Tall Tales of Places
Memories from years ago - Memories can become more dramatic as they age, so if someone tells you it did not happen this way, they are probably right.
GENERAL ELECTRIC STORIES
' Tall Tales From the Early Days of the G.E. Computer Department' mentions the G.E. Microwave Laboratory and its managers Barney Oldfield and George Trotter. It is a funny story about how management sometimes can be manipulated by the managed. George Trotter was a ham and I bought his home made, three band, transmitter. Lois found their names in one of her early Chrismas card lists. That proves we knew them.
I had just returned from Korea and was rehired by GE in Utica, NY as a test engineer. in July 1954, I was the third employee of the Microwave Lab, and my assignment was to be the liaison the with the architect during the construction of the lab building in the Stanford Industrial park in Palo Alto. Our initial location was in the G.E. Electronics Laboratory in Syracuse and in July we all moved to the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) then housed in the decommissioned U.S Army, Dibble General Hospital in Menlo Park.
The GE building was completed in 1955, and was the second building to be constructed there., after Varian Associates. Now it is completely torn down.
After we moved to the new building, an open house was scheduled. Displays and equipment were needed to show that the lab was operational. I had designed a tube processing station which included a vacuum pump and an oven to bake the tubes. It had two vertical 6 inch pipes with pulleys at the top to raise the oven. This need to be assembled for the open house. So Les Feinstein, a senior tube engineer, Dr. Lester Coghanaur, SP? the chemical engineer and I showed up on a Saturday morning to arc weld the pulleys to the pipes. There were just two welding helmets. The senior engineers got those. and I stood with my back to the operation. Now, things that look easy for experts, sometimes are harder than they look. Feinstein was the welder, and Coghanauer held the cables. The hard part was striking the arc. When the welding rod touched the pipe or pulley, instead of arcing, it welded it self to the part. Then the rod became red hot, and limp like a noodle. At that point my job was to turn off the welder so that the rod could cool and be broken loose. Eventually, the proper technique was found, it all got assembled, and the open house was a success.
The oven was constructed with a rigid white insulating material. It was white and chalky, and came in 4 by 8 foot sheets about one inch thick. Used in ships as insulation. The oven was designed to operate up to 500 degrees centigrade. I used two layers of insulation with a one inch air space between. I lined the inside with aluminium foil to reduce the radiation heat losses. Inside the oven were GE Calrod heaters with high temperature conductors through the wall of the oven. The first item in the oven was a glass blank for a TWT which needed to annealed. It was the first one that had been made by the glass blower, and had been a learning experience. We set the glass on two fire bricks, set the thermocouple temperature controller and the timer, and went home. When we came in the next morning, the glass had melted. It went along the floor of the oven, up over the first fire brick, along the floor, and then over the second fire brick. I was not popular! Everything had worked as designed, except the the leads to the heating elements had touched the aluminum foil and the high current welded the contactor closed. The thermocouple and timer turned the oven off, but the contactor never opened. We broke the contactor loose, insulated the electrical leads and the oven was working great ever after.
The lab building was separated into room which were maybe 20 ft wide by 40 ft long. Each room included any utilities that might be needed for building or operating high power tubes. Along the wall were pipes with for city gas, oxygen, hyrdogen, compressed air. and water. periodic valves were placed to allow conveniernt access. and sewer connections were spaced with the valves. Many of the tubes and magnets were water cooled. The meta tubes were brased in furnaces which had water cooling chambers att the ends. The water went into a large mixing tank out side the building and then into the sewer. The mixing chamber was to dilute any of the chemicals to a safe level before entering the sewer. It was reported that the Palo Alto sewer plant was mined and large quantities of gold, silver and other metals were recovered.
We had several problems with water. We used rubber surgical tubing to hook up the temporary water connections. Like a garden hose. when the water was on full the end of the tubing would thrash around, and the water would go on the floor. The building was designed with floor drains as well as the ones along the walls. When they poured the concrete for the floor slab, they levelled the concrete, then scooped out for the drains. The drains were the highest point of the floor.
I was assigned to test a TWT that Stan Kaisel had designed and GE was building. I think it was about 1 kw cw, and worked at 4kv. As I remember it worked well. The magnet was water cooled, and needed a high flow because of the heat. The tubing wanted to come out of the drain. One morning, I paid extra care to place the surgical tubing well down in the drain. The I turned on the water, and heard a loud scream from the adjacent lab. The tubing had gone down the drain and up the other side. The water hit a person full force in the middle of his back.
On another day, in the adjacent lab, they were trying to repair a leak in a metal klystron. The unit had be furnaced brazed, but one joint had not filled completely. All our brazing was done in hydrogen, because it reduced any metal oxide to pure metal. Also, hydrogen is a small molecule, and easily removed by the vacuum systems. The repair technique was to put the klystron in a bell jar with a hydrogen atmosphere. The bell jars were about 20 inches in diameter and 30 inches tall, with the opening on the bottom. Hydrogen is lighter than air and stays in the top of the jar. They did not want to melt any of the joints previously made. Those areas were water cooled by copper tubing wrapped around the klystron. They were going to heat the repair area with a welding torch using pure oxygen. The oxygen would burn the hydrogen in the bell jar. A very interesting procedure and there were many onlookers. When it all got setup and they were starting, I went from my lab next door. I saw that the cooling water was connected with about 20 feet of surgical tubing. One of the managers had his foot on the tubing, and it had blown up like a sausage six inches diameter and 15 feet long. - about ready to burst. There was some delay. I do not remember if they were successful in the repair.
