Herman Andrew Affel (August 4, 1893 – October 13, 1972) was an American

electrical engineer Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

who invented the modern

coaxial cable Coaxial cable, or coax (pronounced ), is a type of electrical cable consisting of an inner Electrical conductor, conductor surrounded by a concentric conducting Electromagnetic shielding, shield, with the two separated by a dielectric (Insulat ...

Biography

He was born on August 4, 1893. He attended

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

. He later married Bertha May Plummer. From MIT he went to work at

Bell 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, the company operates several lab ...

. Among other projects he worked with

Lloyd Espenschied Lloyd Espenschied (April 27, 1889 – June 21, 1986) was an American electrical engineer who invented the modern coaxial cable with Herman Andrew Affel. Early life and education Lloyd Espenschied was born in Baden, North St. Louis, Missour ...

on the characteristics of coaxial cable. Espenschied and Affel jointly applied for a patent on a wideband coaxial cable system of transmission, filed in 1929 and granted in 1934. The invention was disclosed in a prize-winning paper published in AIEE's Electrical Engineering in October 1934. He died on October 13, 1972.

Legacy

In 2006, Affel was inducted into the

National Inventors Hall of Fame The National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF) is an American not-for-profit organization, founded in 1973, which recognizes individual engineers and inventors who hold a US patent of significant technology. Besides the Hall of Fame, it also operate ...

US Patents

* "Equalization of Carrier Transmissions," 1924, Herman A. Affel * "Concentric Conducting System", 1929, Lloyd Espenschied and Herman A. Affel

External links

Kennelly and Affels 1916 paper
{{DEFAULTSORT:Affel, Herman 1893 births 1972 deaths American electrical engineers Scientists at Bell Labs 20th-century American engineers 20th-century American inventors Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni