Microwave Hall of Fame
Part I
Updated July 5, 2011
Isn't about time that the word "Hall of Fame" gets applied to people that actually contributed something to society, rather than overpaid people that do nothing but sing or play ball? Here's an introduction to some of the innovators upon whose broad shoulders you stand when you work in the microwave industry: famous engineers, mathematicians and scientists that provided the foundations for the microwave industry.If you want to nominate a Microwave God to this humble hall of fame, send info to Microwaves101.com and you will win a free pen knife if he (or perhaps she?) makes the cut. There is room for an unlimited number of inductees, so start shooting them in. No microwave managers please!
On this page, you'll find the classics--most of these guys you should know for their contributions to electrical engineering as a whole. History-makers around WWII have their own page, and modern-day geniuses now have a page to call their own. Check them all out!
Go on to the second page of the Microwave Hall of Fame.
Go on to the third page of the Microwave Hall of Fame.
Go to our main microwave history page.
Long before any study of microwaves occurred, Scotsman John Napier, born in 1550, developed the theory of logarithms, in order to eliminate the frustration of hand calculations of division, multiplication, squares, etc. We use logarithms every day in microwaves when we refer to the decibel. His "numbering rods", constructed of ivory, became known as "Napier's Bones", and comprised the world's first slide rule. Some of his neighbors suggested that he was in league with the powers of darkness... a trait that has often been associated with successful microwave engineering! The Neper, a unitless quantity for dealing with ratios, is named after John Napier.
Microwave antennas often use a Cassegrain reflector. Not much is known about Laurent Cassegrain, a Catholic Priest in Chartre, France, who in 1672 reportedly submitted a manuscript on a new type of reflecting telescope that bears his name. The key features are a secondary convex mirror suspended above the primary concave mirror, that focusses light into the eyepiece which is located in a hole in the primary mirror. The Cassegrain antenna is an an adaptation of the telescope.
Lazzaro Spallanzani, born in 1727 in Italy, had a huge influence on many of the physical sciences, which is even more remarkable because he was an ordained Jesuit priest. Here in the Microwave Hall of fame, Spallanzani is remembered because his Lettere sul volo dei pipistrelli acciecati, published in 1794, recorded correspondence about his experiments on the remarkable sense of direction of bats. Bats use sonar to move about in the dark, which some might argue was the inspiration for radar.
Hans Christian Oersted was born in 1777 in Denmark, and was a lifelong academic specializing in the physical sciences, as well as an amateur philosopher, a follower of Kant. Oersted's discovery in 1820 that an electric current would deflect a compass needle was the first proof that electricity and magnetism are like beautiful twin sisters Mary-Kate and Ashley Olson, irresistible to engineers, and always touching each other! The unit of magnetic field strength was named the Oersted in his honor. One of Denmark's greatest thinkers, Oersted founded the Polytechnical Institute in Copenhagen in 1829, which is now known as the Technical University of Denmark.
Also born in 1777 was Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss. Born in Braunschweig, Germany, Gauss is regarded by many as the most prominent mathematicianever. His numbers work is too numerous to even be listed here and much of it seems esoteric to engineers, such as his solution to circumscribing a 17-sided polygon inside a circle. (This is what he wanted on his grave stone)! He also proved that any integer can be expressed as the sum of no more that three triangular numbers, not something that you might use ever day. His name is used every day in discussions of probability theory (Gaussian distribution). He also was a major contributor to physical sciences, inventing the heliotrope (for measuring long distances using sunlight) and developed accurate methods for measuring terrestrial magnetism. He helped install a telegraph system in Europe, at the same time accomplished painter Samuel Morse was working on his system in the United States. Let's not forget Maxwell's equations includes two that are derived from Gauss (magnetic and electric induction). The CGS unit of electromagnetic induction is the "Gauss", in his honor. Gauss died in 1855.
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"the method of, and apparatus for, transmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically… by causing electrical undulations, similar in form to the vibrations of the air accompanying the said vocal or other sound." Three weeks later Alexander Graham Bell's famous sentence, "Watson, I want to see you", was spoken into the first telephone. The same month, Custer's army became human pincushions. Bell was born a Scot in 1847 and came to the "New World" by way of Canada, later settling in Boston. His portfolio of inventions is second to none, but his life's work was mainly centered on helping the deaf. The term bel (and decibel) was named by Bell Labs scientists to honor him. Bell thought the phone was too great a distraction, and refused to permit one in his study! Bell died in 1922. | |
Charles Proteus Steinmetz in his cabin near Schenectady. Looks like the museum incorrectly painted the replica table white! Steinmetz was a socialist, which is what brought him to the United States (he had to flee Germany after writing political essays). He was also an environmentalist, an anti-racist, a protagonist of electric cars to reduce pollution, and a big fan of cigars. He preferred to live in a camp near General Electric's Schenectady plant, using a canoe as his fair-weather office. He had 200 US patents. | |
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| Brian wishes to point out that Fessenden, Tesla, Charles Steinmetz and Ernst Alexanderson all worked for Edison. Is the top genius the one who can make business out of the genius of others? How many similar genius’s worked for Bill Gates and helped him make his billions and whom we will only hear about 100 years from now if ever? |
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Lee de Forest |
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Watch David Bowie play Tesla in the movie The Prestige! | |
Up until this point, focus had been on sending and receiving communication signals. As the new century progressed, scientists worked with longer and longer wavelengths to achieve greater and greater distances.
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Want more? Check out the next room in the Microwave Hall of Fame!
Want to nominate someone for the Microwave Hall of Fame? Drop us a line!
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