[amsat-bb] Happy birthday, Mr. Yagi

[J. Boyd (JR2TTS)]

On Wed, 27 Jan 2016 23:03:41 +0000 (UTC), Curt Phillips W4CP <robocurt at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Yes, we celebrate and commemorate Mr. Yagi, but what of Mr. Uda?
> People often refer, in speaking and in print, of their beam antennas
> being "Yagis", but when do they ever call them "Udas" or even "Yagi-Udas"? 
>  When? Never.

It was because Yagi was the professor and Shintaro Uda was the assistant
under him, so Yagi's name came first on the patent, despite Uda doing
most of the research. (There is an interesting history of how their
invention made it to the West, including a story of how the Japanese
army found captured British documents after the fall of Singapore about
anti-aircraft radar systems mentioning "yagis". They had not yet
invented radar, so they were mystified as to what a "yagi" was -- they
didn't even know whether it was pronounced with a hard or soft G. When
they interrogated the English POWs about this, the prisoners
incredulously shouted back "You don't even know the name of one of your
own people who invented the damn thing?!")

> It just goes to show you, if you are even the co-inventor of something,
> fight, FIGHT to have your name put first on the invention.  Otherwise,
> the world may forget you even were involved.

Somewhere in Heaven, Bill Finger (co-creator -- probably the *true*
creator -- of Batman) is nodding in agreement.

-- 
J. Boyd, JR2TTS/NI3B
the2belo at msd.biglobe.ne.jp
http://www.flickr.com/photos/the2belo/
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Twitter: @Minus2_C