The Life & Works of AD Blumlein

A review of Robert Charles Alexander book

I was delighted to open this (2nd hand) book to discover a handwritten note by Maurice Harker on the title page. I also enjoyed the picture of William S Percival, another of the team, who I had taxi-ed down to INMOS from EMI, Hayes in the 80’s (he was in his 80’s) to discuss his novel memory chip design.

The book was replete with other titbits of various electronics technology that I had come across in my career from long-tailed pair circuit design to lumped impedance considerations. I had been inspired to buy it as I had recently come across the memorial plaque in Orford, Suffolk to Watson Watt et al and their development of Radar. And the book did address the pre-war development of it, TV, and other components.

For comparison purpose I inspected the relevant Wikipedia entries and came to the conclusion that the 400+ page book was a worthwhile purchase.