Tuesday 7 August 2012

Sir Bernard Lovell (obituary)

                     Sir Bernard Lovell   (31 August 1913 – 6 August 2012)

Very sad to hear of the death of Sir Bernard Lovell, former Director of Jodrell Bank Obsevatory in Cheshire.

It is a little known fact that Lovell, and John Logie Baird together with Professor RV Jones ,were the co-inventors of Radar on which they worked at the Telecommunications Research Establishment during WW2.

The credit for radars invention was given (wrongly) to Watson Watt (the Senior Scientific Officer) the leader of the team, although Baird held most of the patents for Radar.
Lovell attempted to continue his studies of cosmic rays with an ex-military radar detector unit, but suffered much background interference from the Electric trams on Manchester's Oxford Road.

He moved his equipment to a more remote location, one which was free from such electrical interference, and where he established the Jodrell Bank Observatory, in Cheshire.
Lovell was knighted in 1961 for his important contributions to the development of Radio Astronomy, having been granted an OBE in 1946 for his work on Radar