Evening star., 1943-06-23
baby food. This time DR.. Taylor

| AioAl WOlh Lllc Navy JIlUu6IlI IIlUIc
important. In all that time he and
his loyal associates, like men fol-
lowing a vision, never had become
really disheartened, never had de-
cided to throw down their tools in
disgust and wait until the Navy
and the Nation got ready to help
them. Always, whenever a moment
could be spared or stolen, they
worked on radio detection
The Engineering Bureaus radio
division studied DR.. Taylor's report,
which contained the first formal
statement of airplane detection
work, for two months, then officially
assigned the laboratory this prob
lem:
Investigate the use of radio to
detect the presence of enemy vessels
and aircraft. Special emphasis is
placed on the confidential nature
Of this problem"
The emphasis on confidence by
those whose responsibility it was to
handle security was bit belated.
Publication of the articles on Ken
nelly-Heaviside measurements had
given our future Allies, the British
and it must be assumed our future
enemies as well-the tip-off on radio
detection.
Protected Developments.
Had the ban been placed when
DR.. Taylor first proposed his de-
stroyer experiments in 1922, the Sc
cret might have been kept from the
Germans and Japanese-and could
have been given to the British as
many other secret devices. including
our bombsights, were given. The
belated secrecy order did serve to
keep confidential from January,
1881. until April. 1943, the main facts
and technical progress OF Radar.
Following the order, other Navy
bureaus were informed Of the work
in progress, and some got busy with
ideas for practical application. In
October, 1881. Capt. Brown sent
along to the laboratory number
of these ideas and suggestions for
possible experiments. DR.. Taylor
and his men had so far anticipated
Radar's potentialities that he was
able to reply Immediately that all
the proposals had previously been
studied and found to be practical
and possible. He urged intensifica-
ton Of research.
While DR.. Taylor, whose field was
much broader than Radar study
alone, struggled for necessary recog-
milton and funds. Mr.. Young in his
laboratory worked almost day and
night to discover and prove a tech
nique for the pulse system of plane
detection. He was convinced that
only with pulses would a workable
system ever be evolved.
Valuable Aide Brought in.
After three or four months. dur
ing which Mr.. Young was more or
less alone" DR.. Taylor says. Il told
him he had to have some help. And
that's when threw Mr.. Page in.
Not long after he got on the job
he did so well that we gave him an
assistant. and he carried on.
Mr.. Page has made more con-
u loolAoLlO W ISdudI lIldll
| any other man"
While DR.. Taylor. Mr.. Young, DR..
Louis A. Gebhard and most of the
others at the laboratory were vet
Grams, Robert M. Page was a young
ster. but brilliant worker, passion
ately devoted to physics. He had
gone directly to NRL from Hamline
University, st. Paul, Mimi, in 1927
Jens M. Rysgaard, physicist and per-
sonal friend of Dr. Taylor's at Ham,
line, had given Mr.. Page such a
glowing recommendation that when
new man was needed, he was
chosen
Despite his extraordinary record
in physics, Mr.. Page had not always
been interested in that work. Ham
line was a sectarian college and he
had first gone there to become a
Methodist minister. The Jump to
physics, which he explains as due
to my natural tendencies" is not
so odd as it might seem since he
gives to his work the same burning
inner enthusiasm with which he
might have embarked upon a min
iSterial career.
Another Physicist Introduced.
Outwardly he is a quiet, shy man
distinguished in appearance by a
slight professional stoop, a tuft of
chin whiskers and neat, grayish
hair topping still-youthful face
He is in sharp contrast to DR.. Tay-
lor. who is man of rugged qualities
and easy, colorful flow of language
During 1884, DR.. Taylor gave Mr..
Page the Radar job as full time
assignment and later detailed to him,
as an assistant, young physicist
from the University Of Montana who
had been at NRL since 1929.
Young, alert, affable in an easy,
square-cut manner, Robert C. Guth-
RE was natural working mate for
Mr. Page The two men have been
closely and prof1tably associated for
decade.
Their advent on the Radar scene
marked the passing of the main
Radar development into the hands
of a new generation.
This fact serves as a checking
point for what had happened in
radio development outside the Ma
val Research Laboratory by that
time, and 1t IS interesting to note
that while great strides had been
made in such potentially commercial
fields as television, there was but
little that contributed directly to
work on Radar. This instrument
in America was basically developed
from start to finish by the scientists
on the Potomac.
Hams" Helped Indirectly.
One type of equipment for which
they had gone to the outside world
all along, and continued to go, was
the vacuum tube. Early in the game
they tried out variety of tubes
and quickly found that only two
were suitable for their hard use
Both of these were manufactured
for radio amateurs, hams" DR..
Taylor and Mr.. Page give the
anonymous thousands of old time
hams great credit for their unwit-
| ting contribution to Radar.