Today in Technology History
(Published weekdays. To receive "Today in Technology History" by e-mail, click here. To read past issues, click here.)
September 27
The principle behind military radar was first demonstrated exactly 80 years ago.
Let's start with a little background. Radio waves were discovered in the late 1800s. At the turn of the century, Marconi found a way to use radio waves for communication. A few years later, a little-known German inventor built a small machine that could prevent ships from colliding with one another in the dark; the machine used radio to detect whether an object was straight ahead.
But in warfare, danger doesn't just come from directly in front of you: enemy ships can attack from any side. The same is true of enemy aircraft, as was made clear in the first world war. In order to be useful to the military, a radio detection system would have to detect enemies on any side.
On September 27, 1922, two researchers with the U.S. Naval Aircraft Radio Laboratory were conducting high-frequency radio tests across a river near Washington, D.C. The researchers -- Dr. Albert Hoyt Taylor (1879-1961) and Leo Clifford Young (1890-1981), both veterans of the war -- noticed that ships on the river interfered with their radio signals. Realizing the value of their discovery, they proposed that Navy ships could bounce radio waves to one another and watch for unexpected interference indicating enemy vessels.
They continued to research radio detection, eventually finding a way to detect airplanes as well as ships. In 1934, Young realized that radio pulses would work better than radio waves. Soon the U.S. and other countries had modern equipment for "radio detection and ranging" (radar), a technology that had a huge effect on World War II and all subsequent wars.
Related links:
Click here to read more about Dr. A. H. Taylor and his contributions to radar technology.
Click here to read about the history of radar.
Click here to read about the unidirectional radio detection device created by a little-known German inventor in 1904.
Click here to read about the U.S. Navy's role in the development of radio and other electronic equipment.
| Biotechnology | Convergence | Creativity | Culture | E-conomics | Education |
| Equity | Gov't & Politics | Innovation | National Security | Personal Security |
For errors, broken links, questions or comments,
contact webmaster@tecsoc.org.
