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Karl Ferdinand Braun was a German physicist who made improvements to Guglielmo Marconi's system of wireless telegraphy. He was born in 1850 at Fulda, and died in 1918. He and Marconi shared the 1909 Nobel Prize for Physics. Braun also discovered crystal rectifiers (used in early radios), and invented the oscilloscope in 1895. He was educated at Marburg and Berlin. He held academic posts at a number of German universities, ending his career as professor and from 1895 director of the Institute of Physics at Strasbourg. In an attempt to increase the radio transmitter range to more than 15 km, Braun devised a system in which the power from the transmitter was magnetically coupled (using electromagnetic induction) to the antenna circuit. He patented this invention in 1899, and the principle of magnetic coupling has since been applied to all similar transmission systems. Later Braun developed directional antennas. In 1874 Braun discovered that some mineral metal sulphides conduct electricity in one direction only. These were later used in the crystal radio receivers that preceded valve circuits. Braun's oscilloscope was an adaptation of the cathode-ray tube. A laboratory instrument to study high-frequency alternating currents, it was the forerunner of television and radar display tubes.
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Gary Burghoff is an American actor. He was born in 1943. He played the role of corporal Walter 'Radar' O'Reilly in the film and television series 'MASH'.
Research Gary Burghoff
The AGM-84 (Harpoon) is an American guided anti-ship missile designed for deployment on surface ships, aircraft, submarines and ground-based installations. It has a range of 102 km and a flight speed of mach 0.75. The Harpoon Weapon System consists of the missile, launcher and a Command Launch System (CLS). The CLS can be a stand-alone system such as the Harpoon Shipboard (HSCLCS), Harpoon Aircraft (HACLCS), and the Encapsulated Harpoon Command and Launch Subsystems (EHCLS), or its functions can be integrated into an aircraft, ship or submarine fire control system. The warhead is a 500 pound, blast/fragmentation, high explosive unitary warhead. Delayed fusing is employed to permit warhead penetration of the ship's hull. When Harpoon is launched from ships, ground-based installations and submarines, the turbojet engine starts automatically after booster separation. For air- launched Harpoon, the booster is not used; the turbojet engine fires on command or automatically depending on speed and altitude of the launch
aircraft. Using the MGU and data from the radar altimeter, the missile flies at the optimum height for the prevailing sea state. The radar seeker is initialised at mid-course cruise altitude as it approaches the target. After acquisition, Harpoon immediately descends to the sea skimming altitude. Just prior to impact the missile executes a shallow pop-up or maintains sea skimming into the target.
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The AK-630 is a Russian six-barrelled artillery system carried on some ships. The gun fires 30 mm ammunition, high explosive fragmentation incendiaries or fragmentation tracer projectiles. The maximum rate of fire is 5, 000 rounds per minute. The muzzle velocity is 880 metres/second. Range is up to 4,000 metres for low flying anti-ship missiles and 5,000 metres for light surface targets. The gun is equipped with radar and television detection and tracking.
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The Aspide is an Italian surface-to-air missile using a monopulse seeker with semi-active radar homing. It flies at a supersonic speed of 2.5 Mach and has a range of 14 kilometres. It is armed with a 33 kilogram fragmentation warhead.
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The ATS were a British Army unit of non-combatant women auxiliaries in the Second World War. they were formed 1939 and provided cooks, clerks, radar operators, searchlight operators, and undertook other light non-combat duties.
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The BAC Rapier is a British surface-to-air, low-level anti-aircraft missile first deployed in the 1960s after development in 1964 and first being fired in 1967. Rapier is armed with a 500 gram warhead and has a range of 7250 metres with a flight speed in excess of Mach 2. Rapier, as designed for the British services, consists of a two-wheeled towed trailer mounting four launchers and the automatic target detection and acquisition radar.
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The Bofors L/60 Gun was a light 40-mm anti-aircraft gun designed by the Bofors company of Sweden in 1929 and used by almost all combatants in the Second World War. They were highly effective against low-flying ground attack aircraft. The original models were entirely hand operated and visually sighted, but in the latter part of the war radar predictors and power control were added, improving the chance of hitting the target. It fired from four-round clips at a rate of 120 rounds-per-minute and had an effective ceiling of 1520 metres and a muzzle velocity of 823 meters-per-second.
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Bussard is a German 120 mm calibre anti-tank guided mortar projectile developed during the 1970s at the request of the German Defence Ministry. Bussard weighs 17 kg and is laser, radar, or infra-red guided depending upon the fitted seeker head, and has a maximum range of 5000 metres.
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The C801 Ying-ji (Eagle Strike) is a Chinese inertial cruise anti-ship missile first seen in 1984, with active radar homing to a range of 40 km at a sea-skimming flight speed of 0.9 Mach. They carry a 165 kg warhead.
Research C801 Ying-ji
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The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
©1993 - 2009 The Probert Encyclopaedia
Southampton, United Kingdom
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