Person
McDonald, Arthur Stephen (1891 - 1955)
- Born
- 6 March 1891
Swan Hill, Victoria, Australia - Died
- 23 April 1955
Longueville, New South Wales, Australia - Occupation
- Radio engineer
Summary
Arthur McDonald had no formal training in engineering, but went on to become Chief Engineer at AWA Ltd. (Amalgamated Wireless Australasia) - the company that took over most of the Commonwealth's radio activities in 1922. During his long tenure at AWA Ltd., McDonald helped establish Australia's broadcasting industry: he set up the construction of the first radio stations and helped establish the beam wireless service between Australia and Britain (1927) and the first commercial use of two-way radio telephone links to overseas. McDonald was a foundation member of the Institution of Radio Engineers, Australia, a Fellow and one-time Vice-President of the Institute of Radio Engineers, United States of America and Vice-President of the Radio & Telephone manufacturers Association.
Details
Chronology
- c. 1907 - c. 1910
- Career position - General mechanical engineering positions in Victoria
- 1910
- Career position - Junior Instrument Setter in the engineering branch of the Postmaster-General's Department, Victoria
- 1911 - c. 1916
- Career position - Erection Engineer for the Costal Radio Service
- 1916 - 1917
- Career position - Assistant Engineer for Equipment with the Department of the Navy
- 1918 - 1920
- Career position - Radio Engineer with the Department of the Navy
- 1920 - 1922
- Career position - Returned to the Postmaster-General's Department
- 1922
- Award - Fellow, Institute of Radio Engineers, USA
- 1922 - 1930
- Career position - Radio Engineer with AWA Ltd. (Amalgamated Wireless Australasia)
- 1930 - 1945
- Career position - Chief Engineer and Assistant General Manager at AWA Ltd.
- 1932 -
- Career position - Foundation member of the Institution of Radio Engineers, Australia
- 1940
- Award - Fellow, Institution of Radio Engineers, Australia
- 1943 - 1945
- Career position - President, Institution of Radio Engineers, Australia
- 1945 - 1946
- Career position - Assistant Manager of Engineering at AWA Ltd.
- 1946 -
- Career position - Chief Engineer at the Overseas Telecommunications Commission
- 1949
- Career position - Vice-President of the Institute of Radio Engineers, USA
Related entries
Published resources
Book Sections
- Goot, Murray, 'McDonald, Arthur Stephen (1891-1955), radio engineer' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 10: 1891 - 1939 Lat-Ner, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1986), p. 247. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A100237b.htm. Details
Resources
- Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q21535830. Details
- 'McDonald, Arthur Stephen (1891-1955)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1467325. Details
McCarthy, G.J.
Created: 20 October 1993, Last modified: 21 August 2019
- Foundation Supporter - Committee to Review Australian Studies in Tertiary Education