50 Years Ago

[Stymie]

50 years ago, a young electrical engineering MIT student was looking for a subject for his thesis. Martin Klein sort of stumbled into the lab of "Doc" Edgerton and asked if he had anything interesting to work on. He started working on a gadget called the "mud penetrator".

After continuous improvement, the device became known as commercial dual-channel side-scan sonar or "towfish".

[kosmo]

50 years ago, a young electrical engineering MIT student was looking for a subject for his thesis. Martin Klein sort of stumbled into the lab of "Doc" Edgerton and asked if he had anything interesting to work on. He started working on a gadget called the "mud penetrator".

After continuous improvement, the device became known as commercial dual-channel side-scan sonar or "towfish".

thats pritty kool,stymie.50 years ago that someone was already thinking of away to look outword instead of looking strait down.now here we are 2011 and all that i here is everbody wanting to look down again.just deosnt seem right to me,kindof like taking a step backwords in tecnology.

[Stymie]

I was at the Automation Fair in Mobile, AL this past October and Martin Klein won a award for his tow fish. I wound up telling everyone around me about using same technology on my crappie boat. Some of those folks couldn't believe the technology we use!

[Cane Pole]

I don't know about the award, but the US Navy used towfish for side scanning for "mines" after WW2. I don't know the details, but I believe the concept came from a German defector in WW2. Can't remember his name. I could be wrong.

[mduncan62]

One of the inventors of Side Scan Sonar, German scientist, Dr. Julias Hagermann, who was brought to the US after World War II and worked at the US Navy Mine Defense Laboratory, Panama City, FL from 1947 until his death in 1964. His work is documented in US Patent 4,197,591, which was first disclosed in Aug 1958, but remained classified by the US Navy until it was finally issued in 1980.
Military side-scan sonars were made in the 1950s by Westinghouse. Advanced systems were later developed and built for special military purposes, such as to find H-Bombs lost at sea or to find a lost Russian submarine, at the Westinghouse facility in Annapolis up through the 1990s.

[Stymie]

ISA Automation Week: Automation Founder Circle | ISA

[kosmo]

kool

[skeetbum]

From what I understand, even the new subs use a towed array to detect the faint signals of the new nuclear subs that at slow speeds are virtually impossible to detect. The receiver is different but the concept isn't changed much. It's reeled out the back on a wire so far that the sub can turn around and cut the wire connecting it, and lose the array in the process.

[Cane Pole]

Little credit is given to the true inventor of side scan. It was kept secret by the US Navy. But, the first patent was filed by the German. Kinda like the situation we have today with HB and Lowrance.

Read the Murky Beginnings paragraph. I just searched this cause I was kinda doubting myself for a moment. The rest of the story.......

MIT Museum: Exhibitions - Klein Side Scan Sonar: A World Leader in Ocean Exploration

It's good for all to know the history of inventions.

[kosmo]

Rofl

Little credit is given to the true inventor of side scan. It was kept secret by the US Navy. But, the first patent was filed by the German. Kinda like the situation we have today with HB and Lowrance.

Read the Murky Beginnings paragraph. I just searched this cause I was kinda doubting myself for a moment. The rest of the story.......

MIT Museum: Exhibitions - Klein Side Scan Sonar: A World Leader in Ocean Exploration

It's good for all to know the history of inventions.

yea, right next thing youall be telling us is there been astronauts on the moon......Rofl