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Biographical Memoirs Volume 54 (1983) / Chapter Skim
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Rudolf Kompfner
Pages 156-181

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From page 156...
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From page 157...
... He received the Stuart Ballantine Mecial of the Franklin Institute in 1960; the John Scott Award from the City of Philadelphia in 1974; the Sylvanus Thompson Medal of the Rontgen Society, incorporated with the British Institute of Radiology, in 1974; anc! the National Medal of Science in 1975.
From page 158...
... like a lifelong friend. Felix Bloch regarcled Rudi as a close friencl, though they met only two years before Rudi's (leash, when neither was young.
From page 159...
... Toward the end of World War I, through the armistice, and for some time thereafter, Viennese children starved because of a total AlliecT blockade. Rudi survived because he was put on a train by the Red Cross and sent without his parents knowing exactly where he was going—to Sweden.
From page 160...
... Myles Wright, London: The Architectural Press, 1937~. It is an admirable building for a narrow (30-foot wide)
From page 161...
... Rucli's approach was phenomenally original. He went to the excellent Patent Office Library in Chancery Lane and read journals and books in the evening.
From page 162...
... microwave tubes.
From page 163...
... The fruitful outcome was the invention of the traveling-wave tube, while trying to make a better klystron amplifier for radar receivers. His funclamental idea—the continuous interaction of an electron stream and an electromagnetic wave of the same velocity traveling along a helix was ingenious, ant]
From page 164...
... ~ tract been considering the effect of traveling waves on electron beams. But because T cticin't think of that wonderfully simple circuit, the helix, and because T only calculated an(l didn't builcl anything, ~ missed the most important point the mutual interaction between the electromagnetic wave an(l electrons that results in a very great amplification.
From page 165...
... He made some theoretical and experimental progress toward this end, partly in collaboration with Neville Robinson. In 1950 Rudi left the Admiralty and became associated with the Atomic Energy Research Establishment, but he continued to work at the CIarendon Laboratory on microwave tubes.
From page 166...
... Charles Townes had invented the first maser in 1953, and one of Townes's students and coworkers, Jim Gordon, was aireacly at work at Bell Laboratories. Early in 1960, when the horn reflector antenna was partially completed, Rudi invited
From page 167...
... him. In using the hornreflector antenna and the ruby maser amplifier they discovered a sky background noise temperature of about 3K.
From page 168...
... H Maiman first used a ruby laser to produce coherent light in 1960, Rucli became convince(1 that light waves wouIcl play an important part in communication.
From page 169...
... The work of three graduate students whom RucTi supervisec! shows something of his interest: Celia Yeack worked on a nonlinear acoustic microscope in which the informationbearing signal is a harmonic of the frequency of illumination;
From page 170...
... Beyond the work of his students, Rudi took a keen interest in the work of other Stanford faculty members, including Cal Quate, Marvin Chodorow, Tony Siegman, Gordon Kino, and Steve Harris. All welcomed his profitable discussions.
From page 171...
... Later, Rucli feel an abandoned baby raccoon, which became a pet, and built a marvelous house for it and arranged an aerial tramway to carry food to it on winter clays. For several years, Ructi devotect a great clear of time and ingenuity toward producing four-legged chairs and tables 1.
From page 172...
... He worked out a quantitative theory. The Stanford dining room was so noisy, he showed, because diners shouted vainly across very wide tables in an effort to make themselves heard amid the din of the futile efforts of others to converse at nearby tables.
From page 173...
... RUDOLF KOMPFNER 173 opportunity to write good and true things about him that he would not have said himself. But I wish to tell in words that Rudi himself wrote the true reward that his career brought him: THE FEELING ONE EXPERIENCES when he obtains a new and important insight, when a crucial experiment works, when an idea begins to grow and bear fruit, these mental states are indescribably beautiful and exciting.
From page 174...
... Space-charge effects in velocity-modulated electron beams.
From page 175...
... IRE,41: 1602-11. 1954 Nonreciprocal loss in traveling-wave tubes using ferrite attenuators.
From page 176...
... Science, 150~3693~: 149- 55. 1966 Beitrage zur Erforschung und Nutzbarmachung von Weltraumphanomenen.
From page 177...
... New York and Great Britain: McGrawHill. 1972 Optics at Bell Laboratories optical communications.
From page 178...
... 1960 2,922,917. Non-reciprocal Elements in Microwave Tubes.
From page 179...
... 3,151,325. Artificial Scattering Elements for Use as Reflectors in Space Communication Systems.
From page 180...
... 3,506,834. Time Division Multiplex Optical Transmission System.


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