Vancouver Sun photograph, January 18, 2000

Donald L. Hings, P.Eng, M.B.E., invented the Walkie-Talkie for the Canadian Military in 1942, which earned him the prestigious Member of British Empire Award for this achievement. Among Hings 23 patents in the field of electronics (internal link) including one for the electronic piano, he also invented the technology used for the DEW Line (Distant Early Warning Line) operated by NORAD (North American Aerospace Defence Command) for over 30 years.

Moran Burke says, "[Donald] Hings came up with many portable 2-way radio designs, both before and during the war. Pre-war designs included compact aircraft-mounted radios, and portable voice sets. The earliest portable voice sets date to 1937. Hings was experimenting with aircraft radio at least as early as 1930.

Don Hings is a modest man, and views the development of mobile communications as a continuous spectrum that did not begin with his inventions. Semi-mobile voice radios (mounted in vehicles), and portable code radios paved the way for the walkie talkie, so his invention did not spring out of nothing. The idea was 'in the air' so to speak, and within a few years portable voice radios had been independently invented several times. Hings' design was definitely one of the most successful, however, judging by its wartime performance and production success.

Saturday, August 18, 2001, was a good day for a good man. Donald L. Hings is an unrecognized but important radio pioneer. He deserves more attention and more credit. Among other things he invented an early walkie talkie. Please visit the website listed in the paragraph below. Mary-Lynn Burke informs me that :

"Donald L. Hings was presented with the Order of Canada by her Excellency, the Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson, the Governor General, in a private ceremony yesterday at UBC's Museum of Anthropology. There is a wonderful front page photo and story in today's Vancouver Sun. Only dad's four children, two spouses, the nominator and Morgan Burke (who represented the other 15 grandchildren) were in attendance. A small reception followed, and a larger reception for family and friends was held later at dad's home. He left home for the first time in two years, travelling to and from the ceremony in a stretch limo. He enjoyed himself thoroughly and everyone is feeling very happy and grateful that he has been recognized by Canada for his work during the war years. He had received the MBE (Member of the British Empire) immediately following World War II."

"If you would like more details, go to this site to see stories, photos, clippings, etc., from the early days in the development of the walkie-talkie and his other inventions: http://sitka.triumf.ca/morgan/dlhings (official site, link now dead)"

The Order of Canada

Hello, Tom

I am writing on behalf of the organizers of National Engineering Week 2002 -- the Canadian Council of Professional Engineers, the Canadian Academy of Engineering, the Engineering Institute of Canada, the Association of Consulting Engineers of Canada, the Canadian Federation of Engineering Students and the National Council of Deans of Engineering and Applied Science.

Every year we update our web site (http://ww.new-sng.com (external link) with new information and this year we are focusing on how Canadian engineering has helped improve the quality of people's lives. We would like to feature information about Mr. Hings' invention of the walkie talkie. Based on limited research, I have drafted the following. Could you please review for accuracy and confirm that it is OK to feature Mr. Hings and his work on our web site?

Thanks for writing, Robyn. You have written an excellent summary and I look forward to your final article. I would like to defer on the facts to Morgan Burke: <morgan@sitka.triumf.ca>, who runs the Donald Hings site you must have seen: http://sitka.triumf.ca/morgan/dlhings (link now dead) I do this because her family provided the source material I used on my website. She also has a direct, personal relation with Mr. Hings. I will add a few remarks as a communications historian.

Walkie Talkies Cell phones are now so popular that it is hard to imagine life without them. Yet, they are simply another development in a long line of mobile communications that began when Canadian engineer, Donald Hings, P.Eng. invented the first Walkie-Talkie."

I'd urge caution with the word "invents." I would prefer a phrase like "pioneered one of the first walkie talkies." That's because a walkie talkie is simply a radio wrought small. Many amateurs and professionals were working with small radios at the time. It's unknown who first produced a walkie talkie. Nor, perhaps, does it matter. Your engineering audience may bridle at any claims of a first.

Here's one image to make the point. It's NBC's Chief Engineer, O.B. Hanson with an unnamed device, probably operating at 300 Mhz. In 1936.

In 1938 Mr. Hings was working for the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company (now called Cominco), a company that deployed geologists to remote areas of western Canada to locate mineral deposits. However, if there was a crash in the bush, pilots had no way of signalling their location. That year, he developed the portable emergency voice radio. It could float, featured a folding antenna and its signal had a 130-mile range. The British Army was very impressed with these "radios" and as Mr. Hings continued his work to improve his invention, walkie talkies became invaluable war time tools. . .

