A. Hoyt Taylor
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Albert Hoyt Taylor (January 1, 1879 in Chicago, IL – December 11, 1961 in
Los Angeles, CA Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
) was an American electrical engineer who made important early contributions to the development of
radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, we ...
.


Biography

Taylor entered
Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...
in 1896. In 1899 he was employed by Western Electric Co. He returned to Northwestern in 1900, lacking only one semester of graduating when lack of funds forced him to accept a position as an instructor at Michigan State College. He was awarded his
Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...
degree by Northwestern University in 1902. He taught at the
University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...
from 1903 to 1908 before going to
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
for his graduate studies, receiving a Ph.D. degree from the
University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...
in 1909. He then joined the faculty at the
University of North Dakota The University of North Dakota (also known as UND or North Dakota) is a public research university in Grand Forks, North Dakota. It was established by the Dakota Territorial Assembly in 1883, six years before the establishment of the state of N ...
, where he built an experimental radio station and studied antennas and wave propagation. He continued in this capacity until 1917. On March 13, 1917, Taylor was appointed Lieutenant, US Naval Reserve Force, Provisional and assigned to the 9th, 10th and 11th Naval Districts,
Great Lakes, IL Naval Station Great Lakes (NAVSTA Great Lakes) is the home of the United States Navy's only boot camp, located near North Chicago, in Lake County, Illinois. Important tenant commands include the Recruit Training Command, Training Support Center ...
through Oct. 12, 1917. Upon the outbreak of the war, he was assigned duty as District Communications Officer, Ninth Naval District, Goat Lake, Ill. He was Director, Naval Communications,
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, until Oct. 17, 1917. He was Communication Superintendent, Naval Radio Station, Belmar, NJ, until July 25, 1918. He was appointed to head an experimental division of the Naval Air Station in Hampton Roads, VA where research on aircraft radio was undertaken through Sept. 30, 1918. He then became head of the Aircraft Radio Laboratory at Naval Air Station,
Anacostia Anacostia is a historic neighborhood in Southeast Washington, D.C. Its downtown is located at the intersection of Good Hope Road and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. It is located east of the Anacostia River, after which the neighborhood is na ...
, Washington, DC. He was promoted to Lieutenant Commander, U. S. Naval Reserve Force, on June 8, 1918, and to Commander, US Naval Reserve Force, on Nov. 14, 1918. He resigned from active Navy duty in 1922, but remained as a civilian employee. In the fall of 1922, Taylor and Leo C. Young were conducting communication experiments at the Aircraft Radio Laboratory when they noticed that a wooden ship in the Potomac River was interfering with their signals; in effect, they had demonstrated the first continuous wave (CW) interference detector. The next year the
U.S. Naval Research Laboratory The United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is the corporate research laboratory for the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps. It was founded in 1923 and conducts basic scientific research, applied research, technological ...
(NRL) was founded and Taylor became head of its Radio Division. In the early 1930s, the idea of pulsing a transmitter to provide both detection and range measurement occurred to Taylor and Young, as it had to German and British scientists. Taylor instructed an assistant,
Robert Morris Page Robert Morris Page (2 June 1903 – 15 May 1992) 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. Life and career P ...
to construct a working prototype; this was demonstrated in December 1934, detecting an airplane at a distance of one mile. By 1937, his team had developed a practical shipboard radar that became known as
CXAM radar The CXAM radar system was the first production radar system deployed on United States Navy ships, operating in the mid-high VHF frequency band of 200 MHz. It followed several earlier prototype systems, such as the NRL radar installed in April ...
, a technology very similar to that of Britain's Chain Home radar system. In 1929 Taylor was President of the
Institute of Radio Engineers The Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE) was a professional organization which existed from 1912 until December 31, 1962. On January 1, 1963, it merged with the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) to form the Institute of Electrical ...
(IRE), and from 1936 to 1942 he served on the Communication Committee of the
American Institute of Electrical Engineers The American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) was a United States-based organization of electrical engineers that existed from 1884 through 1962. On January 1, 1963, it merged with the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE) to form the Insti ...
. Both of these organizations were predecessors to what is now the
IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operat ...
. Taylor remained at NRL until his retirement in 1948. He died in 1961, a few weeks before his 83rd birthday.


Awards

* 1927 – Morris Liebmann Memorial Prize from the IRE, for research on short waves * 1942 –
IRE Medal of Honor The IEEE Medal of Honor is the highest recognition of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). It has been awarded since 1917, when its first recipient was Major Edwin H. Armstrong. It is given for an exceptional contributio ...
, for "contributions to radio communication as an engineer and organizer, including pioneering work in the practical application of piezoelectric control to radio transmitters, early recognition and investigation of skip distances and other high-frequency wave-propagation problems, and many years of service to the government of the United States as an engineering executive of outstanding ability in directing the Radio Division of the Naval Research Laboratory" * 1944 – On March 28, the first
Medal for Merit The Medal for Merit was, during the period it was awarded, the highest civilian decoration of the United States. It was awarded by the President of the United States to civilians who "distinguished themselves by exceptionally meritorious conduct i ...
from the U.S. Government (together with John C. Garand), for his contributions to "the discovery and development of radar". * 1959 –
Stuart Ballantine Medal {{notability, date=February 2018 The Stuart Ballantine Medal was a science and engineering award presented by the Franklin Institute, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. It was named after the US inventor Stuart Ballantine. Laureates *1947 - Geo ...
from
The Franklin Institute The Franklin Institute is a science museum and the center of science education and research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is named after the American scientist and statesman Benjamin Franklin. It houses the Benjamin Franklin National Memori ...
in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
.


See also


Archives

There is an Albert H. Taylor
fonds In archival science, a fonds is a group of documents that share the same origin and that have occurred naturally as an outgrowth of the daily workings of an agency, individual, or organization. An example of a fonds could be the writings of a poe ...
at Library and Archives Canada. The archival reference number is R3871.


References


External links


Albert H. Taylor biography on the IEEE websiteIEEE Proc. IRE biography for Morris Liebmann Memorial Prize''Radio Reminiscences: A Half Century''
by A. Hoyt Taylor, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Washington. D.C., 1948; reprinted 1960. {{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Albert H. 1879 births 1961 deaths American electrical engineers IEEE Medal of Honor recipients Medal for Merit recipients Northwestern University alumni Michigan State University faculty University of North Dakota faculty University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty Radar pioneers Engineers from Illinois Scientists from Chicago