Wireless and Empire Geopolitics, Radio

Although the product of a self-proclaimed consensus politics, the British Empire was always based on communications supremacy and the knowledge of the atmosphere. Using the metaphor of a thread of five pieces representing the categories science, industry, government, the military, and theeducation, this is the first book to study the relations between wireless and Empire throughout the interwar period. It is also the first to make full use of the abundant archive material and rich sources existing in Britain and the Dominions. The book examines the evolving connection between thedevelopment of imperial radio communications and atmospheric physics; the expansion and strength of the British radio industry and its relationship with the elucidation of the ionosphere; and the different extent to which Australia, Canada and New Zealand managed to emulate the British model ofradio RandD in the interwar years. The book ends with a highly original and provocative epilogue: 'The realist interpretation of the atmosphere'.

Current position: Research Fellow at the Basque Museum of Science and Medicine History. Biographical sketch: Research Fellow at the Universities of Oxford, Sydney, Montreal, Toronto, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (Berlin), and the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution (Washington, D.C.).

List of illustrations	p. x
List of tables	p. xii
List of abbreviations	p. xiii
Preface	p. xvii
Acknowledgements	p. xxiv
Government, radio research, and upper atmospheric sciences in Britain	p. 1
Introduction	p. 1
Confluence of traditions and disparity of practices	p. 3
Radio research, government, and imperial Communications	p. 15
Radio Research Board: characteristics and constraints	p. 20
The shrewdness of a leader	p. 30
Modelling the ionosphere: the Chapman layer and electron density profiles	p. 39
An upright man to erect the structure of the atmosphere	p. 44
Synthesis and conciliation: the unified picture of a layered atmosphere	p. 48
Radio Communications, geopolitics, education, and manufacturing in the British radio industry	p. 54
Introduction	p. 54
The imperial chain	p. 56
Shortwave and Empire's unity	p. 63
The introspection of an ambitious man	p. 72
Ionosphere research in the commercial context	p. 77
Wireless training in Britain's military tradition	p. 86
University and the radio industry	p. 90
Education in the industrial context	p. 97
Radio industry: the catalyst of ionospheric research	p. 104
Thermionic valves and the strategies of research success	p. 112
Conclusion	p. 119
From dominion to nation: atmospheric sciences and radio research in Australia	p. 121
Introduction	p. 121
Converging different research traditions	p. 123
Paving the way	p. 127
Organizing radio and atmospheric research in the 1920s	p. 129
Transplanting the British research model	p. 133
Two styles and two personalities	p. 136
Bringing `atmospherics' to Melbourne	p. 141
National Broadcasting Service: long versus medium waves	p. 146
Ionospheric physics at Sydney	p. 150
The genius of a complex man	p. 156
Retouching the picture of the ionosphere	p. 163
Ozone and the holistic image of the atmosphere	p. 168
Putting Australia on the map	p. 173
Defining a new relationship with Britain	p. 176
The commencement of an American research entente	p. 179
Radio communications, education, manufacturing, and innovation in the Australian radio industry	p. 182
Introduction	p. 182
Short wave and the elliptical picture of the Empire	p. 184
Skilled training for the radio age	p. 190
Towards a self-contained radio industry	p. 197
Research for a conception of business	p. 204
Conclusion	p. 211
Organizing radio research in New Zealand	p. 214
Government, university, and the radio industry	p. 214
Australianizing New Zealand's radio science	p. 220
Government, university, research, and radio industry in Canada	p. 228
Introduction	p. 228
Radio research, government, and universities	p. 229
Manufacture and technological dependence	p. 239
Broadcasting and Canadian idiosyncrasy	p. 247
Teaching and training for the mastery of radio waves	p. 254
Conclusion	p. 257
Postcript	p. 261
Overstating reality	p. 261
Epilogue The realist interpretation of the atmosphere	p. 274
Pre-1924 conceptualizations of the upper atmosphere	p. 274
As formulated by geomagneticians	p. 274
As formulated by radio engineers and physicists	p. 277
The revolution of short wave: from excitement to discovery	p. 281
Reactions of radio scientists to short wave, circa 1924	p. 286
The realist interpretation as confirmed by ionospheric physicists	p. 290
Reification of invention	p. 294
Electron density profiles: the parabolic model, 1935-1939	p. 304
Adaptation of knowledge to the necessities for ionospheric prediction	p. 309
The legitimization of the realist conception	p. 316
Conclusion	p. 321
Bibliography	p. 329
Index	p. 379
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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Wireless and Empire Geopolitics, Radio Industry and Ionosphere in the British Empire, 1918-1939

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