Milestone-Proposal:LORAN: Difference between revisions

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{{ProposalEdit|a1=LORAN|a2a=Cambridge MA|a2b=Boston Section|a3=1940 to 1945|a4=|a5=|a6=|a7=It should be noted at this time, that the radio navigation Loran project  was not carried out at the iconic "Radiation Laboratory"  building home of radar / microwave innovations. Instead, the project engineering team worked in the Hood Building in Cambridge, close to but off  the MIT campus.  Further research will be carried out to locate this building. Rad Lab was awarded an IEEE Milestone  ..........
{{ProposalEdit|a1=LORAN|a2a=Cambridge MA|a2b=Boston Section|a3=1940 to 1945|a4=Radiation Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology:
In October 1940, MIT was chosen for the site of an independent laboratory that would be staffed by civilian and academic scientists from every discipline. Fourteen months before the U.S. entered World War II, MIT formed, under government contract, a newly Radiation Laboratory began its investigation of radio navigation and radar. The radio navigation division was housed separately from the radar group but was always referred to as Radiation Laboratory. The staff was housed in their own building in Cambridge. On 31 December 1945, the Radiation Laboratory was formally closed and staff members returned to their careers. It should be noted that in 1990, the IEEE Milestone was awarded to the Radiation Laboratory. That Milestone was awarded to the laboratory as a whole, not navigation.
 
Our Proposal:
The Boston Section wants to nominate the LORAN system of navigation for IEEE Milestone. Loran was a large engineered system, built from scratch and completed in the 1940s. Now, over sixty years later, every mariner in the world have used or know loran. The word stands for long-range navigation. Loran was a totally American system of navigation quickly developed during the Second World War. By 1946, loran was used by thousands of navigators over three-tenths of the surface of the earth. Loran is a hyperbolic system of navigation based on pulse-modulated synchronized signals. More details will be given elsewhere in this document.
 
The proposal recognizes the many different organizations involved in building the loran system. Military personnel, scientists, engineers, fabricators, technicians, radio operators, all had roles in getting loran on the air. However, the proposed milestone nomination is limited to those activities carried by Rad Lab employees in the US or on assignments off shore. Plans, scientific research, tests, even a few of the early transmitters were fabricated in the shop in Cambridge. Radio technicians and navigators were trained here in Boston. After attending Loran School, they would return to their assigned transmitter station, ship, or aircraft. This is why members of the Boston Section of the IEEE wish to commemorate loran as IEEE Milestone.
 
Navigation Division and Key Individuals:
At its peak level of staffing, there were about 60 people in the radio navigation or loran division: scientists, academics, engineers, and technicians.  Their job was research, design, plan, engineer, and develop a whole new system of navigation called loran – long-range navigation system.  For a short period of time, the staff had to operate and man the first two transmitting stations. Melville Eastman managed the division from 1941 to 1943. Eastman, CEO and founder of General Radio Corporation of Cambridge, was on leave from his company during that period. Donald G Fink replaced him on March 1943. Donald G Fink worked at the MIT Radiation Laboratory and traveled overseas installing loran sites. Fink had a long association with the Institute of Radio Engineers and was president of the IRE in 1958.
 
The chief researcher and scientist was JA (Jack) Pierce, a scientist fellow from Harvard University, Cambridge. He joined the team in 1941.  Later in his career, Pierce would receive the Medal For Engineering Excellence for the design, teaching and advocacy of radio propagation, navigation and timing. His work led to the development of Loran, Loran C and other systems.
 
Monitoring the project and coordinating with superiors in Washington DC was Lawrence M. Harding, a senior officer in the United States Coast Guard (USCG). In 1942 he was transferred to Cambridge to coordinate with US Navy and government agencies. It was he who came up with the name LORAN derived from long-range navigation. Harding played an important role in surveys, logistics, equipment transportation, and building loran stations along the Atlantic coasts. By 1943, Harding and the Coast Guards were able get some twenty-five loran transmitter stations erected and running in the Aleutian Islands and the Pacific.
 
