Robert Morris Page
Encyclopedia
Robert Morris Page was an American
physicist
who was a leading figure in the development of radar
technology. Later, Page served as the Director of Research for the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory.
, the son of a Methodist minister. He attended Hamline University
, a small Methodist-supported school in St. Paul. Originally intending to become a minister, he changed his studies to physics and in 1927 received his B.S. degree in this field. Page immediately joined the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington, D.C.
as a junior physicist. Somewhat later he started part-time studies at George Washington University
, eventually earning a M.S. degree.
Although Page had no formal education in electrical engineering
, building radios had been his hobby since childhood. Assigned to the NRL Radio Division, he quickly gained the confidence of the Division Superintendent, A. Hoyt Taylor, by providing very creative solutions to a wide variety of problems.
Following an observation by Lawrence A. Hyland
in 1930 of radio interference caused by a passing aircraft, Taylor and Leo C. Young
began an internally funded, low-level project to develop a radio-detection apparatus based on continuous wave
(CW) Doppler
interference. Unsuccessful with the CW approach, in 1934 Young suggested using a pulsed transmitter, similar to one that the NRL had built in 1925 for the Carnegie Institution of Washington in measuring the altitude of the ionosphere
. Taylor assigned Page to design an apparatus for testing this suggestion.
A 60-MHz (5.0-m) pulse-modulated transmitter was soon built; this generated 10-microsecond pulses with a wait-time of 90 microseconds between pulses. Using a large antenna atop the main NRL building and a separately located receiver modified to pass the pulse signals, Page began assembling the equipment. In December 1934, Page first successfully tested the apparatus, tracking an aircraft at up to one mile as it flew up and down the Potomac River
. Although the detection range was small and the indications on the oscilloscope
monitor were almost indistinct, it represented a proof of the basic concept.
Based on this, Page, Taylor, and Young are generally credited with developing the world's first radar
system. (RADAR is an acronym for RAdio Detection And Ranging. Thus, to be called a "radar," a system must both detect a target and measure the range to the target. Many earlier systems had functioned only to detect without measuring range.)
After the successful demonstration of the concept, in 1935 the U.S. Senate appropriated $100,000 for further research and development of the system, now classified as Secret. Page spent much of the year improving the bandwidth and sensitivity
of the receiver. In June 1936, the NRL's first prototype radar system, now operating at 28.6 MHz, was demonstrated to government officials, successfully tracking an aircraft at distances up to 25 miles.
This equipment required large antennas, making it impractical for ship mounting. Attention was then given to increasing the system operating frequency and, subsequently, decreasing the antenna size (antenna size is inversely proportional to the operating frequency). For the follow-on system, the frequency was raised to 200 MHz, the limit for transmitter tubes and other components at that time; this allowed the antenna to be greatly reduced in size.
Page and Young developed another important unit, the duplexer. This device allowed a common antenna to be used for both transmitting and receiving. With other improvements, a full prototype system was first tested at sea on the USS Leary
in April 1937. Initially designated the XAF, the system was improved and tested, then placed into production as the CXAM radar
, the first such system deployed by the U.S. Navy starting in May 1940. (The acronym RADAR was coined by the Navy at that time as a cover for the highly classified work in this new technology.)
Page, together with the staff at the NRL, made many other major contributions to the overall evolution of radar. In addition to the duplexer, another major invention was the ring oscillator
, an arrangement that allowed multiple power tubes to function as one in a transmitter and greatly increasing the power. Still another was the plan position indicator
(PPI), proving the well-known circular presentation on the screen of a cathode-ray tube.
When the high-power cavity magnetron
from Great Britain was introduced into America by the Tizard Mission
in 1940, Page turned his attention to microwave radar and, working with the MIT Radiation Laboratory
and the Bell Telephone Laboratories, made invaluable contributions to this new technology. One of the most significant was a system that greatly improved the angular accuracy of tracking radars. Called monopulse radar
, it was first demonstrated in 1943. This highly complex technology was later used in the AN/FPS-16
, likely the most popular tracking radar in history.
Following WWII, the NRL returned to performing a wide variety of basic and applied research for all parts of the Navy. Page participated broadly in these activities and in 1957 was named the NRL Director of Research. He served in this position until he retired in 1966. In his four decades at the NRL, he was awarded 65 patents, 40 directly in radar, more than any other person or group of persons.
In 1957, he was awarded the Stuart Ballantine Medal from The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
.
In 1979, Page was inducted into the Minnesota Inventors Hall of Fame. He was awarded the D.Sc. Honorius Causa degree by Hamline University.
The Institute of Radio Engineers
recognized Page with the 1953 Harry Diamond Memorial Award for "outstanding contributions to the development of radar.
and creationist, Page lectured on the relationship of science and Biblical scripture throughout his career. Page died of heart failure in 1992 at Edina, Minnesota
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
physicist
Physicist
A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
who was a leading figure in the development of radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
technology. Later, Page served as the Director of Research for the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory.
