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Technical Reports

 Sub-Series
Accession: 2069Identifier: 2069-III.-A.

Dates

  • From the Series: Creation: 1930-1983
  • From the Series: Creation: bulk 1930-1968

Scope and Content

Consists of one or two page summary descriptions of apparatus or processes, typically with a schematic diagram. When a sufficient number had accumulated, they were bound and issued as serial volumes starting in 1957.

The reports collected in the Camden library were generated by work in many RCA laboratories on a wide array of commercial and military subjects. Some report series are the work of a single facility, while other collect the work from many different facilities. The bulk of the reports were generated at Princeton and Camden, but the Camden library collected copies from most of the other research facilities in the system. Reports generated in the Camden Plant come from both the Commercial and Aerospace & Defense Groups. The former deal with research in radio, black and white and color television, sound recording, the "Photophone" system of motion picture sound tracks, "Electrofa​x", and computers, Many of the reports deal with basic research into electronic components and the materials used therein, from vacuum tubes to solid state and superconductors​. The Aerospace & Defense reports deal with radar, sonar, air traffic control, surveillance systems, communications, weather and spy satellites, ICBM's, military communications systems, hardware for the lunar and Mars missions, and designs for space stations and space vehicles.

All of the reports are highly technical in nature with heavy use of equations, graphs, and diagrams. Most cannot be read without a background in electronics engineering. The exceptions are a sizeable number of reports generated by trips to European laboratories and RCA's European licensees which discuss the state of research in electronics and computers, the development of television broadcasting, and the growth of markets for consumer electronics. RCA engineers kept abreast of developments at most of the major manufacturers and research institutes in Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and Italy and some contacts with the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

Most of the reports are highly focused on very narrow problems, or very specific properties of materials and parts of larger devices. Thus it would be necessary to peruse a large number of the reports to get a sense of the larger directions in RCA's research or understand which experiments were commercially successful. Only a small minority of the reports describe the functioning of large pieces of apparatus that a non-specialist would recognize or the state of research on a broad topic.

In addition to the reports generated on the Camden site, the Camden library also received copies of reports from most other RCA research facilities. These include laboratories at Princeton, NJ (later the David Sarnoff Laboratory), Zurich, Switzerland, and New York City, as well as aerospace and defense labs at East Windsor and Moorestown, NJ, Van Nuys and Los Angeles, Calif., and Burlington, Mass. RCA Communications, Inc., is represented by facilities at Riverhead, Rocky Point, and New York, NY, whose work dealt mainly with wireless telegraphy and radio facsimile. The Tube/Electronic Components/Semiconductor/Solid State Divisions are represented by laboratories at Harrison and Somerville, NJ, Lancaster, Pa., Indianapolis, Marion and Bloomington, Ind., and Cincinnati, Ohio.

Smaller bodies of reports are available from the National Broadcasting Company, Inc., the RCA Victor Company, Ltd. in Montreal, the RCA Institute in New York, the RCA Service Company in Cherry Hill, NJ, and RCA's International Division. Lastly, there are a set of reports from the Lincoln Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and one from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at CalTech.

Extent

From the Series: 230 Linear Feet

Additional Description

Access Restrictions

No restrictions on access; this collection is open for research.

Related Names

Creator

Repository Details

Repository Details

Part of the Manuscripts and Archives Repository

Contact:
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