albert wallace hull

7/27/2019 Albert Wallace Hull

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Albert Wallace Hull

Born April 19, 1880

Southington, Connecticut

Died January 22, 1966 (aged 85)

Residence United States

Nationality American

Known for magnetron

Notableawards

1930 IEEE Morris N. Liebmann

Memorial Award

IRE Medal of Honor 1958

Albert HullFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Albert W. Hull (19 April 1880 – 22

January 1966) is most remembered for

his early invention of the magnetron.

Contents

◾ 1 Education and early career

◾ 2 Industry

◾ 2.1 Experimental work

◾ 2.1.1 Dynatron◾ 2.1.2 Magnetron

◾ 2.1.3 Gas-filled electron tubes

◾ 3 Publications

◾ 4 Career promotion

◾ 5 Awards

◾ 6 References

◾ 7 External links

Education and early career

Albert Wallace Hull was born on a farm in Southington, Connecticut. He was the son of

Francis and Lewis Hull. He was the second oldest of 9 brothers, and had an older sister.

Despite rural poverty all the brothers completed college, and two others, Thomas and

Daniel also pursued lives devoted to science --- medicine and chemistry respectively.

He majored in Greek and after taking one undergraduate course in physics, graduated

from Yale University. He taught languages at The Albany Academy before returning to

Yale, to take a doctorate in physics. He then undertook research on photoelectricity

whilst teaching physics for five years at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Industry

In 1914 Hull joined the General Electric Research Laboratory (GERL) in Schenectady,

Página 1 de 4Albert Hull - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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ew York and remained there until his retirement in 1949.

Experimental work

During 1916, Hull began investigation into the use of magnetic control of thermionic

valves (vacuum tubes) as an alternative to grid or electrostatic control and he had testedsuccessfully magnetic control by applying a magnetic field parallel to the axis of the tube.

Initially, Hull's work on these novel electron tubes was part of an effort at General

Electric to develop amplifiers and oscillators that might be used to circumvent the

vacuum- tube triode patents of Lee de Forest and Edwin Armstrong.

Dynatron

He invented the dynatron which had three electrodes: a thermionic cathode, a perforatedanode, and a supplementary anode or plate. In normal operation the supplementary anode

was maintained at a lower positive voltage than the perforated anode. The secondary

emission of electrons from the plate made the dynatron behave as a true negative

resistance and so the tube could generate oscillations over a wide range of frequencies or

be used as an amplifier. When a control grid was added between the cathode and the

perforated anode, the device was called a "pliodynatron."

Magnetron

By 1920 his research led to his invention of the magnetron.[1] This took the form of a

coaxial cylindrical anode and cathode with an axial magnetic field produced by an

external coil. The Hull magnetron was tested as an amplifier in radio receivers and also as

a low-frequency oscillator. It was reported in 1925 that a magnetron made at GERL could

generate a power of 15 kW at a frequency of 20 kHz. At the time Hull anticipated that the

magnetron would find greater use as a power converter than in communication

applications.

The Magnetron was later used by Percy Spencer to create the microwave and the British

military to create radar.

Gas-filled electron tubes





During the 1920s, Hull also was a major contributor to the development of gas-filled

electron tubes at the GERL. He discovered how to protect thermionic cathodes from rapid

disintegration under ion bombardment. This discovery enabled the successful

development of hot-cathode thyratrons (gaseous triodes) and phanotrons (gaseous

diodes).

Publications

In the 1918 issue of the Proceedings of the IRE he published a paper on the dynatron

vacuum tube which he had invented. During his career in electronics he was the author or

coauthor of 72 technical publications and was awarded 94 patents.[2]

Career promotion

Hull was promoted to assistant director of the GERL in 1928 and was known for his

collegial management style with minimal interference with the research agenda of his

staff members.

Awards

He was awarded the 1924 Howard N. Potts Medal of the Franklin Institute.

He was awarded the 1930 IEEE Morris N. Liebmann Memorial Award and the IREMedal of Honor in 1958 by the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE) "For outstanding

scientific achievement and pioneering inventions and development in the field of electron

tubes."

He did consulting work and served on an advisory committee of the Army Ballistics

Research Laboratories after retirement from General Electric and was elected a member

of the National Academy of Sciences. He also served as president of the American

Physical Society in 1942.

He died on 22 January 1966 at the age of 85.

References





2. ^ "Obituary: Albert W.Hull" (http://www.physicstoday.org/resource/1/phtoad/v19/i3/p110_s2?bypassSSO=1). Physics Today 19 (3): 110–111. March 1966. doi:10.1063/1.3048094

(http://dx.doi.org/10.1063%2F1.3048094).

◾ Albert Hull at IEEE history center (http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Albert_W._Hull)

External links

◾ National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir

(http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/hull-albert.pdf)

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?

title=Albert_Hull&oldid=573386599"

Categories: 1880 births 1966 deaths American inventors

IEEE Medal of Honor recipients Yale University alumni

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