The Radiation Laboratory, commonly
called the Rad Lab, was located at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts (US) and
functioned from October 1940 until December 31, 1945. Alfred Lee
Loomis, a millionaire and physicist who headed his own private
laboratory, selected the location for the laboratory on the
campus, named it the MIT Radiation Laboratory, and arranged
funding for the Rad Lab until federal money was allocated. It
was formed by, and initially operated under, the National
Defense Research Committee (NDRC), a commission established by
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt with Vannevar Bush as its
chairman. In 1941, the NDRC was enlarged to become the Office of
Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), with Bush remaining
as chairman. Lee A. DuBridge served as the Rad Lab director.
This facility was responsible for developing most of the
microwave radars used by the United States during World War II,
including the H2X radar used for bomb-aiming and the subsequent
improvements to the initial H2X radar's technology.
The Rad Lab also developed Loran-A, the first worldwide radio
navigation system, which originally was known as "LRN" for
Loomis Radio Navigation, after Alfred Lee Loomis, who invented
it and played a crucial role in military research and
development during World War II. It remained the most widely
used long-range navigation system until it was gradually
replaced by Loran-C. Loran-A was discontinued by the United
States in 1980.
After the end of World War II, the
United States government continued to pay key people who
had worked at the Radiation Laboratory for six months to
enable them to write about their work.
From the forward of each book:
The tremendous research and development
effort that went into the development of radar and
related techniques during World War II resulted not only
in hundreds of radar sets for military (and some for
possible peacetime) use but also in a great body of
information and new techniques in the electronics and
high-frequency fields. Because this basic material may
be of great value to science and engineering, it seemed
most important to publish it as soon as security
permitted.
However, an altruistic drive to publish
the Lab's achievements in open literature was not the
only impetus.
As C. C. Bissell observes: The imposing
27-volume [sic] Radiation Lab Series was not only a
technological statement, but also a political statement
about the role the United States was to play in the
post-war world that in the post-war world the United
States would be the intellectual driving force of
science and technology, as well as the economic and
political super power.
1.
Radar System Engineering,
Volume 1 of
MIT Radiation Laboratory Series.
McGraw-Hill, New York, 1947, by Louis N. Ridenour.
2.
Radar Aids to Navigation,
Volume 2 of
MIT Radiation Laboratory Series.
McGraw-Hill, New York, 1947, by John S. Hall.
3.
Radar Beacons,
Volume 3 of
MIT Radiation Laboratory Series.
McGraw-Hill, New York, 1947, by Arthur Roberts.
4.
Loran,
Volume 4 of MIT Radiation
Laboratory Series.
McGraw-Hill, New York, 1948, J. A. Pierce, A. A.
McKenzie, and R. H. Woodward.
5.
Pulse Generators,
Volume 5 of
MIT Radiation Laboratory Series.
McGraw-Hill, New York, 1948, by G. N. Glasoe and J. V.
Lebacqz.
6.
Microwave Magnetrons,
Volume 6 of
MIT Radiation Laboratory Series.
McGraw-Hill, New York, 1948, by George B. Collins.
7.
Klystrons and Microwave Triodes,
Volume 7 of MIT Radiation
Laboratory Series.
McGraw-Hill, New York, 1948, by Donald R. Hamilton,
Julian K. Knipp, and J. B. Horner Kuper.
8.
Principles of Microwave Circuits,
Volume 8 of
MIT Radiation Laboratory Series.
McGraw-Hill, New York, 1948, by C. G. Montgomery, R. H.
Dicke, and E. M. Purcell.
9.
Microwave Transmission Circuits,
Volume
9 of MIT Radiation
Laboratory Series.
McGraw-Hill, New York, 1948, by George L. Ragan.
10.
Waveguide Handbook,
Volume 10 of MIT
Radiation Laboratory Series.
McGraw-Hill, New York, 1951, by N. Marcuvitz.
11.
Technique of Microwave Measurements,
Volume 11 of
MIT Radiation Laboratory Series.
McGraw-Hill, New York, 1947, by Carol G. Montgomery.
12.
Microwave Antenna Theory and Design,
Volume 12 of MIT Radiation
Laboratory Series.
McGraw-Hill, New York, 1949, by Samuel Silver.
13.
Propagation of Short Radio Waves,
Volume 13 of
MIT Radiation Laboratory Series.
McGraw-Hill, New York, 1951, by Donald E. Kerr.
14.
Microwave Duplexers,
Volume
14 of MIT Radiation
Laboratory Series.
McGraw-Hill, New York, 1948, by Louis D. Smullin and
Carol G. Montgomery.
15.
Crystal Rectifiers,
Volume 15 of MIT
Radiation Laboratory Series.
McGraw-Hill, New York, 1948, by Henry C. Torrey and
Charles A. Whitmer.
16.
Microwave Mixers,
Volume 16 of
MIT Radiation Laboratory Series.
McGraw-Hill, New York, 1948, by Robert V. Pound.
17.
Components Handbook,
Volume 17 of
MIT Radiation Laboratory Series.
McGraw-Hill, New York, 1949, by John F. Blackburn.
18.
Vacuum Tube Amplifiers,
Volume 18 of
MIT Radiation Laboratory Series.
McGraw-Hill, New York, 1948, by George E. Valley, Jr.
and Henry Wallman.
19.
Waveforms,
Volume
19 of MIT Radiation Laboratory
Series. McGraw-Hill, New
York, 1949, by Britton Chance, Vernon Hughes, Edward F.
MacNichol, Jr., David Sayre, and Frederic C. Williams.
20.
Electronic Time Measurements,
Volume 20 of MIT
Radiation Laboratory Series.
McGraw-Hill, New York, 1949, by Britton Chance, Robert
I. Hulsizer, Edward F. MacNichol, Jr., and Frederic C.
Williams.
21.
Electronic Instruments,
Volume 21 of
MIT Radiation Laboratory Series.
McGraw-Hill, New York, 1948, by Ivan A. Greenwood, Jr.,
J. Vance Holdam, Jr., and Duncan MacRae, Jr.
22.
Cathode Ray Tube Displays,
Volume 22 of
MIT Radiation Laboratory Series.
McGraw-Hill, New York, 1948, by Theodore Soller, Merle
A. Star, and George E. Valley, Jr.
23.
Microwave Receivers,
Volume 23 of
MIT Radiation Laboratory Series.
McGraw- Hill, New York, 1948, by S. N. Van Voorhis.
24.
Threshold Signals,
Volume 24 of
MIT Radiation Laboratory Series.
McGraw-Hill, New York, 1950, by James L. Lawson and
George E. Uhlenbeck.
25.
Theory of Servomechanisms,
Volume 25 of
MIT Radiation Laboratory Series.
McGraw-Hill, New York, 1947, by Hubert M. James,
Nathaniel B. Nichols, and Ralph S. Phillips.
26.
Radar Scanners and Radomes,
Volume 26 of
MIT Radiation Laboratory Series.
McGraw-Hill, New York, 1948, by W. M. Cady, M. B.
Karelitz, and Louis A. Turner.
27.
Computing Mechanisms and Linkages,
Volume 27 of
MIT Radiation Laboratory Series.
McGraw-Hill, New York, 1948, by Antonin Svoboda.
28.
Index,
Volume
28 of MIT Radiation
Laboratory Series.
McGraw-Hill, New York, 1953, by Keith Henney, editor.
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