AD0404515

UNCLASSIFIED AD 4104 -5 DEFENSE DOCUMENTATION CENTER FOR SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL INFORMATION CAMERON STATION. ALEXANDRIA. VIRGINIA UNCLASSIFIED NOTICE: When government or other dra-wings, speci- fications or other data are used for any purpose other than in connection with a definitely related government procurement operation, the U. S. Government thereby incurs no responsibility, nor any obligation whatsoever; and the fact that the Govern- ment may have formulated, furnished, or in any way supplied the said drawings, specifications, or other data is not to be regarded by implication or other- wise as in any manner licensing the holder or any other person or corporation, or conveying any rights or permission to manufacture, use or sell any patented invention that may in any way be related thereto. lii1 9 62 A N N UAL R EP 0R Tp ds J-US-NAVAL--t E~SE~ARCH. LABORAT-ORY DDC ~~ TISIAS T5j)1i 1962 ANNUAL REPORT CONTENTS PART I INTRODUCTION 1 PART II TOOLS TO WORK WITH 7 PART III A BROAD FIELD 15 PART IV OUT IN FRONT 67 PART V BEHIND THE SCENES 75 PART I INTRODUCTION / .9i a> NRL at a Glance LOCATION: On the east bank of the Potomac, in Washington, D. C., four miles south of the Capitol. MISSION: To initiate and conduct scientific research and development in the physical sciences, directed toward new and improved materials, equipment, techniques, and systems for the Navy. PHYSICAL PLANT: 100 buildings on 125 acres. Field stations at Chesapeake Beach, Maryland Point, and Stump Neck, Maryland; Hybla Valley, Virginia; and Coco Solo and Miraflores, C. Z. PERSONNEL: 66 naval personnel, 3272 civilians, of which 1062 are scientists or engineers. MAJOR FIELDS OF RESEARCH: Astrophysics, metallurgy, astronomy, mechanics, chemistry, ceramics, optics, sound, radio, applications, and atomic, nuclear, and solid-state physics. POSITION IN NAVY ORGANIZATION: NRL is subordinate to the Office of Naval Research; it is a station within the Potomac River Naval Command. FINANCING: Funds are allocated from (a) the Office of Naval Research for the self- generated research program and (b) other sources, principally the Navy Mate- riel bureaus, for specific research projects. COMMAND AND TECHNICAL DIRECTION: The present Director is CAPT A. E. Krapf, USN. The current Director of Research is Dr. R. M. Page. Highlights of the Year The "highlights" of the year are briefly described in these introductory I thi. *HHIZ EMO t. 1, pages. More detail is given to these and 4.-r ed-Inclassified technical ac - other accomplishments in the pages that complishmenti of the U. S. Naval Research follow. Laboratory during the Calendar Year 1962 a A( sho uld s sere o. •) . his Xeport 7 Expansion of the Laboratory should *Ise serv~eto give se who are un- familiar with the Laboratory a general By the end of World War II, the Naval concept of NRL's varied activities and Researcl- Laboratory had crowded to the capabilities. \ fences of its 55-acre enclave on the Po- tomac River. New buildings could be erec- SThere are, as of the close of the year, ted only by tearing down old ones; there was some 375 research problems listed as no space for antenna ranges; various elec- current and active. They vary from long- tronic facilities interfered with each other; term basic investigations to iahort-term space was inadequate for parking. The evaluations of particular devi.ces or con- immediate crowding situation was alle- cepts. To attempt to measure progress viated on July 1, 1962, with the formal on all of these would be tedious to catalog transfer of the adjacent Bellevue Naval and onerous to review. The endeavor has Magazine to the Laboratory-more than been;P.u to select a few outstanding doubling the ground area of the station. projects in each of NRL's twelve fields of Aside from a few large structures research effort and to describe these as which have already been converted to examples of the kind of work being done laboratories, most of the buildings on the in each field. acquired land are temporary shelters : which will be torn down as their space is The year has been one of solid prog- needed. ress in many lines, rather than one of glamorous new projects or headlined in- In September, the 87th Congress ap- ventions. It has also been a year of ex- propriated funds for the construction of a pansion, marked by doubling in station new general-purpose laboratory building. area, the appropriation of money for a When completed it will be NRL's first large modern building, and the addition of major structure to be built from the ground important new facilities, up for laboratory purposes since 1945. It 3 is the first increment of an over-all re- transmissions to ranges of 5000 miles or newal plan that would effect, over the next more. Thus, only six or eight stations quarter century, a gradual modernization would be required to provide navigational of the Laboratory. fixes-accurate to less than a mile-to planes, ships, or submerged submarines Solid-State Power Converters anywhere in the globe. At present, experi- mental stations are being operated in Hawaii, the Canal Zone, and New York Modern science has produced a num- State. ber of exotic electric sources such as solar cells, thermoelectric and thermionic con- The Omega system is similar to verters, and electrochemical fuel cells. LORAN in that it uses time difference Most of them are very-low-voltage devices, in arrival of signals to obtain fixes. however; to do useful work their voltage Omega, however, operates at a much lower must be stepped up many times. In the frequency, presently at 10.2 kilocycles; past, this problem has been solved by phases of the radio-frequency cycles are connecting many basic units in series- used to determine the time difference. with consequent loss in efficiency and Receivers are bein.) designed to