Popular Science - November 1947 - Signal Corps' New Tricks by Hubert Luckett

Back to the InfoAge Homepage

Back to the Press Index

Popular Science
November 1947

Page 134-135

Signal Corps' New Tricks
Web editor note: Future Popular Science Editor Hubert Luckett visited Camp Evans.
The result was two pages of photos in the November issue.
In the photo below to the right of the radar unit is the front door of building 9017 can be seen.
The captured German radar, a Wurtzburg Riese, is still on a rail car.
During and after the war enemy equipment was analyzed for counter-measures
and for ways to improve Allied equipment. This continued after the war with captured German radar scientists,
now in the US under "Operation Paperclip" providing expert insider assistance.

Page 134

Improving Nazi Radar. The Army Signal Corps has big plans for this huge "Wurzburger" radar, built by the Germans.
At the Evans Signal Laboratory, Belmar, N.J., the parabolic antenna will be replaced by an even larger one to shoot signals
to the moon. A "bedspring" antenna made the first moon contact ( PSM, Mar. '46, p. 93 ).

Plastic Aids Tube Surgery. This thyratron tube has been cut in half, but thanks to a plastic the delicate parts are safe. The signal Corps uses the sections to show how the tube works. The specimen is first dunked in molten methyl methacrylate (lucite) and punctured. The vacuum inside the tube sucks in the plastic. When the lucite hardens, the tube can be sawed lengthwise.

Ack-Ack Accuracy. This apparatus tells a gunner just how close he came to the target. Two microphones, each with its own transmitter, are mounted in a target towed by a place. The two microphones each pick up the shell's shock wave and transmit it to ground receivers. Computers use the time lag between the signals to figure how far off target the missile was. (Direct hits, naturally, are disastrous.)

Page 135

Stamping Magnetron Parts. Anodes for the magnetrons that generate radar pulses can be turned out cheaply
with a new process, in which a die in a 300-ton hydraulic press stamps slots in a copper blank.
Photo at left: blanks before and after stamping, die between them.
At right, jig with blank and die is put in press.

Tubes Get Tank-Ride Test. This heavy hammer slams a 6Y6-G amplifier tube to see how long it could take a rough tank ride. Note the blurring as the tube recoils under the impact force a thousand times that of gravity. Testing machines are essential to Signal Corps research into the durability of war material. This machine is one of the testers in a soundproof room at Evans Laboratory.

Radar Tracks Down Mortars. This portable radar set is a Johnny-on-the-Spot in finding enemy mortar batteries. The operator sits at the scope in the trailer, behind a parabolic antenna that automatically scans the sky. The radar picks up a mortar shell in flight at two points on its course. Then an electronic computer figures out the complete trajectory and tells where the gun is placed.

Page updated April 28, 2007 page created April 28, 2007

Back to the InfoAge Homepage

Back to the Press Index