February 25th, 1935

[ProJiJi]

This is a date that stuck in my head from way-way back and as many of you folks are into technical stuff I figured I'd ask if any of you can quickly associate a technical breakthrough that happened on this day? And this really was a big deal.

And using DuckDuck I didn't see any results that highlighted this event, so it might not be so easy to find a result through a search engine even if I give you Wheadon as a name in England.

BUT I just tried to find the town name of Wheadon and couldn't, so maybe my memory is faulty on that point. No surprise on the faulty memory point because this was first studied so many decades ago at the school where I was doing those studies before Uncle Sam snatched me out of that comfortable life. I had a very special professor who was doing work for NASA and that Feb. 25th date was a biggie for him and it stuck in my head all these years.

Okay, I feel so kind today, so another hint; television sputter when an aircraft flies over your house - - - well, I remember that back in the black-and-white television days and were always living near an airfield and my pa told me the aircraft flying over caused that sputter. Distorted signal is better than "sputter" I suppose. Black-white TV reminds me of Jackie Gleason. He was so popular back then. Now I'm "sputtering" so you'll want me to stop, yes?

Again, that date 90 years ago really was a super big deal for humans. But I think mostly tech savvy folks would be into that stuff. Like many of y'all. Okay, post sputter ending.

[cholla]

I found a couple of events but none would have interested a professor doing work for NASA(or I doubt they would have).
One was an announcement about the creation of Social Security.I'm not sure it was created at that time.

For B&W TVs I do not remember if aircraft caused them to sputter or not.
Where I live there was a SAC airbase & I remember several sonic booms a day.
There is also an international air port here but I do not believe commercial air traffic traveling above the speed of sound back in the 1960's.

[ProJiJi]

Yep, I suspect this would not be something most folks would keep in their brains, especially not for over some 50 years. Of course, my being in aviation for many years meant it was something quite important to aviation, so maybe another reason it stuck in my brain.

Plus, I think I may have forgotten some of the details from way back, because the basic 'birth of radar' and February 25th have been what stuck in my head, along with the name Watson-Watt, as in Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt. But not other information, except that name Weedon (and only just a short time ago found the correct spelling). And I just had to look up the Watson-Watt name, as that full name didn't survive in my USB. [USB = Upper Stupid Brain]

So what I just did was a much more exhaustive search for what sites were listing as notable for February 25th, 1935 and found nothing about radar. A couple days ago I didn't spend much time on the search. In fact, I think I only used the DuckDuck search engine. I used Google this time and the results were not much different.

Then I stuck radar into the search parameter and hit all sorts of stuff for February 26th and I got curious why the 25th was stuck in my brain and eventually found out why from this site:

https://www.dittonpark-archive.rl.ac.uk/histarticles.html

And if you scroll down a fair bit on that page you'll find the following:

This demonstration was conducted by A. F. Wilkins with the help of A. J. Dyer who acted as driver, scientific assistant and general factotum. Late on the 25th the equipment was placed in position near GSA, the B.B.C. 50m. transmitter at Daventry, which provided the energy to illuminate an aircraft due to fly on a pre-arranged course the following day.

At 0945 hours on 26th February the aircraft appeared; more or less on course, rather less than more it would seem; but sufficiently near to reflect detectable energy into the receiver. It was primitive but it worked, and a detection range of eight miles was estimated. To quote Mr. Wilkins: 'Considering the crude nature of the apparatus used and the small amount of preparation, the results of this experiment were regarded as quite creditable. Whatever the results we obtained, Rowe was moved to exclaim that the experiment was the most successful one he had ever witnessed. It was clear to all of us who watched the tube on that occasion that we were at the beginning of great developments in the art of air defence.'

By the way, it is known as the The Daventry Experiment, but I finally found the information that a close-by town was called Weedon.

So many of the search hits were simply not worth studying, but once you know it is about radar, you'll see lots of stuff. I also saw something on one site about a movie or documentary, or something.

Anyway, the birth of radar was a big-big deal.

Oh yes, my pa flew for SAC and so some places where he was stationed must have frequently had air traffic overhead, but I honestly don't remember too many details my pa may have explained about those and the television signal. And I've forgotten a whole bunch of technical stuff I had learned over the years, when that was necessary. It's amazing how that combination of aging and chemo can affect memory. That may seem like an odd word to use "amazing" but it sometimes is so weird how so many things are no longer on my memory, or buried so deep. But I'm alive and almost not so bad with what brain still works, so I can't complain. Just surprised/amazed sometimes.

[cholla]

I took a look at the link & I only got a little from it.
I know what radar is to a small extent.
My experience with radar is watching it when the weather is on TV & some speeding tickets from cops.
A couple where the radar is wrong.
The Texas highway department occasionally sets up a portable radar trailer where I can read my speed when I pass it.

