Ronald Hugh Barker
Ronald Hugh Barker FIEE (1915[1] – 7 October 2015[2] was an Irish physicist and the inventor of Barker code, a method for synchronising digital communication systems and framing received data using digital codes. The method was initially researched at the Signals Research and Development Establishment (SRDE) just after World War II, and was intended for use in radar, rocket telemetry and digital speech. In 1952, Barker found seven Barker sequences up to a length of 13 useful for correlation between the data transmitted and the data received. These sequences are widely used in most data transmissions today. Examples of applications include radar, mobile phone technology, telemetry, digital speech, ultrasound imaging and testing, GPS and Wi-Fi.

Early life

Ronald Hugh Barker was born in Dublin in 1915[1] to English parents. His early education years were disrupted by his father's frequent periods of unemployment and moves between Dublin and England to find work as an artist [3] and stained glass window designer. He was apprenticed to Hy. Jas. Salisbury a well known stained glass artist.[4] who can be found in Kelly’s directory for 1912 as an Artist in stained glass, 50 Alma Road, St Albans. In the 1911 census there is an entry for E W Barker as a stained glass designer living in Leyton Road, Harpenden which is not far from St. Albans. [5] His father and family often stayed in meagre lodgings because his father's work was poorly paid and difficult to find. For much of the time, Barker (known since his childhood as Roy) lived at 17, Thomas Street, Heath and Reach with his grandfather, John Taylor and mother Linda Taylor.[2] At age 13 Barker was interviewed by Mr Fredrick Fairbrother, the headmaster of a new school, The Cedars (now known as Cedars Upper School) in Leighton Buzzard. After sitting for an entrance examination, he was admitted to the school. His father died soon after of pneumonia in Youghal, Co. Cork, Ireland when Barker was aged 14. While at school Barker became interested in electronics. He built crystal radio sets and basic three vacuum tube radios using homemade components such as rectifiers, transformers and loudspeakers. His mother, a school teacher,[6] assisted in his education and taught him to play the piano and church organ at the Wesleyan Chapel, Birds Hill, Heath. Barker passed his matriculation exam and won a scholarship to University College Hull and earned a 1st Class Honours degree in physics at the University of London in 1938.[1] His first job coincided with the start of the World War 2. Scientists were declared to be a reserved occupation, which meant that he was not eligible for conscription, thereby allowing him to pursue electronic research in his career.
Early career
Barker joined Standard Telephones and Cables (STC) in 1938 and worked there until 1941. He worked in their thermionic valve department, designing dental X-ray tubes and equipment.[7] After a bombing raid over Woolwich in 1941, Roy resigned from STC, as he felt that his work on X-ray tubes did not contribute to the war effort, and returned to Heath and Reach where he met his future wife to be Wendy Emily Hunt [2]who was visiting one of her brothers billeted at Stockgrove Country Park near-by.

Barker then took up a new post as a temporary experimental officer at the Signals Experimental Establishment (SEE) at the Ministry of Supply. He initially worked on Woolwich Common, but soon moved to Warnham Court, near Horsham, England. There, he assisted with the electronics design of Wireless Set No. 19, a standard wireless set used in various armoured vehicles and tanks in World War II. He also contributed to the design of portable two way radio sets for jungle use.[8][9]
The SEE was subsequently renamed the Signals Research and Development Establishment (SRDE) and brought within the Ministry of Supply. In summer 1943 staff were moved to Christchurch, Dorset. In 1944 the UK guided weapons program came into being, for which Barker conducted telemetry research.[1] Weapons testing initially occurred at Ynyslas,[10] before a special guided weapons range was built at the Royal Aerospace Establishment (RAE) in Aberporth.[11] The first experimental system was named LOPGAP, an acronym of Liquid Oxygen Propelled Guided Anti-aircraft Projectile. Barker worked on aerial design to improve telemetry, writing an article on the subject that was published in Wireless Engineer in November 1948.[12][13]

Barker joined the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE) as a corporate member in 1945.[14] From 1945 to 1947, Barker was responsible for devising, developing and producing the first telemetry system for guided weapons.[15] In 1946, Barker read a paper describing his guidance system at the first organised telemetry conference at Princeton University.[16][17]

