Chapter:^18.

--g:9E@AUESt-tpJ!E L6d-- Fol lowihe the C.olour Television Denanstration in the Spring of 1954, our work at Gt gaddot! concentrated on different nethods of encoding (or conpressing) the R, G, B wideband colour television to occupy the standard nonochrqle televisian transnission bandwidth, 8y notr tha USA had adopted the sa called NTSC Systen as their 525 line CfV standard and, as a basis for a passible UK standard, we devised an anglicised version of this based on.a 405 lines so as to retain conpatibility with the then existing npnochrqne W standard, orc najor problen associated with encoded cTV signals was colwr distortions caused by the characteristics of transnission links and especially the lqg haul intercity lines or radio links. At huge cost a nassive infrastructure of nett@rks had been built to exchange or transni\t tlonochrane w and it vlas an ecanonic inperative that Cw shoul d be so encoded that nininun further infrastructure investnent was necessary, Yr'e identified the weakness in the U ,-Mrstr systen and set aboLtt devising changes which retained its g@d features whilst naking the systen nore robust to transnission distortiqls, Devising new standards in theory was one thing, but proving then in the reat wgrld was another. Fortunately the BBC becarne nost interested in our work and invited us to collaborate with than in proving our ideas o,n the transnission of encoded @Id)r television systens, As a result we transferred nuch of our equipnent to London, either in the basenent of Broadcasting House, or to lyestern llouse where the BBC Engineering Laboratories were located, Quite a lot of ny equignent was involved, including the'Trinoscope Filn Recorder and Projection Display, so I was part of the core tean seconded to the BBc throughd)t nuch of the sunner of 1954, once the equi pnent was installed it was necessary to hcrk by night after public service progrannes went aff air. Ife carries out a planned sequence of tests trhiDh proved of great technical value, fhe early tests consisting af sending coddd test signals and coloLtr TV pictures thrd)gh various nettwk l@ps and conparing the picture which had beqi round the l@p with the original, These culninated with tests round the langest uK loop frqn London to Kirk o Shots and back to Loldon. fhe tests denonstrated the vulnerability of the US,A NT9C systen to transnission distortion and lead to the ntodern PAL systen we enploy today in r/hich transtissiql errors average out line by line. I PAL ='phase al ternation line', which was very sinilar in principle to a

81 nethod,|nvented in our unit at Baddow.l Oi conpletion of the line tests ve continued with live broadcasts which were norti tored by off air receivers in various locatians, In this way we neasured tran;snission distortion and were able to study the effect of fading and other nultipath effects. It was during this period that the press noticed the transnission of strange test charts and pictures by night and reproduaed a caption saying 'Nornal Service will be resuned AFTER TA', The associated story h/as headed "What's gping on at the BBC by Night?" The story behind this was that I was still rcrking with ny filn recording gear in the sub-basdnent af Braadcasting House. The phane yr'as inoperative by night and the only way the tean could cot nunicate ta ne was through the W inages, Thus whan the others stopped for a tea break they doctored a 'lbrnal Service'.,.'caption which was then radiated fron the London transnitter and picked up on ny receiver, The nassage was to inforn ne it has tea break tine. In nany ways this collaborative venture with the BBc t/,/as the best passible training for ne, I was nw working directly with engineers who were the leaders in the new Colaur TV field, fran both industry and the BBC, with interests over the whol e span of the technology. Inportant lessons h/ere certainly learned by the BBC leading to a decision not to adopt the Aneri can standard, but to adopt a national one producing consistently better inage qual i ty wi thout drast i c i nf ras t ructu re redes i gn. Wi th the ,prk successful ly conplete we returned to Gt Baddott where I was alnost imediately sumloned to see Lc Jesty who asked ne if I t+ould be willing to be seconded to the USA far 6 nonths. I was to share ny tine between the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) studios, and Radio Corporation of *rr"u {r*, who designed and nanufactured television studio equipnent. The Marconi conpany still had a cross-licence arrangenent ,/ith Nrc/rcA, which nade provision for infornat,ion exchange, In the USA the first glblic service NTSC colour Television progrannes were due to start and I was to have access to study all'aspects of the subjects and report back to Ed Mchnnell; finally issuing a cqnprehenaive report within the Group. This t/,/as seen by the Conpany as a golden opportunity to study the US Colour Television technology' in depth, frc'n canerd lens to donesti c display, In particular I was to seek to establish the adaquacy of the technalagy for the inauguration of a caast to coast public broadcasting service and the extent of its suitability for an eventual UK nettrork, Back in 1954 international assignnents like this, particularly for a 28 year old, were alnost unheard of and so fron a personal point c;f view I tras surprised and delighted to have been selected, It was a neasure of the rapid progress I had nade since joining the research laboratorie€ that I was even considered for what, by any standards, was gaing to be a difficult assignnent, That this ptLnb job had fallen to ne was doubtless due ta Ed Mccarnell's influence and indeed it was arranged that he would join ne for the first trc weeks to help ne gdin access to key players he knew fron his Cintel days,ie outside those covered by the licence, llhilst thi€ was clearly an inportant career nave, fran a donestic point of view it could not have ccne at a worst tine. Billy was only a few nqths old and becqning a handful, The new house i/r'as due any tine now and the fanily tvould have to settle then€elves in, I agrqed to discuss the pro@sition with Olive before giving ny reply, She was plea€ed for ne and encouraged ne to take this unexpected opportun i tY, So it was that in Septenber 1954 I found nyself, with Ed \c&)nnel I, on a Stratocruser flying the Atlantic via Keflavic to New York, In contrast to nodern air travel, prapeller aircraft were slow and with altitude linited to about 25,000ft, unconfortable due to turbulence. As I recall London - New Yark took in excess of 12 hours. In other respects the stratacruser was a fine aircraft with a 'figure of eight' pressurised fuselage and a snall elliptical bar, in front of the larer deck, entered by a spirat staircase, providing breath taking views as the sun rose and we passed over Greenland. The duration of ny secondnent was to be linited to six tnonths since beyond this I t@uld becane liable for Us taxation, once Mcconnel I had returned hone I was to be a free agent to plan where a!1d hotv long I worked in any one place. With Ed Ncbnnel I I nad6 contact nith one of the rcA International Division staff who ras to be ny Liaison Officer, vtith both RCA and NBc, through whan I flas ta arrange specific secondnent, I also had a contact @int in the Marconi's New York office for help and assistance if needed, The first tvtp v'/eeks were a hectia round of neetings between Mcconnel I and key flgures in the US industry'/tho he knew, or had once worked with, in his distinguished career in television extending back to the tine he u/as an assr'sfart to John Logie Baird in the nid 1930's. l.te was welconed where ever he went and the discussions were stinulating and of considerable value. In so?e cases it was arranged that I would return to fol lov/ up a particular topic but nare usually they were a frank exchange of views on topics of nutual interest. Not only did I learn a great deal fron listening to the debates, but I also learned, fron Mac, the technique of stinulating discussion on the

83 subjectb upon which we wanted infornation. I quickly learned that to sinply expect the Anericans to disclose details of their technology, whether under a I icence agreenent or not, was wishful thinking, As Mac explained to ne, they had a high iegard for uK engineering trdining and often felt thenselve€ isolated fron developnen6 in Europe, They would freoly disclose t^hat they were doing in exchange for our experiences and views, It was a technique I quickly learned to adopt. My 3 years in the Research Labs, and especial ly the secondnent to the BBC, had given ne a wide overal I understarlding of the teahnology, tvhereas nost of the Anerican, I net had a ruch narrower specialisation. Thus whilst the Anericans were far ahead in the connercial isation of Colur Televisidl, in nany respects they were rushing ahead with a systen which had not always been prop€rly tllought through, It was a great boost ta ny self confidence to find I could hold ny ovtn with ny Anerican counterparts, particularly in systen discussions, and of,course, over a six nonth period, the ntore of these I held, the tnore I learned, and the nore well inforned I was seen to be by those I net. During the week or twa Mc^onnel I was rr'ith ne, we stayed in large and rathe r expens i ve lbte I s I i ke t he'sta t 1 e r' i n New York, con t i nua I I y nov i ng about as we visited Princeton, Philadelphia, Canden (New Jersey) and washington. However once Mac had returned I was able to find snatler residential flotels and obtain a weehly rate. The Tudor lbtel on the wes,t side near the LN Building tlas a favourite. The arrangenent I reached with the canpany was that ny salary vauld be paid into our bank account for olive to live on, whilst I t@uld live on expensas, acaaunted for against a xpnthly clain. A lunp 6un was paid into a IJs bank accounl. for ne to dravr u@n, The fly in the ointnent in 1954 was that the t &/as in crisis and there was a coaplete qtbargo on currency transfers without Benk of England approval. An initial transfer of $1000 (=t250) was approved, but withaut guarantee that anv nore ti/ould be granted, I therefare need to Mke it last although we knew nore Iwuld be needed if I was to last for 6 ntonths. I wwld note in passing that when I inforned the cqnpany, in gt@d tine, that I needed nore noney, Bank of England approval took so long I actual ly ran out of tnoney, l4y Aneri can Bank, knowing the UK governnent difficulty in releasing sterling, were not inclined to offer overdraft facilitias, In a place like New York being 'penniless' is no jake and I eventual ly nanaged to borrot/,/ 'dollars' fron our New York affice in order to avoid being actual ly destitute! However finally npney as released and I vlas able to renain solvent for the full duratiq of ny secdldnent,

