The history of "Radar Man"
In mid 2005,
a friend of mine brought to me a sheet of gridded paper (yes, the kind
we used to draw plots, in the ancient ages when we did it
manually!), with the text of "Radar Man" written on the back in pencil.
The manual was the following:
PHILCO TRAINING MANUAL
ELECTRONIC CIRCUITS DIRECTORY
Copyright 1953
AN-296
of the series:
"PHILCO TechRep World Wide Service"
"Field Engineering for the Armed Forces and Industry"
He acquired the book trough an auction on eBay
Click here to see the manuscript
On Jan, 25, 2006, some news about the source of the
"Radar Man" arrived...
Below is the text of the e-mail (published with authorisation of the
author), reporting the story, and a different version of the "Radar Man"
In another
e-mail, the author, who works for the U.S. Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA), reported that it should date back to the '50s or
'60s.
"Hi,
I was wandering the web when I came across your version of The Radar
Man.
It bears a striking resemblance to the copy I have. I found mine
as an old
mimeographed page in the 1980s. It didn't have an author or date
indicated. It did have a sketch of the radar man with his dipole feet
and a
lagging train of pips behind. I don't have the paper anymore,
just the
words."
The
Radar Man
If ever you saw upon the street
A man whom walked with dipole feet
With a lagging train of pips behind
He was a radar man with a micromind.
With microseconds and microwaves
And microvolts, he filled his days;
And thus in the course of passing time
His brain had shrunk to a micromind.
His eyes gave out with a neon gleam,
His nose lit up like a radar screen,
His ears worked like an electronic
gate,
And his heart pumped blood at a video
rate.
This man obtained, in passing years,
Infinite impedance between his ears.
At last he succumbed to heavy jolt
When he probed what he thought was a
microvolt.
The Doc looked up from his microscope
And said to the nurse, Behold this
dope!
Since of his brain not a trace can I
find,
He was a radar man with micromind.
At
this point, the available data were pointing to the US as the source,
and it become sure that it was not recent: at least the '60s, may be
the
'50s.
Another US version (also coming from the FAA) is reported on the site
of Brightleaf Amateur Radio Club,
at this
address
The US origin seemed to by confimed by another communication received
on March, 21, 2006, reporting another version of the poem having been
seen in 1966 in Houston, TX.....
But it also reported to have found another version on the net, on the
web site of the South Dorset Radio
Society, at this address:
http://www.g3sds.org.uk/docs/june2003.pdf
(go to pg 4)
this version has been provided by Bill Young, G4KUU, who come across it
while on National Service (in UK).
So, the older available version appears to come from Britain, from a
time very close to the origin of the radar itself!
Here is the text :
The Radar Man
If you should see upon the street,
a man equipped with dipole feet
and a family of curves trailing behind,
He's a Radar Man with a micro mind.
His eyes take on a neon gleam,
His ears extend to a Yagi beam.
His mouth becomes another pulse gate,
His heart pumps blood at a video rate.
With micro-seconds and micro-waves,
and micro-volts he spends his days,
and therefore in the course of time,
He eventually develops a micro-mind.
This Radar man, with the passing years
attains infinite impedance between his ears,
and finally succumbs to a heavy jolt,
from what he thought was a micro-volt.
The doc looked up from his microscope,
turned to his colleagues, and softly spoke,
"No trace of a brain can I find,
He's a Radar man with a micro-mind.
(Courtesy of the South Dorset Radio
Society)
On February, 7, 2007, I received another e-mail, from Canada this time.
This communication pushes further back the origin of the "Radar Man",
to WWII, in the Royal Air Force.
Leslie Shvemar,
the father of the author, was a "radar mechanic" in the
RAF during WWII. When he passed away in January 2007, among his old
military paper, she have found a manuscript, which she made available
to me, of the "Radar Man"
substantially identical (just one word of difference) to the first one.
Click here to see the
manuscript
Click here for a biographical note about Leslie
Shvemar
This is the conclusion of the story...for now. We learned that
the "Radar Man" is from the early days of the radar. That it was
diffused around the radar specialists in the Royal Air Force and that,
probably, its origin is there (when reading about "dipoles" and "Yagi",
how not to think to the early HF radars of the British "Home Chain"?)
We do not know who wrote it for the first time, and probably, we will
never know. But if you have additional informations about the story of
the "Radar Man", please e-mail me.
Last updatedMar, 02, 07