road builder" he paved career was in the 188o's while he was in his and pointed the way; he left the direct ap- thirties. Asked what he considered the most wonderful thing in life, Edison is quoted as proach to others for he was "too busy with other things." Nevertheless, as the wizard of saying, "A blade of grass." Menlo Park, he had a profound influence Electrical gadgets of all sorts fascinated on development of radio through his electric him, but it was the electric telegraph that lights, batteries, ..dynamos, motors, motion put his ever-active mind o-n the inventive RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 94 pictures, microphones, "etheric force," mim- to him who first makes that suggestion fruit- eograph, the talking machine, recordings and ful of results." In wireless, Marconi did that. "the Edison Effect." Edison took out only one patent on "teleg- In 1875 he was on the track of wireless raphy without wires," but it involved the when he observed "new manifestations of principle of induction, not exactly wireless electricity through mysterious sparks of an as Marconi developed it. The application oscillatory nature." Curiosity caused him to was filed May 23, 1885; the patent, No. investigate this "true unknown force" ne 465,971. was issued December 29, 1891. In had been witnessing during various experi- the specifications Edison stated: "I have dis- ments, so he built what became known as covered that if sufficient elevation be ob- Edison's famous black box. Inside, two car- tained to overcome the curvature of the bon points formed a micrometer gap across earth's surface and to reduce to the minimum which tiny sparks could be seen through a the earth's absorption, electric telegraphing window. Here was astrange force that had a or signaling between distant points can be tendency to diffuse or spread in all direc- carried on by induction without the use of tions; he could even draw the sparks from wires connecting such distant points." He a gas pipe in the laboratory. He called it called the receiving machine an "electromo- "etheric force"; it remained for Hertz to tograph," and the system in general "grass- prove the existence of wireless waves. hopper telegraphy." Edison sold this patent Dr. George M. Beard, physicist, in com- to the Marconi Company in 1903 for what menting on Edison's "find" remarked, "The he termed "a song." honor of a scientific discovery belongs, not As a pioneer in witnessing curious electri- to him who first sees a thing, but to him cal phenomena, while developing the incan- who first sees it with expert eyes; not to descent lamp, Edison caught sight of a him who drops an original suggestion, but mystery taking place inside the glass bulb. BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 95 During his tests of carbon filament lamps, mo- delphia Exposition he placed a telegraph lecular bombardment inside the bulbs caused sounder in the galvanometer circuit, and a black deposit to form on the glass. William found that sufficient current flowed to op- J. Hammer, one of Edison's laboratory as- erate the instrument. sistants, noticed that in several instances In another series of experiments Edison in- there was a narrow line of "no deposit" on stalled two filaments—the second as a spare the glass. This he termed "the phantom —so that when one burned out the other could be put into the circuit, thereby dou- shadow .'or "ghost." He showed it to Edison in 188o, who tried in several ways to elimi- bling the life of the lamp. By means of a nate the black deposit. He placed a coating galvanometer he observed that there seemed of tinfoil outside the bulb, with a "counter to be a current in the idle or spare filament. charge" applied to it. In experimenting with Induction was suspected. He assigned Wil- this, he found that if he connected a gal- liam Kennedy Laurie Dickson, a laboratory vanometer in series with the tinfoil and the assistant, to the job of exploring the mystery. positive terminal of the filament, a direct Again "the Edison Effect" was at work. current flowed through the galvanometer. The "effect" became the signpost that led When he reversed the process by connecting Fleming to the invention of the valve, or first to the negative terminal, no current was ob- electronic tube detector, and also De Forest served. This phenomenon, observed in 1883, to the audion. In 1883 Edison applied for a was called "the Edison Effect." patent on. an electrical indicator employing Pursuing the tinfoil experiment, Edison an Edison Effect lamp bulb, for he had placed a metal plate inside the bulb, con- found that the current varied sharply with nected to the outside by awire sealed through the voltage. This was, in effect, an electronic the glass. Again applying the galeanometer, voltmeter, but it was not found to be com- he obtained the same results. At the Phila- mercially practical. RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 96 While Edison apparently did not recognize air and recorded sounds of voices and melody that in this instance he had at his fingertips for posterity, are stories well known, for Edi- agreat and wonderful clue—in fact, amaster son's "talking machine" now has talked key to radio and its unlimited future—he around the world on the wings of "etheric nevertheless recognized the possiblities of force." Wherever there is a phonograph, wireless signaling. radio or motion picture on the screen or on At the turn of the century, Edison told a television, Edison, "the lamplighter," lives friend that he thbught some time there might on. As was remarked at the time of his be daily signals across the Atlantic without passing, after long years of almost super- wires, but that he did not know when, and human labor, "He reigns still in his viewless being preoccupied he did not think he would empery." have time to do it himself. When Marconi Commemorating the ninety-seventh birth- did the trick in tor, Edison said, "I would day of Edison, Charles Seymour, President like to meet that young man who had the of Yale University, saluted him as "one of monumental audacity to attempt and suc- the greatest of Americans and the supreme ceed in jumping an electric wave across the inventive genius of the industrial age," and Atlantic." added: Recounting the story of the historic transatlantic signal, Marconi said, "I shall never The staggering list of his inventions compels forget Mr. Edison's laconic comment, `If us to realize the extent of his contribution to the Marconi says it's true, it's true.' Nothing United States and to the world, not merely in our own days, but for all time to come. Already ever pleased me as these words." he has, through the disciplined activity of his How the Edison dynamos and batteries ideas, produced billions of dollars of new wealth. have pumped the life into radio, how the Much more important than the new material phonograph has whirled music through the wealth which his inventions have brought forth BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 97 are the new paths in the pursuit of human hap- capacity for unflagging harcrwork, which led him piness indicated by them. He sought the secrets to "scorn delights and live lablrious days." He refused to accept at any time the idea of defeat of nature and devised the means to exploit these secrets in order that they might be applied for and regarded the failure of an experiment as merely an incitement to further effort. 1 the betterment of man. What seemed even more important than genius was his extraordinary 'Excerpt from broadcast, February 11, 1944.

ALEXANDER GRAHAM BE:r , INVENTOR OF THE TELEPHONE - DIED: August 2, 1922 BORN: April 3, 1847 Baddeck, Nova Scotia Edinburgh, Scotland

ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL invented the tele- had its inceptio in telephony. And radio called upon the wire lines to form its broad- phone. He electrified the human voice and by putting the spoken word on wires left no casting networks to supplement its ethereal doubt in the minds of wireless pioneers that activity. Wires becan the runways of radio some day radio also would talk. Bell's in- on its flight into space. As radio progressed vention contributed much to the development it reciprocated by supplying new devices and supplemented the service of the telephone. and to the service of radio; from the tele- The radio-electron tube became amaster key phone, radio inherited numerous devices and techniques. The magnetic telephone receiver in the advance of telephone engineering and was adopted by radio as its universal ear- in extension of its service. Bell was aScotsman. Educated at the Uni - phone for reception. The microphone also RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 98 versity of Edinburgh and the University of hear the words!" London, he moved across the ocean with his That was the birth of the telephone— father in 187° and Brantford, Ont., became March to, 1876.' his new home. Much interested in his father's Bell put the instrument on exhibit at the system of "visible speech" instruction, used Philadelphia Centennial Exposition that year, successfully in teaching deaf-mutes to speak, but without attracting much attention until Bell in 1872 became professor of vocal physi- Dom Pedro de Alcantara, emperor of Brazil, ology at Boston University. His specialty was on atour of the exposition stopped to watch referred to as "the mechanics of speech" and ademonstration of the device. In amazement led him into what might; well be called "the he exclaimed, "My word—it talks!" electrics of speech." That discovery by Dom Pedro gave the He began experiments to develop appa- telephone royal recognition in the news and ratus for electrical transmission of the spoken focused new atterition on its performance and word. An attic in Boston was his laboratory. possibilities. Continued experiments led to There under the rafters history was made; a its improvement and a company was or- vast communication system and one of man's ganized for its development. Five years later, great utilities was born. Bell and his assistant, in 1881, the first telephone line between Thomas A. Watson, built a number of machines which turned words into strange noises 1 Twenty-five days passed after Bell applied for a —none articulate. One day, however, while United States patent on February 14. 1876, before he first made the telephone transmit speech. Patent they were experimenting Bell called, "Mr. No. 174,465 was granted to him on March 7, 1876, Watson, come here, I want you." Watson and three days later, while tinkering with the con- standing near the contraption heard it pro- traption, he made it talk. Extensive litigation with duce Bell's voice, and he ran into the next other inventors followed over the question of priority. The United States Supreme Court sustained room exclaiming, "I can hear you. I can Bell. BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 99 Boston and Providence was opened; Boston up by telephc wire for the first "chain to New York in 1885; New York to Chicago broadcast"; .1 the first multiple station in 1892; New York to Denver in 1911; New network was tormed with stations in New York to San Francisco in 1915 York, Schenectady, Pittsburgh and Chicago Bell lived to hear. the radiophone talk and linked in acopper web of telephone wires. sing. The year he died there were 24,347,000 Recognizing the telephone's important re- telephones in the United States, 2 and the lationships to radio, Marconi saluted Bell as first ship-to-shore two-way conversations one of the great contributors to the art: were conducted between Deal Beach, New "I have built very largely on the works Jersey, and the S.S. America, 400 miles at of others, and before concluding Iwould like sea. The S.S. Gloucester off the New Jersey to mention a few names, Clerk Maxwell, coast also talked to Deal Beach, which re- Lord Kelvin, Professor Henry and Professor layed the voice from the -air over telephone Hertz. Ido not know if you are aware that lines to Long Beach, California, then by the message received at St. Johns was re- radiophone to the Catalina Islands. By this ceived through a telephone receiver, and in time broadcasting stations were springing up connection with the telephone the name of everywhere, and the year after Bell's death, Bell is inseparable." 3 New York and Boston stations were hooked 3 Speech at a dinner of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, January 13, 1902, in celebration of the first transatlantic wireless signal. 2 26,381,000 on January 1, 1944.

RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 100 ADOLPH K.H .SLABY

GERMANY'S MARCONI

BORN: April 18, 1849 DIED: April 6, 1913 Berlin, Germany Charlottenburg, Germany

ADOLPH KARL HEINRICH SLABY, physicist, for science into "spark communication." Try was known as "the German Marconi," be- as he might he could not make the electric cause of his experiments in the field of wire- waves go beyond the limits of the Charlotten- less. He began his academic professional burg high school. When he read that Mar- • career in 1876 at the Berlin Trade Academy, coni had been able to exceed his maximum having been a student at the Royal Trade range of too meters, he hurried to England School in Potsdam. In 1882 he was appointed to discover how the Italian had solved the professor of electrotechnics, and in 1884 problem that baffled him. He arrived in time • director of the electrotechnical laboratory of to witness Marconi's demonstrations on May the Technical High School at Charlotten- 14, 1897, between Lavernock Point and ' burg; in 1892, he attained distinction as Breen Down, a distance of eight miles. honorary professor on the Philosophical Fac- Enthusiastic about what he had heard and ulty of the University of Berlin. His scientific seen Slaby returned to Berlin with hopes of investigations in the early nineties were re- duplicating Marconi's performance and of lated to thermodynamics, motors and gas improving upon it if possible. Interest in engines. wireless was running high in Germany, and Hertz's electromagnetic wave experiments on August 27, Slaby reported on his trip to naturally attracted aman of Slaby's aptitude England as part of a lecture on wireless BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. IOI telegraphy which he delivered at the Sailors' loo meters through the air. It was at once clear to me that Marconi must have added something Home at Potsdam, with Kaiser Wilhelm and else—something new to what was already known, the king of Spain in the audience. To re- whereby he had been able to attain wavelengths veal the practical development of wireless, measured by kilometers. I traveled to England, in October he sent wireless messages between and in truth what I saw there was something a church and the marine station at Potsdam, quite pew. and shortly after between Peacock Island and Marconi had made a discovery. He was work- Potsdam. Using captive balloons to hold the ing with means the entire meaning of which no aerial aloft more than 800 feet he increased one before him had recognized. Only in that way the range of his apparatus and communi- can we explain the secret of his success. In the English professional journals an attempt has cated across 21 kilometers. He used the been made to deny novelty to the method of Branly coherer as the detector. Making a Marconi. It was urged that the production of direct contribution to the art, he introduced Hertz rays, their radiation through space, the resonant coils, known as "Slaby rods," for construction of his electrical eye—all this was measuring wavelengths, and they were of use known before. True; all this 'iad been known to in the early days before the more accurate me also, and yet Iwas never able to exceed one wavemeter was developed. hundred meters. Professor Slaby as author of an article, In the first place, Marconi has worked out 4 "The New Telegraphy," in the Century Mag- clever arrangement for the apparatus which by the use of the simplest means produces a sure azine, April, 1898, said: technical result. Then he has shown that such In January, 1897, when the news of Marconi's telegraphy (writing from afar) was to be made first successes ran through the newspapers, I possible only through, on the one hand, earth myself was earnestly occupied with similar prob- connection between the apparatus and on the lems. Ihad not been able to telegraph more than other, the use of long extended upright wires. RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 102 By this simple yet extraordinarily effective tern, which in 1903 was amalgamated with method he raised the power of radiation in the the Braun and the Siemens-Halske systems, electric forces a hundredfold. thus forming the German national system Considerable rivalry developed between known as Telefunken. Marconi and Slaby, the latter taking out In the history of wireless, Slaby's activity German patents to cover the invention of may be summed up about as follows: wireless, although Marconi had been granted German patents a year earlier. Slaby, how- Funkentelegraphie owes no great discovery to ever, claimed to have modified 'Marconi's him, yet he rendered pioneer service well worth- antenna system. In collaboration with Graf while, in that he brought the public view this George von Arco,' his assistant at Chariot- new means of communication, by his lectures and tenburg, he developed the Slaby-Arco sys- his experiments, in such a way that he popular- ized it. He helped to put Germany on the wire- 'George Wilhelm Alexander Hans von Arco was born August 30, 1869, in Grossgorschuetz, near Rati- less map. bor; died May 7, 1940, in Berlin. In 1903, he was He was one of the first to give a technically appointed manager of Gesellschaft für Drahtlose correct explanation of the creation of oscillations Telegraphie. In 1906, he telephoned by wireless over in the sending and receiving antenna, and was 21 miles, and in 1912 his high-frequency apparatus one of the first to measure wavelengths. As a was exhibited at the International Radiotelegraphic result, he was able to aid in solving the problem Conference, London. Von Arco's inventions in the of tuned oscillato.y circuits. . .Not only field of wireless involved Siemens and Halske and Count Arco but all German engineers of the the German General Electric Company in long litigation until the dispute was settled by intervention of early days of spark telegraphy were students at Kaiser Wilhelm. That led to formation of the Tele - his school, and as a result of the stimulation Sunken Gesellschaft, which merged various German which he gave to the art the Algemeine Electri- wireless companies; von Arco was appointed chief câts Gesellschaft, the first Continental factory engineer. for wireless apparatus was organized. BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 103 As a teacher and investigator of wireless, at which the art progressed quickly out- Slaby was apioneer, but the irresistible speed moded all of his developments.

JOHN AMBROSE FLEMING

A DETECTOR WON HIM KNIGI-I4THOOD

BORN: November 29, 1849 DIED: April 19, 1945 Lancaster, D gland Devon, England

SIR JOHN AMBROSE FLEMING, English physi- College of Chemistry to work under the cist and electrical pioneer, invented the ther- eminent chemist, Sir Edward Frankland. In mionic valve, or tube, the first electronic de- 1874 he was appointed a science master at tector of wireless waves. Cheltenham College, and the first paper to John Ambrose, the son of the Rev. James be read bejore the newly formed Physical Fleming, completed his schooling at Univer- Society of London was one on the theory of sity College School, London, to which city, the galvanic cell by J. A. Fleming. his parents moved from Lancaster. He ma- Three years later he went to Cambridge triculated at the age of sixteen in the Uni- to work under Professor James Clerk Max- versity of London. Graduating with a Bach- well. For a short time he was first professor elor of Science degree in 1870, he was for of mathematics and physics at University a brief period science master at Rossall College, Nottingham. In 188r, when electric School, returning to London to the Royal lighting began to attract public attention,

• 104 RADIO'S IGO MEN OF SCIENCE Fleming was appointed electrician to the the design of the first transatlantic station Edison Electric Light Company of London, at Poldhu. Since there had been much con- aposition which he occupied for the ensuing troversy regarding the wavelength used by ten years. His great practical knowledge Poldhu to flash the first transatlantic signal, qualified him to practice as aconsulting elec- Fleming was asked by the author in 1935 trical engineer, and he became adviser to what wave was used. He replied: many city corporations on their electric lighting plans and problems. The wavelength of the electric waves sent out In 1885 Fleming was appointed the first from Poldhu Marconi station in 1901 was not professor of electrical engineering at Univer- measured because Idid not invent my cymome- sity College, London, a position which he ter or wavemeter until October, 190.4. The held for more than forty years. His abilities height of the original aerial (1901) was 200 feet, as a lecturer and teacher brought him many but then there was a coil of a transformer or invitations to speak before audiences of the "jigger" as we called it in series with it. My estimate was that the original wavelength must Royal Institution and the Royal Society of have been not less than about 3,000 feet, but Arts. His treatise on elec tric-wave telegraphy it was considerably lengthened later on. was for many years a standard book on the I knew at that time that the diffraction or subject. bending of the rays around the earth would be It was hatural that his work in connection increased by increasing the wavelength and after with the introduction of the telephone and the first success I was continually urging Mar- electric light in England should have led him coni to lengthen the wavelength, and that was into the .field of wireless. For more than done when commercial transmission began. I remember Idesigned special cymometers to meas- twenty-five years he served as scientific ad- ure up to 20,000 feet or so. viser of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company, and he was partly responsible for It was not Poldhu, however, that made BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 105 Fleming a name to be remembered. Poldhu's it, and left aperfectly clean line behind. I found that the lamps with these strange, sharply-de- triumph belonged to Marconi. It was a small fined clean spaces were covered elsewhere with electric bulb—an offspring of the electric in- a deposit of carbon or metal, and that the clean candescent lamp—that gave Fleming his line was immediately in the plane of the hairpin- claim to fame. shaped carbon filament and on the side of the Telling the story of how he came to invent loop opposite to the burned-out point of the the valve detector, Fleming said: filament. It was obvious to me that the unbroken part In 1882, as electrical adviser of the Edison of the filament acted as a screen to that par- Electric Light Company of London, I was ticular line of clear glass, and that the discharge brought into close touch with the many prob- from the overheated point on C e filament bom- lems of incandescent lamps and Ibegan to study barded the remainder of the bulb with molecules the physical phenomena with all the scientific of carbon or vaporized metal shot out in means at my disposal. Like everyone else, Ino- straight lines. My experiments at the end of ticed that the filaments broke easily at the 1882 and early in 1883 proved that I was right. slightest shock, are when the lamps burned out Edison in 1883 noticed the phenomenon called the glass bulbs became discolored. This discolor- "the Edison Effect"; but he could not explain ation of the glass was generally accepted as a it, nor did he use it in any way. matter of course. It seemed too trifling to notice. In October, 1884, Sir William Preece turned But in science it is the trifles that count. The his attention to investigation of "the Edison little things of today may develop into the great Effect." He decided it was associated with the things of tomorrow. projection of carbon molmiles from the filament Wondering why the glass bulb grew dark, I in straight lines, thus confirming my original started to investigate the matter, and discovered discovery. There Sir William Preece let the mat- that in many burned-out lamps there wa a line ter rest, just as Edison had done. He did not of glass that was not discolored. It was as though satisfactorily explain the phenomenon nor did someone took asmoked glass, drew afinger down he seek to apply it. "The Edison Effect" re- 106 mained just a peculiar property, a mystery of the incandescent lamp.' of "the effect," he found that the plate- filament combination could be used as a rec- At this point other work sidetracked Flem- tifier of alternating currents, not only those ing's attention, but in 1888 he obtained sev- of commercial frequency but also those of eral special carbon-filament lamps made by the high frequencies used in wireless. Edison and also by Sir Joseph Swan in Eng- Fleming's appointment in 1899 as elec- land and resumed his experiments. The fila- trical adviser to the Marconi Wireless Tele- ments, as Fleming described them, were graph Company thoroughly acquainted him "bent 'Ike ahorseshoe," and within the bulbs with the capricious coherer as a detector of or in the side of the tubes metal plates were wireless waves. To find a better detector he attached. He enclosed the negative leg of tried to develop chemical rectifiers, until one the carbon filament in a glass bulb, and no- day the thought occurred to him: "Why not ticed that the bombardment of electrified try the lamps?" particles was stopped. By altering the posi- First he constructed an oscillatory circuit, tion of the metal plates he could vary the with two Leyden jars, a wired wooden frame intensity of the bombardment. When he and an induction coil. He then made another placed a metal cylinder around the negative circuit, in which one of the lamps and a leg of the filament without touching it, the galvanometer were inserted. Both circuits galvanometer registered the strongest current. were tuned to the same frequency. It was obvious to Fleming that the metal cylinder was catching the electrified particles It was about 5 o'clock in the evening when that streamed from the incandescent fila- the apparatus was completed [said Fleming, re- ment. By study of the fundamental causes calling the experiment]. I was, of course, most anxious to test it without further loss of time. Popular Radio, March. 1923. We set the two circuits some distance apart in BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 107 the laboratory, and I started the oscillations being replaced by an ordinary telephone, a re- placement that could be made with advantage the primary circuit. in those days when he spark system of wireless To my delight I saw that the needle of the telegraphy was employed. In this form my valve galvanometer indicated a steady direct current was somewhat extensively used by Marconi's passing through, and found that we had in this Telegraph Company as a detector of wireless peculiar kind of electric lamp a solution of the waves. I applied for a patent in Great Britain problem of rectifying high-frequency wireless on November 16, 1904. currents. The missing link in wireless was found —and it was an electric lamp! For that invention the Royal Society of I saw at once that the metal plate should be Arts, London, in 1921 awarded Fleming its replaced by ametal cylinder enclosing the whole highest distinction—the Gold Albert Medal. filament, so as to collect all the electrons pro- His honors were many, including the Kelvin jected from it. I accordingly had many carbon Medal, the Faraday Medal of the Institution filament lamps made with metal cylinders and of Electrical Engineers and the Franklin used them for rectifying the high-frequency cur- Medal of Franklin Institute, Philadelphia. rents of wireless telegraphy. In March, 1929, he received the honor of This instrument Inamed an oscillation valve. knighthood for his "valuable service in sci- It was at once found to be of value in wireless telegraphy, the mirror galvanometer that Iused ence and industry."

RADIO'S 1E00 MEN OF SCIENCE ro8 AUGUSTO RIGHI

EMINENT SCIENTIST AND TEACHER

BORN: August 27, 1850 DIED: June 8, 1920 Bologna, Italy Bologna, Italy

AUGUSTO Rican, Italian physicist, educated "exciters," the shorter the waves, approach- at Bologna University, became professor of ing those of light. physics from 1873 to 188o at the Bologna It was remarked by aveteran Marconi en- Technical Institute; 188° to 1885 at the gineer that "before describing methods Mar- Palermo University; 1885 to 1889 at Padua coni devised by which he realized his ambi- University and then at the University of tion, it is advisable to refer to the work of Bologna. From 1872 to 1918, Righi published those pioneers who influenced Marconi in more than 200 scientific papers on such sub- his early experiments, and of whose work he jects as "electro-atomic phenomena," "the had knowledge: Maxwell, Hertz, Righi and action of magnetism"; "electrified particles Branly!. in gases"; "electric waves"; "electric oscil- Bologna was Marconi's home. It was there lations"; "Hertzian waves" and "telegraphy that Righi, professor of Physics at the Uni- without wires." After Hertz announced his versity, propagated electric waves as short discovery of electromagnetic waves, Righi as 2.5 centimeters, whereas Hertz had pro- investigated them, especially their optical duced them 30 centimeters in length. Righi properties, and published the results in a improved the Hertz oscillator that generated treatise, Optice Elettrica, in 1897. He no- the waves; he placed the spark gap in vase- ticed that the smaller the spheres on the line oil and made the waves more consistent BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 109 and steady. He contributed a new "detec- the gap a telegraph key was connected in tor" by cutting thin lines on the back of a the primary circuit of the induction coil. mirror, dividing the metallic surface with a This, of course, permitted the formation of diamond point into narrow discontinuous dots and dashes. strips. This provided a spark-distance much After Marconi's success in opening trans- finer than could be attained by amicrometer atlantic wireless service in January, 1903, gap, hence affording greater "sensitivity." with an exchange of greetings between Presi- But it is said that Righi's work in generation dent Theodore Roosevelt and King Edward and detection of electric waves was not in VII, he returned to Bologna; the entire town - itself as important as the fact that it was turned out to greet him, and in the throng partly through him that Marconi found en- was Professor Righi, who at the reception couragement. Although Marconi was never said: enrolled as a student at the University of "Perhaps no one can appreciate better than Bologna, he did hear Righi lecture. I his exceptional inventive power and his In Marconi's first test of wireless he used unusual intellectual gifts. It is to the credit the inducticf coil as the electric-wave emit- of Marconi that he has proved how much ter, and the ball discharger or spark gap described by Professor Righi in his scientific those are in error who regard with disdain- papers. It consisted of four brass balls sepa- ful or indifferent eyes the work carried on rated by small gaps and immersed in vaseline in the silence of the laboratory by modest oil. To control the electric discharge across students of science."

110 RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE OLIVER HEAVISIDE

FOUND THE RADIO "ROOF"

BORN: May 13, 1850 DIED: February 4, 1925 London, England Torquay, England

SIR OLIVER HEAVISIDE, English telephone looked afar, as evidenced in his last book, engineer and mathematician, while in the Electromagnetic Theory in which he de- service of the Great Northern Telegraph scribed the universe "as boundless one way Company devoted much study to the possi- toward the great, so it is equally boundless bilities of quadruplex telegraph. It is be- the other way, towards the small. .. . 'We lieved that he may have been influenced to do not know where life begins, if it has a enter this 'field since he was a nephew of beginning. There may be and probably is no Sir Charles Wheatstone, noted telegraph en- ultimate distinction between the living and gineer. Increasing deafness at the age of the dead." twenty-four caused Heaviside to leave the Fieaviside's voluminous scientific writings telegraph company, and he took up mathe- were said to be difficult even for the ad- matical research. As an ardent student of vanced mathematician. His fame is pinnacled Maxwell he delved into the electromagnetic upon the laws governing propagation of en- theory and wave propagation. ergy in electrical circuits, which led him to Independent and Thy, especially in later investigate the effects of land, water and the life, he lived as a recluse, even cooking and upper atmosphere on the propagation of looking after his home alone. Shielded by wireless waves. solitude, here was a profound thinker who Said Heaviside in 1902: BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. III Sea water though transparent to light, has make waves go round them fairly. The waves quite enough conductivity to make it behave as will go partly through them. 1 a conductor for Hertzian waves, and the same is true in a more imperfect manner of the earth. So in the science of radio it has become Hence the waves accommodate themselves to recognized that high in the sky, at an alti- the surface of the sea in the same way as waves tude of sixty miles and higher, billowing up follow wires. The irregularities make confusion, and down like the big top of a circus, is "the no doubt, but the main vaves are pulled round Heaviside layer." It is the "ceiling" or "mir- by the curvature of the earth, and do not jump ror" that reflects radio waves back to the off. There is another consideration. There may earth. For that discovery Sir Oliver is linked possibly be a sufficiently conducting layer in the- with world-wide radio, since his theory ac- upper air. If so, the waves will, so to speak, counts for the ease with which short waves catch on to it more or less. Then the guidance hop, skip and jump around the globe. will be by the sea on one side and the upper layer on the other. But obstructions, on land 'Oliver Heaviside, by F. Gill, Bell Telephone especially, may not be conducting enough to Laboratories, 1925.

1/2 RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE KARL FERDINAND BRAUN

DEVELOPED THE CATHODE-RAY TUBE BORN: June 6, 1850 DIED: April 14, 1918 Fulda, Germany Brooklyn, N. Y.

KARL FERDINAND BRAUN, physicist, was "the Cathode rays were not originated with Fleming" of the cathode-ray tube. As Flem- Braun for they had been used by Crookes ing developed the valve detector, to which and Roentgen, but up to the time of Braun De Forest added the grid to create the three- the cathode-ray streams had been like arush- element audion, so Braun developed the ing torrent, uncontrolled. It remained for cathode-ray tube to the point where it re- Braun to apply older knowledge systemati- mained chiefly to add the electron gun con- cally in order to deflect the cathode rays. trol to bring the Kinescope, or television He produced a narrow, guided stream of picture tube, into being. electrons; he deflected that stream electro- Educated at Marburg and Berlin, Braun statically and thus made it trace patterns on became professor of physics in 1895 at Mar- a fluorescent screen. This was a great step burg and afterwards at Karlsruhe; later, forward in two fields: First, in oscillography, director of the Physical Institute at Stras- it enabled study of fluctuating voltages and bourg. Electrical phenomena of cathode rays, currents even if their frequencies were ex- oscillographs and the riddles of wireless were tremely high. In fact, the modern cathode- his specialties in research. Noted for de- ray oscillograph, except for refinements and velopment of the Braun cathode-ray tube, details, was born in Braun's laboratory as a he shared the Nobel prize for physics with most useful tool in electrical, electronic and Marconi in 1909. radio research.

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. M3 De Forest, by the Navy. Also the Germans In television, the Braun tube found its sec- and French had the Braun system, while the ond major field of usefulness. It lacked only Russians in the Russo-Japanese War used a one element to enable it to reproduce lumi- variation of it. Sir Oliver Lodge and Braun nous pictures in motion. Braun used an elec- in 1898 were apparently working in the same tron stream of constant intensity. Later, von direction as Marconi; they described induc- Rosing modulated the electron stream in the tively coupled methods and also recognized Braun tube to follow the lights and shadows the necessity for .adjusting the transmitter of an image—and electronic television was on its way, so near did Braun come to the and receiver to the same wavelength. Braun was described by an American radio Kinescope. He had the electron gun, the de- engineer who knew him well as a steady, flecting plates and the fluorescent screen; the thoughtful, typical German professor, gun control was his only missing link. guarded in his speech, careful in his state- Braun was not without contacts and in- ments, modest, good-natured and• friendly. fluence on the early development of wireless As a very skilled radio engineer, he utilized telegraphy. In 1903, five wireless systems the rudimentary technique of his time but were being tested in the United States—the added to it and improved it; his circuits Marconi system; the Slaby-Arco, by the were well designed, and his cathode-ray tube Navy; the Braun, by the Army; the Fes- was a beacon that helped to light the future. senden, by the Weather Bureau; and the

RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE "4 EMILE BERLINER

MAKER OF THE MICROPHONE BORN: May 20, 1851 Hannover, Germany DIED: August 3, 1929 Washington, D. C. EMILE BERLINER lived, as his biographer put sixteen he began to display aflair for inven- it, as "a restlessly active spirit in the endless tion by developing a weaving machine. Kingdom of the unexplored." His story is the Stories of "free America" turned his story of the microphone and of the "lateral thoughts westward, and in 1870, young Ber- cut" phonograph disk record, both of which liner was a passenger when the Hammonia contributed to the art of broadcasting. sailed from Hamburg. Nathan Gotthelf, old Emile's father was Samuel Berliner, a friend of the family, gave him a job in his merchant in Hannover, Germany; his mother store in Washington, D. C. Next he tried his was Sarah Fridman. Of their family of eleven luck in New York, then Milwaukee, and children, Emile was the fourth. His hobby then back to New York. as a boy was "a craze for music." He was At the Philadelphia Centennial in 1876 graduated at the age of fourteen from the Berliner scented the dawn of the Industrial Samsonschule in Wolfenbüttel, about two Age; he saw Bell's telephone on exhibit there. hours by rail from Hannover. That ended He sensed that the telephone was "the com- his schooling. His parents, hard put to care ing thing." From then on, his room in a adequately for their extensive brood, urged lodging house in Washington looked like an Emile to seek work, first as aprinter's devil electrical laboratory. He rigged up telephones and then as a clerk in a dry-goods store. At between his window and the barn and ex- BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 115 ;Berliner caught sight of the micro- perimented no end to improve the telephonic Pl. principle; he had found the solution voice. to ecome the shortcomings of the tele- It is strange what alittle thing will serve as a phone transmitter, or mouthpiece. The new clue when you are groping for a new idea [said microphone rendered faint sound vibrations Berliner]. One of the men I used to visit occa- audible, and varying the contact pressure sionally in those days was Alvan S. Richards, registered the sound's intensity. His caveat chief operator at the Washington fire-alarm tele- describing the microphone was filed in the graph office. I told him one day that I was United States Patent Office April 1.4., 1877; learning to transmit messages. the patent was granted on November 17, "Let me hear what you can do." he said, point- 1891. ing to a sending instrument. I placed my finger Discovering that the carrying power of on the key and started. "Hold on." he exclaimed, the microphone was enhanced by using it in "that isn't right, you must press down on the key, not simply touch it. There must be a firm a circuit with an induction coil, Berliner introduced the continuous current transformer. contact or your message may not be understood at the other end." He explained that in long- From the microphone, Berliner turned his distance transmission, where the resistance is attention'to the "talking machine." He de- high, more current passes .hrough the contacts eloped the lateral cut method of etching the when more pressure is used on the key. human voice on agramophone disk, or "pho- With that explanation I knew I had what I noautogram." had been seekinel went home, rigged up a I By devising a disk gramophone record and diaphragm and made a contact with a steel but- working out a means of cutting it laterally at ton. I began to adjust it until the galvanometer an even depth, I could get accuracy and purity showed that current was flowing. Then Ipressed of tone impossible with the cylinder records with gently and Ifound that each time Ipressed, the their up-and-down cuts of uneven depth [ex- galvanometer deflected through a larger angle. RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE z16 plained Berliner]. More than that, however, I facturers, at the time of Is advent, that it was solved the problem of making unlimited copies destined to remain nothing more than a toy. of one original record. The tremendous commercial success of the In May, 1913, on the twenty-fifth anni- talking machine is, of course, due in some meas- versary of his first exhibition of the gramo- ure to the genius of Eldridge R. Johnson, presi- phone before the Franklin Institute, Berliner dent of the Victor Talking Machine Company, was awarded the Elliott Cresson Medal "in who covered both technical and business fields. recognition of important contributions to te- My part in it you may gather from the statement lephony and to the science and art of sound issued by the Victor Company several years ago production"—which became the heritage of as a warning to infringers. 1 radio broadcasting. The statement read: When beyond three score and ten, Berliner was asked at what age an inventor was most t• The manufacture and sale of the gramophone productive. was first conducted by the United States Gramo- "The young man is the most prolific in- phone Company, followed by the Berliner Gram- ventor every time," he replied unhesitatingly. ophone Company, and then by the Victor Talk- "Most of the great inventions have been ing Machine Company, which latter company made by men between the ages of 22 and 27. acquired its rights from the former companies. More original ideas are evolved in youth We now control the original Berliner basic pat- than at any other time, but, of course, a man ents, and we have the gramophone developed to who is a born inventor keeps producing all its present condition. Through our efforts and his life." improvements, the gramophone has become an important factor in the market, in spite of the Emile Berliner at seventy-five was still general opinion among talking-machine manu- discovering and inventing; his was a spirit powerless to curb. He had three qualities ' Scientific American, July, 1927. indispensable in scientific exploration; driv- BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 117 ing force, unconquerable optimism and utter out undue friction or disturbance—unless it be contempt for failure. our own trespasses—for 70 years. All that is required of us to io is to eat and drink good The heart beats 40,000.000 times in a year things of earth; for the rest of the organs of the [said Berliner], and the lungs inhale 700,000 body take care of themselves. Thus, and through gallons of air in the same period. All this and a countless other wonders, by teaching humility to great many other functions of the human body, its disciples. Science assumes the role of the one more elaborate than the other, continue with- most potent religion.

OLIVER LODGE

GREAT PHYSICIST AND THINKER BORN: June 12, 1851 DIED: August 22, 1940 Penkhull, England Amesbury, Wiltshire, England

SIR OLIVER LODGE, English physicist, was Chemical Laboratory. educated at Newport Grammar School where By work and study at odd hours he ma- he made his first acquaintance with science. triculated at the University of London where Later, on avisit to London, he heard aseries he became much interested in mathematics. of Tyndall's lectures and began the study He received his Bachelor of Science degree in of chemistry by attending afternoon classes 1875, and was selected to fill the post of at Wedgwood Institute. And in 1872 he en- demonstrator of physics at University Col- rolled for a course at the South Kensington lege. He published several papers on the .118 RADIO'S 100 MEN OF SCIENCE flow of electricity, which attracted consider- magnetic waves and commented upon the able attention in the scientific world. The phenomenon of resonance or tuning. He next year he exhibited before the British As- pointed out that some circuits were by their sociation a model derived from Maxwell's nature persistent vibrators—that is, they theories for the purpose of illustrating me- were able to sustain for a long period oscil- chanically the passage of electricity through lations set up in them—while other circuits metals, electrolytes and dielectrics. were so constructed that their oscillations • Lodge was appointed professor of physics were rapidly damped. He said that a receiver and mathematics in the University College, of the rapidly damped type would respond Liverpool, in 1881, where he remained until to waves of almost any frequency, while one 1900. He was awarded the Doctor of Science that was a persistent vibrator would respond degree in 1887. Also, while lecturer at Bed- only to waves of its own natural period, or t• ford College, London, Lodge continued his wavelength. Lodge found that the Hertz research work. In 1889 he wrote alittle book transmitter "radiates very powerfully" but titled Modern Views of Electricity, with the that "in consequence of its radiation of en- exposition based entirely on models. He ergy, its vibrations are rapidly damped," compared the ether, of which he was one therefore it could excite sparks in conductors of the most persuasive and lucid interpreters, barely in, tune with it. to an elastic jelly filling all space; he com- On February 1, 1898, Lodge applied for pared magnetism to whirlpools in that jelly, a patent which was allowed on August 16, or more crudely to interlocking wheels. To 1898, as No. 609,154. It disclosed an adjust- him the universe was a gigantic machine. able induction coil in the open or antenna Lodge, writing in the London Electrician circuit of a wireless transmitter or receiver, in 1894, discussed the discoveries of Hertz, or in both, to make it possible to put the described his own experiments with electro - transmitter and receiver in tune with each

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 119 other. He used a Branly coherer as the de- ing qualities, and increased the cumulative power tector. He broadly claimed that making the of his receiving circuit at the expense of its ab- antenna coil or inductance variable made sorbing qualities. tuning of the antenna circuits in a system of Effecting this compromise by means of the wireless communication possible. introduction of an inductance coil in an open cirquit, he obtained a train of waves of approxi- This "syntonic" or tuning patent won him mately equal amplitude, and this rendered effec- a high place in the history of wireless, for tive syntony (tuning). But the syntony thus ob- it established him as a pioneer in experi- tained was utilized for selectivity alone. It was ments that recognized the necessity of tuning attained at the expense of the radiating and in order to select a desired station. This pat- absorbing qualities of the circuit; and Lodge still ent, incidentally, was acquired by the Mar- supposed that for distant signaling tht single coni Company on March 19, 1912. pulse, or whip crack, was best. Lodge's tuning patent was appraised by the United States District Court (Eastern Where Lodge compromised, as the Court District of New York) in 1914, as "the re- pointed out, Marconi reconciled, so to the alization of the advantages to be derived in Italian went the crown! the matter of sharpness of tuning." But it Of Sir Oliver, Marconi said, was proved that Marconi's original patent was more specific; he had specified that his He is one of our greatest physicists and elevated capacity plates (antenna) were thinkers, but it is particularly in regard to his preferably electrically tuned with each other. pioneering in wireless, which should never be Said the Court in regard to Lodge: forgotten. In the very early days, after the experimental confirmation of Maxwell's theory as He increased the persistence of vibrations of to the existence of electric waves and their prop- his radiating circuit at the expense of its radiat- agation through space, it was given to only a

120 RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE very few persons to possess clear insight in In recognition of his scientific contribu- regard to what was considered to be one of the tions, Lodge received the Rumford Medal of most hidden mysteries of nature. Sir Oliver Lodge possessed that insight in a far greater the Royal Society in 1898 and was knighted degree than perhaps any of his contemporaries. by King Edward VII in 1902. As one of the pioneers in wireless telegraphy, he was As the British asked with regard to Preece, presented with the Albert Medal of the Royal so they inquired why Lodge was not the Society of Arts in 1919. From 1900 to 1919, rightful inventor of wireless? Sir Oliver ex- Sir Oliver was principal of Birmingham Uni- plained it this way: "I was too busy with versity. After 1910 he became increasingly teaching work to take up telegraphic or any prominent as a spiritualist leader and a other development nor had I the insight to strong believer in the possibilities of com- perceive what has turned out to be its ex- municating with the dead; he interested him- traordinary importance to the navy, the mer- self in a serious endeavor to reconcile science chant service, and indeed, land and war and religion. He expressed a belief in telepa- services too." thy and the opinion that the easiest way to The first transoceanic wireless, "an epoch communicate with the planet Mars would be in human history," as Lodge referred to ;t, by means of gigantic geometrical figures inspired him to remark, "Marconi's creation drawn on the Sahara Desert. like that of the poet who gathers words of As the years passed, Sir Oliver became other men in a perfect lyric was none the more and more a believer in speech with less brilliant and original. .. . One feels like the dead, manifestations from the mysterious a boy who has been strumming on a silent unknown, even in nebulous forms that were keyboard of a deserted organ, into the chest produced from ectoplasm at séances. At the of which an unseen power begins to blow a age of eighty, he announced that he would vivifying breath." try to communicate with the world after his

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 121 •death. He placed a sealed document in the whole problem of physics lies in this: why, custody of the English Society of Psychical when I pick up one end of the stick, does not the other end come up too? The forces Research, saying that his message' from the that hold the stick in one are those also beyond would correspond with what he had which bind the universe together." recorded in the document. Lodge had the power of crystallizing into "I think of him," said Sir William eragg, clear statement an entire collection of "as a really magnificent figure, tall and thoughts or arguments. Once during a dis- impressive, a marvelous teacher, an enter- cussion about the forces that bind atom to prising thinker and a great worker, who had a remarkable influence on his contem- atom he picked up a stick that lay on the lecture table, and he seemed merely to be poraries and students. He was a very dis- toying with it, when suddenly he said, "The tinguished man of science."