Post-war career

At the end of the war, Barker was appointed as a senior scientific officer to research speech cryptography, which involved work on early computers and digital transmission.[18] Barker used a technique by which speech waveforms were encoded digitally – similar to contemporary methods for encoding music – and then scrambled the stream of binary digits by multiplying it by a second stream produced synchronously in a pseudorandom number generator. During his time at SRDE, Barker led a team of 12 scientists. He applied his work on digital electronics had been extended to weapons controls,[19] servo systems and communication by pulse-code modulation,[20] for which Barker used the z-transform method for analysis.[21]
Barker also invented the Barker code, a method for synchronising digital communication systems, which he described in a paper entitled "Group Synchronisation of Binary Digital Systems".[22] The Oxford Dictionary of Computer Science defines a Barker sequence as
a sequence of symbols (binary or *q-ary) that, when embedded in a string of randomly chosen symbols (from the same alphabet), has zero autocorrelation except in the coincidence position. Barker sequences are used to check, and if necessary to correct, the synchronization and framing of received data.[23]
In digital electronics, the Barker code used to check the synchronisation and framing of received data so that the data is understood correctly by the receiver. Barker said: "A sequence of binary digits has very little meaning unless the significance of the individual digits is known."[24] The Barker code has been used in near earth space communications, such as the Galileo global navigation satellite system, the Global Positioning System, Skylab[25] and on the Apollo missions.[26][27] Barker code was also used for early deep space exploration telemetry, such as the Pioneer 10 mission.[28]
In April 1954, Barker was awarded a PhD by the London University; he was then promoted to Senior Principal Scientific Officer.[1] Thereafter, he became the Assistant Director of the Directorate of Electronics Research and Development (Air) at the Ministry of Supply headquarters,[9] where he was responsible for the technical administration of research and development in airborne radar, navigation aids, maritime devices and air communications.[29] In 1957 Barker returned to SRDE as Superintendent of Research.[7]
In 1959 Barker took a job as Director of the Central Electricity Research Laboratories (CERL) in Leatherhead,[7] where he was responsible for the day-to-day operation of the laboratories, as well as recruitment, increasing the scientific staff from 250 to 600 people. Barker was elected a Fellow of the IEE on December 1, 1966. He served on various committees of the Power Division and the Control and Automation Division, becoming Division Chairman in 1971.[7][14] Barker became a member of the council and served on the Membership Committee for many years;[7] he remained active as a member until his death in 2015.[30] On 6 March 1962 Barker was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, serving on the Automatic Control committee of the latter.
Barker was named to the board of directors of the Pullin Group in 1961.[1] While there, he assembled a team of scientists to conduct optics research.[31] After the company was taken over by The Rank Organisation in 1964,[32] he became unhappy with the changes the Rank Organisation made to the company's operations. He had no say in this and it soon became apparent that he would have no opportunity for any interesting research, and the future looked uninviting. In 1965, Barker wrote an article on ball bearing motors.[33]
In 1965 Barker made his last career move, becoming Deputy Director of the Royal Armament Research Establishment (RARDE) at Fort Halstead, which afforded him the rank of chief experimental officer.[1] At Fort Halstead Barker was responsible for the assessment of non-nuclear weapons systems.[7] Barker retired in May 1979.
Personal life
As a result of being raised in a poor household, Barker preferred to construct and repair his own gadgets, often from scrap materials, rather than purchasing factory-made items. In 1943, Barker married Wendy Hunt[34] at the Church of St Augustine in South Croydon, and they had two sons. During retirement Roy belonged to three bridge clubs, playing duplicate bridge at county level. He was still playing at his local bridge club in Verwood until his 99th birthday. Barker died in Bournemouth hospital aged 99 on 7 October 2015.[35]
References
- Barker, RH (28 August 1965). "Royal Armament Research and Development Establishment". Nature. 1965 Nature Publishing Group. 207 (5000): 917. doi:10.1038/207917a0. S2CID 36121720. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
- Barker, Ronald (1 December 2016). Who's Who (113 ed.). London: Adam & Charles Black. p. 128. ISBN 9781857437430. Retrieved 16 October 2023.
- Barker, Ernest William. "Sunshine and Shadow off Whitby". Art UK. York Castle Museum. Retrieved 6 October 2023.
- Salisbury, H J. "H. J. Salisbury (about 1891-1920)". Stained glass in Wales. University of Wales. Retrieved 6 October 2023.
