Edward George Bowen
Encyclopedia
Edward George 'Taffy' Bowen, CBE
, FRS (14 January 1911 – 12 August 1991) was a British physicist who made a major contribution to the development of radar
, and so helped win both the Battle of Britain
and the Battle of the Atlantic. He was also an early radio astronomer.
in Swansea
, south Wales, to George Bowen and Ellen Ann (née Owen). George Bowen was a steelworker in a Swansea tinplate works.
Edward Bowen was highly intelligent, and so was able to get a good education by winning scholarships. From an early age he developed a strong interest in radio
and cricket
. He entered Swansea University
and read physics and related subjects. He graduated with a First-Class Honours degree in 1930, and continued with postgraduate research on X-rays and the structure of alloys, earning an MSc in 1931.
He completed his doctorate under Professor E.V. Appleton
at King's College London
. As part of his research, Bowen spent a large part of 1933 and 1934 working with a cathode-ray direction finder at the Radio Research Station at Slough
, and it was there that he was noticed by Robert Watson-Watt
and so came to play a part in the early history of radar. In 1935 he was recruited by Watson-Watt.
. Before the first meeting of that committee in early 1935, the Government asked Watson-Watt whether an intense beam of radio waves, a 'death ray', could bring down an aircraft. Watson-Watt reported that a 'death ray' was impracticable, but suggested that radio waves might be used to detect, rather than destroy, enemy aircraft.
After a successful demonstration in February 1935 of the reflection of radio waves by an aircraft, the development of radar went ahead, and a team of five people including Bowen was set up at Orfordness under the cover of doing ionospheric research. Bowen's job was to assemble a transmitter, managing quickly to raise the pulse-power to over 100 kilowatts.
The first detection of an aircraft was made on 17 June 1935 at a range of 17 miles. By early 1936 after many improvements, aircraft were being detected at ranges of up to 100 miles. This caused work to be started on a chain of radar stations (Chain Home
or CH), initially just covering the approaches to London. The team at Orfordness was enlarged as a result, and in March 1936 a new headquarters was acquired at Bawdsey
Manor.
Bowen, at his own request, was moved on to investigating whether radar could be installed in an aircraft. However Bowen was able to save the day when a demonstration of the new transmitter at Bawdsey Manor failed. Before a disgruntled Sir Hugh Dowding returned to London, Bowen gave him an impromptu demonstration of an experimental radar, built as part of his airborne radar programme, which was detecting the aircraft at ranges of up to 50 miles. After working through the night, Bowen resurrected the old transmitter at Ordfordness for the following day's demonstration; which allowed the Government and RAF to continue with the extension of the chain of coastal stations.
(ICI) to produce the first radio-frequency cables with solid polythene insulation.
Further refinements continued until September 1937, when Bowen gave a dramatic and uninvited demonstration of the application of radar by searching for the British Fleet in the North Sea
in poor visibility, detecting three capital ship
s. Bowen's airborne radar group now had two major projects, one for the detection of ships and the other for interception of aircraft. Bowen also experimented briefly with the use of airborne radar to detect features on the ground, such as towns and coastlines, to aid navigation.
Bowen's unit was moved to St Athan
. One of the first things that Bowen did there was to try to detect a submarine by radar. By then the cavity magnetron
had been improved by John Randall and Dr. Harry Boot
, making airborne radar a powerful tool. By December 1940 operational aircraft were detecting submarines at up to 15 miles range. This technology had a major effect on winning the Battle of the Atlantic and eventually enabled forces to be built up by sea for the invasion of Europe
.
In April 1941, RAF Coastal Command was operating anti-submarine patrols with about 110 aircraft fitted with radar. This increased the detection of submarines both day and night. However very few of the attacks were lethal until the introduction in mid-1942 of a powerful searchlight, the Leigh light
, that illuminated the submarine. As a result the U-boats had to recharge their batteries in daylight so that they could at least see the aircraft coming. The radar and the Leigh light together cut Allied shipping losses dramatically.
Developments also continued in air interception, and a radar with a narrow rotating beam and plan-position-indicator was developed and used by the RAF to direct fighters in October 1940. Early versions of airborne radar were fitted to Blenheims, but had limited minimum and maximum range. However in the hands of a skilled crew later versions in 1941 were remarkably effective, and in the heavy night raids of 1941 radar-equipped fighters were the main weapon of air defence. In May 1941 over 100 enemy aircraft were shot down at night using radar, compared with 30 by anti-aircraft guns.
