February 05, 2007

The Briefcase That Changed the World In the summer of 1940, Sir Henry Tizard carried a briefcase to the US. This was the Tizard Mission. Contained in the briefcase were plans for the Cavity Magnetron, a device that would change the world. Sir Henry Tizard's mission was to simply hand over the plans for the cavity magnetron and the rest of England's military technology to the US.

Today, cavity magnetrons are still found in radar, as well as the microwave.

posted by VertexOfLife 17 years ago
  • Cool story...thanks VOL!
  • For dinner, I ate some soup that I heated in the cavity magnetron chamber. Okay, so it's a little awkward, but it sounds more sci-fi than "microwave". The IEEE virtual museum site looks cool. Thanks.
  • Thanks! I'd heard about the cavity magnetron and its importance, but not about the Tizard mission.
  • Sir Henry Tizard In his tin lizzie, Survived all the hazards - A hero, is he?
  • Did Sir Henry get any royalties from all the speeding tickets issued as a result of his cavity magnetron doppler echo recognition and frequency variation measurement gun?