Henry Joseph Round

Henry Joseph Round (born June 2, 1881, Kingswinford, Staffordshire, Eng.—died Aug. 17, 1966, Bognor Regis, Sussex) was an English electronics engineer whose numerous inventions contributed to the development of radio communications.

Round worked with Marconi’s Wireless Telegraph Company, Ltd., from 1902 to 1914, first in the United States, where he improved the tuning components of radio receivers and built early radio direction finders and radio telephones. He was recalled to England to join Marconi’s personal research staff, then was sent to enhance the performance of radio transmitters at Clifden, Ire., and in Brazil. Again returning to England, Round experimented with vacuum-tube amplifiers.

During World War I Round installed networks of radio direction finders for military intelligence purposes, first along the Western Front, later in Great Britain. The second of these alerted the Admiralty to the departure of the German fleet from Wilhelmshaven on May 30, 1916; the fleet’s interception on the following day by the British occasioned the Battle of Jutland.

Rejoining the Marconi company after the war, Round designed and installed several important transmitters. From one, at Ballybunion, Ire., the first radio telephone messages were sent from Europe across the Atlantic; two others were the first public broadcasting stations in England; and another, at Carnarvon, Wales, sent radio signals that were received in Australia. He also devised radio receivers and transmitters for use on ships, systems for recording sound on phonograph records and motion-picture film, and a public-address system for large audiences.

As a consultant to the Admiralty during World War II, Round worked on submarine-detection equipment; later, for the Marconi company, he introduced several devices useful in echo sounding.