We built all the processing and vacuum stations. I was designing a processing station and was stewing over which mechanical vacuum pump to build. An older, wiser engineer (I wish I remembered his name) told me, "If you cannot find a reason one is better that the other, It probably doesn't matter. Just go buy one!"
In Utica, GE built clock radios, and one day we toured the plant. GE sold appliance that were marred in the company store at every location. I asked why we never saw any clock radios in the company stores? The answer was, "We don't have marred radios. We just remelt the plastic cases and start over." The manager was looking to hire a new design engineer. He said, "If the engineer could save one cent cost in each radio, he would pay his entire salary. (We did not get paid much then, but the radios did not cost much either.)
' Tall Tales From the Early Days of the G.E. Computer Department' mentions the G.E. Microwave Laboratory and its managers Barney Oldfield and George Trotter. It is a funny story about how management sometimes can be manipulated by the managed. George Trotter was a ham and I bought his home made, three band, transmitter. Lois found their names in one of her early Chrismas card lists. That proves we knew them.
I had just returned from Korea and was rehired by GE in Utica, NY as a test engineer. in July 1954, I was the third employee of the Microwave Lab, and my assignment was to be the liaison the with the architect during the construction of the lab building in the Stanford Industrial park in Palo Alto. Our initial location was in the G.E. Electronics Laboratory in Syracuse and in July we all moved to the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) then housed in the decommissioned U.S Army, Dibble General Hospital in Menlo Park.
The GE building was completed in 1955, and was the second building to be constructed there., after Varian Associates. Now it is completely torn down.
After we moved to the new building, an open house was scheduled. Displays and equipment were needed to show that the lab was operational. I had designed a tube processing station which included a vacuum pump and an oven to bake the tubes. It had two vertical 6 inch pipes with pulleys at the top to raise the oven. This need to be assembled for the open house. So Les Feinstein, a senior tube engineer, Dr. Lester Coghanaur, SP? the chemical engineer and I showed up on a Saturday morning to arc weld the pulleys to the pipes. There were just two welding helmets. The senior engineers got those. and I stood with my back to the operation. Now, things that look easy for experts, sometimes are harder than they look. Feinstein was the welder, and Coghanauer held the cables. The hard part was striking the arc. When the welding rod touched the pipe or pulley, instead of arcing, it welded it self to the part. Then the rod became red hot, and limp like a noodle. At that point my job was to turn off the welder so that the rod could cool and be broken loose. Eventually, the proper technique was found, it all got assembled, and the open house was a success.
The oven was constructed with a rigid white insulating material. It was white and chalky, and came in 4 by 8 foot sheets about one inch thick. Used in ships as insulation. The oven was designed to operate up to 500 degrees centigrade. I used two layers of insulation with a one inch air space between. I lined the inside with aluminium foil to reduce the radiation heat losses. Inside the oven were GE Calrod heaters with high temperature conductors through the wall of the oven. The first item in the oven was a glass blank for a TWT which needed to annealed. It was the first one that had been made by the glass blower, and had been a learning experience. We set the glass on two fire bricks, set the thermocouple temperature controller and the timer, and went home. When we came in the next morning, the glass had melted. It went along the floor of the oven, up over the first fire brick, along the floor, and then over the second fire brick. I was not popular! Everything had worked as designed, except the the leads to the heating elements had touched the aluminum foil and the high current welded the contactor closed. The thermocouple and timer turned the oven off, but the contactor never opened. We broke the contactor loose, insulated the electrical leads and the oven was working great ever after.
The lab building was separated into room which were maybe 20 ft wide by 40 ft long. Each room included any utilities that might be needed for building or operating high power tubes. Along the wall were pipes with for city gas, oxygen, hyrdogen, compressed air. and water. periodic valves were placed to allow conveniernt access. and sewer connections were spaced with the valves. Many of the tubes and magnets were water cooled. The meta tubes were brased in furnaces which had water cooling chambers att the ends. The water went into a large mixing tank out side the building and then into the sewer. The mixing chamber was to dilute any of the chemicals to a safe level before entering the sewer. It was reported that the Palo Alto sewer plant was mined and large quantities of gold, silver and other metals were recovered.
We had several problems with water. We used rubber surgical tubing to hook up the temporary water connections. Like a garden hose. when the water was on full the end of the tubing would thrash around, and the water would go on the floor. The building was designed with floor drains as well as the ones along the walls. When they poured the concrete for the floor slab, they levelled the concrete, then scooped out for the drains. The drains were the highest point of the floor.
I was assigned to test a TWT that Stan Kaisel had designed and GE was building. I think it was about 1 kw cw, and worked at 4kv. As I remember it worked well. The magnet was water cooled, and needed a high flow because of the heat. The tubing wanted to come out of the drain. One morning, I paid extra care to place the surgical tubing well down in the drain. The I turned on the water, and heard a loud scream from the adjacent lab. The tubing had gone down the drain and up the other side. The water hit a person full force in the middle of his back.
On another day, in the adjacent lab, they were trying to repair a leak in a metal klystron. The unit had be furnaced brazed, but one joint had not filled completely. All our brazing was done in hydrogen, because it reduced any metal oxide to pure metal. Also, hydrogen is a small molecule, and easily removed by the vacuum systems. The repair technique was to put the klystron in a bell jar with a hydrogen atmosphere. The bell jars were about 20 inches in diameter and 30 inches tall, with the opening on the bottom. Hydrogen is lighter than air and stays in the top of the jar. They did not want to melt any of the joints previously made. Those areas were water cooled by copper tubing wrapped around the klystron. They were going to heat the repair area with a welding torch using pure oxygen. The oxygen would burn the hydrogen in the bell jar. A very interesting procedure and there were many onlookers. When it all got setup and they were starting, I went from my lab next door. I saw that the cooling water was connected with about 20 feet of surgical tubing. One of the managers had his foot on the tubing, and it had blown up like a sausage six inches diameter and 15 feet long. - about ready to burst. There was some delay. I do not remember if they were successful in the repair.
We built all the processing and vacuum stations. I was designing a processing station and was stewing over which mechanical vacuum pump to build. An older, wiser engineer (I wish I remembered his name) told me, "If you cannot find a reason one is better that the other, It probably doesn't matter. Just go buy one!"
In Utica, GE built clock radios, and one day we toured the plant. GE sold appliance that were marred in the company store at every location. I asked why we never saw any clock radios in the company stores? The answer was, "We don't have marred radios. We just remelt the plastic cases and start over." The manager was looking to hire a new design engineer. He said, "If the engineer could save one cent cost in each radio, he would pay his entire salary. (We did not get paid much then, but the radios did not cost much either.)
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ZENITH RADIO PEOPLE
Commander McDonnald
Eugene F. McDonald was one of the founders of Zenith Radio and later president. This picture of him was on the wall of the conference room in the Menlo Park Lab. When the business was transferred to Applied Technology in Sunnyvale, I rescued it from the trash.
When Commander. McDonald died, Joseph S. Wright was appointed president. Wright was a patent attorney, and had won a significant patent law suit against RCA. He thought patents were an important business assets, and encouraged filing on any possible invention. Later. I worked for companies selling primarily to the government. Patents were unimportant to them because the government has royalty free use of any patent.
Wikipedia's page on Zenith Radio Corporation states, "The company was co-founded by Ralph Matthews and Karl Hassel[2] in Chicago, Illinois as Chicago Radio Labs[3] in 1918 as a small producer of amateur radio equipment. The name "Zenith" came from ZN'th, a contraction of its founders' ham radio call sign, 9ZN. They were joined in 1921 by LCDR Eugene F. McDonald,[3] and Zenith Radio Company was formally incorporated in 1923." It appears that the 9ZN call belonged to Mathews.
Electric Radio, Number 38, June 1992 , page 26, has an article titled "Lee Faber, W7EH...Radio Pioneer", written by Barry Wiseman, N6CSW/0. Faber is quoted that around 1920, "I also got a tube type receiver. It was a CRL Paragon made by Zenith. . . . R.H.G. Mathews (9ZN) was the owner of the company. I think he started the Zenith Corp. and incidentally he was the first to put up a gold plated antenna. It was made of no. 12 copper wire, gold plated." Also from Electric Radio, "From QST, October 1921 . . . Oh Boy, maybe our first national convention won't be remembered a while! Twelve hundred amateurs from out-of-town, representing every district and almost every state, augmented by several hundred local fellows . . . At 10:30 in the morning of Wednesday August 31st, Chairman R.H.G. Mathews called the opening session to order" [The cover of this issue of Electric Radio shows "Ernst Schroder, DJ7HS, with his 'all hollow state' station." Vacuum tubes if you did not understand!]
Eugene F. McDonald was one of the founders of Zenith Radio and later president. This picture of him was on the wall of the conference room in the Menlo Park Lab. When the business was transferred to Applied Technology in Sunnyvale, I rescued it from the trash.
When Commander. McDonald died, Joseph S. Wright was appointed president. Wright was a patent attorney, and had won a significant patent law suit against RCA. He thought patents were an important business assets, and encouraged filing on any possible invention. Later. I worked for companies selling primarily to the government. Patents were unimportant to them because the government has royalty free use of any patent.
Wikipedia's page on Zenith Radio Corporation states, "The company was co-founded by Ralph Matthews and Karl Hassel[2] in Chicago, Illinois as Chicago Radio Labs[3] in 1918 as a small producer of amateur radio equipment. The name "Zenith" came from ZN'th, a contraction of its founders' ham radio call sign, 9ZN. They were joined in 1921 by LCDR Eugene F. McDonald,[3] and Zenith Radio Company was formally incorporated in 1923." It appears that the 9ZN call belonged to Mathews.
Electric Radio, Number 38, June 1992 , page 26, has an article titled "Lee Faber, W7EH...Radio Pioneer", written by Barry Wiseman, N6CSW/0. Faber is quoted that around 1920, "I also got a tube type receiver. It was a CRL Paragon made by Zenith. . . . R.H.G. Mathews (9ZN) was the owner of the company. I think he started the Zenith Corp. and incidentally he was the first to put up a gold plated antenna. It was made of no. 12 copper wire, gold plated." Also from Electric Radio, "From QST, October 1921 . . . Oh Boy, maybe our first national convention won't be remembered a while! Twelve hundred amateurs from out-of-town, representing every district and almost every state, augmented by several hundred local fellows . . . At 10:30 in the morning of Wednesday August 31st, Chairman R.H.G. Mathews called the opening session to order" [The cover of this issue of Electric Radio shows "Ernst Schroder, DJ7HS, with his 'all hollow state' station." Vacuum tubes if you did not understand!]
Dr. Ellett
When I applied to work for Zenith, I went to Chicago for an interview. My recollection is that lunch had been arranged with Dr. Ellett, who was the Vice President of Research. For lunch we went to the company cafeteria. I probably had a sandwich and a drink. Dr. Ellett paid the 35 cents. I was not impressed, but I was offered the job and accepted. Worked for Zenith longer that any where else. Worked harder and longer hours than anywhere else. Accomplished more and had more fun than anywhere else.
