It was on February 26, 1935, seventy-four years ago today, that Robert Alexander Watson-Watt first demonstrated a prototype of what would become known as radar.
Watson-Watt demonstrated his ability to track the movements of an RAF bomber, in front of the member of a committee of the Air Ministry. He received a patent on the gizmo in April 2 of that year.
The prototype didn't have much of a range, but the possibility of such bat-like tracking had been established.
By fascinating coincidence, it was on the very same day, February 26, 1935, that Hitler signed a secret order establishing the Reich Luftwaffe, and putting Goering at its head. The order had to be secret because Germany was at this point still claiming to be in compliance with the Versailles treaty, which was blatantly violated by the creation of an air force.
The British headstart on the development of radar would prove of great consequence in the defense of the UK -- and by proxy the defense of civilization -- against the assault of the Luftwaffe in the period 1940-41, so it is a nice novelistic touch that the run-up to that showdown includes these two simultaneous events.
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