a4 h a geueral rule I selected specific areas af technolagy, established where in the RCA enpire the expertise lay and then asked for access, typically fot' a hleek, to the labaratories or factories in questian to study the topic, Usually they wauld provide ne with a desk in taboratory and allorl ne to hald discussiors with designers, As an exanple I spent a week in the colour television receiver laboratofy at cherry Hill, New Jersey, exanining the problens of designing dqnestic Colour Television Sets for large scale production. t/,/e had built an experinental receiver in the laboratories which,

i production, given good although not ntqlded for had ne a idea of what ',,/as involved, Hgwever the surprising inprossion I gained was the shear size af the Anerican R and D effort invalved. The f?CA tean working on one receiver design (the 2l CT 55) was over 50 strong without counting the production engineering tean. tbreover, each engineer tl/as a specialist in his own snall design discipline and had little awareness beyond his specialization. Problens were solved by thravling nen and noney at then, it was not unca1xnon to find several peopl e independently designing the sane part, aIl but one being abandoned in the final nadel, It nade ne realize the success of u6A in cansuner pioducts was not due to superior engineering €kills but sinply due to resource nanagenent and high levels of funding. Having studied and understaod the design aspects at first hand I then travelled across ta the nid-west ta BToofiington Indiana where the corresponding nass product ion line for polour sets ltad b6en built. Blooningtotl is in the heart of farning cauntry and had been chosen to exploit the easy avaiTability of cheap, nainly fenale labaur, lts Production Engineers had braken dawn the nanufacturing task to reduce the skills level involved and the operati)es trained to an appropriate standard, ]t was interesting to see the essentially pragnatic appraach to engineering adopted by the Anericans, when I discussed the question of product reliability they told ne that at first they had a real problen with custoner conplaints due to fai lures on netlly instal led sefs, fhe solutian they adopted was to pack net'/ly canpleted sets in the nornal packaging and stack then in great del ivery trucks. They then arratlgad for then to be driven by road to the west coast, back to the east caast and finally back to Bl@ningtart. This subjected the sets to haurs of vihration as the vehicles jolted over all kinds of roads and quite high telnperatures chatlges in the dessert and nountain regians. After a t r i p of nany thousands af ni I es the sets were retested, Thase that worked were dispatched to custaners, those that failed were analyses as to cause of failure. Once failure trends had been identified, renedial action t',/as applied

a5 in the lhctory ar in design. This pragnatic solutian had reduced the incidence of installatian fai lures to at1 acceptable leval Even as late as 1954 the nid-west of Anerica was natahly isalationist, They rarely saw overseas visitors and an Engl ishnan was sonething of a curiosity, At that tine few Anericans sported facial hair and perhaps because I wore a large noustache I suppose I stood out in a crwd, one evening whilst at Bloqnington one of the RA engineers invited ne out for the evening and after dinner asked ne if,tould like to see,rhat Bloffiington h/as like an the 'other side of the tracks', I//e literally crossed over the rail yards to arrive at a bar in a vpoden shack. It was fronted by lotl steps leading to a prch and entered by a pair of half height swing doors, Arriving at the bar I was introduced to the laldlady, as coning all the vlay fron England to visit Blaoningtotl. At this juncture trp of the locals tralked over and nade sane rude rsnark about ny hhiskers and, befare I could reply, the I andl ady .energed frqn behind the bar, grabbed the two of then by the neck, dragging then to th.e swing d@rs and threw out, down the steps and sprawl ing onto the ground. In doing so she explained in highly picturesque language that she didn'i have nany visitors fran England and t'toul d not have then upset by the likes of the pair of then, They vlere to stay away until they faund their nanners. she was a large and fornidable lady in a pinafore and with bare arns which she placed on her hips and glared at the other custoners whilst defying then to forget their nanners, Ib one did. The Male incident wauld not have been out of place in a prel/ar western npvie. she insisted on us having a drink on the house and stayed for sane tine chatting to her and her custoners, Anerica is a ^/e strange cauntry. It was this sane engineer h'lto told ne that his house still had an earth claset privy down the garden. He had recently held a drinks party at his hone with a nunber of ather,engineers with their ),!ives. For a joke he had fixed a laud speaker underneath the bench seat with a hole in the niddle, which served as the lavatary and connected this ta a nicraphone in the house. During the evening if anyone disappeared to use the privy, a voice booned out fran below then, "Hey laok out buddy we are working dob/n here," &lour Televisian recording is of key inportance in the USA because of the 5 hour tine zone difference between east and ,/est coast audiences, I nanaged to arrange an appointnent tlith Olsan who had a laboratory at Canden Ne$/ Jer€ey and'//ha was the kno'/tn throughout the industry as tha leading figure an nagnetic tape audio tape recording. l|le were especially Aeen to discover his

86 vietrs d the passibility of recording colour TV. After a general discussion it transpi red that he actual ly had a trorking systen vlhich he offered to shaw ne in return for an undertaking of canfidentiality, This I accepted and he showed ne his results which ,lere really very gaod judged in terns of inage quality" It was not until the nachine was exanined that its inpracticability becane clear. It was a 'reel to reel' recarder enploying l" nagnetic tape with three lonsitudinal recording tracks far red, green and blue signals re'pectively. For about 20 ninutes of recording, each reel ttas nearly 5 feet in dianeter and the tape speed a nassive 30 ft/secqd, This neant that at its outer edge the reels approached supersonia speeds as the tape was dispensed, of nore cancern there was sinply no way of stowing the tape until it was all transferred to the take up reel, All attenpts to stop it, as was essential for editing and tape inserts, ended $/ith a laboratory full of tangled tape' olson accepted the nachine was not a sqlnd basis for operational usQ, but was a valuable research tool. By then he accepted the future lay in better utitization of the tape enabling its 6peed to be reduced, I duty reported this to ny Canpany noting the canfidentiality agreenent. The BBC too had been studying the subject and one of their senior engineers, G.G a)uriet, was av'/are of v,/hat I v/as doing in Anerica and arranged to neet ne in I'lew York for a neal and a chat, We had a useful exchange of views on generalities but it was clear fron his questions that he feally wanted to know if r had seen ol sons tlark and what r thought of its potential. As the Conpani es best custoner we v'/ere expected to collaborate with the Corporation as far as possible; but not ta the extent of breaking confidentiality. I therefore neither confirned oF denied I had visited Olson. A year or so later the BBC research departnent, headed by Crturiet anlounced publicly they had designed a colour W tape recorder which they called VERA; claining it a world fi,rst. It was essentially the sane reel to reel schane that RCA had by then quietly abandoned as inpractical, VERA proved ta be a waste of honey because, as foreaast by olson to ne, transverse scan helical nachines, pioneered by Anpex and involving nuch slower tape speeds, becane connercial ly ava il abl e, Other periods af secondment included tine at the colour tube (CRT) nanufacturing plant at Lancaster and in the studio equipnont develognent facil ity at canden, This included colour caneras, telecine nachines artd signal encoding. I also attended several conferences, Perhaps the nost inpartant of ny attachnents, and certainly the longest,

