[Milsurplus] British First

[Ray Fantini]

In respect to the claim that the British invented radar. This is simply
not true. The book "History of Communications-Electrics in the United
States Navy", 1963,  on pg. 447 claims, "British scientists took an
American invention, the cavity magnetron, and improved it to where it
was . . . ". "This device was invented by Dr. A.W. Hull, of the General
Electric Co., in 1921."  However, Dr. H.E. Hollmann's book Physik und
Technik der ultrakurzen Wellen, Erster Band, 1935," Chapter 4 deals with
the history of the magnetron in its many variations. Hollmann states
that Greinacher in Germany first discussed the theory of the magnetron
and then Hull further developed it. Also in 1921, a German physicist by
the name of Habann developed a split tube magnetron generator working on
a wavelength of 3 cm. Habann is generally given the credit of being the
inventor of the magnetron from which the cavity magnetron evolved.
Furthermore, in 1935,  Dr. H.E. Hollmann filed a patent on the
multicavity magnetron well ahead of Randall and Boot's work. 
Copied from web site at:
http://www.radarworld.org/england.html 
And let me further put my foot in my mouth by saying that perhaps the
British were forced to develop VHF AM for ground to air and air to air
because of the massive amount of bandwidth used by the Chain Home
system. By the time it was fully implemented it sucked up from 20 to 55
MHZ leaving only the VHF band . 
Don't discount the work done in New Jersey by the army at Fort
Monmouth.
Sometimes feel the British may take too much credit for winning the
war, The last Ugly American-
Ray Fantini KA3EKH
PS- I posted this not in a attempt to offend any groups or individuals
but only in a attempt to establish a debate on the subject, and if my
rants do strike a nerve I do apologize.