Radio age research, manufacturing, communications, broadcasting, television (1941)

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Tup] war has put a new word in the news. It is Radar, which means radio detecting and ranging. ra radio d detection a <!ยป(/ r ranging The letters r-a-d-a-r spell the same forward and backward. This gives a clue to its performance in using the radio echo, which is re- flected by any object which the radar beam strikes. An airplane, for instance, acts as a "radio mir- ror" when it is intercepted by a radar beam. In the United States, through foresight and encouragement as well as through their own scientific research, the Arm.v and Navy played a vital part in cooperating with the American radio industry in the development of radar long before the war. To give the American people "as much information as possible with- out endangering our own forces or helping the enemy," the Army and Navy in a joint release on April 25, 1943. defined radars as "devices which the Allies use to detect the approach of enemy aircraft and ships, and to determine the distance (range) to the enemy's forces." The statement continued: "Ra- dar is used by static ground de- fenses to provide data for anti- aircraft guns for use in smashing Axis planes through cloud cover, and by airplanes and warships. It is one of the wonders made possible by the electron tube. "Radar is used for both defense and offense. In fact, the British, who call their similar apparatus the radio locator, say it was instru- mental in saving England during the aerial blitz of 1940 and 1941. At that time the locators spotted German raiders long before they reached a target area, and thus gave the RAF and ground defenses time for preparation. Since then r.-.dar has stood guard at many dan- gei' points along United Nations frontiers and at sea, warning of the coming aerial and sea-borne enemy forces, and contributing toward victory in combat. The new science has played a vital part in helping first to stem and then to turn the tide of Axis conc|uest." As a vivid illustration of radar's efl'ectiveness in the hands of Amer- ica's armed forces, James F. Byrnes, Director of War Mobiliza- tion, in an address broadcast from Spartanburg, S. C, said:* "History will some day record the part radio and the radar have played in giving us fighting su- periority over the Axis. But let me give you one instance. On the night of November 14, off Guadalcanal there lay a -Japanese battleship. It was a stormy night. Eight miles away was a ship of our fleet. With the use of the radar our ship with its second salvo sank the Jap battle- ship in the blackness of night, eight miles away." Helping to pave the way for such triumphs, the Radio Corporation of America as early as 1937 delivered experimental radar apparatus to the U. S. Army Signal Corps for aircraft location tests. RCA also produced, for the Signal Corps, por- tions of its first radar equipment, such as was in operation at Pearl Harbor. A set of radar, designed and manufactured by the Naval Re- search Laboratoi'y, was installed on the U.S.S. New York, late in 1938. At the same time RCA had built for the Navy an experimental radar equipment w^hich was tested on the battleship New York. As a result of the tests, the Navy decided to develop additional radar sets, and in October, 1939, because of RCA's pioneer radar work, it was awarded contracts for six sets of aircraft detection equipment patterned after the original model built at the ' Ma)- .31. ini.'!. RADIO AGES