Guglielmo Marconi, Inventor of the Antenna

The Italian physicist Guglielmo Marconi, the principal inventor of wireless telegraphy, constructed various antennas for both sending and receiving, and he also discovered the importance of tall antenna structures in transmitting low-frequency signals.

Heinrich Hertz developed a wireless communication system in which he forced an electrical spark to occur in the gap of a dipole antenna. He used a loop antenna as a receiver, and observed a similar disturbance. This was 1886. By 1901, Marconi was sending information across the Atlantic. For a transmit antenna, he used several vertical wires attached to the ground. Across the Atlantic Ocean, the receive antenna was a 200 meter wire held up by a kite.

In 1906, Columbia University had an Experimental Wireless Station where they used a transmitting aerial cage. This was a cage made up of wires and suspended in the air, resembling a cage [2].

A rough outline of some major antennas and their discovery/fabrication dates are listed:

• Yagi-Uda Antenna, 1920s

• Horn antennas, 1939. Interesting, the early antenna literature discussed waveguides as "hollow metal pipes".

• Antenna Arrays, 1940s

• Parabolic Reflectors, late 1940s, early 1950s?

• Patch Antennas, 1970s.

• PIFA, 1980s.

Current research on antennas involves metamaterials (materials that have engineered dielectric and magnetic constants, that can be simultaneously negative, allowing for interesting properties like a negative index of refraction). Other research focuses on making antennas smaller, particularly in communications for personal wireless communication devices (e.g. cell phones). A lot of work is being performed on numerical modeling of antennas, so that their properties can be predicted before they are built and tested.       Source: Antenna Theory.com

Who was the first living person honored on a U.S. stamp? 

On April 15, 1926, Charles Lindbergh made his first airmail flight.

When the US Airmail service was inaugurated in 1918, the Post Office Department oversaw the delivery of the mail.  Then in 1925, Congress passed the Kelly Act, which allowed the post office to work with commercial air carriers to create new airmail routes and deliver the mail.

The first two contract airmail routes went into service on February 15, 1926, flying between Detroit and Cleveland and Detroit and Chicago.  Charles Lindbergh, who was already an experienced pilot at the age of 24, was then hired by the Robertson Aircraft Company to develop a third route, which was known as Contact Airmail Route #2.  This route would fly from Chicago to St. Louis, with stops in Springfield and Peoria.

In the months leading up to the start of the service, Lindbergh surveyed the 278-mile route, establishing the flight and postal operations at each of the four landing fields.  He also selected nine additional emergency landing fields, each about 30 miles apart.  Lindbergh also hired two of his Army flying friends to help him complete the flight.

Days before the inaugural flight, on April 10, 1926, Lindbergh and his team completed survey flights to make sure everything was in order and to help general public interest in the upcoming flight.  Then at 5:50 a.m. on April 15, 1926, Lindbergh inaugurated the first flight of the new line, departing Chicago with 87 pounds of mail.  All of the covers carried a special commemorative cachet.

From there, Lindbergh flew south to Peoria where he picked up another 23 pounds of mail.  He then stopped in Springfield and picked up 93 pounds of mail before completing the last leg of his journey, reaching St. Louis at 9:15 am.

That afternoon, Phil Love made the return flight back to Chicago.  Because the morning flight had generated so much interest, the evening flight carried a large load – 144 pounds from St. Louis alone.  Lindbergh and another pilot also departed St. Louis in empty planes, as they expected a large amount of mail in Springfield.  And there was!  A large crowd had assembled at the field to watch the pilots and they sent out a total of 385 pounds of mail.  After picking up 40 pounds of mail in Peoria, the return trip reached Chicago at 7:15 p.m.

Lindbergh worked as an airmail pilot for 10 months, flying five days a week.  On two occasions he was forced to bail out of his plane.  On September 16, 1926, his plane ran out of fuel before he could reach Chicago and he had to jump out of the plane over Wedron, Illinois.  His 4,000-foot parachute jump was the longest recorded night jump at that time.  Two months later, on November 3, he had to jump out of his plane due to bad weather and landed on a barbed wire fence.

It was while working as an airmail pilot that Lindbergh first heard about hotel owner Raymond Orteig’s $25,000 prize for the first pilot to fly non-stop across the Atlantic.  Just a little over a year after he began his airmail career, Lindbergh became an international celebrity for completing the journey in his plane, the Spirit of St. Louis.        

While the post office wouldn't picture him, they did agree to honor him, creating the first US stamp that honored a living person. That stamp, US #C10 was issued on June 18, 1927, less than a month after Lindberg's famed flight. More than 20 million stamps were issued and it was very popular with the public.                  Source: Mystic Stamp Co.

Somali Pirates Hijack Maersk Alabama

April 8, 2009, Pirates had not captured a ship sailing under the American flag since the 1820s until April 8, 2009, when the MV Maersk Alabama was hijacked off the coast of Somalia. The high-profile incident drew worldwide attention to the problem of piracy, commonly believed to be a thing of the past, in the waters off the Horn of Africa.

Decades of instability in Somalia and the accompanying lack of policing in its territorial waters led to a resurgence of piracy in the region that peaked in the late 2000s. Just a day before the attack, the Maersk Alabama received warning from the United States government to stay at least 600 miles off the coast of Somalia, but Captain Richard Phillips kept the ship about 240 miles from the coast, a decision which was later criticized by members of his crew. On April 8, the crew saw a skiff carrying four armed pirates approaching the ship and initiated the protocol for such an event. Chief Engineer Mike Perry got most of the crew to a safe room and managed to swamp the pirates’ craft by swinging his ship’s rudder, but the pirates were nonetheless able to board and take Phillips hostage. After one of their number was injured fighting with the ship’s crew, the other three pirates fled in a lifeboat, taking Phillips with them in the hopes of using him as a bargaining chip.

