Haraden Pratt

American electrical engineer and radio pioneer

Haraden Pratt

Born| (1891-07-18)July 18, 1891

San Francisco, California

Died| August 1, 1969(1969-08-01) (aged 78)
Nationality| American
Awards| IEEE Medal of Honor (1944)
IEEE Founders Medal (1960)
Scientific career
Fields| Electrical engineering

Haraden Pratt (July 18, 1891 – August 1, 1969) was a noted American electrical engineer and radio pioneer.

Pratt was born in San Francisco, California, where his parents were telegraph operators. He learned Morse code when young and worked briefly as a shipboard wireless operator before entering the University of California (Class of 1914). After graduation, he joined the American Marconi Company and helped to install and operate its 300-kilowatt trans-Pacific radio station at Bolinas, California, and its companion receiver station in Marshall, California.

From 1915 to 1920 Pratt was a radio aide to the United States Navy, leading its radio laboratory and engineering at Mare Island Navy Yard, California. In this role he installed radio equipment on Navy ships and maintained West Coast shore stations until 1918, when he moved to Washington, D.C., to take charge of the construction and maintenance of all high-power Navy radio stations.

From 1920 to 1926 Pratt worked for the Federal Telegraph Company in Palo Alto, California, where he designed a system for commercial radio telegraph service. When in 1926 the United States Congress passed the Air Commerce Act to fund radio aids to air navigation, J. Howard Dellinger of the National Bureau of Standards tapped Pratt and Harry Diamond to create a suitable radio beacon system in 1927–1928.

In 1928 Pratt became chief engineer of the Mackay Radio and Telegraph Company, subsequently acquired by the International Telephone and Telegraph Company (ITT), where he eventually became vice president and general manager. During World War II, Pratt served as Division Chief in the Office of Scientific Research and Development and was Chairman of the Radio Technical Planning Board 1945–1949, and in 1946 was an official observer of the Bikini atomic bomb tests. He remained with ITT until 1951 when he served from 1951 to 1953 as telecommunications advisor to Presidents Truman and Eisenhower. Pratt was vice president of the American Cable and Radio Corporation from 1953 to 1958.

Pratt joined the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE), became an IRE Director in 1935, served as president of the IRE in 1938, and was its secretary from 1943 to 1965. He was awarded the IRE Medal of Honor in 1944 "in recognition of his engineering contributions to the development of radio, of his work in the extension of communication facilities to distant lands, and of his constructive leadership in Institute affairs," and the Founder's Award in 1960. The IEEE Haraden Pratt Award was established in 1971 in his honor. His papers are archived at the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

## References[edit]

* IEEE History Center biography
* IEEE Haraden Pratt Award
* Haraden Pratt, Recipient, Medal of Honor, I944
* Haraden Pratt Papers, 1908-1969
* J. H. Dellinger and Haraden Pratt, "Development of Radio Aids to Air Navigation," Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers, 16 (July 1928): pages 900–902.
* Haraden Pratt and Harry Diamond, "Receiving Sets For Aircraft Beacon and Telephony," Bureau of Standards Journal of Research vol. 1, no. 4 (October 1928): page 549.

## External links[edit]

* Works by or about Haraden Pratt at Internet Archive
* Guide to the Haraden Pratt Papers at The Bancroft Library

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ITT Corporation

Related companies|

* Abbey Life
* American Cable and Radio Corporation
* Bell Telephone Manufacturing Company
* C. Lorenz
* Cannon
* Claro Puerto Rico
* Commercial Cable Company
* Commercial Pacific Cable Company
* Creed & Company
* EDO Corporation
* Exelis Visual Information Solutions
* Federal Telegraph Company
* Flygt
* Focke-Wulf
* Goulds Pumps
* ITT Exelis
* ITT Technical Institute
* Kellogg Switchboard & Supply Company
* Kolster-Brandes
* Mix & Genest
* Rayonier
* Sheraton Hotels and Resorts
* Standard Telecommunication Laboratories
* Standard Telephones and Cables
* The Hartford
* WPXN-TV
* Xylem Inc.

Key people|

* Sosthenes Behn
* Hernán Behn
* William Henry Harrison
* Harold Geneen
* John William Mackay
* Rand Araskog
* Ellery W. Stone

Media|

* The Sovereign State
* ITT: The Management of Opportunity
* The ITT Wars

Products|

* GeoEye-1
* ITT System 12
* ITT 2020

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IEEE Medal of Honor

1917–1925|

* Edwin H. Armstrong (1917)
* Ernst Alexanderson (1919)
* Guglielmo Marconi (1920)
* Reginald A. Fessenden (1921)
* Lee De Forest (1922)
* John Stone Stone (1923)
* Michael I. Pupin (1924)

1926–1950|

* Greenleaf W. Pickard (1926)
* Louis W. Austin (1927)
* Jonathan Zenneck (1928)
* George W. Pierce (1929)
* Peder Oluf Pedersen (1930)
* Gustave A. Ferrie (1931)
* Arthur Edwin Kennelly (1932)
* John Ambrose Fleming (1933)
* Stanford C. Hooper (1934)
* Balthasar van der Pol (1935)
* George Ashley Campbell (1936)
* Melville Eastham (1937)
* John H. Dellinger (1938)
* Albert G. Lee (1939)
* Lloyd Espenschied (1940)
* Alfred N. Goldsmith (1941)
* Albert H. Taylor (1942)
* William Wilson (1943)
* Haraden Pratt (1944)
* Harold H. Beverage (1945)
* Ralph Hartley (1946)
* Lawrence C. F. Horle (1948)
* Ralph Bown (1949)
* Frederick Terman (1950)

