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Camp Evans / National Historic Landmark | Home of InfoAge | Information Age Learning Center

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History

Pre-Marconi Period (before 1912)
Marconi Period (1912-1925)
Navy Period (1917-1919)
Pleasure Seekers Club (1925-1935)
King's College (1936-1941)
World War II Radar Laboratory
Army Research Period (1946-1998)
Infoage (1998-today)
Documents Covering the Entire Site History
A Virtual Tour of the Site
 
 

Pre-Marconi Period

Land Owners 
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Marconi Period

 

Site Construction  
General Articles  
   
   
   
 


 

 
   
Photos
 
   
 


 

 
  • The  Smithsonian Institution has Photos  on file  in the G.H. Clark Collection.   The creator of the Smithsonian 'Radioanna' collection, George H. Clark, worked at the Belmar station during his early collection years. 
    " In July 1919, after resigning from the Navy, Clark joined the engineering staff of the Marconi Telegraph Company of America, which became part of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) later the same year. His first work was at Belmar and Lakewood, New Jersey, assisting the chief engineer, Roy A. Weagant, in his development of circuits to reduce the interference caused by static (static reduction). Clark and his wife were assigned to the unheated Engineer's Cottage.   His wife decided not to stay and left for Florida.  Clark moved his trunks of wireless material to the heated RCA hotel at Belmar and spent most of the winter 'pasting.'   As Clark mentions, 'From that time on I was wedded to scraps.' "
 
Famous Names  
   
 

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Navy Period

WWI 


 

 
Dr. A. Hoyt Taylor
 


 

RCA  

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King's College

Beginnings


 

 
Rev. Percy Crawford


 

Photos
Class Reunion


 

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WWII Radar Laboratory

Pearl Harbor  
Nazi Spies 


 

Panama Canal  
RADAR LABORATORY
NEEDS
SERVICEMEN

In response to numerous in quiries from readers eager to offer their services to the U. S. Government, is pleased to publish full information regarding positions open to Radio Servicemen as well as to laboratory and administrative workers.

InfoAge Member and Volunteer Steve Goulart who found this article in the July 1942 issue of RADIO-CRAFT at a flea market in 2009
 
Shops


 

Progress Reports


 

The SCR-268 Radar
  • The SCR-268 was the backbone of America's radar defense.  Developed at Fort Hancock it was continually upgraded during the war at Camp Evans to meet challenges of NAZI radar jamming, to incorporate more reliable componebts and to integrate the radar with IFF. 
Electronic Countermeasures

Camp Evans was the home of the U.S. Army's  first electronic countermeasures group.  They worked in the attic of the Marconi hotel.  This 1946 article gives an overview of all the countermeasures needed to defeat the Axis powers.  Camp Evans played a roll in many of these electronic tricks. 

Keeping radars working  
Dymaxion Deployment Units  
The AN/TPS-3 
and 
TPQ-3

     The basic AN/TPS-3 system was developed at Camp Evans to protect the Panama Canal.  Later it was realized this excellent equipment could be modified to provide radar protection for landing beaches from planes and mortars.

     RADAR ON 50 CENTIMETERS

     This little radar would see action in WWII and Korea.
 

A Tale of Two Crises

More AN/TPS3 history from "The Test" pages 261-265


  • Dr. Zahl tells the roll the TPS-3 and the TPQ-3 played in the war and how the radars were developed. 
The SCR-584 Radar

<>   Camp Evans engineers took the MIT prototype and integrated it with IFF and re-enginered it to MIL-Spec.

  • The SCR-584 was more than a radar.  It was an integrated system of microwave radar, a M-9 gun director, and IFF.   Add the proximity fuse to the mix and you have a Luftwaffe killer.
  • The British supplied the cavity magnaton that was the heart.
  • The MIT RAD LAB designed the prototype with astounding speed.
  • AT&T and Western Electric supplied the M-9 gun director.
  • General Electric was the prime contractor.
  • Chrysler Corporation made the antenna mount
  • It was introduced into WWII in February 1944 -  Camp Evans-developed radar key at Anzio,
  • It would help shoot down many V-1s and locate V-2 launch sites.
  • More SCR-584 history from "The Test" pages 265-274
D-Day Preparations

      To prepare for the D-Day invasion Allied planners needed information.  Brave persons collected and sent the information using radios built at Camp Evans. 


 
D-Day radar action

  The Nazi plan was to kill any Allied landing on the beach with their Panzer tanks.  Radar-countermeasures was used to confuse Field Marshal Erwin General Rommel's staff in figuring our where the landing really was.


  • Landing that June day was the SCR-584 radar, TPS-3, TPQ-3 and other equipment that Camp Evans played a major design roll and American industry built.
 
