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By
1912 Carleton Haigis was living and going to school in Worcester,
Massachusetts. He remained in the Worcester area through the early
1920s. Upon graduating from Worcester Polytechnic Institute he began working as an instructor
there. On June 5, 1917 Carleton Haigis registered for
the draft. He was still living in Worcester, Massachusetts and was still
single. The January 1920 Census reveals that he had married and moved to
Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. He was still teaching at Worcester
Polytechnic. He was continuing his education and eventually earned his
doctorate.
During
his time in Worcester Carleton Haigis worked with pioneer rocket
scientist Dr. Robert H. Goddard. This association began early in 1917.
Unfortunately the two had a falling out and separated in the spring of
1918. Dr. Haigis left the Worcester Polytechnic faculty in 1923.
By
1926 Dr. Haigis was employed as the chief physicist by the Victor
Talking Machine Company in Camden. He was living at 108 North 34th
Street, Apartment D.
He took a job-related trip to Europe in 1929, returning aboard the SS
America on April 28, 1929 after departing from Cherbourg, France nine
days earlier.
Dr.
Haigis developed the original walkie-talkie units used by the U.S.
military.
In
1932 Dr. Haigis registered a patent for a ultra-high frequency (UHF)
radio. RCA, his employer at the time, owned the rights to the patent.
This apparently spurred Dr. haigis to leave and start his own business.
Dr.
Haigis was still living in
Camden as late as 1933. It is known that in 1934 he was operating a
radio manufacturing business at Maple Shade NJ called Haigis
Laboratories. The firm employed four people and manufactured ultra-high
frequency (UHF) radios. From this work the original walkie-talkie units
used by the U.S. military were developed. Haigis Laboratories was still operating in Maple
Shade as late as 1940. In the meantime, however Dr. Haigis in 1935
became a radio engineer with the New Jersey State Forest Fire Service,
where he established the forest radio service system for the state. A
few years later, he became chief of communications for the Control and
Communications Branch of the Office of Civil Defense.
By
1942 Dr. Haigis had relocated his home and business to Martinsville NJ,
in Somerset County. While in Martinsville he conducted experiments. He
also took the time to build a radio for the local fire department,
connecting it to the New Jersey Forest Fire Service. This was the first
radio hookup established between a fire company and another agency.
Besides Martinsville and the Forest Fire service, Dr. Haigis also
serviced the Princeton Police department.
Although
Dr. Haigis did not serve on active duty during World War II, he was
employed by the Army Air Corps as an operations analyst. Dr. Haigis was traveling on government business when he was
killed in a plane crash in 1944.
Dr.
Haigis was a passenger aboard Cessna UC-78 # 42-58475, which went
missing in mountainous terrain in the vicinity of Maggie, North
Carolina, on January 31, 1944. The airplane took off at 0942 EWT
from Morris Field, North Carolina, on an administrative flight to
Lebanon, Tennessee. Lost with Dr. Haigis were the pilot, Second
Lieutenant Irving Bumberg, and two other passengers, First Lieutenant
Thomas B. Wheeler, and First Lieutenant George M. Maty Jr. The search
for the missing aircraft was officially ended January 23, 1945. The
wreckage was discovered in Spetember of 1946, and the bodies of Dr.
Haigis along with Lieutenants Bumberg and Wheeler were recovered.
In
July of 1945 Dr. Haigis' estate received a patent for a radio control
device with interference suppression.
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