provide reliability. lines of position continuously and auto- t e de- matically. Transmitter power require- NL electronics specialists have d ments are comparatively low, about 5 kilo- veloped a static inverter that is compati- watts per station. ble with these new sources, most of which deliver 1 volt or less. It employs solid- NRL's WV-2 "flying laboratory" ob- state devices known as tunnel diodes. The tained satisfactory navigational fixes during inverter makes possible the design of a trip to Labrador, Greenland, Norway, and simpler and more rugged power sources England and on a second trip south to with outputs sufficient for many of today's Chile and Argentina. highly specialized military applications. Shore-to-Ship Communication by An Assist to Brain Surgery Moon Relay A local surgeon, Dr. John Gallagher, conceived the idea of reducing aneurysms- Having been the world pioneer in dem- bubble-like malformations in the arteries onstrating (in 1954) the practicality of ra- that serve the brain-by shooting animal dio communications by the earth-moon- hairs into the bubble, causing the blood earth path, NRL scored another "first" by to clot instead of hemorrhaging. He transmitting messages via the moon to a needed a small, sensitive "gun" to do the moving ship at sea. The signals were shooting. sent from the 60-foot antenna at the Lab- oratory's satellite research facility at The problem came to NRL, via ONR, Stump Neck, Maryland, and were received and wound up in the Electronics Division. aboard the USS OXFORD cruising off the There, a master craftsman, H. P. Hage- East Coast. The messages were error- meyer, developed a pencil-size gun oper- free 60-wpm teletype transmissions; they ated by compressed air. With it, a surgeon were sent and received during the entire can shoot a sterilized hot bristle through 10 hours of lunar visibility, an arterial wall just far enough but not too far. Omega Navigation System To date, Dr. Gallagher has success- The Omega navigation system has fully used the hair gun in nine operations, been developed jointly by NRL and the at far less hazard to the patient than the Navy Electronics Laboratory. The system usual clipping-off technique. The safer is capable of very-low-frequency (VLF) method of treatment may materially reduce 4 the number of mortalities caused by the negative information that a laser does not estimated 100,000 brain aneurysms diag- appreciably aid the transmission of light nosed every year. through water. Laser Development Record Magnetic Field Strengths The optical maser, or "laser," has Early in the year, NRL's relocated and characteristics that are so amazing that reinforced magnetic laboratory was com- physicists are only beginning to delineate pleted. The facilities include a battery of its full possibilities. In brief, it is a powerful electromagnets, among them an solid-state device that receives light from NRL-improved Bitter-type solenoid. Dur- an ordinary source and amplifies it in such ing March and April the solenoid achieved a way that the emitted beam is continuous, sustained magnetic-field strengths up to extremely narrow, and intensely energetic. 156,000 gauss. This is believed to be the highest continuous field yet attained, any- NRL's 1962 research in this field was where. The figure may be compared with particularly rewarding. Several lumi- other recently reported maximum fields nescent glasses, developed from the Lab- of 126,000 gauss at the National Magnet oratory's earlier studies of the physical Laboratory, 128,700 at the Royal Radar properties of dielectrics, were found to be Establishment in England, and 130,000 at excellent laser-fabrication materials Tohoku University in Japan. when combined with minute quantities of The magnet in which this record field certain rare earth elements such as neo- was generated is presently being used to dymium, ytterbium, holmium, and gado- extend measurements of the properties of linium. One of these glass lasers, made the new superconducting material, niobium of silicate glass containing ytterbium, pro- stannide, beyond 120,000 gauss, the highest duced the world's first ultraviolet laser, sustained field available at NRL prior to Another, in which the silicate glass was this time. The 156,000 gauss upper limit combined with neodymium as well as ytter- was established not by any fundamental bium, was the first solid laser to exhibit characteristics of the magnet, but by the simultaneous stimulated emission of in- maximum (3 megawatt) power supply frared light at two different wavelengths, available. Further improvements to the A different type of experiment-conducted system are under consideration which it with a ruby laser in filtered water at David is hoped will permit going as high as Taylor Model Basin-elicited the important 200,000 gauss. 5 PART II TOOLS TO WORK WITH '--&M. M tt h AOA "Adm. I N T Additions and improvements are continually being made to the Laboratory's physical research plant. Often these are unique facilities not available commercially, so plans must be drawn up for the construction of a specialized unit particularly fitted to the specific need. Presented here are brief descriptions of only a few major ones-most of them built entirely to NRL designs. Step 1: A model maker performs final machtning -Step 2: In the chenical I-processing unit the anode on a magnetron anode. is cleaned prior to vacuum-firing. This unit handles all problems related to chemical cleaning and new chemical techniques. Step 3: A tube technician vacuu A-fires the anode Step 4: Assembly of the magnetron is completed by use of radio-frequency heating. in the tube-assembly area, which contains radio- frequency brazing equipment, several hydrogen furnaces, a number of resistance welders, and a clean room. 8 Electron Tube Engineering Within the Branch is the Engineering