Centimetric contour mapping radars like H2S
greatly improved the accuracy of Allied bombers in the strategic bombing campaign. Centimetric gun-laying radars were much more accurate than the older technology. They made the big-gunned Allied battleships more deadly, and with the newly developed proximity fuse made anti-aircraft guns more dangerous to attacking aircraft. The anti-aircraft batteries, placed along on the German V-1 flying-bomb flight-paths to London, are credited with destroying many of the flying bombs before they reached their target.
for the development of centimetre-wave radar, and Bowen collaborated closely with them on their programme, writing the first draft specification for their first system. The first American experimental airborne 10 cm radar was tested, with Bowen on board, in March 1941, only seven months after the Tizard Mission had arrived.
The Tizard Mission was highly successful almost entirely because of the information provided by Bowen. It helped to establish the alliance between the United States and Britain over a year before the Americans entered the war. The success of collaboration in radar helped to set up channels of communication that would help in other transfers of technology to the United States such as jet engine
s and nuclear physics
.
In addition to developments in radar, Bowen also undertook two other research activities: the pulse method of acceleration of elementary particles; and air navigation resulted in the Distance Measuring Equipment
(DME) that was ultimately adopted by many civil aircraft.
He also encouraged the new science of radioastronomy and brought about the construction of the 210 ft radio telescope at Parkes, New South Wales
. During visits to the USA, he met two of his influential contacts during the war, Dr. Vannevar Bush
who had become the President of the Carnegie Corporation and Dr. Alfred Loomis
who was also a Trustee of the Carnegie Corporation and of the Rockefeller Foundation
. He persuaded them in 1954 to fund a large radio telescope in Australia with a grant of $250,000. Bowen in return helped to establish US radio astronomy by seconding Australians to the California Institute of Technology
.
Bowen played a key role in the design of the radio telescope at Parkes. At its inauguration in October 1961 he said "...the search for truth is one of the noblest aims of mankind and there is nothing which adds to the glory of the human race or lends it such dignity as the urge to bring the vast complexity of the Universe within the range of human understanding."
The Parkes Telescope proved timely for the US space program and tracked many space probes including the Apollo missions
. Later Bowen played an important role in guiding the optical Anglo-Australian Telescope
project during its design phase. This was opened in 1974.
Bowen also instigated rain-making
experiments in Australia in 1947, and continued after he retired in 1971.
Bowen had met his future wife, Enid Vesta Williams, who was from nearby Neath
. They married in 1938, and had three sons: Edward, David and John.
Bowen had an enduring love of cricket, and played regularly. He also became a keen sailor.
In December 1987, he suffered a stroke and gradually deteriorated. He died on 12 August 1991 at the age of 80.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
, FRS (14 January 1911 – 12 August 1991) was a British physicist who made a major contribution to the development of radar
History of radar
The history of radar starts with experiments by Heinrich Hertz in the late 19th century that showed that radio waves were reflected by metallic objects. This possibility was suggested in James Clerk Maxwell's seminal work on electromagnetism...
, and so helped win both the Battle of Britain
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain is the name given to the World War II air campaign waged by the German Air Force against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940...
and the Battle of the Atlantic. He was also an early radio astronomer.
Early years
Edward George Bowen was born at CockettCockett
Cockett is a community in Swansea, Wales falling within Cockett ward. It is located about north west of Swansea city centre.Cockett, in common with much of western Swansea, was the result of late Victorian and early twentieth century expansion...
in Swansea
Swansea
Swansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands...
, south Wales, to George Bowen and Ellen Ann (née Owen). George Bowen was a steelworker in a Swansea tinplate works.
Edward Bowen was highly intelligent, and so was able to get a good education by winning scholarships. From an early age he developed a strong interest in radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
and cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
. He entered Swansea University
Swansea University
Swansea University is a university located in Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom. Swansea University was chartered as University College of Swansea in 1920, as the fourth college of the University of Wales. In 1996, it changed its name to the University of Wales Swansea following structural changes...
and read physics and related subjects. He graduated with a First-Class Honours degree in 1930, and continued with postgraduate research on X-rays and the structure of alloys, earning an MSc in 1931.
