GILBERT CANTOR
EXCERPTS FROM "RADAR MAN HELPED LAUNCH THE SPACE AGE, BY FRED CARL, PUBLISHED IN THE JEWISH STATE ON AUGUST 16, 2002, BY DEBORAH KLEEMAN:
Cantor was hired [by the Army] on August 25, 1941, as a civilian employee and began work [testing radar] at Fort Hancock, assigned by the Signal Corps.
In September 1945 Project Diana was set up, under the direction of Lt. Col. DeWitt, to develop a radar system capable of transmitting and receiving signals to the moon. Previous attempts had ended in failure due in large part to insufficient sensitivity in the receiver antenna. Among the four scientists assisting Col. DeWitt was E.K. Stodola of Evans Signal Laboratory.
"I was the tool-in-hand for E.K. Stodola," said Cantor, whose job was to rebuild and modify the equipment.
The Project Diana team, however, was unofficial, said Cantor. From 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. each day he worked his regular job as an electronics engineer. But starting at 4:30, and continuing until about 11 each night, the team donated its time to find a way to bounce a radio signal off the moon. [CORRECTION: Cantor and probably others participated in Project Diana on a volunteer basis, but for Stodola, Mofenson, Webb, and Kauffman, working on Project Diana was their official job.]
[On January 10, 1946, when the first successful moon bounce occurred, ] "[t]here was such an ovation from all of us in the building, "said Cantor, "that the concrete floor under our Quonset hut about bounced up!"
Cantor was hired [by the Army] on August 25, 1941, as a civilian employee and began work [testing radar] at Fort Hancock, assigned by the Signal Corps.
In September 1945 Project Diana was set up, under the direction of Lt. Col. DeWitt, to develop a radar system capable of transmitting and receiving signals to the moon. Previous attempts had ended in failure due in large part to insufficient sensitivity in the receiver antenna. Among the four scientists assisting Col. DeWitt was E.K. Stodola of Evans Signal Laboratory.
"I was the tool-in-hand for E.K. Stodola," said Cantor, whose job was to rebuild and modify the equipment.
The Project Diana team, however, was unofficial, said Cantor. From 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. each day he worked his regular job as an electronics engineer. But starting at 4:30, and continuing until about 11 each night, the team donated its time to find a way to bounce a radio signal off the moon. [CORRECTION: Cantor and probably others participated in Project Diana on a volunteer basis, but for Stodola, Mofenson, Webb, and Kauffman, working on Project Diana was their official job.]
[On January 10, 1946, when the first successful moon bounce occurred, ] "[t]here was such an ovation from all of us in the building, "said Cantor, "that the concrete floor under our Quonset hut about bounced up!"