We start this story of the microwave industry with the invention of the cavity magnetron in England under wartime pressures. By 1939, English scientists had already installed a coastal radar system. Based on the early success of radar, the British military now desired radar sets small enough to fit on ships, airplanes and munitions. To do so, engineers needed to use much shorter wavelengths, like those in the microwave region. And so, English researchers—Boot and Randall—developed a working cavity magnetron, which was able to produce over 400 watts of power at the extremely short wavelength of 9.8 cm (about four inches). In September of 1940, a British delegation under Sir Henry Tizard carried a cavity magnetron secretly across the Atlantic and persuaded the US government to begin large-scale development and manufacturing of the device.
The Tizard mission convinced the US government that radar was becoming an important weapon in the war, which consequently led to the establishment of the MIT Radiation Lab (RadLab) to pursue this technology. The work at the RadLab opened up an extensive new realm known as microwave engineering. After the war, the RadLab work would be shared with the world in a monumental publishing effort known as the MIT Radiation Laboratory Series of books. The 28 volumes of this series encapsulated a huge amount of knowledge generated during the war and strongly influenced many areas of postwar engineering.
RadLab also established a strong institutional link between government, industry and academia. With the US government as the sole customer for radar systems, companies such as GE, Westinghouse, Sylvania, Sperry Gyroscope, Motorola, Bell Labs, Hughes Aircraft and Raytheon would each get into the microwave component development and manufacturing business.
After the war, defense spending dropped dramatically and with little or no civilian use of radar at the time, the industry all but disappeared. Some looked for jobs outside of microwaves while others pursued niche commercial applications and the few defense contracts available. Then the Korean War began and the defense department began substantial funding of R&D again.
The RadLab experience and ensuing post-war lean times may have been responsible for producing individuals who knew microwave technology, were connected to each other and had learned the hard rules of business when the industry went into its post-war slow down. As government money returned, a number of these people became entrepreneurs, leaving larger organizations or returning from outside the industry to launch small start-up companies specializing in microwave components for the defense department and its contractors. Among this new wave of start-ups between 1948 and the early 1950s were companies such as MDL, Microwave Associates, Varian Associates, Narda Microwave, Microlab and Polarad.
A Push to Publish
The microwave community was growing. Eventually, certain companies and individual entrepreneurs would look for new customers by expanding the technology into different commercial applications. Given the success of the RadLab series to help with the rapid advance of the post-war state-of-the-art, several forward-looking people came to believe that a new publication was needed to share information about the technology and the issues faced by young businesses. They felt dialogue within the community would open up new markets for microwave devices.
From the ranks of RadLab engineers turned entrepreneur, Theodore “Ted” Saad would become a leading advocate for publishing technical information. Saad witnessed how the RadLab series had become the foundation of microwave engineering at the time. By 1958, Ted had gained some editorial experience with the IEEE Transactions and was about to enter into a collaboration that would lead to Microwave Journal.
William “Bill” Bazzy learned communications and electronics engineering while serving in the military in the 1940s. As a young radio and television broadcast engineer in Boston, he participated in the explosive growth of national broadcast networks, including intensive working sessions at RCA Technologies, where new standards were being developed. The communications field would represent the first, big non-defense market for the microwave industry. Seeing a need for technology information to serve professionals in the broadcasting and communications industries, Bill and his brother Emil organized a corporation named Horizon House Inc. to pursue a publishing venture.
Through Bill’s relationship with Ted Saad, the decision was made to publish a trade magazine about microwave technology. The Bazzy brothers would handle the production of the magazine and the business of selling advertising. Bill would be the publisher and Ted would serve as the magazine’s first technical editor (see Figure 1). Together they brought together a team of engineering colleagues that would solicit and review articles from the community at large.
The early writers for Microwave Journal would follow in the footsteps of well-known Americans who published papers to unite their countrymen against a foreign monarchy. Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Payne and Thomas Jefferson had successfully used the power of the press to spread the concepts of freedom and self-governance. Similarly, many of the Journal’s first contributors had been brought together by World War II to fight a foreign threat using science and engineering. They would now create a forum dedicated to the free exchange of ideas pertaining to microwave technology and business. From their passion for this field of science and perhaps driven by post-war optimism and Cold War patriotism, these men conceived a trade journal and recruited its staff and early contributors.