Black History
Project Wolf

 The Caves of Camp Evans


  • A trip to the National Archives located primary documentation of a number of interesting Camp Evans WWII secret projects.  One called 'Project Wolf' - was designed and tested at Camp Evans to kill Japanese soldiers hidden in island caves.  The problem to solve was these soldiers, deep in caves, would survive aerial bombing, granades and flame throwers. T hey would later emerge and kill U.S. Marines.  Radio controlled explosives were delivered into the caves by unusual means...
 
MX-301
  • Described in an official Army History of WWII - The Signal Corps - The Outcome as "one answer to wireman’s prayers".  The MX-301 helped communications, but unlike most Camp Evans creations it did not need a single vacuum tube.
 
Anti-Kamikaze Radar

Camp Evans radar engineers under direction of E. King Stodola develop and test special anti-Kamikaze radar for the planned invasion of mainland Japan 


 
Dr. Harold Zahl
  • Dr. Harold A. Zahl was an electronic pioneer, a WWII radar developer/hero, a key player in the application of the transistor to military systems and much more.  He was an author.  Were it not for his written words much of the amazing history of Camp Evans would have gotten lost to time.  The members of Infoage may have not been inspired to work to save Camp Evans to honor the heros of this site. .  We have a number of Dr. Zahl's papers and photos in our archives and a number of his history articles on this site. 
  • Our Dr. Zahl papers
  • In Case You Have Forgotten
  • A Tale of Two Crisis
  • Excepts from ELECTRONS AWAY
Mr. Marchetti
Lt. Col. Paul E. Watson


 

RADAR at WAR

Photo  SCR-527 at Radar laboratory and in combat in Iwo Jima 

Compare a photo published in the August 1946 issue of the Proceedings of the IRE with the 1945 Camp Evans aerial photo on file at the National Archives and used in the 7th War bond drive.

 
Winning the War


 


Evans...
Center of Phenominal Developments
The front page of the November issue of the signaleer pays tribute to the work at Camp Evans...
Evans...Center of Phenominal Developments
 
Photos
  • Camp Evans Group Photos... It took the efforts of thousands of men and women of all races to out-wit the Nazi and Japanese radar engineers.  Take a look at American heroes who fought and defeated the Axis with electronic creativity and ingenuity at the Signal Corps Radar Laboratory
  • June 1945 aerial photo Farewell to Maj. Cottony  Major H. V. Cottony, Chief, Thermionics Branch, ESL, was tendered a farewell luncheon at the ESL Cafeteria, 18 October 1945, by fel­low members of the Branch
    • WW2 IFF Staff at Camp Evans. This photo shows the guests at the farewell luncheon for Bernard H. Strouse. IFF engineered at camp Evans played a critical roll in the allied victory.   This photo was published in the October 16, 1945 issue of the Signaleer
Security As a secure facility in WWI and WWII the military secrets of the
             U.S. Naval Wireless Station at Belmar and Camp Evans Signal Laboratory needed to be protected.
We added a page on the Guards of Camp Evans.

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Army Research Period

Operation Paperclip


 

  • After the end of WWII German radar scientists were relocated and employed at Camp Evans as a part of Operation Paperclip
 
Project Diana
 
 
Project Diana and UFOs  
Diaperville


 

 
Pioneering research

Many pioneering papers have originated from Camp Evans and many significant persons have worked there during the past 90 years.  This pioneering paper provided an explanation of what later became known as LED's, or light emitting diodes.
Our optical networks depend on LEDs.
After leaving Camp Evans Dr. Levovec would be recognized as a co-inventor of the integrated circuit. 
Dr. Accardo would join MIT and in 2002 the Emperor of Japan formally proclaimed Carl Accardo, a National Treasure of the Empire! 

Injected Light Emission of Silicon Carbide Crystals by K. LEHOVEC, C. A. ACCARDO, AND E. JAMGOCHIAN in The Physical Review Vol. 83, No. 3, 603-607

 
House of Magic  
 

Evans cited:

Senator Joseph McCarthy

In 1953 Senator Joe McCarthy's Communist Witch Hunt found its way to Camp Evans. On October 20, 1953 the Senator, his lawyer Roy Cohn and others visited Evans to get the goods on the spies

  • Camp Evans was the center of a TOP SECRET unit (9677th) which had equipment at Camp Evans and in friendly countries to detect atomic test blasts. They detected the first Chinese test and others. We have been told this was the secret project which Senator Joe McCarthy insisted his staff be allowed to see and was refused entrance to building 9400. Details soon
Astro-Observation Center
giant Wertzburggiant Wertzburg

As part of early satellite development the Signal Corps 
removed the SCR-271 Diana antenna and replaced it with
two modern antenna dishes.  This site, named the 
Astro-Observation Center would serve as the Command and Control Center for TIROS 1 and 2.

