(From "Radio's 100 Men of Science," first published 1944; republished 1970, ISBN 0-8369-1916-5; LC call 70-128235): HAROLD HENRY BEVERAGE Explorer of the Wavelengths Born: October 14, 1893 Still living in 1944 North Haven, Maine Harold Henry Beverage, radio engineer, throught the introduction of new antenna designs and investigations of the behavior or electromagnetic waves contributed much to the advance and dependability of world-wide radio communication. He exlpored in space and helped to conquer forces of Nature such as static and fading that hindered radio reception. As a boy in Maine, Beverage became interested in wireless and with his home- made set picked up signals from the S.S. _Carpathia_, rescue ship that rushed to the scene of the _Titanic_ disaster. Wireless led him to study electrical engineering, and he graduated in 1915 from the University of Maine with a B.S. degree. His first job was that of testman for the General Electric Company at Schenectady, NY, but in 1916 he was transferred to the radio laboratory of Dr. E.F.W. Alexanderson, who was busy trying to improve reception to and from the Allied Expeditionary Force in France. As a result, Alexanderson had developed the "barrage receiver," on which Beverage had been assigned to assist. It was tested at the transatlantic station at New Brunswick, NJ and at the naval radio station, NBD, Otter Cliffs (near Bar Harbor), Maine, where Beverage installed two of the receivers and laid the long antenna wires through the woods on Mount Desert Island. While at New Brunswick during the First World War, Beverage assisted in development of a modulator so that the Alexanderson alternator could be used for voice transmission. (Note: A feat we know Fessenden first accomplished in 1906, so not new at Beverage's time.) Later, when it was decided to put a radiophone on the U.S.S. _George_Washington_, the presidential ship to the peace conference, Beverage was one of the engineers assigned to install the equipment. He was on board the _Washington_ on July 4, 1919, when President Wilson addressed the crew, and it was decided to attempt sending the speech ashore to be recieved at Otter Cliffs for relay by telephone line to the White House. When the idea was suggested, Dr. Cary T. Grayson, the President's physician, said a microphone might disturb the President, so it was hidden behind a flag. But when the President came out on deck to speak he was about twenty feet from the microphone and stood with his back to it, so the pick-up was weak. Only nearby ships heard a word now and then. The experiment is remembered as "The voice that failed," although it marked the first attempt to broadcast the voice of a President of the United States. In the fall of 1919, Beverage was sent to Long Island to study methods of receiving signals from South America utilizing long wires similar to those for the "barrage receiver." He noticed that with the longer wires, directivity was very pronounced. By use of a receiver moved along the wire, he found the signals became stronger and stronger. To explore the effect, he had a wire stretched along a roadway running from Riverhead to Eastport, which was almost straight in a northeast-southwest direction for a distance of about nine miles. Using this antenna, Beverage found that the (then longwave) signals from Europe increased over a distance of four or five miles, and then began to decrease. He also found that static would decrease under certain conditions when the northeast end of the wire was grounded. From a study of the results of these experiments, Beverage developed the theory of how the antenna worked and Philip S. Carter made a complete mathematical analysis to confirm the theory. (Footnote: Born July 22, 1896, Glastonbury, CT; graduated from Stanford University, A.B. in Mechanical Engineering, 1918, Carter joined the GE staff in 1919 after service in the Signal Corps, and in 1920 transferred to the then-new RCA. In 1927 Carter joined the Transmitter Laboratory group at Rocky Point specializing in directive antenna and transmission line problems. He was issued more than fifty United States patents.) In 1920 a full-size antenna on poles was erected for further studies. From this work evolved the "wave antenna," destined to become the standard for long-wave receiving not only in the United States but also in other countries. For this invention, Beverage received his first patent on June 7, 1921. At the end of 1921, as a member of the engineering staff of the Radio Corporation of America, Beverage, accompanied by Noel Rust of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company, Ltd., went to Brazil to study reception conditions. One night he was making measurements in signals from Cavite in the Phillippine Islands when he discovered by means of a direction finder that signals were arriving from both the west and the east -- they were arriving around the world from both directions simultaneously. During 1923 Beverage and his associates concentrated on exploration of the short- wave spectrum -- 100 meters and below. Marconi at the time was conducting extensive tests from his floating laboratory, the yacht _Elettra_, and in 1925 Beverage checked the reception on the U.S. side of the Atlantic. One day he and his associate H.O. Peterson, by comparing short-wave signals over a town telephone line noticed that signals recieved at Peterson's home faded differently from those recieved at the radio recieving station, although the two points were only a half-mile apart. To learn the cause, they experimented and found that even receivers working with antennas separated by only a few hundred feet also faded differently. The same was true with antennas at the same location but with different polarization. As a result of these observations, the RCA Diversity Receiving System was developed. During the period of this pioneering work, that is from 1920, when Beverage was first employed by the Radio Corporation of America, to 1929, he was in charge of RCA's development of transoceanic recieving systems. In 1929, when RCA Communications, Inc. was formed, Beverage became chief research engineer. Laboratories were establised at Riverhead, Long Island, on reception; Rocky Point, Long Island, on transmitters; and 66 Broad Street, New York City, for terminal facilities equipment. Beverage continued in that position until December, 1940, when he was made vice president in charge of research and development. The Research Department of RCA Communications was expanded and in addition to developing complete commercial transmitting and receiving equipment, automatic printers and multiplex, a great deal of work was done on radio relaying for communications and for television, including special antennas for television. Also an ultra-short-wave system was developed for the Mutual Telephone Company of Hawaii (Note: later purchase by General Telephone) to connect the islands of Oahu, Hawaii, Maui and Kauai. The Institute of Radio Engineers presented its Morris Liebmann Memorial Prize to Beverage in 1923 and elected him president for 1937. From the University of Maine he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Engineering in 1938. Appointed director of communications research of RCA Laboratories in January 1, 1941, he had thirty-eight issued United States patents to his credit. In this position he directed the work of some of the most able communications research men and engineers in the radio field. (Footnote: H.O. Peterson, C.W. Hansell, Nils E. Lindenblad, George L. Usselman, Murray G. Crosby, Philip S. Carter, J.L. Finch, J.L. Callahan, O.E. Dow, H.E. Goldstein, G.S. Wackizer, R.E. Mathes, B.A. Trevor, R.W. George, A.M. Braaten, J. Ernest Smith and Alfred Kahn.) Many of them were inventors who contributed to the advance of the art on the domestic as well as the international wavelengths as related to all branches of radio, including facsimile, frequency modulation and television.. In World War II, Beverage was on the job, handling work that fell within the realm of military secrecy. As temporary consultant for the War Department om radio communications, he received high commendation from Major General H.C. Ingles, chief signal officer of the Army: "Please accept my sincere appreciation for this and the many other outstanding services you have rendered the Army in the communications field." Wartime secrecy prohibited mentioning any details at the time. Since the First World War Beverage had learned much about "the ether" and about antennas. wavelengths long through ultra-short; he would be the last one to say there was nothing more to learn after such a long and useful career in radio. Beverage was awarded the U.S. Army Signal Corps Certificate of Appreciation with this citation on June 19, 1944: "Your tireless effort and valuable advice during the installation of a radio-teletype circuit in the North Atlantic Route constituted a great contribution to the Signal Corps in its gigantic task of furnishing the United States Army the world's greatest military communications system."