The Significance of the Loran Project:
Loran was a completely new American system of navigation, developed and quickly pressed into service during the war. By 1946, loran was used by thousands of navigators over three-tenths of the surface of the earth. Loran was and still is a hyperbolic system of navigation based on pulse-modulated synchronized signals. More details will be given elsewhere in this document.
 
The extent of loran coverage available to navigators in 1946 is illustrated in Figure 1. The North Atlantic Chain was given first priority to allow ship convoys to find their way across treacherous waters. During wartime, Loran had the advantage of allowing ships to maintain radio silence.
 
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The North Atlantic:
Loran Radiation Laboratory personnel were heavily involved with research and development of the North Atlantic Chain. The first Loran-A pair was on the air permanently by June 1942 (Montauk Point, NY, and Fenwick Is, Del.), and by October there were additional stations along the Canadian east coast. The system became operational in early 1943, and late that year stations were established in Greenland, Iceland, the Faeroes and the Hebrides to complete the North Atlantic cover. Loran stations were manned by the United States Coast Guard (USCG), Royal Canadian Navy (RCN), and the Royal Navy (RN).  At the request of the RAF, another station was put into the Shetlands to cover Norway, and loran was eventually used by over 450 aircraft of Coastal Command.
 
By 1944, the North Atlantic Chain consisted of the following loran stations. The name of the organization operating the station is identified.
Fenwick Island, Delaware, DE - USCG
Mantauk Point, Long Island NY - USCG
Baccaro, Nova Scotia, Canada - RCN
Deming, Nova Scotia, Canada - RCN
Bona Vista, Newfoundland - USCG
Bath Harbor, Labrador - USCG
Frederiks, Greenland - USCG
Vik Island - RN
Skuvanes Head, Faeroe Island - RN
Mangersta, Hebribes - RN
Sankaty, Nantucket, MA (monitoring station) - USCG
 
Aleutian Island and the Pacific Ocean:
In the summer of 1943, the United States Coast Guards completed the first independent installation of loran transmitting stations in the Aleutian Island. The equipment in this case had been quickly fabricated in the shop in Cambridge, as Naval procurement had not yet come into effect. The Coast Guards continued the work and installed twenty-five stations in the Pacific, climaxing its efforts with stations at Jima and Okinawa, which were erected closely on the heels of the invading forces. Of special significance in the Pacific warfare were stations in the Marianas, which provided very effective guidance for the 20th Air Force in its bombing of Japan.
 
Loran made its greatest direct contribution to winning the war because distances in the Pacific Ocean are enormous. As American forces moved westward, airfields were built on many of the small islands. The limited range of many World War II aircraft demanded that they frequently land and refuel. Loran provided the easy-to-use, accurate navigational system to locate airfields and land for refueling.
An Extreme Radio Engineering Project:
At the end of the war some seventy loran-transmitting stations were in operations providing nighttime service over 60 million square miles or three tenths of the earth’s surface. Pierce, in his article, reported that by 1946, 75,000 ship-borne and air-borne navigator’s receivers had been delivered by the various American manufactures.  He also reports that the Hydrographic Office, which had been preparing the required loran charts for nautical navigation, had shipped two-and-a-quarter million charts to various operating agencies.
 
References Used:
1. JA Pierce, "An Introduction to Loran", Proceeding of the IRE, 1946. Reprinted by IEEE AES Magazine 1990 (see attached).
2. Bowditch, American Practical Navigator. U.S. Navy Hydrographic Office, 1958 pp. 333 – 343.
3. The Coast Guard at War: IV LORAN VOLUME II
Prepared in the Historical Section Public Information Division U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters in 1 August 1946:
http://www.uscg.mil/History/STATIONS/loran_volume_2.asp
http://www.uscg.mil/history/stations/LORAN_Section_2.asp
http://www.uscg.mil/history/stations/LORAN_Volume_1_Index.asp
 
4. Other Websites:
http://www.loran-history.info/
http:/ www.jproc.ca/hyperbolic/loran_a.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LORAN
 
To Probe Further:
Willoughy, Malcolm Francis; The Story of LORAN in the U.S. Coast Guard in World War II, Arno Pro, 1980.
 