George Hrbek
There is a photo of George on the Zenith Book Blog in the April 21, 2014 post.
We were building some very special EBPA tubes that were hand carried back to Chicago. I believe they were for a phased array radar application. George would fly out to Menlo Park, and return with the tubes. I believe we bought an extra seat for the package. He came to our house for dinner at least once.
One trip when he was returning, the jet nearly crashed. It was early in the use of jets, and two or three had crashed due to unknown circumstances. The jet went from the cruising altitude to with in a few thousand feet of the earth out of control. The pilot was able to save the aircraft and tell what had happened. This was the discovery of what now is know as clear air turbulence. Jets flew much higher than the prop transports. When a prop aircraft entered an area with turbulence, the procedure was to slow the aircraft which reduced passenger discomfort. Early on this was the procedure for jets also. What was new at higher altitudes was that the upward velocity of the clear air turbulence was much stronger than previously known. The upward air velocity combined with the aircraft slower forward velocity gave a resultant direction which stalled the wing just as if the pilot had raised the nose of the aircraft. Jets no longer slow down, I am unaware of other crashes due to this cause.
When I applied to work for Zenith, I went to Chicago for an interview. My recollection is that lunch had been arranged with Dr. Ellett, who was the Vice President of Research. For lunch we went to the company cafeteria. I probably had a sandwich and a drink. Dr. Ellett paid the 35 cents. I was not impressed, but I was offered the job and accepted. Worked for Zenith longer that any where else. Worked harder and longer hours than anywhere else. Accomplished more and had more fun than anywhere else.
George Hrbek
There is a photo of George on the Zenith Book Blog in the April 21, 2014 post.
We were building some very special EBPA tubes that were hand carried back to Chicago. I believe they were for a phased array radar application. George would fly out to Menlo Park, and return with the tubes. I believe we bought an extra seat for the package. He came to our house for dinner at least once.
One trip when he was returning, the jet nearly crashed. It was early in the use of jets, and two or three had crashed due to unknown circumstances. The jet went from the cruising altitude to with in a few thousand feet of the earth out of control. The pilot was able to save the aircraft and tell what had happened. This was the discovery of what now is know as clear air turbulence. Jets flew much higher than the prop transports. When a prop aircraft entered an area with turbulence, the procedure was to slow the aircraft which reduced passenger discomfort. Early on this was the procedure for jets also. What was new at higher altitudes was that the upward velocity of the clear air turbulence was much stronger than previously known. The upward air velocity combined with the aircraft slower forward velocity gave a resultant direction which stalled the wing just as if the pilot had raised the nose of the aircraft. Jets no longer slow down, I am unaware of other crashes due to this cause.
Robert Adler
Bob was the Vice President and Director of Research and had a huge number of inventions and 58 patents. He was awarded the Edison Medal and received a Motion Picture Association Emmy. There is a biography and pictures in the Zenith Book Blog, February 2015 post. Also, there is an interview in the June 24th post.
He often came to Menlo Park. One visit he came up from San Diego where he had been designing a fix for Zenith's Space Command TV remote control. It operated by striking short aluminium rods which were ultrasonic bells. The TV heard the sound and changed channels or volume. At our house, shaking the dog's collar or your car keys would sometimes change the settings. In San Diego the Navy had a low frequency radio transmitter operating about 100 kHz. It was changing the channels of every Zenith TV in San Diego. The Zenith distributor was not happy. Bob Adler had designed a filter to eliminate the interference.
Bob was the Vice President and Director of Research and had a huge number of inventions and 58 patents. He was awarded the Edison Medal and received a Motion Picture Association Emmy. There is a biography and pictures in the Zenith Book Blog, February 2015 post. Also, there is an interview in the June 24th post.
He often came to Menlo Park. One visit he came up from San Diego where he had been designing a fix for Zenith's Space Command TV remote control. It operated by striking short aluminium rods which were ultrasonic bells. The TV heard the sound and changed channels or volume. At our house, shaking the dog's collar or your car keys would sometimes change the settings. In San Diego the Navy had a low frequency radio transmitter operating about 100 kHz. It was changing the channels of every Zenith TV in San Diego. The Zenith distributor was not happy. Bob Adler had designed a filter to eliminate the interference.
Curt Foster
Leigh Curtis Foster was in charge of the Zenith Radio Research Laboratory during the entire time I was there. I believe that he was the instigator of most of the inventions that came from there. I can remember brainstorming meetings in his office. He would have a new idea. Burt Crumly would provide the mathematical/physics support to the idea.
Curt's father was John Stewart Foster a professor at McGill. Curt's brother was John S. Foster Jr. who had been the Director of U.C Livermore Laboratory, and was Assistant Secretary of Defense in charge of Defense Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
After ZRRC projects were transferred to Applied Technology, Curt was there for several years. Later I believe he was VP of Engineering at Motorola Corporation in Chicago.
Leigh Curtis Foster was in charge of the Zenith Radio Research Laboratory during the entire time I was there. I believe that he was the instigator of most of the inventions that came from there. I can remember brainstorming meetings in his office. He would have a new idea. Burt Crumly would provide the mathematical/physics support to the idea.
Curt's father was John Stewart Foster a professor at McGill. Curt's brother was John S. Foster Jr. who had been the Director of U.C Livermore Laboratory, and was Assistant Secretary of Defense in charge of Defense Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
After ZRRC projects were transferred to Applied Technology, Curt was there for several years. Later I believe he was VP of Engineering at Motorola Corporation in Chicago.