The SAC air force base became just a regular AFB after WW2 or the Korean War.
When I was in grade school there were several sonic booms per day usually a boom boom.
Then President Johnson closed the base for political reasons.
The city took it over & it was made an international air port.
It was an auxiliary Space Shuttle landing site when we were still sending space shuttles up.
Named for Rick Husband of the Columbia.

BTW @ ProJiJi I checked your profile & I am also 70 plus.
Fortunately for me no chemo needed. My memory is OK but not as good as when I was younger.

[ProJiJi]

My pa was stationed at the base at Roswell N.M. when McNamara did that mass closing of bases. But the moving around to this or that base was nothing special. He got moved around a fair bit. Don't remember the name of that base.

And a note about the age thing; my ID stands for Professional Old Man. "Jiji' is a Japanese expression for old man and after the spine trouble made my walk look weird I started labeling myself to Japanese folks as a professional jiji. Fortunately, I am still able to get around without a cane or that special hand cart thingy I bought. I'd bought that fancy and expensive hand cart when one doc was talking about an operation back some years ago, but just a few days before that was scheduled there was like a kind of miracle change in my condition. Weirdest darn thing. I think that was between the 1st and 2nd chemo sessions. That 2nd one, the relapse, Doc Abe had to go to some extremes to get that under control and that resulted in even more back trouble. BUT I am fortunate that I can still move about without any extra equipment, like noted. But I sure have to be careful. The 3rd chemo session was related to the membrane around the brain and that resulted in a special, almost experimental, type treatment and it wasn't given much chance to work; but it did. I'm sure thankful to all those science-smart folks that keep at their research and keep coming up with all this special medicine. Actually, I've cheated Mr. Death a few times before all this latest drama, so I guess I can be labeled a lucky human.

Oh yes, an interesting note about U.S. Air Force facilities; the airfields in at least two Asian AOs are still called 'air bases' - officially, I mean. Here in Japan and over in the ROK. Odd, but I don't remember how Clark was designated before that volcano knocked that off our bases map. There's that darn memory trouble again. I assume that "air base" designation was/is due to them being under Army control when they were U.S. activated; meaning taken over from the Japanese over here, but not sure about the history of Osan in the ROK. Or that other airfield further south on the west coast of the ROK that I can't remember the name of. Darn, and I used to fly into that AO. Weird memory troubles. We also had "K" numbers for all the airfields - chopper and fixed wing - in the ROK. I understand K16 is now the airfield where the ROK president's bird is housed. K16 was where I saw a microwave oven for the first time. That was a surprise. And my yobo and I found a spy nest in the hills near K16. That was really, really weird. Those were the days when the DPRK would fly the little balloons over the Z with all sorts of leaflets attached. Like a South Korean shot President Reagan. I used to collect those, except that was against ROK law. Gave that collection to somebody who was going to DEROS and could sneak them out of the country.

See, a true professional jiji; I don't know when to stop writing/talking. Just goes on and on and on. Drives younger folks crazy, like one's kids.

Oh yes, and I have very recently decided to write a story about somebody like me; except it is all a deception. I'm really in my thirties and very fit and can do all the necessary spy stuff, like my TaeKwonDo and jumping over obstacles, jumping out of aircraft. All this old man stuff is my cover. Maybe call myself JiJi007. If you see a Hollywood production in a few years called "JiJi007" then you know where that came from.

[cholla]

@ ProJiJi,
Good luck on your novel.
You had me looking up acronyms.

I looked up the name of the Roswell AFB it was Walker but like many is now an airport.
I have been to Roswell the town. They capitalize on the alleged UFO crash of 1948.
No originality for the one here named after the city. Amarillo AFB.

My dad was a Seaman 1st class in WW2 & said his ship was docked in Hiroshima about two weeks after the A-bomb was dropped there.
He said they allowed the sailors to leave the ship & walk around Hiroshima.
Probably an experiment by the US military on these sailors.

I have not studied much about Japan,
Due to my interest is martial arts I know about Bushido.
And it is where the US got it's start of cherry trees.

I saw my first microwave in my dad's repair shop.(about 1966.)
It was a built in type & the size of a built in gas or electric oven.
He showed me it would boil water in 60 seconds.

Overall I have been blessed with good health & I hope to keep that up.
Not to say I have not had any aging problems. I do get a sore back occasionally.
Also a knee that was injured in a car accident sometimes acts up during cold weather.

Same for me I don't know when to stop writing.
Good thing this topic is in off topic or someone would ask what you two old men are doing writing this is a video forum.