These notable contributors included industry pioneers such as Seymour Cohn, Henry Jasik, Ben Lax, Marshall Pease, Tore Anderson and Gershon Wheeler (see Figure 2). Personal connections defined the early days of the microwave industry and the new publication that would serve it. Microwave social networks had been formed at universities such as Harvard, Stanford and Princeton. Each of these institutions had been busy developing the fundamental microwave theories needed to support the American government’s radar research, but it was RadLab (see Figure 3) that had brought most of them together.
The MIT RadLab Network
Saad had worked at RadLab from August 1942 to December 1945. His first assignment was under Norman Ramsey and later Ed Purcell, in Group 42 studying the low pressure, high power breakdown of waveguide components. From there he moved to Group 53 to work under Jerrold Zacharias devising microwave components that would withstand high altitudes. This project included designing the layout for components operating at radio frequencies used in airborne search and bombing radar heads (i.e., the magnetron, mixer and signal processing devices). Finally, he transferred to the beacon group, number 71, where, under Dr. Riekel he helped develop the wave guide components for an X-band beacon. This work involved measuring and modifying antenna, designing directional couplers, inventing an appropriate power meter, as well as the tests to gauge the effectiveness of radar systems operating at high altitudes.
In an interview years after the RadLab effort (with A. Goldstein – IEEE History Center, May 1991), Saad said that “the scientists at RadLab felt at liberty to apply what they had learned to industry. They took basic designs that were not patentable, created new technology, and expanded on some of the ideas they had developed at RadLab. This provided the basis for the new microwave industry after World War II.” Notable companies included RCA, Westinghouse, Raytheon, Sperry Gyroscope, Western Electric, Microwave Associates, Airtron, Weinschel and Bell Laboratories.
“Centers of Activity”
Over the years immediately following the war, Saad would be among many RadLab employees spreading their microwave knowledge. These ex-RadLab people were drawn to the few companies sprouting up around the country, often near the universities that conducted research during the war. In turn “centers of activity” came into existence, whereby emerging microwave companies would be located in close proximity to each other.
These pockets of microwave companies in California, Massachusetts, New York, Greater Washington and other hotbeds would lead to the formation of regional chapters of the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (MTT-S) and an annual symposium that would be held (at least initially) in host cities nearby a center of microwave activity. The Professional Group on Microwave Theory and Technique (PGMTT) held its first symposium in New York City in 1952. Saad was one of the organizers and first chairman of the Boston chapter. He was also editor of the society’s Transactions publication for two and a half years. This group would play an important role in supporting the industry. Regionalization would yield a widely disbursed, yet tightly knit collection of engineering communities that would also be Microwave Journal’s audience, advertisers and source of contributors.
Boston
While various components were designed by the people at RadLab, much of the actual machining, soldering and fabrication of hardware was done on the outside. A number of companies such as Raytheon (see Figure 4) and Sylvania were located nearby in the Boston area, but companies from all over the country were also winning bids and began manufacturing products. These companies would send people to RadLab to learn and as a result microwave knowledge would spread among the contractors. For instance, working closely with RadLab, Sylvania would acquire information on microwave point-contact diodes and Raytheon would learn about microwave tubes, klystrons and magnetrons, which they would in turn commercialize and offer to others working on radar systems.
Saad held a number of positions that provided him with important connections to the industry. In 1945, he was in California, still employed by RadLab, working with a company called Gilfillan. After RadLab he continued work as a radar engineer with the Submarine Signal Co., which merged with Raytheon in 1946. From there he and a few others including Dr. Henry Riblet formed a new company (Microwave Development Labs or MDL) specializing in microwave waveguide technology. Waveguide plumbing would represent a large segment of the microwave activity at this time. Later, he worked at Sylvania Electric Products alongside future Associate Editors—Dr. Benjamin Lax and Marshall Pease. In 1955, he started a company of his own, called Sage Laboratories.
New York
Spreading microwave theory from RadLab out to prominent New York companies would come notably by way of the Varian brothers (Russell and Sigurd) (see Figure 5) and MIT Professor W.L. Barrow among others. The brothers, along with Stanford Professor W.W. Hansen, had invented the klystron and worked together at RadLab during the war. Later, the Varians would go to Sperry Gyroscope in Great Neck, NY and essentially help them build klystrons. Hansen worked and lectured at MIT during the war years and returned to Stanford afterwards, but beforehand he would travel weekly from MIT to Sperry on Long Island with lecture notes from Julian Schwinger on microwave theory, measurement techniques and applications to pulsed and Doppler radar. Meanwhile, Barrow who had published work in 1936 (the first paper on microwave technology presented to the IEEE) on propagating radio waves in “hollow pipes” would become a chief scientist and vice president at Sperry.