C. Burton Crumly and Robert Cohoon
Burt and Bob moved from the Zenith Plant in Chicago to Menlo Park to help with the EBPA development. Bob Cohoon was the the engineer in charge of EBPA production.
Burt and Bob moved from the Zenith Plant in Chicago to Menlo Park to help with the EBPA development. Bob Cohoon was the the engineer in charge of EBPA production.
ZENITH RADIO RESEARCH STORIES (ZRRC)
Winfield Salisbury was the first manager of ZRRC, and has had many prominent inventions. See for example; Radar absorbent material Salisbury Screen, and Salisbury's patents. His web site biography has, "1956-1958: Zenith Radio Research Corporation, Salisbury Laboratory, Redwood City, California, Director of Research in Nuclear Fusion and magnetic confinement 2.5-million gauss magnetic field."
His name came to my attention when we first moved back to California because Walter H. Kohl's book Materials Technology for Electron Tubes, 1951 edition was/is dedicated to Winfield Salisbury. Kohl's book was the standard reference for vacuum tube construction. (Not sure why the name stood out. I/we have a distant relative by marriage named Salisbury Field, but I did not know that then.)
Years later at Applied Technology. I met Winfield Salisbury's son who was working there. (Sorry I do not remember is name.) He told me this story about the formation of Zenith Radio Research in Menlo Park. It seems that one day in Los Altos, a police officer drove by the Salisbury home and a gravel truck was loading sand bags. The officer asked Dr. Salisbury, "What was he going to do with the sand bags?". Dr. Salisbury said, "They were to contain any possible explosion in the garage." Officer, "What explosion?" Dr. Salisbury, "Well, there is this fusion experiment." Officer, "Not in Los Altos!"
Somewhere there is a description of the formation of Zenith Radio Research Corporation in California - this is what I remember of it. Zenith sponsored Salisbury's experiments and set up a laboratory at 839/841 Warrington Ave in Redwood City. It was a small building that appeared to have been a machine or auto shop on an unpaved street. It seems that fusion was harder than they expected, and after a year or so Salisbury left and L. Curtis Foster was brought in to head the facility. I was hired a year or two after Salisbury left, but the folks that were still there thought they might have seen neutron activity that indicated fusion.
About the time the fusion work stopped, Dr. Adler and Dr. Glen Wade of Stanford had conceived the Electron Beam Parametric Amplifier (EBPA). This was based on a microwave cyclotron tube developed in 1949, by C. L. (Lou) Cuccia, and published in a paper in the RCA Review, Vol 10, Number 2, page 270,. Adler and Wade realized that a quadrapole structure between the input and output couplers would amplify the signal. Adler was looking for a location to build the tube. The center of the microwave tube industry was on the SF Peninsula, and the EBPA was moved there. Production was fully established before I arrived.
Pulsed X-ray systems were also being built in that building by some of the folks originally hired for the fusion work. At that time GE, Varian Associates, and others were building high power microwave tubes that operated at high voltages - 25 kv and up. The prime use for these tubes would have been in radar systems. The high voltages were dangerous from an electrocution possibility, but also dangerous because of the X-rays they produced. The end of the tube where the electrons hit is called the collector. It needed to be carefully shielded to contain the X-rays. Someone suggested, just throw away all the hard to build microwave cavities and keep the X-rays. A number of these systems were built with a piece of tungsten in the collector to emphasize the X-rays and a beryllium window to let the X-rays out. One application was in the space program to see how the organs of the astronauts were effected by rocket vibration. I believe in the Analog Archive and Museum, (garage), there might be a motion picture of one of those tests with an astronaut on a shake table.
So Zenith was producing in the same building tubes which operated pulsed at 50 kilovolts and 1 ampere and continuously at 5 volts and 50 microamperes.
We moved to 4040 Campbell Avenue, Menlo Park.
When every U.S. home had a color television, it became much more difficult to sell a second one. Zenith began to feel short of money, and closed the Menlo Park operation. Curt made a deal with John Grigsby to hire the staff and transfer the laser and EBPA production to the new Applied Technology building at 645 Almanor Ave, Sunnyvale. Later we moved to a building at 739 Arques Ave Sunnyvale. A short paragraph on the closing is in the Zenith Book Blog July 30, 2014 post.
Winfield Salisbury was the first manager of ZRRC, and has had many prominent inventions. See for example; Radar absorbent material Salisbury Screen, and Salisbury's patents. His web site biography has, "1956-1958: Zenith Radio Research Corporation, Salisbury Laboratory, Redwood City, California, Director of Research in Nuclear Fusion and magnetic confinement 2.5-million gauss magnetic field."
His name came to my attention when we first moved back to California because Walter H. Kohl's book Materials Technology for Electron Tubes, 1951 edition was/is dedicated to Winfield Salisbury. Kohl's book was the standard reference for vacuum tube construction. (Not sure why the name stood out. I/we have a distant relative by marriage named Salisbury Field, but I did not know that then.)
Years later at Applied Technology. I met Winfield Salisbury's son who was working there. (Sorry I do not remember is name.) He told me this story about the formation of Zenith Radio Research in Menlo Park. It seems that one day in Los Altos, a police officer drove by the Salisbury home and a gravel truck was loading sand bags. The officer asked Dr. Salisbury, "What was he going to do with the sand bags?". Dr. Salisbury said, "They were to contain any possible explosion in the garage." Officer, "What explosion?" Dr. Salisbury, "Well, there is this fusion experiment." Officer, "Not in Los Altos!"
