Hans Ferdinand Mayer
Encyclopedia
Hans Ferdinand Mayer was a German mathematician
and physicist
and perhaps most notable for the Oslo Report
which revealed German technological secrets to the British Government shortly after the start of World War II
.
winner Philipp Lenard
. In 1922 he joined the Berlin laboratory of Siemens & Halske AG
. From 1926 he co-operated with Karl Küpfmüller
. Both scientists concerned themselves with possibilities of interference-free information transfer of long haul circuits, important in developing telecommunications. In 1936 Mayer became the Director of the Siemens Research Laboratory in Berlin.
In 1943 he was arrested for political reasons (listening to the BBC
, and criticism of the Nazi regime), although the Nazis never knew of the existence of the Oslo Report. He was saved from execution by the intervention of his doctoral supervisor, Lenard, ironically an ardent Nazi supporter. He was first interned in Dachau, then in four other concentration camps until the end of the war. Johannes Plendl
also played a role in his survival in the camps, by appointing Mayer to head a radio laboratory, even though Mayer had no experience in radio.
After World War II Mayer, along with other German scientists, went to the USA as part of Operation Paperclip
. Initially he worked in the U.S. Air Force’s primary research laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
, Dayton, Ohio. In 1947 he moved on to Cornell University
in Ithaca, New York
, as a Professor of Electrical Engineering. In 1950 he returned to Germany, where he was head of the Siemens & Halske research department for communications technology in Munich
until 1962.
, perhaps the most serious breach of German security in World War II. He signed it as "a German scientist, who is on your side", before sending it to the British Embassy in Oslo, Norway, in early November 1939. In his position at Siemens he had access to a wide range of information regarding the development and application of electronics in current and future weapons systems and radar.
The breadth (and uneven quality) of information in his Report lead to initial scepticism amongst the British intelligence community about its veracity, but the technical detail of the information concerning electronics caught the attention of Dr. R.V. Jones
, a brilliant young scientist who had recently been appointed to the Air Ministry. Jones, who was highly regarded by Churchill and eventually rose to the position of Assistant Director of Intelligence (Science), found the Oslo Report extremely useful in anticipating and countering the deployment of new German radar systems, and the radio beam systems
used to guide German bombers to their targets.
The existence of the Oslo Report became more widely known though a talk given by Jones in 1947, although he did not become aware of its author's identity until late 1953, finally confirming it by meeting Mayer in 1955. He agreed to keep his identity secret, to avoid possible retribution against Mayer and his family.
Mayer did not tell his own family until 1977 that he had written the Oslo Report. His will was written so that his authorship of the Report would only be published after the death of himself and his wife. Jones respected Mayer's wishes, not revealing his identity until 1989.
stating that any collection of voltage sources and resistors with two terminals is electrically equivalent to an ideal current source. Edward Lawry Norton
likewise described this in 1926 in an internal report for Bell Labs. The theorem is well-known under the name Norton's theorem
or Mayer-Norton theorem. Hans Ferdinand Mayer published some 25 technical articles and held more than 80 patents.
Mathematician
A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
and physicist
Physicist
A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
and perhaps most notable for the Oslo Report
Oslo report
The Oslo Report was one of the most spectacular leaks in the history of military intelligence. Written by German mathematician and physicist Hans Ferdinand Mayer on November 1 and 2, 1939 during a business trip to Oslo, Norway, it described several German weapons systems, current and future.Mayer...
which revealed German technological secrets to the British Government shortly after the start of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Biography
Hans Ferdinand Mayer studied mathematics, physics and astronomy at the University of Karlsruhe and the University of Heidelberg. In 1920 he attained a doctorate "on the behaviour of molecules in relation to free slow electrons". His professor was the Nobel PrizeNobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
winner Philipp Lenard
Philipp Lenard
Philipp Eduard Anton von Lenard , known in Hungarian as Lénárd Fülöp Eduárd Antal, was a Hungarian - German physicist and the winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1905 for his research on cathode rays and the discovery of many of their properties...
. In 1922 he joined the Berlin laboratory of Siemens & Halske AG
Siemens AG
Siemens AG is a German multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Munich, Germany. It is the largest Europe-based electronics and electrical engineering company....
. From 1926 he co-operated with Karl Küpfmüller
Karl Küpfmüller
Karl Küpfmüller was a German electrical engineer, who was prolific in the areas of communications technology, measurement and control engineering, acoustics, communication theory and theoretical electro-technology....
. Both scientists concerned themselves with possibilities of interference-free information transfer of long haul circuits, important in developing telecommunications. In 1936 Mayer became the Director of the Siemens Research Laboratory in Berlin.
In 1943 he was arrested for political reasons (listening to the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, and criticism of the Nazi regime), although the Nazis never knew of the existence of the Oslo Report. He was saved from execution by the intervention of his doctoral supervisor, Lenard, ironically an ardent Nazi supporter. He was first interned in Dachau, then in four other concentration camps until the end of the war. Johannes Plendl
Johannes Plendl
Johannes "Hans" Plendl , German radar pioneer, was the scientist whose radio navigation techniques made possible the early German bombing successes in World War II.-Biography:...
also played a role in his survival in the camps, by appointing Mayer to head a radio laboratory, even though Mayer had no experience in radio.
