Henry P. Hall
Henry Parsons Hall (b. June 28, 1928 in East Orange, NJ – d. July 17, 2023 in Fort Myers, FL) earned a bachelor of arts from Williams College (Williamstown, MA) in 1949, and a bachelor of science and a master’s degree in electrical engineering (1952) from MIT.
He joined General Radio as a co-op student in 1949, became a full-time development engineer in the GR impedance measurement group in 1952, advancing to group leader in 1964. In 1969 he chose to focus on research, working as an engineering staff consultant. He later became senior principal engineer and then senior staff scientist (1978), his title at retirement in 1992.
Among other achievements, he is credited with the design of the Digibridge instrument and invented the Orthonull mechanism (see 1650-A).
Hall was a Life Fellow of the IEEE and one of only three General Radio Fellows. He was awarded the 2004 IEEE Joseph F. Keithley Award in Instrumentation and Measurement “for fundamental contributions to electrical measurements, with particular emphasis on the development of impedance bridges and standards, and the application of microprocessors to impedance measurement science.”
Links
- IET Labs Application Note, Henry Hall: Father of the Digibridge
- Henry Hall Awarded 2004 IEEE Joseph F. Keithley Award
- Henry P. Hall biography @ Engineering and Technology History Wiki
- Henry Parsons Hall obituary
- Henry P. Hall, A New System for Measuring the Inductance of Iron-Core Coils. GenRad Experimenter Vol.36 No.5, May 1962 (1630-AL, 1633-A)
- Henry P. Hall, The Measurement of Electrolytic Capacitors. GenRad Experimenter Vol.40 No.6, June 1966 (1617-A)
- Henry P. Hall, A New Universal Impedance Bridge. General Radio Experimenter Volume 33, No. 3, March 1959, page 3.
- Henry P. Hall, Orthonull - A Mechanical Device to Improve Bridge Balance Convergence. General Radio Experimenter Volume 33, No. 4, April 1959, page 7.
Patents
- US Patent 2872639, Henry P Hall, Electrical bridge and method. Filed Oct. 10, 1956; Granted Feb. 3, 1959 (describing the Orthonull feature)
- US Patent 4342089, Henry P Hall, Method of and apparatus for automatic measurement of circuit parameters with microprocessor calculation techniques. Filed Dec 12, 1979; Granted July 27, 1982 (→ 1657)
- please extend list of patents
Instruments
| Instrument | Description | Literature link |
|---|---|---|
| 1206-B | Unit Amplifier | 1953-11 GE |
| 1212-P2 | One-Megacycle Filter | 1956-01 GE |
| 1232-P2 | Preamplifier | 1967-02 GE |
| 1265-A | Adjustable DC Power Supply | 1962-05 GE |
| 1417 | Four-Terminal Capacitance Standard | Catalog 1978 |
| 1426 | Four-Terminal Capacitance Standard | 1968-01 GE |
| 1433-B | Decade Resistors | 1968-11 GE |
| 1434-B | Decade Resistors | 1965-10 GE |
| 1455-B | Decade Voltage Dividers | 1967-04 GE |
| 1605-A | Impedance Comparator | 1954-04 GE |
| 1608-A | Impedance Bridge | 1962-03 GE |
| 1613-A | Capacitance Bridge | 1958-02 GE |
| 1617-A | Capacitance Bridge | 1966-06 GE |
| 1633-A | Incremental Inductance Bridge | 1962-05 GE |
| 1644-A | Megohm Bridge | 1964-07 GE |
| 1650-A | Impedance Bridge | 1959-03 GE |
| 1656 | Impedance Bridge | 1970-03 GE |
| 1657 | Digibridge | 1976 |
| 1658 | Digibridge | 1976 |
| 1666 | Resistance Bridge | 1972 Autumn GR Today |
| 1685 | Digital Impedance Meter | 1973 |
| 1686-A | Digital Capacitance Meter | |
| 1687 | 1 MHz Digibridge | |
| 1688 | Precision LC Digibridge | |
| 1689 | Precision Digibridge | |
| 1862-C | Megohmmeter | 1963-07 GE |
| 1863 | Megohmmeter (Inspection model) | 1969-03/04 GE |
| 1864 | Megohmmeter (Laboratory model) | 1969-03/04 GE |