a7 was to,the Bftnklyn Television studios of NBC. l"/hi lst I was in the L|SA MSC caTour televisian was fornal ly launched with a series of spectacular shows. For exanple I fol lawed the production of 'Yel lovt Jack', the story of the occupation and building of the Panana Canal, My objective was to study all aspects of progranne production seaking to identify any problen areas involved such as canera stability, special lighting, nake-up requi renents, colwr balance nethads and so on. The Unians are very strong in the entertainnent industry and th6y initially objected to ny presence; but on the basis that I twuld touch no equipnent, they accepted ne as an ob€erver, Thereafter they were anly too helpful answering all ny questians tr/ithaut reservatiotl. I probably spent a nonth or nore in the studios and got to know the tean quite well, Perhaps becau€e everyone was new to colour W production, we all warked clasely together and this included the actors, sone of whon were well knotln. Notably Jaaky Cooper, Dane Clark and Dennis A'Keefe who I gtot ,to knotv well enaugh to join then for lunch in a nearby restaurant. This period of ny stay was quite absorbing and I learned a great deal about the way the then current designs worked in practice, Fotlowing YeI latn Jack I attended rehearsals for a nusical shov/ atld chose to tratch this on a danestic receiver ta see haw it translated to the snall screen. Fron a persanal wint af vietr, I faund being an ny own, often on the move, was a great strain. Large cities like New York can be a lonely places and although the people I net during the day were friendly and helpful, they rarely invited ne to join then sacially, Naturally enough I nissed hone and langed to return. The only canpensation was the cons i derabl e interest and chaltenge in the job which I enjoted throughout.'A considerable praportia"l of ny spare tine was spent in writing up notes and this fi.lled in nany a lonely haur, But eventual ly I had finished all the periods of secondnent I had planned artd I declared, ny inte tian to return: to Mtich Ed Mc@nnel I agreed, I tyas still a hleek or ttw short of ny 6 npnths and, as I had not enjoyed ny flight odt, I cideded to return by sea feeling that I had earned a €hort holiday, I discavered that I could exchange ny air ticket for a first class sea passage on a cunard Liner, the Media, sailing 10 Liverpool, Ilot only was the rauted via a 24 haur stap-over in Bernuda, naking the journey tine I days, but the I was reinbursed 625, representine the differance in the fare€, The sea pa€sage hone turned out to be an inspired choice. The food was extreanly good and I wa$ fortunate in neeting a nlc.st interesting crorr'd of people hho h/ere full of fun so that the tine sinply sped by, They included an Air Codlpdore an the way hone fron a lty'ashington nilitary nission, an actress af itldeterninate age returning fron a Braadway Shaw, (whose nane I have farcatten) and an assortnent of acadenics and business nen. To give our neetings ati air af respectabi 1i ty, we forned 'The ltrid-Atlantic Bowl ing Club, 'elected' officers and called special neetings in a snal I bar an an upper deck, which we usually had ta ourselves, fhe Air Connodare was an extravert character and always the ring leader, l,lost evenings there tlas a dance to the nusic af the ships orchestra in the nain ball roon; althaugh we rarely bothered with this. Now it sa happened that the Air Conntodore's biithday occurred during the passage and he arranged ylith the Chief Steward to boak the ball rootn for a party trhen the dance finished, He then invited the ships orclEstra (for several bottles af scotch, ) and we all turned up for his party^ It was a riot, He insisted on playing the piano and we all sung our heads oFf until the early norning, Many of us were ex-service nen and, suspect, for the first tine ever, the hhale repertoire of traditional service songs were sung with full orchestral acconpaninent. I night add we had put together a.choir of sarts and i/hen the party broke up we treated the ships bridge party to 'sueet and Low' and other choice pieces, I also spat down the ships funnel for a bet but no harn becane ne and h/e eventual ly all went to bed after a nenorabl e evening. A day or two Tater during the evening dance the Captain gave out prizes for the various canpetitions that had been held on the Wage, He tllen called aut ny nane saying the Mid Atlantic Bav/l ing Club, an organisation unknoql to hin, had asked hin to present ne with a special award, ]t seens that saneone had spat down his funnel., a practice t/ith which he did not approve, but since the boilers had nat gone'out he no harn had 'uppdsed been dane and anway the bridge ctew enjoted the singing, It was a nenorable voyage to raund aff a nenorabl e assignnent, but unexpectedly gettins back into the country presented pne last problen, llhen the conpany knet/ I was coning hone, they asked ne to buy a copy of the Socieiy of l,lat ion Pictures & Televisian Engineers (SMPTE) Test Filn, This was a spaal of 16nn filn canprising a standard series of test patterns and charts t'/idely used in the citlena atld televisian industry, I duly baught the filn and put it inta ny bag and fargot it, On arrival at Liverpool custons ny bag was search and this filn was discovered. It was it1 an unlabelled can dnd atherwise unnarked, I'/,/as a6ked had I seen hlhat was on the filn and I said I had 't, but I e^plaitled it consisted of 'test charts' h/hich had no neaning except for the Wrpose intended, I was pulled out of the arrival area and

a9 interrogated by a secatld Custans Official who clearly suspected I was inportitlg pornography or the like. Eventual ly he concluded that only one of their 'c,onnercial Inspectors' could judge if I ti/as telling the truth and he would need to screen the filn to deternine it€ real purpose, But this was a weekend and he would need to aall in the standby Catrnercial Inspector. After sone hours wait the connercial nan arrived, asked ne sqne sensible quest ion€ about what I did, looked at the filn header artd the Bill of sale and apologised for the delay in dealing with the natter. Finally I affived hone, hours later than expected, ta be reunited with ny fanily, in a new house I had not seen befare, a baby vlho had becone a toddler and a wife who never ance canplained about the unfairneas af 6uch a long separat i ot1,

90 ehapIe|l9 .-PASTLJRES NEW--

On ny return to the Colour Televisian Research Unit I conpleted a cofiprehen€ive visit repart and anongst other jobs, we bought and I converted, a 2l "Colour (21 CT 55) receiupr fron US to UK proyisional W standards, The set v/as the sane ,pdel I had studied at Aerry Hill and Bl@ningtan, the design of which I knew h/ell, llhen finished it produced excal lent pictures and was thereafter used to npnitor and r6wrt on BgC experinental transnissions, By then the cqnpany had agreed to ne acting as a consultant to the BBC and, in addition ta a nunber of visits ta Alexander Palace, I nonitored their night tine transnissions through the swner of 1955, Colour W was still a curiosity and there was a strean of visitors who visited these late evening denonstrat ions, It was about this tine I becane av/are of an undercurrent of concern at the future of the @tour W Research Unit so it cane as no surprise t4hen LC Jesty left and the closing of the unit u/as announced. I aften@rds learned that the Conpany had obtained a contract to supply a cdnplete Colour fV Outside Broadcast Vehicle to Snith Cline and Frqoh, the pharnaceutical conp€ny ind asked Jesty to undertake the work with his tean. Mcbnnel I supprted the idea but Jesty was only interested in Research and t'toulC have nothing to do trith cannercial t@rk. I rather suspect he tras invited to resign over his high handed attitude, but in any event, he left to continue University based research, sone key research staff, including Bill llobbs, were transferred to the Transnitter Developnent lJrti t under v J Cooper, to transfer CW expertise and forn the nucleus of a Colour TV Developnent tean. In the autut l of lg55 the Research Laboratories had received an lfrD contract for the study and initial design of the guidance systen for the Blue Streah Misslle far which I believe Enslish Electric were the air vehicle contractor, Blue streak was intended to be the first UK ICBM (Inter Cantinental Ballistic Missile) and tvas to be of advanced design, lle were not directly cancerned with its tlarhaad, although it was an open secret that it ',,/as to be nuclear, The Russians and the Llg were knafi ta have such h/ea@ns and, in th6 dark days af the cold tvar, the governnent af the tine had decided that a deterrent weapon, independent of the super-pavers, was necessary for self protectiotl and to provide Britain with a voice in international affairs, The break up af the cTV graup provided a useful source of design engineers and

91 Ed McCalnel T agreed to transfer to the praject, t',/here he would rep)rt to San Fededa, on condition he could take ne with hin to forn the nucleus of his awn section, with a degree af day to day autonony, The guidance systen of an ICBl"l provided a huge technological chal lenge at the tine, Al thoush it was to fly a ballistic trajectory (gravitational ) nainly outside the earths atnosphere, refined with inertial guidatrce, it received confiand guidance onli in the innediate @st launch phase, Thus once

I aunched and set on course by cqnnand fran the ground, it rfas invulnerable ta any eneny counterneasures then cqlceivable, It tvas required to achieve an accuracy of lo's of yards at a range of looo's of niles. The task given to aur snall section was to design what wa6 called the 'tine to go clack' Mtich was to be the naster tining device for c

92 t^/hi ch cbuld then be arcapsutated in an e@xy block naking then highly ret iable in the nast harsh environnents, The solution was highly novel for which Ed Mccannel I and I held all the early patents either jointly or separately. It v,/a6 the nost intensely creative period in our career together and had the project gone into production, it would certainly have carried our core logic systen, However, overnight Blue gtreek vtas cancelled by a change of @vernnent and the Mole thing was scraped, in favour of the LS air I aunched Blue Steel, tyhich was later scraped by the LSA leaving us wi thout a deterrent, Of course our novel logic design night have found countless .other appl icatian because it r/as cheap, lw pob/er and rabust. But since it was produced on a highly secret pragrarne it was classified and cwld nei ther be exploited nor wblished. It was however a highly satisfying intellectual exercise. Later in ny long experience of technical nanagetnent, I learned that anongst design engineers natly are cqnpetent designers, but onlf a feh/ hlere true innovators, My tlork on Blue Streak, alongside Ed Mcconnel I hlas the first real sign that perhaps I night, ane day, place nyself anongst the innovators, I'r'ifi the project at an end Ed Mcconnet I was transferred to work with Peter Brandon on systen studies work and I was told to present nyself ta B N l\4cclarty, Marconi I't/ireless Telegraph Conpany's Chief Engineer.

