Marconi and radar

Marconi was by nature a practical engineer and a visionary who saw the applications for his radio communications technology. When addressing a meeting of American radio engineers in New York, in June 1922, Marconi foresaw a new type of radio technique that would emit radio signals, and then detect any reflections. This he described could be used to detect ships at sea.Development was undertaken by Marconis company in marine location and direction finding equipment. Later in Britain in 1935 Robert WatsonWatt of the UK government Radio Research Laboratory undertook the first successful groundtoair test involving radio detection. This proved the concept of what would ultimately be termed radar in detecting aircraft.Later developments of the technique involved the Marconi company and the British government asked the Marconi company to design and manufacture the transmitting antenna arrays used for the first five Chain Home radar stations which were to protect the Thames Estuary and approaches to London in the event of war.