Inventor Name
Henderson, John Tasker
Repository
Library and Archives Canada
395 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON K1A 0N4
CANADA
Reference: 613-996-5115 or 1-866-578-7777 (toll free in Canada and the US)
Physical Description
4.15 m of textual records. 383 photographs b&w.;
Summary
Dr. John T. Henderson, physicist, was born in Montreal, Que., and obtained his B.Sc., 1927, and M.Sc., 1928, in engineering physics from McGill University. He received his Ph.d. in 1932 from the University of Paris and the TechniSche HochSchule, Munich.Dr. Henderson was appointed chief of the Radio section of the National Research Council (NRC) in 1933. He and F.U. Heakes represented Canada in the first official disclosures of British RDF (radar) to the Commonwealth countries in 1939. Returning to the NRC, he headed the radar development programme. From 1942 to 1946, he served in Radar and Signals in the RCAF in Canada, Newfoundland, England and Germany. In 1947 he acted as scientific adviser to the Canadian delegation under Lt. General A.G.L. McNaughton of the United Nation's commission on Atomic Energy.D r. Henderson was in charge of the NRC part of SHORAN, an interdepartmental project to apply radar techniques to aerial surveying, until 1949 when he was placed in charge of the Electricity Section in the Applied Physics Division, a position he held until his retirement in 1970. He was awarded the MBE in 1943 for his pioneer work in the radar field, and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, and was the first recepient of the McNaughton Medal. Fonds consists of personal records, n.d., 1925-1983, 32 cm (volumes 1-2); correspondence, 1933-1974, 1 m (volumes 2-7); solar eclipse, 1931-1941, 7 cm (volumes 7-8); research, 1924-1948, 80 cm (volumes 8-12); Research Enterprises Limited, 1940-1941, 3 cm (volume 12); History of the Radio Branch, 1939-1948, 27 cm (volumes 12-13); Combined Intelligence Objectives subcommittee, 1945-1949, 5 cm (volume 13); international committees, 1934-1978, 72 cm (volume 14-17); metric system, 1951-1974, 10 cm (volume 17); scientific and technical societies, 1945-1972, 9 cm (volumes 17-18); Columbia River Division and Treaty, 1956-1959, 13 cm (volumes 18-19); renewable energy sources, 1969-1974, 10 cm (volume 19); NRC papers, 1933-1973, 25 cm (volumes 19-20); and subject files, n.d., 1921-1967, 22 cm (volumes 20-21).The fonds also consists of photographs illustrating the work of Dr. Henderson.
