Micro-Waves of the Ether

Among the most important inventions of use to man in time of peace is that small apparatus, no bigger in size than the grip of a hand, which was invented during the last World War.

Hundreds of the foremost American and British scientists were engaged throughout the war years in continuous new researches to raise the level of radio until it should enter the range of radiation of the utmost shortness, known as ether waves of microscopic length. By means of these ultra-rapid oscillations the scientists were able to devise a series of astonishing radar apparatus — the 'magic eyes and ears' — which perform feats that seem miraculous or fantastic. It became possible to distinguish enemy aircraft at a distance of two hundred miles. These apparatus would find the German rockets, which were then brought down by the shells of the anti-aircraft guns that the radar apparatus aimed at them. The bombers were able to direct their blows and their bombs with perfect precision upon the factories from behind dense clouds; the battleships sank a great number of the enemy's ships from miles away in pitch darkness; and even storms and gales could be detected several hours before the rains fell, by means of this wondrous apparatus.

In time of peace the micro-waves of the ether will be used for many useful purposes, and several networks of them are now being erected in Britain and America to provide these services, the most important of which, it is expected, are these: the possibility of sending hundreds of thousands of personal telephone conversations at one and the same time on the same wave, without wires or poles; and communication between cities, where every citizen will have a radio apparatus with a particular wave of its own, by means of which he can hear the broadcasts, see the scenes transmitted by television, and speak to any person by telephone merely by turning a special knob on the apparatus to right or left. This will also do away with all the annoying noises that trouble the clarity of broadcasting, caused by the electrical appliances in the home and its neighborhood or by the state of the weather. It will become possible for us to use the ether for these many purposes to a far greater extent than we use it now, and it will also become possible to transmit scenes by television in their natural colors. And more important than all this is the possibility of setting up a very large network of radar apparatus directing television apparatus, to regulate the movement of air communications and to supply the airports in all parts of the country with rapid reports of sudden changes in the weather.

Not all these things will come to pass quickly; but the scientific researches carried out by the scientists during the war have made them all possible of achievement, and many of them will be within our reach in the very near future, even before we hear anything about them.

The Radiation Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, opened in the month of November 1940, was the principal center for the development of the science of ether waves of microscopic length. The number of persons employed in this laboratory during the war reached 3,800 — scientists, engineers, and assistants — and it was estimated to include twenty percent of the foremost physicists of the United States.

The scientists had realized the great possibilities of this kind of ether waves, but they lacked the apparatus needed for making use of them. Then one of them invented this apparatus, known as the magnetron: an apparatus of simple construction resembling a tube, yet counted among the greatest inventions that science achieved during the war. This metal apparatus is so small in size that you could hide it in the grip of your hand. It was made at the hands of the scientists of the British University of Birmingham, and then sent to the United States during the war. The great scientists in the laboratories of the Bell Company and of other famous companies set about studying the apparatus and its possibilities, until at last it became the beating heart of the modern radar apparatus.

What deserves to be pointed out in this connection is that several electrical companies, and other companies concerned with the manufacture of wire and wireless transmission apparatus in Britain and the United States, have begun to expend tremendous efforts to profit from the properties of this kind of waves and from the various apparatus for their use, with a view to dispensing with telegraph and telephone poles; for thanks to this wondrous discovery it has become possible for man to send several conversations and broadcasts on a single wave at one and the same time, without any confusion whatever and with perfect clarity.