Theoretical prediction of the electromagnetic waveguide
Predicción teórica de la guía de onda electromagnética
- Date
- 1897 · confidence medium
- Place
- Cambridge, England
- Credited to
- Lord Rayleigh (John William Strutt)
- Field
- Matter & energy
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
Rayleigh solved the mathematical problem of electromagnetic waves propagating through conducting tubes or dielectric rods, showing that they only travel without attenuation in certain modes and above a cutoff frequency; the idea was demonstrated in practice more than three decades later.
J. J. Thomson had already derived around 1893 the electromagnetic modes of a cylindrical metal cavity, and Oliver Lodge demonstrated in 1894 the transmission of radio waves through copper tubes, but it was Rayleigh who in 1897 gave the complete and rigorous theoretical treatment. Building practical waveguides had to wait for Southworth and Barrow, who independently reached equivalent results between 1932 and 1936.
What it led to
- Practical waveguides by Southworth (Bell Labs) and Barrow (MIT), 1932-1936
- World War II radar and microwave communications technology