93 Chapted20.

::A-PnoBLEA E wnInLL- hlithin t4arconi lt/iretess Telegraph canpany, all technical staff, were a resource responsible to B N Mcjlarty, its redoubtable Chief Engineer. He had a fornidable reputatiotl a€ an engineerhaving been in the conpany 6/nce its early days, leaving to join the BBc as its Chief Engineer and eventually returning to Marcani's in the sane role, He was a big, inposing nan, h+to looked at you over half glasses and spoke in a loud voice. He had a reputation of being easily rattled and being a bit of a bully; but if you could qet hin talking abaut engineering subjects tine stoad still. tli th sone trepidation I reported ta Mcclarty as requested and learnt that the Airborne Transnitter Labaratory at writtle had a prohlen that needed sorting out urgetltly and I tvas go and solve the problen. The qituation v/as that BOAC (now British Airways) had bought a new fleet of aircraft (Viscounts I believe) for r/hich Airadio Division had designed and nanufactured a new VHF transnitter- The aircraft had been delivered but the radio had failed to neet its on aut of band harnonic radiation and been refused a 'pecificati@ certificate of Ai r-worthiness, The aircraft could not fly'/tithout radios, the airline coutd not neet its scheduled cofinni tnents nithout the new aircraft and apparently BOAC were threatening the Canpany wi th legal action over the delay' I pointed out that I had na previous experience of transnitter design but he said that the Airadio tean had been designing airbarne transnitters since the first tlarld war and they had failed to solve the problen. l|hat was needed tlas nat experieDce but a fresh apptoach to the problen. I duly transferred to h/rittle where I net Wilf Rich t1ho pointed out the ditficulty of the situation. Modifying the transnitter neant scrapping and reworking the fini€hed receivers and alsa reduced the potrer output belort/ specified figures, He offerad no praatical ideas and left ne with the inpressidn that I vtould not find one either, It was a general ly chilly recept iotl, fhe transnitter tean were a strictly 8,30 - 5.00 bunch but I now had a problen and put safie long hours in, soon having the gern of an idea which I develaped in a!1 experinental ris, Essentially ny salutiart h/as very sinple and involved na changes at all to the transnitter. Each transnitter plugged into a noutlting tray and the solution I adopted was ta incorporate band stap filters on the rear plate of the ntount ing tray, The salution was cheap and

94 effecttve. Havitlg checked the solution in a bench rig, befare telling anyane I lrad a solution I needed to check the desigh with the transnitter in a productioti back plate, I catne in over the tveekend, reluoved a finished back plane fr.n thb warkshop leaving a nate for the forenan ta say what I had done, nodified it and tested the whole thing. satisfied that I had a viable solutiatl I went hane, on the Monday nprning Y'lilf Rich appeared with a highly irate forenan, tearing ne aff a strip for ny high handed action and denanding ny instant disnissal for wilful danage of co{npany property, I suggested he consul t McClarty with tlhase delegated authority I had acted and they went of to do this, Meanwhi le I quickly telephoned l,lc?larty nyself to tell hin rvhat

I had dane. He laughed, said well dona, and told ne ta I eava it ta hin, In due course l'/ilf Rich cane back to apologise for the forenan's nanner, checked the npdifioatian for hinself and called the design office in to draw up the nodi fication to the back plate, The solutian tr'/as adopted and t{e crisis was pas t, Although I had no experience in the design of airbarne transnitters I had quickly gained a reputation as a problen solver and Wilf Rich asked.ne to stay on ta undertake studies in preparation for a new SsB trallsnitter they were planning. I tackled and salved a series of interesting problans ntost af t+hich required research in the library and theoretical worA of ny orn. Far exanple the new transnitter was to utilise a pair of ne{ Gerarnic putput tetrodes which I analyses to canpute the harntonic distortion as a functian af drive canditions. It was a neat bit of t/tork, if I do say so nyself, and when I finished it I passed it an to Wilf Rich ny section leader, He was always a close individuat and later I was told that he presented the analysis at a canference in Londan in llis awi Dane. He gave na acknowl edgentent af its source. Plagiarisn is quite rare anongst engineers and this e^anple decided ne I could t1o ?onger work far the nan, Traditianally airborne transnitters operate over a very wide range of spat frequencies so as to be inter-operable with radia frequencies used all over the warld, Tuning the transnitter is carried out by electro mechanical neat:€ t1/hich seened to ne to be archaic, ptentially unreliable and expensive. h/hen I questioned the design tean they tald ne this is the way v/e always do it. Ih studying new cancepts for the net SB trcnsnitter I showed how the tvide band aperatian cauld be achieved by four conti guou6 wide band filters and praduced suitable designs, The h/ork only reached the concept stage and requited nore study ta cotlfirn its full viability but looked a pronising

95 approaah ta ne with nuch potential benefit. During ny stay at ly'tittle, B N I'lcclarty cane to visit the transnitter graup quite often, He was a transnitter nan hifiself and after a short talk with Les Mulien, the group leadet, he always nade a bee line for ne, "l,that prablen are you looking at today Clark" lE vtguld say and then we would discuss the technicalities for lpurs.sanetines, I should thing this happened a half dozen tine during the year I worked at Writtle, I found hin a delightful old chap, sonewhat old fashioned in his views but with a shan) nind and a vlealth of experience. I do not think he thought nuch of l/ilf Rich, ',,tho kept out of the vtay t/hen Mcclarty was around. Although I enjayed nr'st af the work I did at Vrittle, I didn't really tit in with the tean who here steeped in tradition and had a quite different outloak to ne, fhe fact that I hns seen as Mc7larty's nan, hhich really I vlas not, nay alsa have set ne apart. On a personal basis I got ort well enough witll then all, but after a year had enough of I'lilf Rich h'l1o I grew to dislike atld distrust, By the secqld half of 1957 I was laoking for a new job tlhen I was approached by Bill Habbs who invited ne to join hin to design a large screen Colour Tv prajector suitable for use in a theatre, I agreed and asked that v J Coaper, his boss, nake a fofnal request to Mcclarty, I soon had a call fran his secretary and duty turned up in his affice again. I e^plained to hin that I had €olved the problen he had sent ne to do and stayed a year doing fpnlard looking trotk, but ny heart wasn't in it, I was a co1our Television engineer at heart, During this explanation his phone kept ringing and his secretary interrupted too, When I had finished saying what I wanted,' he stood up and told ne ta cdne ahd sit in his chair. He said "I will sit in your chair and tell you what L'tould like to do, You can answer that telephorte and answer the questian fron ny secretary. " so we d,id change places and he kept up the charade for a half an hour and he nade ne deal with his tel ephone queries, Eventual ly he said as an enginebr he quite understood that the inportance of iob satisfaction, "I supwse you ttill only leave if you don't get what yw want, I wish you luck in your new job, Aff you go", The ald nans bark was nuch t/orse than his bite, They ntust have broken the nauld after they nade characters like B N McClarty.

96 chaptein 21 ,

-::A-BEIAEN IP eP!.qA IY' Bill Hobbs, with whon I had last worked in the colour Research lJnit, was by now a section leader in c,olour Television Developnent under its 6roup Leader, Nornan Parker-gnith, .The tean had successful ly cqnpleted the design and nanufacture of an outside broadcast unit, based largely on adapted RcA studio equipnent designs, At the tine pharnaceutical conpanies were not al lowed to advertise and SKF had cleverly decided ta undertake the continuing education of doctors by televising operatio|ts, as they happened, and relaying then to a nedical audierrce, By utilizing an outside Broadcast vehicle, the l.ledical colour Television productions could be brought to bnferences and Seninars throughout the UK and abroad, thus bringing the nane SKF before their custaners. A projection display had been designed and was used for snal I gatherings; but its 6 ft. screen di agtonal was too snall for use in a large auditoriun, Bill lbbbs had convinced the Conpany that a large screen projector, capabl e of projeating colour W pictures of up to 30 ft. diagonal t'/ouId satisfy the nedical Tv need. Based on narket research in the UsA he was convinced the concept would also create a narket dqand for public display of sporting events and theatre tetevision productions, Sone years earlier, Ed Mcconnel I had devetoped a nonochrone W theatte projector and writteniit up in the IEE Jaurnal. To the best af ny kn<\.lledge nobody had yet designed a colour projector an this scale anwhere in the wrld, Bill Hobbs had decided I t/tas just the nwi he needed. In the later part of lg57 I started worA in buitding 30 New St, originally the W transnitter Developnent unit, but very soon all studia Television Developnent was transferred to the Pottery Lane, Broanfield. It occupied prenises cons,isting of an array of I 24 ft Nissen Huts which, since they adnitted no natural light, b/ere ideal for studia's and inage projection, The heart of the projection systen was a €et of three identical Schnidt reflective optical systens, each one based o!", a 17 inch spherical nirror and an ll inch aspheric corrector plate, EEV designed a special 5 inch diaganal prajection Cathode Ray Tube (ffiT) t/ith a €pherical faceplateto suit the aptical sy€ten and provided with red, green or blue phosphors ta natch the Cw prinary colours. To achieve adequate brightness required operation at 50,000 volts which, at a nean current of I na, dissipated a total of 150 tvatts in the three CRT'9. The tube6 required faceplate c@ling to prevent fracturing-

