Henryk Władysław Magnuski (January 30, 1909 – May 4, 1978) was a Polish telecommunications engineer who worked for

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent p ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. He was a primary contributor in the development of one of the first

Walkie-Talkie A walkie-talkie, more formally known as a handheld transceiver (HT), is a hand-held, portable, two-way radio transceiver. Its development during the Second World War has been variously credited to Donald Hings, radio engineer Alfred J. Gross, ...

radios, the Motorola

SCR-300 The SCR-300 was a portable radio transceiver used by US Signal Corps in World War II. This backpack-mounted unit was the first radio to be nicknamed a "walkie talkie". History In 1940, Motorola (then the Galvin Manufacturing Company) received a ...

, and influenced the company's success in the field of radio communication.

Early years

Magnuski was born on January 30, 1909, in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

. Having lost both parents at a relatively early age, he supported himself and his sister, Janina, by fixing and installing radios for the Polish military. He received his degree from

Warsaw University of Technology The Warsaw University of Technology ( pl, Politechnika Warszawska, lit=Varsovian Polytechnic) is one of the leading institutes of technology in Poland and one of the largest in Central Europe. It employs 2,453 teaching faculty, with 357 professor ...

in 1934 and started working for the ''State Tele and Radiotechnical Works'' (''Państwowe Zakłady Tele i Radiotechniczne'') in

. In June 1939 he was sent by his company to

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

in order to study the latest American projects of radio transmitters. Soon after his arrival to the United States, Poland was invaded by Germany and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

broke out. His return home became impossible.

Motorola

In 1940 he started working for the

Galvin Manufacturing Corporation Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent public companies, Motorola ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

(the company changed the name in 1947 to

) and assigned to a team that developed the

, the first radio used by American forces in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

to be called a "

". As principal RF engineer on the project and named on three patents for the device, Magnuski is sometimes credited as having "invented the Walkie-Talkie in America". He later received a U. S. Navy Certificate of Commendation for Outstanding Service for development of the AN/CPN-6 Radar Beacon, a

microwave Microwave is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths ranging from about one meter to one millimeter corresponding to frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz respectively. Different sources define different frequency ran ...

device which aided carrier pilots to find their ship during low visibility conditions. After the war he did not return to the

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

People's Republic of Poland The Polish People's Republic ( pl, Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL) was a country in Central Europe that existed from 1947 to 1989 as the predecessor of the modern Republic of Poland. With a population of approximately 37.9 million nea ...

and stayed in the USA. He helped in the development of VHF

cavity resonator A resonator is a device or system that exhibits resonance or resonant behavior. That is, it naturally oscillates with greater amplitude at some frequencies, called resonant frequencies, than at other frequencies. The oscillations in a resonator ...

s that allowed adjacent channel operation, was a key designer for the Motorola Sensicon receiver which used a selective filter in front of the IF

amplifier An amplifier, electronic amplifier or (informally) amp is an electronic device that can increase the magnitude of a signal (a time-varying voltage or current). It may increase the power significantly, or its main effect may be to boost the v ...

and created microwave relay equipment for use in transmitting multi-channel telephone, data and TV. In Motorola's Government Electronics Division he developed the SSB Radio Central Concept AN/USC-3, Motorola’s RADEM system (RADAS), the Deltaplex I digital troposcatter system and lightweight tropo equipment AN/TRC-105.

Retirement

At retirement after 30 years of cooperation with the company, he was the Associate Director of Research for Motorola's Government Electronics Division, had 30 patents related to VHF and microwave communications, was an

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...