Somewhere there is a description of the formation of Zenith Radio Research Corporation in California - this is what I remember of it. Zenith sponsored Salisbury's experiments and set up a laboratory at 839/841 Warrington Ave in Redwood City. It was a small building that appeared to have been a machine or auto shop on an unpaved street. It seems that fusion was harder than they expected, and after a year or so Salisbury left and L. Curtis Foster was brought in to head the facility. I was hired a year or two after Salisbury left, but the folks that were still there thought they might have seen neutron activity that indicated fusion.
About the time the fusion work stopped, Dr. Adler and Dr. Glen Wade of Stanford had conceived the Electron Beam Parametric Amplifier (EBPA). This was based on a microwave cyclotron tube developed in 1949, by C. L. (Lou) Cuccia, and published in a paper in the RCA Review, Vol 10, Number 2, page 270,. Adler and Wade realized that a quadrapole structure between the input and output couplers would amplify the signal. Adler was looking for a location to build the tube. The center of the microwave tube industry was on the SF Peninsula, and the EBPA was moved there. Production was fully established before I arrived.
Pulsed X-ray systems were also being built in that building by some of the folks originally hired for the fusion work. At that time GE, Varian Associates, and others were building high power microwave tubes that operated at high voltages - 25 kv and up. The prime use for these tubes would have been in radar systems. The high voltages were dangerous from an electrocution possibility, but also dangerous because of the X-rays they produced. The end of the tube where the electrons hit is called the collector. It needed to be carefully shielded to contain the X-rays. Someone suggested, just throw away all the hard to build microwave cavities and keep the X-rays. A number of these systems were built with a piece of tungsten in the collector to emphasize the X-rays and a beryllium window to let the X-rays out. One application was in the space program to see how the organs of the astronauts were effected by rocket vibration. I believe in the Analog Archive and Museum, (garage), there might be a motion picture of one of those tests with an astronaut on a shake table.
So Zenith was producing in the same building tubes which operated pulsed at 50 kilovolts and 1 ampere and continuously at 5 volts and 50 microamperes.
We moved to 4040 Campbell Avenue, Menlo Park.
When every U.S. home had a color television, it became much more difficult to sell a second one. Zenith began to feel short of money, and closed the Menlo Park operation. Curt made a deal with John Grigsby to hire the staff and transfer the laser and EBPA production to the new Applied Technology building at 645 Almanor Ave, Sunnyvale. Later we moved to a building at 739 Arques Ave Sunnyvale. A short paragraph on the closing is in the Zenith Book Blog July 30, 2014 post.
Electron Beam Parametric Amplifier - These tubes were built by Zenith Radio Research Corporation in Redwood City and Menlo Park from about 1958 to 1972. Applied Technology a division of Itek Corporation continued to build them until about 1980. During the Cuban missile crisis, this preamplifier was added to the radars in Florida. That enabled the radars to show the Russian aircraft over Cuba. Another reference see page 82 ff.
ZRRC PEOPLE PATENTS - A quick search listed these:
2,821,656 Foster (Kaiser) Electron device
2,880,341 Foster Akin (Kaiser) Facsimile tube
2,945,982 Foster Electron device
2,996,633 Foster Low inductance switch
3,090,925 Adler, Wade, Parametric Amplifier
3,137,831 Foster Air-wound air -core transformer
3,171,030 Foster Reeves system for producing short pulses of x-ray energy
3,192,425 Foster X-ray tube with adjustable electron beam cross-section
3,271,731 Adler, Crumly, Foster, Lindley Electron beam parametric amplifier with positive ion elimination
3,274,418 Crumly Field concentrator having conductive loop proximat beam
3,315,152 Lindley Adjustable voltage divider circuit
3,379,994 Foster Acoustic Intruder detection system
3,394,381 Foster Acceleration recorder
3,430,094 Foster Display devices
3,445,748 Crumly Microwave power rectifiers
3,467,509 Foster, Lindley Method of making glass to metal seals
3,497,826 Foster Scanning laser systems and components useful therein
3,506,835 Foster Photo-detector signal -translating device
3,516,729 Adler Cylindrical lens compensation of wide-aperature Brag deflection scanning cell
3,531,184 Adler Monochromatic light beam deflection apparatus
3,676,592 Foster HIGH-RESOLUTION LINEAR OPTICAL SCANNING SYSTEM WITH TRAVELING WAVE ACOUSTIC LENS
3,711,735 Foster CORONA DISCHARGE VOLTAGE REGULATOR
3,727,062 Foster ACOUSTO-OPTIC INFORMATION TRANSLATION SYSTEM WITH REFERENCE BEAM FOR CONTROL PURPOSES
3,746,427 Foster Acousto-optic system with simplified optics
3,858,201 Foster, High angular resolution sensor 1974
3,934,153 Lindley, Rieden Electro-optic system with expanded power range
3,942,109 Crumly, Lindley Sweeping spectrum analyser
4,147,424 Foster, Lindley Radiation discrimination system
5,159,406 Foster, Adler Light-operated accelerometer-type techniques
2,821,656 Foster (Kaiser) Electron device
2,880,341 Foster Akin (Kaiser) Facsimile tube
2,945,982 Foster Electron device
2,996,633 Foster Low inductance switch
3,090,925 Adler, Wade, Parametric Amplifier
3,137,831 Foster Air-wound air -core transformer
3,171,030 Foster Reeves system for producing short pulses of x-ray energy
3,192,425 Foster X-ray tube with adjustable electron beam cross-section
3,271,731 Adler, Crumly, Foster, Lindley Electron beam parametric amplifier with positive ion elimination
3,274,418 Crumly Field concentrator having conductive loop proximat beam
3,315,152 Lindley Adjustable voltage divider circuit
3,379,994 Foster Acoustic Intruder detection system
3,394,381 Foster Acceleration recorder
3,430,094 Foster Display devices
3,445,748 Crumly Microwave power rectifiers
3,467,509 Foster, Lindley Method of making glass to metal seals
3,497,826 Foster Scanning laser systems and components useful therein
3,506,835 Foster Photo-detector signal -translating device
3,516,729 Adler Cylindrical lens compensation of wide-aperature Brag deflection scanning cell
3,531,184 Adler Monochromatic light beam deflection apparatus
3,676,592 Foster HIGH-RESOLUTION LINEAR OPTICAL SCANNING SYSTEM WITH TRAVELING WAVE ACOUSTIC LENS
