Harry Diamond (engineer)
| Harry Diamond | |
|---|---|
Harry Diamond, c.1940
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| Born |
February 12, 1900 Russia |
| Died | June 21, 1948 (aged 48) |
| Cause of death | Heart Attack |
| Resting place | Arlington Cemetery |
| Alma mater | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1922) |
| Occupation | Engineer |
| Spouse(s) | Ida Diamond |
| Children |
Zelda Fichandler Joyce Diamond |
Harry Diamond (12 February 1900 – 21 June 1948) was an American radio pioneer and inventor, and namesake for Diamond Ordnance Fuze Laboratories.
Diamond, the son of a Jewish tailor in Minsk, was born on February 12, 1900. In 1908 his family immigrated to the United States, and he grew up in Quincy, Massachusetts. Mr. Diamond enlisted in the United States Army on October 14, 1918 and was honorably discharged on December 9, 1918. He graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1922. Diamond worked for the General Electric company for 18 months. He completed his master's degree in Electrical Engineering in 1925 and an Electrical Engineering instructor for 4 years at Lehigh University in electrical engineering.
He joined the National Bureau of Standards in 1927. Diamond headed up the research and development work of the Commerce Department’s newly organized Bureau of Air Commerce. Within two years he developed radio beacon system that permitted the first "blind" aircraft landing. Diamond and his team made the first visual-type radiobeacon system that enabled a pilot to keep on course and to know his approximate position at all times while in flight. direction service could be given to any number of planes flying the course, and that each airplane only had to carry a receiving set, with no other special equipment whatsoever. The pilot would obtain the necessary information pertaining to amplitude of course deviations hands-free and without requiring earphones. This was accomplished by the development of vibrating-reed indicators alerting the pilot to an off-course condition.
Harry Diamond became the Chief of the Electronics Division. The National Bureau of Standards was brought into the program, and he was given responsibility for this phase of the Bureau’s work. Within about four months of the start of the program, Diamond’s group established feasibility of the radio proximity fuze through conclusive tests in bombs dropped at the Naval Proving Ground at Dahlgren, Va. Throughout World War II, this group acted as the central laboratory of Division 4 of the National Defense Research Committee, where Diamond was the central figure of the group. Much of the basic proximity fuze technology was developed under his direction.
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