He completed his doctorate under Professor E.V. Appleton
Edward Victor Appleton
Sir Edward Victor Appleton, GBE, KCB, FRS was an English physicist.-Biography:Appleton was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire and educated at Hanson Grammar School. At the age of 18 he won a scholarship to St John's College, Cambridge...
at King's College London
King's College London
King's College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. King's has a claim to being the third oldest university in England, having been founded by King George IV and the Duke of Wellington in 1829, and...
. As part of his research, Bowen spent a large part of 1933 and 1934 working with a cathode-ray direction finder at the Radio Research Station at Slough
Slough
Slough is a borough and unitary authority within the ceremonial county of Royal Berkshire, England. The town straddles the A4 Bath Road and the Great Western Main Line, west of central London...
, and it was there that he was noticed by Robert Watson-Watt
Robert Watson-Watt
Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt, KCB, FRS, FRAeS is considered by many to be the "inventor of radar". Development of radar, initially nameless, was first started elsewhere but greatly expanded on 1 September 1936 when Watson-Watt became...
and so came to play a part in the early history of radar. In 1935 he was recruited by Watson-Watt.
Ground-based radar
A Committee for the Scientific Study of Air Defence had been established under the chairmanship of Henry TizardHenry Tizard
Sir Henry Thomas Tizard FRS was an English chemist and inventor and past Rector of Imperial College....
. Before the first meeting of that committee in early 1935, the Government asked Watson-Watt whether an intense beam of radio waves, a 'death ray', could bring down an aircraft. Watson-Watt reported that a 'death ray' was impracticable, but suggested that radio waves might be used to detect, rather than destroy, enemy aircraft.
After a successful demonstration in February 1935 of the reflection of radio waves by an aircraft, the development of radar went ahead, and a team of five people including Bowen was set up at Orfordness under the cover of doing ionospheric research. Bowen's job was to assemble a transmitter, managing quickly to raise the pulse-power to over 100 kilowatts.
The first detection of an aircraft was made on 17 June 1935 at a range of 17 miles. By early 1936 after many improvements, aircraft were being detected at ranges of up to 100 miles. This caused work to be started on a chain of radar stations (Chain Home
Chain Home
Chain Home was the codename for the ring of coastal Early Warning radar stations built by the British before and during the Second World War. The system otherwise known as AMES Type 1 consisted of radar fixed on top of a radio tower mast, called a 'station' to provide long-range detection of...
or CH), initially just covering the approaches to London. The team at Orfordness was enlarged as a result, and in March 1936 a new headquarters was acquired at Bawdsey
Bawdsey
Bawdsey is a village and civil parish in Suffolk, eastern England. Located near Felixstowe, it had an estimated population of 340 in 2007.Bawdsey Manor is notable as the place where radar research took place early in World War II, before moving to Worth Matravers, which is four miles to the west of...
Manor.
Bowen, at his own request, was moved on to investigating whether radar could be installed in an aircraft. However Bowen was able to save the day when a demonstration of the new transmitter at Bawdsey Manor failed. Before a disgruntled Sir Hugh Dowding returned to London, Bowen gave him an impromptu demonstration of an experimental radar, built as part of his airborne radar programme, which was detecting the aircraft at ranges of up to 50 miles. After working through the night, Bowen resurrected the old transmitter at Ordfordness for the following day's demonstration; which allowed the Government and RAF to continue with the extension of the chain of coastal stations.
Airborne radar
Installing radar in an aircraft was difficult because of the size and weight of the equipment and the aerial. Furthermore the equipment had to operate in a vibrating and cold environment. Over the next few years Bowen and his group solved most of these problems. For example he solved the problem of the power supply in aircraft by using an engine-driven alternator, and he encouraged Imperial Chemical IndustriesImperial Chemical Industries
Imperial Chemical Industries was a British chemical company, taken over by AkzoNobel, a Dutch conglomerate, one of the largest chemical producers in the world. In its heyday, ICI was the largest manufacturing company in the British Empire, and commonly regarded as a "bellwether of the British...
(ICI) to produce the first radio-frequency cables with solid polythene insulation.
Further refinements continued until September 1937, when Bowen gave a dramatic and uninvited demonstration of the application of radar by searching for the British Fleet in the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
in poor visibility, detecting three capital ship
Capital ship
The capital ships of a navy are its most important warships; they generally possess the heaviest firepower and armor and are traditionally much larger than other naval vessels...
s. Bowen's airborne radar group now had two major projects, one for the detection of ships and the other for interception of aircraft. Bowen also experimented briefly with the use of airborne radar to detect features on the ground, such as towns and coastlines, to aid navigation.
