NDRC FOREWORD 



As events of the years preceding; 1940 revealed 

 - more and more clearly the seriousness of the 

 world situation, many scientists in this country came 

 to realize the need of organizing scientific research 

 for service in a national emergency. Recommenda- 

 tions which they made to the White House were 

 given careful 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 

 seventy 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 

 subjects to which various research groups have con- 

 tributed information. Others may contain descrip- 

 tions of devices developed in the laboratories. A 

 master index of all these divisional, panel, and com- 

 mittee reports which together constitute the Sum- 

 mary 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 reference material. 



Some of the NDRC-sponsored researches which 

 had been declassified by the end of 1945 were of 

 sufficient 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 



duplicated 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. 



Though the Committee on Propagation had a com- 

 paratively short existence, being organized rather 

 late in the war program, its accomplishments were 

 definitely effective. That so many individuals and 

 organizations worked together so harmoniously and 

 contributed so willingly to the Committee's efforts 

 is a tribute to the leadership of the Chairman, Chas. 

 R. Burrows. The latest information in this field was 

 gathered from the four corners of the earth, organ- 

 ized, and dispatched to the points where it would aid 

 most in the prosecution of the war. 



Much credit must be given, not only to the mem- 

 bers of the Committee and its contractors, but also 

 to the many other individuals who gave so generously 

 of their time and effort. This group included a num- 

 ber of our Canadian and British allies. In addition to 

 the assistance given the war effort, a considerable 

 contribution has been made to the knowledge of 

 short-wave transmission and especially to the inter- 

 relation of this phenomenon with meteorological con- 

 ditions. Such information will be most valuable in 

 weather forecasting and in furthering the usefulness 

 of the whole radio field. 



Vannevar Bush, Director 

 Office of Scientific Research and Development 



J. B. Conant, Chairman 

 National Defense Research Committee 



