Invention of the Day: Klystron.

Klystron was one of the first inventions that put Stanford University on the world's map of high technology.

 

On the picture above: The 40-cm. klystron used for the U.S. Army blind landing system before World War II, Stanford University, 1939. In foreground, kneeling, Russell Varian adjusts the tube. Observing, left to right, are Sig Varian, David W. Webster, head of the Physics department, William W. Hansen, and John R. Woodyard, who was responsible for building the model shown. (Sperry Gyroscope Co. Photo)

In the second half of the 1930s, motivated by the growing danger presented by German air force, Russel Varian invented a device that could generate microwaves necessary to detect a plane flying above the clouds.

At the time, Russell knew nothing about the research on pulsed radar then being carried on in secrecy by the military. He began to visualize a system that amounted to an outline of what was later known as Doppler radar. Such a system would need a practical source of short waves. He knew that the generation of short waves by conventional means was limited by the difficulty of building suitable resonant circuits attached to conventional tubes and that at the shorter wavelengths the efficiency of the resonant circuits was very low. He concluded that if practical requirements for generating microwave power were to be met, a new type of resonator would be needed. (IEEE wiki)

According to the 1937 technology licensing agreement  with Stanford, the university got half of the financial returns derived from the original klystron work.

In 1948, two years after the end of the WWII, Varian Associates - one of the first successful Silicon Valley's high-tech firms - was formed. In addition to radar applications, microwave technology was used in TV broadcasts systems,  radio, and long-distance telephone communications.

Remarkably, invention of the klystron was due to what we would call today business model, rather than technological research

In his article, "The $100 Idea," in the February 1976 issue of Spectrum, published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, Dr. Edward L. Ginzton described the genesis of the klystron invention as "practically a text book demonstration of the validity of 'management of technology.' It demonstrates the wisdom of being 'coupled to the market place' and of identifying societal or market needs rather than merely advancing technology for its own sake."

tags: invention, innovation, patent, detection, packaged payload, history, 4q diagram