ELIHU THOMSON

SCIENTIST, INVENTOR, PHILOSOPHER DIED: March 13, 1937 BORN: March 29, 1853 Swampscott, Mass. Manchester, England

•Euxu THomsoN, American inventor, was of this age." Asked to trace the beginning of bis long • recognized in the nineteenth century as "one of the foremost among great men of science and useful career, Thomson said: RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 122 7

I must go back to the year 1853, when I was Thomson and Professor Houston made born in Manchester, England, coming to America their first experiments with the Ruhmkorff with my parents at the age of five and settling in Philadelphia. The year of my graduation from coil in 1871. They noticed while electricity the Central High School in that city was 1870. was flowing between the points of the co3 Iwas then seventeen, and before the end of that that long sparks could be drawn from any year I was made a member of the faculty as metallic object within eight or ten feet and assistant professor of chemistry. In 1876, when from a small steam engine which was thirty I was twenty-three, I was appointed to the full feet away from the coil. Edison, about the professorship of chemistry and mechanics. same time, reported on similar experiments Throughout my youth I was interested in and referred to such sparks as "etheric physics, mechanics, and electricity. Ibegan mak- forces." Thomson is said to have believed ing electrical experiments when I was eleven the "force" was in reality transmission of years of age, constructing my first frictional electrical impulses through the air—wireless! machine at that time. From then until about 188o Iwas frequently engaged, during my spare In 1875, as a twenty-two-year-old high moments, in producing experimental electrical school teacher in Philadelphia, Thomson no- devices; then, about 1877-78, Ibuilt a complete ticed that sparks caused by a Ruhmkorff coil dynamo-electric machine and thereafter gave in the physics room jumped from the brass some demonstrations of electric lighting circuits, doorknobs to a pencil point. While at the including the demonstration of 1879 in which time he was unaware of the full implications, induction coils connected in parallel were em- he said: ployed, foreshadowing the transformer practice of the present time. Some of these early patents I realized that if we had been able to go were taken out jointly with Edwin J. Houston, down the street probably a quarter of a mile Professor of Natural Philosophy at the Phila- away, the same tests might have been productive delptia High School. of positive results and I further realized that

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 123 we had the germ of a new system of electric For sixty-six years Thomson was an out- signaling. standing pioneer in electrical engineering, in In 1879 I began designing an electric arc- physics, chemistry and astronomy. He was light system for the commercial market, having so retiring, so modest and so busy in his re- the financial support of George S. Garrett, of search laboratory that the public scarcely Garrettsford, Penn. My first dynamo would supply four arc lights, but its capacity was soon knew he was alive. Yet leading technical increased, by re-arranging the windings, to fur- societies in America and abroad honored nish current for eight lights. The inherent design him. In a broadcast over WGY, his biogra- of the dynamo made it adaptable also as a three- pher said: phase alternator—I believe it was the first three- phase winding ever-brought out. Thomson's word on scientific subjects was law. As a teacher, and giver of common, sound ad- In 1892—the year in which the Thomson- vice, he was alegendary figure. His kindness and Houston Electric Company was combined understanding, his genius for taking others into with Edison's company to form the General his confidence and inspiring them, have not Electric Company—Thomson wrote an arti- been equaled by any scientist since Michael cle for the New England Magazine which Faraday. was accompanied by a drawing of a light- Thomson was born six years after Edison. house flashing electric waves along with the Edison was spectacular. His mind worked like a steel trap biting to the heart of a problem by light to penetrate a fog. some God-given instinct for mechanical things. "Electricians are not without some hope," Elihu Thomson's mind was as wide and deep as he said, "that signaling or telegraphing over the sea. He had a tremendous knowledge and moderate distances without wires or even instinct for the fundamental laws of nature. His through a dense fog may be an accomplished inventions and discoveries were not made by fact soon." brilliant intuition but by steady reasoning and

124 RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE logic. .. . In 1878 he invented the most com- caused the aurora and earth's magnetic storms. pact and foolproof dynamo machine so far made, Thomson was aLincoln of the scientific world. and founded an industry. At that time he de- When he died he became apermanent American vised the alternating current system of electric tradition. We cannot live through a single day distribution. .. . Professor Thomson was giving without relying upon the inventions and the dis- apublic demonstration in Philadelphia one night coveries of truth that he made. At the time of in 1877 when by accident he produced an elec- his death he held more than 700 patents.' tric weld. Nine years later he patented the process and founded a company to market it. .. . Thomson was recognized as "always more The amount of electric current the world uses is the scientist than the contriver." It was said measured by millions of recording wattmeters of him that in the field of electrical science which are the direct descendants of the Thomson meter invented in 1889. It was Thomson who there was scarcely any aspect in which he discovered the repulsion induction motor, whose had not been active at some time or other. descendants now run vacuum cleaners and elec- \\life affiliated with the General Electric tric fans. He invented the centrifugal separator; Company as director of research at Lynn, the magnetic blow-out principle in lightning ar- Massachusetts, Thomson remarked, "When resters and electric switches; the oil-cooled type 1 see need for a thing I settle down to dis- of transformer; electric resistance welding; elec- cover what is the best thing to do to fill that tric air drill; the constant-current transformer; need." and the process of commercially treating fused Of him it was said in 1933, by President quartz. Compton of Massachusetts Institute of Tech- Thomson was more than an inventor; he was a scientist, a philosopher and a great human nology, "More than any other man now liv- being as well. He built a large telescope and ing or, in fact, more than any man in history, became an authority on the planets and stars. Professor Thomson has combined in a most His lifetime hobby was astronomy. He was one remarkable way the constructive powers of of the first scientists to believe that sun spots David O. Woodbury, March 29, 1943.

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 125 the inventor, the thoroughness and soundness To which tribute was later added at the of the man of science, and the kindly bal- time of his death, "He had a many-sided ance of an ideal philosopher, teacher and mind: astronomy, chemistry, mechanics and friend." electricity—he enriched them all."

JOSEPH JOHN THOMSON

DISCOVERER OF THE ELECTRON

BORN: December 18, 1856 DIED: August 30, 1940 Cambridge, England Manchester, England t. •

SIR JOSEPH JOHN THomsoN, English physi- in 1896. The same year, at Princeton Uni- cist, "found" the electron—the key to a new versity, he delivered aseries of lectures pub- age in electrophysics. As a student of elec- lished in 1897 under the title, "Discharge of tricity and magnetism, he concentrated on Electricity through Gases." In 1903 he re- conduction of electricity through gases, and turned to the United States and received upon his classical investigations into the be- honorary degrees from Princeton, Columbia havior and properties of electrons, the mod- and Johns Hopkins. He was professor of ern theory of thermionic emission was physics at the Royal Institution, London, in founded. 1995. The Nobel prize for physics was Educated at Owens College and Trinity awarded to him in 1906. Knighted in 1908, College, Cambridge, Thomson was appointed he was honored throughout the world of sci- Cavendish Professor of Experimental Physics ence for his development of the modern ionic 126 RADIO'S MO MEN OF SCIENCE theory of electricity, the theoretical and ex- They soon learned that electrons were in- perimental discussion of radioactivity and finitesimal particles carrying negative charges the electrical theory of inertia of matter. of electricity, and recognized them as the When wireless pioneers, including Mar- basic material of atomic architecture—the coni, were puzzled over why the signals trav- corpuscles of radio science. Despite its tiny eled greater distances at night than in the character, scientists have continued to learn daytime, Professor Thomson showed that the more about the electron. They report that it illuminated and ionized air absorbed consid- is 1,840 times lighter than the hydrogen erable energy of the electric waves. atom—the lightest of all atoms. In the atom, Physicists had recognized that matter was the electrons are found to travel in orbits composed of molecules and that molecules about the central nucleus (the proton) in were combinations of atoms. What were the much the same way as the planets move atoms made of? Thomson found the answer around the sun. Thirty billion billion billion —electrons. In 1897 he demonstrated the electrons, it is estimated, might weigh an true character of the electron as the smallest ounce. And the electron stream travels at one- particle of the electrical structure of the tenth the speed of light—at avelocity of 20,- atom. This epochal discovery of the electron 000 miles in a second. Since electricity is be- did not mean that he isolated or saw it; he lieved to consist of millions of free electrons simply verified that something much smaller in motion—flowing through a conductor— than an atom existed, and that these entities the electron stream may well be called the had the same mass and electric charge re- lifeblood of modern radio communications. gardless of the kind of metal from which Electrons pervade all matter. Fortunately, they were produced. they can be liberated from the atoms of Scientists were intrigued and at loss to dis- matter to which they ordinarily are bound. cover an immediate value—but not for long. They may be distilled into a vacuum by

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 127 heating the filament in a radio tube; they through avacuum or gases, and when brought may escape under the influence of light as under control they perform amyriad of tasks. in the photoelectric tube; or they may be Scientists generally agree that electrons freed from the atoms of some substances are basic building blocks from which the by methods of bombardment. ninety-two stable chemical elements are The electron became the nucleus of a new formed. It is explained that the chemical branch of science—electronics, born of the differences between these elements—from hy- incandescent electric lamp, and with the drogen, the lightest, to uranium, the heaviest radio tube as its heart. Such wonders as —depend chiefly on the number and arrange- X-rays, world-wide broadcasting, the electron ment of the outermost electrons in each of microscope, television "eyes" and no end of the ninety-two kinds of atoms. Thus it is new developments attest the ever-growing recognized that all material substances are importance and power of the electron tube. composed of electron. As Faraday called Electronics deals with the liberated elec- upon the world to become electrically minded, trons. When the metal filament, or cathode Thomson directed it to be electronically of a radio-electron tube is heated, the tube minded. comes to life and the action begins. Electrons Acclaimed as the foremost physicist of his are set free. The radio tube generates elec- generation, Thomson was known among his trons, liberates them, harnesses them and associates as "JJ." At the time of his death, puts them to work. It gives man a new grip the New York Times observed that he had on electricity; it greatly widens the concepts bridged the enormous gap between the old and scope of electrical engineering. Electric- physics and the new—the old physics that ity is no longer wire-bound. Electrons are no conceived the atom as the smallest unit of longer imprisoned, but are free to move matter, and the new based upon the far 128 RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE raw ge, fer.q"',

smaller electron. Thomas Huxley, "God give me strength to ; "ll's" whole professional life was spent face a fact though it slay me," the Times probing the deep and hidden nature of remarked that "JJ" had that strength, and matter and electricity. Before him there for that reason even in his old age he was were two different entities; after him, one as young in mind as any later-day chaser and the same. Through his mathematical of neutrons. skill of the highest order he even foreshad- "He, more than any other man," said Sir owed the solar-system type of atom and fur- William Bragg, "was responsible for the fun- nished relativity with one of its important damental change in the outlook which dis- props by showing the relation between the tinguishes the physics of this century from mass and the charge of the electron. that of the last, namely, the electrical con- It may be recalled that when Sir Humphry ception of the constitution of matter." Davy was asked to name his greatest dis- Thomson is rèmembered as amathematical covery he waved his hand toward Michael physicist, not as amanipulator of apparatus. Faraday. Thomson, with ability, kindliness In his experiments he had assistants expert and understanding of young men, could point in handling instruments. He was "all fingers," to Rutherford and fifty others who became awkward with his hands. He figured how noted physicists because he had "discovered" things ought to go and pointed the way; he them and helped them along the way. stimulated and encouraged thought and work Unlike some of the most eminent Victo- among others. He is said to have considered rians, Thomson could throw a useless theory a slide rule a waste of time. His way of overboard and develop a new one which, measuring the diameter of arod was to wrap it was said, left even his associates gasping a thread around it and measure the length at its boldness. Recalling a statement by of the thread.

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 129 Thomson's intellect coupled with great per- —a man utterly unpretentious, whose great severance made a powerful combination: his mind was inseparable from simplicity of fellow workers described him as "a sticker" character.

HEINRICH RUDOLPH HERTZ

DISCOVERER OF ELECTRIC WAVES

BORN: February 22, 1857 DIED: January 1, 1894 Hamburg, Germany Bonn, Germany

H EINRICH RUDOLPH H ERTZ, German physi- 'electromagnetic waves actually would -wash" cist, was the first to create, detect and meas- upon the frontiers of light. ure electromagnetic wayss, and thereby to Hertz's father was a lawyer, and his confirm Maxwell's iheory of "ether" waves. mother, the daughter of a physician, was de- He found aclose relationship between "wire- scend 'd from a long line of Lutheran minis- less" and light by observing that the velocity ters, all of cultural tastes and attainments. of the electric impulses was the same as that At the age of twenty he went to school in of light, and that the law of this electrical Munich to pursue an engineering career, but radiation was the same as the corresponding at the last moment changed his plans and law of optics. He demonstrated that the in- took up the study of natural science, special- visible waves could be reflected, refracted izing in mathematics and magnetics. In 1878 and polarized like the waves of light, and he went to Berlin, and having enrolled as a he expressed belief that if the rate of oscilla- student under Helmholtz and Kirchhoff, he tion could be increased a millionfold, the wrote to his parents, "I am now thoroughly • 130 RADIO'S IOC MEN OF SCIENCE happy and could not wish things better." same effects while investigating the operation of In 1879 the Berlin Academy of Science the lightning conductor. This work of mine was offered a prize for research on the problem in 1886-7, and was described in a paper "On of establishing experimentally any relation Very Rapid Electric Oscillations." between electromagnetic forces and the Hertz became professor of experimental dielectric polarization of insulators. Helm- physics at the Technical High School at holtz drew Hertz's attention to the problem Karlsruhe in 1885. A year later he married and promised him the assistance of the Physi- Elizabeth Doll, daughter of a professor. In cal Institute if he decided to take up the 1888 he received his doctorate and was ap- work and aim for the prize. Do electric and minted assistant to Helmholtz; he also lec- magnetic forces, like light, require time for tured on theoretical physics at the University their propagation? Are there waves? of Kiel. Called to succeed the noted Clausius The riddle wàs complicated by the fact at the University of Bonn in 1889, at the that oscillations of sufficiently high frequency age of thirty-two, he had what was recog- were not then available. nized as a position in the academic world Recalling the challenge, Hertz said: not ordinarily attained until much later in life. I reflected on the problem, but abandoned it As a preliminary experiment directed to- for the time. In 1886 I took it up again, and ward proving the existence of electromagnetic by using apparatus that was available Iproduced waves, Hertz connected a spiral coil in series electric waves, and found that by the use of parallel conductors I could determine the pres- with a condenser and spark gap, and found ence or absence of these waves, in the form of that every charge of the condenser produced nodes or loops, by means of tiny sparks across an oscillatory discharge. This was the key to various positions on these parallel rods. solving the big problem for now he could In this same year Sir Oliver Lodge found the produce high-frequency oscillations.

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. • • 13I Later he replaced this combination with it to be the same as light—t86,000 miles a an oscillator, or "exciter," as he called it, second. and spread the field of force. In fact, real The oscillator was nothing more than a radiation occurred. By means of his search short metal rod with a spark gap in the coil, or resonator, he detected the presence middle and capacity plates at the outer ends of the elusive waves some distance from their of the rod. The sparking terminals consisted source. of small knobs or spheres which were con- The resonator, or detector circuit, com- nected to the terminals of .a Ruhmkorff in- prised a short length of wire in the form duction coil; the small inductance and ca- of a circular loop, containing a micrometer pacitance of this simple linear conductor, gap across which sparks could be seen when together with the proper functioning of the the room was darkened. The effect was more spark gap, accounted for its success.' By pronounced when the resonator was in elec- such means Hertz obtained wavelengths from trical resonance, or tune, with the exciter. a few meters to 30 centimeters—ultra-short Hertz was not content to stop there. He waves. demonstrated that the electric waves could Said Hertz with characteristic constraint, be reflected from plane or curved metal sur- "Such researches as I have made upon this faces in accordance with the same laws as subject form but alink in along chain. Lack those of light waves. Also he showed that the of time compels me, against my will, to pass electromagnetic impulses were refracted by the researches made by many other in- when passing through prisms of pitch, par- vestigators; so that I am not able to show affin and other insulating materials. From you in how many ways the path was pre- actual measurements of the wavelengths and pared for my experiment, and how near sev- computations of tee frequency of the im- '"Hertz," by Julian Blanchard, in Proceedings of pulses he calculated the velocity and found the Institute of Radio Engineers, May, 1938. Ije RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE eral investigators came to performing these to test the fundamental hypotheses of the experiments themselves." Faraday-Maxwell theory and the result of In an electrical journal he described how the experiments is to confirm the fundamen- he radiated electromagnetic waves. A young tal hypotheses of the theory." man in his 'teens happened to read the It was admitted in 1890 that Hertz's dis- story while vacationing in the Alps; for him covery "is working a revolution in our ideas it contained the germ of a big idea. Why about electricity." not use the sparks for signaling? Guglielmo The English mathematical physicist, Sir Marconi cut short his vacation and rushed Oliver Heaviside, observed in 1891: "Three back to his home in Italy to try what seemed years ago electromagnetic waves were no- to be fantastic. where. Shortly afterward they were every- In the summer of 1892, Hertz suffered an where.' illness which developed into chronic blood Sir Oliver Lodge remarked: poisoning. He died at the age of thirty-seven. Few scientists ever accomplished so much in Hertz stepped in before the English physicists so short a span of life as did Hertz, who and brilliantly carried off the prize. He was natu- passed the torch of wifeless to Marconi. rally and unexpectedly pleased with the reception Hertz's epochal experiments were de- of his discovery in England, and his speech on scribed in a paper entitled "Electromagnetic the occasion of the bestowal of the Rumford Waves in Air and Their Reflection," pub- Medal by the Royal Society will long be remembered by those who heard it for its simple- lished in May, 1888. 2 As summarized by hearted enthusiasm and good feeling. His letters Hertz, "the hope of these experiments was are full of the same sentiment. There is not a Hertz's collected papers edited by Dr. Philipp student of physical science on the planet who Lenard and translated into English by Professor will not realize and lament the sad loss conveyed D. E. Jones comprise three volumes. by the message, "Hertz is dead." BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 133 In a memorial address, Professor Herman of them coming from great distances; and to his Ebert, before the Physical Society of Erlan- family he was aloving husband and father. gen on March 7, 1894, expressed this tribute As the founder of a new epoch in experi- to Hertz: mental physics, modestly Hertz had once re- In him there passed away not only a man of marked, "The theory of electricity is so for- great learning, but also a noble man, who had eign to me." the singular good fortune to find many admirers, Of her son, the mother said, "He was but none to hate or envy him; those who came really not ambitious, only very eager." into personal contact with him were struck by Hertzian waves carry his name into pos- his modesty and charmed by his amiability. He was a true friend to his friends, a respected terity, for "on the unerring accuracy of this teacher to his students, who had begun to gather brilliant physicist rests the foundation of around him in somewhat large numbers, some wireless."

NIKOLA TESLA

GENIUS WAS APPLICABLE TO HIM BORN: July 10, 1357 DIED: January 7, 1943 Smiljan, Serbia New York, N. Y.

NIKOLA TESLA, through his wide range of His invention of the induction motor and the electrical experiments and discoveries, be- Tesla coil and his discovery of the rotary came one of the world's foremost electricians. magnetic field principle won him widespread 134 RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE rimy. s.. -Ç'»grePe •

recognition as "the electrical wizard" of the telephone repeater. Later he engaged in elec- nineties. trical engineering in Budapest. In 188i he His father was a Greek clergyman and went to Paris, where he worked as an elec- orator; his mother, Georgina Mandic, was trical engineer, and the following year he an inventor. Mathematics was Tesla's forte; moved to Strasbourg. theories and high-frequency currents his de- Attracted to America by the remarkable lights. Young Nikola's education began with progress of the electrical industry, the one year in elementary school, four years of twenty-seven-year-old Tesla, with four cents the lower Realschule at Gospic, Lika, and in his pocket, stepped off the boat at the then a higher school at Carlstadt, Croatia, Battery in 1884. America as aland of oppor- from which he was graduated in 1873. He tunity was soon apparent, for as he walked studied for four years at the Polytechnic up Broadway he met a group of workmen School at Gratz, devoting most of his time trying to repair an electric motor. They paid to mathematics, physics and mechanics, and him Szo to fix it. subsequently had two years at the University Tesla, like may a foreign enthusiast in of Prague, where he studied philosophy. At electricity who came to these shores, arrived Gratz, he had seen Z. T. Gramme's electrical with high hopes of finding work with Edison. dynamo armature. Struck with the objections His luck continued; Edison gave him a job to the use of commutators and brushes on in the laboratory at Orange, New Jersey, dynamo-electric machines, he determined to designing motors and generators. remedy that "defect" and to simplify the Before long a proposal was made that machine. Tesla start his own company. Early in 1887 While employed by the Austrian govern- the Tesla Electric Company was formed, ment in its telegraph engineering division, but it was not a financial success. It was Tesla made his first practical invention—a in 1888, however, that Tesla produced his

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. I35 epoch-making motors for alternating current. "whose blueprints were plausible, even His system of electrical conversion and dis- though they were far ahead of the technical tribution by' oscillatory discharges was de- resources of his day." He belonged, as a veloped the following year, and in 1891 the friend remarked, "to the passing age of famous Tesla coil, or transformer, was intro- heroic invention of which Edison was the duced; also he demonstrated the principle most distinguished exemplar—the age of of tuning at Columbia University. technical poets who expressed themselves in He devised a system of wireless transmis- generators, inductance coils and high voltages sion in 1893 and began to talk about trans- rather than in drama or verse and who were mitting power through the air. He developed the real architects of culture." the principle of the rotary magnetic field Tesla was called "the lone scientist"—a embodied in early power transmission at wizard to some, afanatical prophet to others; Niagara Falls, and invented an arc-lighting always his vivid images were of the future. system as well as innumerable dynamos, When Hertz demonstrated that electro- transformers, coils, condensers and other magnetic waves could be reflected by means electrical apparatus. In 1895, at Niagara, his of reflectors, he was far ahead of h;. ' e new method for generating electricity (alter- in the science of radio-location. But it re- nating current) for transmission over long mained for Tesla to recognize and to ponit distances produced too,000 hp—an output out the practical application of the radio of electrical energy equaling that of all other "echo," so vital in the Second World War. generating stations operating at the time Describing his 1889 method and transmission in the United States. The press observed that of wireless energy in Century (June, 'goo), "the electric revolution has started." he said: Tesla was no tinkerer. He was recognized as a first-class mathematician and physicist That communication without wires to any

136 RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE point of the globe is practical with such apparatus would need no demonstration, but through That was Tesla the prophet at his best, a discovery which I made I obtained absolute revealing one of his vivid images of the certitude. Popularly explained, it is exactly this: future. When we raise the voice and hear an echo in reply, we know that the sound of the voice must Li ,zht cannot be anything els, but a longitudi- have reached a distant wall or boundary, and nal di,turbance in the ether, involving ultimate must have been reflected from the same. Ex- compressions and rarefactions. In other words, actly as the sound, so an electrical wave is re- light can be nothing else than a sound wave in flected, and the same evidence which is afforded the ether. As a matter of fact radio transmitters by an echo is offered by an electrical phenomenon emit nothing else but sound waves in the ether. known as a "stationary" wave—that is, a wave The shorter the waves the more penetrative they with fixed nodal and ventral regions. Instead of become. sending sound-vibrations toward a distant wall, I have sent electrical vibrations toward the re- When Tesla patents were brought forward mote boundaries of the earth, and instead of in the court (1914) as prior to Marconi's the wall the earth has replied. In place of an "four circuit" tuner, the court stated _the echo I have obtained astationary electrical wave impossibility of obtaining wireless communi- —a wave reflected from afar. cation with apparatus such as Tesla de- Stationary waves .. . mean something more scribed. By calculation it was snown that the than telegraphy without wires to any distance. local oscillatory circuits of the Tesla trans- .. . For instance, by their use we may produce mitter were vibrating at a wavelength of at will, from a sending station, an electrical 1.200 meters, while the elevated wire (an- effect in any particular region of the globe; we tenna) which he suggested would be some- may determine the relative position or course of where in the vicinity of six or seven miles a moving object, such as a vessel at sea, the in height, and would have a natural wave- distance traversed by the same, or its speed. length of 28,000 to 56,000 meters. There- BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 1.37 in final tribute observed: "He consistently fore, it could not be tuned by the apparatus lived in a land of brilliant concepts, ideal- with which Tesla proposed to pick up the ized dreams and aspirations so lofty as to signals. As winner of the Edison medal in be foredoomed. .. . Tesla was acatalyst in 1916, he was said to be "power-minded the realm of technology, a daring originator, rather than communication-minded." Trans- and adreamer on a grand scale. His passing mission of power by wireless was his big seems in asense the end of an epoch." dream. He felt that "anyone could communi- Editorially, the New York Times said: cate by wireless—it was atask already understood." . .. . His practical achievements were limited As he advanced in years, Tesla's ideas bor- to the short period that began in 1336 and ended dered increasingly on the fantastic. On his in 1903. And what achievements they were! seventy-eighth birthday he announced that Polyphase currents and alternating %urrent en- be had invented a "death beam" powerful gineering, applied against the opposition of Lord enough to destroy 10,000 airplanes at a Kelvin and Edison in the first hydroelectric plant distance of 250 miles and annihilate an army of Niagara Falls, the induction motor, the use of oil in transformers, remarkable work in wire- of 1,000,000 soldiers instantaneously. less at a time when Marconi had yet to make In his late seventies Tesla said that he his mark, electric arcs fed by direct current in a expected to live beyond 140. At the age of magnetic field, later applied by Poulsen in the 86, with more than 700 patents to his credit, first radio telephone, gas-discharge lamps whicli he died as he had spent the last years of were in some respects the tgrerunners of the his life—alone in the New York hotel room neon lights that now shine on every Main Streit, which he had made his home. the medical application of high-frequency cur- Death had brought to an end an engineer- rents in what he called "electrical massage"— ing career of unique and unconventional na- those crucial seven years of his youth were crowded with triumphs out cf which came the ture, and the Institute of Radio Engineers ‘IADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 138

1MM whole modern apparatus of high-voltage electrical engineering. power transmission by radio. The tall, leati Yet all this he affected to regard as of minor inventor in acutaway coat entered the room, importance. It was the Jules Verne future that laid his black derby on the table and then, engrossed him, for which reason the last half looking out across the skyline of New York, of his life was spent in the isolation of a recluse. spoke in almost a whisper: For forty years he lived and worked in a world of fantasy crackling with electric sparks, packed There is something frightening about the uni- with strange towers to receive and ,mit energy verse when we consider that only our senses of sound and sight make it beautiful. Just think, the and dreamy contrivances to give utopian man complete control of nature. It was a lonely life. universe is darker than the darkest ink; colder .. . If that abused mord "genius" ever was ap- than the coldest ice and more silent than a silent tomb with all bodies rushing through .nace at plicable to any man it was to him. 1 terrific speeds. What an awe-inspiring picture, isn't it? Yet it is our brain that gives merely a Shy of manner and ascetic in his tastes, physical impression. Sight and sound are the only Tesla always preferred his workshop to soci- avenues through which we can perceive it all. ety. He never married. He ate sparingly and Often I have wondered if there is a third sense drank neither coffee nor tea. On the other which we have failed to discover. I'm afraid not hand, he regarded alcohol in moderation as [he said after some hesitation and thought]. If virtually an elixir of life. It was his habit there were, we might learn more about the uni- to stay up until daylight and then to sleep verse. only for a few hours before resuming his work. Tesla commented on the vast change that had come over the art of invention in the In one of his last interviews with this streamlined era of speed. Man, he observed, author, Tesla in his eighties still dreamed of had little chance to think. The egg of science, January 9, 1943. he said, â laid in the nest of solitude. BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 139 tremendous power, believed that every per- It is providential that the youth or man of inventive mind is not "blessed" with a million son, to be content, must have an ideal. And dollars [he continued]. The mind is sharper and if not! He shook his head in despair at such keener in seclusion and uninterrupted solitude. a thought. Originality thrives in seclusion free of outside Religion is simply an ideal [he remarked]. It influences beating upon as to cripple the creative is an ideal force that tends to free the human mind. Be alone, that is the secret of invention; being from material bonds. Ido not believe that be alone, that is when ideas are born. That is why matter and energy are interchangeable, any more many cue the earthly miracles have had their than are the body and soul. There is just so genesis in humble surroundings. The young man much matter in the universe and it cannot be need not deplore that he has no million dollars destroyed. As I see life on this planet, there is to develop an idea. It does not cost a million no individuality. It may sound rid;culous to say dollars to think; and by the thinking process the so, but Ibelieve each person is but a wave pass- idea is created. ing through space, ever-changing from minute to Tesla, who hurled man-made thunderbolts minute as it travels along, finally, some day, just ir the nineties, when man marveled at such becoming dissolved.

MICHAEL IDVORSKY PUPIN IMMIGRANT, INVENTOR, TEACHER DIED: March 12, 1935 n0RN: October 4, 1858 New York, N. Y. Ivor, Hungary gras ated from Columbia University in 1883, M ICHAEL IDVORSKY PUPIN, electrophysicist, inventor and educator, of Serb ancestry, and L -r further study at Cambridge, Eng- land, a. I at the University of Berlin under came to the United States in 1874. He was RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 140 Helmholtz, he returned to New York to be possible. He said, "The faintness of the sig- appointed professor of mathematical physics nals had nothing to do with it. Distance was at Columbia University in 1891. His re- overcome! ... Marconi deserves great credit searches covered the wide field of telegraph, for pushing the work so persistently and telephone and wireless. He discovered sec- intelligently." ondary X-ray radiation in 1896. Always the admirer of Marconi, Pupin Pupin's crowning triumph was the inven- added at the time of the Titanic disaster, tion of the telephone repeater or Pupin coil, "Marconi did an immortal job. .. . When which greatly extended the long-distance tel- he gi-ounded the transmitter •and then the ephone through a system in which localized receiver, and let the spark go, then the inductance coils placed at predetermined in- world had wireless, and no one had ever tervals in the line are used to maintain tone done that before." distinctions. The Bell Telephone Company Pupin's road to fame was long and steep. acquired the patent in 1901. Once a shepherd boy, he left home with his Pupin's contributions to wireless included parents' blessing at the age of fifteen, witàh research on the electrolytic detector, tuning, a small bundle of food and clothing, eventu- and development of the loading coil. His ally to reach America in the autumn of 1874, patents on "electrical selectivity" (tuning) as he described it "with five cents in my were licensed to the Marconi Company in pocket and apiece of apple pie in my hand." 1903. He did chores on farms, worked at all sorts When the skeptical world scoffed at the of cdd jobs, went to night school, learned idea of wireless, at the time Marconi an- English, saved his pennies and entered Co- nounced reception of the first transatlantic lumbia University in 1879. It was remarked signal in 1901, Pupin was not among the that he "read messages in every star and doubting Thomases. He knew wireless was flower, in every vibrating atom and ethereal BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 141 -

wave." But there was none of the tinkerer a noted radio engineer. "There was no pre- or whittler in him; he was atrained physicist, tense about Pupin. And he was a man of not ablind performer who goes through end- two moods—the earthly realist, and the less experiments to find success. His was highly abstract inventor and dreamer. He powerful mathematical equipment; he was had an impish humor." no empiricist. He had the imagination of a Aside from invention, Pupin scored as a great artist. In 1917 he was President of the teacher at Columbia who not only taught Institute of Radio Engineers. The Edison electrical principles but inspired his students, Medal was his in 1920. fired their imaginations and pointed out to "Pupin was a man of complete intellectual them the paths of invention. Defeat was not honesty; if he made an error in an equation in his vocabulary. From Immigrant to In- on the blackboard he would quickly admit ventor, his inspiring autobiography, is the the mistake, rub out the blunder and begin story of a great life, a fascinating career again," said one of his students, who became and of America as a land of opportunity.

JAGADIS CHUNDER BOSE

PIONEER IN WAVE-TELEGRAPHY

BORN: November 30, 1858 DIED: November 23, 1937 Rarikhal, East Bengal, India Giridih, Bengal, India

SIR JAGADIS CHUNDER BOSE, Hindu physicist was a noted scholar and mathematician. and botanist, was once referred to as Mar- After graduating from St. Xavier's College, coni's "immediate predecessor." His father Calcutta, young Bose •entered Christ's Col- 142 RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE lege, Cambridge, England. He was graduated What is the law describing the intensity or with high honors in 1884, and then went power of the wave at any given distance? back to India as professor of physics at Bose was asked.' Presidency College, Calcutta. Fascinated by "Exactly the same as the law of light," Hertzian waves, Bose delved into the subject he replied. "Generally speaking, these elec- of "wave-telegraphing." tric waves act like rays of light." During a lecture in Calcutta he demon- Do you mean to say that you could tele- strated the ability of electric waves to pene- graph in this way through houses as far as trate walls of wood and brick. His radiator you could send abeam of light with asearch- was asmall platinum ball between two small light? platinum beads, connected to atwo-volt bat- "I would not like to say it in these terms, tery. When a key was pressed the ball but generally speaking, such is the fact." sparked and, as he explained, started awave How far could this ether dispatch be sent? through the ether in all directions like a "Indefinitely; that depends upon the ex- wave produced by dropping a stone into a citing energy," said Bose. pond. And what other unknown forces also lie The Bose receiver was about seventy-five in the upper regions? feet distant from the radiator with three "That remains for the future," replied thick walls between them, yet the electric Bose. "It is impossible to forecast what new wave was made to fire a pistol and ring a facts the study of the ether is destined to bell. The energy was concentrated as rays give us. It is a tremendous field, from which of light are concentrated by a lens placed we may expect new facts, new forces—new close to the radiator; Bose used "lenses" of forms of energy—results now unthought of various materials—sulphur, ebonite and pitch. 1 Interviewed for McClure's dlagazine, March,

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 143 ,-. 77.4111•814,34-1» and unthinkable." coherer as the detector. Dr. Bose came on Though named as a discoverer of "the the scene in London at the time Marconi new telegraphy," it was said that Bose had was said to have "opened new doors in the no interest in it, for he had done little more electric wing of the temple of truth." than was announced by Hertz in 1888. Nev- As professor emeritus of Presidency Col- ertheless, he had done great work, under- lege, in 1915, he founded the Bose Research stood and appreciated by other investigators. Institute in Calcutta for the study of plant He explained that his study had pertained and insect life. The botanical world had to electric radiation, more particularly elec- lured him away from wireless; more impor- tric waves, varying between about one-quar- tant to him was hearing the "heart beat" of ter and about one-half inch in length. His plants. To study the "nervous reaction" of results were represented in the apparatus plants he invented the crescograph, a re- which he described before the British Asso- corder said to be capable of magnifying a ciation at Liverpool in 1896—apparatus for small movement as much as ten million the verification of the laws of reflection, re- times. It was observed that if he had not fraction, selective absorption, interference deliberately turned his back on commercial- and polarization of these waves. He used a ism, he might have anticipated Marconi.

RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 144

• ••• ALEXANDER STEPANOVITCH POPOFF

RUSSIA'S MARCONI BORN: March 16, 1859 DIED: January, 1906 Perm, Russia St. Petersburg, Russia

ALEXANDER STEPANOVITCH POPOFF was the in 1899 wireless communication was estab- Russian pioneer in wireless, yet his com- lished between the battleship Admiral Apra- patriots have noted that "by the irony of sin and the coast, a distance of forty-five fate his discoveries have been given very miles. In 1900, a wireless dispatch from St. little credit in Europe or America." Popoff Petersburg, using Popoff apparatus, was entered the wireless field through his attempt flashed to the icebreaker Ermak in the Bal- to develop a device to detect thunderstorms tic, instructing the crew to rescue a group of in advance. He conceived the idea of using fishermen stranded on floating ice in the the Branly coherer to pick up the static or Gulf of Finland. A year later the Russian atmospheric electricity—the clue to the elec- Army used Popoff's equipment, and in 1903 tric storm's approach. the Ministry of Postal-Telegraph opened ris In May, 1895, at ameeting of the Russian first commercial wireless service. Physicist Society of St. Petersburg, •using Popoff is said to have refused to take out Hertz apparatus and a coherer, Popoff is a patent on his wireless system, contending reported to have sent and received a wireless that the discovery should benefit the scientific signal across 600 yards. In March, 1897, he world at large. In 1908 a special commission established a station at Kronstadt, and led by Professor O. D. Hvolson of St. Peters- equipped the cruiser Africa with his appa- burg is reported to have established Popoff's ratus. As the story of Popoff's record goes, findings and the application' of them. He had BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 145 disclosed the successful use of the coherer neither he nor anyone else "described and in the Journal of the Physico Chemical So- demonstrated a system of wireless adapted ciety, St. Petersburg, in 1896. Popoff ex- for the transmission and reception of definite pressed the hope that wireless telegraphy intelligible signals by such means," until could be accomplished by means of Hertzian Marconi came on the scene.„Such was the waves, but as the courts later pointed out, "irony of fate" that befell Popoff.

PAUL NIPKOW

INVENTOR OF THE TELEVISION DISK ota<11: August 23, 1860 DIED: August 24, 1940 Lauenburg, Pomerania Berlin; Germany

PAUL NIPKOW, television pioneer, was edu- On Christmas Eve, 1883, the solution of cated in the local school at Lauenburg and the general idea for television came to him. at Neustadt, where his interest in telescopes, It was the perforated spiral distributing disk optics and the telephone caused him to pon- or scanner, for which a "Patentschrift" was der about sending pictures over wires. As- granted to him on January 6, 1884. The Nip- tounded with the simplicity of the telephone, kow disk was the basic scanner used in all Nipkow constructed a microphone out of of the early television systems—in fact, right nails and succeeded in transmitting noises up to the late twenties when electronic scan- from one attic to another. To learn about ning was adopted. The scanning disk is re- wireless he attended lectures by Helmholtz membered as the device that whirled tele- and Slaby in Berlin and Charlottenburg. vision into being; it proved that pictures in 146 RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE motion could be flashed over wire and radio. phantom, the use of a set of paddle wheels Nipkow, however, was ahead of his time; on an airplane. Instead of the paddles being he lacked the light-sensitive cells, neon lined up parallel, he arranged them to swing lamps, cathode-ray tubes, photoelectric cells around on the main crosscurrents, enabling and radio-electron tubes that later experi- the flying machine to be steered in any de- menters had available for use in the circuit sired direction, vertically straight, obliquely with his disk. up, forward or backward, without shifting There was no wireless in 1884, for as the rotation of the motor. Nipkow said, "It was television over the tele- In 1933 he wrote: "They are building an phone wires that appeared before me Hertz airplane of this type in Berlin right now. had not yet taught; Marconi had not yet Compare it with the wing movements of telegraphed. How then could such far-flung insects which enable them to stay in one ideas as pictures through the air have come place in a room." to a modest student of philosophy?" Nipkow lived to see the cathode-ray tube While the wireless was being unfolded by Marconi and others, Nipkow turned his at- used as the television scanner, and he con- tention to the development of a practical fessed that it had "the most prospect for system for making railroad traffic safe. And realization." then, as he described it, he chased another The occupation of Paul Nipkow in the Ber- Letter to the author dated Berlin, February 27, lin directory of the 'thirties read, "head en- 1933. gineer, retired."

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 147 ARTHUR EDWIN KENNELLY

PUT A CEILING ON RADIO DIED: June 18, 1939 BORN: December 17, 1861 Boston, Mass. Bombay, India

ARTHUR EDWIN KENNELLY, mathematical and he is best remembered in the realm of physicist of British parentage, was educated radio for his explanation of the mechanism in England, Scotland, France and Belgium. of transmission of electric waves. In the be- His first position was that of assistant sec- ginning of wireless it was supposed that long- retary of the Telegraph Society of London, distance communication was hopeless, be- and in 1876 he joined the Eastern Telegraph cause of the curvature of the earth. It was Company, concentrating on submarine cables reasoned that with the field strength varying and mathematical treatment of the phenom- inversely as the square of the distance, the ena of transmission lines. In 1887 he carne energy would be attenuated rapidly. Mar- to America as an electrical assistant to coni's first transatlantic signal put this idea Thomas A. Edison and held that position to a test, and proved it was not so. Some until 1894. Appointed professor of electrical unknown factor intervened. engineering at Harvard in 1902, he occupied Could it be that high in the earth's at- that chair until his retirement as professor mosphere a conducting layer of ionized air emeritus in 1930; from 1913 to 1924 he also reflected radio waves back to the earth, so was professor of electrical engineering at that the curvature was overcome and the en- Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and ergy spread restricted to two dimensions? in 1916 president of the Institute of Radio If so the attenuation of signals would vary Engineers. Kennelly probed the vagaries of the ether, with the first power of the distance instead RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 148 of the square. Kennelly proved this and went call it the Kennelly-Heaviside surface, or further. layer. He did not assume the existence of a For "meritorious achievement in electrical purely speculative conducting stratum but science, electrical engineering and electrical showed (in 1902) that an electrically con- arts" Professor Kennelly was awarded the ducting stratum must exist because of rare- Edison Gold Medal of the American Insti- faction of the atmosphere, at a height of tute of Electrical Engineers in 1933. about fifty miles, with conductivity several Said Kennelly in 1926: "Through radio I times as great as that of sea water. Thus look forward to aUnited States of the World. Kennelly and Sir Oliver Heaviside, working Radio is standardizing the peoples of the independently, one in America and the other earth. English will become the universal lan- in England, were recognized as co-discoverers guage because it is predominantly the lan- of the "radio mirror" or "roof," and the en- guage of the ether. The most important as- gineering world hyphenized their names to pect of radio is its sociological influence."

GEORGE OWEN SQUIER CHAMPION OF WIRED WIRELESS BORN: March 21, 1865 DIED: March 24, 1934 Dryden, Mich. Washington, D. C.

MAJOR GENERAL GEORGE OWEN SQUIER, ice from 1916 to 1918; in February, 1917, he "Army scientist," was wartime chief signal was appointed the chief signal officer of the officer and chief of the American Air Serv- Army. BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 149 Squier was graduated from West Point in lephony along the line of a wire"; guidance 1887, with high honors, having specialized in by the wire, it was explained, would insure physics. In London, at the time Marconi first greater accuracy, secrecy and dependability demonstrated wireless there, Squier witnessed than would be gained from broadcasting. the tests in the laboratory of Sir William Wired wireless brought Squier to the front Preece at the Post Office, where British offi- pages of the press and he had considerable cials including Army and Navy officers were publicity, as also happened in 1919, when he invited to hear the sparks and the resultant attracted attention by using trees as radio an- signals. Squier's training and his interest in tennas. He drove a spike into the trunk of a electricity as it applied to communications tree on the outskirts of Washington and qualified him as chief signal officer of the picked up signals from Germany. He called Third Army Corps during the Spanish-Amer- such messages "floragrams," and the tree- ican War, and in 1900 he was sent to the telegraph was described as a "floragraph"; Philippines to lay the cable telegraph sys- the receiver a"floraphone." Squier retired from the Army and from the tem. Upon return from the Far East, Squier radio field in 1924 with many medals and studied at Johns Hopkins, and received his honors as evidence of his work in wireless, Ph.D. in 1903. He was interested also in aero- especially as applied to military operations. nautics, but while in the laboratory of the His awards included the Elliott Cresson Gold Medal, in 1912, for his researches in multi- Signal Corps at Washington, he developed "wired wireless," which he patented and ded- plex telephony, and in 1919, the Franklin icated to the public. It was described as a Medal and the Distinguished Service Medal, "method of using wireless currents for te- U. S. Army.

RADIO'S TOO MEN OF SCIENCE ISO CHARLES PROTEUS STEINMETZ

ELECTRICAL WIZARD BORN: April 9, 1865 Breslau, Germany DIED: October 26, 1923 Schenectady, N. Y.

