76 OCEANOGRAPHY IN THE UNITED STATES 



time. The first large-scale stabilizer that I know of was developed 

 by Sperry in this country and was installed on a big transatlantic 

 superliner of the 1930's, the Conte di Savoie. I do not know whether 

 you want a further dissertation on stabilizers. 



Mr. Pelly. Is it a patented device on which a royalty is paid ? 



Mr. Russo. Yes. 



Mr, Pelly. And could it be improved, in your opinion, if we had 

 more knowledge of the waves and other scientific data ? 



Mr. Russo. Not necessarily the stabilizer. The stabilizer copes 

 with only one motion, that is, the rolling of the ship. If we had bet- 

 ter knowledge of the seas we could perhaps attempt to correct pitch- 

 ing. In fact, in this country we have a considerable amount of infor- 

 mation developed on that at the Massachusetts Institute of Technol- 

 ogy. There is a research activity going on there of which one of the 

 ingredients is to define the spectrum of the sea, which is a mathemati- 

 cal definition of the sea. 



Mr. Pelly. I was interested in reading some time back that a Brit- 

 ish port, I believe it was, was trying to break the action of the waves 

 by releasing air bubbles and having a breakwater, you might say, to 

 provide them with calmer inside water. 



Mr. Russo. I would say that this device is not in the nature of a 

 device yet. It is in the nature of a dream, if I might define it that 

 way. 



Mr. Pelly. I think that that in itself must be related to the very 

 subject which this committee is thinking of implementing. 



Mr. Russo. Yes; I would say so. If you define the sea, you sim- 

 plify a very great deal problems which have to do with ships in 

 relation to the sea. 



Mr. Pelly. Mr. Morse, have you been consulted at all with regard 

 to an international program to study the Indian Ocean? 



Mr. Morse. Not to my knowledge. 



Mr. Pelly. A previous witness indicated that there was afoot a 

 program, perhaps a dream, but, nevertheless, it has been talked about, 

 to make a comprehensive study of that one area because of its particu- 

 lar interest. 



Mr. Morse. No ; I am not aware of that, Mr. Pelly. 



Mr. Pelly. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



Mr. Miller. Mr. Flynn. 



Mr. Flynn. I have no questions. 



Mr. Miller. Counsel. 



Mr. Drewry. Mr. Morse, to follow up Mr, Pelly's inquiry about the 

 exchange of information between foreign teclinical groups, what 

 about the exchange of technical information between our own gov- 

 ernmental groups ? Do you, for instance, have readily available tech- 

 nical data developed by the Navy Department or any of its branches ? 



Mr. Russo. I can answer that question. 



We have a system which has been improvised as we went along of 

 interlocking membership in committees of the Society of Naval Ar- 

 chitects, the National Academy of Science, and such. We have to 

 that extent access to research activities of other Government agencies. 



Mr. Drewry. Does the Society of Naval Architects in which you 

 are very active, I believe, or does any other group have a program for 

 analyzing papers presented by foreign naval architects and marine 



