Pioneers of Radar [Hardcover]

Colin Latham (Author), Anne Stobbs (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1999 | ISBN-10: 075092120X | ISBN-13: 978-0750921206 | Edition: 1

In 1935 a simple demonstration in the Midlands of the reflection of radio waves from an overflying aircraft led to the development of a war-winning device - radar. This volume tells the story of a team of mainly young scientists and engineers who played a vital part in enabling Britain to outwit the onslaught of the Nazi bombers during World War II. It reveals how they fought the radar war-within-a-war, providing solutions to each new threat posed by the enemy. They were civilians working strictly under the Official Secrets Act for the whole of their wartime service. But ordinary civilians they were not; nor was the team they made up anything other than extraordinary in its combined brain power, its continual need for improvisation and its outright dedication to the changing needs of the services at home and overseas. This team was known successively by a number of titles until in November 1940 it acquired and retained the name by which it was best known throughout the war: TRE - the Telecommunications Research Establishment.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Sutton Pub Ltd; 1 edition (July 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 075092120X
• ISBN-13: 978-0750921206
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,882,110 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars VERY informative, but a slow read..., May 11, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Pioneers of Radar (Hardcover)

I found this book very informative- much more so than "The Invention That Changed the World", by Robert Buderi. This book gave the hard facts of the history and invention of radar- information I needed for a research paper- but was a slow read. I liked that the book focused more on the historical than scientific nature of radar. I would recommend this book to anyone who is doing research or who would love to learn the history of one of the most important inventions used in World War II.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Oral history of early British radar development at TRE, May 10, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Pioneers of Radar (Hardcover)

It is an oral history of British Radar development at the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE), with emphasis on the period up to 1942. As such, it shares both the strongpoints and pitfalls of this type of books:it presents many different points of view, (in fact, the book is to be commended by its inclusiveness, as not only engineers and scientists in the development area were contacted, but also field technical people and even fitters), and is full of interesting and sometimes revealing anedoctes. On the other hand, the reminiscences have different levels of value and interest, and have, as usual, their fair share of innacuracies, not always pointed out by the editors.

All in all a worthwhile book for those interested in the early history of radar on the British side, both with and without a technical background. Also of interest for those involved in the organizational aspect of R&D structures, as an example of a (in the beginning)very loose but highly effective research organization. It helps, however, to have a historical background to the book. If you are looking for an entry-level book on radar history, it is better to turn to Guerlac or Brown.