engineering

Rudolf Kompfner

Rudolf Kompfner is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Rudolf Kompfner rather than just read about it. In short: Rudolf Kompfner (May 16, 1909 – December 3, 1977) was an Austrian-born inventor, physicist and architect, best known as the inventor of the traveling-wave tube (TWT). Life Kompfner was born in Vienna to Jewish parents.

Key takeaways

Rudolf Kompfner belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Rudolf Kompfner to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Rudolf Kompfner from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Rudolf Kompfner (May 16, 1909 – December 3, 1977) was an Austrian-born inventor, physicist and architect, best known as the inventor of the traveling-wave tube (TWT).

Life Kompfner was born in Vienna to Jewish parents. He was originally trained as an architect and after receiving his university degree in 1933 he moved to England (due to the rise of anti-Semitism), where he worked as an architect until 1941. He had a strong interest in physics and electronics, and after being briefly detained by the British at the start of World War II he was recruited to work in a secret microwave vacuum tube research program at the University of Birmingham. While there, Kompfner invented the TWT in 1943. After the war he became a British citizen, continued working for the Admiralty as a scientist, and also studied physics at the University of Oxford, receiving his D.Phil. in 1951. In 1965, he received an honorary doctorate from the Vienna University of Technology.

Patents

1957 Traveling Wave Tube Amplifier (issued August 27, 1957) Traveling Wave Tube (issued October 29, 1957) Electron Beam System (issued November 5, 1957)

1958 Traveling Wave Tube (issued May 13, 1958) Electron Beam System (issued October 21, 1958) Non-reciprocal Wave Transmission (issued November 11, 1958)

1959 Traveling Wave Tube (issued January 6, 1959) Direct View Storage Tube (issued March 24, 1959) Backward Wave Tube (issued June 16, 1959) Traveling Wave Tube (issued July 14, 1959) Apparatus Utilizing Slalom Focusing (issued August 11, 1959) Non-reciprocal Wave Transmission Device (issued November 3, 1959) Backward Wave Amplifier (issued December 8, 1959)

1960 Non-reciprocal Elements in Microwave Tubes (issued January 26, 1960) Coaxial Couplers (issued February 16, 1960) Pulse Coincidence Detecting Tube (issued April 19, 1960) Electron Gun for Slalom Focusing Systems (issued May 31, 1960) High Efficiency Velocity Modulation Devices (issued August 16, 1960) Traveling Wave Tube (issued October 4, 1960)

1961 Low Noise Amplifier (issued February 14, 1961) High Frequency Amplifier (issued February 21, 1961) Backward Wave Tube (issued May 23, 1961) Elastic Wave Parametric Amplifier (issued December 5, 1961)

1962 Parallel High Frequency Amplifier Circuits (issued February 15, 1962) Scanning Horn-Reflector Antenna (issued February 13, 1962) Microwave Filter (issued June 26, 1962) Broadband Cyclotron Wave Parametric Amplifier (issued August 28, 1962) High Frequency Generator (issued December 4, 1962)

1964 Traveling Wave Light Modulator (issued May 12, 1964) Artificial Scattering Elements for Use as Reflectors in Space Communication Systems (issued September 29, 1964) Detector for Optical Communication System (issued October 27, 1964)

1965 Beam Collector with Auxiliary Collector for Repelled or Secondarily-Emitted Electrons. (Issued 6 /8, 1965) Antenna System (issued July 20, 1965) Sinusoidal-Shaped Lens for Light Wave Communication (issued December 21, 1965) Transmission of Light Waves (issued December 21, 1965)

1966 Optical Maser Amplifier (issued May 24, 1966) Antenna System (issued September 13, 1966) Triple Element S-Lens Focusing System (issued November 15, 1966)

1967 Spherical Reflector Elastic Wave Delay Device with Planar Transducers (issued May 2, 1967)

1969 Intracavity Image Converter (issued July 8, 1969)

1970 Receiving Antenna Apparatus Compensated for Antenna Surface Irregularities (issued January 13, 1970) Anti-Doppler Shift Antenna for Mobile Radio (issued March 24, 1970) Multiple-Pass Light-Deflecting Modulator (issued March 31, 1970) Multiple-Pass Light-Deflecting Modulator (issued March 31, 1970) Optical Waveguide (issued April 14, 1970) Time Division Multiplex Optical Transmission System (issued April 14, 1970) Digital Light Deflecting Systems (issued June 2, 1970) Method and Apparatus for Obtaining 3-Dimensional Images from Recorded Standing Patterns (issued July 14, 1970) Optical Heterodyne Receiver with Pulse Widening or Stretching (issued September 22, 1970) Light Communication System with Improved Signal-to-Noise Ratio (issued October 6, 1970)

1977 Method of and Apparatus for Acoustic Imaging (issued March 15, 1977)

References

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Kompfner, Rudolf (November 1964). The Invention of the Traveling-Wave Tube. San Francisco Press. p. 30. ISBN 978-0911302011. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)

External links "IEEE Medal Of Honor Recipients, 1973" (PDF). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 June 2010., p. 4 National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Rudolf Kompfner

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Rudolf Kompfner claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Rudolf Kompfner before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Rudolf Kompfner ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Rudolf Kompfner

In research: Rudolf Kompfner appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Rudolf Kompfner in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Rudolf Kompfner is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1909 births, 1977 deaths, 20th-century American Jews, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Rudolf Kompfner outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Rudolf Kompfner in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Rudolf Kompfner means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Rudolf Kompfner out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Rudolf Kompfner in simple terms?

Rudolf Kompfner (May 16, 1909 – December 3, 1977) was an Austrian-born inventor, physicist and architect, best known as the inventor of the traveling-wave tube (TWT). Life Kompfner was born in Vienna to Jewish parents.

Why does Rudolf Kompfner matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Rudolf Kompfner?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Rudolf Kompfner.