Cady Report Part Two.

[Jan Lundquist]

The one in the Brown lore was authored by Willoughby Cady, fromerly head of R&D at USN China Lake Weapons Center.

This Cady report is about the Father of Piezoelectricity. Who was also Willouby's Pop.

Posting for the historical content on ASW and Sonar

https://onscale.com/walter-guyton-cady- ... ectricity/

[natecull]

Oh, that's a very interesting link between the two Cadys! I feel like piezoelectricity was a bit close to Townsend's neck of the woods - obviously, because of the submarine sonar connection - but also because circa 1960 (edit: yes but already in 1952, see later) Townsend was thinking of "the fan/speaker" in terms of "electrostriction" which seems very close to piezeoelectricity if not the same thing.

Huh: A quick Google shows that the two Cadys turned up together at the Vatican Observatory in 1923. I guess they were close. Willoughby would've been 16 at the time. That's very "Young Indiana Jones"! I loved that show. Well, I sort of liked it. It could've been better. But it was educational!

https://www.vaticanobservatory.org/gene ... ghby-cady/

Specola Guestbook | April 12, 1923: Walter and Willoughby Cady

Since its founding in 1891, many people have passed through the doors of the Vatican Observatory. A quick perusal of our guestbook reveals several Names, including Popes, Nobel laureates, astronauts, actors, and saints. Today’s guestbook entry is from April 12, 1923, when Walter Cady made a visit with his son Willoughby.

Next to his name, Walter Guyton Cady (1874-1974) wrote, “Middletown, Conn, U.S.A.”

He was an electrical engineer and physicist. He was a professor at Wesleyan University in Middletown CT.

In 1921, he developed the first quartz crystal oscillator, a piezoelectric device that became the timekeeping basis for quartz clocks and watches.

As part of his research, he worked to develop international frequency standards.

What was he doing in Rome in 1923? That year, he was comparing the frequency standards of various countries: England, France, Italy, and the USA. This apparently involved travel to the respective countries.

In 1932 he served as president of the Institute of Radio Engineers.

He invented several devices related to piezoelectric oscillators, resulting in more than 50 patents.

Walter was accompanied by his son, Willoughby Miller Cady (1907-1953). The young man would later earn a PhD in physics from Harvard University.

Willoughby was the head of physics at the Naval Ordnance Testing Station from 1946-1949, and then became head of the fundamental development group at the North American Aviation Corp. until his death in 1953.

His research involved spectroscopy, infrared radiation, and guided missiles.

Yeah, Walter being a radio engineer into setting frequency standards feels a bit like the Jansky Brothers. Radio people seem to have been Townsend's kind of people more than other academics or physicists. This of course plays well with the idea that Willoughby Cady was deliberately trying to dismiss Townsend's work in his report.

However, the Cady Report is very nice. Succinct and accurate as far as I can tell, in its description of what Townsend's gear looked like.

Rereading the Cady Report just now, I notice that it describes Townsend demonstrating his stuff at the Bendix Aviation Corporation in Glendale on 17 June 1952. I'd forgotten that Bendix was one of the companies.

Also it gives another hit on the location of the Electrometer:

In a small thermostated room in the second basement of the Banks-Huntley Building (address censored), Los Angeles, there is a continuous experiment which shows an extension of the basic phenomenon. This apparatus is the Brown Electrometer.

Google Maps today says that the Banks-Huntley Building is 643 S Spring Street. I believe that same address for the Electrometer was listed in a "Lake States Security" news fluff piece in 1948... except there, it was "634 S Spring Street". viewtopic.php?p=22120

The Banks-Huntley Building at 643 seems like a better fit than 634 - it feels up to Townsend's expensive tastes: "it was the first building in the city of Los Angeles to have central air conditioning and heating." ( https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm ... story.html)

(Edit: Rechecking my Google search results today, I don't see 643 at all ... Banks-Huntley is definitely 634. It's a Historical Cultural Monument of LA with a marker: https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=167936 )


(Why is it that despite following the Townsend Brown story for about 40 years, I still find my mind slipping off the details as soon as I glance away?)

Oh yeah I see the younger Cady does reference electrostriction in his 1952 report.

7.2 ) It might be suggested that electrostriction is significant in Mr. Brown's effects. This suggestion is untenable because (1) the deflection of a suspended condenser (Table A [sic], Tests 6 & 7) is far greater than any conceivable electrostrictive expansion or contraction; (2) electrostriction would cause no acceleration of the center of the center (sic) of gravity; and (3) the steady rotation of the flying saucer models cannot be caused by electrostriction, which is a dynamic effect only while the voltage is changing, and not in the steady state.

Nate

[Jan Lundquist]

Nate, If Townsend's electrometer was in a "thermostatted room," I have to wonder who funded the HVAC for the building on Spring st?

I think it is impossible to keep all that we know about Townsend in our minds, because there is so much to know.
I picked up my copy of Defying Gravity recently, and was surprised to see how much I had forgotten in the intervening years.

Do you have a hard copy of it?

Jan

[natecull]

Nate, If Townsend's electrometer was in a "thermostatted room," I have to wonder who funded the HVAC for the building on Spring st?

A good question. The cultural marker text says "Architects - John and Donald Parkinson. Built 1930."

Money itself appears to have been what funded it. Banks, Huntley & Co was an investment firm / stock brokerage which merged with Merrill Lynch in 1941.

https://www.nytimes.com/1941/06/05/arch ... rrill.html

New York Times, June 5, 1941, Section FINANCIAL, Page 33

Merger of Banks, Huntley & Co., which firm has offices in eight cities in Southern California, with Merrill Lynch, E. A. Pierce & Cassatt was announced yesterday. Early W. Huntley, president of the California organization, will become resident partner for the New York firm, in charge of Southern California offices. Clifford M. Washburn will continue as manager in Los Angeles and Sidney B. Hook will manage the municipal bond department there. All Banks, Huntley offices will continue under their present managers.

It's actually Earl W Huntley, who appears to have lived to 1969, at the dedication of the Huntley Bookstore at Claremont University:

https://ccdl.claremont.edu/digital/coll ... p/id/2193/

I picked up my copy of Defying Gravity recently, and was surprised to see how much I had forgotten in the intervening years.

Do you have a hard copy of it?

I have a hard copy somewhere, but fortunately I also have a PDF which I can text search. The hard part is getting focused attention on the subject, with all its whirling tentacles.

Nate

[Jan Lundquist]

Oh so true1

The hard part is getting focused attention on the subject, with all its whirling tentacles.

My job would be so much easier if Townsend had found one lane and kept to it. But nooooo. He was at the beginning of every important in the twentieth century., from the NRL"S development of detection radar in 1930-31, to psi warfare in the seventies.

And he seems to have interacted with some brilliant people. Willoughby's supersensitive microphone must have helped to save so many lives.
Dr. Smythe also worked at the sonar lab, in the early days of WWII before being reassigned to the rocket group.

Jan