Sputnik


 

Satellite Development


 

  This 10 page article by Brig. Gen. H. Mc D. Brown., published in The Army Communicator  gives an insider's view of SCORE, the world's first communications satellite and the final phase of other pioneering contributions of the Signal Corps to the early space age.  
Testing Satellite designs In the early days of America's space research facilities at Camp Evans helped test satellite designs and satellite component functions in special chambers that subjected the test items to the stress of the vacuum of space.  Goal: find material problems before you launch electronics into space.
TIROS The world's first weather satellite photos were received and developed at the Project Diana site with a new dish and advanced electronics.   Two articles from the Monmouth Message have the details:

"Signal Pilots Fly Photos To NASA"  &  "Teams Now Monitoring Its Signals"


  Our TIROS I & II overview  page.
The Project Diana site was the TIROS I & II satellite ground station.
The world's first cloud cover photos arrive at this historic site, from above the ionoshere. 
At the historic site where communication through the ionosphere was first achieved.

During TIROS II communication improvements would....
  Lab Speeds Tiros Photos.


tiros-icontiros-icon
Silicon Transistors


 

 
The "turntable"


 

 
Nuclear Laboratory
and  Dr. Stanley Kronenberg


 

Photo-Optics Laboratory


 

Pioneer V  
Joint Stars  
REMBASS  
Firefinder
Atomic Test Blast The January 11, 2007 issue of The Coast Star tells how Camp Evans was the center of a TOP SECRET unit (9677th) which had equipment at Camp Evans and in friendly countries to detect atomic test blasts. They detected the first Chinese test and others. We have been told this was the secret project which Senator Joe McCarthy insisted his staff be allowed to see and was refused entrance to building 9400.   
Star Wars
  • A project called 'Pulse Power' had a unit in an old WWII radar shelter at Camp Evans during President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative (aka Star Wars).  We believe they were trying to develop the technology to disrupt Soviet satellites in orbit using very high voltage and high amperage pulses of power. However, we are sure the explosions and failures of transformers during testing caused PCB contamination.  The building had to be completely removed including tons of soil. 
 

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Infoage

Building our Archives


 

Site Renovations


 

 
Sewer Issue
Events


 


National Register of Historic Places


 

  • April 3, 2002  Camp Evans Historic District entered onto the National Register of Historic Places! The official letter arrived today.A quest begun in 1974 by the Army and forgotten has been completed by Infoage volunteers! We submitted a completely rewritten nomination in 1998 to the state of NJ, the state approved it in 1999, the Army Federal Preservation Office would not process it, in 2000 we entered a protest to the Keeper of the National Register, the Army stated they would process the nomination in writing in July of 2001.   During the over 18 months the Army Federal Preservation office was in control of the nomination, they lost the nomination, photos, maps etc. multiple times.  Infoage spent over $300.00 replacing missing parts and mailing them to the Army so the process would move forward.  What a waste of  our funds!  Finally in February 2002, Mr. Fatz, the Army Federal Preservation officer signed the nomination.   The kind staff of the Keeper of the National Register office proceesed the application as quickly as possible once Mr. Fatz signed and forwarded it.  Why did this have to be this difficult?  Camp Evans is so historic the approval should have been a 'Slam dunk'.
  • April 2, 2002  The National Park Service Approved our application for the Camp Evans Historic District. We had to make extensive changes to the application.  Originally submitted as separate requests for areas B and C of Camp Evans, the NPS required us to rewrite the application for the entire historic district as a single request.   We did it, they approved it!  The application has been forwarded to the Department of the Army for their review and acceptance.  The updated application contains 109 pages of narrative, over 204 photos, 36 architectural drawings, 8 color diagrams, a survey and hundreds of additional hours given by dedicated volunteers working to save Camp Evans and give the site a new and historically appropriate new use.. 
  • March 30, 2002 "On the Radar Screen" by John A. Harnes, Asbury Park Press
  • May 22, 2001 The binders with our National Park Service application for areas B and C of Camp Evans before they were mailed for review.  Even though our web updates have slowed in the past months...we were busy!  The application contains 80 pages of narrative, over 180 photos, 28 architectural drawings, a survey and hundreds of hours given by dedicated volunteers working to save Camp Evans and give the site a new and historically appropriate new use.
  • November 1, 1999 "Historic Status Sought for Camp" by by Don Stein,  Asbury Park Press
  • A copy of the NRHP application
Dr. Constella Hines-Zimmerman


 

 
Black History


 

Land Transfer
  • March 14, 2001 The Wall Township Committee endorsed our application to the National Park Service to apply for the no cost transfer of the Camp Evans historic district under the historic surplus property program.  We have been busy working on this application . This is a major step in our efforts to preserve Camp Evans and give it a vital and historically compatable reuse as a science-history center.
 

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Documents Covering the Entire Site History

NRHP Application  
Reference List  
Cultural Resources Report  
National Archives Photos
General Articles  

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History page posted in 1998

Migration Priority

Some of the old pages are being migrated to the new system as time allows.

If there are some specific pages that are of interest to you, let me know.

Depending on the complexity, they may be migrated sooner rather than later.

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