PREFACE 



The scope of the "Symposium on Transducers for Oceanic Research" was expressly limited 

 to measurement devices because it seemed that transducers present the greatest technological 

 obstacles to the advance of research in and over the ocean. It is appropriate that the 

 second major meeting staged by the Marine Sciences Division of the Instrument Society of 

 America should focus on the basic sensing devices in spite of the fact that national atten- 

 tion in oceanography, undersea warfare and marine engineering seems to be concerned with 

 large systems and elaborate schemes. Ocean science and technology, under the pressure of 

 practical demands for knowledge, is placing considerable stress on mental and physical 

 resources at hand. In the final analysis scientific goals and operational concepts must 

 recognize the limitations of tools and technology available for measurement if their 

 planning is not to lead to frustration and failure. 



Oceanography, like all other experimental sciences, requires the services of scien- 

 tists and engineers from fields far removed from its basic areas of inquiry. Until fairly 

 recently this requirement has been met by a small number of extremely versatile men who 

 managed to design, and frequently hand-build, the apparatus they needed for their investi- 

 gations. Most of the successful instruments in use today derive from this source. 

 Present needs for instrumentation exceed the capacity of those rarely talented individ- 

 uals who can bridge the gap between science and engineering with proficiency. 



As the ocean research effort gains momentum organizations and professional people 

 are moving with their talents and experience from related fields in an attempt to fill 

 the stated needs. These same demands are pressing specialization and consequently 

 widening the gap between people who design instruments and those who use them. Success 

 must necessarily depend on the degree of mixing achieved. The science will not be served 

 by conversations held exclusively among instrumentation engineers, nor are better instru- 

 ments likely to appear unless scientists are continuously aware of advances in technology. 

 Statements of needs and appreciation for the limits within which they may be satisfied 

 are necessary before the applied scientist and engineer can offer the new measurement 

 techniques that may make feasible previously impossible experiments . We believe that 

 the collection of papers in this volume shows a high degree of mixing and offers a sig- 

 nificant contribution to the fund of knowledge so essential to the advance of marine 

 science. 



During the course of the Symposium from which this volume has been drawn, one of 

 the most successful practitioners of the art of oceanographi c instrumentation remarked 

 that he was disappointed in the number of papers describing instruments that had not 

 yet emerged from the laboratory. His criterion for a successful paper required actual 

 scientific data gathered with the instrument in question and a report based only on the 

 results of prolonged field use. No one can argue the merit of a thorough testing in 

 the environment as a means for evaluating an instrument; neither can an instrument be 

 considered useful until it has contributed to a successful investigation. However, the 

 rapid expansion of effort in the marine sciences demands an early transfer of informa- 

 tion on research and development in progress if duplication and overextension are not 

 to cause ineffectiveness through dilution of our resources. 



A concerted attempt has been made in the editing of this proceedings volume to 

 strike a compromise between publication lag time and maintenance of literary standards. 

 Each of the associate editors served in the dual role of session chairman at the 

 Symposium and technical reviewer of the papers presented in his session. The topical 

 organization of the meeting has been preserved in the proceedings. 



R. D. GAUL 



College Station, Texas 



D. D. KETCHUM 

 Vineyard Haven, Mass. 



20 December 1962 