9'l Nothing^about this design vas easy. Special output circuits had to be designed to drive the CRT, a special gil filled high valtage potver supply had to be designed, Elaborate safety interlocks and circuits were needed. Special high pot4er scanning circuits had to be designed with geonetric keystone correction to pre-distort the outer projectots to enable near perfeat resistration af the R,G and B inages, Don l!/ard was reswnsible for the EHT and scanning whilst I desisned nost af the rest, The Large screen Projector was on the very linit of what was feasible and as bn and I solved the design problens one by qE, I was inpressed with Bill Hobbs judgqnent that its design beuld, in the end, prove feasible, lbt for the anly tine during ny long assaciatian with Bill, he coflvni tted hinself to risks that no one else tpuld have taken, He cauld not have knot'tt1 in advance that all the problens were econonically soluble, I was never sure if he sinply had a blind faith in his tealn or was a torn entrepreneur vlith a,lot of luck, Life t^las never dull v'/orki ng with Bill, In the event the Large Screen Projector worked superbly well, we exhibited it at the IEE where we screened a DDtor race sequence whiih had people ducking iti their seats. we gained a Queens Award to Industry. The prototype was installed in a Theatre in Rochester, Nerr/ York State and used to relay the first night of the shaw Canelot fron Broadway to a fee paying audience out af tob,n. I was not present on this trip, d)t apparent I y it was well received even if it did give its ninder (Don ward) near heart failure t/ith sone high voltage flash-overs, Cqnnercially theatre CTV projection was unsuccessful and it took a court action to collect the paynent due for the Flochester venture, but Bill Lbbbs faund other narkets ahd gold every projector and variant we ever nade- It was used with cursive scan for radar operations roon presentation in England and in gyede,1. It was used as the yisual display in civil and nilitary flight sinulators, The concord flight crews were trained or, a LsP visual sinulator, And af course it was t/idely used by 9KF for surgical procedure denonstrations, In the end it was a project which brought the cdnpany prestige and a return oh its ihvestnent.

It was shortly aft6r this that Bill Hobbs cane back fron a neeting t/ith MaD and told ne he had connitted us to delivering a photographic analysis nachine to the dockside at Portsnouth to sail on the airaraft carrier Centaur on a specified tide in october 1958. fhis was a bare I nanths away and we had

98 o e^pa!\i ence of the technique invaTved. It drcrged that Cintel had accepted a cantraci to denonstrate electronic nethods of enhancing the resolutioti, contrast utd nagnification of aerial photographs and had built a cd'tcept ntodel of dexion and circuit 'birdsne$ts', Its perfornance had exaeeded expectations enabl ing Photo- i nterpre ters to detect hidden features not visible by sinple optical neans. lla'tever when .they asked Cintel to design engineer a ntodel suitable for use in a shipboard envi rannent use in tine for the Far East cruise and they had said they could not canplete in tine, Hobbs had said "give ne the prototype, ny tean will deliver it on tine," I,lot only was the tine short but hle also had a learning curve to clinb before we cd)ld even begin, Far exanple we had nat designed for the Naval envi ronnent before or to \laval Standards! On this project Don lt/ard, Eugine Borysuik and I were joined by Jack venerables, a design enginee rith a nathanatical background, The.basis af the

Plloto- i nterpreter was that a fine spat CRT optically scanned the air phota transparency with a range of optical nagnifications. Thus an observer at a 7y screen cauld 'z(nfi in' on the picture to nagnify any part of it, Electtonic signal processing enabled the contrast to be expanded over any part of the grey scale and inage sharpenjng used to increase the clarity of fine detail. The results with this nachine were quite spe.tacular. I recall finding a tunnel entrance on one photo whi.h Men 'zooned in' nearly filled the sereen. It was nearly black inside the tunnel entrance. By nanipulating the contrast and sharpet)ing the inage we discovered arnoured vehicle's parked in the shadov,/s with sufficient clarity to recognise the vehicle by type. Even when pointed aut to the Photographic Interpreters, and despite high nagni fication optical aids, they t1/ere unable to see the vehicle by direct optical keans. I had previous experience of Flying Spt Scanners and with the Cintel work as a starting @int, the actual design task was not too difficu1t. But the design rlas full of structures and nechani €ns to switch lenses and traverse across thb photograph, There hlas a large CRT to nount with its associated scanning conponents and a high valtage suwly to run the tube, AII this had to be acconpl ished over a tenperature range of -40 to +70 degrees centigrade and under very high leveTs af vibratiotl and shock. Proof te,ting the design was a tine consuning process, As the 6ailing date approached, it was touch and go whether it would be ready and we started horking longer artd longer hours as Bill l-lobbs cracked the ',vhip atld pushed us alang, Jack Venable€ suffered a nervous breakdowrt and had

99 ta be *nt hone; but the rest of us absorbad his herk and pressed on, one day with only a few days ta go, I went ta Bill Hobbs arld told hifi the teant xtust rest because efficiency tr/as falling as fatigue set in, "Leave this to ne" says Bill and got into his car and drove off, He returned with a doubl e bed nattress, pillotv and a blanket which he put down on the floor of aur office, ly'hen soneone felt tired they crashed out on the office floor and changed with the next nan after a few haura sleep. In this tlay we practiaally finished developnent and sent it off to the ship on the due date, lty'e tvere expected to install the nachine and set it to rfirk befare finally handing it over on the navy artd this pravided us with a few e^tra days to put right residual design problens, The ship was due to €pend about a week vprking up in the Sauth lt'lest Appraaches and tl)en set off to the Far East. It tlas agreed that Bill and I v/oul d go to sea for the warking up trials and be put ashore in the Solant; but Boris would stay on haard to Gibralter to keep a general \eye on its perfornance. He !,roul d then fly hdne. The Positive/Negative Viewer, as it was catled by the Navy, was located in a snalt cabin right underneath the flight deck, next to the high rete of fire Pan Pon guns. These were be|ofl the flight deck and level with our cabin floor on a projecting gantry. I spoke earlier of the problens of design for the naval envi ronnent, once we were at sea we personal ly e^perience this in reality. Aircraft taking off and repeatedly landing on, thunped dol/'/n difectly an the thin netal deck with an inpact shock that had to be felt to be believed, l e had taken the precaution to hwse the nachine, Mich v/eighed about 500lbs, an a shock ntoLlnting tray, but 6ven on this it healed over sone 6 inches or nore and crashed against the cabin wall frcn tine to tine, Then the Pan Pon apened up, vtiich inside the snal I cabin in which we were working left us deaf and dazed by its intensity, Finally a destroyer rushed in and carried out a real dept,h charge attaok against a supwsed subnarine- The who1e ship heaved and a shoak travel led thraugh the structure as though struck with a sledge hantner, Ile aftertrards learnt that a boiler was ruptured by the depth charge which, it seens, was released tao close to the Garrier. Anway we had ta return for repairs which gave us an extra day or so, After a final shott trial, quite late in the evening, t1/e returned to ar'chor in the Solent ready ta sail at first light far the Far East, our job was done, By now the equipnent was on top line and harking ta ours and the Navy's satisfaction. By noh/ it very dark, raining heavens hard and the witld tr'as blotling a gale. lle went and found the Executive officer ta

100 say te:llere finistgd and to ask hin far a boat ashare. I can't get a boat alongside in a sea like this", he said. tt/hat about flyitlg us off in of your a helicopters says Bill, 'ljlot a cha6e in this t!ind", he replied as if we shouid have khown better than ta ask. "l'/el I how do we get off" asked Bitl, "I ntust be hone tonorrow for an inpattatlt neeting,"(Bill always had atl inwrtant eeting tonorrot/, ) "aet your. gear and cone with ne", 6aid the Executive officer, This we did and he lead us to the bow of the ship directly below and underneath the forward overhang of the flight deck, There was a waist high rail, but upon looking over it there was nothing but blackness and the slap af the waves on the ship, Then I saw the nast head light of a boat swinging in great aras far belaw us, "There's a tug in the lea of the bow", he said

"at1d a rope I adder tied ta the rail, Just go dawn the ladder and onta the tug. They will put you ashore at Portsnouth, Your kit will be lowered on a rope." Tapping ne oti the shoulder he said "of you gp naw". "But I cannol see a thing down there", I protested in a snall voice. "You don't need to" he said, "they can see you against the light, Keep going down till saneone says junp and then

JWP," After a frighteningly long clinb down a swayi ng rope I adder a voice said 'junp and I leapt into the blackness, travel led all of 6 inches through the air and I anded on the deck with a sailor grabbing each arn to steady ne. I was soon joined br' BiIl and aur Ait dnd we here on our hay. It was quite the B)st alarning e^perience I can recall. I suppoFe the paint was that ones Tife as entirely dependaht on sdneone else's judgenent, I.lowever all was well that ends v,/ell, Boris returned by air to reprt the equipnent was trorking and a year or so later we had a very congratulatory letter fran the Naw to say the equipnent was faultless and did an invaluable jab (it1 Karea I think). Interestingly enough we next heard of the nachihe sone 20 years later, long after centour h/as noth-bal led, still giving plloto- interpretation service, far one of tl]€ intellisence agencies! It was, I think, a job t,/el I done, Another inportant developnent in our sectiotl was the developnent of a ner/ colour canera based on the use of 3 vidicon canera tubes, Althoush intrinsically Tess seisitiv€ than the RCA 3 Inage Orth icon design, it was nuch snaller, cl]eaper and easier to set up and operate than the Atneri can design, Picture quality tras consistent and excellent, particularly in natural daylight dawn ta latr'let"daylight levels where 'dark current' started to degrade inage unifonnity, I tras able ta fiTe several patents in the course of this design, otle of v/hich, a nethod for autanatically registering tlle RGB inages, ,/as

