Columbia Division of War Research and the work of Ewing, Worzel, and Pekeris

Three University laboratories were established in WWII to conduct underwater acoustics research, in response to widespread attacks on allied shipping by German submarines; the Columbia University Division of War Research, Harvard Underwater Sound Laboratory, and the University of California Division of War Research, and the last two of these are being discussed by other speakers in this session. During the war, outstanding work was done at Columbia by Maurice Ewing, J. Lamar Worzel, and C. L. Pekeris, which has been summarized in the book, Propagation of Sound in the Ocean. Experiments utilizing explosive sources were done at sea in 1943 and 1944, in both shallow and deep water, off the east coast of the United States, with the USS Saluda (IX87) and other vessels, in cooperation with the Naval Ordnance Laboratory, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and the U.S. Navy Underwater Sound Laboratory. Pekeris is noted for his wave theoretic analysis of the shallow water propagation results and is credited with being the first to apply normal mode theory to shallow water waveguides. Ewing and Worzel are noted for their development of some of the first long range ocean acoustics experiments, which continue to this day in similar context and importance. Some highlights of this work are presented to illustrate the beginnings of long range underwater acoustic propagation research in the United States.