3,711,735 Foster CORONA DISCHARGE VOLTAGE REGULATOR
3,727,062 Foster ACOUSTO-OPTIC INFORMATION TRANSLATION SYSTEM WITH REFERENCE BEAM FOR CONTROL PURPOSES
3,746,427 Foster Acousto-optic system with simplified optics
3,858,201 Foster, High angular resolution sensor 1974
3,934,153 Lindley, Rieden Electro-optic system with expanded power range
3,942,109 Crumly, Lindley Sweeping spectrum analyser
4,147,424 Foster, Lindley Radiation discrimination system
5,159,406 Foster, Adler Light-operated accelerometer-type techniques
LOCKHEED
Jim Hodgson was U.S. Secretary of Labor for President Nixon from 1974 to 1977 and later U.S. Ambassador to Japan. He and his family lived in one of the apartments on Midvale Avenue in West LA my dad owned. Jim had just returned from the Navy and joined Lockheed in the Personnel Department. I remember fixing one of his radios. My screwdriver slipped and I burned out all of the tubes. I didn't make any money on that job. In 1949. He got me my first real job at Lockheed for the summer. It was as a Fabrication Helper at $1.10 an hour. I did so well that in a month I got a raise to Sheet Metal Trimmer at $1.15 per hour. I had worked before then carrying the S.F. Examiner. I worked for my dad, so that does not count as a job.
When I worked for Lockheed the second time, I got my same employee number back. All the employee weekly records in Sunnyvale were sorted by employee number. I was always on the top of the list.
Jim Hodgson was U.S. Secretary of Labor for President Nixon from 1974 to 1977 and later U.S. Ambassador to Japan. He and his family lived in one of the apartments on Midvale Avenue in West LA my dad owned. Jim had just returned from the Navy and joined Lockheed in the Personnel Department. I remember fixing one of his radios. My screwdriver slipped and I burned out all of the tubes. I didn't make any money on that job. In 1949. He got me my first real job at Lockheed for the summer. It was as a Fabrication Helper at $1.10 an hour. I did so well that in a month I got a raise to Sheet Metal Trimmer at $1.15 per hour. I had worked before then carrying the S.F. Examiner. I worked for my dad, so that does not count as a job.
When I worked for Lockheed the second time, I got my same employee number back. All the employee weekly records in Sunnyvale were sorted by employee number. I was always on the top of the list.
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AN OBSERVATION
When I started work, progress reports and other documents were written in long hand on yellow tablets and given to the department secretary who typed them. You then corrected them, and a final copy was made. When computer terminals became common. You typed the report and gave it to the department secretary to correct. Now, you type the report and the PC corrects it.
When I started work, progress reports and other documents were written in long hand on yellow tablets and given to the department secretary who typed them. You then corrected them, and a final copy was made. When computer terminals became common. You typed the report and gave it to the department secretary to correct. Now, you type the report and the PC corrects it.
PLANE PEOPLE
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Smitty said:
He learned to fly before WWII in Texas. In the Army Air Force, he was an instructor and never never Texas. Near the end of the war, the Army stopped training pilots. It is my memory that he was hired by United Airlines before to was was over. Started in Douglas DC-3s and finished flying DC-10s When United was flying DC-3s down the San Joaquin Valley and stopping at all the towns, it took less flying time with a headwind than with a tail wind. With a headwind you made straight in arrivals and departures. With a tailwind you had to fly the pattern. United had a route to Catalina Island where you alternated leaving from Burbank and LAX. In the afternoon, you could not remember which airport to return to next. Catalina was on the top of the island. If it was becoming dull, on the approach you descended until the DC-3 was below the airport. Then you turned to the Co-pilot and said, "You've got it". Cessna 195 flew just like the DC-3. The Boeing 727 flew just like a fighter. United had some Boeing 727QCs. The seats were on pallets and could be removed at night so the aircraft could haul freight then reinstalled in the morning. They were taking one from LA to the east. Suddenly, on climb out, they could hear screams from the cabin through the closed cockpit door. There was a bat flying up and down the isle and some of the passengers were unhappy. So, how do you cope with a bat in an aircraft? You turn to the second officer and say, "Take care of the bat." Shortly there was a wiggly blanket on the cockpit floor. After all of the passenger were out of the plane, they let the bat loose and it headed towards Los Angeles. Not sure I will tell his story of "poor old Spot", If you want to know, call me. When he first got the Swift, he was convinced that the Swift did not like him, and meant to kill him. His last United plane was the DC-10. On landing, when the wheels touched, he was still about 20 feet in the air. When the Swift landed, he was about 20 inches in the air. In the morning, I would meet him outside the hangar. He would be in his truck. doing the daily crossword in ink starting from the upper left toward the lower right with no cross-outs! |
George said:
He had hundred of dollars worth of tools in East River near Manhattan. The Pan Am Clippers were maintained in the water next to the dock. Anything dropped sank . When he was stationed in Lebanon, he did not understand why the fuel did not explode when refuelling because it was so hot. It was cold in Iceland. We were bidding to buy the same Swift,. I won and he then bought the 'Yellow Globe Swift' Applied Technology took some equipment to the Farnborough Air Show near London, and Lois and I stayed in the hotel Pan Am used for its crews. One afternoon, George came in and called "Lois" in surprise when he saw her. The whole lobby knew who she was! His last assignment was in Boeing 747SP aircraft non-stop to New Zeeland and Australia. George and I made several cross country trips in Swifts together. |
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WHERE WAS I WHEN
When something momentous happened, I remember clearly what I was doing that day, but what happened last Thursday is really fuzzy.
