Walter Guyton Cady
Walter Guyton Cady | |
---|---|
Born | American | December 10, 1874
Alma mater | Brown University |
Relatives | John Hutchins Cady (brother) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Physics |
Walter Guyton Cady (December 10, 1874 – December 9, 1974) was a noted American
Cady was born in
Before
In 1921 Cady designed the first circuit to control frequencies based on quartz crystal resonator,[1] and received two fundamental patents on resonators and their applications to radio in 1923.[2][3] Cady quickly realized that such circuits could be used as frequency standards, in 1922 published an IRE paper on this application,[4] and in 1923 made the first direct international comparison of frequency standards by comparing his quartz resonators with frequency standards in Italy, France, England, and the United States. Cady was president of the Institute of Radio Engineers in 1932.[5]
During World War II, Cady again worked on military applications of piezoelectricity, including trainers for radar operators that used piezoelectric transducers in liquid tanks to generate realistic radar returns. He retired to Pasadena, California, in 1951, where he was a research associate at Caltech. He returned to Providence in 1963. After retirement he consulted for industry and the federal government.
Cady held more than 50 patents, and was the inventor of the crystal-controlled oscillator, the highly selective narrow-band
Footnotes
- ^ W. G. Cady (April 1921) "The piezoelectric resonator," Physical Review A, vol. 17, pages 531-533.
- ^ Walter G. Cady, "Piezo-electric resonator," U.S. patent 1,450,246 (filed: 28 January 1920; issued: 3 April 1923).
- ^ William Guyton Cady, "Method of maintaining electric currents of constant frequency," U.S. patent 1,472,583 (filed: 28 May 1921; issued: 30 October 1923).
- ^ W. G. Cady (April 1922) "The piezo-electric resonator," Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers, vol. 10, pages 83-114.
- ^ "Walter G. Cady". IEEE Global History Network. IEEE. Retrieved 9 August 2011.
- ^ Walter G. Cady, Piezoelectricity (New York and London: McGraw-Hill, 1946).
References
- Mason, Warren P., "Professor Walter G. Cady's contributions to piezoelectricity and what followed from them", The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Volume 58, Issue 2, August 1975, pages 301-309.
- "Walter G. Cady and Piezoelectric Resonators", Proceedings of the IEEE Vol. 80, No. 11 November 1992
- Lemelson Center oral history interview
- Smithsonian Institution - Walter Guyton Cady
- Rhode Island Historical Society: Cady Family Papers
- Smithsonian Institution archive entry
- IEEE Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control Society memorial proceedings
- Virgil E. Bottom, "A history of the quartz crystal industry in the USA", IEEE Proc. 35th Frequency Control Symposium
- Shaul Katzir, "From ultrasonic to frequency standards : Walter Cady’s discovery of the sharp resonance of crystals. " Archive for History of Exact Sciences 62 (5 2008) [1]
- Shaul Katzir "War and peacetime research on the road to crystal frequency control. " Technology and culture 51 (1 2010) [2]