101 potentidlly of sone inportahce, [Aithougii we di(1 not utilize the enbodinetit ourselves, I believe ve l icensed the BBC ta do so,l I can recall otle Satu[day nofnit]g the teatn were preparitg the ca,nera to go to Paris to televise a najof horse racing event, Ta give oliv6 a break I had taken Billy, itito the laboratory with ne, to show hin colour televisiatl and the work I was doitlg, I|e had the canera out of doors and in the far distance, between the llouses, was a field with horses in. A1e of the tean, I cannot renenber who, said to Billy, "That's what we need for our rehearsal, If you want to be useful , go to that field and bring back two horses. " He walked off looking puzzled but soon retunpd to ask, "Wtat do I do if they don't ,tant to cone?" Everyone laughed and he realized they were pulling his leg, In the early 1960's the US natl on the 'noon progranne' tvas in full swing. The first stage expendable I aunch vehicle was the Saturn v Mich, due to instability probletns, had nuch larger stabilization fins thaQ the earlier nodels, There rr'las a concern that if the V rotated nare than a few l1's of degrees on take off, the enlarged fins'aturn would strike the unbilical tawer with ptential danage to the services contained in the fin, putting thi lives of the astronauts in the payioad capsule at risk, IIASA therefore requested tenders for a speciai colour w installation to closely nonitor the fins, I suppose that Bilt read of this Anerican requi ranent in the IJSA 'Connerce Business Daily' and de.ided to bid for the iob based on oUr new vidicon cantera, Bidders were reninded to take account of the exceptional ly high levels of acoustic vibration and shock following engine ignition, To no ones surprise our offer was the ahly one accepted and we were invited to Cape Canaveral to discover exactly what was needed. So if rvas that Bill Hobbs, and I flew out to Flarida to find out tthat he had let us in far this tine, Merrett Island, on tthich Cape Canaveral was situated, b/as an a.cess restricted place and, despi te having fo,l lotred the procedure through the US Enbassy, we arrived to fitld our security clearance l)ad t]pt cane through, I'/e were advised to stay in a hotel on Cacoa Beach and await notification that our we could visit caxtpl ex 36 fron t'lhich the space launch was planned, We speut abwt I days waiting about, by the sh/inning pool ar otl the beach, v/ith rcthing to da but rcla , [We later learnt that the hotel, like nany others alotlg the beach, was ottled by one of tlte astronaut€, Farbe it far ne to suggest delaying the security clearance was a profitable scaln for one of these enterprising nen?l Anway we suffered in $ilence and eventual ly were called fat' a plant)it)g neet i ng.

ta2 ihe basic tltas that one canera hould be fitted with a high power ^oncept lens and look horizotitaily at the gap betweetl the fin atld the unbilicaT, The second canera sat on the rcaf of the crane on the top of the unbilical t(Mer, Now the tower'was the height of a ga story buiTding and the crane was used to lift the payload ot1 to the I aunch vehicle, I\,/hen rotated so that the jib pointed at/ay fran the saturn V, the rear of the cabin lay flush with side of the to'/,/er. Locating the canera on the roof of the orane so that it looked vefiically dovlt/ards pravided a plan view of the fins and tlleir relatiorl ta the tot4er sttucture. The tw) caneras r,,/ere then required to produce.higl) quality television pictures in the Mis6ian Cotltrol centre, a nile or so away, and befa[e each of the displays ane of the astronauts, trained for but not etgagcd in the nissiotl, would sit. During an actual launch thoy t"/ould look for any possible rotatian af the launch vehicle leading to inpact with the utbil ica1 tower structure and instantly dssess the danage. [Coloqr was needed to differentiate betu@en various types of 6noke and firesl Frdn this infornation the ground based astronaut would decide rlhether to eject the capsule fron the launch vehicle in any one of a nunber of 'escape windows' ie at sea ievel, at 4 thousand feet ar at high altitude, These were the available escape strategies at decreasing levels of risk ta the crew, Assuning there was ho clatnagi ng rotation, tlEy t/oul d innediately notify the flight cret| of the fact. I do nat recal l the nanes of the asttonauts v/e net, but they werp sootl to becone involved in the rDon landings and nust have becane househol d nanes, Apart fran rather long canera cables, the requirenent was fairly straight forward with one notable exception. The engineers gave us the details of unbelievably high levels of acoustic naise g*lerated in the launch phase, during which we b/ere contracted ta produce high qual.ity inages until the vehicle cleared the top of the tower. In the later stages of 'lift off' the whole exhaust flux fron tlle nassive nators wauld beat do*n on the canera ifse/f as it passed by, It was alearly beyand anything which our canera alone could sutvive, let alote provide useful pictures! l',/e spent sone tine being shown round the site and obtaining such engineeritlg drawings as we needed, Tlte sl]6er scale of the car1avet'al site, both titilitary and NA9A t'las at1 eye opener, and the scale of tle space hardh/are was alnost unbelievable. So tgo tlas the dedicatiotl af the engineers and 6cientists etgaged in putting a npn on the fltoon, The blhole place had an infectious buzz abaut it that was aluost infectious. llhen Bill Hobbs said he would provide then with a canera neeting there needs in full, they didn't question his t'tot d.

103 They llVed it) a world wherc afiything t'/as possible. I hlas 1e6s sure t/,/e did. We flev,/ back ta UK with otle najor problen ot1 our nitlds. HoN to protect the cantera in the hideous envi rannent it would experience. The solution we cane up with I,tas to have an hard-waod box nade sqne I l/2 inches larger than the canera dinensions, pravided rlith six holes on each face, Inside the box tlrc canera was nounted a A tennis balls p{ face, to cushian the canera front shock transferrcd fran the bax. lle tested the contraption on a vibration table which sha4cd the cotlcept warked v/ell over one fairly narrovt band; but was useless above arld belohl this, I'le quickly rcalized why this was, lt/e had used high perfornatrce Slazetger ball€ ul)ich, all being identical, gtave prolectiorl in one narrow band. The salutian !4as sinple, send the apprentice to ll'lcolworths and buy the cheapest balls available, Every one had a different bounce (elasticity). This t4orked lik:e a charn, protecting the canera fron vibration ove[ quite a wide band of frequencies, We notr had otlly the very Iow frequencies to 'torry about and so tve built an outer wooden box, clad it in asbestos ttith an outer layer af copper sheet. Between the inner and outer boxes we used twa standard inner tubes on each face, with a nini inner tube nestling in the niddle of each large tube" This arrangenent was designed to danp out the lor/er frequencies whilst the coryer on asbestos provided transient thernal protection fron shot't exposure to the notor efflux, But how could ,ae test our cfeation at representative power levels? By chance Bill Hobbs discovered that the Blue Streak ICBM progranne of ground test firings was being continued at Spadeadan Waste in lbrthhunberland and nanaged ta get l@D to agree ta irs testing our environnentally protected canera by locating it near the efflux on their next firing of the engine, They had interest ifi obtaining close up visual data during notor bufl1, In retut't1 ,/e could test aur canera withaut charge, The trial was successful and the pictures faund to be,virtually undisturbed, providing us with reasonable confidence that we had a viable (if Heath Robi nson ) solutiotl, As a ninor digressiott, the firing platfot'n at Spadeadan is oD the suniit of a lovt hill and the control roon is about 8aa yards away on lov/er lying ground. Tha two are cotlnected by a tun)el, carrying services betv'/een then atd providing a footpath to walk drawsheet between the two facilities.(It always raitg at spadeadan. ) As we trudged back dawn the tunnel I noticed that therc h/6re escape sl]dfts every 50 yards or so, but the lowest rung of the escape lader h/as 7 or I feet abave the ground. I enquired of aur guide why this was. He told ne that h/hen the facility was designed they quite forgot that a liquid

IA4 fuel ntcltar tequires aver 10 tans of liquid a^tygen at cryogenic tenperature. Blue Streak fuel tanks are very thin ta reduce weight and they fracture fron tine to tine. The escape tunnel being down hill troul d then flood with liquid oxygen, The escape hatches were added to provide pedestrians with an escape route. "But why are the ladders so high", I foolishly asked, "Believe ne" said ny guide, "if you see a wall of liquid oxygen rushing ta,rards you dot4/n that slope, you will nake that I adder in one bound", why did I not think of that? The fini€hed systen v,/as shipped out to cape canaveral and installed by Bill Hobbs, Don llard atld goris. I wastl't sorry to hava nissed the installation work because this involved nourting the atnera on the unprotected roof of the crat)e on the top of the unbilical tot/et sone 300 ft alnve ground level' It was Bill Hobbs, leading fron the front as usual, who crouched on the roof drilling fixing hole6 and nanhandl ing the heavy canera box into position. (Bill had started life as a spidernan steel erector and so was unconcerned.by heights. ) @1 the day of the space nission the caneras warked perfectly, producin.g pictures trith little interference even whilst the nissile efflux engulfed the canera. Vehicle rotation was in fact negligible and the nission itself successful. The I aunch flas showrt throughout the USA on the Television Networks and wi th our agreenent spectacular pictures fron our caneras were shohn in the programne. Bilt Hobbs was present at a press conference afterv,lards where there u,/as quite a lot of interest frdn the technical press on hovt we had achieved the results we had. I,lhen asked how we protected the canera, Bill explained it was done t ith Woolworths tennis balls and nbtor car inner tubes, the interviewer said, "You are pulling ny leg. so you are not gping to tell ne how yotr Bt ils rcalty did it.- Bill isely lefl it at that.