Also see other historical references identified by JA Pierce in 1946 on page 33 of "An Introduction to Loran".
 
|a5=|a6=|a7=It should be noted at this time, that the radio navigation Loran project  was not carried out at the iconic "Radiation Laboratory"  building home of radar / microwave innovations. Instead, the project engineering team worked in the Hood Building in Cambridge, close to but off  the MIT campus.  Further research will be carried out to locate this building. Rad Lab was awarded an IEEE Milestone  ..........
The proposed milestone plaque could be mounted on MIT Building N42, on Massachusetts Avenue, close to where the original Hood Building used to be. The Boston Section Milestone Committee is currently seeking approval from MIT to carry this out
The proposed milestone plaque could be mounted on MIT Building N42, on Massachusetts Avenue, close to where the original Hood Building used to be. The Boston Section Milestone Committee is currently seeking approval from MIT to carry this out
Boston Section Milestone History  Committee is currently seeking approval from MIT to carry this out.


|a8=No|a9=The proposed plaque would be be wall-mounted outdoors,  probably attached to  MIT Building N42, alongside other plaques at 211 Massachusetts Avenue.  The plaque would be readily visible to pedestrians walking on this public sidewalk. The Boston Section Milestone Committee is currently seeking approval from MIT to carry this out|a10=MIT|a11=No|a12=The Boston Section with support from local  Society Chapters, and financial contributions from sponsors.|a13name=Bruce Hecht|a13section=Boston|a13position=2010 Chair|a13email=Bruce Hecht|a14name=Robert Alongi|a14ou=Boston Section|a14position=Section Business Manager|a14email=sec.boston@ieee.org|a15Aname=Gilmore Cooke|a15Aemail=gilcooke@ieee.org|a15Aname2=|a15Aemail2=|a15Bname=c/o Robert Alongi|a15Bemail=sec.boston@ieee.org|a15Bname2=To be assigned later|a15Bemail2=|a15Cname=Gilmore Cooke|a15Ctitle=retired PE|a15Corg=Boston Section Executive Committee|a15Caddress=8 Canvasback, W. Yarmouth, MA 02673|a15Cphone=617-759-4271|a15Cemail=gilcooke@ieee.org}}<br>[[Media:Pierce_Loran.pdf|Pierce Loran.pdf]]<br>[[Media:Loran1.jpg_.png|Loran1.jpg .png]]<br>[[Media:Loran_chart.png|Loran_chart.png]]  
Boston Section Milestone History  Committee is currently seeking approval from MIT to carry this out.|a8=No|a9=The proposed plaque would be be wall-mounted outdoors,  probably attached to  MIT Building N42, alongside other plaques at 211 Massachusetts Avenue.  The plaque would be readily visible to pedestrians walking on this public sidewalk. The Boston Section Milestone Committee is currently seeking approval from MIT to carry this out|a10=MIT|a11=No|a12=The Boston Section with support from local  Society Chapters, and financial contributions from sponsors.|a13name=Bruce Hecht|a13section=Boston|a13position=2010 Chair|a13email=Bruce Hecht|a14name=Robert Alongi|a14ou=Boston Section|a14position=Section Business Manager|a14email=sec.boston@ieee.org|a15Aname=Gilmore Cooke|a15Aemail=gilcooke@ieee.org|a15Aname2=|a15Aemail2=|a15Bname=c/o Robert Alongi|a15Bemail=sec.boston@ieee.org|a15Bname2=To be assigned later|a15Bemail2=|a15Cname=Gilmore Cooke|a15Ctitle=retired PE|a15Corg=Boston Section Executive Committee|a15Caddress=8 Canvasback, W. Yarmouth, MA 02673|a15Cphone=617-759-4271|a15Cemail=gilcooke@ieee.org}}<br>[[Media:Pierce_Loran.pdf|Pierce Loran.pdf]]<br>[[Media:Loran1.jpg_.png|Loran1.jpg .png]]<br>[[Media:Loran_chart.png|Loran_chart.png]]  






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Revision as of 21:28, 14 December 2010

This Proposal has not been submitted and may only be edited by the original author.
Pierce Loran.pdf
Loran1.jpg .png
Loran_chart.png


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