- Herman Affel
Herman A. Affel (1893-1972) was an American
electrical engineer andinventor , noted for coinventing thecoaxial cable carrier system for multiple high speed long distance data transmissions. The cable can carry different signals at different frequencies, so a single cable can simultaneously carry multiple telephone conversations with little signal loss or interference. Today coaxial cable is used to carry television, telephony and data signals.Arthur Kennelly and Affel (then a research assistant atMIT ) wrote a 1916 paper on the measurement of skin-effect resistance of conductors at radio frequencies. The research was funded by AT&T's Bell Telephone Laboratories. As a variable frequency source, Kennelly and Affel employed a 2 kW Alexanderson radio alternator which could generate frequencies up to 100 kHz at a rotor speed of 20000 rpm. From MIT he went to work atBell Laboratories . Among other projects he worked withLloyd Espenschied on the characteristics of coaxial cable. Espenschied and Affel jointly applied for a patent on a wideband coaxial cable system of transmission, filed in 1929 and granted in 1934. The invention was disclosed in a prize-winning paper published in AIEE's Electrical Engineering in October 1934.During his career at Bell Labs, Affel worked on combining coaxial cable with microwave relays. He co-authored or authored around 40 patents for electronic devices, including advanced transmitters and innovative antennas.
In 2006 Affel was inducted into the
National Inventors Hall of Fame .US Patents
*US Patent|1511013 "Equalization of Carrier Transmissions," 1924, Herman A. Affel
*US Patent|1835031 "Concentric Conducting System", 1929, Lloyd Espenschied and Herman A. AffelExternal links
* [http://ieee.cincinnati.fuse.net/reiman/04_2002.htm Kennelly and Affels 1916 paper]
* [http://www.ieee.org/web/aboutus/history_center/biography/espenschied.html Epenschied's biography at IEEE]
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