CHARLES PROTEUS STEINMETZ arrived in the in the office of Eickemeyer & Osterheld at United States in 1889 as a penniless immi- Yonkers, New York. grant and became one of America's outstand- Three years later, in 1892, this same young ing electrical engineers. Described standing man spoke before the American Institute of on the steamer's deck as "a seeming pygmy, a Electrical Engineers and revealed new mathe- dwarf in stature, not conscious of his destiny matical laws to leaders of the American and with no intimation that he was to solve electrical engineering profession. He was ac- some of the riddles of the electrical era," he claimed for throwing light into dark corners had no thought of an electrical career as he of electrical engineering. In 1893 the General stepped down the gangplank in New York to Electric Company bought Eickemeyer's plant set foot on American soil. and patents, but the odd young fellow with In fact, he was ahhost "sent back home." the hunched shoulders, jet-black hair, keen Immigration officers were determined to de- eyes and brilliant mind was appraised as port him, but the friendship and financial Eickemeyer's "most pronounced asset." He support of afellow student, Oscar Asmussen, had distinguished himself by making known who accompanied him in steerage and took the mathematics of the law of hysteresis. full responsibility for Steinmetz's future, Steinmetz left Yonkers to become a General gained him entry to America. He soon found Electric engineer at the Lynn plant. In 1902 ajob as an electrical draftsman at $12 aweek he was appointed professor of electrical en- BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 151 gineering at Union College. yielded to slumber only with regret. Steinmetz, as seen shortly after his arrival Eating was anecessary evil to him, but he on these shores by E. W. Rice, Jr.,' was de- took the burden upon himself and cooked on scribed as "a small frail body, surmounted by alittle gas stove, not as achef but as achem- a large head with long hair hanging to the ist. He was partial to yellow, so eggs were a shoulders, clothed in an old cardigan jacket, favorite diet. cigar in mouth, sitting cross-legged on a An inveterate cigar smoker, he bought laboratory work table. I instantly felt the cigars in lots of soo and when the General strange power of his piercing but kindly eyes; Electric Company erected signs in the plant his enthusiasm, his earnestness, his clear con- "No Smoking," he used a piece of chalk to ception and marvelous grasp of engineering make the placard near his laboratory read: problems convinced me that we had indeed "No Smoking—No Steinmetz." Those who made a great find." worked alongside him described him as It was said that no workshop in America, "mathematician, inventor and a marvelous perhaps in all the world, had as much human being." As inventor he assigned more Bohemian environment, bizarre atmosphere, than 201 patents to the General Electric as did Steinmetz's laboratory during those Company, among them his aluminum cell years when the new century was coming in, lightning arrester and the magnetite arc lamp and with it the gleaming, blue-white lamps. which went into use all over the country. He never tired of laboratory work, and his "Steinmetz was particularly good in in- associates observed that he had the creed of structing people how to tackle a new job— a searcher—he lost himself for long hours in just the way to go at it, the trouble to be ex- his laboratory. He never thought of sleep and pected, and the way to get around it," 2 said J. T. H. Dempster, one of Steinmetz's oldest President of the General Electric Company, 1913-22. The Monogram, October, 1943. 152 RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE

- • associates in research. pect of the art of designing efficient electric A Frenchman, Henri Amiel, differentiated power-consuming apparatus. He applied between talent and genius: "You aie talented mathematics to the phenomenon of altera- if you can do easily what is hard for others tions, cycles and phases—and did it so sim- to do. But to be agenius, you must do things ply, compared to the hitherto slow, compli- that are impossible for others—impossible for cated methods, that formidable difficulties of even talented persons to do." alternating current were mastered, although "Steinmetz was both talented and a the Steinmetz formula was not easy to com- genius," said Dempster, recalling these defini- prehend. tions of Amiel. "And he tried to show others Devoting considerable time to investiga- the way by asking: 'Who can say what is'im- tions of lightning phenomena at "the House possible?' and by advising young and old to of Magic" in Schenectady, Steinmetz, 'Do what no one else does.' So, he was more through his study of magnetism and electric- than a mathematician, even more than an ity, became identified with wireless. inventor—he was also an inspired genius." Steinmetz, like Dr. Albert Einstein, Although he had several hundred patents, pointed out that the conception of the ether the outstanding contribution of Steinmetz to was one of those hypotheses made in an at- electrical science is listed as "investigations tempt to explain some scientific difficulty. He on magnetism resulting in his discovery of declared that the more study was applied to the law of hysteresis, which enabled losses of the ether theory the more unreasonable and electric power due to magnetism to be cal- untenable it became. He held that it was culated before starting the construction of merely conservatism or lack of courage which transformers, motors, generators and other had kept science from abandoning the ethe- electrical devices utilizing iron." real hypothesis. Steinmetz called attention to His intricate equations simplified one as- the fact that belief in an ether is in contradic-

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. I53 tion to the relativity theory of Einstein, since of an alternating electromagnetic field of this theory holds that there is no absolute force which extends through space. Scientists, position or motion, but that all positions and he contended, need no idea of ether. They can motions are relative and equivalent. Thus, if think better in terms of electromagnetic science agreed that the theory of relativity is waves. Consequently, Steinmetz heralded the correct the ether theory must be abandoned. Einstein theory of relativity as "the greatest Scientists in general, therefore, discarded contribution to science of the last fifteen the ether theory. They derided the radio years." ethereal medium as fiction, calling it amake- • If there are no ether waves, what are radio shift fabricated to explain something for listeners and television spectators to think of which scientists have not had the correct ex- as the mechanism of the broadcast wave? planation. Steinmetz explained that the space sur- In the pre-Marconi era the only real things rounding a magnet is a magnetic field. To were bodies, space and time. Those were the produce a field of force requires energy, and constructive elements from the physical view- the energy stored in space is called the field. point. Faraday introduced the idea of an elec- This is supposed to be an accumulation of tric or magnetic field, such as surrounds an the forces of all the electrons in existence. In ordinary magnet. Scientists, therefore, intro- broadcasting, the radio transmitter disturbs duced a new body called the ether to repre- the energy stored in the vast reservoir of sent a physical state. This, theoretically, al- space which listeners tap to hear music and lowed the electromagnetic phenomena to voices, or to see pictures. The earth is also occur in space. surrounded by a gravitational field. When a Steinmetz asserted shortly before his death ball is thrown skyward it falls back because that "there are no ether waves." He said that it does not have sufficient force behind it to radio and light waves are merely properties overcome the power of the gravity which acts RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCEENCE 154 Upon it. observer, who wants to forget the ether can If acoil of insulated wire surrounds apiece think of the aerial at the transmitter, setting of soft iron and a direct current is sent up electromagnetic waves in a field of elec- through the coil we have what is called an tric force which fills all space (and therefore electromagnet. The space around the coil is every receiving wire is within the field). This the magnetic field. When the current is de- electromagnetic field, however, is supposed to creased the breadth of the field is reduced. If be in astate of rest until the radio transmit- the current is reversed the field is reversed. ter causes it to vibrate. The action of the When an alternating current is sent through transmitter is like tapping a mold of Jello. the coil the magnetic field alternates. The Waves pass through it. The receiving set de- field becomes aperiodic phenomenon or wave, tects the vibrations. described by Steinmetz as "an alternating Old associates tell how all conversation magnetic field-wave." stopped when Steinmetz entered the labora- The space surrounding awire that carries tory. All heads turned in his direction; all an electric current is an electromagnetic eyes focused on the impressive figure, diminu- field," said Steinmetz, "that is, acombination tive in stature, yet suggestive of apower be- of amagnetic field and an electrostatic field. yond physical strength. If the current and voltage alternate, the elec- For nearly thirty years he opened the day tromagnetic field alternates; it is a periodic at office or laboratory with the same greeting, field or an electromagnetic wave." "Good morning! Good morning!" and added, Thus, the broadcast listener, or television "What's new?"

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 155 "'«f ..1,-.9e! •

REGINALD AUBREY FESSENDEN AMERICAN PIONEER IN WIRELESS BORN: October 6, 1866 DIED: July 23, 1932 East Bolton, Quebec Bermuda

REGINALD AUBREY FESSENDEN, physicist, field that he decided to give up teaching and radio pioneer and inventor, won fame through go to New York with the hope of fitting him- his early wireless experiments at Brant Rock, self for a job under Edison. In Fessenden's Massachusetts, after which Elihu Thomson mind only one inventor in all history ranked called him "the greatest wireless inventor of with Edison, and that was Archimedes. the age—greater than Marconi." Finally obtaining a job as tester with the Fessenden was born in the rectory of a Edison Machine Works engaged in putting small parish at East Bolton, on Lake Mem- down telephone conduits in New York, Fes- phremagog, Lower Canada. When he was senden worked his way to becoming one of nine years old the family moved to Niagara Edison's assistants at the Llewellyn Park Falls, and the boy entered DeVeaux Military Laboratory. Edison encouraged him to spe- College, alongside the Whirlpool Rapids. In cialize in chemistry because there were so 1877 he went to Trinity College School at many electrical problems that required chem- Port Hope, Ontario, after which he attended istry for solution. Bishop's College at Lennoxville, Quebec. He Interviewed in a New York newspaper in next served for two years as principal of the 1887, Edison was quoted: "I can take a Whitney Institute in Bermuda. His talent in Yankee boy and a china mug and get more mathematics steered him into electricity, results than all the German chemists put to- which fast became the center of his interest, gether." He is believed to have referred to and so strong was the urge to work in this Fessenden because several days later he said, 156 RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE "Fezzy, you will take charge of the chemical Maryland, he began to conduct his own wire- laboratory in the future." Thus Fessenden ac- less experiments—to develop the Fessenden quired the title of chief chemist of the Edison System. He believed the wireless art had Laboratory. started on the wrong track, and he aimed to The pendulum of his career swung back to set it right—on sound, scientific principles. teaching, for he left Edison in 1889, and after At Roanóke Island, North Carolina, he con- several positions, he went to Purdue Univer- ducted further tests of "prolonged oscilla- sity in 1892 as professor of electrical engi- tions," or continuous waves, also some of the neering. From there he moved to the Univer- earliest radiophone experiments. sity of Pittsburgh—then Western University In 1902 the National Electric Signaling of Pennsylvania, at Allegheny City. At both Company was formed with Fessenden wire- of these institutions he lectured on Hertzian less patents as its backbone. In 1905 Fessen- waves and conducted numerous experiments den's wireless activity shifted to a new sta- to indicate their possibilities. tion at Brant Rock, Massachusetts, where he Speaking before the American Institute of developed the high-frequency alternator, Electrical Engineers in November, 1899, Fes- radio telephony, the electrolytic detector and senden said, "Having been forced some years aheterodyne, or "beat" receiver. Brant Rock ago into X-ray work with much loss of time in 1906 attracted much attention as one of and very little results to show for it, I con- the pioneer transatlantic stations, having es- sidered myself proof against the seduction of tablished communication with Machrihanish, liquid air and wireless telegraphy." Scotland. On Christmas Eve, in 1906, phono- But wireless lured him and he soon was graph music and speech were broadcast; recognized as aleader in the field, first serv- ships reported reception as far down the ing for atime as wireless expert of the United coast as Virginia, and later the voices were States Weather Bureau. At Cobb Island, reported received in New York, Washington

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 157 wireless direction finder. He was one of the and New Orleans. As the result of his Brant Rock experi- first to realize the importance and possibili- ments, Fessenden foresaw much that was ties of short waves. On September 28, 1901, he applied for a United States patent cover- needed to advance the art of wireless, and he encouraged Alexanderson to develop the al- ing "improvements in apparatus for wireless ternator that won renown in World. War L transmission of electromagnetic waves, said Fessenden also invented the rotary spark improvements relating more especially to gap,' and pioneered in the development of the transmissions and reproduction of words or 'The rotary gap consisted of awheel or disc with audible sounds." projecting knobs or points which whirled past a sta- Charles J. Pannill, a pioneer in wireless, tionary electrode on each side of the wheel. The who later became President of the Radio- pitch of the signal was varied by the speed of the wheel; the fanning effect of the wheel was self- marine Corporation of America, said: cooling. The quenched spark gap, designed to produce a Iworked wiih Fessenden from 1902 to 1910. violin tone in comparison with the rotary gap's He was a great character, of splendid physique, whistle note, was introduced by Max Wien, physi- but what a temper! Many of us were fired on cist, born ir 1866 at Konigsberg. A student of Helm- more than one occasion, and usually on some holtz, he specialized in electromagnetic waves and slight provocation. When he cooled off, he was assisted Roentgen, 1891-93. The quenched gap comprised a number of flat copper or silver discs, three sorry and hired us back, always at :iigher pay. or four inches in diameter at the sparking surfaces, He had a marvelous vision; he told me in 1903 with their faces separated by a space about the of things that would happen 'n wireless zo years thickness of heavy paper. A fan or blower cooled the later, and they have all come true. Fessenden gaps when high power was used; the gaps also had could think best when flat on his back smoking fins to help radiate the heat. The quenched gap Pittsburgh stogies; that's when he got his real aided in production of a so-called pure wave, one ideas. At Old Point Comfort, Va., he had a radio sharply tuned, and it had the further advantage of shack built on the sands away from the main noiseless operation. RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 158 shop at Old Point, so he could go off by himself no regard for cost; he once sent for a ioo-horse- and think. power boiler and had it shipped by express. The Late in 1903, Fessenden set up stations at more anything cost the better he liked it. He was Washington, Collingswood, N. J. and Jersey sometimes unsound technically, but he more than City, N. J.—that was the first overland wireless. made up for this by his brilliant imagination. In 1904, we made tests of the Fessenden appa- He was the greatest inventive genius of all time ratus for the Navy on board the U.S.S. Topeka. in the realm of wireless. The Navy installed a station at Navesink High- If he had confined himself to being a dis- lands, N. J. (Sandy Hook), and we had a Fes- coverer and acreator, and had let the commercial senden "interference preventer" receiver at the designing end of the business alone, his company Brooklyn Navy Yard. We were able to com- would have dominated the world. But he wanted municate with the Topeka at sea from Sandy to boss the design of everything, to every last Hook! Later we tried to establish communica- detail, including the binding posts. He demanded tion between Lynn. Mass., and Schenectady, high speed from his alternators and from his N. Y., but even with a 5-kilowatt spark we men. Results, plenty of results, and results couldn't make it, apparently because of ore de- quickly, were what he wanted. He had an utter posits in the intervening Berkshires, but Sche- disregard of money. nectady heard the Brant Rock signals without any trouble. More than soo inventions were attributed to Fessenden in the varied fields of electric Fessenden, whose experimental stations waves, sound and light. His electrolytic, or were usually located on the seashore, "ran his chemical detector, introduced in 1902, in- office in a bathing suit." Reminiscing one creased the range and effectiveness of wire- day, Roy Weagant, one of his early assist- less. It used a solution of 20 per cent sul- ants, said: phuric or nitric acid into which dipped a He could be very nice at times, but only at silver-coated platinum wire about the thick- times. His voice boomed like abull. .. . He had ness of a horse hair. As a detector, it was a

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 159 step between the coherer and the crystal to During the First World War, Fessenden the electron tube. It was said of Fessenden turned his attention to submarine signaling that he discovered vital principles that paved and developed what he called "the fathom- the way for broadcasting, and a friend re- eter" for depth finding. He also is credited as marked, "When he took hold of an idea his originator of the turboelectric drive for bat- mind glimpsed it as if looking through t,000 tleships. windows." Fessenden, an indefatigable worker, tired Said Dr. E. F. W. Alexanderson: "Fessen- by the strain of invention, the hectic pace of den had adynamic, inspiring imagination." wireless and court battles in defense of his "The first actual transmission of speech by contributions to the art, passed away on the wireless was accomplished in December, island of Bermuda far from the madding 190o," said Fessenden when interviewed in crowd, and it is there that he rests. 1915. "It was gradually improved until 1904, "His great spirit has passed," said his de- when it was working for 25 miles, and was voted wife, "merged, so it seems to me it must tendeted to the United States Navy. .. . be, in the vast controlling force of the Uni- On December ir, 1906, an exhibition of wire- verse." 2 less telephony was given at Brant Rock, attended by Dr. Kennelly of Harvard and Pro- 2 Fessenden, Builder of Tomorrow, Helen M. fessor Elihu Thomson." Fessenden, 1940.

100 RADIO'S 100 MEN OF SCIENCE CHARLES FRANCIS JENKINS PUT PICTURES ON THE AIR BORN: August 22, 1867 DIED: June 5, 1934 near Dayton, O. Washington, D. C.

CHARLES FRANCIS jENKINS, American televi- scheme for the electrical transmission of pic- sion pioneer, spent his boyhood on a farm tures. Other high spots in his career include near Richmond, Indiana. He attended coun- his proposal on September 27, 1913, of "wire- try school, high school and Earlham College; less moving-picture news"; and in 1923 he then in 1890, he went to Washington as secre- transmitted pictures of President Harding by tary in the United States Life Saving Service, radio from Washington to Philadelphia, 130 but resigned in 1895 at the age of twenty- miles. In December, 1924, clear images of the three "to take up inventing as a profession." signature of Herbert Hoover, then Secretary Photography as a hobby fired Jenkins's of Commerce, were sent from Washington to interest in motion pictures, and in 1892 he Boston, 450 miles. projected a "moving picture" before an as- From pen-and-ink photoradio Jenkins tonished group of friends, using a silk hand- turned to television, and on _rune 13, 1925, in kerchief as the "screen." A year later he Washington, he demonstrated a mechanical added an arc light, and this machine was a scanning system using a revolving disk, the forerunner of the motion-picture projector. rim being lined with tiny lenses. Collaborat- He sold his invention for a few dollars, but ing with the Navy, in 1926, he flashed lived to see the movies grow into a billion- weather maps from Arlington, Virginia, to dollar industry. ships at sea, using a "mysterious radio pen." The films led Jenkins into radio facsimile In March, 1932 ' he described a new prin- and television. As early as 1894, he outlined a ciple far advanced from the early "shadow- BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 16r graph" stage. Now the images, estimated to It's easy [he had remarked in explaining tele vision]. Don't you remember when we were be 3,600 times brighter, appeared on a sensi- little tykes, mother entertained us by putting a tized emulsion on "an animated lantern penny under a piece of paper, and by drawing slide." Incoming signals quickly changed the straight lines across the paper, she made a pic- surface from opaque to clear, equivalent to ture of the Indian appear? Well, that's the very the lights and shadows, thereby "painting" way we do it. The incoming radio signals turn an ever changing pattern corresponding to the light up and down as it moves swiftly over the scene transmitted. Several of the Jenkins the screen and you see the distant scene. Easy, motor-driven mechanical scanners were dem- isn't it? You can go out in the woodshed and onstrated in New York; the receivers had a build yourself one now. Of .ourse, if you have large glass bull's eye-like screen. Through only a fine laboratory and no woodshed, where this instrument many people witnessed tele- you can get off by yourself and think clearly, vision for the first time during the early you are out of luck. If your woodshed is on a thirties. farm, the probability of clear thinking is greatly Jenkins died on the threshold of television. enhanced.

LOUIS WINSLOW AUSTIN CORRELATED RADIO WITH NATURE DIED: June 27, 1932 BORN: October 30, 1867 Washington, D. C. Orwell, Vermont

LOUIS W INSLOW AUSTIN, physicist, was edu- instructor and assistant professor, University cated at Middlebury College, graduating in of Wisconsin, 1893-1901; research work at 1889; Ph.D., University of Strasbourg, 1893; University of Berlin, 1901—oz; in 1904 he 162 RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE became associated with the Bureau of Stand- wavelengths, in order to determine whether ards. Appointed chief of the Bureau's labora- absorption varied with frequency. The sig- tory for special radio transmission research nals were plotted from day to day, and in 1923, he concentrated on the study of Austin, assisted by Dr. Louis Cohen, research static, the influence of temperature, humidity, engineer for the National Electric Signaling magnetic storms and sunspots on radio. Company, aimed to determine as nearly as Dr. Austin headed the United States Naval possible the law which governs long-distance Research Laboratory, 1908-23, and was chief transmission of electric waves—to establish of the Radio Physics Laboratory, 1923-32. the relations which connect the principal fac- As a result, in 1927, he was awarded the tors such as distance, wavelength, height of Medal of Honor of the Institute of Radio antenna, with the relative strength of the Engineers for "his pioneer work in the quan- current at the sending and receiving stations. titative measurement and correlation of fac- It had been known for some time that over tors involved in radio transmission." He was comparatively short distances the recéived president of the Institute in 1914. current falls off approximately in inverse Under the direction of Austin, as head of ratio with the distance. The Austin-Cohen the Naval Radio Telegraphic Laboratory at formula resulted. Thus, for agiven signal cur- the Bureau of Standards, the Navy Depart- rent on a given wavelength, it was possible ment, in 1909 and 1910, conducted long- to derive by formula the received current distance wireless tests between the scout which would result at adistant point.' cruisers Birmingham and Salem and the Fes- senden station at Brant Rock, Massachusetts. Duddell and Taylor in 1905 had determined that While the cruisers voyaged to Liberia and the received energy vanished over water nearly in back, Austin measured the received impulses proportion to the distance. Their observations were confined to short distances over the English Channel. from the ships on the 3,750 and 1,000-meter Austin found that their theory held true from 100 BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 163 Austin also attacked the popular belief In general, atmospherics are stronger on that lightning is the sole source of static; the longer wavelengths. Except for the effects what he described as "upside-down" lightning of local storms, they are nearly always he believed to be the major cause, since it stronger in the afternoon and night, while for consisted of the steady discharge of electrical the higher frequencies this increase in energy into a conducting layer estimated to strength is confined usually to the night exist at a height of from sixty to eighty kilo- alone. Static is stronger in summer than in meters above the earth. He added that he be- winter, in the south than in the north and on lieved the Heaviside layer produces refrac- the land than on the ocean. A large proportion of waves rather than reflection. tion of the atmospherics appear to be direc- "Our knowledge concerning the atmos- tive—that is, to come from definite regions, pheric disturbances is still very meager," said or centers, as mountain ranges, rain areas or Austin. 2 He catalogued the observed facts as thunderstorms. It is also reasonably certain, follows! Austin found, that at least most of the long- wave disturbances travel along the earth with to 200 miles, beyond which the values of the received current disappeared more rapidly. This was a practically vertical wave front like the caused by absorption. Austin assumed that absorp- signals—that aconsiderable portion of static tion was proportional to the distance. Cohen, how- is oscillatory in character. ever, discovered the law connecting absorption and frequency . This took Austin's work "ut of the realm Austin observed that in Europe about 30 of the empirical, for he had dealt chiefly with two per cent of static disturbances originated in wavelengths, and gave the formula a general nature. thunderstorms, while 75 per cent were asso- Thus it was appropriate that the formula became universally known as the Austin-Cohen formula. ciated with rain areas. In the United States, 2 At a meeting of the Section of Terrestrial Mag- near the Atlantic coast, disturbances in gen- netism and Electricity of the American Geographical çral came from southwest, while on the Union, Washington, D. C., April 30, 1925. the 164 RADIO'S 100 MEN OF SCIENCE California coast they came from permbnent such great power is still a matter of conjec- centers in the neighboring mountains. In the ture." Middle West the direction was found to be Called "the government's radio patriarch," variable depending upon thunderstorms and Austin trailed atmospheric disturbances from rain areas. Goat Island, California, to Bar Harbor, "It is believed," said Austin, "that even in Maine, observed the pranks of static in thunderstorms some of the heaviest disturb- Florida and the Panama Canal Zone and out ances do not come from lightning itself, but of it all concluded, "Static probably never the nature of these non-luminous sources of will be eliminated entirely."

WILLIS RODNEY WHITNEY INSPIRING LEADER IN RESEARCH BORN: August 22, 1868 Jamestown, N. Y.

W ILLIS RODNEY W HITNEY, American Doctor setts Institute of Technology in 1886, very of Science, of Philosophy and of Laws, a much interested in nature, biology, chemistry teacher, inventor and executive, conducted and electrical engineering. He majored in research and inspired others in the conquest chemistry, but never neglected the closely re- of the unforeseen. lated fields of biology, physics and electricity. A microscope, which his parents gave him, He went to the University of Leipzig to study opened new worlds to the boy and started under Wilhelm Ostwald, and there received him on his career. He enrolled at Massachu- the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. He BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 165 , studied for ashort time at the Sorbonne, then tion for his leadership in industrial scientific returned to M.I.T. to teach and to do re- research. search. His first valuable find in the borderland In 1900, E. W. Rice, vice president of the between chemistry and physics, whiCh proved General Electric Company, thought of form- afruitful field for exploration, was the metal- ing aresearch organization as agateway into lized carbon filament for incandescent lamps. the future. He reasoned that the electrical in- It resulted from an experiment by Whitney to dustry was based on disCoveries of such scien- see if he could prevent the blackening of tists as Faraday, Henry and Maxwell, that lamp bulbs, which limited the useful life of more discoveries were sure to follow and that the lamps. The new filament gage 25 per cent the growing industry should have the benefit more light from the same wattage. That was of them. Research creates wealth and jobs; in 1902. Ductile tungsten filaments were next, it improves products, provides new services a discovery by Dr. W. D. Coolidge. From 'and lowers prices. there it was anatural move into the realm of Other industries maintained laboratories. radio-electron tubes. Whitney directed his They tested materials to be sure that they corps of experts to aim at improving the came up to specifications. They were used to tube's sensitivity and stability, to develop its investigate unexpected difficulties but they amplification properties, give it longer life, did not investigate the unknown as such. Mr. make it more economical to operate and de- Rice wanted alaboratory to conduct research sign it to produce great power for transmit- in pure science. He invited Whitney to organ- ting purposes. It was Whitney who hired ize such a laboratory—later to be termed Langmuir, and in 1909 put him on a track "the House of Magic." Is was there that which led him to make important improve- Whitney, as director of research, won distinc- ments in electron tubes. 266 RADIO'S I00 hffli OF SCIENCE .f.

Always an inspiration to his fejlow work- Perkin Medal in 1921, the gold medal of the ers, Whitney once said: "We should let our National Institute of Social Sciences in 1928, imaginations work, and forget the critics of and the Franklin Medal in 1931. He was ideas. .. . Someone digressed with his pure awarded the distinguished service gold key of imagination to establish new and useful the American College of Physical Therapy in things, like Franklin's lightning rod, Fara- 1935, and the Marcellus Hartley Award of day's electromagnetic generator and Mar- the National Academy of Science in 1938. coni's wireless." The John Fritz Medal awarded since 1902 Under Whitney's supervision radio therapy for "notable scientific or industrial achieve- was opened up and machines were built to ment, without restriction on account of na- create "radio" or artificial fever. The Edison tionality or sex," put Whitney on a roster of Medal was presented to him in 1934 "for his noted scientists, for past recipients include contributions to electrical science, his pioneer Bell, Edison, Marconi and Wright. The 1943 inventions, and his inspiring leadership in re- presentation to Whitney carried this cita- search." tion: "For distinguished research, both as an He also received the honarary degrees of individual investigator and as an outstanding Doctor of Science from Union College and inspiring administrator of pioneering en- (1919), Syracuse University (1925), Univer- terprise, coordinating pure science with the sity of Michigan (1927), University of Ro- service of society through industry." chester (1932) ;Doctor of Chemistry, Uni- Modestly, in accounting for the achieve- versity of Pittsburgh (1919) ;and Doctor of ments which brought him high honors, Whit- Laws, Lehigh University (1929). The Wil- ney explained that he allowed himself "to be lard Gibbs Medal was bestowed upon Whit- led by Nature along llhes seemingly desir- ney in 1916, the Chandler Medal in 1920, the able." He turned to the "Testament of

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 167 Beauty" of Robert Bridges, formerly poet tographs of °,me of those organic chemital laureate of England, to let the poet express a molecules are actually made without light, by electrons which give us a magnification scores truth better than he -thought the scientists of times higher than was ever optically possible. might: "Conduct lies in the masterful admin- The wildest imagination never foresaw what has istration of the unforeseen." actually come from this truly "unforeseen." In summarizing advances in practical elec- At no time in history was there such a great tronics, I like to compare the electron with mass of the "unforeseen" available to us [said Archimedes' lever. Electrons do their work by Whitney]. This applies to every bud and tip of using imaginary dimensions and almost nothing countless branches in the forests of trees of for the levers. The length, the fulcrum, and the knowledge. These can never die and they await material have disappeared. Disembodied electri- appreciation. I have thought of this in connec- cal power itself is guided by unhuman electrical % tion particularly with modern chemistry and the senses. Resembling our human senses, they are new electricity, but it applies as well to all our much more exact and tireless. The power of mental activities. We still fail to realize our pos- screws, the use of wheels, hydraulic rams and sibilities. presses, pulley blocks, belts and trunnions, and The experience of organic chemistry was re- races of ball bearings came directly from the peated in electrical science. The new field seems principle of the lever. Certainly one could lift infinite again. There is room enough here for a the world if a fulcrum were ready. Perhaps the world of scientists. same should be said of the electron. Employed first for speaking, hearing, seeing, smelling, tast- I have lived to see that bothersome Edison ing, and feeling, it can record its findings and Effect of vacuum lamps develop into the bound- it can also present its records at any time in less areas of electronics. Hard, round, indivisible any part of the world. It can use asubconscious atoms of centuries' endurance began to emit some of their components. Nothing could have integrating entity for directing and controlling been more unforeseen than that. And now pho- any amount of power while performing any kind 168 RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE of work at any desired rate. The strange thing about it is that this is all sive and promising a new science as the whole of electricity seemed but afew years ago. 1 done, not by "mirrors," but by next to nothing 'January 27, 1943 upon presentation of the John in a vacuum. Electronics seems to me as exten- Fritz Medal by AIEÉ.

JOHN STONE STONE • SHARPENED THE WIRELESS TUNERS BORN: September 24, 1869 Dover, Va. DIED: May 20, 1943 San Diego, Calif. JOHN STONE STONE, physicist, began his staff for the khedive of Egypt, having been career as a telephone engineer and found it a officially designated by the United States natural step into the field of wireless, which government. During his son's boyhood, he at the opening of the century was attracting traveled through many countries bordering electrical engineers as California did prospec- on the Mediterranean, which accounts for the tors in '49. fact that John was as fluent in French and General Charles Pomeroy Stone was in the Arabic as he was in English. Union Army during the Civil War, and it was John's education in America was obtained while campaigning in the Mississippi Valley at the Columbia Grammar School, New York that he met Miss Jeannie Stone, a southern City, at the Columbia School of Mines (two girl. The duplication of names explains why years) and at Johns Hopkins University their son John Stone Stone was so baptized. (two years) from which he was graduated in In later years General Stone was chief of 1890. For the next nine years he was with the BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 169 Research and Development Laboratory of sultant, but ensuing events forced his hand: the American Bell Telephone Company at His first client was Herman W. Ladd, who Boston, Massachusetts, where his exceptional had developed a method of radio direction finding based on a cylindrical metal screen ability in mathematical analysis came into full play. Among his early inventive achieve- around a vertical receiving antenna. The ments were the Stone common battery system screen had an up-and-down slit through for telephony, the use of unifoemly spaced in- which electric waves were supposed to strike ductance coils for loading telephone wires the antenna as the screen rotated. Stone had and a carrier current system of transmission two stations set up to test the contraption, and while working on it became so interested over wires. Stone's special study of electrical oscilla- in wireless telegraphy that before long he had tions and radiation at Johns Hopkins, and his taken it up as his major effort. further study of the work of Professor Elihu It became more and more evident to him Thomson, Nikola Tesla and others along the that the wireless needed sharper tuning. This; line of electromagnetic waves, led H. V. and his practical work with Ladd's apparatus, Hayes, chief engineer of the Telephone Com- finally brought him into the wireless tele- pany, to ask him to investigate the possibility graph fold, and in the summer of 1899 he of transmitting speech telephonically by conceived asystem of selective wireless com- Hertzian waves without the use of wire con- munication. Stone applied for a patent on tuning in ductors. Stone made amasterly report of this work. He also filed patents covering his work February 8, 1900, and it was allowed Feb- ruary 2, 1902 (No. 714,736). This was ayear on carrier current, or "wired wireless," as it and a half before the grant of Marconi's was termed later. Stone did not have wireless particularly in American patent No. 763,772 on tuning. mind when in 1899 he set himself up as con- Stone's arrangement featured a four-circuit RADIO'S ZOO MEN OF SCIENCE 170 wireless telegraph apparatus substantially inductances" was also a feature of his sys- like that later specified and patented in stem. His receivers likewise embodied loose America by Marconi, who had previously coupling, and included an intermediate been granted an equivalent British patent, "weeding-out circuit," which greatly en- the famous No. 7,777. Stone's patent de- hanced selectivity. scribed adjustable tuning, by means of avari- To make these ideas and developments able inductance, of the closed circuits of both available as apparatus, Stone formed the transmitter and receiver. It also recom- Stone Wireless Telegraph Syndicate in r9oz, mended that the two antenna circuits be so which was followed soon after by the Stone constructed as to be resonant to the same Telegraph and Telephone Company. frequencies as the closed circuits. Stone made Stone's methods revolutionized spark teleg- it clear that he had found it was possible not raphy in the United States, particularly at only to originate high-frequency oscillations government stations. Soon his ideas as to the in acircuit, and to determine their frequency emission of a single wave, and his require- by proper choice of capacity and self-induct- ments as to selectivity, were made a part of ance in the circuit, but also to transfer those specifications for government-purchased wire- oscillations to another circuit and retain their less equipment. Almost all of the older sets original frequency. in service, particularly in the United States In those days, spark transmitters were Navy, were changed over to loose-coupled closely coupled, and hence were broadly types. In 1905 the Navy contracted for the tuned so that overlapping of waves caused Stone system to be installed at the Navy yards interference. At the transmitter, Stone took at Boston, Massachusetts, and Portsmouth, advantage of loose coupling, bringing about New Hampshire, and for the first time these the emission of a single, sharply defined stations were so sharply tuned that a relay wave. The use of loading coils as "swamping station between the two Navy yards was no

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 171 longer necessary. He was awarded the Edward Longstreth Another early investigation of the Stone Medal of the Franklin Institute in 1913 for Company was in the field of marine radio a paper on the practical aspects of the prop- direction finding, but tests revealed that agation of high-frequency waves along wires, while the bearings were accurate, the method and the Medal of Honor of the Institute of was not practical. It remained for F. A. Radio Engineers "for distinguished service Kolster, who assisted in the tests, to develop in radio communication" in 1923. He had a workable system of direction finding for obtained about 120 patents on telephonic the Navy about nine years later. and radio subjects in the United States, as In the story of radio, there is registered well as a similar number in foreign coun- a historic day in the autumn of 1912, when tries. De Forest, with the assistance of his old Stone was a gentleman of the old school, friend John Stone Stone demonstrated the adeep thinker, and one of the most practical audion as an audio amplifier to engineers of mathematicians in the field of radio. "His the American Telephone and Telegraph Com- calculations and analysis went so deep into pany. They proved that although weak and mathematics that we could never follow him,' imperfect, and incapable of carrying any said an associate, "but Nature always agreed considerable voice load without a blue haze and confirmed his findings." forming inside the bulb, nevertheless, the Said the Institute of Radio Engineers in audion actually was capable of amplifying tribute: speech. Stone, one of the leaders in the formation Very much of an individualist, possessed of of the Institute of Radio Engineers, was a an interesting personality, of an artistic tempera- director of the Institute in 1912, vice presi- ment, a gracious sense of humor, and a very dent in '913-14, and president in 1914-15. high sense of honor, Stone lived a good life. RADIO'S 100 MEN OF SCIENCE 172 Well trained technically and given to the classi- whole life to it and lived to see it flower into cal scientific method of analysis as it were, Stone a great industry.-1 was one of the last of the pioneers who wit- 1 Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers, nessed the very inception of radio and gave his September, 1943.

VALDEMAR POULSEN HARNESSED THE ARC TO WIRELESS BORN: November 23, 1869 Copenhagen, Denmark DIED: August 6, 1942 Denmark VALDEMAR PouisEN, Danish scientist, the free to conduct a series of experiments and son of a judge in the highest court of Den- to follow a new line of investigation that mark, harnessed the electric arc to wireless had suggested itself to him. In 1goo his tele- to extend its range. After studying for a de- phone research gained for him the Grand gree in natural sciences at the University of Prix of Paris. Three years later he initiated Copenhagen, 1889-93, he entered the techni- a new method of generating continuous elec- cal department of the Copenhagen Telephone tric waves by means of the arc. In 1904 he Company. Telegrafonen became his spe- was transmitting the voice over appreciable ciality. It was an ingenious apparatus for distances. recording telephone conversations electro- In 1907 Poulsen received the Gold Medal magnetically on a steel wire, for repetition of the Royal Danish Society for Science, at will. and in 1909 the University of Leipzig con- After inventing the telegraphone, Poulsen ferred upon him the honorary degree, Doctor left the telephone company in order to be of Philosophy. He received from the Danish BY °RHIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 173 government the Medal of Merit, an honor was found in that the arc emitted harmonics he shared at that time with Nansen, Georg and "arc 'push"; the heat was so terrific that Brandes, Sven Hedin and Amundsen. At his a water-cooling system was required. Never- death Dr. Poulsen was afellow of the Danish theless, during the First World War a num- Academy of Sciences, the Danish Academy ber of battleships carried arc transmitters of Technical Science and the Swedish In- and later the U.S.S. George Washington, stitute for Engineering Research. which took President Wilson to the Peace Poulsen's arc as a generator of continuous onference, was 'equipped with an arc in waves differed from the usual arc since it pes that communication might be main- burned in an atmosphere containing hydro- iled all the way across the sea. It was a gen in a strong transverse magnetic field. umph for radio when the Washington en- The Federal Telegraph Company, specializ- ring the harbor at Brest flashed signals ing in arc transmitters, brought Poulsen's arc :om its arc which were picked up at Otter to America. When NAA, the United States liffs, Bar Harbor, Maine, and a 600-word naval spark station at Arlington, Virginia, .ssage was received without the loss of a went into commission in 1912, an arc also was installed; thus two rivals—Fessenden word. with the spark, Poulsen with the arc—met Then came the Alexanderson alternator, a on a common proving ground.' Arc transmitters up to soo kilowatts were energy, in fact, to "sing." Poulsen took up the idea tested by the Navy. One main disadvantage and harnessed "the singing arc" to a wireless transmitter, thereby producing an early wireless telephone. Duddell's arc produced continuous oscilla- 1 William DuBois Duddell, British electrical engi- tions at a frequency of about 10,000 asecond; Poul- neer, born 1872; died November 4, 1917, was educated at Cannes. In 1900 he discovered that an elec- sen raised it to 100,000 by employing a cooled métal electrode and an atmosphere of hydrocarbon gas. tric arc could be made to generate high-frequency RADIO'S 100 MEN OF SCIENCE 174 more efficient generator of radio waves, and electron tube was destined to do the same the arc transmitter, along with the spark, for the stentorian but costly and massive became a wonder of the past; the powerful alternator.

ARTHCR KORN

PIONEER IN PICTURE TRANSMISSION BORN: May 20, 1870 Breslau, Germany

ARTHUR KORN, pioneer In electrical trans- A photo-film was put on a revolving glass mission of pictures by wire and wireless, drum inside a cylinder, lighted only by a studied at Leipzig and Paris, majoring in small aperture. The light was permitted to physics and mathematics. Appointed profe- traverse both film and glass. The light ray sor of physics at the University of Munich regulated by the lights and shadows of the in 1903, he retired from the position in 19°8 picture was caught by a prism and thrown and from 1914 to 1936 served as professor on aselenium cell, connected with a battery. of electrophysics at the Berlin Institute of With this system in 1904 Korn sent telephone Technology. It was in 19o4 that he devel- wire-photos from Munich to Nuremberg, oped asystem of "seeing by wire." 1 over 600 miles, also the first wire-photos Experiments directed toward sending pictures from the Continent to England, heralded as over wires are almost as old as the art of telegrapty, a sensation in 1907. for in 1842 Alexander Bain, an English physicist, first produced a device to transmit pictures from It was announced in 1922 that he had a one place to another over electric wires. new method of signaling by radio: The appa- BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 175 • :1111,11,,,,,e, ratus associated with the ordinary receiver This wireless system has been used by the was merely a typewriter or other mechanical German police stations since 1928." printer so modified that it wrote dots of vari- Another Korn development was a 40- ous sizes instead of letters. Pictures radioed pound radio outfit to enable aircraft to pick by this method were described as "half-tone up weather maps and military sketches in a groups of dots." On May 6, 1922, Korn minute and a half and aerial pictures in wired a picture from Centecello, near Rome, about iive minutes. His radio or wire printer to Berlin, from which point it was radioed was called a "phototelegraph"; the method, across the sea to the Navy radio station at "phototelegraphy." It was used by both sides Otter Cliffs, Maine, in about forty minutes. during the Spanish Civil War and was taken Korn's transatlantic radiophoto of Pope up by military authorities in Russia, Poland, Pius XI, which appeared in the New York Italy and Germany. • World on June II , 1922, was reported in The year 1939 found Professor Korn an the press as "a miracle of modern science." émigré with his wife and son from Germany, Asked what he did next Korn said, "From teaching in the department of electrical en- 1922 Iworked out a transmitter with alkali- gineering at Stevens Institute of Technology, cells and amplification by electronic tubes. Hoboken, New Jersey.