105 Chapteh^23

--aL=tp2EEE!!9E--- During bur stay at P<)ttery Lane our busi tiess activities were fragnented between CjTV canera develowent, ained at nainly industrial survei I latlce narkets and colour TV for uon-broadcast i ng applicatian. As the energet)ce of public ,ervice colour broadcasting approached, colour Tv developnent was absarbed by Braadcastitlg Division, v,/hi lst all the non-broadcast i ng activities v/ere transfered to a net/,/ Closed Circuit Television Division, based at Basildon. Develapnent h/as rDved fran Pottery Lane to new Laboratories in I4/aterhause Lane. The departnent',!as split into two graups, One under Mike Houe (6roup A) and one under Bill Hobbs (croup B), Group A was well establ ished and concerned with cCW vthilst Group B wa€ concernedwith new appl icatians, particularly nilitary, ane reason for this split was that the cd\pany had won a najor contract, as co-contractors with Hawker sidley, for the Anglo-French Martel , a long range TV guided rnissi le with a long stand off range, optinised for air to surface vessel engagenents. fhe Narconi contract was adniniitered by the Airadio Division at Basi ldon t"/ho subcontracted the television sub- systens to the nehlly forned CCW Division. l4artel was of very advanced design far its tine, close to, sone said beyond, the leading edge of technology, In concept the nissile was I allhched fron the parent aircraft at about 200 ft altitude in the general direction of the target frafi a range of about 10 niles, clinbing to 2000tt in its nid course phase. fhe aircraft innediately turns and flys directly away fron the target on a course for hane. A radio lin| in a tcarward facing underwing K)d then detects and tracks a signal frqn the Missile W link, By this nteans the nissiles trajectory 6an be detenined so that if necessary its flight path can be corrected, At a few niles fron the tarset the canera is switched on, relaying pictures of the tarset back to the parent aircraft by neans of the data link:. olce the pilot (ar observer) observes the target, he effectively noves the canera sightline by neans of a joystick to place the target on a set of cross v/i res and by this nea!1s effectively flys the nissile onto the target' By the tine he hits the target the aircraft is nore than 20 niles at/ay and travelling at at high €ubsotli 6 speed for hane, The particular advantage of f"lattel was that the aircraft appraached underneath the ships raddr cover and thereafter progressively iDcreased his stand-off range fran the target. At the sane ti e the nissile gui datlce systen increases in accuracy the nearer the

110 nissi ldAappraachs to the target' (The closer it gets, the larger the target inage gro{s, allowing the ain point to be refined-) In contrast nust guidance systens (eg connand to line of sight) reduce in accuracy as range ta target i/tcreases, In the newly farned C}TV Division, the Nartel canera was designed in Group A and Displays and a special synchronising systen (SFa) tras designed itl Group B. By now I had been appainted as section Leader in Group B and I had twa separate teans working these ttp Martel ulits, gecause of the scarcity of space in nodent aircraft cockpi ts, the TV displays had to be custon designed for each aircraft type, tle designed quite different displays for the Flll, llte Buccaneer arld at least tv/o other types of aircraft' But apart fron nultiple designs, we faced the usual problens of design for an extreanly hostile envi roflnent and high levels of flight safety. Moreover' Martel '\as the first solid state design that we had ever unldertahen, silican transisters having problen only just becone availabie to nilitary specifications' 5ne '/ith data links between twa air vehicales at 1ov,/ altitude is signal fading due ta nultipath transnission. In designing a synchronizing systen between the Tv Canera (in the nissile) and the display (in the aircraft) I saon realized that if we followed conventional w practice' synchronization would be very vulnerable to signal fading and devised a novel forn of sychronising systqn utilizing a (phase locked) RF burst instead of a Eore usual sychronizing pulse. Although vi etred t/tith suspician by the l4OD, this unique sychranization systen perforned very well in trials and indeed I never saw problens with picture syncronization alt the tlhile there was a vierlable picture' ft was this design that ent into service with the MF. At Basildon we had been given a progranne to neet ,/hich included both evaluatial and flight trials nodels' In the event we conpleted the design ot1 tine and produced nunerous trials nadels required by the progranne. l'lowever as the6e n]i./deli stacked up on our shelves it becane clear all was not well vtith the renaindet'of the project. Then one day late in 1965 Bill lbbbs called us ta a neeting to inforn us that Martel hlas in such serious trouble that the tqOD had told the Conpany to change the nanagenetlt tearn ' He had bean noninated as the Proiect Manager, the contract was being taken away fron Air Radia and transfered to our Division' Mike ltowe and I wete appainted Group Leaders reporting to the Project l4anager' I1/e hould be based at Basi ldon' in New Laboratories and the origional Managenent were to hand over to us the next day, a Friday. we arrived and to ny horror I found I '/tas to take over frql

11-t Wilf Rinh, a nen far whan I had no respect and v'\ho I had cone to dislike. ance again I was in the position of unscranbl ing a ness he had got hinself into, but this tine it hlas a nulti-nillion pound procurenent that was in danger of cancellation. I'then I walked into his affice Nith Mike Hov,r'e to take over, he had the nerve to say, 'I an off otl hol iday no, I think you ttill find the project is in gpod order," They were in desperate trauble and what is hlorse had covered the true situation up by lyins to the NOD, There were sane gaod capable people in the design tean, but nDrale was loht, I spent the rest of Friday walking round and talkine to the engineers and listening to.their conplaints. ole cowpn thene h/as, that al though the labs t/ere netr, they had very little furniture, Trestle tables served as desk€ a!1d cardboard boxes as filitv cabinets. Nothing had hawened despite wilf Riche's prani6es of replacenents. I undertook to nake sure the problen was solved quickly, When the tean arrived on lk)nday norning the passages ,/'/ere stacked Ngh taith new furniture of all sarts, The lads'/,/ere nost inpressed and told us so. I didn't actually tetl then I had done nothing yet but there t4as an innediate inprovenent in norale, 1,,/e t@ neetled sone luck. With Mike Howe atld I taking technical responsibility for the whole elctronic systen we were now involved in both the nissile and aircraft pod recievers, transnitters, antenna and the various trac|ing ststens. The systens were highly sophisticated through use af ft equency agility to rcducei their susceptibility to eneny counter neasures, but gradually, with expert help fron the research laboratories, universities and external contractors we solved the problens one by one. To cut a ldlg story short, under Bill l'lobbs leadership

'/,/e pulled the project round and turned it into an outstanding success. Bill gtot a well deserved ABE and within a few years Mike Hc)we and I got our ohn Divisions to run, This kind of project nakes or breaks careers, but it was a taugh, uphill struggle, in the early years. The Project itself went into RAF sevice Mere it was the nain anti-ship defensive systen for over 20 years, finally bEine retired around 1990. The Martel project, with its substantial production and Post Design services, t'tas large etlough to nake the fledgling rcW Division a financially viable entity in the nediun tern, But Martel was not its only success. Ouite early it1 aur tenure at tlaterhouse Lane, Bill Hobbs and I had speculated over the possibility of autanatical ly guiding a nissile to a target fron a TV inage of a scene, including a target, Bill 5ensed it should be possible and asked ne to spend sdne tine thinking about how this night be passible. systens of

