THE DAVID W. TAYLOR MODEL BASIN? 
By Rear ADMIRAL HERBERT 8S. HOWARD, U. S. N. 
Director, David W. Taylor Model Basin 
[With 4 plates] 
The largest and most completely equipped ship-model testing and 
experimental plant in the world operates directly under the Bureau of 
Ships of the Navy Department. 
This plant, the David W. Taylor Model Basin, staffed by a highly 
trained and capable group of officers and civilian technical and shop 
personnel, has as its basic function the solving of problems concerning 
the design and operation of naval vessels by testing models in water 
under controlled conditions. Included in its work are the determina- 
tion of the speed and powering of ships, launching, stability, action in 
waves, turning and maneuvering, and propeller design. Besides ques- 
tions of pure ship design and form, the problems presented for solution 
cover the field of mine-sweeping devices, paravanes, and torpedoes; in 
fact, everything which has to do with forms which move through the 
water. 
In addition to the preceding problems, special problems of struc- 
tural design of ships comprise a major activity of the plant. These 
problems cover all manner of special questions relating to the strength 
of ships and their parts, the resistance of ship structures to underwater 
explosions, structural vibration, and the effect of shock, and the elimi- 
nation of such vibration and shock effects. 
In general, the chief function of this organization at present is to 
give the earliest possible solutions or answers to the wartime problems 
submitted to it. Research, which has been and is being continuously 
carried on, gives the background of knowledge which makes it possible 
to undertake and furnish the solution to these urgent problems. 
Although the Model Basin operates directly under the Bureau of 
Ships, work is carried on not only for that Bureau but for all branches 
of the Navy Department, whether for the Commander in Chief him- 
self or any of the technical bureaus. Work is also done for other 
branches of the Government, notably the United States Maritime 
1 Reprinted by permission from Journal of Applied Physics, vol. 15, No. 3, March 1944. 
239 