Life and career
Page was born in St. Paul, MinnesotaMinnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, the son of a Methodist minister. He attended Hamline University
Hamline University
-Red Wing location :Hamline was named in honor of Leonidas Lent Hamline, a bishop of the Methodist Church whose interest in the frontier led him to donate $25,000 toward the building of an institution of higher learning in what was then the territory of Minnesota. Today, a statue of Bishop Hamline...
, a small Methodist-supported school in St. Paul. Originally intending to become a minister, he changed his studies to physics and in 1927 received his B.S. degree in this field. Page immediately joined the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
as a junior physicist. Somewhat later he started part-time studies at George Washington University
George Washington University
The George Washington University is a private, coeducational comprehensive university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States...
, eventually earning a M.S. degree.
Although Page had no formal education in electrical engineering
Electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical...
, building radios had been his hobby since childhood. Assigned to the NRL Radio Division, he quickly gained the confidence of the Division Superintendent, A. Hoyt Taylor, by providing very creative solutions to a wide variety of problems.
Following an observation by Lawrence A. Hyland
Lawrence A. Hyland
Lawrence A. "Pat" Hyland was an American electrical engineer. He is one of several people credited with major contributions to the invention of radar, but is probably best known as the man who transformed Hughes Aircraft from Howard Hughes' aviation "hobby shop" into one of the world's leading...
in 1930 of radio interference caused by a passing aircraft, Taylor and Leo C. Young
Leo C. Young
Leo C. Young was an American radio engineer who had many accomplishments during a long career at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory...
began an internally funded, low-level project to develop a radio-detection apparatus based on continuous wave
Continuous wave
A continuous wave or continuous waveform is an electromagnetic wave of constant amplitude and frequency; and in mathematical analysis, of infinite duration. Continuous wave is also the name given to an early method of radio transmission, in which a carrier wave is switched on and off...
(CW) Doppler
Doppler effect
The Doppler effect , named after Austrian physicist Christian Doppler who proposed it in 1842 in Prague, is the change in frequency of a wave for an observer moving relative to the source of the wave. It is commonly heard when a vehicle sounding a siren or horn approaches, passes, and recedes from...
interference. Unsuccessful with the CW approach, in 1934 Young suggested using a pulsed transmitter, similar to one that the NRL had built in 1925 for the Carnegie Institution of Washington in measuring the altitude of the ionosphere
Ionosphere
The ionosphere is a part of the upper atmosphere, comprising portions of the mesosphere, thermosphere and exosphere, distinguished because it is ionized by solar radiation. It plays an important part in atmospheric electricity and forms the inner edge of the magnetosphere...
. Taylor assigned Page to design an apparatus for testing this suggestion.
A 60-MHz (5.0-m) pulse-modulated transmitter was soon built; this generated 10-microsecond pulses with a wait-time of 90 microseconds between pulses. Using a large antenna atop the main NRL building and a separately located receiver modified to pass the pulse signals, Page began assembling the equipment. In December 1934, Page first successfully tested the apparatus, tracking an aircraft at up to one mile as it flew up and down the Potomac River
Potomac River
The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, located along the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States. The river is approximately long, with a drainage area of about 14,700 square miles...
. Although the detection range was small and the indications on the oscilloscope
Oscilloscope
An oscilloscope is a type of electronic test instrument that allows observation of constantly varying signal voltages, usually as a two-dimensional graph of one or more electrical potential differences using the vertical or 'Y' axis, plotted as a function of time,...
monitor were almost indistinct, it represented a proof of the basic concept.
Based on this, Page, Taylor, and Young are generally credited with developing the world's first radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
system. (RADAR is an acronym for RAdio Detection And Ranging. Thus, to be called a "radar," a system must both detect a target and measure the range to the target. Many earlier systems had functioned only to detect without measuring range.)
After the successful demonstration of the concept, in 1935 the U.S. Senate appropriated $100,000 for further research and development of the system, now classified as Secret. Page spent much of the year improving the bandwidth and sensitivity
Sensitivity (electronics)
The sensitivity of an electronic device, such as a communications system receiver, or detection device, such as a PIN diode, is the minimum magnitude of input signal required to produce a specified output signal having a specified signal-to-noise ratio, or other specified criteria.Sensitivity is...
of the receiver. In June 1936, the NRL's first prototype radar system, now operating at 28.6 MHz, was demonstrated to government officials, successfully tracking an aircraft at distances up to 25 miles.
This equipment required large antennas, making it impractical for ship mounting. Attention was then given to increasing the system operating frequency and, subsequently, decreasing the antenna size (antenna size is inversely proportional to the operating frequency). For the follow-on system, the frequency was raised to 200 MHz, the limit for transmitter tubes and other components at that time; this allowed the antenna to be greatly reduced in size.
