World War Engineers and Scientists (part one)

As this web-site is dedicated to technology, why not add a bit of colour by running a series of articles on the very people that enhanced our lives through war, famine and feast? A few years back I read a book on the history of rock and roll and was amazed how the lives of these phenomenal musicians were entwined in some way or other. Yet the same course of events has to be said about all of us - our lives are not as haphazard and jumbled as we may wish to think. I'm a firm believer in visible forces, patterns in life which come about due to our own actions. And inactions.  All wars inevitably come from one of our greatest sins, greed. But in war we will see some marvellous discoveries, inventions and unbelievable advances in science. Yet, to prevent war we need to persevere even more, focussing on deadly weapons and the technology behind these weapons to provide a deterrent to potential threat.  The scientists chosen in this first article are all linked to the two world wars of the 20th century be it in peacetime or at war. 

My favourites are Maxwell (electromagnetic waves), Hertz (existence of radio waves), Rutherford (coining alpha, beta and gamma), Einstein (the theory of relativity), Bohr (electron orbit), Planck (quantum theory), Marconi (radio telegraphy), Wilhelm Röntgen (X-Rays), Barnes Wallis (the bouncing bomb), Sir Frank Whittle (jet propulsion), Thomas Edison (thermionic effect), Nikola Tesla (wireless), Ambrose Fleming (thermionic diode), Lee de Forest (tube amplifier), Albert Hull, John Randall and Harold Boot (cavity magnetron), Russell and Sigurd Varian (klystron), John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, William Shockley (germanium transistor) to name a few.

  • Marconi

Guglielmo Marconi patented the first wireless telegraphy system which was used extensively in the royal navy. Having a means to communicate inter-ship and ship to shore made shipping safer but in it lay also the darker side. Radio direction finding, although primitive, enabled enemy vessels to lock onto vessels transmitting any form of electromagnetic wave in the ‘wireless’ frequency spectrum. Fixed frequency carrier wave communication was simple and highly effective but lengthy transmissions allowed the enemy to triangulate and calculate a vessel’s position. Of course another problem was also apparent – ‘wireless’equipment also radiated their own form of interference.

The local oscillators used in hetrodyning ‘wireless’ sets could radiate via the receiving antenna and also be picked up by sensitive receiving equipment.  But Marconi wasn’t the inventor of wireless as we know it, this has been accredited time and again to Nicholas Tesla. Note the links between the discoveries and experiments of Edison, Tesla, Lee de Forest, Fleming and Marconi.  There is an overlap and no doubt any one of them could have been the pioneer of modern communication. Wireless or radio as we now know it played an instrumental part in saving and destroying lives through the last century, the maiden voyage of the Titanic is oft used to describe the use of radio in peace time to save lives. In war however radio stations are instructed by government law to shut down. Even in peace time radio stations onboard ships are shut down while the ship is in port, some authorities even sealing the radio office. In most cases this is an interference or security issue, in the two world wars it was illegal to possess a radio transmitter. The USA effectively commissioned all radio stations in WW1.

Due to the ever increasing danger of submarine activity in WW1 merchant vessels started carrying radio operators, called ‘wirelessmen’ – merchant vessels did not stand a chance against these awesome predators of the sea.  In the first world war radio direction finding found it’s mark but Marconi remained the hero.

Guglielmo_Marconi_1901_wireless_signal

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