OCEANOGRAPHY IN THE UNITED STATES 221 



I think it is extremely timely, Mr. Chairman. 



Mr. Miller. I want to say that we in Conj^ress like to take up unto 

 ourselves credit for everything that is done so that we can ^o out and 

 tell our constituents how good we are. Nevertheless, in this particular 

 instance, I would be remiss if I did not say that it was this fine Com- 

 mittee appointed by the Academy of Sciences headed by Dr. Harrison 

 Brown that brought to the attention of Congress the necessity for 

 work in this field. 



I want to pay my compliments to Chairman Bonner of the full 

 Committee who, when this first report was shown to him, immediately 

 grasped its significance and, as a result, this subcommittee was created. 



We hope to work with the Committtee and the thing that I know 

 strikes me and I am certain strikes the other members of the sub- 

 committee and the members of the committee who have shown an 

 interest in this work is that we walked into a room of which we 

 thought we knew the dimensions and have found ourselves almost 

 lost in a maze of the different facets of the work, the importance of 

 each of which cannot be underestimated. 



It is just a little bit confounding but we are going to see it through 

 and try to support good people like yourself who have done so much. 



May I say. Captain, after 15 years in Congress and 8 years' service 

 on tlie Committee on Anned Services where I thought I knew at least 

 some of the functions of that great Defense Department that I was 

 surprised to learn that you had wind tunnels out here. 



I think inasmuch as time is an element, if there are no questions, 

 we will let Captain Wright show us through some of this wonderful 

 institution. 



(Whereupon, at 11 :10 a.m., the subcommittee proceeded to a tour 

 of the facility during wliich the following statements were presented :) 



One-Tenth Scale Model of TMB Seakeeping Basin Exhibit and 



Peesentation 



(By Wilbur Marks) 



The action of waves on sliips at sea has always been of concern to the designer, 

 the builder, and the operator of ships. The advent of the towing tank, some 80 

 years ago, permitted a medium for testing ships before they were built as well as 

 ■f-omparing the performance of existing ships. Such tests were, at first, made in 

 t;till water ; the development of wavemakers increased immeasurably the po- 

 t^ential of the laboratory tank. These artificial waves, however, were consistently 

 -etpial in height and length — not at all like waves in nature, which are irregular in 

 all respects as well as variable in direction of travel. In addition, tanks were 

 long and narrow so that tests could only be made in head and following seas, 

 leaving much information on ship behavior in waves still unknown. 



Present operational requirements of commercial and military ships require 

 much more exacting information on existing and new designs. The Bureau of 

 Ships recognized this deficiency in tank testing and instructed the Taylor Model 

 Basin to build a seakeeping basin that would permit the testing of ships in 

 environments that duplicated, as nearly as imssible, that which occurs in nature. 

 The result is the Taylor Basin Seakeeping Basin which is now under con- 

 struction on these groiinds and a one-tenth scale model of the same tank which 

 will now be demonstrated to you. 



The prototype basin is 240 feet wide by .300 feet long and 20 feet deep, except 

 for a ?>r>-foat deep channel, running the length of the basin, designed for sub- 

 marine tests exclusively. Instead of the traditional 1 wavemaker, we have 21 — 8 

 along one side and 13 along an adjacent side. These wavemakers. as you shall 

 •see. are the essential ingredients in bringing the sea surface into the laboratory, 

 in a realistic way. The beaches opposite the two banks of wavemakers prevent 