Page and Young developed another important unit, the duplexer. This device allowed a common antenna to be used for both transmitting and receiving. With other improvements, a full prototype system was first tested at sea on the USS Leary
USS Leary
USS Leary may refer to:, a Wickes-class destroyer launched,1918; sunk in action, 1943, a Gearing-class destroyer launched, 1945; decommissioned, 1973; transferred to Spain as Langara; struck and scrapped in 1992...
in April 1937. Initially designated the XAF, the system was improved and tested, then placed into production as the CXAM radar
CXAM radar
The CXAM radar system was the first production radar system deployed on United States Navy ships. It followed several earlier prototype systems, such as the NRL radar installed in April 1937 on the destroyer ; its successor, the XAF, installed in December 1938 on the battleship ; and the first...
, the first such system deployed by the U.S. Navy starting in May 1940. (The acronym RADAR was coined by the Navy at that time as a cover for the highly classified work in this new technology.)
Page, together with the staff at the NRL, made many other major contributions to the overall evolution of radar. In addition to the duplexer, another major invention was the ring oscillator
Ring oscillator
A ring oscillator is a device composed of an odd number of NOT gates whose output oscillates between two voltage levels, representing true and false...
, an arrangement that allowed multiple power tubes to function as one in a transmitter and greatly increasing the power. Still another was the plan position indicator
Plan position indicator
The plan position indicator , is the most common type of radar display. The radar antenna is usually represented in the center of the display, so the distance from it and height above ground can be drawn as concentric circles...
(PPI), proving the well-known circular presentation on the screen of a cathode-ray tube.
When the high-power 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...
from Great Britain was introduced into America by the Tizard Mission
Tizard Mission
The Tizard Mission officially the British Technical and Scientific Mission was a British delegation that visited the United States during the Second World War in order to obtain the industrial resources to exploit the military potential of the research and development work completed by the UK up...
in 1940, Page turned his attention to microwave radar and, working with the MIT Radiation Laboratory
Radiation 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...
and the Bell Telephone Laboratories, made invaluable contributions to this new technology. One of the most significant was a system that greatly improved the angular accuracy of tracking radars. Called monopulse radar
Monopulse radar
Monopulse radar is an adaptation of conical scanning radar which sends additional information in the radar signal in order to avoid problems caused by rapid changes in signal strength. The system also makes jamming more difficult...
, it was first demonstrated in 1943. This highly complex technology was later used in the AN/FPS-16
AN/FPS-16
The AN/FPS-16 is a highly accurate ground-based monopulse single object tracking radar , used extensively by the NASA manned space program and the U.S. Air Force...
, likely the most popular tracking radar in history.
Following WWII, the NRL returned to performing a wide variety of basic and applied research for all parts of the Navy. Page participated broadly in these activities and in 1957 was named the NRL Director of Research. He served in this position until he retired in 1966. In his four decades at the NRL, he was awarded 65 patents, 40 directly in radar, more than any other person or group of persons.
Recognition
For his accomplishments at the Naval Research Laboratory, Page was recognized by three Presidents:- Harry S. TrumanHarry S. TrumanHarry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...
, in 1946, awarded him the Certificate of Merit in aid of the war effort. - Dwight D. EisenhowerDwight D. EisenhowerDwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
, in 1960, presented him with the Presidential Award for Distinguished Civilian Service, the highest honor for a career employee. - Ronald ReaganRonald ReaganRonald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
, in 1986, wrote to him remarking that 50 years after his initial radar work "our nation's scientists continue to rely on your research."
In 1957, he was awarded the Stuart Ballantine Medal from The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
.
In 1979, Page was inducted into the Minnesota Inventors Hall of Fame. He was awarded the D.Sc. Honorius Causa degree by Hamline University.
The Institute of Radio Engineers
Institute of Radio Engineers
The Institute of Radio Engineers was a professional organization which existed from 1912 until January 1, 1963, when it merged with the American Institute of Electrical Engineers to form the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers .-Founding:Following several attempts to form a...
recognized Page with the 1953 Harry Diamond Memorial Award for "outstanding contributions to the development of radar.
Personal
A devout ChristianChristian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
and creationist, Page lectured on the relationship of science and Biblical scripture throughout his career. Page died of heart failure in 1992 at Edina, Minnesota
Edina, Minnesota
Edina is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and a first-ring suburb situated immediately southwest of Minneapolis. Edina began as a small farming and milling community in the 1860s. The population was 47,941 at the 2010 census.-Geography:...
.
General
- Brown, Louis; A Radar History of World War II, Institute of Physics Publishing, 1999
- Chiles, James R., "The Road to Radar," Invention & Science Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 3 (Spring), 1987
- Watson, Raymond C., Jr.; Radar Origins Worldwide, Trafford Publishing, 2009
External links
- Robert Morris Page via Minnesota Inventors Hall of Fame
- Naval Research Laboratory Seventy-Five Years of High Stakes Science and Technology