Evening star., 1943-06-23

thS rddto eyes OF the armed
forces, ,Dds discovered in 1922 By
DR.. Albert Royt Taylor of the
Ndual Research Laboratory.
With seDeral loyal associates he
persisted in research until in
1880 it i1ds found that radio
tDuues ,Dould detect airplanes-a
revolutionary fact in warfare.
John M. Hiehto,Der resumes his
story at that point.)
BY JOHN M. HIGHTOWER.
tcopyrisht, 1943, by the Associated Press
At that time-June, 1930-the de-
velopers of Radar realized that their
discoveries had gone far beyond
original expectations.
Here was a method which sharp
ly limited the airplane's then .un-
checked ability to attack with sur
prise and demoralize defenses be-
fore they got into action.
Here was one of the greatest tao
tical advances in warfare since the
original evolution of the military
uses of aircraft.
There followed several months OF
Intensive experiments with aircraft
detection. Various radio frequen-
cies we're tried out. DR.. Albert Hoyt
Taylor and his associates, including
Carlos B. Mirick, who then direct
ed the Naval Research Laboratory S
aircraft radio section, spent weeks
bouncing waves off planes around
the Naval Air Station and along the
Mount Vernon boulevard on the
Virginia side of the Potomac Mr.
Mrick's job was to keep a photo
graphic record Of the experiments
which he did with outstanding sue
cess, DR.. Taylor said.
. Even the dirigible Akron. which
happened to be in the vicinity, was
subjected to a few wave lombard
ments just to make sure that air.
ships as well as planes could be
picked up.
First Apparatus Clumsy.
All this work was carried on with
regular radio waves, rather than
with the pulses used in measuring
the Kennedy -Heaviside layer (the
worlds electric roof, about $50 miles
up). These waves required com
paratively clumsy apparatus, in
cluding two widely separated anten.
nae-one for sending, the other fol
receiving.
This bothered DR.. Taylor consid-
erably, for he was naval scientist
seeking to develop a machine COM
pact and simple enough to install or
a ship without cluttering it up and
antagonizing the officers.
The apparatus was entirely effec-
tive, however, and not too clumsy
for use on land. At one time DR.
Taylor worked out a complete de-
fense system for the city of Wash
ington, using the detection equip
ment then developed. So informa
ton about the experiments and
their possibilities in defense of the
country against air attack was
turned over to the Army in 1882.
Army research, like that OF the
Navy, was then starved for funds
and no vigorous progress along the
lines suggested by DR.. Taylor wa.
made before 1886.
The research and development
then undertaken by the Army Sig.
nal Corps eventually led to the
system of Radar protection set ur
around the coastal frontiers of the
United States to detect the pres
ence of aircraft while they still are
many miles from land.
Ship Problem UnsoIved.
This left unsolved the problem OF
what to do about protecting the
Navy's ships against air attack. Fol
time the best brains of the Re
search Laboratory we're baffled. That
is, whenever they got few quick
minutes to think about the problem
For radio detection was then but
one. and by official standards a
minor one, Of NRL's projects.
One day Leo c. Young, an aSso-
ciate of DR.. Taylor, Strolled into DR.
Taylor's office with hopeful gleam
in his eyes.
Remember the Kennedy -Heavi-
side experiments?" he asked. why
don't we do this thing with pulses?'
Well" DR.. Taylor replied, its a
long way up there to the ionosphere
That gives you long time-intervaI
between emission of the pulse and its
reception. which is probably why the
pulse worked so well in those ex-
periments. I doubt whether it would
work on shipboard. considering the
compact apparatus and the short
distances we must work with there.
But DR.. Taylor never was man
to reject an idea because he simply
disagreed with it. He told Mr.
Young to begin work on the pulse
principle.
Officers Interest Grows.
Mr., Young started a new line OF
research and worked more or less
alone for three or four months. His
problem was typical of all those en-
Countered, before and after, in Radal
development. The scientists were
always reaching out for the un-
known and the untried; new cleo
trical gadget, different coil, OF
spark gap or vacuum tube, might be
the missing link needed to bring
weeks of brain puzzling labor tC
fruition.
BY this time a number of indi-
vidual Navy officers, including Har-
old G. Bowen, then captain. were
much interested in the plane detec-
ton work. To understand the in
tensity of their interest it is only
necessary to recall that for 10 years
Brig. Gen. William Mitchell, the
prophet of air power. had been
preaching the doom of the warship
During those 10 years the COM
mercially valuable airplane had
made enormous technical progress;
shipboard anti aircraft defense,
seemingly with no conceivable COM
mercial uses, had not.
Busy with civilian goods, private
research agencies were not inter-
eSted in solving problems in prepa-
ration for some distant, dreamed of
war. If there wasn't a predictable
percentage of profit in a project