EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
General => General Technical Chat => Topic started by: SylvainP on September 05, 2015, 12:24:53 am
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Anyone knows good books, documentaries, web sites or internet videos about the history of electronic?
I'm interested in pre 1914 radio, WW1 electronic on all fronts (was there any electronic means of airplane and submarine detection considered back then?), what happened internationally between the two World War, and then electronic (radio, radar, sonar and other type of submarine detection ) in world war 2 on all fronts again. I am particularly interested in electronic in the Axis countries during World War 2 as there seems to be very little or nothing on the subject in western books or documentaries.
I'm also interested in the history of the various basic tube and transistor circuits. Who invented them, when and why? How fast were they adopted? Any legal battles between two owners of similar patents?
I'm also interested by the history of cybernetic (specially Claude Shannon's work), computer peripherals and computer science. I do think (but might be in error) I know everything about the history of the electronic computer itself.
I don't mind very technical documentation even if I probably won't understand anything but the broad concepts.
Here's a good source for this kind of things: http://www.americanradiohistory.com/ (http://www.americanradiohistory.com/)
Thank you in advance.
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I'm also interested by the history of cybernetic (specially Claude Shannon's work), computer peripherals ...
I love this historical website. Lots of neat old pics and hardware -
THE MouseSite Digital Archive
THE MouseSite Digital Archive contains a broad variety of materials documenting the development of human/computer interaction. The archive includes texts, images, video clips, bibliographies, and interviews with Douglas Engelbart, the inventor of the computer mouse.
http://web.stanford.edu/dept/SUL/library/extra4/sloan/MouseSite/MouseSitePg1.html (http://web.stanford.edu/dept/SUL/library/extra4/sloan/MouseSite/MouseSitePg1.html)
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A couple interesting books:
Tuxedo Park: A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science That Changed the Course of World War II
http://www.amazon.com/Tuxedo-Park-Street-Science-Changed-ebook/dp/B00F8KUJ58 (http://www.amazon.com/Tuxedo-Park-Street-Science-Changed-ebook/dp/B00F8KUJ58)
About Alfred Lee Loomis, a fascinating character involved with the development of radar.
The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation
http://www.amazon.com/The-Idea-Factory-American-Innovation-ebook/dp/B005GSZIWG (http://www.amazon.com/The-Idea-Factory-American-Innovation-ebook/dp/B005GSZIWG)
About Bell Labs. Extensively features the development of the transistor, Schockley, and Claude Shannon.
I enjoyed the TV show "Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio"
http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/empire/ (http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/empire/)
It was Episode 7 of Ken Burns: America from PBS
It covers the rivalry between Lee de Forest and Edwin Howard Armstrong.
If you haven't seen it, you may be able to find it for free somewhere. It is on Amazon Prime, for instance.
These all cover the personalities more than a lot of technical or historical detail.
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You'd enjoy the book "The last lone inventor" by Evan I Schwartz, about Philo Farnsworth, the true inventor of electronic broadcast television. He also held many of the early patents on valve technology.
There was a long-running patent battle involved with early TV, after David Sarnoff of RCA stole a lot of Farnsworth's work and tried to claim it as RCA's.
The book is a little bit of a 'limited hangout' and doesn't paint Sarnoff as the utter scheming, thieving, lying bastard that it should have. Perhaps due to Sarnoff and Schwartz having something in common in terms of background. But it's still very interesting.
It also doesn't go far into what Farnsworth did in the years after his TV company development. Which is another very interesting story but not so much about electronics. Plenty on the net, keywords are Farnsworth Fusor.
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A couple interesting books:
Tuxedo Park: A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science That Changed the Course of World War II
http://www.amazon.com/Tuxedo-Park-Street-Science-Changed-ebook/dp/B00F8KUJ58 (http://www.amazon.com/Tuxedo-Park-Street-Science-Changed-ebook/dp/B00F8KUJ58)
About Alfred Lee Loomis, a fascinating character involved with the development of radar.
The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation
http://www.amazon.com/The-Idea-Factory-American-Innovation-ebook/dp/B005GSZIWG (http://www.amazon.com/The-Idea-Factory-American-Innovation-ebook/dp/B005GSZIWG)
About Bell Labs. Extensively features the development of the transistor, Schockley, and Claude Shannon.
I enjoyed the TV show "Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio"
http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/empire/ (http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/empire/)
It was Episode 7 of Ken Burns: America from PBS
It covers the rivalry between Lee de Forest and Edwin Howard Armstrong.
If you haven't seen it, you may be able to find it for free somewhere. It is on Amazon Prime, for instance.
These all cover the personalities more than a lot of technical or historical detail.
These are all interesting sources and well worth the read. But all written by a protagonist for one or more parties involved. I laud your effort to look for sources of Axis development in electronics and other sources. There were a lot of people doing interesting stuff, and all trying to claim credit for everything.
Another pre-WWII story I find fascinating is the development of the VT fuze, both optical and RF version. I am not aware of any text or scholarly article, but a google search will give lots of snippets. The things that fascinate me are the rapid development of a military product (fast even by todays commercial standards) and the incredibly rapid growth in production.
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I have never seen a publication on the history of electronics, however I do have quite a few old books and magazines from the 1920's and 30's on electronics as I collect old technical publications, I have some books from the late 1800's that are mostly about mechanics and machining but they do on occasions touch on electrical subjects but pre 1914 the word electronic does not seem to be used in anything I have, although in one or two people like Marconi are mentioned.
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Two good history books by H G J Aiken:
http://press.princeton.edu/titles/2362.html (http://press.princeton.edu/titles/2362.html)
"Syntony and Spark"
http://press.princeton.edu/titles/821.html (http://press.princeton.edu/titles/821.html)
"The Continuous Wave: Technology and American Radio, 1900-1932"
The Princeton Univ Press citations are expensive print-on-demand. Try looking for used copies at better prices.
The second book has a wonderful discussion of the "Federal Arc", which was Federal Radio's (predecessor of ITT) improvement on the original Poulsen Arc. A magnetically-stabilized arc discharge has a useful negative resistance, which made for a powerful oscillator that could not be switched rapidly on/off. Therefore, the Morse transmitters (50 kW!) used frequency-shift keying. It also discusses the Alexanderson Alternator, which was the reason that the US Navy invented RCA with contributions from GE, ATT, and Westinghouse for national security reasons.
Historical station SAQ in Sweden fires up its remaining 200 kW Alexanderson Alternator at 17.2 kHz a few times a year.
See http://grimeton.org/index.php/visit-the-site/transmitter-start-up (http://grimeton.org/index.php/visit-the-site/transmitter-start-up)
The second book concludes with the rapid growth of the vacuum tube that replaced both technologies.
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A few more links:
Secret History of Silicon Valley:
https://youtu.be/ZTC_RxWN_xo (https://youtu.be/ZTC_RxWN_xo)
Video discussing the roots of Silicon Valley in the development of Radar during WWII
IEEE History Center:
http://www.ieee.org/about/history_center/index.html (http://www.ieee.org/about/history_center/index.html)
Looks like they have an Engineering and Technology History Wiki among other resources:
http://ethw.org/Main_Page (http://ethw.org/Main_Page)
National Electronics Museum:
http://www.nationalelectronicsmuseum.org/ (http://www.nationalelectronicsmuseum.org/)
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Wow, thanks a lot guys, I learned stuff just reading your posts. The links and books recommendations should feed my electronic history hunger for a while.