RADIO'S 100 MEN OF SCIENCE ERNEST RUTHERFORD

THE NEWTON OF ATOMIC PHYSICS

BORN: August 30, 1871 DIED: October 19, .1037 Spring Grove, New Zealand .London, England

SIR ERNEST RUTHERFORD, 13IiIiSh physicist, fessor of physics at the Royal Institution, invented the radio magnetic detector and "in London. 1911 introduced the greatest change in our As Rutherford remarked, he lived in the idea of matter since the time of Democritus." "heroic age of physics." Recognized by fellow Such was the tribute of Sir Arthur S. Ed- scientists as a man of colossal energy and dington. tireless enthusiasm, he opened a new road Rutherford was born at Spring Grove, which led no one knew where; he discovered later named Brightwater, thirteen miles from and named the alpha and beta rays from the town of Nelson, New Zealand. He was a uranium—he played not only with atoms but student at Nelson College, Canterbury Col- with the nuclei of the atom. Radioactivity lege at Christchurch and New Zealand Uni- was systematized, the nucleus discovered and versity, after which he entered Trinity Col- transmutation achieved. lege, Cambridge, England. Following several Rutherford's early researches concerned years of research at' Cavendish Laboratory, electromagnetic waves. Like many a youth Cambridge, in 1898 he was appointed Mac- with an aptitude for sciènce, he was im- Donald Professor of Physics at McGill Uni- pressed with Hertz's discovery of the waves. versity, Montreal; 1919, Cavendish Profes- In fact, like many awireless amateur experi- sor of Experimental Physics at the University menter he set up a Hertz oscillator in "a of Cambridge; and in addition, in 192o, pro- miserable, cold, draughty, concrete-flocred BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. • I7/ cellar." There he generated high-frequency property proved a very sensitive quantitative method for detecting electrical waves. Using alternating current and found it quite pos- large Hertzian vibrators, the electrical waves sible to magnetize or demagnetize iron and emitted were observed by means of the mag- steel by rapidly alternating currents. netic detector for a distance of about half a These experiments led him to develop the mile. magnetic detector described by him in 1895 These experiments were made before Marconi as "far and away the best metrical detector began his well-known 'investigations on signaling of electrical waves." It was a new hope for by electrical waves. This effect of electric oscil- long-distance wireless communication, since lations of altering the magnetism of iron is the basis of the magnetic "detcctors" developed by it was far more sensitive than the coherer. Marconi and others, which have proved one of In his experiments he had noticed that a the most sensitive and reliable receivers in radio- small magnetized needle, when suspended at telegraphy 1 the end of an electromagnet,•was deflected by the rise and fall of the current in the cas Marconi further developed and tested the of the magnet. A pair of horseshoe perma- magnetic detector on board the cruiser Carlo nent magnets slowly revolved over an electro- Alberto; he picked up Poldhu's signals goo magnet, the coils of which were connected miles away, then 1,600 miles at night, 500 to the earphones. Fluctuations in the current. miles in daylight. Marconi's adaptation of caused by the incoming signals, were audible the Rutherford detectof, built in a cigar box, in the phones. was exhibited at the New York World's Fair, Rutherford described his detector as fol- 1939 -40. lows: As time went on, Rutherford watched with great interest the experiments of E. V. Ap- By using very fine magnetized steel wires sur- 'From The History of the Cavendish Laboratory. rounded by a fine solenoid, the demagnetizing 178 RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE pleton relative to the electrical properties of ravel some of the chief mysteries of Na- the upper atmosphere. In these investigations ture." wireless stations at Cambridge and Oxford It was not until Rutherford turned his were used to prove the reflection of radio attention to radioactivity that his big tri- waves from an altitude of about sixty miles, umphs began. His brilliant researches estab- thus confirming the Kennelly-Heaviside the- lished the existence and nature of radio- ory. Rutherford explained that the upper active transformation, the electrical structure ionized regions must have free electrons pres- of matter and nuclear nature of the atom. ent to cause reflection and refraction; other- He was one of the founders of the atomic wise it would be impossible for short waves theory of physics, and propounded that atoms to travel very great distances around .the are composed of electrons, or negative par- earth. ticles of electricity, and protons, the positive Rutherford proved in his early experi- units. ments that the electromagnetic waves trav- Physicists began to speculate on the possi- eled for a half-mile or more from the trans- bility of using atomic energy; they looked mitter to the receiver, and through walls ahead to the day when a thimbleful of water if they intervened. Those who witnessed the would light a small community or carry an results were amazed; Rutherford was inter- airplane across the ocean. But creating such ested, but not surprised. To him there were energy for practical purposes by bombarding more interesting scientific problems to be the atom was derided as "mere moonshine" solved and he turned away from pursuing the by Sir Ernest. It was said of him that "he wireless waves. It has since been remarked, plays with atoms as other men play with "Lucky that he did so, otherwise he might billiard balls; he was the last of that boldly have become an electrical engineer rather imaginative dynasty of Cambridge scientists than the physicist who was destined to un- that began with Newton." BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 179

•I o Recalling a statement by Niels Bohr that As the autumn of 1937 approached, asso- Rutherford's achievements were so great as ciates noticed that hard work was drawing to provide the background of almást every heavily on Rutherford's nervous energy; he word that is spoken at a gathering of physi- was a tired man. After a short illness he cists, Sir James Jeans remarked: died at the age of sixty-six, and the world lost one of its outstanding experimental sci- In his flair for the right line of approach to a entists. problem, as well as the sim?le directnes: of his Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, Chancellor of methods of attack. he often reminds us o; Fara- the University of Cambridge, said, day, but he had two great advantages that Faraday did not possess—first, exuberant bodily The Cavendish Laboratory under his guidance health and energy. and second. the opportunity and through the boundless enthusiasm which and capacity to direct a band of enthusiastic radiated from him to Inspire even the youngest co-workers. Great though Faraday's output of of those about him, had reached even higher work was, it seems to me that to match Ruther- and more sustained levels than ever before. In- ford's work in quantity as well as in quality, we deed the Cavendish Laboratory was Rutherford, must go back to Newton. bone of his bone. .. . With a vigor no whit Voltaire once said that Newton was more for- diminished by his scientific labors he devoted tunate than any other scientists could ever be, much of his time to secure he application in since it could fall to only one man to discover industry of the methods and results of scientific the laws which governed the universe. Had he research. .. . His refreshing personality, his lived in a later age, he might have said some- dauntless spirit, the merry twinkle of his eye, thing similar of Rutherford and the realm of the exuberance of his ever-youtLful, - ever-joyful the infinitely small; for Rutherford was the enthusiasm; how can they be recaptured and Newton of atomic physics. 2 confined within the limits of mere words! 3 From the Foreword of Rutherford, by A. S. Eve, 2 At the Jubilee Session Indian Science Co*vent January 3, 1938, at Calcutta. 1939. I8o RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE Rutherford's passing was the finale of a and the electron by J. J. Thomson. Seldom can great epoch in science. It was recalled that anyone have been better endowed to grasp, or Galileo and Newton opened and closed one more gloriously successful in exploiting, the op- such period—the discovery of the mechanism portunities that crowded fast upon him. .. . of the universe. Faraday and Maxwell built He was concerned with unraveling the intri- the foundations of electricity. Einstein and cate phenomena of radio-active change and the chemistzy of the natural radio-active elements. Planck opened the gateways of relativity For this work Rutherford received the Nobel and of the quantum theory. Rutherford, the Prize for chemistry in 1908, and it remained to Newton of the atom, was king of the micro- the end a good joke against him, which he thor- cosm, aman of volcanic energy and immense oughly.appreciated, that he was thereby branded capacity for work. Appropriately it has been for all time as achemist and no true physicist. said that he delved with poetic insight and profound imagination into the foundations Rutherford's mother, writing to him in of Nature. 1917, had said: ,'You cannot fail to know In the obituary notice written for the In- 'how glad and thankful I feel that God has stitution of Electrical Engineers, his son-in- blessed and crowned your genius and efforts law, Professor R. H. Fowler, said: with success. That you may rise to greater" heights of fame and live near to God like Seldom can anyone have started his career at Lord Kelvin is my earnest wish and prayer." a moment more auspicious, for Rutherford en- The ashes of Lord Rutherford of Nelson tered Cambridge as an advanced student in 1895, were buried in the nave of Westminster Ab- within ayear or two of the discoveries of x-rays bey, just west of Sir Isaac Newton's tomb, by Roentgen, of radio-activity by Becquerel, and iin a line with the tomb of Lord Kelvin.

BY ORRIN e DUNLAP, JR. 18 GEORGE WASHINGTON PIERCE

WIRELESS PIONEER, TEACHER AND INVENTOR

BORN: January 11, 1872 Weberville, Tex.

GEORGE W ASHINGTON PIERCE, American The following year he attended the Univer- physicist and pioneer in electrical communi- sity of Leipzig where he studied under Boltz- cation, particularly radiotelephony, was emi- mann. Returning to the United States, he nent in this "field as a prolific inventor, a was appointed instructor of physics at Har- meticulous experimenter and an inspiring vard in 1903, assistant professor of physics teacher who trained generations of communi- in 1907 and professor in 1917. cation engineers. For nearly forty years he At the time of his retirement in 1940, he taugfit communication engineering at Har- held the chairs of Rumford Professor of vard University. His writings on wireless Physics and the Gordon McKay Professor- have done much to shed light on the science ship of Communication Engineering. He was of others. Amateur experimenters who en- also director of the Cruft High-Tension Elec- tered the field from 1910 to 1914, when trical Laboratory from 1914 to 1940, and books on the subject were scarce, found chairman of the Division of Astronomy Pierce's Principles of Wireless Telegraphy a and the. Physical Sciences from 1927 to valuable text. 1940. A Texan by birth. Professor Pierce re- Pierce took to wireless experimenting at ceived his B.Sc. from the University of Texas Harvard at the time when attempts were in 1893, M.A. in 1894, M.A. from Harvard being made to establish transatlantic serv- in 1899, and Ph.D. from Harvard in 1900. ice; hundreds of young Americans with an RADIO'S roo MEN OF SCIENCE 182 electrical turn of mind were interested in was president, 1917-18. The Institute studying wireless. It was a new branch of awarded him its Medal of Honor in 1928 electrical engineering, and Pierce, at the "for distinguished services in radio com- Cruft Laboratory, became an educational munications." leader in this new field of sciencè. tfnder his In the field of radio science Professor direction, in Harvard's well-equipped realm Pierce's great services as a teacher are rec- of research, pioneer experiments were con- ognized as being fully as important as his ducted in wireless, submarine detection and inventions. Of Pierce it has been said that electron tubes.. he probably taught more eminent engineers Harvard's Pierce Hall, named after him, than anyone in the world. He recognized that became a center of radio during the First the art of communication was neither physics World War when the United States Navy nor engineering but a combination of these took it over as part of the United States disciplines. He also insisted on a liberal Naval Radio School to train operators; in grounding in mathematics and physics and that building the Navy's "high power watch" usually left the engineering part to..be de- was established in which honor students were veloped by the student himself as he wept instructed in electron tubes, and through along. His success as a teacher was largely special receiving sets they 'kept a record of due to his rational view of electrical com- the long-wave wireless that swept across the munication as an outgrowth of the other sci- Atlantic. ences. His classes attracted students from all Professor Pierce became a fellow of the over the world as well as officers of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, United States Army and Navy who were sent National Academy of Science- elmerican to him for postgraduate training from year ehysical Society, Inventors' Guih. nd the to year. The Nàvy regularly maintained a Institute of Radio Engineers, of w. :h he special laboratory in Cruft for the use of

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 183 the officer students. One of the important similar courses in other universities were later and unique courses in which the government built. His technical contributions to this art have was interested was "hyEirophone engineer- been many and varied: early work on the rec- ing," which dealt with the art of communi- tifying properties of crystal detectors; mathe- cation under water, particularly with super- matical calculation of the radiation properties sonic frequencies, a field in which Pierce of wireless antennae; invention of a mercury- was apioneer, having served during the First vapor tube which was the prototype of the World War in development of submarine de- thyratron later developed by A. W. Hull, and tection equipment. one of the most importaut electronic devices; In recognition of the eminence of Profes- invention of a method of recording sound on sor Pierce and the importance of his lifework, film by means of this tube, which was perhaps the first practical method of producing talking he was awarded the Franklin Medal in April, motion pictures; work on electric filters and elec - 1943, for "his outstanding inventions and tric compensators for underwater signaling and contributions in the field of electric com- submarine detection. In this field of signaling by munication and his inspiring influence as a means of so-called supersonic sounds, having great teacher." frequencies above the range of the hun.an ear, The citation which accompanied the Medal Pierce has been preeminent. • revealed the high evaluation of his achieve- But perhaps his most important and widely used invention is the quartz piezo-electric oscil- ments: lator. This device is employed in radio trans- His indirect influence on the art of radio com- mitters for accurately controlling the emitted munication through his students is fully as im- frequenzy to a few parts in ten million. In this portant as his own inventions and contributions. way broadcasting station.; and other transmitters His courses in radio telegraphy and electric os- ate kept rigorousl» in the groove so that they cillations were the first to be given anywhere will not encroach upon the frequencies of other in this country and were the models upon which stations and cause interference. Millions of these RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 184 oscillators are now in use. Pierce also devised another way of doing the Laboratory, he described it as "a private same thing by utilizing the magneto-striction purgatory" of his own, situated midway be- effect in nickel and nichrene. This has impor- tween the old Jefferson Physical Laboratory tant application in submarine signaling and sub- and the Pierce Engineering Hall; but it was marine detection. He has published about fifty in that realm that the fire of genius was scientific papers, two textbooks on electfic oscillations and has been granted over so patents. applied to crucibles of science in which many new ideas and devices of radio were nur- Once, when Pierce referred to the Cruft tured.

LEE DE FOREST INVENTOR OF THE AUDION BORN: August 26, 1873 Council Bluffs, la.

LEE DE FOREST, inventor of the audion, or sionary group that founded Muscatine, Iowa; three-element radio-electron tube, was "cut Lee was born in the parsonage at Council out in his father's hopes" to be a minister. Bluffs. He had a flair for inventing and, Henry Swift De Forest was aCongregational aided by his mother, persuaded his father minister in.Iowa and later became president to let him go to a scientific school. Since of Talladega College for Negroes in Alabama. the Rev. De Forest had attended Yale Col- Lee's mother was the daughter of the Rev. lege (class of 1857), it was natural that Lee Alden B. Robbins, a member of the Dais- should prepare for Sheffield Scientific School BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 185 at Old Eli and that he did by attending Mt. couldn't keep away from wireless. He knew Hermon Preparatory School in Massachu- that the coherer was a weak link in the wireless circuit, and .as such it challenged setts. At Yale young De Forest heard Professor his inventive mind. Henry Bumstead lecture on electromagnetic He had read Tesla's account of an electric waves and watched him demonstrate the arc in the flame of a gas light and of the Hertz experiments. De Forest wouldn't for- possibility of using it as a source of oscillat- get that "show." Supplementing it he read a ing current. If properly developed, could it prophetic article by Sir William Crookes on be used in wireless telephony? Instinctively, "Some Possibilities in Electricity," which as the years passed, De Forest felt that in stated: "What remains to be discovered is— -the flame there was magic. One day in 1900 a flickering *gas mantle in his Chicago room first, a simpler and more certain means of evoked the idea. He began his search for generating electric waves of any desired length—second, more delicate receivers— the genuine response to electrical vibrations third, means of darting the sheafs of rays in agas flame. The idea of ahot gas or flame in any desired direction." detector fascinated him, but it proved to be De Forest began to think about this prob- far from practical. lem. Tesla's book on electrical phenomena in- As a step in another direction, he devel- spired him; he went to New York and talked oped a self-restoring coherer and called it a with Tesla. "Wireless telephoning" became "Sponder," or "electrolytic anti-coherer." Confident that he was on the track of his goal. Leaving New Haven in 1899, he went to wireless, De Forest in 1901 went to New Chicago to work for the Western Electric York with hopes that he might find the nec- Company in the dynamo department for essary financial backing to beat Marconi, who $8.00 a week. Dynamos or no dynamos, he in 1899 had come to America for the first RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 186 time to wireless bulletins of the America Cup plate and filament. This addition proved races off the New Jersey coast. He met successful, and although the àmplification • Abraham White, stock speculator and pro- was slight, judged by modern standards, it moter, and in 1902 White organized the nevertheless existed. De Forest Wireless Telegraph Company, re- Why not add a "trigger" device so that ported to have been capitalized at $3,000.000, the energy of a local battery could be more with De Forest as vice president. efficiently controlled by the incoming waves? Collapse of the company several years In 1906 De Forest added the "trigger"--a later sent De Forest back on the hunt lof a zigzag piece of platinum wire—between the new detector. He drew upon the past—the filament and plate. He called it the grid. idea of a flame detector. At the same time With the plate battery still in the circuit, the he recalled "the Edison Effect," which he result was the three-electrode thermionic had learned about at Yale. Further, Fleming vacuum tube, a generator of Hertzian waves had found that although no contact existed as well as a detector and amplifier of them. between the hot filament of an incandescent De Forest's assistant, Clifford Babcock, lamp and a little metal plate inside the bulb,. named it the "audion," and it was he, ac- a current flowed from the cold metal plate cording to the records, who was responsible to the filament, the electrons, streaming from for enclosing the elements in aglass bulb. filament to plate, acting as invisible carriers. Said De Forest: "Little imagination is re- That was the basic principle of the Fleming quired to depict new developments in radio valve detector or rectifier; but it would not telephone communication, all of which have relay or amplify. lain fallow heretofore, waiting for a simple De Forest sought to make the Fleming de- lamp by which one can speak instead of vice an amplifier, and to achieve this result read." he connected a battery in circuit with the The De Forest Aladdin lamp of electronics BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 187 tion—unlike charges attract and like charges revolutionized wireless, and the resulting repel—the negatively charged electrons flow electronic revolution in radio is unending as over to the metal plate, which is positively new tubes continually serve as keys to new charged. But between the filament and the inventions and services. The audion has been plate, suspended in the electron stream, is classed as one of the twenty great inventions the meshlike grid. Through it the incoming of all time. It made the radiophone prac- radio signals are fed into the stream, the tical; it made broadcasting possible. As a flow of which is thus modulated in accord- forerunner, De Forest took an arc transmit- ance with dots and dashes, or whatever sig- - ter backstage at the Metropolitan Opera nal is on the wave. The imposition of the House on January 13, 1910, and broadcast signals upon the filament-to-plate stream opera arias sung by Caruso and other noted produces a corresponding impact on the artists. plate. That impact, in turn, controls the When the audion was introduced as an current flowing in the circuit in which the oscillator in 1914 it supplanted the arc in loudspeaker or headphones are located. Thus, radiotelephony. Since that time the electron the signals passed along in the electron tube has found no end of use in and out of stream are reproduced as sound. the field of radio - for it has effected radical Developed to perform with amazing ver- improvements in telephony, picture transmis- satility, the radio-electron tube can talk, sion ; talking films and in various processes hear, see, feel, taste, smell, sort, count, regu- of industry. late, measure, calculate and even remember. How is the radio magic performed? First, In fact, the engineers who know it best say the filament, or cathode, of the tube is heated it lacks only a conscience. That is supplied by the application of an electric current. As by man in the use, to which he puts the tube. a result, astream of electrons is driven from After the audion was ready for action, the the filament. Then, true to electrical traffic: RADIO'S MO MEN OF SCIENCE 188 trick remained to find circuits in which the throughout the world; annually more than . tube would give its best performance as a zoo,000,000 radio-electron tubes are manu- detector, amplifier and oscillator. Hundreds • factured. With the audion amplifier as a of wiring diagrams were developed as ex- telephone repeater, the transcontinental tel- perimenters everywhere took up the audion ephone became practical. The delicacy and and aimed to improve its performance by elegance of the audion was to the old micro- discovering in what circuit it might work phonic relay of the telephone as "soap bub- new miracles. Just as De Forest with a little bles to a load of coal." De Forest, with "a piece of platinum wire and an additional glass bottle full of nothifti opened wide a battery had transformed the Fleming valve whole realm of applied electronics. into a tube with unlimited prospects, so it For his work in wireless he was recipient might fall to the lot of another to revolu- of a gold medal at the St. Louis Exposition tionize the tube and its-efficiency by merely in 1904; the Elliott Cresson Medal of the altering a wire in the hook-up. It was a Franklin Institute in 1915 for discovery of fascinating challenge and there came a day the audion; and agold medal at the Panama when radio hook-ups were anational pastime Pacific Exposition in San Francisco in 1915. —a "craze" in many an American home. Added to his many honors was the presidency Naturally, De Forest joined in the search of the Institute of Radio Engineers in 1930. for hook-ups. But he hâd to fight to defend He finally forsook New York for Califor- his claims. After long years of litigation the nia. One evening an old friend spied him United States Supreme Court in 1934 upheld coming out of the subway in Times Square him as inventor of the feed-back, or regenera- and asked how long he expected to be in tive circuit. the East, and he said, "Don't tell anybody His fame is perpetuated in the evacuated you saw me. I wouldn't take New York if glass bulb, millions of which are in use they offered it to me with a fence around BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 139 it. I'm going back to California just as fast pression that Lee De Forest af sixty-eight as Ican go; that's the place to live." should be "a bitter, disillusioned old man.— In 1941 a reporter who went to the coast 'Actually, he laughs easily and gaily; his eyes_ to interview him came back with the im- dance with new dreams."

WILLIAM DAVID COOLIDGE PHYSICO-CHEMIST IN ELECTRONICS BORN: October 23, 1873 Hudson, Mass.

W ILLIAM D. COOLIDGE, physical chemist, an ordeal, never a thing to be avoided. Feel- contributed greatly to the advance of electron ing that he should do something to ease the tubes, incandescent lamps, X-ray tubes, elec- family's financial burden, he left high school tronic devices and the production of high- during his junior year to work in a rubber voltage cathode rays outside the generating factory. But after six months he realized the tube. value of more schooling and rejoined his His father, Albert Edward Coolidge, class. worked in a local shoe factory; his mother, College was his next goal, but because M. Alice Coolidge, took in dressmaking to of lack of money he dared not consider it eke out the family's modest income. William seriously. Then a friend who was studying was a typical farm boy, but from an early at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology age his interest in things mechanical and suggested that his father might be willing electrical was keen. Work, to him, was never to lend him some money and that, in addi- 190 RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE tion, he might obtain a state scholarship. worked in a laboratory adjoining that of Dr. Coolidge got both—the loan, the scfiolarshib Willis R. Whitney, and this association was and later a graduate fellowship. In all, his destined to play an important role in his college days left him with a debt of $4,000, life, for he had acquired a love for funda- the full payment of which took everything mental research—for the study of natural he was able to save until he was thirty-one. phenomena for its own sake regardless of Entering M.I.T. in the class of 1895, he where it might lead. Whitney became direc- majored in electrical engineering. Illness de- tor of the General Electric laboratory, or- layed his graduation until 1896. It was in ganized for industrial research, and he the year following graduation, while he was offefed Coolidge a position. After consider- serving as assistant in physics at M.I.T., able hesitation, the latter arrived to com- that the course of Coolidge's life was again mence work on September II, 1905. radically changed by the siggestion of a Coolidge became Whitney's right-hand friend: "Why don't you get a fellowship for man, and was appointed assistant director the study of physics abroad?" As a result, of "the House of Magic" in 1908; associate he went to Leipzig, where he received his director in 1928; director in 2932; vice Ph.D. in 1899. president and director of research in 2940. Returning to the United States, he went Through his development of ductile tungsten back to M.I.T. and for five years did funda- he made major contributions to the advance mental physicochemical research. At the same of incandescent lamps and electron tubes. time he continued to advance in the teach- Until he gave tungsten all the properties of ing profession—from assistant in physics to a wire capable of being drawn down to only instructor in physical chemistry and finally one-sixth the diameter of a human hair, it to assistant professor of physiochemical re- was adelicate, short-lived filament. No longer search. It was during this time that be brittle, it became a practical filament giving BY ORRIN e DUNLAP, JR. 191 pf Manufacturers in listing Coolidge among longer life to radio tubes and making them much more efficient in millions of receiving the "National Modern Pioneers" read: sets. Furthermore, since tungsten withstands His invention of amethod of producing ductile extremely high temperatures without melt- tungsten permitted the use of this remarkable ing, it is especially useful in the filament con- metal for increasing the efficiency of incandes- struction of high-power water-cooled trans- cent lamps and for building a great variety of mitting tubes. modern vacuum tubes and electronic devices. . Coolidge also investigated the applicability His high vacuum x-ray tube is standard equip- of ductile tungsten to X-ray tubes, and this ment wherever x-rays are used in medicine or led to his greatest contribution to Xquy industry. Electric lighting, electronic arts, and science—a radically new tube, accurately especially x-ray .art were significantly advanced by Ps inventions. controllable and wholly stable. This was 4Ib accomplished 'by using an electron "gun." During the First World War he evolved a From 1932 on, Coolidge retired largely "C" tube---mechanical sound detector—to from direct research work and aimed to help in locating submarines; it was a sort guide and encourage his assistants. Described by an associate as "always thorough himself, of undersea stethoscope. he is utterly impatient of carelessness or Primarily a specialist in X-ray tubes, Coolidge was the recipient of many honors, superficiality. .. . His indomitable, persist- including the Rumford Medal, Edison Medal, ence, broad technical knowledge and keen observation assured his success. But out- John Scott Award, Faraday Medal, Duddell Medal and a number of others. He has ob- standing among his qualities is his resourcefulness in experiment. .. . His is an in- tained eighty-three patents. The citation of the National Association defatigable interest in science."

RADIÔ'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 192 GUGLIELMO MARCONI

INVENTOR OF WIRELESS

BORN: April 23, 1874 DIED: July 20, 1937 Bologna, Italy Route, Italy

GUGLIELMO M ARCONI, inventor of wireless, up an electrical journal in which he read was born "with a silver spoon in his mouth," Hertz's thought-provoking story of electric and his life is a story of the rich man's son waves. An idea dawned; something whispered who made good—not the usual rags-to-riches to Marconi that if the radiation could be tale. His father, Giuseppe Marconi of Bo- increased, developed and controlled, it would logna, was adignified gentleman of adequate be possible to signal across space for con- means; his second marriage in 1864 was with siderable distances! Obsessed with the the keen-witted Irish girl, Anna Jameson, thought, Marconi cut short his vacation and youngest daughter of Andrew Jameson of the rushed home to Pontecchio, near Bologna, to well-known whiskey distillers of Dublin. test the "dream." Anna had gone to Bologna to study music He brought together the induction cod, and there she fell in love. the Hertz wave emitter, the Righi gap, the The Marconis had two boys, Alfonso and telegraph key, batteries, the Branly coherer, Guglielmo; both were tutored on the pa- and built them into sending and receiving rental estate. The teachers noticed Gugli- stations on his father's estate. He sent elmo's keen interest in science and his sur- cricketlike sounds for three-quarters of a passing imagination. mile. That was the birth of wireless; from In the summer of 1894, while vacationing then on no obstacle on the face of the earth, in the Italian Alps, young Marconi picked or distance, could stop wireless.

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. I93 Marconi's original patent disclosed a two- resonant to the same frequency; he accom- circuit system (single circuit at both trans- plished this by careful determination of the mitter and receiver) for the transmission and size and height of the aerial plates. reception of Hertzian waves.' His next important step was the inven- The transmitter comprised an aerial cir- tion of tuning—the key to a great advance cuit with one end connected to an elevated in wireless. 2 It prevented overlapping of sig- aerial and the other end to the ground. The nals, reduced interference, opened the way circuit contained a spark gap the terminals for a multiplicity of stations and made of which were connected to the secondary of ethereal communication practical. a transformer. The primary of the trans- Fate brought Marconi upón the stage of former was connected to a source of current science at the time when the world was and a telegraph key for signaling. The low- ready for speedy international communica- frequency current was caused to discharge tion. Destiny linked his name with wireless, through the spark gap, producing high-fre- and as wirèless spread, so did the name and fame of Marconi. He had the money, cour- quency oscillations which were radiated by the aerial. The receiver similarly contained age, patience, initiative, perseverance and in- an antenna circuit between an elevated plate tuition to carry his invention to a commer- and the ground, in which a coherer (detec- 2 Marconi's famous British patent, No. 7,777, on tor) was directly connected. Marconi con- four-circuit tuning was granted April 26, 1900. It structed the transmitter and receiver to be was assigned to the Marconi Company on March 6, 1905. French patent No. 305,060 was issued on November 3, 1900. Marconi filed for an equivalent 'Marconi applied for his original and basic British patent, No. 12,039, on June 2, 1896. The equivalent American patent on November 10, 1900. It was granted June 28, 1904, as No. 763,772 covering "im- American patent, No. 586,193, was granted him on provements in apparatus for wireless telegraphy by July 13, 1897, and was reissued on June 4, 1901, as means of Hertzian aerials or electric waves." No. 11,913. RADIO'S I00 MEN OR SCIENCE 194 cial conclusion. Surrounding himself with as a Caesar. Then France called for a test experts,3 he became the perfectionist. He con- of wireless; on March 27, 1899, he flashed secrated his life to wireless; to him it became •the first messages across the English Chan- the patient labor of a lifetime. nel from Wimereux to the cliffs of Dover. Wireless in 1896 seemed to hold greater Next America beckoned, and he crossed the promise for use at sea than on the land, so ocean for the first time in the autumn of Marconi, "a serious-minded Italian youth, 1899 on the invitation of the New York speaking with grave precision," went to Eng- Herald, which arranged for him to transmit land, there to experiment and promote his bulletins of the America Cup races off the invention. Using short waves and reflectors New Jersey coast. he demonstrated across loo yards, then miles Then came the grand climax in Merconi's and miles, but at no time did he clam to be career. Using an antenna held aloft by a a scientist. He simply explained thaz he had kite at St. John's, Newfoundland, on Decem- observed certain facts and developed instru- ber 12, 1901, he plucked from space the ments to meet them. His numerous experi- letter "S" flashed from Poldhu across 2,000 ments up and down the English coast put miles of broad curving ocean. Assisting him him in the news almost daily. He showed were George S. Kemp 4 and P. W. Paget. how stations could be separated by the magic Said Marconi, "Wireless telegraphy is pos- of tuning; how ships could communicate sible anywhere, and it will, I think, soon be with shore. a reality in many places." Marconi returned to Italy as triumphant He had upset the calculations of mathe-

3 Walter William Bradfield, Dr. W. H. Eccles, J. maticians who warned in the beginning that Ambrose Fleming, C. S. Franklin, Andrew Gray, wireless would not go beyond the horizon; John Erskine Murray, C. E. Rickard, Capt. II. J. Died January 2, 1933, at Southampton, England, Round and Richard Norman Vyvyan. st the age of seventy-five. BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 195 physics was Marconi's in 1909. they said that the curvature of the earth That was the year the wreck of the luxury would stop it. The direct transatlantic link liner S.S. Republic off Sandy Hook put wire- between the hemispheres put the name Mar- less to its first severe test in a major marine coni alongside those of Morse and Bell. Yet disaster. 5 It etched the glory of wireless on there remained many skeptics. When the S.S. Philadelphia docked in New the dark background of calamity at sea; the CQD saved hundreds of lives and prevented York March I, 1902, Marconi came down a disaster "darker even than Martinique." the gangplank and handed news reporters The S.S. Titanic disaster—April 13, 1912 yards of "telegraph" tape, dotted and dashed —put wireless in the news as had no other N ;th hundreds of signals he had automati- event; from midocean it taught the world c.illy recorded from Poldhu while en route the importance of Marconi's immortal work. across the ocean. No one now could sas' that He met the rescue ship Carpathia in New his ears had been mistaken at Newfound- York with cries of survivors ringing in his land on December 12, 190r. ears, "Ti dobbiano la vita!" ("We owe our From that day forth Marconi wireless life to you.") And someone remarked, "If I pushed ahead irom triumph to triumph: The could select a crown for Mr. Marconi, it first west-east transatlantic messages were sent from Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, to Eng- would be a coronet surmounted by a globe on which would be inlaid in pearls those mag- land 4.1n December 17, 1902, and on Jan- uary 19, 1903, station WCC at South Well- nificent, significant letters CQD." Since that day, because of wireless, many fleet, Cape Cod, opened with an exchange of greetings between President Roosevelt a person has been saved from a watery and King Edward VII. Commercial service grave; many a ship afire at sea or battered by wind and wave, wrecked or torpedoed, has b:.‘gan between Glace Bay and Clifden, Ire- land, October 17, 1907. The Nobel prize in 5 January 23, 1909. RADIO'S 100 MEN OF SCIENCE 196 • .11.1«.-

called for help through the voice Marconi of wireless adapted for the transmission and put on board. reception of definite, intelligible signals by It was not until 1914, however, that Mar- such means as revealed by Marconi in his coni won the title "master of wireless." The first patent. United States. District Court, Eastern Dis- Said Judge Veeder, "I find that the evi- trict of New York, in an opinion handed dence establishes Marconi's claim that he down by Judge Van Vechten Veeder up- was the first to discover and use any prac- held the validity and priority of Marconi's tical means for effective telegtaphic trans- patents. Marconi had discovered the truth mission and intelligible reception of signals in the adage that "a patent is merely a title produced by artificially formed Hertz oscil- to a law suit." Many had been aware of lations." Hertzian waves, but the Court in 1914 found The opening of the First World War no conclusive evidence up to 1896 that any- found Marconi talking prophetically about one had described and demonstrated asystem transoceanic radiotelephony, and he hurried Supreme Court of the United States on June 21, to Italy for wartime duties. At the end 1943, delivered an opinion in the case of the Marconi. of the conflict he resumed short-wave ex- Wireless Telegraph Company of America vs. the periments, and the historic observations United States invalidating Marconi's American made on board his floating laboratory, the patent No. 763,772 on four-circuit tuning. The Court based its decision largely on finding that John Stone yacht Elettra, became the basis of the beam Stone's patent, applied for February 8, 1900, was wireless system. In 1922 he sailed to New nine months prior to Marconi's application for his York with the Elettra, listened to American American patent that covered tuning. Stone's patent broadcasting stations for the first time and was allowed February 2, 1902. Marconi's was granted June 28, 1904. It was the equivalent of his revealed the results of his short-wave tests. famous British patent No. 7,777 on tuning granted At a joint meeting of the Institute of Radio April 26, 1900. Engineers and the American Institute of BY ORRLN E. DUNLAP, JR. 597 screened from the local transmitter on the send- E'ietrical Engineers on June 20, he urged ing ship, and thereby immediately reveal the that attention be directed to the neglected presence and bearing of the other ship it fog or short waves; he induced the engineers to get thick weather. out of the blind alley they were following One further great advantage of such an ar- in the long-wave spectrum. rangement would be that it would be able to give As he neared the end of his talk Marconi warning of the presence and bearing of ships, digressed from his prepared address to say even should these ships be unprovided with any to the engineers that in reference to radio kind of radio. reflectors, he would like to refer to the pos- Ihave brought these results and ideas to your sible application of reflected radio waves. If notice as Ifeel—and perhaps you will agree with successful, he told them, the application me—that the study of short electric waves, al- would be of great value to navigation. With- though sadly neglected practically all through out using the word "radar," then unknown the history of wireless, is still likely to develop in many unexpected directions, and open up new in the vocabulary of radio, he concluded: fields of profitable research. As was first shown by Hertz, electric waves can be completely reflected by conducting bodies. When Marconi returned to New York in In some of my tests I have noticed the effects 1927, he again pointed to short waves, but of reflection and deflection of these waves by more so to ultra-short waves as the key to metallic objects miles away. new triumphs in television. Microwaves en- It seems to me that it should be possible to tranced him from that point on. To him design apparatus by means of which a ship could they were the future of radio. He came to radiate or project adivergent beam of these rays America on his last visit in the autumn of in any desired direction, which rays, if coming 1933, greatly intrigued and enthusiastic over across a metallic object, such as another steamer or ship, would be reflected back to a receiver tiny waves measured in centimeters. 198 RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE , .

"I am known as a man who e ,in cold He won by the test of results. .. . The most scientific facts and practicalitir Jt in Uto- eminent men of the time were conscious of the pian fantasies," he said. "A J talk of a problem, were interested in it, had sought for saturation point—a limit to .tio progress— years the exactly right arrangement, always ap- there is no limit to distance, nence there can proaching more nearly but never quite reaching be no limit to wireless development." the stage of practical success. The invention was, In the light of the passing years, as his so to speak, hovering in the general climate of accomplishments were weighed in the scales science, momentarily awaiting birth. But just the right releasing touch had not been found. Mar- of history, it was observed that although coni added it.' what Marconi did was simple, it was brilliant and brought about big and important What manner of man was he who had results. drawn "the most distant places and many Forty years later schoolboys could per- forgotten lives into the orbit of civiliza- form what Marconi did in 1900. In fact, tion"? Marconi was an Italian who spoke they surpassed his magic of that time by English as fluently as he. spoke his native talking across continents and oceans using tongue. His success may be summed up in no more power than their mothers' electric patience and infinite persistence, plus a great iron or toaster. Nevertheless, before Mar- deal of natural ability and an undying devo- coni, scientists had tried and failed. Mar- tion to wireless. He was an interpreter of coni the youth entered the race with elec- Nature. An instinctive intuition whispered trical wizards and men of genius; he worked to him what was wanted and how to arrive and won and the ever important element of at the solution. Simplicity was the keyAte timeliness was on his side. Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of Amer- Said Justice Rutledge of the United States ica vs. United States in United States Supreme Court, Justice Rutledge dissenting in part, June 21, Supreme Court: 1943. BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 199 to his will and the more he discovers, the of his wizardry; the simplicity of his ap- more he will find to discover, and because proach to wireless enabled him to succeed of this the inventor will realize more and where distinguished scientists, mathemati- more the infinity of the infinite. He was al- cians and theorists had failed. ways punctual; he hated above all things to Always quick to concede that other men be kept waiting or to keep others waiting. of science had contributed much to the de- Never was he the carelessly dressed or tra- velopment of wireless, Marconi with charac- ditional inventor, unkempt and unpressed. teristic modesty said that he had simply He looked more like the neatly attired banker observed certain facts and developed instru- or businessman with a handkerchief tucked ments to meet them. His restless manner was in the breast pocket of his coat to match one of chilly reserve. His features were mel- the color of his tie. Yet he disliked routine ancholy in expression; his face impassive, business; he was not a businessman or in- his carriage erect and his bearing confident. Never avoluntary conversationalist, in mood dustrialist. In a calm, softly pitched voice Marconi he was quiet and shy. His reticence was the talked slowly with no show of egomania. reticene of modesty. Neither was he a lab- When addressing public gatherings he chose oratory-hugging genius as was Edison. He his words carefully. On the radio he was delighted to be at sea aboard the Elettra, quickly recognized by a characteristic of his tracking down and studying the elusive waves speech: He dropped the "g" of words end- that came in through the air from all parts ing in "ing." Revealing a sharp memory he of the world. recalled names, dates, events and incidents Always cautious in his predictions, Mar- of thirty years back as if they had been im- coni never linked a future possibility with a printed on his mind only yesterday. definite date. He contended that the more a Marconi impressed one as aman possessed man bends the phenomena of the universe RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 200 of a great idea--an all-absork" -ought he was Italian. He listened to praise and from the contemplation of _ ne could forgot it because he was partly Celtic. detach himself only with okulty. When Marconi was not a man easy to meet. asked about the future he uld usually re- Meeting odd people was no happy knack for ply that he lived and worke, in the present him. He was no mixer and moved within and dreamed only "sometimes" of the future. his own small, intimate circle. He relished He liked the past because he was sure of only first-rate people around him and only a it; it was definite. The present was too fleet- few at a time. At mass interviews he usually ing to catch with accuracy, and he cherished acted bored and restless, nervous and anxious accuracy and precision. The future to him to go on to something else. To some this was powerfully full of promise. To him youth was evidence of snobbishness until they suc- dreams of the future—the road ahead. Age ceeded in penetrating his reserve. He might dreams of the past—the long road back. The be summed up as a fashionable, scientific one leads on to progress; the other into hazy intellectual possessed of multifarious inter- reveries, into the land of memory. ests with wireless always omnipotent. He There was no bluff, no boastfulness in his belonged to the intelligentsia of Old Rome, makeup. He had neither the volatility of the yet nothing could divert him from wireless. Italian nor the cheery cordiality of the Irish- Nothing was too simple in wireless for him man. He was of an intensely nervous and to devote time and attention to it; it always energetic temperament, easily rattled by intrigued his curiosity and tugged at his trifles when in the stress of work or by imagination to the very end of his days. . miscarriage of plans. Acute observation and His vigorous life came to a close in the a keen ability to concentrate were impor- early morning of July 20, 1937, in Rome. tant parts of his character. It was said that Globe-girdling radio flashed the sad tidings; he listened to praise and enjoyed it because broadcasting tolled his requiem across the BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 201 ' Astounded by the enormous machinery• of hemispheres as death took Marconi back to the universe, Marconi said: Bologna where first he had wirelessed.8 Never in all his research had Marconi The complexity of the different organs, which glimpsed the slightest clue to explain the all work out in coordinated and determined func- mystery of humanity's origin and the future. tions, the constant preoccupation for the con- Life was an impenetrable secret, truly fright- servation of the species, man's marvelous adapta- ening to him were it not for faith. tion of his constitution to surroundings, the transmission of instincts, the mechanism of Marconi left four children. His first wife, thought and reasoning, and, lastly the spectre of Beatrice O'Brien, daughter of Lord Inchiquin, whom death, place man, who wishes to explain the tor- he married in 1905, bore him two daughters, Degna menting mystery, before a book closed with and Gioia, and a son, Guilio. This marriage was seven seals. 9 annulled in January, 1927, and in June he married 9Lecture before the International Congress of Countess Maria Christina Bezzi-Scali, of an old Electro -Radio Biology, September 10, 1934, Venice, Roman family. On July 20, 193 1,a daughter was Italy. born, Maria Elettra Elena.

FRANK CONRAD

PIONEER BROADCASTER DIED: December 10, 1941 BORN: May 4, 1874 Miami, Fla. Pittsburgh, Pa. FRAN« CONRAD, pioneer in public broadcast- to work with tools took him out of seventh ing, centered world attention on KDKA, grade at the Starrett Grammar School, and Pittsburgh, in the early twenties. The urge he went to work as a bench-hand in the RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 202 . Westinghouse plant at Çar rison Alley, Pitts- chiefly H. P. Davis, vice president, saw t!:e burgh. That was in 1890. Aptitude for me- possibilities and applied for a commerci..I chanics soon advanced him to the testing license. The call assigned was KDKA.' As a department. His first important contribution pioneer station, it broadcast the Harding-Cox was the circular type watt-hour meter to election bulletins on November 2, 1920, measure the consumption of electric current, starting a "craze" that swept the country to and it became a universal home installation. become a vast new industry—broadcasting! Intrigued with time synchronization and a As a result the demand for radio receives desire to have his watch correct to the sec- was tremendous. Building crystal detector ond, he built a wireless receiver to pick up sets at home became a national pastime with the time signals of the Naval Observatory tuning coifs wound on cereal boxes and con- broadcast by station NAA, Arlington, Vir- densers made of tinfoil from the florist shop. ginia. Electrical manufacturers, overcome with the After conducting experimental work for demand, expanded plant facilities to fill or- the government during the First World War, ders from every city and hamlet in the land. he returned to his amateur wireless station The historic "Radio AIusic Box" plan of 8XK in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania. The ra- development, which would make radio a diophone had developed rapidly during the household utility, as proposed by David Sar- conflict. Conrad rebuilt his station in his noff in 1916, had come true. 2 At that time garage and began to broadcast phonograph music and to chat with other amateurs. A KDKA licensed by Department of Commerce, Pittsburgh department store advertised wire- October 27, 1920. less sets that would pick up Conrad's broad- Sarnoff, then assistant traffic manager of the casts. The idea clicked and the response was Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America, so encouraging that Westinghouse officials, embodied the "Radio Music Box" proposal in aletter of recommendati >n to E. J. Nally, general manager. BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 203 Sarnoff had pointed to the endless possibili- cycles would never be of use because the ties of utilizing radio for receiving concerts, ground loss was so high. Conrad proved that lectures, events of national importance and these frequencies were extremely valuable baseball scores in the home. In fact, he esti- when the sky-wave was used. He also showed mated that if his plan materialized, it would that the portion of radiation that went sky- seem reasonable to expect the sale of a mil- ward at a low angle could bé reflected back lion "Radio Music Boxes" within aperiod of to earth at a remote point, from an ionized three years with actual sales of home instru- layer above the surface of the earth. His ments totaling $75,000,000. experiments indicated that a series of re- During the war it had been assumed that flections between the earth and the ionized radiotelephony should be developed as acon- layer take place before the signal eventually fidential means of communication, but Con- returns to the earth at the desired receiving rad's experience brought a turn in this tide station. Radio engineers, therefore, learned of thought. Suddenly it was realized that the to use these frequencies for international radiophone's field was one of wide publicity, communications, although they are of little in fact, the only means of instantaneous, use for local broadcasting because of the direct mass communication ever devised; high ground loss. here was aservice of universal application. Attending aLondon conference in 1924 to discuss establishment of aradio link between There was also a notion in the pre-broadcasting era that frequencies above 1,5oo kilo- Europe and South America, Conrad staged a dramatic demonstration of short waves by Sarnoff's accurate foresight was revealed by the fact picking up signals directly from Pittsburgh. that in three years 1922, 1923, 1924 RCA's sales of Revealing how the event marked amilestone home radios amounted to $83,500,000. Sarnoff became president of the Radio Corporation of America in international radio communication, Con- in 1930. rad said: RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 204 , The consensus of opinion was that very long waves should be used. .. . I discussed with Conrad was appointed general engineer of David Sarnoff the advisability of proposing a the Westinghouse Company in 1904 and short-wave transmitter. .. . I had taken with assistant chief engineer in 1921. He super- me a small short-wave receiver, and found that vised the development of newer transmitting by using a curtain rod in my hotel room for an equipment and the design of the WD-11 aerial, I could receive Pittsburgh on short wave radio tube operated from a dry cell, which fairly well. .. . So we arranged for Pittsburgh played an important part in making the first to send extracts from newspapers by code. Mr. 'domestic electronic tube receivers possible in Sarnoff played the part of receiving operator, compact, simplified form. - and during the course of an hour or so, in my He received the honorary degree of Doc- bedroom he took down an amount of copy, which was practically one day's traffic of the British tor of Science from the University of Pitt,- Marconi Company. At the meeting held next burgh in .1928. For his work in radio he was day, he threw a bomb into the group by exhibit- awarded the Morris Liebmann Prize by the ing the copy which he had taken. Institute of Radio Engineers in 1926: the Incidentally, the succeess of our little demon- Edison Medal of the American Institute of stration must have given Mr. Sarnoff some con- Electrical Engineers in 1931; the John Scott cern as to what to do with several million Medal of the Institute of Philadelphia in dollars' worth of long:wave transmitters which had been projected for erection by the Radio 1933; the Lamme Medal of the A.I.E.E. in Corporation of America on Long Island. Appar- 1936; the Gold Medal of the American In- ently he dissolved his problem becaúse the proj- stitute of the City of New York on Feb- ect as a whole was dropped and short-wave ruary I, 1940. transmitters replaced the proposed long-wave system. 3 Oddly enough, radio, the medium in which 3 Speech at the American Institute of the City of Conrad flashed the first election returns, was New York, February 2, 1940. used during the week of his death to broad- BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 205 sponse of Congress, voting hostilities against cast world-wide President Roosevelt's address asking Congress to declare war on the Japa- Germany and Italy. Radio, since Conrad's nese Empire. Three days later, microphones pioneering efforts, had become a medium in which history is heard before it is written— in the nation's Capitol picked up a second presidential request, and the immediate re- a medium in which news is born.