Fellow and author of numerous technical papers and a chapter in the "Communication System Engineering Handbook". He succumbed to cancer at his home in

Glenview, Illinois Glenview is an incorporated village located in Cook County, Illinois, United States, approximately 15 miles northwest of the Chicago Loop. Per the 2020 census, the population was 48,705. The current Village President is Michael Jenny. Geography ...

on May 4, 1978. The Henry Magnuski Electrical and Computer Engineering professorship at the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

is named in his honor. On October 6, 2006, Henryk Magnuski was one of the first five inductees into the Illinois Engineering Hall of Fame. Polish TVP aired a documentary on the life of Henryk Magnuski on January 27, 2021. It was the first in a series of documentaries on famous Polish scientists and inventors.

Personal life

Magnuski's son is

Hank Magnuski Henry "Hank" Stanley Magnuski is an American engineer and was the co-founder and CEO of GammaLink, an early pioneer in PC-to-fax technology. He also founded Internet Video Services, a video service provider; MediaMart, an electronic commerce site ...

, pioneer of PC-to-fax technology.

Publications

* H. Magnuski. ''Cavity Resonators in Mobile Communications''. Communications, August, 1949 * H. Magnuski. ''Application of Microwave Relay to Commercial Communication Systems''. 1949 Southwestern I.R.E. Conference - Dallas, Texas * H. Magnuski. ''Private Line Microwave Systems''. IRE Professional Group on Vehicular Communications National Meeting - Detroit, Michigan, November 3, 1950 * H. Magnuski. ''Adjacent Channel Rejection Receiver''. Electronics Magazine, January, 1951 * H. Magnuski. ''The Microwave Relay Communication System - General Technical Philosophy & Specific Engineering Solution''. Fourth Southwestern IRE Conference - Houston Texas, May 17, 1952 * H. Magnuski, Theodore F. Koch. ''Passive Repeater Bends Microwave Beam''. Electronics Magazine, February, 1953 * H. Magnuski, Harold A. Jones. ''Packaged Microwave Relay Systems''. Radio Electronic Engineering, March, 1953 * H. Magnuski. ''The Microwave Relay and its Relationship to VHF Vehicular Communication''. I.R.E. Convention - Washington, D.C., June 23, 1953 * H. Magnuski, Dr. William L. Firestone, Angus MacDonald. ''Modulation Sideband Splatter of VHF and UHF Transmitters''. Proceedings of the National Electronic Conference, Vol 10 February, 1955 * H. Magnuski. ''An Explanation of Fading in Microwave Relay Systems''. IRE National Convention, March 21, 1955 * H. Magnuski. ''An Explanation of Microwave Fading and Its Correction by Frequency Diversity''. Winter General Meeting of the AIEE, January 30, 1956 * H. Magnuski. ''Comparison of SSB and FM for VHF Mobile Service''. Proceedings of the I.R.E, Vol. 44 No. 12, December, 1956 * H. Magnuski. ''Comparison of SSB and FM for VHF Mobile Service''. IRE Transactions on Vehicular Communications, PGVC-9, June, 1957 * Dr. William L. Firestone, H. Magnuski, Roy A. Richardson. ''Single Sideband for Mobile Applications''. AIEE Fall General Meeting - Chicago, Illinois, October 11, 1957 * Dr. William L. Firestone, H. Magnuski, A. A. MacDonald, R. A. Richardson. ''Synchronous SSB for Communications''. Electronic Industries, April, 1958 * Dr. William L. Firestone, H. Magnuski. ''Report on Single Sideband Communications''. New York Section of AIEE, April 30, 1958 * Dr. William L. Firestone, H. Magnuski. ''SSB for Spectrum Conservation''. Globe Com II - St. Petersburg, Florida, December 3, 1958 * H. Magnuski. ''Single Sideband for Communications''. CMEC Communications Symposium, June 11, 1959 * H. Magnuski. ''Jamming of Communications Systems Using FM, AM and SSB Modulation''. IRE Transactions on Military Electronics, MIL-5 No. 1 8-11, January, 1961 * H. Magnuski. ''Wideband Channel for Emergency Communications''. IRE Transactions on Vehicular Communications, Vol. VC-10 No. 2, August, 1961 * Willis DeHart, H. Magnuski. ''Analysis of Random Access Discrete Address System''. IRE Eighth National Communications Symposium, October, 1962 * H. Magnuski. ''RADA and Satellite Communications''. 1962 National Symposium on Space Electronics and Telemetry - Miami Beach, October 2, 1962 * H. Magnuski. ''RADAS - A New Concept in Communications Systems''. Motorola Engineering Bulletin, Vol. 11, Issues 1 and 2, 1963 * H. Magnuski. ''Anti-Jamming Characteristics of RADAS''. IRE Winter Convention on Military Electronics - Los Angeles, February, 1963 * H. Magnuski. ''RADAS and Satellite Communication''. National Symposium on Space Electronics and Telemetry, October 2, 1962 * H. Magnuski. ''Microwave Fading and its Correction by Diversity Reception''. Wire and Radio Communications, November, 1964 * H. Magnuski, W. Braun, L. Engelbrecht, F. R. Steel. ''Delta-Multiplex for Long Tropo Scatter Links''. IEEE International Convention, 1965 * H. Magnuski. ''Deltaplex - A Novel Solution to Troposcatter Communications Problems''. Fourth Canadian Symposium on Communications, October 14, 1966 * H. Magnuski, L. Engelbrecht, W. E. Yost, Jr. ''Digital Techniques Promise New Applications for Tropo''. Signal Magazine, 1967 * H. Magnuski. ''Upgrading the Tropo Span''. Motorola Engineering Bulletin. April 4, 1967 * H. Magnuski. ''The Principles of Vehicular Communication Systems Design''. IEEE First Symposium on Vehicular Communications Systems, May 25, 1967 * H. Magnuski. ''Chapter 18 - Address Communication Systems''. Communication System Engineering Handbook - Donald. H. Hamsher, Ed., June, 1967, McGraw-Hill, NY. * H. Magnuski. ''A Novel Solution to Troposcatter Communication Problems''. Telecommunications, January, 1968