Saad had worked for Professor Barrow while writing his thesis on microwaves at MIT. The experience of working with an innovator in the field of waveguide would serve Saad and the other co-founders of MDL well, just as it would serve Sperry and a variety of other Long Island microwave companies jumping into the microwave plumbing business. As this segment would grow, Microwave Journal would enjoy a strong connection to those developing similar components in this and other parts of the country.
California
Also working at Sperry Gyroscope was future Microwave Journal Associate Editor—Dr. Seymour B. Cohn. Dr. Cohn received a BE degree from Yale University and then joined Harvard University’s Radio Research Laboratory, eventually receiving his PhD in Engineering Science and Applied Physics. After Harvard, Dr. Cohn worked at Sperry alongside the Varian brothers and W.L Barrow. In 1953, Dr. Cohn joined the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, CA, heading the Microwave Group of the Electromagnetics Laboratory (later to be named after W.W. Hansen). This group was engaged in R&D of microwave antennas, waveguide, strip-line circuits, microwave solid-state devices and microwave systems. As one of the associate editors in the first issue, Dr. Cohn would provide Microwave Journal with his expertise in all these areas and provide an important link to the west coast technical community. Additionally, fellow Stanford colleagues—Leo Young and George Matthaei—would both be regular early contributors. Young first appeared in December 1962 and Matthaei first appeared in January 1959 and went on to author multiple editorials and even book reviews for the magazine. Special reporting on west coast microwave news would be picked up by Editorial Specialist Gershon Wheeler, in his column “On the Peninsula” starting in the mid-60s.
The Early Issues
The history of the microwave industry post-1958 is now told through the following defining issues in the Microwave Journal’s 50 years of technical articles, business perspectives and editorial content. This material, written by the thought leaders of the industry is particularly insightful when viewed through the lens of time.
July/August 1958
The Bomarc Missile appears on the first issue of Microwave Journal Vol. 1, No. 1 (see Figure 6). W.B. Bazzy is the first publisher along with Ted Saad as the first Technical Editor. The associate editors include: Seymour Cohn, Henry Jasik, Benjamin Lax, Marshall Pease with guest editorial from Colin Bowness, Tore Anderson and Dana Atchley. At 48 pages in length, this first issue looks at microwave components—ferrites, plumbing and tubes. Seymour Cohn wrote about “Microwave Horizons,” an editorial piece on what the future of microwave technology might bring. Cohn discussed how knowledge from one field benefits another (citing advances in magnetic materials advancing the state of ferrites, and solid-state theory advancing parametric amplifiers).
The first issue contains the regular departments that will be a part of the Journal throughout its history including biographies, company profiles, and business editorials among the technical features and new product information. A Microwave Journal tradition of event coverage also begins in the very first issue with a report on a microwave conference in Boulder, CO, that included the dedication of a new Electronic Calibration Center of the National Bureau of Standards, which would eventually become today’s NIST. The industry news includes a pending merger between Airtron and Litton. Congratulatory letters to the editor by Henry Magnuski (Motorola), George Southworth, William Bourke (Narda) and Marvin Ingalsbe (Lockheed Aircraft) in anticipation of this new venture appear in this first issue. Also, Dr. Henry Riblet (member of Radlab, inventor of the Riblet coupler and co-founder of MDL along with T. Saad) is quoted describing the state of microwave component tuning at the time: “The two most important tools for a microwave engineer are the straight and the curved file.” Dana Atchley, then president of Microwave Associates, writes the first business editorial (Notes of the Industry).