World War Two
On the outbreak of World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Bowen's unit was moved to St Athan
St Athan
St Athan is a village and community in the Vale of Glamorgan in South Wales.-History and amenities:The English name is a corruption of the Welsh female Saint Tathan, described by Iolo Morgannwg as the daughter of the King of Gwent. The village and parish church is dedicated to St Tathan. There are...
. One of the first things that Bowen did there was to try to detect a submarine by radar. By then the cavity magnetron
Cavity magnetron
The cavity magnetron is a high-powered vacuum tube that generates microwaves using the interaction of a stream of electrons with a magnetic field. The 'resonant' cavity magnetron variant of the earlier magnetron tube was invented by John Randall and Harry Boot in 1940 at the University of...
had been improved by John Randall and Dr. Harry Boot
Harry Boot
Henry Albert Howard "Harry" Boot was an English physicist who with Sir John Randall and James Sayers developed the cavity magnetron, which was one of the keys to the Allied victory in the Second World War.-Biography:...
, making airborne radar a powerful tool. By December 1940 operational aircraft were detecting submarines at up to 15 miles range. This technology had a major effect on winning the Battle of the Atlantic and eventually enabled forces to be built up by sea for the invasion of Europe
D-Day
D-Day is a term often used in military parlance to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. "D-Day" often represents a variable, designating the day upon which some significant event will occur or has occurred; see Military designation of days and hours for similar...
.
In April 1941, RAF Coastal Command was operating anti-submarine patrols with about 110 aircraft fitted with radar. This increased the detection of submarines both day and night. However very few of the attacks were lethal until the introduction in mid-1942 of a powerful searchlight, the Leigh light
Leigh light
The Leigh Light was a British World War II era anti-submarine device used in the Second Battle of the Atlantic.It was a powerful carbon arc searchlight of 24 inches diameter fitted to a number of the British Royal Air Force's Coastal Command patrol bombers to help them spot surfaced...
, that illuminated the submarine. As a result the U-boats had to recharge their batteries in daylight so that they could at least see the aircraft coming. The radar and the Leigh light together cut Allied shipping losses dramatically.
Developments also continued in air interception, and a radar with a narrow rotating beam and plan-position-indicator was developed and used by the RAF to direct fighters in October 1940. Early versions of airborne radar were fitted to Blenheims, but had limited minimum and maximum range. However in the hands of a skilled crew later versions in 1941 were remarkably effective, and in the heavy night raids of 1941 radar-equipped fighters were the main weapon of air defence. In May 1941 over 100 enemy aircraft were shot down at night using radar, compared with 30 by anti-aircraft guns.
Centimetric contour mapping radars like H2S
H2S radar
H2S was the first airborne, ground scanning radar system. It was developed in Britain in World War II for the Royal Air Force and was used in various RAF bomber aircraft from 1943 to the 1990s. It was designed to identify targets on the ground for night and all-weather bombing...
greatly improved the accuracy of Allied bombers in the strategic bombing campaign. Centimetric gun-laying radars were much more accurate than the older technology. They made the big-gunned Allied battleships more deadly, and with the newly developed proximity fuse made anti-aircraft guns more dangerous to attacking aircraft. The anti-aircraft batteries, placed along on the German V-1 flying-bomb flight-paths to London, are credited with destroying many of the flying bombs before they reached their target.
The Tizard Mission
Bowen went to the United States with the Tizard Mission in 1940 and helped to initiate tremendous advances in microwave radar as a weapon. Bowen visited US laboratories and told them about airborne radar and arranged demonstrations. He was able to take an early example of the cavity magnetron. With remarkable speed the US military set up a special laboratory, the MIT Radiation LaboratoryRadiation Laboratory
The Radiation Laboratory, commonly called the Rad Lab, was located at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts and functioned from October 1940 until December 31, 1945...
for the development of centimetre-wave radar, and Bowen collaborated closely with them on their programme, writing the first draft specification for their first system. The first American experimental airborne 10 cm radar was tested, with Bowen on board, in March 1941, only seven months after the Tizard Mission had arrived.
The Tizard Mission was highly successful almost entirely because of the information provided by Bowen. It helped to establish the alliance between the United States and Britain over a year before the Americans entered the war. The success of collaboration in radar helped to set up channels of communication that would help in other transfers of technology to the United States such as jet engine
Jet engine
A jet engine is a reaction engine that discharges a fast moving jet to generate thrust by jet propulsion and in accordance with Newton's laws of motion. This broad definition of jet engines includes turbojets, turbofans, rockets, ramjets, pulse jets...
s and nuclear physics
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...
.
Australia
In the closing months of 1943 Bowen seemed to be at "loose ends" because his work in the USA was virtually finished and the invasion of Europe by the Allies was imminent. Bowen was invited to come to Australia to join the CSIRO Radiophysics Laboratory and in May 1946 he was appointed Chief of the Division of Radiophysics. Bowen addressed many audiences on the development of radar, its military uses and its potential peacetime applications to civil aviation, marine navigation and surveying.In addition to developments in radar, Bowen also undertook two other research activities: the pulse method of acceleration of elementary particles; and air navigation resulted in the Distance Measuring Equipment
Distance Measuring Equipment
Distance measuring equipment is a transponder-based radio navigation technology that measures distance by timing the propagation delay of VHF or UHF radio signals....
(DME) that was ultimately adopted by many civil aircraft.
He also encouraged the new science of radioastronomy and brought about the construction of the 210 ft radio telescope at Parkes, New South Wales
Parkes, New South Wales
- Transport :Parkes has a local bus service provided by Western Road Liners, which acquired Harris Bus Lines in March 2006. The Indian Pacific also stops twice a week, as well as the Broken Hill Outback Xplorer service, run by CountryLink, which heads to Broken Hill on Mondays and Sydney on...
. During visits to the USA, he met two of his influential contacts during the war, Dr. Vannevar Bush
Vannevar Bush
Vannevar Bush was an American engineer and science administrator known for his work on analog computing, his political role in the development of the atomic bomb as a primary organizer of the Manhattan Project, the founding of Raytheon, and the idea of the memex, an adjustable microfilm viewer...
who had become the President of the Carnegie Corporation and Dr. Alfred Loomis
Alfred Lee Loomis
Alfred Lee Loomis was an American attorney, investment banker, philanthropist, scientist/physicist, pioneer in military radar usages, inventor of the LORAN or Long Range Navigation System, and lifelong patron of scientific research...
who was also a Trustee of the Carnegie Corporation and of the Rockefeller Foundation
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is a prominent philanthropic organization and private foundation based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The preeminent institution established by the six-generation Rockefeller family, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller , along with his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr...
. He persuaded them in 1954 to fund a large radio telescope in Australia with a grant of $250,000. Bowen in return helped to establish US radio astronomy by seconding Australians to the California Institute of Technology
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...
.
Bowen played a key role in the design of the radio telescope at Parkes. At its inauguration in October 1961 he said "...the search for truth is one of the noblest aims of mankind and there is nothing which adds to the glory of the human race or lends it such dignity as the urge to bring the vast complexity of the Universe within the range of human understanding."
The Parkes Telescope proved timely for the US space program and tracked many space probes including the Apollo missions
Project Apollo
The Apollo program was the spaceflight effort carried out by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration , that landed the first humans on Earth's Moon. Conceived during the Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Apollo began in earnest after President John F...
. Later Bowen played an important role in guiding the optical Anglo-Australian Telescope
Anglo-Australian Telescope
The Anglo-Australian Telescope is a 3.9 m equatorially mounted telescope operated by the Australian Astronomical Observatory and situated at the Siding Spring Observatory, Australia at an altitude of a little over 1100 m...
project during its design phase. This was opened in 1974.
Bowen also instigated rain-making
Cloud seeding
Cloud seeding, a form of intentional weather modification, is the attempt to change the amount or type of precipitation that falls from clouds, by dispersing substances into the air that serve as cloud condensation or ice nuclei, which alter the microphysical processes within the cloud...
experiments in Australia in 1947, and continued after he retired in 1971.
Personal life
At Swansea UniversitySwansea University
Swansea University is a university located in Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom. Swansea University was chartered as University College of Swansea in 1920, as the fourth college of the University of Wales. In 1996, it changed its name to the University of Wales Swansea following structural changes...
Bowen had met his future wife, Enid Vesta Williams, who was from nearby Neath
Neath
Neath is a town and community situated in the principal area of Neath Port Talbot, Wales, UK with a population of approximately 45,898 in 2001...
. They married in 1938, and had three sons: Edward, David and John.
Bowen had an enduring love of cricket, and played regularly. He also became a keen sailor.
In December 1987, he suffered a stroke and gradually deteriorated. He died on 12 August 1991 at the age of 80.