After World War II Mayer, along with other German scientists, went to the USA as part of Operation Paperclip
Operation Paperclip
Operation Paperclip was the Office of Strategic Services program used to recruit the scientists of Nazi Germany for employment by the United States in the aftermath of World War II...
. Initially he worked in the U.S. Air Force’s primary research laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base in Greene and Montgomery counties in the state of Ohio. It includes both Wright and Patterson Fields, which were originally Wilbur Wright Field and Fairfield Aviation General Supply Depot. Patterson Field is located approximately...
, Dayton, Ohio. In 1947 he moved on to Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
in Ithaca, New York
Ithaca, New York
The city of Ithaca, is a city in upstate New York and the county seat of Tompkins County, as well as the largest community in the Ithaca-Tompkins County metropolitan area...
, as a Professor of Electrical Engineering. In 1950 he returned to Germany, where he was head of the Siemens & Halske research department for communications technology in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
until 1962.
The Oslo Report
Hans Ferdinand Mayer was the author of the Oslo ReportOslo report
The Oslo Report was one of the most spectacular leaks in the history of military intelligence. Written by German mathematician and physicist Hans Ferdinand Mayer on November 1 and 2, 1939 during a business trip to Oslo, Norway, it described several German weapons systems, current and future.Mayer...
, perhaps the most serious breach of German security in World War II. He signed it as "a German scientist, who is on your side", before sending it to the British Embassy in Oslo, Norway, in early November 1939. In his position at Siemens he had access to a wide range of information regarding the development and application of electronics in current and future weapons systems and radar.
The breadth (and uneven quality) of information in his Report lead to initial scepticism amongst the British intelligence community about its veracity, but the technical detail of the information concerning electronics caught the attention of Dr. R.V. Jones
Reginald Victor Jones
Reginald Victor Jones, CH CB CBE FRS, was a British physicist and scientific military intelligence expert who played an important role in the defence of Britain in -Education:...
, a brilliant young scientist who had recently been appointed to the Air Ministry. Jones, who was highly regarded by Churchill and eventually rose to the position of Assistant Director of Intelligence (Science), found the Oslo Report extremely useful in anticipating and countering the deployment of new German radar systems, and the radio beam systems
Battle of the beams
The Battle of the Beams was a period early in the Second World War when bombers of the German Air Force used a number of increasingly accurate systems of radio navigation for night bombing. British "scientific intelligence" at the Air Ministry fought back with a variety of increasingly effective...
used to guide German bombers to their targets.
The existence of the Oslo Report became more widely known though a talk given by Jones in 1947, although he did not become aware of its author's identity until late 1953, finally confirming it by meeting Mayer in 1955. He agreed to keep his identity secret, to avoid possible retribution against Mayer and his family.
Mayer did not tell his own family until 1977 that he had written the Oslo Report. His will was written so that his authorship of the Report would only be published after the death of himself and his wife. Jones respected Mayer's wishes, not revealing his identity until 1989.
Works
In November 1926 Mayer published an article (H.F.Mayer. "On the equivalent-circuit scheme of the amplifier tube". Telegraph and telephony, 15:335 - 337, 1926.) which describes the transformation of spare voltage supplies after equivalent current sources. It is an extension of Thévenin's theoremThévenin's theorem
In circuit theory, Thévenin's theorem for linear electrical networks states that any combination of voltage sources, current sources, and resistors with two terminals is electrically equivalent to a single voltage source V and a single series resistor R. For single frequency AC systems the theorem...
stating that any collection of voltage sources and resistors with two terminals is electrically equivalent to an ideal current source. Edward Lawry Norton
Edward Lawry Norton
Edward Lawry Norton was an accomplished Bell Labs engineer and scientist famous for developing the concept of the Norton equivalent circuit. He attended the University of Maine for two years before transferring to M.I.T. and received a S.B. degree in 1922. He received an M.A...
likewise described this in 1926 in an internal report for Bell Labs. The theorem is well-known under the name Norton's theorem
Norton's theorem
Norton's theorem for linear electrical networks, known in Europe as the Mayer–Norton theorem, states that any collection of voltage sources, current sources, and resistors with two terminals is electrically equivalent to an ideal current source, I, in parallel with a single resistor, R...
or Mayer-Norton theorem. Hans Ferdinand Mayer published some 25 technical articles and held more than 80 patents.
Honours
- Honorary doctorate at the Technical University of Stuttgart (1956)
- Gauss-Weber-Medaille at the University of Goettingen
- Philipp Reis Preis der Deutschen Post in 1961
- Ehrenring des VDE's in 1968.
Sources
- Don H. Johnson: Scanning Our Past - Origins OF the Equivalent Circuit Concept: The Current SOURCE Equivalent , 2002 PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, VOLUME. 91, NO. 5, MAY 2003
- Jones, R. V., 1989, Reflections on Intelligence, London: Heinemann.