September/October 1958
With a nod toward Professor W.W. Hansen, a high power Stanford klystron, one of 22 used to power the Stanford linear accelerator, capable of generating 30 million watts at a wavelength of 10 cm graces the cover of the second issue (see Figure 7). It is likely that Editor Seymour Cohn via his affiliation with Stanford Research Institute is responsible for this selection. In this issue, Editor Ted Saad discusses the new magazine’s goal of striving “for balance of content without diluting the quality of the magazine. In each issue an effort will be made to include a variety of articles rather than articles similar in type or content.” Ted goes on to note that the results of an early reader survey indicate a desire for tutorial or survey type papers. Readers also wanted papers on antennas, ferrites, solid state, measurements, systems, components and news items. Future issues would focus on the three “Ds”—designs, dimensions and data. (This tradition continues as a principle consideration for paper acceptance by the Microwave Journal editorial review board.) To address the readers’ desire for practical information, editors invite leading innovators from the industry along with a general call for technical papers that “present to the engineer clear description of the working of microwave components, with a minimum of mathematics, and offer him the facts and information that he can readily use.” The result is a plethora of tutorials and technical papers from many of the leading authorities at the time. Tutorials such as “A Novel Aid to Slotted Line Measurements” by Bernard Lamberty, “VSWR Nomograph” by Gershon Wheeler, “Materials for Microwaves” by Dr. Benjamin Lax and a multi-part series on “Using the Smith Diagram” by George C. Southworth appear regularly. Business editorial for the second issue comes from William Burke, Executive VP of Narda Microwave.
January 1959
The first monthly issue features a picture of a parametric amplifier developed by Raytheon Manufacturing Co. (see Figure 8). Wesley Matthaei writes the lead technical feature on the “Recent Advances in Solid State Receivers.” Coming events include an upcoming three day meeting for the National Symposium of the IRE Professional Group on Microwave Theory and Techniques (PGMTT) in June, to be held at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA. Due to strong subscriber response, the editorial scope is expanded to include microwaves in systems; e.g., electronic packages, communications, etc. The editors also acknowledge a small but growing use of microwaves outside of the military and put out a call for more submitted material including more graphs, nomographs and tables. The editors also note that interest in the magazine is extending beyond the US with requests for subscriptions coming from Canada, Scotland, England, France, Sweden, Italy, Jordan, Japan and Brazil.
May 1959
Color photography makes it first appearance on a Microwave Journal cover in Figure 9, which featured a picture of a complete 400 mc (mega cycle) low-noise receiving system using a reactance (parametric) amplifier as the input stage. The letter from the editor that month focused on the PGMTT National Symposium, wherein Saad gave a brief summary of the organization’s previous seven meetings and declared even back in 1959 that, “this is without question the high point of the Microwave year.” The PGMTT National Symposium advance program is printed in the Microwave Journal for the first time. A listing of the presented papers for all seven session takes up two full pages of the magazine.
August & September 1959
The magazine looks toward the international market with an August guest editorial called, “A Look at the Export Market” by William Hewlett, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard Co. and “A View of the Electronics Industry in Scotland” by A.L. Whitwell of James Scott Ltd. By pure coincidence, this early attention to the microwave industry outside the US and specifically in Europe would be a precursor to Microwave Journal’s annual European Microwave week show issue published in September. By this time, the Journal was being mailed to over 20,000 people in 43 countries. At the time, the editors credit an ever-shrinking world due to advances in communications, the emergence of international technical societies and increased global competition. Sound familiar? Content also seems to be driving reader interest at home and abroad. The guest editorial by William Hewlett reflects the willingness of leading company executives to talk directly to the industry through this magazine, a tradition that carries on to this day.
December 1959
The last issue of the decade features a symbolic depiction of the Bogart Antenna Coupler being used to Flight-line test an aircraft antenna. At the end of its first full year as a monthly publication, Microwave Journal (see Figure 10) saw its circulation nearly double from an initial 12,000 subscribers to 23,000. The number of companies on the Journal’s mailing list had grown from 300 to 800. Reporting on the microwave business at the dawn of a new decade, publisher William Bazzy summed up the state of the industry in that month’s business editorial: “Fabulous Sixties! Or Decade of Problems?” Bazzy notes “the major concentrations of microwave activities are in the mid-Atlantic area, with both the northeast and west coast areas about evenly divided in concentration of talents and companies.” Putting the microwave industry of 1959 in terms of dollars, ferrite sales ran approximately $15 M, the large antenna market was at roughly $25 M, both the small antenna and microwave tube markets were at $250 M each, test instrumentation was about $40 M, $15 M for waveguides and coaxial products, and sub-systems were near $200 M. All in all, total component sales (including systems and antennas) in 1959 were believed to add up to $1 B. Bazzy’s final thoughts concern the growing global interest in microwaves and the likelihood of further expansion of the Microwave Journal’s editorial coverage. Interestingly enough, Red China was the noted exception to the global interest in microwave activity of 1959.
With the December issue, the 1950s come to an end with a new industry strong and growing, an industry trade journal with clear editorial focus established and, thanks to the insight of many knowledgeable contributors, a sizable number of readers in place. Next month, our series looks at the 1960s.
