George Clark Southworth (August 24, 1890 – July 6, 1972), who published as G. C. Southworth, was a prominent American radio engineer best known for his role in the development of

waveguide A waveguide is a structure that guides waves by restricting the transmission of energy to one direction. Common types of waveguides include acoustic waveguides which direct sound, optical waveguides which direct light, and radio-frequency w ...

s in the early 1930s.

Biography

Southworth was born in Little Cooley, Pennsylvania, graduated in 1914 with a physics degree from Grove City College, and studied one year at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. In June 1917 he joined the

National Bureau of Standards The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into physical sc ...

, then in 1918 moved to

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

to teach in a

Signal Corps A signal corps is a military branch, responsible for military communications (''signals''). Many countries maintain a signal corps, which is typically subordinate to a country's army. Military communication usually consists of radio, telephone, ...

school. He remained at Yale to complete a doctorate in 1923 on the measurement of the

dielectric constant The relative permittivity (in older texts, dielectric constant) is the permittivity of a material expressed as a ratio with the electric permittivity of a vacuum. A dielectric is an insulating material, and the dielectric constant of an insul ...

of water at frequencies above 15 MHz. Southworth left Yale for a position with the

American Telephone and Telegraph Company AT&T Corporation, an abbreviation for its former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, was an American telecommunications company that provided voice, video, data, and Internet telecommunications and professional services to busi ...

, where he first helped edit the

Bell System Technical Journal The ''Bell Labs Technical Journal'' was the in-house scientific journal for scientists of Bell Labs, published yearly by the IEEE society. The journal was originally established as ''The Bell System Technical Journal'' (BSTJ) in New York by the Am ...

, but then switched to researching

shortwave Shortwave radio is radio transmission using radio frequencies in the shortwave bands (SW). There is no official definition of the band range, but it always includes all of the high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (app ...

radio propagation Radio propagation is the behavior of radio waves as they travel, or are wave propagation, propagated, from one point to another in vacuum, or into various parts of the atmosphere. As a form of electromagnetic radiation, like light waves, radio w ...

. In 1931 he began to study wave propagation in dielectric rods, by early 1932 observed wave propagation in a water-filled copper pipe, and by May 1933 transmitted waves through air-filled copper pipes up to 20 feet in length. (He later recalled that the first message sent through a waveguide was "Send money.") After he constructed a 5-in.-diameter

with a length of 875 feet, the project was moved to the

Bell Telephone Laboratories Nokia Bell Labs, commonly referred to as ''Bell Labs'', is an American industrial research and development company owned by Finnish technology company Nokia. With headquarters located in Murray Hill, New Jersey, Murray Hill, New Jersey, the compa ...

Holmdel, New Jersey Holmdel is a township in Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Located near Raritan Bay in the Raritan Valley Region, the township is a regional commercial hub of Central Jersey, home to Bell Labs and PNC Bank Arts Center, and a ...

, where he spent the rest of his career until retirement in 1955. Southworth received the Morris N. Liebmann Award in 1938, and the

IEEE Medal of Honor The IEEE Medal of Honor is the highest recognition of the American Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). It has been awarded since 1917, and is presented to an individual or team of up to three who have made exceptional contri ...

in 1963 "For pioneering contributions to microwave radio physics, to

radio astronomy Radio astronomy is a subfield of astronomy that studies Astronomical object, celestial objects using radio waves. It started in 1933, when Karl Jansky at Bell Telephone Laboratories reported radiation coming from the Milky Way. Subsequent observat ...

, and to waveguide transmission."

Selected works

* ''Principles and applications of wave-guide transmission'', New York, Van Nostrand

950 Year 950 ( CML) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Arab–Byzantine War: A Hamdanid army (30,000 men) led by Sayf al-Dawla raids into Byzantine theme Anatolia. He defea ...

xi, 689 p. illus. 24 cm. Bell Telephone Laboratories series. LCCN 50009834. * ''Forty years of Radio Research'', 1962.

References

IEEE biography
* James Brittain, "George C. Southworth," ''Proceedings of the IEEE'', Vol. 81, No. 7, July 1993. * L. Van Atta, "A history of early microwave antenna development", ''IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society Newsletter'', volume 23, issue 5, October 1981, pages 10–14.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Southworth, George Clark 1890 births 1972 deaths Grove City College alumni Columbia University alumni Yale University alumni American electrical engineers Radio pioneers IEEE Medal of Honor recipients 20th-century American engineers 20th-century American inventors American microwave engineers