First-Hand:WWII-Era Radar Development at MIT

Submitted by Samuel Seely

World War II meant my departure from City College of New York with a new career at the Radiation Laboratory at MIT beginning in 1941. During the next five years at Rad Lab, I was involved with the early studies on aspects of the magnetron, with the development of the SCR 542, a radar equipment of interest to the Seacoast Artillery, with the development of radar training equipment, with the assignment as head of a small group to work with the Australian Radiophysics Laboratory.

I sometimes attended the lectures by W.W. Hansen and was the principal editor of The Hansen Notes covering many details of the fundamental undergirding radar, including the theory of magnetrons, klystrons, microwave antennas, receivers, and waveguides. This set of notes (thousands of pages in all) covered two or three years. Upon the completion of WWII work at MIT, I resumed my academic career.