1951–1975|

* Vladimir Zworykin (1951)
* Walter Ransom Gail Baker (1952)
* John Milton Miller (1953)
* William Littell Everitt (1954)
* Harald T. Friis (1955)
* John V. L. Hogan (1956)
* Julius Adams Stratton (1957)
* Albert Hull (1958)
* Emory Leon Chaffee (1959)
* Harry Nyquist (1960)
* Ernst Guillemin (1961)
* Edward Victor Appleton (1962)
* George C. Southworth and John Hays Hammond Jr. (1963)
* Harold A. Wheeler (1964)
* No award (1965)
* Claude Elwood Shannon (1966)
* Charles H. Townes (1967)
* Gordon K. Teal (1968)
* Edward Ginzton (1969)
* Dennis Gabor (1970)
* John Bardeen (1971)
* Jay W. Forester (1972)
* Rudolf Kompfner (1973)
* Rudolf Kalman (1974)
* John Robinson Pierce (1975)

1976–2000|

* No award (1976)
* H. Earle Vaughan (1977)
* Robert Noyce (1978)
* Richard Bellman (1979)
* William Shockley (1980)
* Sidney Darlington (1981)
* John Tukey (1982)
* Nicolaas Bloembergen (1983)
* Norman F. Ramsey (1984)
* John Roy Whinnery (1985)
* Jack Kilby (1986)
* Paul Lauterbur (1987)
* Calvin Quate (1988)
* C. Kumar Patel (1989)
* Robert G. Gallager (1990)
* Leo Esaki (1991)
* Amos E. Joel, Jr. (1992)
* Karl Johan Åström (1993)
* Alfred Y. Cho (1994)
* Lotfi A. Zadeh (1995)
* Robert Metcalfe (1996)
* George H. Heilmeier (1997)
* Donald Pederson (1998)
* Charles Concordia (1999)
* Andrew Grove (2000)

2001–present|

* Herwig Kogelnik (2001)
* Herbert Kroemer (2002)
* Nick Holonyak (2003)
* Tadahiro Sekimoto (2004)
* James Flanagan (2005)
* James D. Meindl (2006)
* Thomas Kailath (2007)
* Gordon Moore (2008)
* Robert H. Dennard (2009)
* Andrew Viterbi (2010)
* Morris Chang (2011)
* John L. Hennessy (2012)
* Irwin M. Jacobs (2013)
* B. Jayant Baliga (2014)
* Mildred Dresselhaus (2015)
* G. David Forney, Jr. (2016)
* Kornelis (Kees) A. Schouhamer Immink (2017)
* Bradford W. Parkinson (2018)
* Kurt E. Petersen (2019)
* Chenming Hu (2020)
* Jacob Ziv (2021)

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IEEE Founders Medal

1953–1975|

* David Sarnoff (1953)
* Alfred Norton Goldsmith (1954)
* No award (1955)
* No award (1956)
* Raymond A. Heising (1957)
* Walter Ransom Gail Baker (1958)
* No award (1959)
* Haraden Pratt (1960)
* Ralph Bown (1961)
* No award (1962)
* Frederick Terman (1963)
* Andrew McNaughton (1964)
* No award (1965)
* Elmer William Engstrom (1966)
* Harvey Fletcher (1967)
* Patrick E. Haggerty (1968)
* E. Finley Carter (1969)
* Morris D. Hooven (1970)
* Ernst Weber (1971)
* Masaru Ibuka (1972)
* Bill Hewlett and David Packard (1973)
* Lawrence A. Hyland (1974)
* John G. Brainerd (1975)

1976–2000|

* Edward W. Herold (1976)
* Jerome Wiesner (1977)
* Donald G. Fink (1978)
* Hanzo Omi (1979)
* Simon Ramo (1980)
* James Hillier (1981)
* Shigeru Yonezawa (1982)
* Joseph M. Pettit (1983)
* Koji Kobayashi (1984)
* William Norris (1985)
* George H. Heilmeier (1986)
* James B. Owens (1987)
* Ian Munro Ross (1988)
* Ivan A. Getting (1989)
* Erich Bloch (1990)
* Irwin Dorros (1991)
* Roland W. Schmitt (1992)
* Ken Olsen (1993)
* Akio Morita (1994)
* Malcolm R. Currie (1995)
* Norman R. Augustine (1996)
* Gordon Moore (1997)
* Alan W. Rudge (1998)
* Benjamin M. Rosen (1999)
* Bob Galvin (2000)

2001–present|

* Robert A. Frosch (2001)
* Thomas Eugene Everhart (2002)
* Ray Stata (2003)
* Mildred Dresselhaus (2004)
* Eugene Wong (2005)
* Toshiharu Aoki (2006)
* Anita K. Jones (2007)
* Steven Sample (2008)
* Craig Barrett (2009)
* Paul E. Gray (2010)
* James F. Gibbons (2011)
* F. C. Kohli (2012)
* Leo Beranek (2013)
* Eric Schmidt (2014)
* James Plummer (2015)
* No award (2016)
* Takeo Kanade (2017)
* N. R. Narayana Murthy (2018)
* Robin Saxby (2019)

Authority control

International|

* ISNI
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National|

* Germany
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Other|

* SNAC

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