Their was a German man in 1911/1912 who spent many years with the earliest electronics, and he accidently invented for all apparent purposes, the first working equivalent to radar, a radiowave oscillation detector of near shipping objects - it was a proposed safety aid that could detect ships large un-metalic objects within a certain range to ring a warning bell -to alert the lookouts and officer crew, it could spot the newer metal hulls in any condition and tall ships at a slight lesser range, but it gave no real indication of direction, just the induction feedback of something approaching - in rough sea states it's range was lessened depending upon the depth of the wave troughs.
But Marconni, Siemens and others big electo industrialist, including shipping companies, ignored him saying that the new radio telecommunications would be much safer so superseded his simple box of tricks - unfortunately I cannot remember his name, last name began with a Pf methinks. When his patents lasped due to radio comms killing his cheaper, working practical equipment, the other companies snapped his ideas up and he eventually died a very poor man.
His work was forgotten, lost and ignored, even as far as I know by the Germans 20 - 30 years later too, didn't really know him and what he did, and we English, like to believe only we invented radar. We didn't, we weren't the first or last, but we apparently were the 1st 'Great powers' to conduct military trails and investigations that led to a hugely secret program.
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