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The cavity magnetron is a high-power vacuum tube used in early radar systems and subsequently in microwave ovens and in linear particle accelerators. A cavity magnetron generates microwaves using the interaction of a stream of electrons with a magnetic field, while moving past a series of cavity resonators, which are small, open cavities in a ...
Electrically, this is similar to the two cavity oscillator klystron with considerable feedback between the two cavities. Electrons exiting the source cavity are velocity modulated by the electric field as they travel through the drift tube and emerge at the destination chamber in bunches, delivering power to the oscillation in the cavity.
As with many British inventions of this period, the magnetron was provided to the US for free when they entered World War II. [4] Initially Boot and Randall were awarded £50 each for the magnetron for "improving the safety of life at sea", but in 1949 Boot, Randall and Sayers received a £36,000 prize for their work.
This was developed by John Randall (1905-1984) and Harry Boot (1917-1983) at Birmingham University. Radars that could produce clear images of distant objects played a decisive role in World War II, by bouncing powerful, ultra-short radio waves off their targets. The cavity magnetron was the first practical device for producing such waves.
Sir John Turton Randall, FRS FRSE [2] (23 March 1905 – 16 June 1984) was an English physicist and biophysicist, credited with radical improvement of the cavity magnetron, an essential component of centimetric wavelength radar, which was one of the keys to the Allied victory in the Second World War.
The magnetron was initially limited to aircraft operating over the UK or sea, so that if the aircraft was lost the magnetron would not fall into German hands. However, as the war progressed several new uses for the magnetron were developed, notably ground-mapping systems like the H2S radar .
The cavity magnetron developed by John Randall and Harry Boot in 1940 at the University of Birmingham, England. The invention of the cavity magnetron made possible the production of electromagnetic waves of a small enough wavelength . The cavity magnetron was a crucial component in the development of short wavelength radar during World War II. [8]
Cavity magnetron at the Science Museum. From 1939 to 1943 he conducted research for the Admiralty at the University of Birmingham on centimetric radar, producing the cavity magnetron. He worked with John Randall and Harry Boot. [1] From 1943 to 1945 he was part of a group of British scientists that worked on the Manhattan Project.