PREFACE 



During the recent war there arose on both sides of the Atlantic among research workers 

 in the field of underwater explosions the feeling that some of the problems posed by the conditions 

 of undersea warfare had already presented themselves in the past and that various attempts had 

 been made to solve them. Many of the records, however, had been lost or effectively hidden 

 except for what had crept into open publications and consequently a whole new literature had to 

 be developed at considerable cost in both time and money, encompassing both old and new 

 problems. A corollary of this experience has been the firm conviction that this new literature 

 should not suffer a similar fate. The idea of the joint publication of American and British 

 research in the field of underwater explosions took form in the latter part of 1946 and the idea 

 was further explored with the Bureau of Ordnance and the Bureau of Ships, United States Navy 

 Department and with the British Admiralty. The Office of Naval Research, Navy Department, 

 in its capacity of disseminator of scientific information undertook to sponsor the publication 

 and has eventually seen the project through to its present form. 



The Compendium has three major purposes: first, to give a greater availability to many 

 papers which otherwise would exist in a very small number of copies, and to preserve and 

 revive certain rare items, the scarcity of which was due to wartime shortages rather than to 

 any deficiencies in the papers themselves; second, to present a representative summary of 

 original source material and to display the scope of this material in a manner which might 

 make it of more universal interest to schools and colleges as a branch of applied science; and 

 third, to stimulate interest in this field for the general benefit of the sciences of Naval Archi- 

 tecture and Naval Ordnance and to provide those working in these fields with ready reference 

 material on many of the important problems which they must face in their work. 



The scheme of the Compendium is as follows: All of the papers selected, which represent 

 between 10 and 20 percent of the total quantity of material known to exist, have been divided 

 into three volumes. The first volume is devoted to the primary underwater shock wave, the 

 second to the hydrodynamical effects falling under incompressible theory including the oscil- 

 lations and behaviour of the gas globe formed by the explosion products, and the third to the 

 effects of all of these phenomena on structures and to the measurement and calculation of the 

 resulting damage. Three papers have been selected with the object of summarizing the knowledge 

 over the field within the scope of the Compendium; these papers, which are placed in the first 

 volume, serve to introduce the subject both in general terms, and also with some mathematical 

 detail. 



The allocation of the original papers to the different volumes has, in a few cases, not been 

 obvious and the editors must assume full responsibility for any arbitrary assignments. A far 

 greater responsibility of the editors has lain in the selection of the papers and in this, various 

 considerations have had a voice. 



Many of the older papers have been included for their historical interest. Some papers 

 have been used to provide suitable introductory or background material. Most of the other 

 papers have been included intact and represent the opinions of the authors at the time of writing. 

 A few of the papers have been reworked and consist of new material incorporated into the older 

 original papers, or consist of a summary of several progress reports which were too repetitive 

 for economical inclusion without condensation. Papers which have been rewritten are so marked 

 with the new date affixed. In general, selections have been made in an effort to give the best 

 review of the entire subject in order to convey the most, and the best information within the 

 space limitations imposed by the exigencies of publication, and within the scope permitted by 

 considerations of security. Both these features prevent this compilation from being exhaustive, 

 and the latter feature prevents many successful workers in this field from receiving recog- 

 nition here. 



The editors believe that this Compendium is a new venture in international co-operation 

 and hope that this effort may prove useful in pointing the way for other similar joint enterprises 

 which may be considered desirable. 



It is our desire to acknowledge the continued interest of Dr. A. T. Waterman, Deputy 

 Chief, Office of Naval Research, Navy Department, without whose help these volumes could not 



