Office of Scientific Research and Development

Thomas Edison, photo 14.915/66 from ENHS

Vannevar Bush "General of Physics" from Time, 1944/04/03

ship telephones, from Life, 1944/10

tank radio, from Life, 1944/10

Origins

• 1916 - Naval Consulting Board
• 1916 - National Research Council
  • Gen. Squier put scientists in uniform
    
  • Run by Signal Corps with military financing
    
  • Research Information Service - Ep. Dep.
    
  • but only temporary for duration of the war
    

• 1918 - Chemical Warfare Service
• 1923 - Naval Research Lab
  • Edison suggested in 1915 a lab under civilians be established to develop new weapons; became important between wars, under Navy authority
    

• 1940 June - National Defense Research Council
  • one of FDR's most far-reaching decisions that gave the U.S. 18 mos. head start in mobilizing science for the war effort
    

• 1941 May - Office of Scientific Research and Defense

Characteristics of OSRD:

1. was independent
   
   • was civilian controlled, not military, under Vannevar Bush
     
   • not like Brit. organization, fragmented, much Churchill interference
     
   • James Baxter's study has argued that the proximity fuze would never have been made if OSRD had been under military control
     

2. systematic search made of all scientific personnel in government, universities, industry
   
   • 9766 draft deferments given
     
   • administered by the Scientific Personnel Office
     

3. projects contracted out to other institutions,
   • e.g. CIT huge rocket lab
   • e.g., Western Electric & Bell Labs, as in WWI sound amplifier
4. OSRD was permanent (not like Advisory Committee On Uranium)
   
5. much flexibility allowed rapid development
   • organization and administration shifted to meet problems
     
     • e.g. OSRD placed over NDRC
       
     • e.g. prox. fuze contract from Carnegie Institute to John Hopkins
   • OSRD mphasized concentrated, massive rapid development
     
     • e.g. May 23, 1942 A-bomb decision
       
     • e.g. "Few-quick" organization (Engineering and Transition Office) under Fred Gordon to hasten production from model to field, esp. e.g. of Jap. torpedo jammer developed in 1 week
       
   • vertical integration of methodology
     
     • WWII different from WWI = structure created to innovate (OSRD)
     • not random like WWI Naval Consulting Bd.
       
     • not run by committees like NDRC
     • from fundamental science to final production and testing
       
     • e.g. smoke screen (Lord Rayleigh to Langmuir to SOC M-1)
   • Conflict between military and scientists
     
     • much military resistance to technology
       
     • Stimson pushed coordination (e.g. radar - Aldred Loomis)
       
     • military did not see importance of high muzzle velocity ordnance (Ger. did-led throughout war)
       
     • Navy reluctant to use airplane anti-sub methods
       
     • GM developed Dukw because Army and Navy not interested
       

   

Radar

Radar will win the war, from Life, Aug. 9, 1943, p. 3

1886 - Henrich Hertz proved radio waves that he had discovered also were reflected from solid objects


1925 - sent pulses to measure ionosphere; scientists of many countries adopted this pulse technique


1935 - Naval Research Lab developed ship radar


1940 May - Signal Corps distrib. long-range AA radar; used at Pearl Harbor


Brit. built first operational radar system on England's east coast 1935-1939;

• used resonant cavity magnetron, discovered by Oliphant; produced waves less than 50 cm
  
• brought to U.S. by Tizard mission 1940; an important example of reverse Lend-Lease
  
• Brit. had better receiver, U.S. had better sender, and these were combined
  

MIT developed high frequency radar for antiaircraft, esp. V-1

• before 1942, long-wave radar used (10 meters to 50 cm)
  
• high-frequency, narrow-beam, high-resolution radar sought
  
• NDRC contract to Radiation Lab at MIT Nov. 10, 1940
  
• established contacts with industrial labs
  
• Alfred Loomis (at Rad. Lab MIT) - conical scan test 1942 - used in SCR-584 (first ground radar to surpass Ger. Wurzburg)
  
• also Long Range Aid to Navigation (LORAN) in grid of 3 stations
  

3 devices used ag. V-1 that was anticipated by OSRD Aug. 1943, and OSRD was ready with defenses when Germany first used V-1 ag. Brit. June 12, 1944, and the V-2 first ag. London Sept. 12, 1944

