secret delegation of six men, including John Cockroft, arrived in Washington, DC, carrying a copper device sent by John Randall and Harry Boot of the University of Birmingham: a cavity magnetron, a device capable of producing extremely short-duration, extremely high-frequency electromagnetic pulses, which allowed radar to be built that could detect even small objects and with smaller antennas. With German bombings intensifying, the British decided to share the technology with the United States and ask for support and assistance. MIT in Boston was commissioned to carry out the work. MIT chose a local company as its industrial backer: Raytheon. General Electric and Westinghouse also joined the effort. Five years later, in 1945, Raytheon alone was producing 17 magnetrons a day.