WILLIAM HENRY ECCLES RADIO PHYSICIST BORN: August 23, 1875 Furness, England

W ILLIAM HENRY ECCLES, physicist, studied of those chosen; he entered the Marconi laboratory at Chelmsford. Much of his time and interpreted the mathematics of radio and was one of Marconi's right-hand men. He en- was spent in the investigation of electrical oscillations. He also devised a laboratory rolled as a student at the Royal College of Science, South Kensington, in 1894. Three method for testing and classifying coherers, the results of which were presented as his years later he was appointed demonstrator D.Sc. thesis in 1901. Developing the "tun- in the physics laboratory at the college, and ing fork" method of control to maintain the in 1898 was graduated from London Uni- frequency of transmitting stations as nearly versity with first-class honors. Marconi was in London, surrounding him- constant as possible, he contributed to the self with expert electricians, the majority minimizing of interference. Recognized as an authority on radio the- of them English and Scotch. Eccles was one RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 206 ory, Eccles was appointed head of the mathe- sufficient perspicuity, nor accommodated matics and physics department of the South- unto use with sufficient dexterity, without Western Polytechnic, Chelsea, in 1902, and the aid and intervening of the mathematics." afterwards became professor of applied phys- Through algebra and calculus and through ics and electrical engineering at the City and his discussion of the physical properties of Guilds of London Technical College. wireless as related to mathematics, Dr. Eccles observed, "When electric waves Eccles was a pathfinder who contributed from a high-power sending station pass over much to the understanding of radio science the surface of the globe, that portion of their all the way from the Hertz oscillator to the energy which reaches a distant receiving electron, or ionic tube, as he referred to it. station and operates the receiving apparatus, His "principal sphere of labour" is summed as far as we know, traveled from the one up as "wireless telegraphy and patents." He point to the other along the shortest path— was chairman of designers of the Rugby that is, along a great circle drawn on the high-power wireless station 1922-24, and globe." served as adviser to the British government Eccles wrote Handbook of Wireless Teleg- on wireless through the Second World War. raphy in 1915. His second book, Continuous Wave Wireless Telegraphy, published in The men with whom Marconi surrounded 1921, was a treatise that revealed his grasp himself in the early days were expert elec- of wireless and its mathematics. Indicating trians for that was the natural field from his appreciation of the importance of mathe- which to draw capable men interested in the matics in the advancement of learning, Eccles development of wireless. They were operat- quoted from Francis Bacon: "For many ing engineers more than scientists; they were parts of Nature can neither be invented with practical men of engineering skill with a sufficient subtility, nor demonstrated with flair for invention. They were "Marconi BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 207 Pioneers," and as such they helped to blaze in 1910 was appointed chief engineer of the new trails in the science of radio. Along Marconi Company. with Dr. Eccles they were: James Erskine Murray was born October 24, 1868, at Edinburgh and died February 12, 1927. Walter William Bradfield, born in 1879 at He studied under Lord Kelvin at Glasgow Uni- London, joined the Wireless Telegraph & Signal versity and enrolled at Trinity College, Cam- Co., Ltd., in 1897, and became electrical assistant bridge, as a research studcnt. In 1898 Marconi to Marconi in his historic tests of wireless at selected him as one of his experimental assistants, Salisbury Plain. He supervised installation of the and he became chief electrician of the Marconi first wireless apparatus on British battleships Company. In 1905, Murray turned to consulting and later assisted in demonstrations to the work in radiotelegraphy. United States Navy aboard the U.S.S. Massa- chusetts. In 1901 he directed building of the Capt. H. J. Round met Marconi in 1903 and Marconi station as Siasconset, Massachusetts, worked with him from 1908 to 1914, conducting and Nantucket Lightship. He was appointed numerous experiments for "GM," as Marconi chief engineer of the Marconi Wireless Tele- was referred to among his men. In 1911, Round graph Company of America in 1902. When Brad- produced a balanced crystal circuit dependent field died in March, 1925, Marconi said, "He upon the fact that the carborundum crystal re- did agreat deal of valuable work for me." quired an impressed voltage to bring it to its most sensitive state as adetector. Early in 1913 Andrew Gray, born at Glasgow in 1873, was he introduced athree-electrode gas-filled tube or educated at Glasgow University, and as an elec- valve. In 1919 he transmitted speech from Clif- den, Ireland, to Newfoundland, and ayear later trician specialized in telegraphy. He entered the employ of the Marconi Company in 1899, and from Chelmsford. He was an outstanding ex- perimentalist and pioneer in the use of Fleming some of the early ship and shore wireless in- valves, in voice transmission, in the development stallations were designed by him. He introduced the Marconi system to the Hawaiian Islands, and of circuits and in radio direction finders. RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 208 Richard Norman Vyvyan, born in England on Wireless Chain was established in 1924, he was December 2, 1876, was educated at Charterhouse responsible for construction and engineering of and studied electrical engineering at Faraday the stations. Vyvyan's book, Wireless Over 30 House, London. Joining the engineering staff of Years, was published in 1933 as ahistoric record the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company in of wireless pioneering and development. 1900, he accompanied Marconi on many historic Of "the Chief," Vyvyan said: "Only those trips—to the southwest tip of England in July, who worked with Marconi throughout the early 1900, to select Poldhu as the site of the first years of wireless realize the wonderful courage transatlantic station; to Canada in 1931 to build he showed under frequent disappointments, the the Glace Bay station; on Foard the S.S. Phila- extraordinary fertility of his mind in inventing delphia in 1902, when Poldhu's signals were re- new methods to displace others found faulty, and corded on tape. Vyvyan was engineer in charge his willingness to work often sixteen hours at a at Glace Bay when transatlantic service opened time when any interesting development was be- in 1903. He served with the Royal Flying Force ing tested. He had an instinctive intuition as to in World War I. He became chief engineer of what was wanted and how to arrive at the the Marconi Company, and when the Imperial solution."

GREENLEAF WHITTIER PICKARD INTRODUCED CRYSTAL DETECTORS BORN: February 14, 1877 Portland, Me.

GREENLEAF W HITTIER PICKARD, electrical Greenleaf Whittier. Educated at Westbrook engineer and investigator of radio phenom- Seminary, Lawrence Scientific School, Har- ena, was the grand-nephew of the poet John vard University and Massachusetts Institute BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 209 of Technology, he turned to radio in 1898 at as detectors. He tried iron oxide and then Blue Hills Observatory, Milton, Massachu- magnetite, but it was not until 1906, when setts, under a grant from the Smithsonian he obtained crystals of silicon—a product of Institution. the electric furnace—that he found a good Pickard was actively engaged in experi- detector. He also introduced the "perikon" ments with crystal detectors, and as a mem- detector, two metallic substances pressed ber of the American Telephone and Tele- against each other, red oxide of zinc and graph engineering staff he assisted in devel- chalcopyrite. Iron pyrites also worked. The opment of aradiophone, demonstrated in the hunt for more sensitive detectors led to "de- autumn of 1902. After 1906 he was asso- tection" tests of all minerals. Galena proved ciated with the Wireless Specialty Apparatus to be the best although it lacked ruggedness Company as consulting engineer until 1931. and stability for commercial practice. The He conducted numerous experiments to "cat whisker," a little fine wire which determine the effect of the sun and sunspots touched lightly the surface of the cryStals, on radio. In his study of the polarization of was easily jarred 9ff the sensitive spot. The radio waves, he contributed to development operator used a buzzer test; he occasionally of the direction finder, and noted as early as pushed a button with his foot to determine 1908 that errors in reading radio "com- whether or not the detector was still adjusted passes" might be caused by buildings, trees so he could hear a signal if it came along. and other objects which flipflopped the Carborundum generally was used aboard waves, or through reflection "fooled" the ship because acarbon rod, or small brass cup direction finder. He was elected president holding a piece of carbon, pressed tightly of the Institute of Radio Engineers in 1913. against the sparkling crystal was not as easily As early as 4903 Pickard became inter- upset by vibration. Linked with the name Pickard in crystal ested in the possibility of using minerals RAIAO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 210 egmaràfflugm-, à

detector development was that of General My first active interest in communication H. C. Dunwoody of the United States Army; without wires began in 1894-95 when I con- he observed that carborundum could be used ducted experiments with a ground-plate or con- as adetector. duction system in a pond at Deering, Maine. The function of the crystal is to change In 1897, Imade some short-range—about 34 of the incoming high-frequency impulses to low a mile—experiments with a Hertzian oscillator frequency to which the headphones will re- energized from a Wimshurst machine, with a filings coherer for a receiver. spond and produce sound within audible range of the ear. The crystal is a rectifier; In 1898 Iwas engaged in taking measurements it permits an electric current to flow through of atmospheric electricity at Blue Hills Ob- servatory, Milton, Mass. At that time, the it in only one direction, completely checking Smithsonian Institution became interested in the flow in the opposite direction. In fact, radio and asked our observatory to undertake the crystal acts in the receiving circuit as a experiments with long, high aerials. Using kites, valve in a water pipe does, allowing the very long aerials were raised. We soon found water to flow freely in one direction but pre- that these long, high aerials could not be used venting back-flow. Incidentally, that is why with our coherer-receiver. They collected an Fleming's first vacuum-tube detector was enormous amount of static. Later we successfully called a valve. The electron valve or tube, transmitted over three miles from Blue Hills to Mt. Chickatawbut, using a flag-pole aerial for as it was later called, sent the crystal to the the transmitter and a oo-foot wire held up by archives; but as a simple inexpensive device abox kite at the receiver. that boys could make for a few cents, the crystal played a noble role in the forward In the early part of 1899 w-etransmitted afew coherent messages from Blue Hills to Memorial march of radio. Hall Tavern in Cambridge, a distance of io.8 Recalling his early days in wireless, Pick- miles, using a carbon-steel microphone detector ard said: at Cambridge. Professor A. E. Dolbear of Tufts BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 211 College became interested in our work and we ventions—crystal detectors, loop aerials, novel conducted some experiments between Blue Hills forms of tuners and an improved Leyden jar pnzl Tufts College. .. . In 1903-04, in my spare condenser. t;Ine, while working with the American Tele- ie and Telegraph Company, I began experi- With more than ioo patents to his credit, rlenting with crystals for use as detectors of Pickard became consulting engineer of the laclio signals. Then, in the early part of 1907, Yankee Network in 1934, specializing in ul- after the introduction of my eilicon detector, the tra-high frequencies and radio frequency Wireless Specialty Apparatus Company was incorporated to develop and sell my various in- modulation, popularly known as FM.

ERNST F. W. ALEXANDERSON DEVELOPED THE ALTERNATOR BORN: January 25, 1878 Upsala, Sweden

ERNST FREDRIK W ERNER ALEXANDERSON, mechanics. After graduating from high school electrical engineer, became widely known for he attended the University of Lund for a his contributions to radio and to television, year. He then entered the Royal Institute of and especially fol. development of the alter- Technology at Stockholm and carried on with postgraduate studies at Keinigliche nator which bears his name. Technische Hochschule in Berlin where he Son of aprofessor of classical languages at the University of Lund, Alexanderson, as a was a student of Professor A. K. H. Slaby, boy in Sweden, displayed an aptitude for a pioneer in wireless. While there he was so RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 212 intrigued by a book on alternating current with wireless telephony experiments, which by Steinmetz that he decided to go to Amer- were picked up hundreds of miles away. A ica to find work with the electrical wizard water-cooled microphone was employed. at Schenectady. He arrived on these shores On April 26, 1909, Alexanderson applied in 19o1 and as the first step toward his for apatent on his alternator, and that same goal he worked as an electrical draftsman year described the successful operation of a in New Jersey. But always there was the two-kilowatt, ioo,000-cycle alternator. It burning desire to be with Steinmetz and in was a powerful machine for the production 1904 he attained the objective when he be- of smooth continuous waves; it looked like came a member of the General Electric engi- agiant dynamo as used at Niagara to create neering staff, designing generators under the electricity for lighting and for industry, yet direction of Steinmetz. here was a machine that made world-wide Alexanderson was not paying muct atten- communication possible. tion to wireless, when in 1904 Reginald Fes- Marconi made apilgrimage to Schenectady senden put the problem to the General Elec- in 1915 to see the fifty-kilowatt alternator tric Company to build a 100,000-cycle alter- being tested for installation at the Marconi nator; it would have to revolve 20,000 times transatlantic station at New Brunswick, New a second. Alexanderson was given the assign- Jersey. It went into operation in July, 1911, ment and went right to work on it. A n-achine with Marconi present to witness the tests, was completed in the summer of 1906 which featuring both wireless and radiophone. In- was successfully used for one kilowatt at stallation of a zoo-kilowatt alternator was 50.000 cycles, and it was delivered to Fes- completed during the winter of 1918, making senden at Brant Rock, Massachusetts, in station NFF, New Brunswick, the most pow- September of that year. On Christmas Eve erful in the world. It gave Uncle Sam a it was used to broadcast voice in connection stentorian long-range voice in the interna- BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 213 After the war thé Radio Corporation of tional air. Battleships in all parts .of the America was organized, in 1919, and Alex- world could hear NFF and so could portable anderson, while continuing his work at the field receivers on the battle front in France. General Electric Company, became chief en- The old arc-and-spark transmitters for long- distance communication were surpassed and gineer of RCA. From 1920 to 1924 in that capacity he superintended construction of doomed—the alternator became the driving powerful stations in Sweden, Poland, Eng- force in wireless communication. It accomplished undreamed-of results and was a land, Hawaii and elsewhere. "voice" in the making of history. From the His work, however, was not confined to lofty aerials at New Brunswick President transmitters for he also won recognition for Wilson's "Fourteen Points" were transmitted his development of the tuned radio-frequency circuit, which increased signal strength and to Germany and were received at Nauen. 1 selectivity of receiving sets. His develop- 'Milestones in the development of the alternator ments also included magnetic and electronic also were marked by the work of Dr. Rudolph Gold- amplifiers, a multiple tuned antenna, an schmidt and Marius Latour, French physicist (born October, 1875). The Ste. Assise station was equipped anti-static receiving antenna, and directional u. aLatour alternator and his system of balanced transmitting aerials. He was an active pio- mu* ;ple leads. neer in television and conducted considerable Goldschmidt was born March 19, 1876, at Neu- Buckow, Mecklenburg, Germany. In 1900 he was appointed engineer in the laboratory of Algemeine Jersey, and Eilvese. Germany. (Sayville, Long Electricitins-Gesellschaft in Berlin; from 1901 to Island, and Nauen. Germany, used the Arco alternator.) When the First World War broke out, it was 1902 he served as chief laboratory engineer and de- evident that these stentorian transmitters had been signer in Prague. While lecturer at Darmstadt Tech- built to meet Germany's "needs of the hour," and nical College in 1907, he practiced as consulting engineer and designed a high-frequency alternator the stations in the United States were taken over by which in 1911 was installed at Tuckerton, New the government. RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 214 _

research in power transmission, electric ship Antarctic Expedition (1940) was greatly propulsion, electric traction and in the de- improved. velopment of industrial control devices. More Television lured Alexanderson in the than 290 patents attest his inventive ability. twenties. He developed novel mechanical In recognition of his achievements, he was scanners. 2 His projector reflected a cluster elected president of the Institute of Radio of seven lights on the screen and when asso- Engineers for 1921. ciated mirrors on a drum revolved, the spots In 1924 Alexanderson sent a transatlantic of light gyrated and whirled to cover the facsimile message, a hand-written greeting, entire screen with light that "painted" the to his father in Sweden. picture. He described it as "a multiple light- One of his patents disclosed the principle brush system" and demonstrated it on known as the inverter, by which direct cur- December al 1926, at St. Louis. In Proc- rent is changed to alternating current through tor's Theatre at Schenectady May 22, 1930, the mercury vapor arc. In 1935 General he projected seven-foot television pictures on Electric installed a DC power transmission a screen, flashed from his laboratory by line using the mercury arc inverter. radio. He used a perforated scanning disc On the "radio reservation," covering many and high-frequency neon lamps. acres in the Mohawk Valley he outskirts Shortly before the Second World War Al- of Schenectady, Alçxanderson mul- exanderson and his assistants developed the tiple tuned antennas, studied horizontal po- amplidyne, a sensitive and powerful system larization of waves and erected "panel" Alexanderson was ably assisted by Ray Davis Kell (born at Kell, Illinois, June 7, 1904) on the aerials to handle high power concentrated General Electric laboratory staff from February, in desired directions, so that communication 1927, to July, 1930; he joined RCA laboratories in with foreign countries and with the Byrd 1930 and has made outstanding contributions in development of television equipment. BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 215 of amplification and automatic control which Never a man to publicly prophesy, predict found important military and industrial ap- or speculate, Alexanderson, asked in 1930 plications. He has also developed radio echo when television might be ready for the home, altimeters, radiant energy guiding systems replied, for aircraft and automatic steering devices "Well, I don't know. What we wonder for air and water craft. is if the public really wants television." Alexanderson, a member of the Royal "Scientists do not have many turning Academy of Science of Sweden, has received points in their lives," he once remarked. the Swedish Order of the North Star, the "They go straight ahead and one thing leads Medal of Honor of the Institute of Radio to the next. But Ican safely say that it was Engineers, the Polish Order of Polonia Resti- Fessenden's demand for something we didn't tuta and the John Ericcson Medal for out- have that led me to my experiments with standing radio engineering. He is a fellow radio and television. of the American Institute of Electrical En- "The inventions of tomorrow can be fore- gineers and has received honorary degrees cast," be went on, "if we know how to in- from Union College and the Royal Univer- sity of Upsala, Sweden. terpret what is going on today."

216 RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE ALBERT HOYT TAYLOR

THE NAVY'S RADAR PIONEER BORN: January 1, 1879 Chicago, Ill.

ALBERT HOYT TAYLOR, radio engineer, in- tenant commander; in 1919, commander. As vestigator of ethereal phenomena and a pio- superintendent of the Radio Division of the neer in radar, was graduated in 1899 from United States Naval Research Laboratory, Northwestern University with a B.S. degree. Anacostia, D. C., he studied polarization of He opened his career as a teacher and was electric waves, 'round-the-earth echoes or appointed instructor of physics and electrical multiple signals and the structure of the engineering at Michigan State College, 1900- upper atmosphere. As the result of his ex- ,03; then instructor at the University of periments in 1925, the "radio deflecting Wisconsin, 1903-05; assistant professor, roof" revealed two waves—one "horizontal" 1905-08. From the Imperial University at traversing the earth's surface, the other re- Goettingen, Germany, he obtained a Ph.D. bounding from the sky. The "radio roof" or in 1909, and served as professor of physics Heaviside theory was further confirmed. at the University of North Dakota, 1909-17. Taylor, regarded as one of the govern- Taylor was a pioneer in the study and de- ment's most skilled experts in radio research velopment of short waves and concentrated and engineering, was awarded the Liebmann on that phase of radio when he joined the Memorial Prize by the Institute of Radio government service in November, 1917, com- Engineers in 1927 for his short-wave work missioned a lieutenant in the United States and application of piezo crystals in trans- Naval Reserve. In 1918, he became a lieu- mitting circuits. He also designed special BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 217 and receiver attuned to certain frequencies radio equipment for aircraft. World War II produced a definite interference pattern. found him engaged in important radio re- Between 1925 and 1930 the reflection phe- search at Anacostia, with all his experience nomenon was used to measure the height of of the First World War and of the interven- the Kennelly-Heaviside layer. Taylor and ing years to enhance the value of his Young performed this work in conjunction work. with Dr. Gregory Breit and Dr. Merle A. Serving as president of the Institute of Tuve, of the Carnegie Institute. Their asso- Radio Engineers in 1929, he once remarked, ciates during this period included Louis A. "I might be classed as 25 per cent physicist, Gebhdrd, M. H. Schrenck, L. A. Hyland and 25 per cent inventor, 25 per cent naval officer later Robert M. Page and Robert C. Guthrie. and 25 per cent radio engineer." A report prepared by Taylor on "radio- Taylor's important work in the study of echo signals from moving objects" was sub- radio echoes and the structure of the upper mitted on November 5, 1930, to the chief atmosphere contributed greatly to the devel- of the Bureau of Engineering, Navy Depart- opment of radar—radio detecting and rang- ment. As a result, on January 19, 1931, the ing. Bureau assigned the Naval Research Labora- Tracing the United States Navy's early tory the problem of investigating the use of development of radar, the Navy Department radio to detect the presence of enemy vessels on May 23, 1943, called attention to the and aircraft. Special emphasis was placed fact ,that in mid-September of 1922 Taylor on the confidential nature of the problem. kind Leo C. Young, working in the Naval Many conferences with Army and Navy Aircraft Laboratory, Anacostia, observed officers were accompanied by demonstrations that certain radio signals were reflected from during the ensuing years. The importance of steel buildings and metal ships. They also having radar tested with the fleet was real- noticed that ships passing by a transmitter RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 218

•-• • ized as a result of studies made during the Board, Cordell Hull, Secretary of State, pre- tactical maneuvers of the fleet in the Pacific sented the Medal of Merit, awarded to during the autumn of 1936. As a further civilians for outstanding services in the war, step, the Naval Research Laboratory on to Taylor with this citation: 1 February 17, 1937, conducted a demonstration for naval officers of radar detection of For exceptionally meritorious conduct in the aircraft. Also in 1937 the first radar equip- performance of outstanding services in the line ment was taken to sea. The next year .was of his profession as member of the staff of the spent in designing and building a practical Naval ReSearch Laboratory. Undiscouraged by shipboard model which was installed on the frequent handicaps, Dr. Taylor labored tirelessly U.S.S. New York late in 1938. in a course of intensive research and experi- The radio echoes which A. Hoyt Taylor mentation which eventually resulted in the discovery and development of radar. His foresight, heard coming back to earth from outer space technical skill and steadfast perseverance cot.- were echoes that challenged scientists to tributed in large measure to the timely intro- make use of them. Once that was done, radar duction of a scientific device which has yielded ..added a new dimension to the science of the United States Navy a definite advantage radio. over her enemies during the present war. As Chairman of the Medal for Merit 'March 28, 1944.

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 2191 CHARLES SAMUEL FRANKLIN

BEAMED THE WIRELESS WAVES

BORN: March 23, 1879 Walthamstow, England profound technical knowledge, starred in the CHARLES SAMUEL FRANKLIN, one of Mar- short-wave, ultra-short and microwave spec- coni's outstanding engineers, received his en- trums. He designed the short-wave beam gineering and scientific training at Finsbury transmitter and devised the flat-grid aerial Technical School, England. After some time which became famous as the beam aerial, spent in electrical work at Manchester and giving Britain an imperial, all-empire, globe- later with the Norwich Electricity Company, girdling system of communication. During he joined the Wireless Telegraph and Signal the World War—in i9i6—when Marconi Company (Marconi Company) in 1899. Al- took up the investigation of directional most immediately he went to South Africa short-wave beams which he had dropped in with a Marconi contingent for duty in con- the lat nineties, he called upon Franklin and nection with the Boer War. In 1902 he was in reporting on results of extensive tests, one of the "old guard" of the Marconi Coin- said, "I was valuably assisted by Mr. any who sailed on the S.S. Philadelphia ac- Franklin." companying Marconi to conduct historic It was "CSF" who in 1919, while studying tests. He became Marconi's right hand in the problem of short-wave propagation, suc- experimental research; numerous important ceeded in using electron tubes for the gen- patents were credited to him. eration of very short waves. Marconi was Franklin, through intensive research and RADIO'S 100 MEN OF SCIENCE 220 convinced that given adequate reflectors at During the spring of 1923, Marconi and both ends, not only would the strength of Franklin conducted tests between a special signals be much greater, but also a reduction station at Poldhu and the yacht Elettra, of interference by atmospherics or other chiefly to ascertain the day and night ranges causes would be obtained. Franklin devoted and reliability of signals transmitted on particular attention to the design of efficient waves less than roo meters in length, with reflectors; he concentrated radiation into a and without reflectors, and to investigate the narrow searchlight-like beam, and built a angle and spread of the beam. On 97 meters, special short-wave transmitter employing with 12 kilowatts, daylight signals were tubes of a design which he steggested. Gaston heard across 1,250 nautical miles, and night A. Mathieu developed the beam receiver, and sign4s were picked up at the Cape Verde assisted Marconi in his short-wave receiving Islands 2,320 nautical miles from Poldhu. tests aboard the Elettra; G. A. Isted spe- The history of radio records that beam cialized in the tubes. Marconi, Franklin, wireless is' based upon the original work Mathieu and Isted were an unbeatable done and the intuition and technical fore- team. sight of Marconi and Franklin. "After Mr. Franklin, under my direction, At the advent of broadcasting Franklin had followed up this subject with great thor- was called upon to design stations for Eng- oughness," said Marconi, "we were quite land, and as a result 2L0 became London's convinced that short electric waves possessed first broadcasting station. qualities which up to that time had remained Franklin's engineering skill, coupled with unknown, and that this new line of investi- Marconi's genius for grasping the essential gation was opening up a vast field of profit- points on which the future pivoted, enabled able research full of undreamed-of possibili- the art to reach a new state of perfection ties." of immense practical importance when other- BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 221 wise it might have become a mere scientific were called sensational; the prospects bril- achievement. Marconi's foresight had forged liant. anew iffiplement—the beam reflector system. On his sixtieth birthday in Duo, Franklin Franklin, with tenacity in the face of great retired from active service with the Mar- difficulties, helped him carry it to a suc- coni Company and went to live near the cessful conclusion. The immediate results site of the famous Poldhu station.

ALBERT WALLACE HULL • PROLIFIC INVENTOR OF ELECTRON TUBES

BORN: April 19, 1880 Southington, Conn.

ALBERT W ALLACE HULL, research physicist, cal analysis is difficult." Hull was a native of Connecticut, the invented the ultra-high-frequency generator —the magnetron. Originally intended for second oldest of eight sons, five of whom low-frequency oscillations, or to be used as went lo Yale. Albert was graduated with a an electron relay, it proved to be an ex- B.A. degree in 1905, having majored in cellent device for generating microwaves. Greek and mathematics; his Ph.D. he at- The theory of the high-frequency behavior tained in 1909. From that year to 1911, he of the magnetron is admitted by scientists was instructor of physics at Worcester Poly- to be "rather complex, and exact mathemati- technic Institute, and assistant professor, RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 222 1912-14, when he joined the General Electric path by amagnet. In ordinary electron tubes, staff as research physicist. In 1928 he be- the flow of electrons from the filaments to came assistant director of research at the the plate is regulated by the charge on the General Electric "House of Magic." grid. In the magnetron there is no grid, but During his first year with GE, Hull in- the tube is in a magnetic field. As the invented a vacuum tube having a true nega- tensity of the field increases, there comes a tive resistance and named it the dynatron; stage at which the electrons are curled back the pliodynatron soon followed as a con- to the filament, and never reach the plate. trolled dynatron oscillator, useful in radio- At this critical point a slight change in the telephony. A filter circuit developed in 1917 field produces a large change in the current came into use ten years later in radio re- carried by the tube. It is especially valuable ceiving sets. This invention resulted from for producing high-frequency oscillations a great deal of extensive work in X-ray used for generating ultra-short waves. crystal analysis. Early in 192311 was given the prob- In 1920 Hull invented the magnetron, and lem of explaining the "noise" in the newly in co-operation with Dr. F. R. Elder devel- developed superheterodyne receivers. He oped oscillators which produced ten kilowatts thought it might be caused by the "shot at fifty kilocycles. It came into renewed effect" of the impact of individual electrons, prominence in 1928 with the discovery that for such an effect had been predicted but magnetrons having split anodes could gen- never demonstrated. He found the "shot erate very high frequencies. effect" was to blame as suspected, and ob- Since then the magnetron has had many tained an accurate measurement of it. As a important applications. It depends on the by-product of the investigation the screen- fact that electrons can be altered in their grid tube was developed.

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 223 My plan for measuring the "shot effect" called tubes and the public had bought the same for a voltage amplification of Ioo,000 a' a fre- number, it is estimated that the cost would quency of a million cycles [said Hull]. Since have been $800,000,000. Hence, the screen- no known method of neutralizing feedback could grid tube is credited with saving the public give this much gain, I decided to make gpecial approximately $400,000,000 per year in ra- tubes in which there was no feedback, namely, dio receivers. In addition, it has helped to tubes in which the grid and plate were screened make possible frequency modulation and from each other completely. The result was the television which, engineers contend, would screen-grid tube. I was much surprised to find that so simple be impractical without it. a solution of the problem was new and broadly In 1931 Hull patented a new tube, "the patentable. This invention had a profound in- thyratron," essential to glectronic industrial fluence on the radio art. Today nearly all of the control, and in later years, improved the tube tubes used in radio receivers, and many of those by developing more efficient cathodes—for in transmitters, are screen-grid tubes. • example, the dispenser cathode. Described as "alert, scholarly, incisive," Present-day radio receivers with their Hull is said to be the creator of a greater short-wave bands and automatic volume con- number of electron tubes than any other trol probably could not be made without man, and an important contributor to the screen-grid tubes. In any case, approximately fundamentals of physical science. His special twice as many tubes would be required, and alloy glass seals helped to make metal re- more than twice as many tuning and neu- ceiving tubes, as well as metal-glass junctions tralizing circuits, which would double the for power tubes, practical. cost of receivers. The total sales of radio Many honors have come to Dr. Hull: the receivers in 1941 amounted to $416,000,000. Howard N. Potts Medal of the Franklin In- If they had been made without screen-grid stitute, presented in 1923 for work on X-ray RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 224 'crystal analysis; the Morris Liebmann Prize from Middlebury College. He was elected of the Institute of Radio Engineers in 1930 president of the American Physical Society for his work on vacuum tubes; and an hon- in 1943. orary degree of Doctor of Science the same With eighty-six patents to his credit, he year from Union University, and in 1931 lists work as his hobby.

IRVING LANGMUIR

CHEMIST ,PHYSICIST .ELECTRONIST BORN: January 31, 1881 Brooklyn, N. Y.

IRVING LANGMUIR, American research ›ci- radio as limited to radiomen think of it only entist, has a record of achievement in in- in ternis of results in communication. So dustrial science which reveals what intuition broad is the scope of modern radio and so and hard work can accomplish when a chem- broad is its development that it calls for far ist or metallurgist applies his talents to a more than electrical engineering; it is all the realm such as radio, although it may seem sciences in one, and its progress evokes the far afield from test tubes, retorts, meals and efforts of many scientists. Langmuir's life mining. illustrates the truth of this, and the oppor- Radio is as fertile a field for the chemist tunities that exist when one looks beyond as oil or rubber, and for the metallurgist as his own profession for new spheres in which steel or the automobile. Those who think of his talents may be applied.

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 225 Born in Brooklyn, Langmuir lived with ready developed the radio tube to a power . his parents for three years in Paris. After a of several kilowatts. This was a result of his year at Chestnut Hill Academy, Philadel- discovery that electrons in a gas-free space phia, he entered Pratt Institute, then the built up a space charge which limits the cur- School of Mines at Columbia University, rent. Also, he developed the thoriated fila- from which he was graduated in 1903 as a ment for electron tubes and a process of metallurgical engineer. He did postgraduate atomic hydrogen welding. work at the University of Goettingen, Ger- At Princeton University in 2929, when he many, where he received the degree of Doctor was presented the honorary degree of Doc- of Philosophy in 1906; from that year to tor of Science, the citation said in part: 1909 he was instructor of chemistry at Ste- He has for twenty years attacked fundamental vens Institute of Technology. problems with the freedom of the academician, Langmuir joined the research staff of the yet with all the powerful resources of the in- General Electric Company in 1909, and un- dustrial engineer. Langmuir's is the accepted der the roof of "the House of Magic" at concept of adsorption and orientation of mole- Schenectady, he turned his attention, in cules at surfaces; his studies have furnished us 1911, to radio, concentrating on electron a mechanism of gas reactions at the surface of tubes. When first in the "lab," he developed metal tungsten, universally used in electric illu- an incandescent lamp which contained argon mination, long-distance telephony and rz.dio. or nitrogen, providing a type of illumination far superior to any previous form of electric Langmuir's medals and honors are many, lamp. His next avenue of investigation grew including' the Nobel prize in chemistry in out of his work with the incandescent lamp: 1932 and the Hughes Medal from the Royal He discovered new laws relating to electronic Society of London in recognition of re- emissions in a vacuum. In 1912 he had al- searches in molecular physics. The American 226 RADIO'S TOO MEN OF SCIENCE Academy of Arts and Sciences presented the can be justified by analytical reasoning. Rumford Medal for his thermionic re- In the complicated situations of life we have searches, and he was president of the In- to solve numerous problems and make many de- stitute of Radio Engineers in 1923. Hc was cisions. It is absurd to think that reason should recipient, in 1944, of the Faraday "Medal be our guide in all cases. Reason is too slow an! awarded by the Institution of Electricd En- too difficult. We often do not have the necessary data. Or we cannot simplify our problem suffi- gineers in England, for "notable scientific ciently to apply the methods of reasoning. WIt. or industrial achievements in electrical en- then, must we do? Why not do what the human gineering, or conspicuous service rendered to race always has clone: use the abilities we have, the advancement of electrical science." He use common sense, judgment and experience. was the fourth American to receive the honor, We often underrate the importance of intuition. a bronze award established in 1921. In almost every scientific problem which I Langmuir gave a high place to intuition in have succeeded in solving, even those that have human affairs, holding reason to be too slow. involved days or months of work, the final solu- In his address as retiring president of the tion has come to my mind in a fraction of a second by a process which is not consciously American Association for the Advancement one of reasoning. Such intuitive ideas are often of Science, he said: wrong. The good must be weeded out frºm the bad, sometimes by common sense or judgment, It is often thought by the layman and by other times by reasoning.' many of those who are working in so-called sciences, that the field of science should be unlimited, that reason should take the place of "Whatever work I've done," Langmuir intuition, that realism should replace emotions, once remarked, "I've done for the fun of it." and that mortality is of value only so fa: as it December 26, 1942.

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, J. 227 ROY ALEXANDER WEAGANT

ENGINEERED TO CONQUER STATIC DIED: August 23, 1912 BORN: March 29, 1881 Sherbrooke, Quebec Morrisburg, Ontario

pher, and sensing his interest in the appa- noy A.W EAGANT, radio engineer, inherited n interest in mec4anical and scientific de - ratus, Dr. Baxter encouraged the boy to learn ''ces from a long line of "ancestors of en- all he could about telegraphy and elec- leering instinct." One of his father's in- tricity. :tions wa§ a venetian blind. Roy's hobby When he went to preparatory school and college in Stanstead, Quebec, Weagant de- as a telegraph enthusiast led directly to his voted special attention to physics and elec- career. When he was four years old his parents moved across the Canadian border tricity. He went to McGill University, Mont- to Derby Line, Vermont, where he attended real, in 1898, and it was there that Sir Ernest Rutherford taught physics. Because the village school. Dr. M. L. Baxter, a retired physician of of lack of funds, after one year Weagant the town whose hobby was telegraphy, had dropped out of college and worked for three se'. up a circuit between his home and the years. By 1902 he had saved enough money niidences of near-by friends. Roy's step- to enable him to resume his studies at : ther had been a telegrapher and he helped McGill, and in 1905 he was graduated with t:.e lad to build a sounder and key to "cut the degree of B.S. He saw Rutherford demon the village line. Young Weagant was onstrate the principle of the magnetic de- fred with the spirit of an amateur telegra- tector and that really gave him his first urge RADIO'S 100 MEN OF SCIENCE 228 toward radio engineering. He made experi- à steam turbine for his alternator and con- ments with Hertzian waves, and by the time sulted the DeLaval Company. Weagant he was graduated, his interest in wireless was fast gaining momentum. worked on the job and was fascinated with Fessenden's idea; it rekindled his interest For a time he worked with the Montreal in telegraphy and linked it with wireless. Light and Power Company and then joined As time went on, Weagant noticed in an the Western Electric Company in New York electrical magazine that Fessenden was ad- where he worked in the Apparatus Design vertising for a draftsman—that was Fessen- Department. He left this job in March. den's way of hiring men. From draftsman, 1906; the company record of his work stated, Weagant transferred to engineering, testing "He had shown considerable originality on and designing. It was not long before he subjects of general electrical interest and was at Fessenden's National Electric Signal- was particularly adapted for the detailed de- ing Company's station at Brant Rock, Mas- sign of small apparatus." sachusetts, working for $112 a month. There Weagant then went with the Westinghouse he served his "wireless apprenticeship." He Electric and Manufacturing Company in worked on the design of the '00-kilowatt Pittsburgh as draftsman, remaining there spark transmitter to be installed at Arling- from May 7 until October 3r, 1907, when ton, Virginia, the Navy's first high-power he joined the General Electric Company at station. Elimination of static became Wea- West Lynn, Massachusetts. Business condi- gant's "hobby." yet he won a reputation in tions caused his dismissal after two months designing towers, antennas, transmitters and and he found his next position with the De- receiving sets. Laval Steam Turbine Company at Trenton, In March, 1912, he parted company with New Jersey. Fessenden and joined the Marconi Wireless 'It was at this time that Fessenden wanted Telegraph Company of America as a de- BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 229 signer. He introduced many innovations, as chief engineer of the Marconi Company, among them the panel type of transmitter designed much equipment used by the United which became a standard. Within the limits States Navy—and built according to gov- of commercial necessity he replaced the old ernment specifications. The Marconi factory with the new. Weagant was always a mod- at Aldene, New Jersey, became an arsenal ern; he was also a combination in ability for radio apparatus and was greatly ex- of the engineer and the litigation expert, panded in capacity for manufacture of trans- abetted by a clear method of analysis. He mitters, receivers, wavemeters and associated became chief engineer of the American Mar- equipment. It was estimated that more than ten million dollars' worth of wireless equip- coni Company. One of the first attempts to avoid conflict ment was made at Aldene during the war, or infringement of the "third electrode," or almost all for government use. grid patent of the audion invented by De As consulting engineer of RCA from 1920 Forest, was made by Weagant, who put one to 1924, Weagant devoted years of intensive of the electrodes outside instead of inside the research to the problem of eliminating static glass bulb. In 1914, a vacuum-tube detector —Nature's uncontrolled vagaries. He devel- appeared featuring the Weagant external oped directional antennas and other anti- grid. It was a tubular fountain-pen-shaped static devices which minimized the effect of affair with the filament and plate inside the atmospherics in transatlantic reception. He glass bulb, but the grid was wound around predicted that airplanes with direction find- the exterior. In effect it was a Fleming valve ers would sail 'hrough fog and thick weather with undimini: ied speed; that wireless would --with filament and plate—and it became an audion in performance when the external create great ocean lanes of air travel with grid was applied. airships passing to and fro regardless of During the First World War, Weagant, weather. RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 230 At a meeting of the Institute of Radio En- vances in antenna construction." I gineers and the New York Electrical Society Weagant spent the winter of 1921-22 in in March, 1919, he explained his method of Bermuda working on a static eliminator, but eliminating static. It dispensed with lofty with little success. He left RCA in 1924, and j towers at wireless stations and was credited shortly after joined forces with Dr. Lee De with effecting aone and one-half reduction in Forest in research work, finally in 1925 re- the amount of power required. tiring to Lake Memphremagog, Vermont, He explained that the essence of 1. trti- near his childhood playground. static development lay in the discovet of the fact that static moved in a vertical dii c- When the curse of creativeness was on him. lion, from a source overhead, while the were- Weagant was aman alone said one of his associates in engineering], and if forced to attend less signals traveied in a horizontal direction an engineering meeting or routine business con- above the earth's surface. Based on the ob- ference, he would appear, but in a sullen mood. servation that these two conflicting forces Now and then, however, between flashes of mo- moved at right angles to each other, the next mentary insight into the unknown, he would logical step, as Weagant saw it, was to de- become his un -inventive self, and then he was the velop a selective device for neutralizing the ideal host indeed. The two natures were as effect of static, yet at the same time receiv- different as black is from white. But is that not ing the wireless signals. the way with all inventors? Weagant's thoughts As he stated, Weagant believed that static were with his work; he lived for it, he died thinking of it. camc from above, but it is recorded in the history of wireless that "notwithstanding this 'In recognition of his work, the Institute of Radio Engineers presented the Morris Liebmann Memorial misconception, he accomplished genuine ad- Prize to Weagant in 1920.

BY ORR/N E. DUNLAP, JR. 231 ILIA EMMANUEL MOUROMTSEFF

DELVED INTO MICROWAVES

BORN: December 9, 1881 St. Petersburg, Russia

Legion of Honor. When Germany attacked ILIA EMMANUEL MOUROMTSEFF, electrical engineer, specialized in radio and experi- Russia, Mouromtseff was assigned the important task of getting the word through mented with wavelengths so short that they to the French, and after he and his staff fringed the frontier of light; he called the worked all night, the message finally got tiny impulses "black light." through, flashed by a station which the Rus- Mouromtseff attended Military High School in Orel, Russia, graduating in 1898, sians had built in four days. In 1917 Mouromtseff came to the United after which he entered the Nicholas Engi- States as a member of the Russian Purchas- neering School and Academy at St. Peters- burg, receiving a degree in military, engi- ing Commission. Like Zworykin and a number of other Russian scientists who came neering in 1906. To carry on his study of to America during that period, he liked the electrical engineering, he enrolled at the In- country and made it his home. In 1923 he stitute of Technology in Darmstadt, Ger- many, from which he was graduated in 1910. joined the Westinghouse Electric and Manu- facturing Company at Pittsburgh to take When the First World War struck Europe, charge of radio transmitter tube develop- Mouromtseff joined the Signal Corps of the Russian Army with the rank of colonel. For ments. In 1936 Mouromtseff transferred from his liaison work with the French, he was Pittsburgh to the Bloomfield, New Jersey, awarded the Officer's Cross of the French RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 232 works of Westinghouse. He conducted ex- and use the earth's surface as a guide, thus fol- periments in ultra-high-frequency transmis- lowing a slightly curved path. sion, and in 1942 was appointed assistant Ultra-short waves, on the other hand, are manager of the Electronics Engineering De- "channelized" into a narrow path and travel partment. through the air in a straight line. Like light, •Mouromtseff is credited as having con- these short radio waves can be projected in a beam and reflected. Thus they can be harnessed tributed anumber of important achievements to accomplish many tasks.' to the advance of radio transmission. He helped to develop some of the first water- Among the feasible applications in indus- cooled transmitting tubes and ultra-high-fre- try of this new form of radio Mouromtseff quency tubes of high output. He worked out listed such jobs as helping convert chemicals a method of calculating transmitting tube into cloth, aiding in the manufacture of characteristics in the positive grid region, safety glass and treating preserved foods which gave radio engineers something they after they already are in the jars or pack- had lacked previously; and in various other ages. investigations, chiefly in the microwave spectrum, Mouromtseff added important knowl- One of the first industrial experiments with edge to the art. ultra-high-frequency radio which produces ultra. short waves was for the de-infestation of wheat Long-wave radio gave us sound at a distance; in grain elevators contaminated with rice weevil the very short waves now give us vision at adis- [he said]. Our laboratory experiments were suc- tance [said Mouromtseff discussing postwar pos- cessful and stirred up atremendous interest both sibilities for radio]. Long waves, like those used in this country and abroad. Vacuum packers in standard broadcasting, radiate from asending were interested in the possibility of pre-cooking antenna like ripples when a pebble is dropped hams and similar products by high-frequency into apool of water. They travel in all directions 1 July 7, 1943. BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 233 radio. Restaurants investigated the future of found that various sicknesses can be treated by large "radio cookers" which might be installed irradiating the body with radio waves. Very short in dining rooms for grilling steaks, hot dogs waves can be focused into narrow bèams—nar- or toasting bread in front of the customer. Heat rowcast instead of broadcast—and applied to would be generated only in the food itself and the body for therapeutic 'reatment at sharply the food would be cooked from the inside out defined places. Radio, for example, can be tied giving it adifferent flavor. for irradiation of kidneys, lungs, stomach and The field of short-wave radio seems almost other areas. It also is the most convenient limitless. In the field of medicine it has been method of heating the entire body.