SCR-584, from Life, 1944/12

Irving Langmuir, from GE History

worker compares tiny proximity fuze tube with large cathode tube

1. SCR-584 radar
   
2. M-9 director
   
3. proximity fuze
   

M-9 fire control director was result of the important role of Applied Math Panel


3-cm. radar developed in Radiation Lab 1942 (high-resolution clear scope picture)

• manuf. by Sperry, Westinghouse, Philco - esp. for aircraft
  
• I. I. Rabi - special microwave lab at Columbia
  

By 1943, Radiation Lab (under Lee DuBridge) changed emphasis from research to production, and contractors sent engineers to lab for instruction


Radar countermeasures

• most closely tied with actual military operations
  
• "Ferret" planes
  
• high-speed Chaff cutter (10 m lbs. aluminum dropped over Europe)
  
• Japan use of low frequency radar torpedoes - new low frequency jammers designed and delivered within one week
  
• airborne "carpet" jammer - sent down signal of same frequency to jam
• used against German Wurzburg radar
  

Germany too late in developing microwave radar

Bell Labs - Dumbo radars for patrol planes    

   

   

   

Anti-Subarine Warfare

During World War I

• Irving Langmuir developed hydrophones at New London
  
• Langmuir developed piezoelectric echo rangerfinder that was turned into "asdic" late in war
  

Harvard Underwater Sound Lab. - developed"sonar"    

   

Proximity Fuze

Proximity fuze, from NMAH

most significant scientific achievement, next to A-bomb

newly-designed miniature vacuum tubes by Sylvania

government had to find reliable way to mass produce tubes

Merle Tuve - Section T (Carnegie Institute)

when research ended beg. of 1942, new contract made by OSRD, Navy, Johns Hopkins Univ.

• safety devices - mercury switch
  
• first tests - Aug. 1942
  
• first use - Jan. 1943
  
• Sylvania - 23 plants - made 130 m tubes - c. $20 ea. fuze - made 95% of tubes - 400,000 per day
  
• used ag. V-1 bombs June 1944 - 80-day attack - fuzes allowed 80% shot down (last day 100 out of 104 downed)
  
• used at Battle of Bulge Dec. 1944
  
• developed for torpedoes, but war ended
  

   

   

Amphibious Vehicles

• Studebaker Corp.developed Weasel - amphibious tracked vehicle - designed in 180 days, from May 1942 - only 1.9 lbs. per sq. in. (vs. 12 lbs. for truck)
  

  Alligator, from Life, 1943/05/10

  Studebaker Weasel, from Life, 1944/11/27

  GM Dukw, from Life, 1944/07

• GM developed the Dukw - not wanted by Army and Navy - already had trucks
  
• Dukw needed driver training - was misused - overloaded
  
• 2-1/2 ton amphibious truck - tire pressure adjustable by driver - good for shallow sandy beaches - Florida Keys tests showed rubber tires at avg. 30 lbs. best - from 10 lbs. for soft sand to 40 lbs. hard road
  
• Sicily - Dukw's first great combat success - July 10, 1943
  
  • Brit. on east had 300, Am. had 700
    
  • LCs smashed by weather, but Dukws went on in (esp. good bilge pump)
    

  GM Dukw, from Life, 1942/10

• Dukws used in Pacific, beg. at Kwajalein Atoll Jan. 31, 1944 - esp. to carry artillery piece on A-frame - but slow (5 knots)
  
• Driver protected if hit land mine (unlike truck)
  
• Important role at D-day - rough seas - Dukw dependable - brought in 40$ of supplies - 2000
  
• 21,000 made during war
  
• article on Arkansas Dukw accident from AP and CNN, May 2, 1999

   

   

Land Warfare Devices

1. Mine detector

• SCR 625 developed by NDRC contract with Hazeltine Co. of NY - 100,000 delivered - metallic detector (even nails in wood mine)
  
• beg. July 15, 1944, vehicular detector on front of jeeps
  
• but many mines in wood or plastic case (e.g. famous Schu mine) - no solution found
  

2. Flame thrower

7th Division used flame throwers on a block house on Kwajalein Island, from Patch-NA 2/4/44

• had been used in WWI, but short range (20 yards) and delivered only 10% flame - limited ability to inflict damage but spectacular - impt. psychological effect - 80% with thick fuel of WWII
  
• Napalm discovered January 1942 at Harvard by Arthur D. Little Co. staff - aluminum naphthenate as thickening agent - also improved by Standard Oil Co. and Dupont
  
• Brit. adapted it to tank summer '42 - but shortage of U.S. tanks - not adopted until Sept. 1944.
  
