On Wed, 27 Jan 2016 23:03:41 +0000 (UTC), Curt Phillips W4CP [email protected] wrote:
Yes, we celebrate and commemorate Mr. Yagi, but what of Mr. Uda? People often refer, in speaking and in print, of their beam antennas being "Yagis", but when do they ever call them "Udas" or even "Yagi-Udas"? When? Never.
It was because Yagi was the professor and Shintaro Uda was the assistant under him, so Yagi's name came first on the patent, despite Uda doing most of the research. (There is an interesting history of how their invention made it to the West, including a story of how the Japanese army found captured British documents after the fall of Singapore about anti-aircraft radar systems mentioning "yagis". They had not yet invented radar, so they were mystified as to what a "yagi" was -- they didn't even know whether it was pronounced with a hard or soft G. When they interrogated the English POWs about this, the prisoners incredulously shouted back "You don't even know the name of one of your own people who invented the damn thing?!")
It just goes to show you, if you are even the co-inventor of something, fight, FIGHT to have your name put first on the invention. Otherwise, the world may forget you even were involved.
Somewhere in Heaven, Bill Finger (co-creator -- probably the *true* creator -- of Batman) is nodding in agreement.