Page 42 - 2016Fall

Thomas G. Muir
Postal:
Applied Research Laboratories University of Texas at Austin P.O. Box 8029 Austin, Texas 78713 USA
Email:
muir@arlut.utexas.edu
David L. Bradley
Postal:
Applied Research Laboratory Pennsylvania State University P.O. Box 30 State College, Pennsylvania 16803 USA
Email:
dlb25@psu.edu
Underwater Acoustics:
A Brief Historical Overview Through World War II
Research, discovery, and engineering rise to challenges in times of great peril.
Background
Man’s involvement with sound in the ocean has been motivated by intellectual curiosity, as well as by necessity, in response to threat. These have included navi- gational hazards, catastrophes, and world events including shipwrecks and many problem areas associated with naval warfare. Around the turn of the 20th century, a number of inventors addressed the problem of navigational hazards, leading to the use of underwater bells to create warning signals. Naval warfare and the threats it poses have been the greatest motivation for underwater acoustics, starting with World War I (WWI) and reaching remarkable levels of achievement during and after World War II (WWII). These efforts led to basic discoveries in oceanography and acoustic science and engineering, including sonar and geophysical exploration.
The history of underwater acoustics over the first half of the 20th century includes its initial development, followed by a myriad of accomplishments through two world wars. This is a very broad and voluminous topic, for which only highlights can be given in this brief sketch. The material covered is largely derived from three special sessions on the topic, chaired by the authors at the 169th meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) held in Pittsburgh, PA.1 The authors give full credit to presenters at these special sessions: Thomas Howarth, Michael Pestorius, Karim Sabra, Frederick Erskine, Michael Buckingham, William Kuperman, James Lynch, Arthur Newhall, and David Feit, as well as others who discussed topics after WWII. Coverage is restricted to underwater acoustic development in the United States and her allies France and the United Kingdom. The history of the topic in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) has been well covered elsewhere (Godin and Palmer, 2008).
First 20th Century Efforts and the Pioneers
of Underwater Acoustics
The ASA awards a silver medal honoring five Pioneers of Underwater Acoustics: H. J. W. Fay, Reginald A. Fessenden, G. W. Pierce, Paul Langevin, and Harvey C. Hayes (Figure 1). Here is an outline of the pioneers’ contributions.
Harold J. W. Fay was long associated with the Submarine Signal Company (SSC), which was founded in 1901 to develop commercial products in submarine signal- ing pertinent to ship navigation for avoiding hazards. Fay became SSC president in 1942 and led it through its merger with the Raytheon Company in 1946. He made creative strides, including a very early system whereby two carbon-button hydro- phones in water-filled “sea chests,” one on each side of the vessel, could be used
1 The papers were given at three special sessions chaired by the authors: “Historical Perspectives on the Origins of Underwater Acoustics I, II, and III,” and are in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 137, 2273, 2274, 2275 (I), 2306, 2307, 2308 (II), and 2331, 2332 (III), April 2015.
40 | Acoustics Today | Fall 2016 | volume 12, issue 3 ©2016 Acoustical Society of America. All rights reserved.