- 1901 Census Ernest William Barker Harpenden
- Maureen Brown and June Masters. Britain in Old Photographs. Sutton Publishing Ltd. p. 63. ISBN 0 7509 0871 8.
- "IEE Division Chairman 1971–72". Electronics and Power. 17 (10): 392. 1971. doi:10.1049/ep.1971.0271. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
- E. Gwynne Jones (1975). SRDE 1903-1973. Christchurch: Signals Research and Development Establishment. p. 30.
- Barker, RH (1954). "Doctorate for Old Cedarian". Leighton Buzzard Observer. UDLLV15/27. Retrieved 14 July 2023.
- "People's Collection Wales The Collection Rocket Test Track Bases Ynulas Wales". Retrieved 3 October 2021.
- "RAF Aberporth". A History of RAF Aberporth. p. 6. Retrieved 4 June 2022.
- Barker, RH (November 1948). "Rhombic Aerial Design Chart" (PDF). Wireless Engineer. 25 (302): 361–369. Retrieved 4 June 2022.
- LS Palmer; W Abson; RH Barker (September 1938). "Multiple reflections between two receiving antennae". Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers. IET Digital library. 83 (501): 424–432. doi:10.1049/jiee-1.1938.0158. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
- Barker, RH (1972). "IEE Control & Automation Division: Chairman's address. Communications in control". Proceedings of the Institution of Electrical Engineers. 119: 77. doi:10.1049/piee.1972.0014.
- "Guidance of LOP/GAP, Liquid Oxygen and Petrol Guided Anti-aircraft Projectile". The National Archives. The National Archives, Kew. Retrieved 30 July 2023.
- Professor Lawrence Rauch (19–20 February 1972). "1972 Pioneer Award". IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems (4): 568. doi:10.1109/TAES.1972.309563. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
- various (1946). "Bumblebee Rept. 42". Princeton University Library. U.S. Navy Bureau of Ordnance, Contract NOrd-7920, Palmer Lab., Princeton University, Princeton, N.J. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
- Conference on Data Processing and Automatic Computing Machines, (1957 : Salisbury S.A.) (1957). Data processing and automatic computing machines / held at Weapons Research Establishment, Salisbury, S.A., June 3rd–8th, 1957. Weapons Research Establishment. pp. 212–238. Retrieved 9 February 2022.
- Barker, RH (1956). "A transducer for digital data-transmission systems". Proceedings of the IEE - Part B: Radio and Electronic Engineering. 103 (7): 42–51. doi:10.1049/pi-b-1.1956.0117. Retrieved 9 February 2022.
- Barker, R.H. (1956). "A Servo System for Digital Data Transmissions". Proceedings of the IEE - Part B: Radio and Electronic Engineering. 103 (7): 52–64. doi:10.1049/pi-b-1.1956.0118. Retrieved 12 February 2022.
- Barker, R.H. (1952). "The pulse transfer function and its application to sampling servo systems". Proceedings of the IEE - Part IV: Institution Monographs. 99 (4): 302–317. doi:10.1049/pi-4.1952.0032. Retrieved 10 February 2022.
- Barker, RH (1953). Group Synchronisation of Binary Digital Systems. Communication Theory: Butterworth. pp. 273–287.
- Barker, RH (2016). Oxford Dictionary of Computer Science (7th ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780191768125. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
- Published in Communication Theory, edited by W Jackson, London, UK, Butterworths 1953 pp. 273–287
- Lyndon B Johnson Space Center. "Skylab Programme Earth Resources Experiment Package, ref MSC-05546" (PDF). ntrs.nasa.gov. NASA. Retrieved 26 September 2022.
- Bendix Aerospace Systems Division Manned Spacecraft Centre Houston. "Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package May 1969" (PDF). p. 5178.7.58, 3270.2.7 and 3270.5.38. Retrieved 22 May 2021.
- The Bendix Corporation. "Lunar Surface Exploration, 1971" (PDF). Bendix Technical Journal. 4 (2): 23. Retrieved 14 February 2022.
- Dale R Lumb; Larry B Hoffman. "An Efficient Coding System for deep space probes with Specific Applications to Pioneer Missions August 1967" (PDF). NASA. p. 20. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
- "Radio Department: Programme of DLRD(A)". The National Archives' catalogue. The National Archives Kew. 1954. Retrieved 16 July 2023.
- Barker, RH (2 December 2015). "Ronald 'Roy' Barker FIET, October 1915-October 2015". IET Member News. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
- Barker, RH (6 December 1962). "Pullin Advertisement". The New Scientist (316): 591. Retrieved 4 June 2022.
- "R. B. Pullin and Co - Graces Guide". gracesguide.co.uk. Retrieved 10 October 2023.
- Barker, RH (January 1965). "Ball Race Motor". Electronics and Power. 11 (1): 38. doi:10.1049/ep.1965.0023. Retrieved 15 February 2022.
- "Ronald Hugh Barker in 1943".
- "Search Results for Birth, Marriage, Death & Parish Records". www.findmypast.co.uk. Retrieved 30 July 2023.
Further reading
- Who's Who (113 ed.). London: Adam and Charles Black. 1978. p. 128. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
- Who Was Who. Oxford University Press. 2020. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U6495.
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