II2 this kihd becane known as (CLAS) 'Connand to Line of Sight'. It soon becane clear to ne that it was certainly feasible by itore th.n one technique, but that a lot nore wark was t'equ ired to establish how practical and reliable it ytoul d prove to be, A stliff of a potential area far new busness was enaugh to start hin laoking for new opportunities and indeed they were to develop quite quickly, The first inportant. op@rtuni ty cane thraugh a classical bit of 'industrial espionage'. lle were approached by a Mr Rex Martin fron Shorts tvho had bought one of our ccw caneras far sone special trials work he was doing witll the Shorts Seacat nissile, then in service with the navy for short range, self defence of vlarships. The ca,nera warked well enough as a survei I lanae canera but not in the unusual applicatiq he was studying, Bill guessed that he nas u€ing it ta track the nissile and offered ny services as a Tv engineer to travel do$/n to the Aberporth Firing Range to give hin advice an the application. He junped at the offer and I duely net hi on the eange, He was in fact nanual ly tracking a brisht pyrotechnic flare nounted on the nissile, with the objective of extracting nissile coordinate infornation as Seacat sped down range. I was able to ida'itify ttE problens he was encountering in doing this and self evidently, that he was trying to devise a neans of autonatic nissile guidance very fiuch alang the lines I had studied for Bill only 6 ra.ths before, Ih the discussion, I autline what night be dane to inprove the canera, without dislasing our otln interest in the technique, The silly npn was so pleased at the fact that tle cauld tell hin how to npdify the ca.nera that he told ne, in detail about My autotracking hlas needed and even gave ne details of the Navy Departnent involved. I learned that Shorts were doing this t*ork on private funding y/ith the intention of erentuat ly naking Design Study propsals to MOD. tile did nodify a canera for hin and provided hin h/ith data on the signal characteristics as pronised, for which he was was greatful, But we also presented his IPD custaner our owi Study Report and a Propsal ,,/hi ch resulted in a contract being awarded to us, Shorts found out, real ised Rex Martin had leaked the infornation and sacked hin. I personal ly f.elt guilty about this, but tlas under na bond af canfidentiality and apart fron being underhand, had done no wrong in a legal sense. To ease ny concience, and perhaps his or/n, Bill Hobbs gave Rex Martin a job in our sales departnent, As origionally designed the Seacat nissile was iDtended to be ntatlually guided, Sitting in a sntal I dustbin like enclosure on the upper deck, the weapon operator looks tltrough a teles.apic eye-piece, acquires a target aircraft by placing an optical cross t/ire upan it and continues to track the

113 target ":Mhen t'tithin range, as judged fron 'range graticules', he launches the nissile, A sinple radio link transnits guidance infornation ta the nissiles flight contral surfaces and this enables hin to nanual ly fly the nissile to the optical cross-wires by neans af a 'thunb operated co troller, In effect tl:€ sailor is sinultaniously tracking the target t/ith a haud control ler atid guiding the ni€sile withhis thunb, Thi€ is sinilar to the classical party tric| of rubbing your stonach with ane hand whilst patting your head with the otlBr. Fevl peaple can do tllis well. Most catlnot. Renenber too, that tlre operator is expased, under high stress if the aircraft is attacking the €hip and the ship i€ probably pitching and rolling in the seaway, The Navy was concerned that whilst a few operators could hit the target, dospite training very few could do 60 consistantly, Ulder stress of t"/ar the target kill probability was expected to be low. In additiott, even the best operatars steered the nissile on an erratic trajectory b/hich had the effec\of reducing the nissile range substantial ly. gnooth trajectories were necessary to achieve naxinun range, AII these serious problans could be overcone if gathering and guidance of the nissile couTd be perforned autanatically and sn.Dthly, leaving the operator Nith the single task af keeping the cross-t'li res orl the target. Iti ny earlier study I had warked aut a wa! af autanatically extracting nissile position fran the W canera and this is vhat we undertaoh ta do for the t4OD. In due course we designed and nanufactured a new canera, nissile guidance unit arld display (for belo',r decks nonitoring of an engagenent ) This was hugely successful nanufacturing business spread over nany years as we gradual ly refitted every RN systen and thase of nany overseas navy's who had baught seacat nissiles. shorts saon fargave us stealing th.e guidance busihess. because aur systen gave a new lease of life to their nissile, the productian of ',i/hi ch was their nain interest, Indeed we later colaborated on a niniture version of the sane techneque for use with their Blor,/pipe, slDulder launched,

l'/ith the nain design and developnent problens with the Martel Missile systen resolved and the feasibility of the seacat gathering and guidance established, Bill l"ktbbs pulled ne out of these progrannes to cancentrate an ner/ busness studies, Mike Hoh/e renained lfith Martel thraugh to productian and Dot'i h/ard with the seacat pt'ogranne, Although at the tine vle had as nuch wark as t4e couid handle, Bill as usual was taking a long tern vien and planning for tl]e futute. Lras soan able to develop a good working relationship tvith tl.e

lr4 Arny Rdtearch and Develapnent establ ishnent (MRDE) and pick up useful Study Contracts in suppart of the swingfire anti-tat1k m/ssile, frese inciuded study of the effe.t of atrDspheric stability, ie shin/,er and scintilatian, on lah/ level inagind perfornanoe, target detection range data and nissile beacan tracking trials" In addition we were awarded a contract to design a trials r'ehical fitted out with TV tracking equipnent and as a nobile laboratory, ,lhen finished we t@re then contracted to provide a trials tean to nan and apetate the facility o Salisburt Plain. Al tllough the RARDE t"lork did not, in the end, lead to production products, it proved invaluable in developing aut' inhouse expertise which gave us a cofitpetative edge in bidding fot-othet'nissile work, At the Mat'coni Research Labaratory, the Radar A)npany had wan an inportatit contract to co duct Prajeot Definition Studies of survei I lance and Tracking Radars used in conjunction vlith the A'/525,/Searrcl f shipboard poitlt defence weatmn, Mlilst the radar guidance pravided henispherica,l top cover, nultipath prapogatian and sea clutter badly degraded acauracy against low flying targets arld particular against sea skinning nissiles. To provide accurate law caver protection, a television target and nissile tracker was specified. The ntissile was designed by British Aerospace and because they already had a W tracker in production for their Rapier Missile, it ,/as widely presuned they would autanatical ly be awarded the contract for the chs2s/Seawol f w Tracker: or so I was told by Geof Davies, the Study Project Manager at Gt Baddout. Certainly British Aerospace were confident of being atrarded a contract and had even started the study on bnpany noney. The Adniralty Surface Weapon Establ ishnent confi rned they had not yet awarded the cantract for the tracker and agreed that if tlb €ubnitted a pra@sal for the study they t@uld evaluate it in conpeti tian with British Aerospace's subnissian. Since patential production nunbers and valUa was high, this was a conpetition we just had to tlin and I spent long hours in fornulating the techtlical subnissiot),' Contrary to expectations we were the €elected catltractot', We had excel lent warking relatiorlships with the Geoff Davies and the GI,/525 Project Managenlent tean and the study, which I ran, was succassful and lead to the award of a full developnent Contract. At this stage I passed the project over to Roy Battie, who saw it into production. It was quite a conplex a d saphisticated systen h/ith a below deck console with joystick control of target tracking and autanatic nissile guidatlce. It also enabled peacetine tt"aining, with quatltiative neasurentent of tracking errcr, ftan video tape recorditlgs. The W tracker was naunted on the d'/s25 tracker radar, either

115 perfar ng a nonitot-itlg functi()n, or for low altitude targets, the printary tracking function; in which case the radar inount was dircatly control led by the joystick, The 6ws25/seawal f tracker was both a contnercial and a tecl)tlicai success, built in substantial quantities over the years. In the Falkland war the nain attack against aur ships v/as at low altitude by both aircraft and E^a.et sea-skitner nissiles, The TV tracker was r,/idely used operational ly and t/as highly successful. Ta the best of ny kno'rlledge na Seawolf equiped ships were danaged in the confliat, whil$t a nunber of ships not so equiped werc sqt1k. Seacat, Seawol f a1d Blot',lpi pe nissiles, each af which v/ere control led by aur guidance systens, ||ere all credited t/ith kills again6t Argentinian aircraft; but Seawol f in particular appears also to have been our onlt effective defence against Frcnch supplied sea-skinning Exocet, It is in the nature of defence business that the operation of weapotl systens in tines of peace attracts little 9@d publicity a{d nuch bad publicity, usuall! nisinforned, In tines af tfir, the effectiveness of particular weapons are rarely disclosed, for sound nilitaty reasons and otlly the failures are netllswarthy, again leading only to bad publicity. I will state catagorically that in the Falkland War, nany of our Eritish solders and sailors, perhaps hundreds, are alive today because of the self defence guidance systens developed by our tean at tsasi idon. I have no reservations in e\press//,g nt pr;de ta hare bcc pat t of that tean. Returning ta ny personal contribution, trith the GhE25,/Sear@7 f systen study and design definition conpleted, Roy Battye, t^ha had assisted ne in the study, toak charge of the Developnent and saw the project through trials and inta praduction. By the late 1960's the ald CCW Division had been renaned the Electrooptical systen Division, (EosD) tvith Bill Hobbs as Divisional I'lanager. Bill had a theory that the nane of the Division was all inportant in defining 'who did what' in a large canpany. With his tongue in his cheak he argued 'If its Eleatrioal its ours, if its optical its ours and if its a systen its ours too', In'any event Bill naw asked rE to cotrcentrate ny teans effort, on establishing a basis for night vision systens Mlere he now saw the future lying. But befot'e describing the developnent of tllis 'new' t5chnology I tnust digless to look at ny grohling fanily.

115