NDRC FOREWORD 



as events of the years preceding 1940 revealed more 

 l\ and more dearly the seriousness of the world 

 situation, main scientists in this country came to 

 realize the need of organizing scientific research for 

 service in a national emergency. Recommendations 

 which they made to the White House were given care- 

 ful and sympathetic attention, and as a result the 

 National Defense Research Committee [NDRC] was 

 formed by Executive Order of the President in the 

 summer of 1940. The members of NDRC, appointed 

 by the President, were instructed to supplement the 

 work of the Army and the Navy in the development 

 of the instrumentalities of war. A year later, upon the 

 establishment of the Office of Scientific Research and 

 Development [OSRD], NDRC became one of its 

 units. 



The Summary Technical Report of NDRC is a 

 conscientious effort on the part of NDRC to sum- 

 marize and evaluate its work and to present it in a 

 useful and permanent form. It comprises some sev- 

 enty volumes broken into groups corresponding to 

 the NDRC Divisions, Panels, and Committees. 



The Summary Technical Report of each Division, 

 Panel, or Committee is an integral survey of the work 

 of that group. The first volume of each group's report 

 contains a summary of the report, stating the prob- 

 lems presented and the philosophy of attacking them 

 and summarizing the results of the research, develop- 

 ment, and training activities undertaken. Some vol- 

 umes may be "state of the art" treatises covering sub- 

 jects to which various research groups have contrib- 

 uted information. Others may contain descriptions of 

 devices developed in the laboratories. A master index 

 of all these divisional, panel, and committee reports 

 which together constitute the Summary Technical 

 Report of NDRC is contained in a separate volume, 

 which also includes the index of a microfilm record 

 of pertinent technical laboratory reports and refer- 

 ence material. 



Some of the NDRC-sponsored researches which 

 had been declassified by the end of 1945 were of suffi- 

 cient popular interest that it was found desirable to 

 report them in the form of monographs, such as the 

 series on radar by Division 14 and the monograph on 

 sampling inspection by the Applied Mathematics 

 Panel. Since the material treated in them is not dupli- 



cated in the Summary Technical Report of NDRC, 

 the monographs are an important part of the story of 

 these aspects of NDRC research. 



In contrast to the information on radar, which is of 

 widespread interest and much of which is released to 

 the public, the research on subsurface warfare is 

 largely classified and is of general interest to a more 

 restricted group. As a consequence, the report of 

 Division 6 is found almost entirely in its Summary 

 Technical Report, which runs to over twenty vol- 

 umes. The extent of the work of a Division cannot 

 therefore be judged solely by the number of volumes 

 devoted to it in the Summary Technical Report of 

 NDRC: account must be taken of the monographs 

 and available reports published elsewhere. 



Any great cooperative endeavor must stand or fall 

 with the will and integrity of the men engaged in it. 

 This fact held true for NDRC from its inception, and 

 lor Division 6 under the leadership of Dr. John T. 

 Tate. To Dr. Tate and the men who worked with him 

 —some as members of Division 6, some as representa- 

 tives of the Division's contractors— belongs the sin- 

 cere gratitude of the Nation for a difficult and often 

 dangerous job well done. Their efforts contributed 

 significantly to the outcome of our naval operations 

 during the war and richly deserved the warm response 

 the) received from the Navy. In addition, their con- 

 tributions to the knowledge of the ocean and to the 

 art of oceanographic research will assuredly speed 

 peacetime investigations in this field and bring rich 

 benefits to all mankind. 



The Summary Technical Report of Division 6, 

 prepared under the direction of the Division Chief 

 and authorized by him for publication, not only pre- 

 sents the methods and results of widely varied re- 

 search and development programs but is essentially 

 a record of the unstinted loyal cooperation of able 

 men linked in a common effort to contribute to the 

 defense of their Nation. To them all we extend our 

 deep appreciation. 



Vannevar Bush, Director 



Office of Scientific Researcli and Development 



J. B. Conant, Chairman 

 National Defense Researcli Committee 



