An Archaeological Expedition to Washington DC Unearths Engineering Gold
May 27, 2008
The hunt for treasured artifacts—not the stuff of gems and jewels, but the stuff of hearts and memories—was on our minds as we descended the steps of a 1940s era brick home in Northeast DC on a warm May day. Leonard Thomas, the fifth Secretary of the EMC Society passed away over a year ago and his archives and collections beckoned EMC Historian Dan Hoolihan. With members of the Washington/Northern Virginia EMC Society in-tow, Dan’s mission was to ferret out the lost records of the society during Mr. Thomas’ sixteen year tenure from 1965 to 1981.
We got more than several boxes of records and remembrances; we got an eyeful as Mr. Thomas was, obviously, a quintessential engineer and an inveterate tinkerer. Surrounded by radios that had not tuned a carrier in at least twenty years were the notes from meetings, the history of the development of EMC standards and, somewhere, hopefully was the EMC equivalent to the signature page of the Declaration of Independence: the document with the 50 or so names of the first signatories to the EMC Society.
Why here? Well, chances were good and for a few reasons: first, Mr. Thomas, the fifth person to serve as Secretary of the “EMC Group”, as the first agglomeration of the afflicted was called. Perhaps to give it more ‘cachet’, the EMC Group was renamed the “IEEE EMC Society.” Makes you think of white gloves and tuxedos. The second reason we held out hope to find the documents was that Mr. Thomas was, ah, a collector, and one can have quite a collection if one succeeds to make it to a 97th birthday.
Much can be written about such a life and much already has; suffice it to say that his career made for a fascinating tale and included participating in state-of-the-art interference studies in the Stoddardt Mobile Test Vehicle. Took leaded gas. Played Jefferson Airplane.
Stoddardt Mobile Testing Van
There were files back to the forties.
What DNA Standard is NOT represented?
While Tom Boughner and Tom Revesz catalogued, crated and hauled, I poked around at a man’s life of treasured possession, curiosities, hobbies and passions.
I noticed a not-so-distinctive piece of RF gear with a Dymo®-label that said “IDIOT BOX – TURN ON WHEN IDIOT TALKS”. Must be a story there somewhere (and someone’s not telling).
Other shelves held ancient archival IRE Proceedings; so regarded with nostalgia (well, maybe not so much nostalgia for this writer).
Institute of Radio Engineers – precursor to the IEEE
And finally, lots of fundamentals, predictions, studies, reports and handbooks:
The stacking and sorting will be left for another day.
We dropped off the bounty at a storage locker for later research, sorting and cataloguing; Dan says: “I’ll go through it when I return to Washington.”
Right. I wonder why I have this sneaking suspicion that I just inherited all this history? Dan, you listening?
Dan and Barry in the Inner Sanctum
From his obituary, we learn that Mr. Thomas was born in Birmingham, Ala., as the eldest son of British immigrants from Cornwall. He was the 1920s equivalent of “a nerd,” said his daughter Sarah Ellen Sandel. He built radio sets as a youngster and discovered electrical engineering in high school.
As every good engineer keeps things running as long as possible, the radios that were in his possession certainly were things of beauty. I’m at a loss as to what all the particular buttons on this thing were.
WJSV, Later WTOP
After taking a degree from Alabama Polytechnic Institute (now Auburn), his career took him from radio stations (the old WJSV) in DC to the Navy to ECAC to retirement and service with the IEEE.
Again, from his obituary: His suggestions were instrumental in the construction of an interference-free radar system for the military, and he helped write national standards for future communications devices. Mr. Thomas also resolved interference problems in the White House radio room when he discovered that fluorescent lighting from the kitchen was the culprit. After the war, he became the first U.S. representative to the International Special Committee on Radio Interference (CISPR).
Tom and Tom dig in...
In the meantime, Tom and Tom keep at it. We barely scratched the surface.
Mr. Thomas wrote numerous technical papers. He was elected an IEEE Fellow and received the institute’s Standards Medallion and the Laurence G. Cumming Award. Mr. Thomas passed away on January 31, 2007.
For all his collecting and documenting and archiving, we are forever grateful. Now, Dan when are you coming back?
Mike Violette
May 2008
