Military and Oral History Conference:
Between Memory and History
The Origins of Asdic: The Transcripts of the Hearings of Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors as a Source of Oral History
David Zimmerman, University of Victoria
The origin of asdic or active sonar has long been shrouded in myth and mystery. In large measure the origins of asdic were obscured by the secrecy surrounding the device from its invention at the end of the First World War until the public acknowledgement of its existence in 1943. By 1943, memory of the invention and early development of the device was lost. As early as 1919, nationalism and economic considerations, led to the claim by the Royal Navy that credit for asdic=s discovery should be shared between British scientists led by Canadian physicist R.W. