I recently had the opportunity to come across a newspaper clip from the Palo Alto Times dated January 1939. The front page clip has two subject line articles that without question would shape a world of the future in ways never imagined before. One of the articles speaks to a new profound “scientific electronic” breakthrough while the other would be just the beginning of a most horrific period of genocide on humanity. In 1939, history tells us about a world as a whole that was still floundering in the grasp of the “Great Depression” era while at the same time political unrest and aggression was occurring in Europe and other regions of the world. A powder keg of trouble was already beginning to be unleashed and soon to be thrusting the world into a second world war within the same century.
In the winter of 1939, as the Palo Alto Times article reports a new revolutionary invention has been reported, one that would create immediate and long term advances in communications and healthcare related devices. Two brothers, Russell and Sigurd Varian invent the klystron RF amplifier tube which becomes the cornerstone of radar technology, microwave communications and a pillar medical device component that enables external beam cancer treatment through the use of the high energy linear accelerator.
What are the similarities from this newspaper clipping and the two subject matter articles? Both would have a profound impact on history and the human race that till this day is still felt and will continue for generations to come. This invention of the Varian brothers enabled the further development of radar using low power klystrons which were instrumental to the Allied Forces during the later years of World War II and the defeat of the Axis aggression.
What does this mean to the HTM profession and are there modern day Russell and Sigurd Varian “dreamers” brainstorming that next scientific breakthrough that will alter current day medical devices or create the next generation of technology? The answer is a resounding yes – and maybe these modern day ‘dreamers” might just be you!