HERBERT EUGENE IVES

APPLIED ELECTRO -OPTICS TO RADIO BORN: July 31, 1882 Philadelphia, Pa.

HERBERT EUGENE IVES, electro -optical re- process now universally in use, and originated search expert and physicist, did for pictures methods of color photography. on wires and the radio what his father, Herbert E. Ives was graduated from the Frederic E. Ives, did for photography on University of Pennsylvania in 1905, and re- plates, films and the printing press. Frederic ceived his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins in Ives, who started as a printer's apprentice, 1908. He was appointed assistant physicist with photography as an overtime activity, of the Bureau of Standards, 1908-09; physi- invented the first process called halftone in cist of the National Electric Lamp Associa- 1878, and in 1885, th'e halftone engraving tion of Cleveland, 1909-12; worked with the RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 234 United Gas Improvement Company, 1912- across the American continent by the Asso- 18; and with the Western Electric Company ciated Press. and Bell Telephone Laboratories, 1919 to Ives's research in color photography and date. optics led him into television. He partici- His earliest scientific work was in pho- pated in "a triumph of research" on April 7, tometry and illumination, with special ref- 1927, when Herbert Hoover, then Secretary erence to the measurement and specification of Commerce, speaking over a telephone line of color. The generally used trichromatic from Washington, addressed a group in New specification of color follows the lines pro- York and was seen on a large neon-light posed and elaborated by him. Following this screen as he spoke. As another feature "act" were researches on vision, particularly the in the demonstration, moving images of phenomena of flicker. The photoelectric speakers and entertainers at Whippany, New effect early attracted his attention and was Jersey, were transmitted by radio to ti..e the subject of numerous investigations. The screen in New York. properties of extremely thin films of alkali Television in color, "a dream of science," metal were the subject of exhaustive study, was demonstrated by Ives and his staff at which subsequently found application in the Bell Telephone Laboratories on June 27, early television pick-up devices. 1929, when brilliantly tinted pictures were In 1923 Ives and his collaborators at the sent over wires from one end of a room to Bell Laboratories developed the method and the other. The pictures, vividly and realis- apparatus for the transmission of photo- tically colored, were about the size of a graphs over telephone lines used at the postage stamp. national political convention in 7924 and at It was in 1928 that Ives and his associates the inauguration of President Coolidge in demonstrated outdoor television pick-ups, 1925. This was put into daily operation illuminated by the July sun; no artificial BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 235 lights were used. Ives also played an impor- keenly interested in the more purely sci- tant part in development of telephoto sta- entific field. His experimental verification of tions or booths in which speakers saw each the change of rate of a moving atomic clock, other as they conversed over a three-mile by spectroscopic observation of high-speed telephone line. That was in April, 193o. Me- hydrogen canal rays, furnished direct proof chanical scanners were used in the various of the system of compensations for motion Ives demonstrations. popularly associated with the Einstein theory Motion pictures were flashed over acoaxial of relativity. cable or television "pipe" between New York Said a radio engineer who knew him well, and Philadelphia in November, 1937, and so and as a boy had visited the laboratory of ¡successfully that Dr. Ives, in charge of the his father: demonstration, declared there was "no limit to the application of the system, but first we Herbert Ives is a man with a wide range of must wait for the development of televi- interests. His work falls in two domains—advanced optics, largely television, and highly ad- sion." vanced physics, in which he achieved his great- Other scientific developments of Ives in- est fame. In television he was a contributor to clude the production of "parallax panorama- the art. In physical theory, such as relativity, he grams," flat pictures which show relief when became a profound thinker and one of its out- observed from any direction without the use standing critics. In this realm of thoughtful in- of any apparatus at the eyes. In the labora- vestigation he is brilliant. He inherited family tory he also demonstrated three-dimensional tradition in color photography, and I believe, motion pictures by application of the same for this reason he may have been swayed by principles. As time went on, he became sentiment into television.

236 RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE FREDERICK AUGUSTUS KOLSTER

PERFECTED THE RADIO COMPASS BORN: January 13, 1883 Geneva, Switzerland

FREDERICK A.K OESTER, radio research engi- specialist at the United States Bureau of neer, when two years old moved with his Standards and was chief of the Radio Sec- parents from Switzerland to Boston, Massa- tion, which he organized. While at the Bu- chusetts, where his father became violinist reau he invented the Kolster decremeter, in the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Young widely used by the Radio Inspection Service Kolster entered the Cambridge Manual and others for determining the wavelength Training School for he wanted to be a civil and logarithmic decrement of radio trans, engineer. The superintendent of the school mission, primarily from ships, as required called his attention to wireless telegraphy as by government regulations established for a new field of opportunity, and he was lucky the purpose of promoting safety at sea. to find a job in the Cambridge laboratory In 1913 he prevailed upon the Bureau of of John Stone Stone, where he worked from Lighthouses to establish radio beacons at all 1902 to 1908. While working he studied important lighthouses and lightships. As a physics and engineering at Harvard, com- result the first experimental radio beacons pleting the course in 'goa. Radiotelephony were installed by Kolster on the Ambrose appealed to him and he took up that work and Fire Island Lightships and at the Sea with the De Forest Telegraph and Telephone Girt Lighthouse on the Jersey coast. - Company, from 1908 to 1911. Concurrently with this innovation, Kolster From 1912 to 1921 he served as radio invented and developed, for practical appli- BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 237 cations, the multi-turn rotatable coil direc- remote control rposes. In 1938 he left tion finder, later known as the Kolster radio I. T. 8z T. to ci g in consulting work. In compass, which, installed on shipboard, pro- the Second Worl 'ar, as in the First, "DF" vides means of determining the bearing of (direction findin„ .vas a most important in- any radio beacon or of a radio-equipped ship strumentality with its range and effectiveness lost in the fog or in distress. It was widely greatly extended on land and in the air as used during the First World War by the well as on the seas. United States Navy under the seal of secrecx. Its commercial application therefore was de- The radio compass is a loop antenna. In layed for several years. a rugged, weatherproof shield or housing, it In 1921, Kolster left the Bureau of Stand- is mounted in the open on board ship and ards and joined the Federal Telegraph Com- its shaft is extended below deck to the face pany of California to engage in the manu- of a compass, When the loop is rotated, the facture of the radio compass for installation signal becomes loud or faint. That principle on ships, and thus introduced, to the mari- applies to the radio compass. Since the point time world, a simple and effective way of of weakest signal is much sharper and more utilizing radio as a navigational aid. easily discernible than the point of maximum When the Federal Telegraph Company signal, the lowest volume or complete "fade- was acquired by the International Telephone out" is used to indicate the direction from land Telegraph Corporation of New York in which the signal arrives. The weakest signal 4931, Kolster was invited to join the organi- is obtained when the loop is broadside or at .rtation as a research engineer and to sontinue right angles to the incoming wave. in some early work in the field of ultra-high Radio be?. stations dot the coasts, so frequencies which later developed into the that bean" may be taken on them much application of ultra-high-frequency radio for the same .L ship i guided by a lighthouse 238 RADIO 100 MEN OF SCIENCE beam. The compass, of course, can also be tory at Venice, he conducted research in the employed to detect the location of other application of wireless telegraphy to naval radio transmitters whether on a ship in dis- vessels. Later, in conjunction with Capt. Al- tress or on a submarine, by taking a bearing essandro Tosi, he invented the radiogoniome- the same as on a beacon. ter,' an early form of radio direction finder, Airplanes also fly along beams, guided consisting of two triangular loop antennas. by radio direction finders of the most mod- Signals set up in the two loops created a ern style—elongated iron-core loop antennas resultant field, while the rotating coil pro- built in streamlined, bullet-shaped housing, duced the loudest signal when it embraced usually located atop the aircraft. this field to its maximum. Therefore, the Many are mentioned as "inventor" of the movement of the coil, and not of the vessel, radio compass, among them Fessenden, indicated the direction of the sending sta- Pickard, John Stone Stone, Capt. H. J. tion. Round, Francis W. Dunmore, Percival D. Capt. H. J. Round's careful and accu- Lowell, R. L. Smith-Rose and Bellini-Tosi, rate work with the radio direction finder but generally Kolster is credited with having during the First World War enabled it to built a practical device; that others had ob- play an important part in the Battle of Jut- served and realized the directional properties land by observing the movements of the of wireless is conceded. German battle flea. Great reliance was Ettore Bellini, a pioneer in directive wire- placed upon the accuracy of the bearings less, was born April 13, 1876, at Foligno, supplied by Round and his staff, and with Italy, and was educated at Naples Univer- excellent results. sity. In 1901 he was appointed electrical engineer of the Royal Italian Navy; and in IUnited States patent applied for October 1, 1907; patent No. 943,960 issued December 21, 1909; patent 1906, as chief of the Naval Electrical Labora- No. 945,440 on January 4, 1910.

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 239 Reginald Leslie Smith-Rose, a member of of the art., the National Physical Laboratory at Ted- Kolster remedied the faults of older sys- dington, England, contributed to the knowl- tems by utilizing a multiple loop or coil an- edge of propagation and directional proper- tenna as the pick-up, and moving it about a ties of electric waves. receiving-loop direction vertical axis. In this way, by revolving the finders and radiating beams. He studied the loop for maximum or minimum by means of various factors responsible for errors in bear- a pointer, the direction from which the sig- ings and sought means of compensating for nals originated could be determined. This the deviations by circuit adjustments or chart multiple loop had greater pick-up than pre- calibrations. Of Smith-Rose it may be said vious systems, and when used with an elec- that he studied every angle of radio direction tron-tube receiver, its sensitivity as a"blood- finding and helped to sharpen the accuracy hound" was greatly improved.

HAROLD DEFORgT ARNOLD

DESIGNER OF ELECTRON TUBES DIED: July 10, 1933 BORN: September 3, 1883 Summit, N. J. Woodstock, Conn.

PAROLD DEFOREST ARNOLD, physicist and a year as professor at Mount Allison Uni- eireronist, received his undergraduate train- versity, he achieved the degree of Doctor of ing at Wesleyan University, Connecticut, and Philosophy in tort. Arnold entered the Re- after graduate work at the University of search Department of the Bell Telephone Chicago under Professor R. A. Millikan, and Laboratories, and later as research director RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 240

M-111, '

he ws aguiding spirit in advancing the tele- In recognition of these achievements, Arnold phone art,- both wire and radio. was awarded the John Scott Medal in 1928. In the field of thermionics he was one of In addition to his work in electronics, the earliest scientific workers and one of the Arnold contributed personally and particu- first to appreciate the necessity for a high larly by stimulating guidance to fundamental vacuum in the three-element thermionic tube. researches in speech and hearing and in mag- His other contributions tn this art were the netics. One of the fruits of the magnetic re- development and appli Lon rf methods for search was permalloy—an invention of G. W. obtaining such a vactil ,rec aition of the Ehnen. This is an iron-nickel alloy of certain existence and importai eof 1 space charge compositions which when properly heat- effect of electrons in sich a device, and the treated, has exceptionally high permeability calculation of the magnitude of this effect for weak magnetizing forces. In the form of and methods for its adaptation to commer- a continuously applied loading to submarine cial purposes. telegraph cables, permalloy increased their He developed designs for electron tubes message-carrying capacity more than five- and methods for their manufacture so that fold, while its application to magnetic struc- tubes could be made to meet the telephonic tures such as telephone receivers and trans- requirements of reliability and ease of main- formers has been of great value in the tenance. This work included the develop- undistorted transmission of sound. ment, under his immediate direction arid at One of Arnold's early individual problems his suggestion, of an oxide-coated filament was the development of gaseous and elec- as a source of electrons within the tube. He tronic amplifiers. In the latter connection his had charge of the adaptation of the tubes attention was attracted to the De Forest to the telephonic problem of long-distance audion. This remarkable device, which had wire telephony and also of radio telephony. proved so valuable as a detector and am- BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 2 41 plifier of feeble radio currents, was, however, States Supreme Court. 1 It was held that Arnold's idea of tak . a De Forest audion incapable of meeting the requirements of a and, by pumping a tter vacuum, extending power amplifier for the feeble but much larger currents of wire telephony. Arnold, the range of oper .n to somewhat higher voltages without ifying the essential na- who was fresh from the study of electronic physics in Millikan's laboratory at the Uni- ture of that opeik. did not constitute in- versity of Chicago, recognized that a pure vention over the prior art. Neither did Lang- muir's patent involve invention; the effect thermionic effect, free of gas complications, was vitally needed. He set out to produce of high vacuum upon voltages above the point of ionization was known, and the a higher-vacuum tube, using evacuation methods then only recently available. He knowledge was thus availed of in practice. succeeded, and thereby helped to take the "Research is not in constructing and ma- nipulating," said Arnold; "it is not observing three-element vacuum tube out of the realm and accumulating data; it is not merely in- of uncertainty and unreliability; it became vestigating or 0:perimenting. Research is the a reliable amplifying tube. effect of the mind, to comprehend relation- At about the same time, in 1912, Langmuir of the General Electric Company arrived at ships which no one has previously known. nubstantially the same result, and that- pre- .. . To have ideas and to share them— cipitated a patent contest which continued that makes civilization." for -many years, finally reaching the United 'Decision May 25, 1931.

RADIO'S 100 MEN OF SCIENCE 2 42 EMORY LEON CHAFFEE

SOLVED ELECTRONIC PROBLEMS BORN: April 15, 1885 Somerville, Mass.

EMORY LEON CHAFFEE, physicist and one of of this instrument years ahead of many the foremost authorities in the field of ther- others. mionic vacuum tubes, received his B.S. de- Chaffee was appointed instructor in the gree in 1907, upon completion of the four- Department of Physics at Harvard Univer- year course in electrical engineering at the sity in 1913, and instructor in electrical en- Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He gineering in 1914. He became assistant pro- then attended the Graduate School of Arts fessor of physics in 1917, associate professor and Sciences at Harvard University, study- of physics in 1923 and professor of physics ing physics and obtaining an M.A. degree in in 1926. In 1935 he was given the title of 1908, and a Ph.D. in 1911. Gordon McKay Professor of Physics and His doctor's thesis coveted a new method Communication Engineering, and in 1940 he of producing continuous oscillations by was also appointed Rumford Professor of means of what was known as the Chaffee Physics and director of the Cruft Laboratory, gap. It was used successfully for radiotele- the last three titles being held concurrently. phone transmission over a distance of thirty- He also taught several courses at Radcliffe five to fifty miles in 1910 and 1911. In the College. course of this work Chaffee employed At the famous Cruft Laboratory, one of the Braun-tube oscillograph using a cold the first college buildings to have its roof cathode; he was an expert in manipulation adorned with wireless towers, Chaffee con- BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 243 ducted experiments with electromagnetic Dr .affee is a fellow of the American waves and delved deeply into the theory of Acad of Arts and Sciences and of the vacuum tubes and associated circuits.. His Amer n Physical Society, and a member research work in the field of electric oscil- of the i:xecutive Committee of the Interna- lations and vacuum tubes resulted in the tional Scientific Radio Union. He became a publication of many papers in the Proceedings member of the Institute of Radio Engineers of the Institute of Radio Engineers and in in 1917, transferring to the grade of fellow other periodicals. In 1931 he published a in 1921 and becoming vice president in book, Theory of Therm ionic Vacuum Tubes, 1922. which is internationally known. A number of patents have been granted to For several years Chaffee continued re- him in the field of radio. As a pioneer, his search on the eye in which the potentials pro- applied mathematical analysis contributed duced by the nerves in the retina when much to the theoretical development and stimulated by light were recorded by an practical applications of the electron tube. amplifier system. In collaboration with Char- He dispensed with the haphazard trial-and- lotte Perry, he completed an accurate direct error methods and_applied exact analysis to determination of the physical constant e/m the operation of power tubes, thereby in- (ratio of the charge to the mass of an elec- creasing their efficiency. It has been re- tron). From 1915 to 1924, Chaffee was en- marked that through mathematical skill gineer for John Hays Hammond, Jr., in the Chaffee triumphed over some of the most development of secret radio systems and complex problems in electrical engineering radio-controlled torpedoes. and electronics.

244 RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE JOHN HOWARD DELLINGER

INVESTIGATOR OF RADIO PHENOMENA BORN: July 3, 1886 Cleveland, O.

JOHN HOWARD DELLINGER, American physi- ment of the radio-sonde,I launching into the cist and investigator of radio phenomena in upper atmosphere balloons carrying tiny, space, was educated at East Hjgh School automatic radio transmitters which provide and Western Reserve University, Cleveland, data for greatly improved weather forecasts. Ohio, where he received Phi Beta Kappa Notable work was done by Dellinger in de- honors and was instructor in physics, 1906- veloping radio and antennas for aircraft, also 07. He obtained his B.A. degree from George in directing development of radio-beacon and Washington University in 1908 and his D.Sc. blind-landing systems for yse on the air- in 1932; from Princeton University a Ph.D. ways. in 1913. In his study of radio, Dellinger kept an Dellinger joined the National Bureau of eye and ear on the sun as well as an ear Standards in 1907 as physicist, and in 1919 on interstellar space. became chief of the Radio Section of the Radio-sonde, or radio-sounding balloon, is a Bureau. His work covered a broad field in practical instrument for transmitting information radio. As an originator of basic methods of from the stratosphere; it is a lightweight battery- radio measurements, he initiated and super- operated transmitter using acorn-type tubes on vised experiments to study radio fading, the ultra-short wavelengths. The signals automatically transmitted indicate barometric pressure, tempera- ionosphere and the influence of cosmic at- ture and humidity, as recorded by a radio meteoro. tacks on radio waves. He guided develop- graph which modulates the transmitter. BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 245 "The sun is in an extremely turbulent mittees at home and abroad. He was chair- state," he said, "and on it occur frequent man of the United States delegation at the eruptions from which are emitted radiations radio conferences in Portugal in 1934 and having a great range of wavelengths. There in Roumania in 5937. President of the Insti- is no reason to doubt that some of the radia- tute of Radio Engineers in 1925, he was tions from these eruptions are sudden bursts again honored by the Institute in 1938 by which cause the sudden disturbance of the presentation of its Medal of Honor for his contribution "to the develoRment of radio ionosphere of this planet." 2 measurements and standards, his researches It has been found that these disturbances have the power to black-out high-frequency and discoveries of the relation between radio- wave propagation and other natural phe- radio reception simultaneously over the daylight half of the world. Study of this effect— nomena, and his leadership in international conferences contributing to world-wide co- called "the Dellinger effect" because of its operation in telecommunications." First chief discovery by him in 1935—led to new understanding of the nature of radio-wave engineer of the Federal Radio Commission, transmission, terrestrial magnetism and the 1928-29, is also on Dellinger's record. In 1943-44 his activities included: radio editor sun. Dellinger wrote many articles, treatises of Webster's Dictionary; chief of Radio Sec- tion, National Bureau of Standards; chief and books on radio and allied scientific subjects which were published by the govern- of Interservice Radio Propagation Labora- tory; Joint United States Communications ment in various periodicals. He served at Board; chief of Radio Propagation Section, numerous important radio, communication and aeronautical conferences and on corn- National Defense Research Committee; vice president of International Scientific Radio 'Sudden Disturbances of the Ionosphere," in Union; chairman of the Radio Technical Proceedings of the I.R.E., October, 1937. RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 246 Commission for Aeronautics. him well. "He is a man of great dignity and "Dr. Dellinger is one of our gentlemen noble curiosity, deeply interested in the laws scientists," said apioneer in radio who knew of Nature."

LOUIS ALAN HAZELTINE

INVENTOR OF THE NEUTRODYNE BORN: August 7, 1886 Morristown, N. J.

Louis A. HAZELTINE, PolleriCa1 physicist signed an advanced radio receiver (SE 1420) and teacher, invented the radio .atrodyne by formulas which he originated. It had wide circuit. He received the degree of .echanical and extended service in the Navy, and might Engineer from Stevens Institut( fTechnol- be called the forerunner of the neutrodyne ogy in 1906, and entered the t dng latora- circuit, for in its original form this receiver tory of the General Electric .1'.ompayy at embodied neutralization. Schenectady. A year later he took a pos:tion It was in 1922 that Hazeltine's attention as assistant in the Electrical Engineering De- was called to the great possibilities of a partment at Stevens, serving from 1917 until receiver designed to use tuned radio-fre- 1925. He returned in 1933 as professor of quency amplification. Such receivers had physical mathematics, and that year received failed because of a tendency to oscillate in- the honorary degree D.Sc. duced by feed-back of energy from the The first World War found Hazeltine at vacuum tube's capacity coupling. As he ana- the Washington Navy Yard, where he de- lyzed the problem he found that his earlier BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 247 of 1927 it wa stimated that ten million work on the neutralization of capacity coupling held the solution of the problem. of these sets in use. He applied it in accordance with algebraic Someone remarked that Hazeltine took squeaks and howls out of radio with calcu- formulas, and it worked. lus, but the professor said that there was no Hazeltine, a physicist to whom rriathe- calculus in any of the essential parts of the matics was amusement, came into radio to neutrodyne invention—only elementary alge- invent the neutrodyne at that chaotic time bra. In fact, he explained, the primary ideas in the twenties when broadcast listeners were were physical rather than mathematical. beset by howls in the mass of receiving sets. Hazeltine h been described as an in- He developed the new circuit from a mathe- ventor whose Lin tools were a pen, note- matical point of view. Engineers observed book and sl: rule. Interviewed by the that the theory behind his calculation led Scientific Am :an n 1927, he was asked largely to lifting the vacuum-tube amplifier for the secret successful inventing. out of the realm of experimentation and into the realm of calculable engineering. In cir- That is aha question [he replied], because cuits designed for both tuned radio fre- I work differently from most inventors. I be- quency and audio amplification he applied lieve, however, that the first requisite is athor- "squeal preventers" or stabilizers, known as ough knowledge of fundamental principles. I "neutrodons," by means of which he bal- never had any intention of being an inventor. anced out, or neutralized, the howls; he de- Mathematics was always my favorite subject in scribed his device as "capacity neutraliza- school; in mathematics Iused to get my highest tion." At a meeting of the Radio Club of marks. When I entered Stevens Institute of America in March, 1923, Hazeltine officially Technology, I thought that eventually Iwould introduced his new set. He named the re- like to get into teaching. What Iwanted to take up Ihad no idea, but ceiver "the neutrodyne." and in the winter RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 248 I was prejudiced against electrical engineering. stitute of Radio Engineers in 1936, and a Near the end of my course Ibegan to feel that year later the Radio Club of America named the performance of electrical apparatus could be predetermined more accurately than that of me- him for the first award of the Armstrong chanical apparatus. Here was plenty of oppor- Medal. tunity to work out mathematical problems. so I His success as an inventor never dimmed took up electrical engineering in spite of my his desire "to get into teaching." In 1938 former prejudices. he transferred to the physics department of Stevens Institute where he developed a new In 1915 Hazeltine heard Edwin H. Arm- and deeper type of physics course, aimed to strong read a paper- before the Institute of present the fundamental observations and to Radio Engineers pertaining to the radio- deduce from them logically the important electron tube as a regenerator and oscillator. laws. By new methods of presentation, he Here was anew field that offered opportunity brought down to the level of the freshman for mathematical study; it fascinated Hazel- and sophomore various topic goften reserved tine and he delved into it. As a result, in for graduate courses, such as the radiation 1917 he lectured before the I.R.E. on "Oscil- of sound and electric waves and Fresnel's lating Audion Circuits," which described his laws of reflection and refraction. The pro- analysis. fessor's hope behind this work was that it In recognition of his contribution to radio, would have more lasting importance than his Hazeltine was elected president of the In- well-known radio circuit.

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 249 ALFRED NORTON GOLDSMITH

ENGINEER, INVENTOR AND TEACHER

BORN: September 15, 1887 New York City

ALFRED NORTON GOLDSMITH, radio and mo- broadcasting, sound-motion pictures, studio tion-picture engineer, teacher, inventor and techniques, radio-relay systems, facsimile, native New Yorker, was educated at the optics, phonographs and television, both College of the City of New York and Colum- black-and-white and in color. He contributed bia University. He became professor of elec- many detailed improvements to the art of trical engineering at CCNY and director of communication and to sound recording and research for the Marconi Wireless Telegraph reproduction. He invented a method, which Company of America, consulting engineer of he called "televisibility," to permit an air- the General Electric Company, and later vice plane pilot flying by night or in fog to view president and general engineer of the Radio the terrain below, or, on approaching a land- Corporation of America. As a pioneer in ing field he could "see" by radio the exact broadcasting he served as the first chief appearance of the field, in size, perspective broadcast engineer of RCA and adviser to and detail, as he would observe it by normal the National Broadcasting Company. vision in clear weather or daylight. Evidence of Goldsmith's versatility and Recognized as one of radio's outstanding the scope of his active, imaginative mind is "practical visionaries," Goldsmith mastered the art of being able to explain the science found in his inventions. They run the gamut of radio and a wide variety of associated of radio in terms the layman can understand; fields. They encompass radio telephony, he has written more than ioo scientific papers RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 250 and books. As a teacher he has been a guide Said Goldsmith to a group of young engi- and inspiration to many radio engineers, in- neers: dustrialists and executives in plotting the advance of wireless to broadcasting and on Be strong, thoughtful, tough and vigorous. into television. Let no obstacle discourage you but rather let To Goldsmith radio has no end: encour- each problem be an invitation to success and a aging youth never to think that everything stepping stone to greater accomplishment. .. . Establish many close contacts with other minds has been invented, he once remarked: in your field. Let some of them be minds which diverge from yours in their concepts and un- One-bhird of a century is not much in the life derstandings. It is stimulating and awakening to of nations, but it is along time in the history of participate in conflicts of opinion. radio. At the opening of the Twentieth Century the "ether" was practically undisturbed. .. . Goldsmith listed major engineering virtues Less than ten years later it was possible to put as initiative, application, frankness and per- thousands of watts of speech-modulated energy into the air. sonal relations.

Altogether, radio was a rough-and-ready field Life can almost be defined as self-willed mo- one-third of a century ago, but it was full of tion [he said]. Unless a man is ready to "start interest, new things happened frequently, and something" he will get nowhere. Lethargy, un- all radio men were enthusiasts. Now radio is certainty, indifference, delay and fear are para- respectable and occasionally even stolid. But for- lyzing. Enterprise and keen thinking and fast tunately, the new arts of radio centering about action are the keys to success. Don't be too con- the ultra-high frequency waves, facsimile and servative in trying things out. Remember that a television will provide both headaches and the conservative has been humorously defined, with stimulation which will make radio ;nteresting an undertone of indictment, as ."a man who and worthwhile as a career in the future. doesn't believe anything should be 'tried he first BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 251 time." The great rewards of history, as well as search, engineering and commercial develop- inner satisfaction, often spring from trying it ment; his leadership in standardization and the first time. Steady work is an amazing in- his increasing devotion to establishment and strument for achieving results. Relatively few upbuilding of the Institute and its Próceed7 people have been ruined by hard work, but ings." He also served as president of the many have failed through laziness. .. . Prac- Society of Motion Picture Engineers. As an tice imaginative thinking. Never be afraid to inventor, he received the National Pioneer discard ideas which seem inappropriate or faulty, or accept new ideas, even though radical, if they award in 1940. seem necessary and practical. .. . One of the worst faults that an engineer can have is vague- As an engineer, each of us is a member of a ness, the concealment of facts, or the lack of profession and not a trade said Goldsmith]. courage to face facts. Engineering demands We are members of an intellectual fellowship. really creative workers with a genuine output. The engineer must develop habits of thought characterized by. exactitude, cafeful reasoning, Elected president of the Institute of Radio and willingness to face the facts, no matter how Engineers in 1928, Goldsmith was further discouraging. A combination of knowledge and honored' in 1941 when he was awarded the wisdom is necessary. .. . Science and engineer- Institute's Medal of Honor. The citation ing need the :ruth, the whole truth, and nothing read, "For his contributions to radio re- but the truth.

RADIO'S I00 MEN. OF SCIENCE 252 HENDRIK JOHANNES VAN DER BIJL

A PIONEER IN ELECTRONICS BORN: November 23, 1387 Preloria, South Africa

HENDRIK JOHANNES VAN DER BIJL, noted tric Company, which in 1912-13 was inter- physicist and electronic specialist, obtained ested in applying electronic phenomena to his early education in South Africa; he at- the production of a distortionless amplifier tended Victdria College after which he took to make possible transcontinental telephony. up postgraduate work at Halle University Van der Bijl joined the Research Depart- and at the University of Leipzig, where he ment and remained a member of the staff achieved his doctorate. Intent upon further continuously until August 3, 1920. Married study and anxious to learn everything he to an American girl, he had decided to make could about electrons, he came to the United the United States his home for the remainder States for further work in physics with Pro- of his life when General Jan C. Smuts pre- fessor Albert A. Michelson and Dr. Robert vailed upon him to return to his native land A. Millikan at the University of Chicago. to carry on scientific and technological work Incidentally, at the time, Millikan was en- as technical adviser to the Department of gaged in electronic- research for which he Mines and Industry of the Union of South was awarded the Nobel prize. Africa. Millikan recommended van der Bij1 to The United States lost a scientist. In the Dr. Frank B. Jewett 1 of the Western Elec- interval from 1913 to 1920, van der Bijl 'President, Bell Telephone Laboratories, 1925-40; contributed, in the words of Dr. Jewett, "enor- then Chairman of the Board. mously to the advances of the electronic art BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 253 which made possible, not only transconti- acteristics. This was of great value during nental telephony, but shortly afterward the First World War. When it was necessary transoceanic telephony and the whole art of to make vacuum tubes of specific constants, radio broadcasting." A notable achievement data was obtained immediately from van der which gained him prominence as an engineer Bijrs records of filament, plate and grid in 1915 was invention of the modulation values which would furnish the desired re- system used successfully by the Amçrican sults. Telephone and Telegraph Company in his- "Dr. van der Bijl put the electron tube on toric long-distance radiophone tests between a fundamental mathematical basis'," is the the United States naval radio station NAA, way a fellow engineer appraised his achieve- at Arlington, Virginia, and Honolulu and ment. In two decades—t92o to 194o—it was ob- Paris. Van der Bijl, as a leading authority on served that van der Bijl lifted scientific work thertnionics, lid pioneer work in developing in the Union of South Africa "to a high the characteristics of electron tubes. from place," and so successfully that in 1942 he which curves could be drawn howing the was referred to as "the spark plug of South relationship between the various factors in Africa's amazing new war industries." tube operation, both in telephone and radio South Africa was faced with an emergency work. This was followed by an extended that called- for quick action when the war study of electron tubes as detectors and broke out. One of the first acts of General modulators. He also made an empirical Smuts on assuming office as Prime Minister study of tube geometry, constructing hun- and Commander-in-Chief in 1939 was to cre- dreds of tubes of various types. each differ- ate the War Supplies Board, a civilian directorate independent of military jurisdiction, ing slightly from the others in physical char- 254 RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE to acquire technical military stores and ma- Van der BijI returned to South Africa some tériel in the shortest possible time and to twenty years ago to take charge of the estab- train rapidly and efficiently a large number lishment of the South African Iron and Steel of technical workers for war services. Van Corporation of which he became the Chairman, der Bij1 was appointed directorate-general. and also became chairman of South Africa's Described as -short, blond and dapper," Electricity Supply Commission. He lost no time he was further identified as "a powerful per- in rallying to the service of the nation scores of leaders in mining, engineering, industry, com- sonality and an outstanding figure in Empire merce and labor, and the large railway work- war production and in the scientific world shops. The framework of a comprehensive pro- generally." duction organization was rapidly constructed The booklet South Africa al War com- and South Africa's wartime industrial machine mented upon him as follows: swept into action.

JOHN HAYS HA:VE.10ND, JR.

CONTROLLEE TORPEDOES BY RADIO BORN: April 13, MS San Francisco, Ca:it

JOHN HAYS HAMMOND, JR., radio research of the class of 1910 at Yale, from the campus engineer and inventor, first saw the light of of which he was catapulted into wireless after day at the Golden Gate. His father was a reading a tale of how Tesla in 1898 had put famous mining engineer. Jack was a member a model boat in a tank and controlled it BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 255 by wireless to hit the bull's-eye no matter fitfully by wireless. That story put ideas into Hammond's what .the target. He took out hundreds of mind; it stirred his imagination. After grad• patents pertaining to radio; on direction uation he established the Hammond Re- finders, circuits, ultra-short waves, frequency search Corporation, and it was not long be- modulation, television and secret methods of communication. With the advent of broad- fore stories were circulating . that a young man at Gloucester, Massachusetts, was steer- casting he proposed a pay-as-you-listen sys- ing a boat from a lofty lookout tower on tem utilizing a tuning box for which a coin the wooded cliff overlooking the harbor. He would serve as the key. Hammond combined pleasure with scien- also had a little box on wheels that moved as he directed, called an "electric dog." tific research on the 125-foot two-masted Before leaving Yale, Hammond had made auxiliary schooner Odysseus III, and also a written prediction that some day he would established a radio research laboratory in control a moving body at a distance by the his "medieval castle" home at Gloucester. sound of his voice. His remotely controlled He was appointed consultant of the Radio boat, Radio, fulfilled the prediction. It was Corporation of America in 1923. Deeply in- described as "a boat with not a soul aboard, terested in music, he experimented with elec- her lights blazing, her engine pounding, tric organs and pianos, developing a number shooting out to sea at night ,with the speed of remarkable instruments. At 34, he had of a railroad train." From nore he could 250 inventions to his credit; at 54, more make it zigzag, stop, go ahead or turn around, than 700. full-speed or half-speed. Modestly and quietly he worked. There Hammond then developed the wireless- was no fanfare when he discovered something controlled torpedo—sleek weapons that and patented it; he just went on to the next. could be shot into the water and directed The very nature of his work with secret 256 RADIO'S WO MEN OF SCIENCE kigeflieer`' radio for aircraft and radio control of tor- cannot be jammed by a carrier wave of pedoes and warships dropped a curtain of identical frequency. secrecy around his activity. He might be He always remembered as a vivid incident testing a television "eye" for airplanes; he of his boyhood the day when Alexander might be flying down the Atlantic coast in Graham Bell, confessing that his invention of a plane which only a certain station could the telephone at times might become an in- hear or he might be aboard the Odysmus in strument of interruption, put his hand on the Caribbean "investigating," but always Hammond's shoulder and advised him to get with secrecy that added to the mystery. Ham- into the habit of staying up all night, because mond developed a secret radio communica- the hours after midnight were the only ones. tions system based on phase modulation that safe from disturbance.

•

WILLIAM DUBILIER

MASTERCRAFTSMAN IN CONDENSERS BORN: July 25, 1888 New York City

W ILLIAM DUBILIER, radio engineer, invented phone & Telegraph Company as arepairman; the mica condenser. Born on New York's also for the Western Electric Company. One "Lower East Side," he went to school at the night he heard a lecturer of the Board of New York Technical Institute and Cooper Education talk about wireless, and becoming Union. He worked for the American Tele- keenly interested, he read everything he

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 257 which were impractical for use in the air. So could find on the subject. As chief electrician successful was his achievement in eliminating of the Continental Wireless 8z Telegraph glass from condensers that the British gov- Company he was sent to Seattle during the ernment encouraged him to establish a fac- Alaska-Yukon Exposition in 1909 to conduct tory in England for the manufacture of demonstrations of an arc system of wireless; he erected a sign "Listen to Wireless for 10 condensers. Condensers became Dubilier's specialty. cents." War and the military demand for them in- In 1910, Dubilier formed his own organiza- tensified his activities. He went to Europe tion, the Commercial Wireless Telegraph and in May, 1915, and demonstrated a portable 'Telephone Company. After demonstration to radio outfit for airplanes in England and officials of the Russian government of a new France. French authorities requested that he system for generation of quenched, un- work with Professor Tissot of the University damped oscillations with the frequency above of Paris on experiments with submarine de- audibility, he was invited by the Russians to tectors.' As a result Dubilier spent consid- make a number of installations, including erable time on the anti-submarine problem; one in the palace of Czar Nicholas. Watching airplane flights in 1911 inspired adetector was developed and installed along the French coast from Brest to Dunkerque. Dubilier to develop aviation wireless equip- Returning to the United States late in ment, and after demonstrations before aPar- 1915, Dubilier resumed experiments with liamentary Committee, he was invited by the condensers and began manufacturing mica British to establish a factory working with units which were approved and accepted by Fleming, Eccles and Duddell. The need for the United States Navy in 1916. The Ameri- compact, lightweight apparatus on aircraft can Dubilier Condenser Company was organ- led him to design new condensers to replace ized in 1917. Invention of the mica con- the cumbersome and delicate 'Leyden jars, RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 258 wourmitrgre'r. -"

denser, which found universal use in the radio he had primitive tools with which to work, for and electrical field, linked the name Dubilier example, the arc, and therefore did not achieve with condensers and won him adefinite place as great prominence in this field as he might among the pioneers who blazed new trails in have, had he had the radio-electron tube. He radio. did an exquisite job in designing mica condensers. He was a fundamental pioneer in these Introducing a "B" battery' eliminator for high voltage condensers, and in developing and home radios, enabling the public to use house supplying them he performed a magnificent lighting current to operate radio sets in place service to the U. S. Navy in 1916. He developed of batteries, Dubilier was in the news again the real technique of mica condensers that would in 1926. Having obtained more than soo stand up under extremely high voltages; his con- patents in the United States, England, Ger- densers were the Rolls Royce of the field, while many, France and other countries on radio other attempts to develop mica condensers up developments and parts, in 1933 he organized to that time might well be classed in comparison the Cornell-Dubilier Electric Corporation. as awheelbarrow. Appraising Dubilier's career, a veteran in wireless who knows him well said: Outbreak of the European war in 1939 found Dubilier thinking again of submarine Bill was one of the earliest radio telephone detectors, this time suggesting means of rid- engineers in the United States: he was ahead of his time in many respects. His career may be ding the oceans of electromagnetically det- divided into three parts—radiotelephony, con- onated mines. Friends have called him "the densers, and the patent brokerage field, which Napoleon of radio," but his sister remembers he entered through the organization of Radio him as a boy who "was always tinkering Patents Corporation, in 1917. In radiotelephony with bells and building little steam engines."

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 259 RAYMOND ALPHONSUS HEISING

A PROFICIENT INVENTOR

BORN: August 10, 1888 Albert Lea, Minn. "C" amplifier widely used at high-power RAYMOND ALPHONSUS HEISING, radio engineer, was graduated as electrical engineer radio stations. During the First World War he was a from the University of North Dakota in member of the Subcommittee on Wireless 1912 and obtained an M.S. degree at the Communication between Aircraft of the Na- University of Wisconsin, in 1914. He joined tional Research Council. Many of his in- the Engineering Department of the Western vestigations at that timé pertained to radio Electric Company, later known as Bell Tele- telephony for airplanes, sub-chasers and other phone Laboratories. military units. Those radiophone sets were Heising's important inventions in vacuum- probably the first practical ones ever made. tube technique, in oscillators, modulators and After the war he took part in development amplifiers as well as in carrier current and of ship-to-shore radiotelephony, and later in radio transmission systems are covered by development of the long-wave transatlantic 117 United States patents and have gone radiotelephone circuit. into extensive use throughout the world. Of Multi-channel carrier telephone systems particular interest are his patents pertaining evolved in large part from the early work to multiplex carrier line system, constant of Heising. Some of his radio inventions were current modulation, multiplex radio trans- applied in 1915 in the first long-distance mission with plurality of different intermedi- radiophone communication from Arlington 10 ate frequency carrier waves and the class RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 260 ufimemrnemr.1—>

• Paris, and helped to lay the basis of radio- pansion and commercial utilization of that telephone development including public art in all its forms, whether between fixed broadcasting.' For many years the economi- or mobile stations, and whether for individu- cal and efficient method of constant current al communication or broadcasting." modulation which Heising invented was used Heising was president of the Institute of in most high-power broadcasting stations. .Radio Engineers in 1939. In the late thirties In tribute to Heising, his associates said: he turned his attention to investigations in "His contributions to the radio are widely ultra-short wave and piezo-electric phe- recognized and utilized throughout the world. nomena. During the Second World War he They have been essential to the rapid ex- directed a group assigned to fundamental It was also during this work that Ralph V. L. work in connection with piezo-electric crys- Hartley of the Western Electric Company research tals, which had important applications to laboratory invented the Hartley oscillating circuit. wartime radio.

JOHN LOGIE BAIRD

SCOTTISH TELEVISION PIONEER BORN: August 13, 1888 Helensburgh, Scotland

JOHN LOGIE BAIRD, Scottish television ex- versity where he studied engineering. His perimenter, went to school at Larchfield, attention was directed to television in 1923 Royal Technical College and Glasgow Uni- and three years later he demonstrated a BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 261 mechanical scanning system before the Royal ated vaudeville" and coined the term tele- talkies. Again he established a record on Institution. Up to that time he had worked as an electrical engineer, and as assistant June 3, 1931, when at Epsom Downs he superintendent of the Clyde Valley Electrical telecast the English Derby for the first time; a year later he flashed the race all the way Power Company. Baird was described as "a self-taught in- to London where 4,000 spectators in a the- ventor who matched inventive wits against ater saw the horses on a television screen. the pooled ability and the vast resources of In February, 1933, the Television Com- great laboratory physicists and engineers. mittee of the British government decided to .. . He worked in accordance with the best establish television as a public service wall- tradition of the 'garret inventor.' " In Feb- out delay; two systems were tested—Baird's ruary, 1927, he showed his televisor to the mechanical scanner and the electronic scanning method. The latter was adopted. Baird home folks at Glasgow. Baird appeared on the front pages in Feb- also developed a system for transmitting pic- ruary, 1928, when on the eighth of that tures by use of infra-red rays. He called it month he televised Mrs. Mia Howe in Lon- noctovision, and the receiver a noctovisor, don and her face was reported seen at Harts- since it was "a night seeing eye." dale, New York, as the first to be telecast Just as Nipkow, Alexanderson, Jenkins, across the Atlantic—imperfectly, yet the Ives and other proponents of the mechanical image did appear. He scored again on March scanners faded from the scene with the ad- 7 when the face of Dora Selvy was telecast vent of electronic scanning, so did Baird's from London to the S.S. Berengaria, r,000 disk which had helped to whirl television into miles at sea. In 1930 he televised "abbrevi- the world.

RADIO'S MO MEN OF SCIENCE 262 LLOYD ESPENSCHIED

RADIO IMAGINEER BORN: April 27, 1889 St. Louis, Sto.