The name "walkie talkie" was said to have been coined in 1941 . . .

Also coined independently, without any knowledge of Hings, by Motorola people in 1940/1941. See A Personal Journal: 50 Years at Motorola, Autobiography of Andy Affrunti, Sr., Motorola University Press, 1994

. . . when Mr. Hings was in Toronto giving a demonstration. A reporter saw a soldier walking about with the C-18 version strapped to his uniform. "What does it do?" the soldier was asked. "Well, you can talk with it while you walk with it," was the answer and the name Walkie Talkie was born. The technology was adopted by both Canadian and United States troops during World War II and was essential for their air-to-ground and land-to-sea communications. An originator of 55 patents in Canada and the United States, Mr. Hings was recently awarded the Order of Canada.

Please check the patent number with Morgan, I think it is correct. Mr. Hings is an unrecognized radio pioneer who deserves much more publicity. I think what you are doing is v. important. Since Mr. Hings was not connected with a major university or private research lab his work has long gone unnoticed. Over time I look forward to also publicizing the contributions that British, French, and German inventors made to personal communications. Feel free to e-mail me with any other questions.

Best regards, Tom Farley

Guy Cramer relates:

"I met with my Grandfather today and spent two hours discussing the Walkie Talkie (he loves to tell his stories to interested family members). At 93 the information is still there but just takes longer to get out. At one point he became upset because he couldn't remember someone's last name who he last talked to around 1950 and only meet twice."

"He stated that the date of Dec 7, 1938 for the 10PC20 airplane voice radio was the same year he developed the portable emergency voice radio for the pilots and geologists in case of crash or other problems, it could float in the water as the container was water tight and painted yellow in case the pilots needed to drop it into a lake. The size was very similar to the C-58 production model 6" x 7" x 13" with a fold down antenna. [Pictured above, original model here] When I asked about the range of this emergency portable radio he laughed and told a story where someone claimed the battery wasn't working out in the field so he went out and transmitted to the Canadian Army Signal Corps (one of two frequencies the radio had was locked into Canadian Army Signal Corps the other frequency was direct to their company, Consolidated Mining & Smelting Company of Canada Limited, now called Cominco). Range in this case was determined to be 130 miles."

"I need to meet with him a few more times to get all the information we need but here is something interesting; his Special form of Modulating was nicknamed "Ever Expanding" modulation by his research team and would give a 20 db gain on voice due to the expanding carrier wave. Something the other radios from the allies could not duplicate."

"The British Army was so impressed with the radios Hings developed that they took most of the Canadian sets for D-Day and gave them to the British troops and gave the Canadians the lower quality British Models. This upset Don quite a lot as he feels that many extra Canadians lost their lives that day due to this turn of events as the Canadians had experience and training with the longer range, lighter, much longer battery life, more durable, and clearer signal the C-58 provided."

"The British also traded armour before D-day with the Canadians as the Radios within the Armour (also Hings) were much better than the British models. Many Canadian crews unfamiliar with the British Armour became stuck on the beaches and strafed while the British quickly forced into land with the better Canadian equipment."

"After the war the someone asked Don to make an antenna to receive a Low Frequency signal from New Jersey that the U.S. Military was transmitting at 100 Kc/s (a very long wavelength). He first tried a copper wire about a mile long (didn't work). So he made an special loop antenna (small and compact) that picked up 100% of the signal from New Jersey. The man that meet with Hings went back to the U.S. and Don received a call from the Pentagon offering him bags of money. Don went to the Pentagon and upon Don's presentation the U.S. had the Canadian military create the Mid Canada Line using the new antenna design which was the precursor to the DEW Line. It didn't work and they had to contact Don to fix the problem, it turns out
they changed his antenna design (and Don had to excite their antenna with his special modulation to receive the signal). This special modulation that was the key to the miniaturization of the 10PC20 and Walkie Talkie and later to the Early Warning NORAD depended on into the 1980's."

"Don never knew of, or meet Al Gross. Don also said he was impressed with the Motorola radios later in the war and doesn't want to take anything away from Motorola, although his Walkie Talkie was developed much earlier than Motorola claims they invented it. He doesn't think anyone copied his system during the war as they were the only radios with this special modulation (no one really knew why they worked) this circuit is what he says was one of the
keys to the patents."

[Comparative table of W.W. II military back pack radio models is here]

Sincerely,
Guy Cramer

Donald Hings, Canadian Wireless Pioneer (1) (2) (3) (4) (Patents)