The invention that changed the world
by Robert Buderi · first published 1996
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"The Invention That Changed the World is the great and largely untold story of the colorful band of brilliant scientists who created the microwave radar systems that not only helped win World War II but set off a veritable explosion of scientific achievements and technological advances that have transformed our daily lives." "The story begins in September 1940 with the arrival in Washington of a team of British scientists bearing England's most closely guarded technological secrets, among them the cavity magnetron, a revolutionary new source of microwave energy that was to pave the way for rad
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The Invention That Changed the World: How a Small Group of Radar Pioneers Won the Second World War and Launched a Technological Revolution the story of Alfred Loomis, who was key in radar development: Tuxedo Park: A Wall Street Tycoon…
on “Ask HN: Good Books on the History of Technology?” ↗Love the story of the Rad Lab and radar before and during WW2. Two relevant books I've read recently(ish) that I'd recommend to anyone interested in learning more would be 1) The Invention That Changed the World by Robert Buderi and 2) a biography of Alfred Loomis, Tuxedo Park by Jennet Conant.
on “MIT Radiation Laboratory” ↗Of course some radars did physically move their dishes to stay locked on to a target. I'm in the middle of The Invention That Changed the World (spoiler alert: it was radar) and I was stunned to learn how well this worked with analog circuits. An SCR-584, paired with an M9 analog computer, could detect that a plane was moving out of the center…
on “How does a fighter jet lock onto and keep track of an enemy aircraft? (2013)” ↗