• as many killed by carbon monoxide generated by fuel as by heat - therefore a form of chemical warfare
  
• esp. important on Iwo Jima pill boxes in 1945
  

3. Bazooka

bazooka hits German tank in Normany ILN 1944/08/02

• Developed summer 1942 - first used in November 1942, North Africa
  
• range of 200 yards
  
• used shaped-charge (Munroe effect) to pierce armor
  
• concussion did as much damage as piercing
  
• used against Japanese pill boxes
  
• "Super bazooka" used 3.5-inch rocket
  

   

   

   

Rockets

a major effort of NDRC and OSRD - 2nd only to radar in expenditures

• rockets from LCS boats covered Sicily landing July 1943
• In Pacific, first used at Arawe, December 1943
• many used at Okinawa 1945 - LSMs fired 100 per minute
  
• but limited range - 5,000 yards and inaccurate and time reloading
  
• guided missiles given little support from military
  
• Germany made more advances - 1st radio-controlled missiles in August 1943
  
• TV-guided bomb "Felix" developed by 1943
  
• extended tail assembly on 100-lb. bomb = Ax(imuth) On(ly)
  
  • carried flare, antenna, gyro-stabilizer, rudders
    
  • used in 1944 with success against bridges
    

   

   

Torpedos

• Torpedo explosive developed (50% more powerful than TNT)
  
• used new RDX from England - stabilized with beeswax
  

   

   

Chemical Warfare

• renounced at Geneva 1925, but not renounced by U.S. or Japan
  
• friction between Chemical Warfare Service and NDRC
  
• smoke screen
  
  • good example of solution of practical war problem by fund research
    
  • c. 1900 Lord Rayleigh established theory of light scattering
    
  • aerosols worked on by Langmuir at GE and Victor La Mer at Columbia U.
    
  • determined best size of particle for light scattering
    
  • determined smoke must be white
    
  • Standard Oil Co. developed generator
    
  • M-1 generator saved Anzio beachhead
    

   

   

Medicine

• malaria (atabrine), transfusions (plasma kit), insecticides (DDT)
• 1929 - Sir Alex Fleming discovered penicillin - greenish mold blown in
  
• Applied Psychology Panel - for every 5 wounded, one killed and l psychiatrically disabled - psychiatric problems largest cause of medical discharge in WW II (tuberculosis was #1 in WWI)
  

   

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Links:

• Atomic Bomb

Sources:

• Baxter, James Phinney. Scientists Against Time. Cambridge, Mass., M.I.T. Press, 1946, 1968. 473 p. CL Book Stacks Q127.U6 B3 1968, winner of the 1947 Pulitzer Prize.
• Buderi, Robert. The Invention that Changed the World: how a small group of radar pioneers won the Second World War and launched a technological revolution. New York : Simon & Schuster, 1996. 575 p. CL Book Stacks TK6574.2 .B84 1996
• Burke, Colin B. Information and Secrecy: Vannevar Bush, Ultra, and the other Memex. Foreword by Michael Buckland. Metuchen, N.J. : Scarecrow Press, 1994. 466 p. CL Book Stacks 338.470058 B959i
• Conant, Jennet. Tuxedo Park: a Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science that Changed the Course of World War II. New York : Simon & Schuster, 2002. 330 p. USD QC16.L647 C66 2002
• Stewart, Irvin. Organizing Scientific Research for War; the Administrative History of the Office of Scientific Research and Development. Foreword by Vannevar Bush. Boston, Little, Brown, 1948 . 358 p. San Diego State Q180.U5 S8 1948
• Thiesmeyer, Lincoln R. and John E. Burchard. Combat Scientists. Foreword by Karl T. Compton. Boston, Little, Brown, 1947. 412 p. San Diego State D810.S2 T5
• Zachary, G. Pascal. Endless Frontier: Vannevar Bush, Engineer of the American Century. New York : Free Press, 1997. 518 p. CL Book Stacks TK140.B87 Z33 1997

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