Radiation Lab

An identification button for S. R. Meltzer, a technician at the Radiation Lab, Wikimedia Commons

There was a secret project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, known as the Radiation Lab, where scientists developed radar technology. F. W. Loomis, the Radiation Lab associate director for personnel, understood the impact that radar technology would have and he desired for an established historian to document the advancement of the technology. In his letter he stated, “The outcomes of this war and of future wars are likely to be affected or even determined by technological advances and it would well repay a considerable amount of effort [...] if a noteworthy case such as the one I am referring to could be thoroughly studied and analyzed” (“Radiation Laboratory”). Scientists involved in the development of militarized radar technology understood the impact their invention would have and many desperately wanted this process of progress to be documented and understood by future generations. This desire indicates how important defensive technology, specifically radar, was in the second world war.