Christie's auction and other computer history events

[Randy McLaughlin]

From: "Paul Koning" <pkoning at equallogic.com>
Sent: Friday, February 18, 2005 12:57 PM
>>>>>> "Brad" == Brad Parker <brad at heeltoe.com> writes:
>
> Brad> William Donzelli wrote:
> >>> So are you saying the Germans did most of the radar work?  If so
> >>> then it probably was a case of two groups both doing the work,
> >>> since obviously the knowledge wasn't being shared.
> >> No, not the German, but pretty much everybody. US, British,
> >> Germans, Russians, Swiss, Japanese...
> >>
> >> The British, however, get nearly all of the credit.
>
> Brad> I thought Alfred Loomis and his gang in building 20 at MIT did
> Brad> most of the heavy lifting on allied RADAR.  Is that untrue?
>
> Brad> As I recall they benefited greatly from a British magnetron
> Brad> design, however (centimeter wavelength).
>
> Remember that early radar was VHF/UHF, not microwave.
>
> paul

While some early radars may have been VHF/UHF one of the big "secrets" of 
WWII was the British design of micro-wave radars.  They were small enough to 
be plane mounted.  The big trick was one tube require very precise milling 
and it took a good amount of time to manufacture one.  They brought the 
problem to American engineers, they developed a process to mass produce them 
by stamping the components out of sheet metal and soldering pieces together 
rather than the time consuming milling process.

The Allies had many mobile radar units using microwave technology while the 
Axis had fixed radar stations that were vulnerable to bombing.


Randy