Albert Hull

Albert Wallace Hull ( born April 19, 1880 in Southington, Connecticut; † January 22, 1966 ) was an American physicist. He is the inventor of the magnetron.

Albert Hull was born the son of Francis and Lewis Hull on a farm in Southington in the U.S. state of Connecticut. He was the second oldest of nine brothers and had an older sister. Although the family lived on the land in poverty, all the sons of the family have enjoyed a higher education. Besides Albert and Daniel Thomas have studied (medicine and chemistry).

Although Albert majored in Greek, but took off an additional bachelor's degree in physics at Yale University. In the meantime, he taught the Greek language at the Albany Academy, but then returned to Yale University to do his doctorate in physics specialist. While he was five years taught physics at the Polytechnic Institute Worcester, he also undertook research in the field of photovoltaics.

Working life

In 1916 he joined the work in the research laboratory of General Electric in Schenectady (New York) and remained until his retirement in 1949 at this post.

Experiments

Albert Hull in 1916 began with studies of the influence of magnetic fields on vacuum tubes as an alternative control in place of the anode current of an electric field or a control grid.

First Hull worked with the new vacuum tubes in the efforts of General Electric for the development of novel amplifiers and oscillators. He had also participated in the development of the triode and the patents of Lee de Forest and Edwin Armstrong.

Dynatron

Albert Hull invented the Dynatron, a tube with three electrodes: the heated cathode, a perforated anode and a behind -mounted additional disk as a second anode. In normal operation, this extra anode has a lower anode voltage than the perforated anode. By released on the second anode when hitting the fast electrons, secondary electrons are through the foraminous anode with the higher voltage - added. The characteristic of this tube allowed the use as a negative resistance to de-attenuation of resonant circuits, and thus this tube could be used as an oscillator and an amplifier over a wide frequency range. By an additional control grid between the cathode and the first anode, a tube with the name " Pliodynatron " has been developed.

Magnetron

Around 1920 his investigations led to the invention of the magnetron. This was in the form of a cylindrical anode around the cathode blocks and an external coil a very strong magnetic field axial to the tube. Albert Hulls magnetron was used as an amplifier in radio receivers. It could also be used as a low frequency oscillator. Reported in 1925 has a polymer produced by Hulls laboratory magnetron may produce a power output of 15 kW at a frequency of 20 kHz. During this time, Albert Hull assumed that the magnetron place in communication technology will find a better application as a powerful voltage converter.

The magnetron was later rebuilt by Percy Spencer to a microwave generator and allowed the development of British radar equipment used by the military.

Gas-filled electron tubes

During the 20s Albert Hull participated in the development of gas-filled electron tubes. He discovered as a heated cathode can be protected from the destructive bombardment of the ions. This discovery enabled the successful development of the thyratrons ( a gas-filled triode) and the phanotrons ( gas-filled diodes).

Awards

Albert Hull in 1930 was awarded the Morris N. Liebmann " price. In 1958 he was awarded for " his extraordinary scientific commitment and his pioneering work in the field of electron tubes ," the Medal of Honor of the IRE.

After his retirement he worked as a consultant and served on the Advisory Committee for ballistic research by the army and became a full member of the National Academy of Sciences. In 1942 he became the president of the American Physical Society.

Publications

In 1918 he published in the Yearbook of the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE ) an essay on his invention, Dynatron.

Source

  • Engineer, inventor, engineer
  • Personality of Electrical Engineering
  • Americans
  • Born in 1880
  • Died in 1966
  • Man
Edwin Howard Armstrong Name Authority File
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