When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, I was in the car riding with my dad home from visiting at Carter Lake. We had not gotten to the bridge which went over the railroad. We heard it on the car radio.
When President John F. Kennedy was killed, I was in Huntsville, Alabama at the Space Center. One of the engineers heard it on th radio. It was Friday and I was coming home that night via Chicago on American Airlines. One flight to SF did not arrive due to weather at the departure location. Another plane had mechanical problems. So, there were three planes worth of people for the aircraft I was supposed to take. The gate agent had a lottery, drawing names of those that were going to get a seat. My name was drawn. There was a lot of tension at the gate, and it got ugly. The agent threatened to call the police.
When Lee Harvey Oswald was killed I was in the family room watching the TV coverage of him being taken to jail. Every one else was at church..
When the Space Shuttle Challenger broke up, I was having lunch in Maryland with several customers and friends. The TV in the restaurant was showing the launch.
When the Loma Prieta Earthquake hit, it was shortly after 5 p.m. and I was up the hall standing in a doorway. I held on to the door frame. I seemed exciting but not frightening at the time. On the way home, the traffic signals on El Camino were out, traffic was slow but moving. The light poles were swaying. I drove north on I280. It was rough at one point, and later closed for a while. At our house, one mason jar of moonshine (legal) had fallen and broken, and some new cracks. The moonshine was legal and came from the liquor department. It tasted like corn.
When lightning hit the redwood tree, I was shopping for Christmas presents. When I got home, there was debris everywhere, the power lines were down, and it was raining in the living room. I do not remember worrying about the downed power lines because there were no lights at any of the neighbors. As I walked into the house, mother asked if the damage was an act of God? I thought she had closer connections than I and should know how to ask Him. She was checking the insurance policy.
When the aircraft attacked on September 11th, we were at home, having returned from Scotland on September 9th. A phone call alerted us, and we watched. I believe we saw one of the attackers. On Saturday, September 9th we flew from Edingurgh to Newark, went through customs and then to another concourse for our flight to SF. There was a tram between the two concourses and we went up and got into the car. There was a mechanical problem and it sat there and more folks got on. One was a Middle Eastern appearing man in suit and briefcase. We visited three large airports and probably saw 1000's of people that day, he was the only one I remembered. Something about that man made him stand out. The tram never moved. We walked to the next gate.
When something momentous happened, I remember clearly what I was doing that day, but what happened last Thursday is really fuzzy.
When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, I was in the car riding with my dad home from visiting at Carter Lake. We had not gotten to the bridge which went over the railroad. We heard it on the car radio.
When President John F. Kennedy was killed, I was in Huntsville, Alabama at the Space Center. One of the engineers heard it on th radio. It was Friday and I was coming home that night via Chicago on American Airlines. One flight to SF did not arrive due to weather at the departure location. Another plane had mechanical problems. So, there were three planes worth of people for the aircraft I was supposed to take. The gate agent had a lottery, drawing names of those that were going to get a seat. My name was drawn. There was a lot of tension at the gate, and it got ugly. The agent threatened to call the police.
When Lee Harvey Oswald was killed I was in the family room watching the TV coverage of him being taken to jail. Every one else was at church..
When the Space Shuttle Challenger broke up, I was having lunch in Maryland with several customers and friends. The TV in the restaurant was showing the launch.
When the Loma Prieta Earthquake hit, it was shortly after 5 p.m. and I was up the hall standing in a doorway. I held on to the door frame. I seemed exciting but not frightening at the time. On the way home, the traffic signals on El Camino were out, traffic was slow but moving. The light poles were swaying. I drove north on I280. It was rough at one point, and later closed for a while. At our house, one mason jar of moonshine (legal) had fallen and broken, and some new cracks. The moonshine was legal and came from the liquor department. It tasted like corn.
When lightning hit the redwood tree, I was shopping for Christmas presents. When I got home, there was debris everywhere, the power lines were down, and it was raining in the living room. I do not remember worrying about the downed power lines because there were no lights at any of the neighbors. As I walked into the house, mother asked if the damage was an act of God? I thought she had closer connections than I and should know how to ask Him. She was checking the insurance policy.
When the aircraft attacked on September 11th, we were at home, having returned from Scotland on September 9th. A phone call alerted us, and we watched. I believe we saw one of the attackers. On Saturday, September 9th we flew from Edingurgh to Newark, went through customs and then to another concourse for our flight to SF. There was a tram between the two concourses and we went up and got into the car. There was a mechanical problem and it sat there and more folks got on. One was a Middle Eastern appearing man in suit and briefcase. We visited three large airports and probably saw 1000's of people that day, he was the only one I remembered. Something about that man made him stand out. The tram never moved. We walked to the next gate.
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