US Patents

US2,398,793
Radio receiving system
US2,408,791
Radio communications system
US2,409,139
Radio receiving system
US2,608,648
Highly selective radio receiver
US2,608,649
Highly selective radio receiver
US2,637,782
Resonant cavity filter
US2,699,495
Automatic switchover system for radio relay
US2,699,496
Microwave relay test system
US2,713,664
Limiter for phase modulation
US2,734,131
Communication system with carrier strength control
US2,782,300
Modulation meter
US2,803,802
Deviation Calibrator
US2,813,198
Microwave system
US2,852,730
Power supply
US2,860,238
Diversity receiving system
US2,892,930
Communication system
US2,959,673
Radio receiver squelch control
US3,235,768
Variable microwave phase shifter utilizing plasma electrode
US3,292,086
System for converting a train of binary zeroes to a train of alternating ones and zeroes and vice versa
US3,292,178
Communication system
US3,361,970
Selection of frequencies for minimum depth of fading in a frequency diversity microwave line of sight relay link
US3,380,023
Electronic alarm system
US3,392,392
Bearing measurement system using statistical signal processing by analog techniques
US3,406,775
Vehicular speed indicator, odometer and automatic speed control system
US3,453,562
Delta modulator with uniform quantizing steps
US3,467,783
Speech bandwidth reduction by sampling 1/n cycles storing the samples, and reading the samples out at 1/n the sampling rate
US3,471,646
Time division multiplex system with prearranged carrier frequency shifts
US3,506,966
Pulse coded, wide band radio communication system
US3,532,988
Digital troposcatter multiplex communication system optimum frequency
US3,646,441
Digital radio communication systems using repeaters operating at same frequency

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Magnuski, Henryk 1909 births 1978 deaths Engineers from Warsaw Motorola employees People from Glenview, Illinois Deaths from cancer in Illinois 20th-century Polish inventors Fellow Members of the IEEE 20th-century American inventors Polish emigrants to the United States