Background
Diamond was born in Russia on February 12, 1900 and immigrated to the United States as a child. He grew up in Quincy, Massachusetts.
Diamond was born in Russia on February 12, 1900 and immigrated to the United States as a child. He grew up in Quincy, Massachusetts.
He graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1922. He completed his master"s degree in Electrical Engineering in 1925 and an Electrical Engineering instructor for 4 years at Lehigh University in electrical engineering.
Mr. Diamond enlisted in the United States Army on October 14, 1918 and was honorably discharged on December 9, 1918. Diamond worked for the General Electric company for 18 months. He joined the National in 1927.
Diamond headed up the research and development work of the Commerce Department’s newly organized Bureau of Air Commerce.
Within two years he developed radio beacon system that permitted the first "blind" aircraft landing. Diamond and his team made the first visual-type radiobeacon system that enabled a pilot to keep on course and to know his approximate position at all times while in flight. direction service could be given to any number of planes flying the course, and that each airplane only had to carry a receiving set, with no other special equipment whatsoever.
The pilot would obtain the necessary information pertaining to amplitude of course deviations hands-free and without requiring earphones. Diamond went on and became Chief of the Electronics Division.
The National was brought into the program, and Harry Diamond was given responsibility for this phase of the Bureau’s work.
Within about four months of the start of the program, Diamond’s group established feasibility of the radio proximity fuze through conclusive tests in bombs dropped at the Naval Proving Ground at Dahlgren, Virginia. Throughout World World War II, this group acted as the central laboratory of Division 4 of the National Defense Research Committee, and Diamond was the central figure of the group. Much of the basic proximity fuze technology was developed under his direction.
Later, as Chief of the Ordnance Development Division he was assigned the task of supervising the development of proximity fuzes for nonrotating projectiles such as bombs, rockets, and mortars.
lieutenant was calculated that a fuze which would explode a projectile near a plane or at some height above a target on the surface would increase lethality. Mr. Diamond, through his vast knowledge in the field of electronics, contributed greatly to the fundamental concept and design of proximity fuzes.
He held 16 patents for electronics-related inventions. The Ordnance Development Division, upon transfer from the National to the Army in 1953, was named the Diamond Ordnance Fuze Laboratories in honor of Mr.
Diamond. lieutenant has since been renamed the Harry Diamond Laboratories.
The War Department later described inventor Harry Diamond"s proximity fuze as "one of the outstanding scientific developments of World World War World War II. second only to the atomic bomb" in military importance. Mr. Diamond died suddenly June 21, 1948.
