Three Historical Appraisals: Pioneering 7 



the first demonstration in this country of a practical radar took 

 place at NRL, when echoes were detected from passing vessels 

 on the Potomac, using a radio pulse system, following the 

 pioneer experiments of Tuve and Bright in obtaining a return 

 signal from an ionized layer in the atmosphere. It may also 

 be recalled that with characteristic Navy foresight, in the 

 early research on the atomic bomb NRL secured from the 

 Congress an allotment of $100,000 for the separation of isotopes. 



The Special Devices Center was noteworthy for its recog- 

 nition and continuation of the outstanding pioneer work of 

 Admiral Luis de Flores in improving the man-machine rela- 

 tionship expressed in the phrase "human engineering." In 

 addition to its importance in training, this program made 

 notable progress in aircraft and submarine instrument display 

 design. And the Underwater Sound Reference Laboratory 

 did valuable work in testing and maintaining standards. 



Special mention should be made of the ONR Liaison Office 

 in London, a Navy legacy from OSRD, which still continues 

 to play a significant role in scientific liaison between the U.S. 

 and U.K. 



From these random remarks one should not conclude that 

 the sole contribution of the ONR lay in its conception, its 

 organization or its planning. The substantive programs initi- 

 ated and sponsored by the ONR have been many and im- 

 portant. A partial list would include: leadership in following 

 and assisting in the development and use of electronic digital 

 computers; research on human engineering, with special ref- 

 erence to aircraft and submarines; pioneering in deep-sea 

 research, as with the Piccard bathyscaphe, and under the 

 Arctic ice, as with the Nautilus; high altitude balloon explora- 

 tion; high altitude research rocketry, notably with the Viking 

 and the Vanguard; a large variety of extra-terrestrial research 

 — ^radio telescopy, cosmic rays, solar disturbances and radia- 

 tions, and ionization layers and streams, typified by the work at 

 NRL of Herbert Friedman and his collaborators. Likewise there 



