Professor Hugh Griffiths of UCL delivers ‘Jennison’ lecture on ‘Reflections on the History of Radar’

Professor Hugh Griffiths of University College London gave his lecture ‘Reflections on the History of Radar’ to an engaged and appreciative audience comprising staff, students, alumni and members of the public at the School of Engineering and Digital Arts, University of Kent on Wednesday 2nd November. This was the third ‘Jennison’ lecture, kindly sponsored by The Institution of Engineering and Technology.

Professor Griffiths presented many facets of the radar story. He started with the pre-history of what we now know as radar, mentioning a very simple system – for anti-collision warning for shipping near ports – patented as long ago as 1904 by German inventor Christian Hulsmeyer.

Professor Griffiths highlighted the various ideas explored in the early 20th century for detecting aircraft. Many of these now seem bizarre – notably the prototype concrete parabolic sound mirrors, some still in-situ along the Kent coast. The first practical demonstration of radar*, the Daventry Experiment, was undertaken by Arnold Wilkins in 1935. This set the scene for the development of the radar systems used in World War 2 at RAF Bawdsey, under the leadership of Robert Watson-Watt, with many experimental flights from RAF Martlesham Heath.

* Radar is actually an acronym, coined by the US Navy in World War 2 – for RAdio Detection And Ranging. It’s now the accepted name for all such systems. The British systems were initially developed as Radio Detection Finding (RDF).