Early the next morning, the destroyer USS Bainbridge and another U.S. Navy vessel arrived on the scene. What followed was a three-day standoff, with the pirates holding Phillips in the lifeboat. Attempts to negotiate failed, and at one point the pirates fired (harmlessly) at the destroyer. Finally, on April 12, with authorization from recently inaugurated President Barack Obama, Navy SEAL snipers opened fire on the lifeboat. In a stunning display of accuracy, the SEALS firing from a ship’s deck through the windows of the tiny boat hit all three pirates in the head, killing them, while leaving Phillips unharmed.

The surviving pirate, Abduwali Muse, was taken into custody and later sentenced to over 33 years in U.S. prison—though he was tried as an adult, he and the other hijackers were reportedly all teenagers at the time of the attack. The incident received international attention, bringing the problem of modern-day piracy to many people’s attention for the first time. Phillips’ story was made into a movie starring Tom Hanks. Piracy remained an issue in the region—the Maersk Alabama herself was the target of four more pirate attacks between 2009 and 2011, each of which was repelled by armed security teams.

Source: History.com

The Extraordinary Life of Howard Hughes 

The fascinating life of American filmmaker, business magnate and engineer has resulted in Howard Hughes being remembered for his contributions to the world of cinema as well as the aviation industry. Over the course of his illustrious career, Hughes became famous as one of the most financially successful people on the planet. He became a recluse later in his life while suffering from the debilitating after-effects of a deadly plane crash, further adding to the story of his remarkable life. On the 45th anniversary of his passing, we look back on the life of Howard Hughes as a tribute to the legendary pioneer.

Born in Texas in 1905 to a wealthy inventor and businessman in the oil-drilling business, Hughes displayed a healthy interest in science and technology from an early age. At the age of 11, Hughes used his engineering skills to build Houston’s first “wireless” radio transmitter and became one of the first licensed ham-radio operators in the area. The young boy kept experimenting with technology, constructing a motorised bicycle at the age of 12. His teachers and classmates recalled that he was an “indifferent” student who remained focused on his interests; mathematics, mechanics and aviation. Hughes took his first flying lesson at the age of 14 and later attended lectures on advanced mathematics and aeronautical engineering at Caltech.

Hughes lost both of his parents early on in his life, inheriting 75% of his family’s fortune and becoming an emancipated minor with complete control over his assets at the age of 19. After his father’s death, Hughes withdrew from university and moved to Los Angeles with his first wife Ella Botts Rice. Using the newly acquired family funds, the ambitious young man decided to venture into film production with the 1926 comedy film Swell Hogan. Although the project did not fare well, Hughes did not give up and followed it up with two financial hits – Everybody’s Acting and Lewis Milestone’s Two Arabian Knights. The latter ended up receiving critical acclaim as well, with an Academy Award win for Best Director. The first half of Hughes’ brilliant career also boasted of production credits on other memorable projects like Hell’s Angels in 1930 and, two years later in 1932, Scarface.

In the early ’30s, Hughes also acted on his lifelong interest in aviation by forming his own aircraft company. While designing and innovating prototypes for new aeroplanes, Hughes would often personally test the models and ended up risking his own life on several occasions. In the process, he broke multiple flying speed records and also built the famous H-4 Hercules (nicknamed the Spruce Goose), which was known as the largest flying boat in the history of aviation. Hughes is also credited for many innovations in the industry, including developing the existing technology for retractable landing gear. Even though the Spruce Goose only flew once, Hughes loved the aircraft and maintained it in a special hanger until his death. The plane is now on display at the Evergreen Aviation Museum in Oregon.

On the 5th of April, 1976, Howard Hughes was reported dead while on an aircraft en route to a hospital in Houston. The autopsy showed that Hughes had passed away due to kidney failure.                Source: Far Out Magazine

Mandatory Inoculation for Continental Army 

How George Washington Used Vaccines 

to Help Win the Revolutionary War

George Washington, commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, based at his headquarters in Morristown, New Jersey, ordered mandatory inoculation for troops if they had not survived a smallpox infection earlier in life—possibly in reaction to the inability of Benedict Arnold’s troops to capture Quebec from Britain the year before, when more than half of the colonial troops had smallpox.

FULLY AWARE of the disaster in the north, George Washington realized that merely evading smallpox would no longer suffice; he wanted to prevent it altogether. Inoculation was already available, although the procedure -- called variolation -- was not without risks. The vaccines we're accustomed to today were not invented yet, so doctors would simply make a small incision in the patient's arm then introduce pus from the pustules of an infected victim into the wound. Variolation often resulted in a minor smallpox infection with a speedier recovery and vastly lower fatality rates, around two percent. Survivors were granted lifelong immunity.

At first, Washington simply required new recruits to be inoculated. Then, in February 1777, he bit the bullet entirely......

Source: RealClear Science

Lafayette Radio Electronics

In the late 1950’s three Lafayette area businessmen joined forces to create CWY Electronics. A source of repair parts for TV and Radio, dealers and repairmen. As time passed the business grew, and in 1960 they relocated to our present location. CWY then spread its’ reach into the cable TV supply business, gaining national status.In 1988 the electronics division of CWY Electronics was purchased by Lafayette Electronic Supply, INC.

November 2016, Deb & Jim VanLaere purchased the business, Jim previously worked for CWY and Lafayette Electronic Supply for over 20 years. Jim and Deb are excited to expand the product lines and increase inventory.

Today Lafayette Electronic Supply is a full line electronic distributor and retailer. We serve the needs of the local community and the surrounding states. Providing products for retail, industry, contractors, universities and municipalities.

Source: lafayetteelectronics.com