LLOYD ESPENSCHIED, electrical engineer, American Telephone and Telegraph Com- moved in his boyhood to Brooklyn, New pany. There from 1910 to 1934 he had a York. There, in his first year of high school, long and productive experience in loaded through contact with the electrical apparatus lines, high-frequency transmission on wires of the Physics Department and also through and wireless telephony. Transferring to the the influence of the Children's Museum, he Bell Telephone Laboratories, he was director became inspired by things electrical. He of high-frequency transmission, 5934-39, built and operated one of the first amateur later serving on the staff as a research con- wireless telegraph stations, 1905-08, train- sultant. ing himself for a job as a wireless operator As the electric communications art moved at sea. Realizing the need for more technical toward the higher frequencies under the in- training, he entered Pratt Institute and was fluence of radio, the vacuum tube and the graduated in i000. wave filter, Espenschied moved with it, in His first job was in providing the United fact, helped it to move by taking an effec- States Army and Navy with the then new tive part in the early development of radio- type of wireless telegraph apparatus—the telephony and of high-frequency transmis- quenched spark built by the Telefunken sion on wires. Company. Seeking to participate in electric He participated in the pioneering radio- communications more broadly, he entered the telephone experiments of the American Tele-

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 263 phone and Telegraph Company in 1915, his dual activity in radio and high-frequency when the human voice was transmitted over- wire transmission, he was one of those mainly seas for the first time from what was in responsible for the development of the so- effect the first vacuum-tube radiotelephone called wide-band coaxial cable system, transmitter, installed experimentally in the whereby it became possible to transmit by naval radio station at Arlington, Virginia. Of wave-guides frequencies of millions of cycles the various overseas receiving points engaged —frequencies which previously had been regarded as the province solely of radio. He in this broadcast, and including one at Paris,' Espenschied did the receiving in Hawaii with invented a quartz crystal band-filter widely successful results. Following the First World used for carving out sharply the communication channels of carrier and radio systems. War he took an important part in the development of radiotelephony for ship-to- Another interesting line of development to which Espenschied contributed is the appli- shore service, for the building of the transoceanic "talk bridge" across the Atlantic and cation to useful ends of the phenomenon of electric wave reflection—to railway safety Pacific and for broadcasting. He participated in the development of systems; to the airplane altimeter; to air- high-frequency transmission over wires by plane disi ice detection in general and the the carrier current multiplex method after its attaining f a gross form of sight, all by inception about 1916, through the period of means of .flected, short radio waves. Repre- the First World War, when carrier current senting his lersonal contributions, as distinct from admix strative participation in a large circuits were applied commercially for the provision of much-needed circuits between organization, are more than ioo patents bear- Washington and Pittsburgh. As a result of ing his name. In the course of his technical work and 'Herbert Edward Shreeve of the Bell Telephone because of its world-wide character. Espen- taboratories had charge of reception in Paris. RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 264 schied traveled abroad to participate in sev- minute electrical carriers—the electrons—are ob- eral international conferences on radio and tained by themselves in free space, free from wire communications as an engineer-member the encumbrance of the solid matter conductors of various United States delegations. He pub- in which they had been contained heretofore in lished a number of technical papers and electrical devices. Electricity is obtained in pure otherwise participated in several engineering and unadulterated form, as it were, in a bit of vacuous space where it can be operated upon societies, being a charter member and a fel- directly by electrical influences, such as those low of the Institute of Radio Engineers, of the received signal waves, without the inter- which commended him with its Medal of vention of mechanical action with its inertia Honor in 1940. limitations. No wonder then that we find our- Recognizing the vacuum-tube amplifier as selves in the midst of a great new era in electrical communications. .. . "the greatest advance in electric communi- You may have heard the story that "every- cations in our time," Espenschied credited thing has been discovered"—that young men it with putting a new face on the whole art. 2 today haven't much chance to be original. It isn't so. New discoveries will be made. For in- What makes the vacuum tube such a remark- stance, a worker in pure science will find some- able instrument [he said] is the fact that the thing interesting, curiosity will urge him on, also the challenge to explain it, and before long the 2 Meeting of the Institute of Radio Engineers, world may see a new physical phenomenon. All January 29, 1943. history is crowded with such evidence.

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 265 a« ,rtp

RICHARD HOWLAND RANGER

A PIONEER IN RADIOPHOTOS

BORN: June 13, 1889 Indianapolis, Ind.

November 30, 1924. Ranger radioed facsimile RICHARD HOWLAND RANGER, radio engineer, messages, maps and pictures from New York spent his early days at Indianapolis, Indiana, to Honolulu on May 7, 1925; on April 20, and was graduated from Massachusetts In- 1926, the picturegram of a check was sent stitute of Technology in 1911. As a member from London to New York, where it was of the American Expeditionary Force in honored and cashed. Ranger became a France during the First World War, he was pioneer in picturizing radio; his machine an officer in the Signal Corps. He returned opened up transatlantic photo service and to Camp Vail, New Jersey, in 1919, and was tossed pictures, weather maps and printed put in charge of the radio laboratory. His postwar position in civil life was in the Re- matter to ships at sea. Basically and briefly, Ranger's original search and Development Department of the radiophoto system is described as follows: Radio Corporation of America, with which At the transmitter the film was wrapped he was associated from 1920 to 1930. around a glass cylinder inside of which was Captain Ranger specialized in the develop- a powerful light. The light rays penetrating ment of radiophoto and facsimile equipment. the film, in accordance with the lights and By means of the Ranger system photographs shades of the picture, struck a photoelectric of President Coolidge, the Prince of Wales cell traveling slowly down the length of the and others were flashed across the sea from cylinder, which advanced slightly with each London to New York in twenty minutes on RADIO'S 100 ICElq OF SCIENCE 266 stroke of the scanner. were long; fOr light gray, short. This pencil of light did the trick. If the At the receiver a pen and cylinder moved light were strong, it produced a strong cur- at the same rate as the corresponding parts rent; if feeble, a feeble current. These pic- at the transmitter. The receiving cylinder, ture-currents were released through the radio however, had the sensitized paper wrapped signal which operated a pen that. drew the around it, and the pen, traveling the length picture at the receiver exactly as the pencil of it in step with the photoelectric cell at the of light varied in intensity as it played across transmitter, reproduced the radiophoto. the cylinder at the transmitter. In the late twenties Ranger turned The film was literally split into hundreds abruptly from radiophotos and organized his of dashes or marks, the number of which de- own company, Rangertone, Inc., specializing termined the number of radio signals that in pipeless organs and other electrical inst ru- would make up the ethereal picture. When ments, designed to make music out of elec- the photoelectric cell moved over an area of trical howls, "radio squeals" and hums, un- the film that was white, no signal was trans- folding, as he described it, "new horizons of mitted and the pen did not make contact at power and beauty." In the Second World the receiver. But when the photo-cell passed War he went back to the Army Signal Corps, over a solid black portion of the film, the attaining the rank of lieutenant colonel. His receiving pen was held in contact with a first year was spent in working out the ap- sensitized paper and traced a black line. For plications of radio in the Air Corps and then gray parts of the film the pen touched the in standardizing the components whici, go to paper at intervals. For dark gray the marks make up radio for the Armed Forces

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 267 VLAtI IMIR KÓSMA ZWORYKIN

INVENTOR OF THE ICONOSCOPE

BORN: July 30, 1889 Mouront, Russia

VLADIMIR KOSNIA ZWORYKIN, electronic re- receiver, was later proposed by Campbell- Swinton in 1911 in an address before the search engineer, invented the Iconoscope, Roentgen Society. In many respects this pro- electronic "eye" of the television camera, and posal visualized the present-day systems, but developed the Kinescope, or "eye" of the it lacked one important feature. That "miss- receiver. After graduation from the Gym- ing link" was storage of the electric charge nasium in Mourom in 1906, he completed a between successive scanning—the principle course in electrical engineering at the Tech- nological Institute in Leningrad in 1912. that would give the electronic pick-up device, or "eye," the sensitivity necessary to make it There he studied under Boris Rosing, pro- practical with high-definition scanning. fessor of physics and a pioneer in realizing Unfortunately, a practical demonstration the possibilities of the cathode rays as ap- of these early proposals was impossible at the plied to television. Rosing in Russia and A. A. Campbell- time, chiefly because the epochal invention of the audion by De Forest needed further Swinton in England separately and simul- development to make available practical taneously in 1907 published methods of video amplification. Much of the task re- electrical image reproduction using electro- mained for Zworykin. He went to Paris in magnetic means for scanning. The first 1913 and conducted X-ray experiments un- all-electronic television system, utilizing der Professor Paul Langeven at the Collège cathode-ray scanning at both transmitter and RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 268 de France. receiving tube, shaped like a funnel, was The First World War found Zworykin in called "Kinescope"; "Kinema" meaning the Signal Corps of the Russian Army work- movement in Greek. So the Kinescope ob- ing on wireless. After the armistice he deserves the motion. On the flat end of this cided to circle the globe and after two trips funnel-shaped tube the scene appears as a around, concluded that the United States picture in motion. Both tubes are strikingly was the land of opportunity. He arrived in like the human eye in performance. There is America in 1919 and found work as a book- a "retina" and a controlled electronic beam keeper in the office of the Financial Agent of that performs the same functiori as the optic the Russian Embassy, a position he held nerve which flashes pictures to the brain. In for a year, when he went to work in the television, the "brain" is the radio receiver. Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Zworykin first demonstrated the principal in- Company's research laboratory, "Miracle vention to Westinghouse officials in 1924, and Hill," at Pittsburgh. While there, he be- publicly at a meeting of the Institute of came a naturalized American citizen, and as Radio Engineers in Rochester, New York, on a result of three years of work at the Uni- November 18, 1929'. It had no motor, no versity of Pittsburgh he achieved his Ph.D. moving parts. Scanning was done electroni- in 1926. His thesis was "The Study of cally. Photoelectric Cells and Their Improve- Zworykin's original patent application No. ment." Through his research in electronics 683,337, filed on December 29, 1923, per- he perfected the television "eye." tained to an Iconoscope. However, it went Zworykin named it "Inconoscope"; through some years of interference proceed- "Eikon" in Greek meaning image, and ings and the important patent No. 2,141,059, "skopon," to watch. Therefore, the Icono- based on his fundamental work, was issued scope observes the scene to be telecast. The on December 20, 1938. His patent No. BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 269 of a capacity effect on its "retina" also hohli 1,691,324, issued on November 13, 1928, had the scene for a second or two. to do principally with color television. It had The electric retina is a mica plate having been filed July 13, 1925. metalized back. The mica is covered with mil- Zworykin joined the RCA Manufacturing lions of globules of light-seasitive material. Company at Camden, New Jersey, in 1930 There is an electron beam or "paint brush" reg- and became a member of the RCA research ulated by a -gun" that plays upon the retina or staff; later, an associate research director fluorescent screen. That beam is what Icall the of RCA Laboratories at Princeton, New optic nerve of television. Its all so simple!

Jersey. What after television? Zworykin under- One who saw Zworykin flash television took the design of apractical electron micro- pictures on a miniature screen in 1932 said, scope which he and the research staff of RCA "This is not merely a step forward in tele- Laboratories developed to permit magnifica- vision. It goes over the wall that has stopped tions up to too,000 diameters—from 50 to all experimenters. Television is here!" ioo times more powerful than the strongest optical microscope. Appraised by scientists What Ihave done in ten years of research is as an epochal development and a potential to emulate the human eye electronically [explained Zworykin]. Ten years ago I decided to source of new knowledge, the electron micro- find a parallel in nature and follow it until I scope opened hitherto unseen worlds for ob- came to television. The new "eye" is so sensitive servation by bacteriologists, chemists, physi- that it sees the entire picture at once just like cists, metallurgists and others. man's eye. In fact, it has "electrical memory." Using electrons instead of light rays, and For example, look at something and shut the magnetic or electrostatic fields to focus the eyes. You imagine you see the scene; that is electrons in place of glass lenses used for persistence of vision. The Iconoscope, because RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 270 focusing light rays, the electron microscope Polytechnic Institute in 1937; the National enables man to peer deeply into the sub- Modern Pioneers Award from the National microscope world. For the first time it showed Association of Manufacturers in 1940; the hew disease-fighting organisms in the blood, Rumford Award of the American Academy known as anti-bodies, attack disease-produc- of Arts and Sciences in 1941. ing virus introduced in a living animal. It His modesty and good sense of humor, made possible photographing of the influenza coupled with the simplicity of his approach virus. A blood corpuscle on such a scale of to greatness, add to his stature and make magnification would appear as large as a knowing him a delight to his friends. two-foot sofa pillow; a dime thus magnified During the Second World War, while op- would look more than a mile wide; a human erating their automobiles on the share-a-ride hair as large as a California redwood tree; basis, Zworykin and a group of fellow re- and the windpipe of a mosquito, a giant search workers were driving to work. De- layed en route by a flat tire, they knew they From the microscope Zworykin turned to would reach the laboratory late. Zworykin the development of an electron-scanning mic- impatiently looked at his watch again and roscope, to adiffraction camera, an electronic again. Finally when the hands were at 8:3o, clock and electronic calculating devices. If the usual time to begin work, Zworykin, re- ever aman opened new worlds of vision, he is signing himself to the predicament, slipped Zworykin. In recognition of his research and his watch back into his pocket, tilted hs inventions, in 1934 he was awarded the head back on the seat, closed his eyes and Morris Liebmann Memorial Prize by the In- quietly said, "Well, gentlemen, let's go to stitute of Radio Engineers; an honorary de- work." He didn't have to be at the desk or gree of Doctor of Science by the Brooklyn workbench to work; his laboratory was his BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 271 z---enrwaverfner asked by -reporter who was prodding for brain. Thinking was a major part of his agood le for a story. work. "I sleep oundly," replied Zworykin with . "What do you dream about—electrons and all sorts of new electronic wonders?" he was a broad su e.

JOHN VINCENT LAWLESS HOGAN

INVENTED A UNI -CONTROL TUNER

BORN: February 14, 1890 Bayonne, N. J. acteristic of agrid triode. JOHN VINCENT LAWLESS HOGAN, electrical Fascinated by wireless, Hogan attended and radio engineer, as a boy in 1902 at Sheffield Scientific School at Yale University, Bayonne, New Jersey, built one of the early 1908-1o, specializing in physics, mathematics amateur wireless stations using the coherer as and electric waves. From 1910 to 1914 he a detector. Intensely interested in the new served as telegraph engineer of the National science, he took the opportunity for seven Electric Signaling Company, both at Brant months during 1906 and 1907 to work as a Rock, Massachusetts, and in Brooklyn, where laboratory assistant to Dr. Lee De Forest, he supervised erection of the Bush Terminal experimenting with the audion and radio- station. In 1912 he was instrumental in the phone. When De Forest made the first grid formation of the Institute of Radio Engi- audion it fell to Hogan to make the first neers (by consolidating the Society of Wire- quantitative study of the plate current char- RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 272 • less Telegraph Engineers J the Wireless issued in 1910. One of his interesting dis- Institute). In 1913 he had charge of the coveries during the early days at Brant Rock acceptance tests of the United States Navy's was the "rectifier heterodyne." His associate, first high-powered station at Arlington, and J. W. Lee, had observed some peculiar effects became chief research engineer, 1914-17, when a special transmitter was being oper- with his work largely confined to develop- ated while the station was receiving mes- ment of automatic high-speed recorders for sages. Referring back to some of his work long-distance wireless. In his laboratory at at Yale, Hogan analyzed the phenomena Bush Terminal, he made what were perhaps with the result that he succeeded in multi- the first ink tape syphon records of trans- plying the sensitiveness of the radio receivers atlantic radio signals, using an audion am- literally a hundred or more times. His work plifier. in this connection was described before the Appointed commercial manager of the In- Institute of Radio Engineers in 1913. ternational Signal Company in 1917, Hogan In 1912 he patented a single-dial tuning was put in charge of operations and manu- system for radio receivers, an invention facturing, with emphasis on radio outfits worked out to simplify and co-ordinate the for submarine chasers and aircraft. In 1918 handling of ship-and-shore messages. It was he was made manager of the International his good fate to capitalize upon it when Radio Telegraph Company; and in 1920, home-broadcast reception called for a sim- was elected president of the Institute of Ra- ple, one-control tuner. The advent of broad- dio Engineers. casting and its development inspired Hogan As engineer of the National Electric Sig- to write many scientific articles for the tech- naling Company, Hogan had worked under nical press as well as a book ; The Outline of Fessenden at the Brant Rock station, and Radio, published in 1923. his first patent, on a crystal detector, was Establishing his own consulting practke BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 273 faithful t, , original as possible, his tests in 1921, he specialized in broadcasting apparatus and "problems of radio regulation"; featured sical and semi-classical music, in 1928 he added facsimile and television to mostly ; .d from recordings. To his sur- his laboratory work. As a crusader for tonal prise, th‘ Ail revealed thousands of listeners quality and realism in broadcasting, he built in the New York area applauding not only station WQXR as New York's first high- the station's wide range of tone but the musi- fidelity station, and was among the first to cal programs. As a result, the 25o-watt operate an FM station in New York. W2XR, key station of the Interstate Broad- Hogan discovered by accident the exist- casting Company organized by Hogan in ence of a public demand for quality music, 1936, became a commercial station under while experimenting with a high-fidelity the call WQXR, with lo,000 watts of power transmitter licensed in 1934 as W2XR. Aim- and a reputation based upon Beethoven, ing to reproduce radio at the receiver as Brahms and Bach.

GEORGE CLARK SOUTHWORTH,

GUIDED WAVES THROUGH PIPES

BORN: August 24, 1890 Little Cooley, Pa.

GEORGE C.S OUTHWORTH , a research engi- wires. Particularly important is the new tech- neer, is best known for his early work on nique for dealing with microwaves based on the transmission of electromagnetic waves the principles -hich he and his associates through hollow metal pipes and dielectric evolved. dADIO'S 100 MEN OF SCIENCE 274 He received his grammar-school education Monmouth) in January, 1921. He entered the in a local country school and high school in Bell system in 1923. His first job was on the a near-by village in accordance with the newly established Bell System Technical usual rural pattern. He became interested in Journal. Later he was assigned to various wireless in 1915, while at Grove City College problems relating to transoceanic radio- where Dr. H. W. Harmon, professor of phys- telephony followed by microwave researches. ics, had set up a station with an audion as a His activities were not always confined to new and distinctive feature of the receiving microwaves, as indicated by various papers set. As one of his first papers on the subject he published on skip-distances and other of radio, Southworth prepared athesis on the peculiarities of short waves, the best pro- construction of the station. His degrees of portions for antenna arrays, and the nature B.S. and M.S. from Grove City College in of earth currents. He was a member of the 1914 and 1916, and Sc.D. from his alma International Radio Telegraph Conference mater 'n 1931, are symbols of his interest in held in Washington in 1927, and on a num- science. From Yale he received a Ph.D. in ber of occasions lectured at various univer- 1923. sities. After a year or more at the Bureau of Southworth's ultra-short-wave researches Standards. Southworth went to Yale in 1918 at Yale were the forerunners of his guided- as instructor in physics. There he did some *aye experiments for which the Institute of of the earliest work directed at the practical Radio Engineers in 1938 awarded him the utilization of ultra-short waves. Both speech Morris Liebmann Memorial Prize. The cita- and telegraph signals were transmitted on tion read: "For his theoretical and experi- waves between one and two meters in length, mental investigation of the propagation of using a parabola as the antenna. This was ultra-high frequency waves through confined demonstrated at Camp Alfred Vail (Fort dielectric channels and the development of a

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 275 to reduce by a factor of five, or even more, technique for the generation and measure- the power that might otherwise be dissipated. ment of such waves." 1 The resulting structure, which often takes Previously there had been two cg.mmon the form of ahollow metal pipe, is generally methods by which ultra-high-frequency power might be propagated from one point known as a wave-guide. In 1938 and again in 1939 Southworth de- to another. One was by its projection as livered several interesting lectures before the ordinary radio waves, and the other by the Institute of Radio Engineers consisting of a usual wire-line, one form of which was the series of experiments each of which revealed, coaxial cable. Radio, as ordinarily used, in a very concrete way, some important wasted energy because of the lack of direc- principles of wave-guide transmission. As a tivity. The coaxial cable entailed substan- result of these experiments, it became appar- tial line attenuations, caused chiefly by losses ent that he had evolved a radically new in the central conductor and in the insula- transmitting medium different from ordinary tors supporting the conductors, especially radiation from an aerial and from the -ordi- when the highest frequencies were attempted. nary transmission line. What was even more Southworth's contribution was the use of a important, he had developed a new tech- little-understood wave, so that the central nique for dealing with microwaves which conductor and its associated insulators coutd, could be applied either •to the transmission in effect, be removed. It then became possible of program material through pipes or to its W. L. Barrow was awarded the 1943 Morris projection cross-country by radio. Liebmann Memorial Prize by the Institute of Radio Engineers "for his theoretical and experimental in- Commenting on the progress made by radio vestigations of ultra-high frequency propagation ht and also its trend toward higher and higher wave guides and radiation from horns, and the ap- frequencies, Southworth said: plication of these principles to engineering practices." RADIO'S TOO MEN OF SCIENCE 276 It also happens that as we pass to the higher frequencies (shorter waves) it becomes feasible neighborhood of a billion cycles per second—. to build radio antennas of increasingly higher wavelength about one foot—microwave technic directivity, thereby conserving a very substan- undergoes a marked change. Methods using the tial amount of the power that is ordinarily conventional go-and-return-conductor type of wasted. Although these very short waves have circuit give way to the ^omewhat simpler hollow definite limitations as regards transmission to pipe, or wave-guide circuit. These newer methods points far beyond the horizon, it is not impossible seem to be at their best in the centimeter wave- that for point-to-point work these limitations length range. At the longer wavelengths, the can be overcome, at least in part, by transmating component parts become inconveniently large. cross-country from one tower top to another. For shorter waves, it would appear that ability to manufacture small parts would become an im- As contrasted with this still speculative use of portant limitation. What the technic will be be- radio there is another equally good prospect that yond this point, is amatter for the future. a very special kind of line can be devised that will guide these same waves, rather efficiently, from one point to another, possibly ove! the Pointing to "somewhere above t,000 mega- horizon, and do this with relative immunity cycles as an indefinite but nevertheless real from interference and atmospheric noise. It is frontier," toward which the engineer has still too early to appraise completely the merits been gradually working since becoming in- of these two schemes but it is probable that terested in radio, Southworth pictured him here, as elsewhere in the frequency spectrum, as a kind of homesteader recently arrived radio and the transmission line will each have its in a new and strange region. own peculiar field of usefulness and the tw.) together will be mutually complementary in accomplishing auseful result. Although thoroughly explored by physicists many years ago this new territory, beyond the Somewhere along the frequency scale in the ultra-short waves, has been as yet only crudely BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 277 interesting variety both in the principles and charted and but partially surveyed as to natural methods of engineering toward which the home- resources. The engineer-homesteader is plowing steader as usual will look with high hopes.2 primeval sod to plant new seeds that he hopes ,2 At a joint meeting of the Institute of Radio will place the air over countryside on a more Engineers and the American Institute of Electrical productive basis. It would appear, that in this Engineers, January 28, 1943. region beyond the ultra-short waves there will be

EDWIN HOWARD ARMSTRONG INVENTED REVOLUTIONARY RADIO CIRCUITS

BORN: December 18, 1890 New York City. the honorary degree Doctor of Science was EDWIN HOWARD ARMSTRONG, American elec- conferred upon him by Columbia in 1929, trical and radio engineer, specialized in de- and the same degree was awarded him from velopment of radio circuits, which made for Muhlenberg College in 1941. At Columbia revolutionary advances in the art. he had studied under Dr. Michael I. Pupin, As a boy, Armstrong first attracted atten- who encouraged his activities in wireless and tion with his pioneer amateur wireless sta- became alifelong friend. After Pupin's death tion at Yonkers, New York, and became in 1935, Armstrong became professor of elec- widely known in amateur circles as early as trical engineering at Columbia. 1906. He was graduated from Columbia Recounting the story of Armstrong's

University in 1913 with the degree of E.E.; RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE

278 achievements, Professor Alan Hazeltine' the conviction that it contained some great first called attention to the fact chat the one possibilities. He recalled the excitement pro- development in electrical technology which duced a few months later by Armstrong's stood out from all others during the past first paper before the Institute of Radio twenty-five years was electronics, and spe- Engineers, on his feed-back circuit, which cifically the application of the three-elec- employed this theory to give undreamed-of trode vacuum tube. amplification of weak radio signals and pro- Said Professor Hazeltine: moted the general use of heterodyne recep- The real foundation for the unlimited de- tion by proving for the first time a source velopment which we have witnessed was laid by of continuous oscillation of frequencies as the Edison Medal recipient, Dr. Edwin Howard high as any then used for radio transmission. Armstrong, in an article published in the Elec- trical World in December, 1914. Here the com- It is rather hard now to take ourselves back mon engineering tool, the characteristic curve. to conditions in radio prior to Armstrong [con- was employed for the first time to show how tinued Hazeltine]. Attempts were being made at the tube amplifies; and the theory was substan- transoceanic telegraph communication, but with tiated by oscillograms which Armstrong had only very restricted success, even with enormous taken. The previously mysterious action of the receiving antennas and elaborate commercial ap- tube as a rectifying detector with a good capaci- paratus. The radio amateurs, who shortly were tator was illustrated in the same . way. to be the mainstay of Signal Corps and Navy Hazeltine said that he well remembered the radio in World War I and were later to supply the radio engineering talent called out by broad- impression this article made upon him, and casting, could receive only local signals. Arm- 'Speaking at the presentation to Armstrong of the strong's work removed the barrier to regular Edison Medal (1942) of the American Institute of long-distance radio telegraphy. By increases in Electrical Engineers, January 27, 1943. power of the vacuum tubes, it also provided an

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 279 paper presented to the I.R.E. in 1916. Arm- easily modulated high-frequency source for radio- strong, using the vacuum-tube oscillator, telephone transmitting, so that long-distance telephony soon followed. And then came the changed the incoming wave frequency to a great broadcasting development with its far- lower intermediate frequency by heterodyne reaching consequences. action. That is, he made use of the fact The early work of Armstrong, the experi- that when two high frequency waves interact, mental part of which was done while he was they produce a lower frequency wave. This still an undergraduate at Columbia University, wave has a frequency equal to the difference soon received recognition. Its importance was of the frequencies of its parent waves. He appreciated by Professor Pupin, who took Arm- then carried out further amplification at this strong under his wing. Together they carried on several researches in radio. In 1917 the Institute intermediate frequency, thereby gaining ad- of Radio Engineers awarded its Medal of Honor ditional receiver sensitivity and signal to Armstrong for the feed-back circuit, the pres- strength. He developed this method for mili- entation being made by Professor Pupin, then tary purposes during World War Iwhile he president of that society. I recall a remark of was an officer in the Signal Corps in France. Professor Pupin on that occasion: that inven- Now the superheterodyne is employed al- tions are sometimes ascribed to luck, but that most universally in radio reception. the best luck is to have a good head on one's shoulders! The correctness of Pupin's appraisal Armstrong never abandoned his first love. has been demonstrated amply by Armstrong's radio [said Hazeltine]. After the war, he re- subsequent career. turned to his laboratory researches at Columbia; and here, in an experimental set-up for another Ëazeltine recalled how Armstrong paved purpose, he happened to notice an extraordinary the way for his next important invention— amplification of a locally generated signal. the superheterodyne receiver—by clarifying Ninety-nine out of one tiundred experimenters would have failed either to notice the effect or the matter of heterodyne reception in a RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 280 to find its cause. But Armstrong's characteristic it. it already seems destined largely to supplant persistence and ability to analyze physical phe- the conventional amplitude modulation. nomena tracked down the demon; and super- regeneration was added to the radio art. Al- Armstrong's contributions to the advance of though it was not of such wide utility as Dr. the radio art are reflected in the honors and Armstrong's other fundamental inventions, it was found essential in pioneer work at ultra- medals bestowed upon him: the first Medal high frequencies and now is applied to certain of Honor of the Institute of Radio Engineers, military purposes. 1917; Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur, By this time, we were in the era of broad- 1919; the Egleston Medal of Columbia Uni- casting. Some of the best analytical brains had versity School of Engineering, 1939; the been directed to the theory of radio. It seemed Holley Medal of the American Society of that all the foundations had been laid, that no Mechanical Engineers, 1940; the Franklin new fundamental methods were to be antici- Medal of Franklin Institute, 1941; the John pated. Frequency modulation had been consid- Scott Medal of the City of Philadelphia, ered, used to some extent, and then discarded. 1942; the Edison Medal of the American The fallacy of using it to narrow the band of transmitted frequencies had been exposed. It Institute of Electrical Engineers, 1942. The was rejected as useless and even harmful. But citation of the National Association of Man- Armstrong had other ideas. By going contrary ufacturers in selecting Armstrong as one of to accepted notions and greatly widening the the National Modern Pioneers in 1940 read: range of frequency variation, he developed asystem of frequency modulation ideally suited to First to make use of the 3-electrode tube for broadcasting, which was announced in 1936. Al- generating continuous electric waves which made though facing the tremendous handicap of an radio broadcasting feasible, inventor of the long established broadcasting system, with thousands and widely used superheterodyne receiving cir- of transmitting stations and many millions of cuit, and inventor of the new broadcasting by receivers in use, none of which could employ frequency modulation that so well avoids static

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 281 as almost to defy the lightning. He is one of the Appreciation, announced by Major General leaders in accomplishing the miracle of radio com- H. C. Ingles, Chief Signal Officer, on June 1, munication, areality so inconceivably novel that 194.,. The citation read: the imagination of no poet, no ante« of tales or fables, had ever anticipated it. For loyal and patriotic services rendered the Signal Corps of the Army of the United States Armstrong was among the first recipients in the accomplishment of its vital mission dur- of the Chief Signal Officer's Certificate of ing aperiod of national emergency.

RALPH BOWN

SPECIALIST IN OVERSEAS RADIOTELEPHONY

BORN: February 22, 1891 Fairport, New York

RALPH BOWN, physicist and electrical engi- ducted investigations on vacuum-tube de- neer, was graduated from Cornell University tectors. At the outbreak of the First World with an M.E. degree in 1913. Following this, War he joined the United States Army Signal he spent four years in the Department of Corps, Radio Division, as a lieutenant, and Physics at Cornell as instructor and graduate later became acaptain in charge of the radio development work at the Signal Corps Radio student, receiving his M.M.E. in 1915 and his Ph.D. in 1917. It was during this period Laboratories at Camp Alfred Vail, New Jersey. While there, he participated in early that he became interested in radio , and con- RADIO'S I09 MEN OF SCIENCE 282

• experiments in communication between air- number of papers describing their pioneering craft and ground by radiotelephone. studies in this field. Upon discharge from the Army, he joined Bown directed the engineering group at the the Department of Development and Re- Bell Telephone Laboratories which developed search of the American Telephone and Tele- the overseas long- and short-wave radiotelegraph Company, and engaged in the radio phone services of the Bell System, single side- development activities of that company from band radiotelephony, the rhombic antenna, 1919 to 1934. His work in these years cov- wave-guides, ultra-high-frequency apparatus ered the fields of broadcasting and ship-to- and "Musa," synthesized from the initial shore and overseas radiotelephony. letters of the descriptive words, "multiple In 1927 Bown was elected preident of the unit steerable .antenna." Ten years had Institute of Radio Engineers, and that year passed since the opening for public use of received the Liebmann Memorial Prize "for the transatlantic radiophone circuit in Jan- his researches in wave transmission phe- uary, 1927, when Bown, in reviewing a dec- nomena." In 1934 he was appointed associate ade of progress, went before the Institute director of radio reseal ch of the Bell Tele- of Radio Engineers in June, 1937, to de- phone Laboratories, and in 1937 became scribe the "Musa" system as used in trans- director of radio and television research. oceanic radiotelephony. Designed to remedy Throughout the period of his radio work in fading and distortion in short-wave reception, the Bell System, one of Bown's main inter- the "Musa" was described as providing ex- ests centered on the development of the tremely sharp directivity in the vertical transmission side of radio engineering in a plane. quantitative way. In the earlier phases of this "It consists of a number of rhombic an- work he took an active personal part, and tennas stretched out in a line toward the in collaboration with associates published a transmitter and connected by individual

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 283 -Ire, coaxial lines to the receiving apparatus," steering is done electrically with phase shift- Bown explained. "The apparatus is adjust- ers in the receiving set." able so that the vertical angle of reception During the Second World War Dr. Bown can be aimed or 'steered' to select any de- served as a division member and consultant sired component from the others,. as a tele- of the National Defense Research Commit- scope is elevated to pick out a star. The tee, and in the summer of 1942, he served antennas remain mechanically fixed. The as expert consultant to the Secretary of War.

.ROBERT ALEXANDER WATSON-WATT

BRITAIN 'S HERO IN RADIO -LOCATION

• BORN: April 13, 1892 Brechin, Scotland

ROBERT A. W ATSON-WATT was knighted on equally with RAF in winning the Battle of King George VI's. birthday in 1942 identified Britain. merely as "a pioneer in radio location." Sir Robert was a lecturer in physics at Later, as war restrictions were lifted slightly, University College, Dundee, Scotland. He he was credited as "the British scientist who attended University College and the Univer- had the leading scientific part" in England's sity of St. Andrews before embarking on a development of the aerial watchdog, known career in meteorology and electrical engineer- in the United States as radar, and credited ing. These two forces—weather and electricity 284 RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIEN CE , —led him in 1933 to announce a system of assistant, he established his laboratory in a determining location of thunderstorms hun- hut and on a truck along a lonely road near dreds of miles away by analyzing atmos- the Daventry overseas short-wave transmit- pheric disturbances. Then he took up radio ting headquarters of the British Broadcast- echo experiments. This work culminated in ing Corporation. He worked seven days a development of radio-location, or spotting of week, as is his habit when tackling an im- objects in the air. portant problem. He was meteorologist in charge of the Little was written and less was spoken Royal Aircraft Establishment from 1917 to about radar until the spring of 1943, when 1921; superintendent of the radio research it was revealed in dispatches from London stations of the Department of Sdentific and that this key device of offense and defense Industrial Research from 1921 to 1933; and had played a mighty role during 1940-4r in superintendent of the radio department of the saving the British Isles from a knockout by National Physical Laboratory from 1933 to the Luftwaffe. 1936. During the war he was scientific ad- The Germans, continually encountering viser to the Air Ministry on Telecommunica- concentrated RAF fighter opposition, gained tions and vice-controller of communications the false impression that Great Britain had equipment for the Ministry of Aircraft Pro- a tremendous number of fighting planes. The duction. British actually were woefully weak com- Beginning in 1919, he received a series of pared to their later aircraft strength. Had patents on mechanical radio direction finders, they been forced to keep fighting patrols in and in 1935 he began his major research in the sky, spreading planes over a wide area, airplane radio-location. With his wife, Lady observers said that they never would have Margaret Robertson Watt, as his principal been able to counter the German bomber

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 285 thrusts so successfully. Through radio-loca- strength was availabl a hard-smashing tion, the fighter command was able to con- defense that eventua, Énocked the Nazis serve its power and throw what limited out of British skies.

HAROLD HENRY BEVERAGE

EXPLORER OF THE WAVELENGTHS

BORN: October 14, 1893 North Haven, Maine

HAROLD HENRY BEVERAGE, radio engineer, rescue ship that rushed to the scene of the through the introduction of new antenna de- Titanic disaster. Wireless led him to study signs and investigations of the behavior of electrical engineering, and he graduated in electro-magnetic waves contributed much to 1915 from the University of Maine with a the advance and dependability of world-wide B.S. degree. His first job was that of testman radio communication. He explored in space for the General Electric Company at Sche- and helped to conquer forces of Nature such nectady, New York, but in 1916 he was as static and fading that hindered radio re- transferred to the radio laboratory of Dr. ception. E. F. W. Alexanderson. who was busy trying As a boy in Maine, Beverage became in- to improve reception to and from the AFT terested in wireless and with his home-made in France. As a result, Alexanderson devel- set picked up signals from the S.S. Carpathia, oped the "barrage receiver," on which Bev- 286 RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE erage had been assigned to assist. It was son, the President's physician, he said the tested at the transatlantic station at New microphone would disturb the President, so Brunswick, New Jersey, and at the naval it was hidden behind a flag. But when the radio station NBD, Otter Cliffs, Bar Harbor, President came out on the deck to speak he Maine, where Beverage installed two of the was about twenty feet from the microphone receivers and laid the long antenna wires and stood with his back to it, so the pick-up through the wooded land on Mount Desert was weak. Only near-by ships heard a word Island. now and then. The experiment is remembered While at New Brunswick during the First as "the voice that failed," although it marked World War, Beverage assisted in develop- the first attempt to broadcast the voice of a ment of a modulator so that the Alexander- President of the United States. son alternator could be used for voice broad- In the fall of 1919, Beverage was sent to casting. Later, when it was decided to put a Long Island to study methods of receiving radiophone on the U.S.S. George Washing- signals from South America utilizing long ton, the presidential ship to the Peace Con- wires similar to those used on the "barrage ference, Beverage was one of the engineers receiver." He noticed that with the longer assigned to install the equipment. wires, directivity was very pronounced. By He was on board the Washington on use of a receiver along the wire, he discov- July 4, 1919, when President Wilson ad- ered that the signals built up stronger and dressed the crew, and it was decided to stronger. To explore the effect, a wire was attempt to send his speech ashore to be in- stretched alongside a road running from Riv- tercepted at Otter Cliffs for relay over a erhead to Eastport, which was almost straight telephone line to the White House. When in a northeast-southwest direction, for a dis- the idea was suggested to Dr. Cary T. Gray- tance of about nine miles. Using this an- BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 287 Beverage received his first patent on June 7, tenna, Beverage found that the signals from Europe increased over a distance of four or 1921. At the end of 1921, as a member of the five miles and then began to decrease. It was engineering staff of the Radio Corporation also found that static would décrease under of America, Beverage, accompanied by Noel certain conditions when the northeast end of the wire was grounded. From a study of Rust of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph the results of these experiments, Beverage Company, Ltd., went to Brazil to study reception conditions. One night he was making developed the theory of how the antenna measurements on signals from Cavite in the worked and Philip S. Carter 1 made a complete mathematical analysis to confirm the Philippine Islands when he discovered by means of a direction finder that the signals theory. In 1920 a full-size antenna on poles were coming from both the west and the was erected for further studies. From this east—they were arriving around the world work evolved the "wave antenna," destined to become the standard for long-wave re- from both directions simultaneously. During 1923 Beverage and his associates ceiving not only in the United States but concentrated on exploration of the short- also in other countries. For this invention wave spectrum—I00 meters and below. Mar- 1 Born July 22, 1896, Glastonbury, Conn.. grad- coni at the time was conducting extensive uated from Stanford University, A.B. in Mechanical *ests from his floating laboratory, the yacht Engineering, 1918, Carter joined the GE staff in llettra, and in 1925 Beverage checked the 1919 after service in the Signal Corps, and in 1920 transferred to RCA. In 1927 he joined the Trans- reception on this side of the Atlantic. mitter Laboratory group 'at Rocky Point specializing One day he and his associate, H. O. Peter- in directive antenna and transmission-line problems. son, by comparing signals over a town tele- He has been issued more than fifty United States phone line noticed that signals received at patents. RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 288

• III Peterson's home faded differently from those ber, 1940, when he was made vice president intercepted at the radio station, although the in charge of research and development. The two points were only a half-mile apart. To Research Department of RCA Communica- learn the cause, they experimented and tions was expanded and in addition to de- found that even receivers working with an- veloping complete commercial transmitting tennas separated by only a few hundred feet and receiving equipment, automatic printers also faded differently. The same was true and multiplex, agreat deal of work was done with antennas located at the same place but on radio relaying for communications and with different polarization. As a result of for television, including special antennas for these observations, the RCA diversity re- television. Also an ultra-short-wave system ceiving system was developed. was developed for the Mutual Telephone During the period of this pioneering work, Company of Hawaii to connect the islands of that is, from 1920, when Beverage was first Oahu, Hawaii, Maui and Kauai. employed by the Radio Corporation of The Institute of Radio Engineers pre- America, to 1929, he was in charge of de- sented the Morris Liebmann Memorial Prize velopment of RCA's transoceanic receiving to Beverage in 1923 and elected him presi- systems. In 1929, when RCA Communica- dent for 1937. From the University of Maine tions, Inc. was formed, Beverage became he received the honorary degree of Doctor chief research engineer. Laboratories were of Engineering in 1938. Appointed director established at Riverhead, Long Island, on of communications research of RCA Labora- reception; Rocky Point, Long Island, on tories on January I, 1941, he had thirty-eight t'ransmitters; and 66 Broad Street. New York issued United States patents to his credit. In City, for terminal facilities equipment. Bev- this position he directed the work of some erage continued in this position until Decem- of the most able communication research men

BY ORPIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 289 cere appreciation for this and the many other and engineers in the radio field. 2 Many of outstanding services you have rendered the them were inventors who contributed to the Army in the communications field." advance of the art on the domestic as well Since the First World War Beverage had as the international wavelengths as related to learned much about "the ether" and about all branches of radio, including facsimile, frequency modulation as well as televi- antennas, wavelengths long and ultra-short; he would be the last one to say that there sion. was nothing more to learn after such a long In World War II, Beverage was on th( job, handling work that fell within the realm and useful career in radio. Beverage was awarded the United States of military secrecy. As temporary consultant Army Signal Corps Certificate of Apprecia- for the War Department on radio communi- tion with this citation: 3 cations, he received high commendation from Major General H. C. Ingles, chief signal Your tireless effort and valuable advice dur- officer of the Army: "Please accept my sin- ing the installation of a radio-teletype circuit in the North Atlantic Route constituted a great 2 H. O. Peterson, C. W. Hansell, Nils E. Linden- contribution to the Signal Corps in its gigantic blad, George L. Usselman, Murray G. Crosby. task of furnishing he United States Army the Philip S. Carter, J. L. Finch, J. L. Callahan. O. E. Dow, H. E. Goldstine, G. S. Wickizer, R. E. Mathes, world's greatest military communications system. B. A. Trevor, R. W. George, A. M. Braaten, J. June 19, 1944. Ernest Smith and Alfred Kahn.

RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 290 el.remse.re«.-

IRVING WOLFF

A PIONEER IN RADAR BO'?N: July 6, 1894 New York City

IRVING W OLFF, research specialist in ultra- most widely used magnetic loud-speaker of high frequencies, attended the Ethical Cul- the twenties. Engineers under his direction ture School in New York and then wcnt to developed some of the first loud-speaker units Dartmouth to major in physics. He was grad- installed in sound-motion-picture studios, the uated with the degree B.S. in 1916. During velocity microphone and the volume-compen- the winter of 1919-20 he was physics instruc- sated gain control used in many radio sets. tor at Iowa State College, but he left in In the early 2930's Wolff's interest shifted 1920 to take graduate work at Cornell Uni- to the development of fundamental equip- versity where he was also physics instructor ment for producing microwaves. As one ap- until 1923, when he attained his Ph.D. For plication he began radio reflection work in the next year he conducted research under 1934, and shortly after that his own activi- a Hecksclier Research Fellowship at Cornell ties and those of the group associated with University. him were almost entirely concentrated in this Shortly after joining RCA Laboratories in field of communication. z928, Wolff developed the first beat-fre- The military applications of radio detect- quency audio signal generator, and with ing and ranging prevented publication of the Abraham Ringel evolved new methods of results in technical literature. While many loud-speaker testing. He co-operated in the research workers and engineers participated development of what turned out to be he in the development of radar by contributing BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 291 in 1937, in connection with research on col- integral parts, it may be stated that much lision-prevention apparatus. Many flights of the apparatus developed by the group were made testing this apparatus during 1938 associated with Wolff found important mili- and 1939, showing the effectiveness in warn- tary use, and that many of the possibilities ing of collision between aircraft, or between of radar were first demonstrated by him and planes and mountains, or other obstacles. his associates in RCA Laboratories. This equipment not only determined the al- During 1937 operating equipment was completed and tested, indicating the distance titude with accuracy but was found able to detect objects ahead at a sufficient distance and position of reflecting objects. These developments had grown to such importance to to warn of an impending crash. the military services during 1937 that RCA Under the direct supervision of Wolff, the was requested to put all of this work on a radar work in RCA Laboratories continued and expanded. The rese. ,•ch Men knew that secret basis. It is part of the historic record that prob- it would help to win the war and save many lives in peacetime through applications to ably the first application of radar principles to aviation was achieved by RCA through marine and aerial navigation and possibly on equipment built and installed in its own plane railroads and highways.

RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE_ 292 NILS ERIK LINDENBLAD

ANTENNA DESIGNER AND ENGINEER BORN: October 30, 1895 Norrkiiping, Sweden

NILS E.L INDENBLAD, as specialist in radio- in Stockholm, 1916-19, studying electrical transmitting antennas, helped radio hit its engineering. stride in communication on both long and Being fatherless from atender age, he found short waves. When Marconi won the Nobel that student years were not smooth, and prize in 1909, he became Lindenblad's hero; obtained a part-time job in the laboratory twenty-two years later the two men met and of the Swedish Gasaccumulator Company compared notes at RCA'ç "Radio Central" during 1918. Beginning with 1919, he joined at Rocky Point, Long Island. as aco-inventor in the formation of a marine After four years in puoile schools and five radio manufacturing venture. All radio ac- years in high school, young Lindenblad tivity in Sweden at that time was controlled worked a year at the Norrköping Public and supervised by the Government Tele- Service, 1911-12, while attending evening graph Administration. Thus, while the equip- school at Norrköping Polytechnic Institute. ment was approved as an engineering suc- He continued in the day school and was cess, the commercial doors were closed for graduated as mechanical engineer in 1915. the next five years owing to legislation and Complying with the compulsory military airtight contracts between the Telegraph Ad- service program of that time, he spent ayear ministration and foreign radio manufacturers. in the Swedish Signal Corps, after which he Subsisting on the manufacture of equipment attended the Royal Institute of Technology for locating iron ore deposits, the company BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 293 Assigned to the task of developing short- was eventually dissolved and its members wave beam aerials, he produced the multiple- scattered. point loaded transmission line in 1926 by Lindenblad arrived in the United States in means, of which the aerial elements in an October, 1919, with two inventions and a grray could be fed in phase through a com- poor vocabulary; one invention concerned mon line. This method resulted in great re- projection of three-dimensional pictures, and ductions of cost. By 1928 Lindenblad had the other was a water-cooled vacuum tube, made one of his major contributions to the but nobody seemed interested. Procuring a art by demonstrating that wires, each having job as a draftsman with the General Electric alength of several waves, could be combined Company at Schenectady in February, 1920, in extremely simple and inexpensive arrays was, as he described it, "really the begin- to form excellent beam patterns. This work ning anew of existence." In September of the resulted in a universally accepted technique same year he was transferred to Alexander- in beam aerial design. son's staff of the newly formed Radio Cor- In 1929 Lindenblad began a study of poration of America. Transmitting aerials, methods for generating ultra-short waves. In one of radio's most neglected items in those 1931 he found that lower frequencies could days, became his specialty. Foundations oi be multiplied efficiently in triodes subjected engineering calculation and design methods to axial magnetic fields. In this way he was had to be laid. able to generate 115 watts between 400 and As early as 1923, Lindenblad had proved 500 megacycles. This was a world's record. the practicability of placing transmitter and With this power he signaled to an airplane aerial far apart and connecting them by up to a distance of 172 mil0s. Signals to means of ordinary two-wire transmission fixed points were well received at distances lines, which became a necessity in the new over Jo° miles. Duplex telephony across 15 short-wave art. RADIO'S 100 MEN OF SCIENCE 294 miles was established with a ro-watt trans- After considerable experimentation, Linden- mitter. This work showed what could be done blad came upon the idea that solved the with very short waves and stimulated efforts problem. Following his specifications, an to produce suitable circuits. By 1936 the aerial was built and installed on top of the American radio industry had reached a point Empire State Building in 1938. Its band where the possibilities shown by the early width was so per cent, or about fifteen times pioneering work could begin to be utilized. that of what previously had been considered In the meantime, television had made great possible. strides. With increased picture definition it With 167 inventions to his credit and 88 was necessary to operate television in the patents, Nils Lindenblad has proved himself ultra-short wave spectrum. Conventional to be a modern pioneer in exploration of the transmitting aerials could not be used; new "ether," p.nd one of radio's outstanding types were needed to avoid shadow or Norsemen. "ghost" effects caused by optical radiation. "I am a Maxwellian," said Lindenblad, Lindenblad found in 1936 that a triangu- "and as such behold the electric, magnetic lar array in which the dipoles were fed at and gravitational fields as the original mani- their ends would give a band width just festations of creation. The 'particles of mat- enough to pass a 348-line picture. Such an ter' are to me simply oddities at the converg- aerial was erected by RCA atop the Empire ing points of the infinite fields of which they State Building. The television crew, encour- bave become the center. Only the transverse aged by initial success, decided to go one aspects can be observed and utilized by man. better and aim for a 441-line picture. This The longitudinal aspects of the fundamental time the aerial problem became serious. fields remain God's secret forever."

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 295 STUART BALLANTINE

RADIO PHYSICIST AND INVENTOR DIED: May 7, 1944 BORN: September 22, 1897 Morristown, N. J. Germantown, Pa. served as expert radio aide, United States STUART BALLANTINE, physicist spec:alizing Navy, from 1917 to 1920 at the Philadelphia in radio, became interested in wireless in Navy Yard, in charge of development of the 1908 while attending public school in Phila- delphia. During the summers of 1913 to 1916 Navy coil-type radio compass. During this period he made several important contri- he served as radio operator with the Mar- butions to the direction-finding art, among coni Company. Other features of his career which was a "compensator" to control the were: consultant to the Radio Appratus "antenna effect" which resulted in a consid- Company, Pottstown, Pennsylvania; research worker in the laboratory of H. K. erable increase in the sharpness and accuracy of observation. This device is still in exten- Mulford Company, bacteriologists, 1916; sive use. For his work in radio-direction engineer with the Bell Telephone Company finding he received a special award and cita- of Pennsylvania, 1917. He studied mathe- tion in 1921 from the Secretary of the Navy. matics at Drexel Institute in 1917 and took In 1922 Ballantine joined L. M. Hull in up mathematical physics in the Graduate the newly established Radio Frequency Lab- School, Harvard University, lc -0-2 I, 1923- oratories at Boonton, New Jersey. Several 24. He was elected John Tynd.11 Fellow in of his inventions were incorporated in broad- Physics, Harvard, 1923. cast receiver designs, which were licensed by During the First World W -r, Ballantine RADIO'S 100 MEN OF SCIENCE 296 the Latoratories to a number of radio manu- medical problems. This resulted in the de- facturers. Among them was amethod of neu- velopment of a new type of electro-stetho- tralizing radio-frequency amplifiers which scope. He also investigated, in collaboration employed the Wheatstone bridge principle. with F. M. Huntoon, M.D., the effect of He was granted about fifteen patents on these high hydrostatic pressures on micro-organ- circuits as well as on the "crossed condenser" isms and devised a new method of manufac- method of neutralization universally used in turing vaccines based upon these results. push-pull transmitter circuits employing tri- Ballantine formulated the theory of the odes. Among other developments of his origi- vertical radio aerial operated above its fun- nation during this period were linear detec- damental frequency, and showed that the tion and delayed automatic volume control effective power could be doubled and abetter incorporated in most radio receivers. In 1923 vertical distribution obtained by operating he developed the principle of negative feed- at about 2.5 times the fundamental fre- back to stabilize and reduce distortion in quency. The majority of broadcasting sta- transmission circuits, modulators, amplifiers tions adopted this method with "vertical and detectors, described in United States radiators," and in recognition of his work, Patent No. 18,835. This patent also described the Elliott Cresson Gold Medal of the automatic volume control. Franklin Institute was awarded to him in From 1924 to 1927 Ballantine engaged in 1934. private research, collaborating with E. H. In 1929, in collaboration with H. A. Snow, Funk, M.D., and H. R. M. Landis, M.D., Ballantine devised the "variable-mu" (or of Jefferson Medical College and Phipps In- "remote cut-off") principle of vacuum-tube stitute, in the study of auscultation, record- construction in which the grid is given a ing of body temperatures and other physico- variable pitch. This eliminated to a large BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 297 extent cross-talk and modulation distortion developed for the Army Air Corps a throat- in radio broadcast receivers and prevented type microphone which was the first to be overloading the first tube in the set. Used in tested and standardized for use in United millions of tubes since then, this principle States military airplanes. This microphone has been universally applied. picks up the voice sounds directly from the Also active in the field of electro -acoustics, larynx and replaces the conventional hand- Ballantine in 1928 announced the discovery held aerial type; in this way it frees the of large errors in the calibration of condenser pilot's or bombardier's hands for more im- microphones due to diffraction (obstacle ef- portant duties, permits the use of oxygen fect) and cavity resonance. He proposed the masks and excludes engine and propeller "free field" method of calibration, which noises. Seven patents were granted him on this device. Developed long before Pearl supplanted the older methods; also a new technique of calibration called the "method Harbor, thousands of these throat-type mi- of three electrophones," based on the reci- crophones performed useful service in 'World procity principle, which is replacing the War II. older thermophone method. For this and Indicating his wartime activity, Ballan- other developments the Institute of Radio tine reported: "During the past ten years I Engineers in 1931 presented him with the have been independently engaged in the in- Liebmann Memorial Prize for "outstanding vention and dçvalopment of a method of de.-cting distant objects by radio wave re- theoretical and experimental investigations of numerous acoustical and electrical de- flec In, especially as applied to an absolute vices." He was elected president of the In- altii 'er for aircraft." B. ntine was a fellow of the Institute of stitute for 1935. Radii ngineers, American Physical Society, Working again in the acoustical field. he RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 298 Acoustical Society of America, a member of cally with engineering skill, he contributed the American Institute of Electrical Engi- much to the refinement and efficiency of radio neers, American Association for the Advance- without fanfare and dramatic strokes. When ment of Science, Radio Club of America and Ballantine passed away at the age of forty- the Franklin Institute. His publications in- six, a fellow engineer remarked, "Radio has cluded one book and more than fifty papers lost a brilliant, mathematical physicist, a on scientific subjects. About thirty patents svperb engineer, capable, original, as keen were issued to him. Technically and electri- and analytical as they come."

CLARENCE WESTON HANSELL

RADIO TRANSMITTER DESIGNER BORN: January 20, 1898 Hedaryville, Ind.

CLARENCE W .H ANSELL has more than 400 merc ial usefulness. inventions which attest his great activity as Graduating from high school in Medary- a radio engineer—a tote of 260 United vine, Indiana, in 1915, Hansel' enrolled at States patent applications, 640 foreign pat- Purdue University and completed the course ent applications, 190 United States patents in 1919 with a B.S. degree. At Union Col- issued, of which at least 42 relate to inven- lege he took postgraduate work in electrical tions which have gone into commercial use,. engineering while employed in the test-train- while others have additional promise of corn- ing course of the General Electric Company

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 299 at Schenectady. It was with GE that his made the initial adjustments and placed the career in radio engineering had its start. two original installations of alternators and On September 1, 192o, Hansell became a aerials in operation at that station. In co- member of the RCA Engineering Depart- operation with other engineers, Hansel! in ment, specializing in long-distance communi- 1922 developed and installed at Rocky Point cation on both long and short waves. His the first vacuum-tube transmitter ever used work encompassed radio relaying, directive to handle transoceanic radiotelegraph com- transmitting aerials, methods of frequency mercial service. Soon after, he assisted en- control, radiotelephony and numerous phases gineers of the Western Electric Company in of development which greatly enhanced the developing, at Rocky Point, the first com- efficiency of world-wide communication, mercial transoceanic telephone transmitter. broadcasting and television. In 1923-24, Hansell developed a single For a time he was in charge of the com- side-band radio relay station at Belfast, mercial factory tests of the Alexanderson Maine, for receiving long-wave signals from alternator equipment with which RCA estab- Europe and for relaying by radio to River- lished its world-wide radiotelegraph service. head, Long Island, and New York. He then in 1920. He directed the placing of some began short-wave transmitter and directive of this equipment in operation at the New transmitting aerial development for RCA and Brunswick, New Jersey, transoceanic sta- in 1923-24 with S. W. Dean he set up and tion. operated ,qene of the first transmitters to A year later he designed the aerial-ground utilize piezo-electric quartz-crystal frequency system for the RCA Rocky Point station, control. saving the station from threatened failure Hansell moved to the l',CA transoceanic caused by high-ground resistivity. He man- transmitting station on Iong Island in 1925 aged the acceptance tests on the equipment, and established the Re-icy Point Laboratory RADIC'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 300 of RCA Laboratories, on the staff of which to South America, chiefly because uf static were many well-known radio engineers. on the long wavelengths. In the first year of the Rocky Point Labo- Hansel] and Usselman added frequency ratory, Hansell with George L. Usselman, 1 modulation to a short-wave transmitter in developed a 15-meter vacuum-tube trans- 1925 and used it in commercial service to mitter and established the first short-wave reduce the effects of façling. In 1927 fre- circuit to handle commercial traffic over very quency modulation was applied to the chain long distances in daylight. For about two of successively higher-power amplifiers of years this installation handled nearly all the short-wave transmitters, thereby eliminating daytime traffic from Europe and the United tremendous difficulties with instability and States to South America. The transmitter, parasitic oscillations which had been charac- costing about $15,000, employing 7 kilo- teristic of short-wave transmitters up to that watts at 20 megacycles and a 2o-foot aerial, time. Additional frequency modulators were gave commercial service to South America, developed in 1929 and in following years. whereas the 200-kilowatt Alexanderson al- On July 31, 1931, "FM" was used to trans- ternators with aerials 400 feet high and 1.5 mit aringside account of the Sharkey-Schme- miles long, costing about $1,500,000, found ling fight to Manila after amplitude modula- it difficult to provide a commercial service tion failed because of noise. Born November 27, 1888, at Sylvania, Indiana; Throughout the thirties Hansell with his graduated with a B.S. degree in electrical engineer- associates continued radio propagation inves- ing from Kansas State College, 1916, Usselman be- tigations, development work on short-wave came a student engineer for General Electric in systems, directive aerials, magnetrons and 1916-19 and joined the Radio Department of GE in 1919. He joined RCA in 1920 as transmitter research the application of water-cooled tubes as well engineer. He has more than 150 inventions disclosed; as a radio relay system to handle communi- 78 United States patents issued. cations, including television and facsimile.

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 301 In looking forward to the future it seems clear ing. By the end of the war it will have been that we have only just begun the era of radio- nearly 20 years since there havé been any frequency power [said Hansell]. It is only a startling changes in the technical features of matter of time until not only industry, but every equipment now used both for radiotelegraphy housewife will use radio-frequency power as and standard frequency broadcasting. From the freely as 6o-cycle power is used today. research engineer's point of view these businesses Not only are there limitless new applications have gone to seed and are duc to be replanted:2 to be anticipated, but services already in exist- 2 Statement prepared for presentation at RCA ence are due for a thorough technical overhaul- Laboratories, April 21, 1943.

RUSSELL HARRISON VARIAN ONE OF THE KLYSTRON BC 'S

BORN: April 24,1898 Washington, D. C.'

RUSSELL H.V ARIAN was awarded the hon- "breaking of waves on a beach." That is s orary degree of Doctor of Engineering from what the electrons do in the klystron; they Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute in 1943 "for break urrifaveling at the rate of 25,000 miles his work on the development and leadership a second! To Russell's younger brother Sigurd Fer- in the expansion and improvement of the klystron," an electron tube which produces gus 1 goes the credit for anticipating the need for a reliable blind-landing or radio-guiding extremely short wavelengths. Klystron is from the Greek word for the 'Born May 4, 1901, Syracuse, N. Y. RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 302 beam, which he foresaw when he was a flight worked on geophysical surveys for the Hum- captain for Pan-American Airways on the boldt Oil Company in Texas and later joined Mexican and Central American air lanes. the Farnsworth Radio and Television Cor- This, therefore, is the story of two men poration, 1930-32. Sigurd did not go to col- in one, in fact, "three men and a tube," for lege, for he was too anxious to learn to fly to the Varian team is added Dr. William after finishing at a polytechnic school in San Webster Hansen, 2 associate professor of Luis Obispo, California. physics at Leland Stanford University, who Back in California to dream up their big collaboratéd with the "Klystron Boys" on idea for generating and projecting an in- the project; he made electrons dance the visible beam along which planes might fly rhumba inside a "copper apple" which is the . with safety, the Varian brothers took up nucleus of the klystron. residence in the little village of Halcyon, Russell is described as deliberate and pa- their old home town. Once the idea began tient; Sigurd as nervous and dynamic. Their to take practical form their need for a father, John Osborne Varian, a masseur born physics laboratory, tools and machine shop in Dublin, was married in Ireland to Agnes became apparent. They decided to go to Dixon. They migrated to California. Palo Alto with hopes of making arrange- Russell obtained a scientific background ments to use Stanford's physics laboratory. at Stanford where he worked his way through There they contacted Dr. David L. Web- the School of Physics by doing odd jobs in ster, head of the Physics Department, who the laboratories and by helping professors let them use the laboratory and model shop with their lawns and gardens. He was grad- as research associates without pay. Numer- uated with a B.A. degree in 1925 and after ous experiments followed, which finally led obtaining his master's degree in 1927, he Russell Varian and Dr. Hansen to develop

2 Born May 27, 1909, Fic-nn, Calif. a d.7sign based upon "the velocity grouping

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 303 -ffl.nrfiemgrffl

view acclaimed it as "the most important principle." Sigurd built the apparatus—a advance in radio since the invention of the neat little five-pound machine—and it audion tube in 1906 by Lee De Forest." It worked! It oscillated! was described as an ultra-high-frequencY By mere chance, H. Hugh Willis, chief resonator, nicknamed "the rhumbatron" be- research engineer of the Sperry Gyroscope cause it made electrons dance at terrific Company, accompanied by two officials of speed yet with a rhythmic motion. The in- the Civil Aeronautics Authority, arrived at visible beam it projects is "as straight as a the Oakland Airport when the magic "beam sunbeam" and as such was quickly recognized maker" was ready for demonstration and as possessing untold possibilities for use in were invited to see the new gadget. No aviation, in electric power transmission by longer was finance a problem—the "three radio, telephony, television and other men and a tube" became connected with branches of communication. News stories Sperry Gyroscope and were established in a told how the klystron would enable airplanes small laboratory in San Carlos under the to take off and land automatically. With direction of William Cooke. 3 This laboratory radio beams projected ahead, the pilot would was subsequently moved east and was con- be warned of mountains or other obstruc- solidated in another Sperry laboratory. tions in the path of the plane; shot down- When the Varians' discovery was an- ward they would tell him how far above the nounced late in 1939, the klystron was front- ground he was flying. War came, and the page news. The M.I.T. Technological Re- klystron became an instrument of war. Mili- 3 Later research director in charge of radio in tary secrecy shrouded its activity. Sperry's Garden City (L. L) Laboratory.

RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 304 fflure's - CHARLES JACOB YOUNG

PRINTED BY RADIO BORN: December 17, 1899 Cambridge, Mass.

CHARLES J. YOUNG as a wireless amateur in engineers, remarked, "It's' a fine thing to 1913 was inspired by his father, Owen D. have an imagination wholly unrestrained by Young, who posed the problem of using a any knowledge of fundamental facts." radio machine to print a radio-facsimile Charles Young tackled the problem and newspaper in the home. Specifically this is became an expert in the field. From Hackley what he proposed: School at Tarrytown, New York, he enrolled "I want a great camera arranged with a at Harvard where he followed the radio trail lens in London and a plate in New York, by specializing in physics and taking all of so that when the London Times goes on the the radio courses then being given by Pro- streets five hours earlier than the morning fessor George W. Pierce and Professor Em- papers here, the 20 sheets may be held up ory L. Chaffee. Graduating with a B.A. de- singly in front of the lens and, with a click gree in 1921, he took postgraduate work for each sheet, be transmitted to New York, in electrical engineering at the Harvard En- so that I may find a copy of the London gineering School. Times waiting with the New York papers With this training as aspringboard, Young on my breakfast table." joined the radio engineering staff of the Gen- Laconically, Dr. Alfred N. Goldsmith, who eral Electric Company in 1922, where he was sitting next to Mr. Young at dinner became interested in studio acoustics, micro- when he first flung this challenge at the phone development, the application of super- BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 305 rolling off a printed message, diagram or • regeneration and power-line "broadcasting." picture. But at this point his father's challenge to Facsimile had a difficult time getting flash a page of the Ti:ncs of London to started and in winnirg afollowing; it lacked New York shifted his career to radio fac- the mass appeal arid usefulness of broad- simile. casting and television in the home. Further, When Young joined the RCA staff in 1930, it always seemed to have some "bugs" to he clung to nitlio facsimile as his specialty be ironed out. But in 1943 Young, who must and continued to study and to develop it be admired for his perseverance, remarked, from many angles. In 1942 he was appointed 'My later work on high-speed facsimile re- a research supervisor of RCA Laboratories cording by chemical ibethods may be partic- at Princeton, New Jersey. Whenever he was ularly important because it gets nearer to seen in the Laboratories, always there was a the speed needed to 'zip' anewspaper." facsimile machine not far from his elbow-,

10. ALLEN BALCOM DuMONT

SKILLED IN ELECTRONICS

BORN: January 29, 1901 ' Brooklyn, N. Y. into television. From 1920 10 1924, he was a ALLEN B. DuMowr, development engineer student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute specializing in radio and cathode-ray tubes and received the degree of Electrical Engi- and oscilloscopes, naturally found his way RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIEN CE 306 relffler'en — '

neer, after which he was employed •by the television. He is credited with invention of Westinghouse Lamp Company at Bloomfield, the radio receiver's cathode-ray visual-tun- New Jersey, and later was in charge of pro- ing indicator, or "magic eye," which is wide duction of radio receiving tubes. He applied open when a station is out of tune, but nar- for a number of patents on improvements in rows to a thin slit when the point of exact tubes and in manufacturing equipment. tuning is reached. Employed from 1928 to 1931 by the De With a "passion for accuracy and a tran- Forest Radio Company at Passaic, New Jer- scendent belief in the future," DuMont de- sey, as chief engineer, DuMont designed and scribed his work in 1943 as "precision elec- had built under his supervision factory equip- tronics." For use in World War II, he re- ment to greatly increase production, exceed- ported development of acyclograph—"a pre- ing 30,000 tubes aday. In 1931 he organized cision electronic device that can locate, ana- the DuMont Laboratories in New Jersey, and lyze and sort metals according to their physi- turned his attention to development of cal properties, revealing previously unattain- cathode-ray tubes for use in oscillographs able information with lightning speed and and other electrical instruments, including ra. without damage to precision metal parts."

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 307 HARRY FERDINAND OLSON

AN AUTHORITY ON SOUND

BORN: December 28, 1902 Mt. Pleasant, Iowa dress systems. He pioneered in development HARRY F.OLsoN took up sound as his stock of directional microphones, including the in trade and became an authority on acous- most commonly used uni -directional and the tics, particularly as applied to radio. He had his early schooling at Olds, Iowa, and then varacoustic microphones. He also developed the long-pointed, ultra-directional micro- went to the University of Iowa where he phone designed to pick up sound from a majored in physics and was graduated in particular direction, or to focus on certain 1924; a year later he achieved his M.S. de- sections of orchestras or parades without gree; in 1928 his Ph.D.; and in 1932 his E.E. He joined RCA Laboratories in 1928. picking up extraneous sounds. Olson also developed various types of loud- His numerous articles on sound, including speakers, ranging from the shoulder-strap three textbooks, Applied Acoustics, Elements personal radio set's loud-speaker, which is of Acoustical Engineering and Dynamical the size of a silver dollar, to huge systems Analogies, rank high in the literature on the weighing hundreds of pounds and capable of subject. He has lectured on sound engineer- handling kilowatts of input. He pioneered in ing at Columbia University. the development of wide Lange and high Olson won fame in radio for his invention of the velocity-type microphone, widely used fidelity loud-speakers. In addition, he carried out many develop- by broadcasting stations and in public-ad- RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 3o8 ments in other fields of acoustics and vibrat- tice-steel grated platform resting on rubber ing systems—for example: the reverberation pads; the walls are lined with heavy baffles, time bridge, phonograph pick-ups, super- or curtains, of ozite, soi that absolutely no sonics, mechanical filters and acoustic net- extraneous sounds of any kind are heard. works. His acoustic stethoscope covers awide Spoken words in that odd and eerie room range of frequencies enabling doctors to hear sound as if you are going under ether, as a many sounds they never heard before. visitor described the sensation—no echoes, The Second World War put new demands no reflections, no resonance, no sounds of upon Olson's time, and he concentrated on any kind, except those exactly as uttered. acoustical systems as applied to warfare on This uncanny realm of Olson's does for sound land, sea and in the air. what a dark room does for light, and in it Olson's sanctum sanctorum in the RCA he has been able to develop new micro- Laboratories at Princeton is known as the phones and loud-speakers. So true is the "free field sound room." As such, it is one room to sound that a measurement made of the most unique ever built—a room three in it one day can be made exactly the same stories high with the suspended floor a lat- a year later.

BP ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 309 BROWDER JULIAN THOMPSON

EXCELLED IN ELECTRON TUBES

BORN: August 14, 1904 Roanoke, La.

B. J. THOMPSON, radio research specialist in eral Electric at Schenectady in 1926, he remained until 5935, the last two years in vacuum tubes, has contributed much to shap- ing keys that open gateways into the future charge of a group conducting research and development on radio receiving tube prob- of radio. He attended elementary school at lems. In June, 1931, he was placed in charge Lake Charles, Louisiana, and public schools of the research section of the Research and in Minot, North Dakota. From the Uni- versity of Washington (Seattle) he was grad- Engineering Department of the Radiotron Division of RCA at the Harrison, New Jer- uated in 1925 with the degree of B.S. in sey, plant. In 5940 he was associate director Electrical Engineering, in which he did post- of the research laboratory, and when RCA graduate work. Laboratories were opened at Princeton, New "When Iwas six years old," said Thomp- Jersey, in 5942, Thompson moved there as son, "electrical toys made me decide to become an electrical engineer. Later Ihad an- associate director of general research. Throughout the period from 1926 into the other ambition—I wanted to work in the General Electric Research Laboratory. While forties, "BJ" did research and development on broadcast receiving tubes, ultra-high-fre- I was at the University of Washington a quency receiving and transmitting tubes, as GE man scouting for young engineers opened well as electron tubes for industrial applica- the way for me." Joining the Research Laboratory of Gen- tions. He directed work in the field of tele- RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 310 vision tubes, and contributed much to origi- forward to much more sensitive tubes a nal studies of amplifiers and radio-electron this type—so sensitive as television 'eyes' tube theory and design. that it will be possible to pick up the last Thompson was awarded the Morris Lieb- quarter of a football game even on a dark mann Memorial Prize by the I.R.E. in 1936, rainy day. We may also expect quite a for "contributions to development of ultra- change in television receivers and at mod- high-frequency tubes." From his analysis of erate costs." the fundamental frequency limitations of the With that statement Thompson turned to conventional type of tube, he worked out a a television receiver, pulled up a retractable new conception of mechanical and electrical screen on the front and showed a clear design which would permit the operation of picture eighteen by twenty-four inches, as tubes at ultra-high frequencies. The "acorn" broadcast from the NBC transmitter atop tube was the result of this research. It ex- the Empire State Building. Then he extended the useful radio frequency range far plained, "This is a prewar model that uses beyond previous practical possibilities. a small projection tube. The picture on its "In the ultra-short wave field we have no face is projected by lenses to the mirror time to sit and think," said Thompson. "The and on to the translucent screen. It em- demands for new tubes are ever so great. ploys the techniques and a system of optics And this is evidenced by the fact that the of 1941 .. . prior to Pearl Harbor. But it monthly demand for acorn-size tubes has reveals what may be expected based upon reached magnitudes which we never thought wartime developments which will make it would be reached in a year." so much better and economically reason- As he moved around a table covered with able." an assortment of electron tubes, he picked Then modestly, as if he had caught himself up an Iconoscope and said, "We car look talking outside of his field, he added, "I'm BY ORRIN E DUNLAP, JR. 311 war made great demands upon his time, and just a tube man." in 1944, he became associated with the War Brilliant in his analysis of phenomena re- Department as a civilian consultant. While lateu to the control of electrons, Thompson won high esteem in the realm of science as on a flight in a plane over occupied territory one of the country's most capable young men in Italy on July 8, 1944, he was reported in research related to electron tubes. The missing:

PHILO TAYLOR FARNSWORTH

LINKED HIS NAME WITH TELEVISION

BORN: August 19, 1906 Beaver, Utah

ture." While at Rigby (Idaho) High School, PHILO TAYLOR FARNSWORTH, specialist in 1921-22, he delved into the molecular theory cathode-ray tubes as applied to television, of matter, electrons, the Einstein theory, au- first became interested in electricity through afarm lighting system and its electric motors. tomobile engines, model airplanes and chem- Popular magazines told him of "such a thing istry. He went to Glens Falls, Idaho, in 1923 as electrician on a railroad; then to Provo, called television," and he linked his life work Idaho, to work in a machine shop. He at- to it. tended high school at Provo in the fall of Farnsworth was described by a friend as 1923 and devoted spare time to study in the "an omnivorous reader of scientific litera - RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 312 •

library maintained by Brigham Young Uni- search Laboratories in San Francisco "to versity. In 1924 he enrolled in the Univer- take all the moving parts out of television." sity, but at the end of the second year his The idea conceived in 1922 was brought to a father died and young Farnsworth left col- practical result in 1927 when a. sixty-line lege to help support the family. He entered image of a dollar sign was the first image the radio business at Salt Lake City as a Farnsworth transmitted. The company was serviceman, but the shop failed and he went reorganized as Television Laboratories: Inc.; to work in the railroad yards. and later. in May, 1929, was renamed Farns- To Farnsworth, television was still "a day- worth Television, Inc., of California. dream, a day-dream only." He had no labo- Farnsworth's first application for a tele- ratory or facilities for research or money to vision patent covering a complete electronic buy equipment. One day in applying for a system, including a dissector tube, was macle • job in connection with the Salt Lake City January 7, 1927. The dissector was used to Community Chest campaign, he met Leslie scan the image for transmission. At the re- Gorrell and George Everson of San Fran- ceiver an oscillite tube reproduced the pic- cisco, who were conducting the drive. Farns- ture. /in electron multiplier tube, which worth was hired. As the men became ac- Farnsworth called a "rnultipactor." increased quainted it was natural that they should the sensitivity of the dissector. In 1931 he learn about television from the young man. moved his experiments to Wyndmoor, near That was a turning point. Everson agreed Philadelphia. to finance the idea. The Farnsworth Radio and Television A laboratory was set up in Los Angeles. Corporation was organized in 1938 with In October, 1926, with additional financial headquarters at Fort Wayne, Indiana, with assistance, they established the Crocker Re- E. A. Nicholas as president, and Farnsworth BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 313 • as director of research. His numerous pat- "It is an intriguing art," remarked Farns- worth. "Why, it is difficult for me to make ents, associated with the idea of converting an accurate guess as to what originally got an optical image into an electrical image, me started. I believe I had decided before deal with cathode-ray tubes, electrical scan- I was twelve years old that I could be an ners, amplifier tubes, photoelectric materials and electron multipliers. inventor."

JOSEPH LYMAN

APPLIED RADIO TO AIR NAVIGATION

BORN: August 26, 1906 Northampton, Mass. way to give aviation the services it needed— JOSEPH LYMAN was alicensed radio amateur communications, guiding beams, direction at the age of 12, entering the field at a time finders, radio altimeters, collision-prevention when short waves and ultra-short waves were apparatus and navigational aids. Here, in beckoning experimenters .to follow these lines the dovetailing of these two great industries, of development. Aviation rapidly coming to radio and aviation, was opportunity aplenty the fore was more in need of radio which for a young man with an aptitude for radio was prepared to accept the challenges because of new electron-tube developments. Opening science. Joseph Lyman and his brother had one of of the high-frequency spectrum cleared the RADIO'S I00 MEN OF SCIENCE 314 the earliest high-frequency amateur radio Williston Academy in 1926 he attended the stations i the country. They were among University of Michigan and Massachusetts the pioneers along the i 00-meter, 40-meter Institute of Technology, and then applied his and 20-meter waves. Their station i-KC at knowledge to make radio more useful to Northampton was credited with establishing aviation. several distance records in those early days Just as important as his radio work, how- of high radio frequencies. The results of their ever, in demonstrating to him the imRortance pioneering were reported in QST in the year of radio in aviation, was his twelve years' 1926. flying experience with the United States Ma- Lyman continued to explore the ultra- rines, two years of which were spent on short waves and this led him in 1932 to con- active duty. He holds a commission as cap- duct a series of radio tests with aircraft on tain in the USNICR. This experience led the five-meter channel. Assisted by the Amer- him directly into his first position with the ican Radio Relay League, he organized New Sperry Gyroscope Company in February, England radio amateurs for a series of tests 1936, as an assistant engineer testing aviation between Boston and New York, in which he instruments. talked from the plane with various amateur Five years later, in February, 1941, a stations. patent (No. 2,231,929) was granted to him Lyman, with many others, realized that for a"novel indicator" described in his speci- one of the great problems in aviation was fications as "adapted for use on aircraft the avoidance of collision under poor flying either for indicating the direction of ap- conditions. His work as a radio amateur led proach of other aircraft, thereby to prevent him to think how radio might be applied to collisions under conditions of poor or zero solve the problem. After graduation from visibility, or for use on the ground as when

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 315 locating aircraft for purposes of gun fire con- navigation research at the Sperry Gyroscope trol, or for controlling aircraft landings from Company in 1943, was put in charge of de- the ground, and for other purposes." veloping radio aids to navigation and instru- Lyman, appointed director of aircraft radio ment landing equipment.

GEORGE HAROLD BROWN

PIONEER IN RADIOTHERMICS

BORN: October 14, 1908 Milwaukee, Wisc.

GEORGE H. BROWN, specialist in radiother- E.E. in 1942, all at his alma mater. mics, helped to kindle the art of radio-fre- From 1933 to 1937, Brown was a research quency heating, including development of the engineer on the RCA staff; for a year he radio-electronic "sewing machine," radio operated as a consulting radio engineer, but rivet "hammer" and many other appliances. rejoined RCA Laboratories in 1938. Consid- Under his supervision these devices were de- ered an authority on antennas, he developed veloped in RCA Laboratories many new structures, as well as related Schooled at Green Bay and Portage, Wis- equipment. Turning to the television field, he consin, he matriculated at the University of designed the vestigial side-band filter put Wisconsin, majored in electrical engineering into use in the NBC television transmitter and was graduated B.S. in 1930. He achieved atop the Empire State Building. his M.S. degree in 1931, Ph.D. in 1933 and Among Brown's antenna developments was 316 RADIO'S 100 MEN OF SCIENCE the "Top Hat," a structure added to the naces" or "ovens" is being extended to speed upper end of a number of existing broadcast and improve hundreds of drying operations. antenna radiators to decrease fading of the In them railroad ties may be seasoned and signals. He also originated a turnstile an- "cakes" of textiles dried quickly and uni- tenna for use with frequency modulation formly. Rubber may be "radio-cemented" to transmitters and a short-wave antenna, wood or plastic; thermoplastic "cloth" widely used with police transmitters. seamed by radio heat; plastics "cooked" to Brown was very active as a pioneer in molded perfection; plywood "tacked"; and the field of "radiothermics." He directed the (i • cd without loss of work of applying radio-frequency power to food value, flavor or color. the case-hardening of steel, annealing of Inspired by a newspaper story reporting brass, thermosetting of glue, bonding of ther- urgent wartime need for speeding the process moplastic materials and drying problems. of penicillin production, Brown and his asso- A few of the many possible fields in which ciates, Cyril N. Hoyler and R. A. Bierwirth radiothermic equipment can be used are: at RCA Laboratories, applied radiothermics heating, drying, gluing, case-hardening, an- to the problem. Since radio frequency-drying nealing, riveting, welding, melting of rare provides a continuous process in the manu- metals and deactivating enzymes in foods facturing procedure, their efforts were re- to be dehydrated. In the processing of lami- markably successful. The method of dehy- nated wooden propellers for aircraft, heat is dration which they developed is lower in required to set the adhesive. Radio-frequency cost than the conventional freeze-drying. heating accomplishes this in minutes instead Radiothermics is one of the new fields of of the hours required by ordinary steam and radio which possess great promise. Applica- pressure processes. tion of radio-frequency heating to accelerate The use of radio high-frequency "fur- and improve industrial processes, reduce

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR. 317 costs and create better results is rapidly com- asociety in which initiative and talent may have an outlet, and in which the individual may have ing into use. Many industrial products of the opportunity. .. . In particular, opportunity for future will be cooked, and baked, tempered, the individual creator, for the industrial pio- welded, dried, melted, seamed and laminated neer, for the inventor with vision and practi- by means of radio heat. cality should not be lost; and the atmosphere of our industrial life should be favorable for Of radio's roo men of science forty-six his efforts in our behalf. .. . were born in the United States. Eighteen If we are wise there will be, in the future, others came from foreign lands to seek free- many Edisons in the United States. They may dom and opportunity under the Stars and not shine with his peculiar brilliance, but they will add to the well-being of the nation a neces- Stripes; the majority, including Tesla, Pu- sary element which can be added in no other pin, Steinmetz, Alexanderson and Zworykin, way. Their opportunity must be preserved open became naturalized American citizens. In before them.' America they found encouragement, recognition of their talents and reward for their Today the shadows of early wireless and achievements. As pioneers and creators they its pioneers are lengthening. Since Marconi's contributed to the advance of civilization. first signal the evolution of radio has covered almost half a century. The world of There must remain in the United States the radio is swinging back to the very short opportunity for an Edison, the opportunity for waves which Hertz and Marconi used in the any youth with initiative, resourcefulness, prac- beginning. They and their predecessors, with ticality, and vision, to create in his own name Dr. Vannevar Bush, president of Carnegie Insti- and by his own efforts new things that will tend tute and director of the Office of Scientific Research to make this country vigorous and strong and and Development, speaking before the American safe. .. . We seek in the United States some- Institute of Electrical Engineers when awarded the thing beyond mere mechanical efficiency; we seek Edison Medal for 1943. '3r8 RADIO'S 100 1LEN OF SCIENCE the equipment and knowledge then at hand, sion prevention, navigation, radiothermics had but one choice if they were to gain and various other industrial services. quick results and prove the practicability of The Columbuses, Marco Polos, Cabots and wireless—that one choice was to harness the Daniel Boones of radio have long since long waves. passed in the procession of shadows. New Scientists who followed them have turned explorers are pioneering; they are charting the tide back to the high-frequency spec- new trails—microwave trails—into the future trum. With development of new electron across the wondrous horizon of radio. Theirs tubes, the tiny waves measured in centi- is the heritage to keep alive the spirit of meters have come into their own again, far the pioneers—to continue onward, to achieve surpassing in achievements the dreams of new triumphs that will serve the world and the pioneers. thereby unfold the saga of Radio's Second Out of the Second World War, scientists zoo Pioneers in Science. march into the boundless realm of micro- The barriers are not yet erected which can waves in which radio is used not only for sig- say to aspiring genius: "Thus far and no fur- naling but for new applications of communi- ther." cation, including television, facsimile, colli- —Beethoven

THE END

BY ORRIN E. DUNLAP, JR, 319

OTHER ARMED SERVICES EDITIONS INCLUDE:

1083 W ALT TULLEY'SB ASEBALL RECORDER 1100 BETTY MACDONALD, The Egg and I 1084 JOHN P.MAR QUAND, Repent in Haste 1101 CHARLES A LDEN SELTZER, The Ranchman 1085 LAWRENCE LARIAR, Editor, Best Cartoons of 1102 CAPTAIN H ARRY C. BUTCHER, U.S.N.R., the Year 1945 My Three Years With Eisenhower 1086 J. STORER CLOUSTON, The Lunatic at Lirge 1103 D EEMS TAYLOR, The Well-Tempered 1087 G EORGE G AMOW, Biography of the Earth Listener 1088 Ro Y H UGGINS, The Double Take 1104 N ANCY BRUFF, The Manatee 1089 LADD H AYSTEAD, If the Prospect Pleases 1105 JOHN F.W HARTON, The Theory and Prat-. 1090 ROBERT S. D OWST, Straight, Place and Show tire of Earning aLiving 1091 H .G. W ELLS, The War of the Worhis 1106 CRAIG RICE, The Big Midget Murders 1092 FRANCIS W ALLACE, Kid Galahad 1107 ZANE G REY, The Border Legion 1093 FRANCES and RICHARD LOCKIUDGE, Death on 1108 W ALTER N OBLE BURNS, The Saga of Billy the Aisle the Kid 1094 ERNEST H AYCOX, Starlight Rider 1109 D OUGLASS W ELCH, ¡tir. Digby 1095 D AVID B. G REENBERG and H ENRY SCHIN- 1110 RICHARD C. G ILL, 'rinse Water and Black DALL, A Small Store and Independence Magic 1096 BEN LUCIEN BURMAN, Steamboat Round ¡be 1111 EDNA FERBER, Saratoga Trunk Bend 1112 ORRIN E. D UNLAP, JR., Radio's 100 Men of 1097 BAYNARD K ENDRICK, Out of Control Science 1098 LAWRENCE TREAT, V As in Victim 1113 K ONSTANTINE SIMONOV, Days and Nights 1099 JOSEPH CONRAD, Typhoon and The End of 1114 STEPHEN VINCENT BENÉT, John Brown's the Tether Body * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

RADIO'S 100 MEN OF SCIENCE by Grrin E. Dunlop, Jr.

THIS is the story of the steady progress human interest for the general reader and of science in world-wide communications, a wealth of inspiration, in addition to its broadcasting, television, electronics, and helpful data, for aspiring scientists. It radar. It is traced through the peisonal- is an excellent introduction to the world ities and discoveries of the foremost men of new scientific wonders just ahead. in the field of radio and electronics—Bell, Orrin E. Dunlap, Jr. was radio editor Edison, Morse, Marconi, etc. of The New York Times from 1922 to 1940, Each biography is written as a personal when he became a member of the executive story as well as a record of the unique con- staff of RCA. He is the author of a number tribution of each scientist. Forty-five of of other authoritative books on the subject the hundred men included are still living, of radio, among them: Dunlap's Radio and of these the author has had unusual op- Manual, The Story of Radio, Advertising by portunity to know personally the work and Radio, The Outlook for Television, Marconi.. achievements of most. The volume has great The Man and His 'Fire/es r, and Radar.

This special edition of RADIO'S MO M EN OF SCIENCE by Orrin E. Dunlap, Jr. has been made available to the Armed Forces of the United Slates through an arrangement with the original publisher, Harper & Brothers, New York.

Eddtons for the Armed Services, Inc., a non-profit organization established by the Council on Books in Wartime