The Invention of Radar

The Invention of Radar

The invention of radar, "radio detection and ranging" was a long discontinuous process, conducted by various scientists and engineers over the span of many years in different countries.   Tests conducted independently by researchers determined many of the important properties of radar.   These experimental results, combined with the need for national defense in wartime, spurred the development of a technology capable of seeing through dark clouds in the dead of night and reporting the presence of enemy aircraft approaching.   Before utilizing this technology,   it was necessarily to invent, produce and distribute it.   These are stages in the product life of   every new device, but radar differed from a typical consumer good because of war.   Radar's end users were determined from the beginning to be governments, and radar systems did not require a consumer market.   They did however require a few individuals who understood the technology and who could convince governing bodies and manufacturers to sponsor and produce these systems.   Hugh Aitken refers to such individuals as "translators", or men who can move technology among the categories of invention, production and distribution.   These are men with special interests, abilities and experiences that bridge the gap between two or more distinct arenas of product development.   In the history of radar there were several such men, and this paper will detail the involvement of two.   A. Hoyt Taylor in the United States and Henry Tizard in Great Britain both acted as translators, ensuring that the new technology of radar took its prominent place in the defense of both countries.
Long before he received any higher schooling, Taylor started working with old car parts and discarded wiring to make batteries in his own telegraph line.   He attended a small high school in Evanston, Illinois where he took every math, physics and chemistry class he could.   Because family finances prevented him from attending a college where he could...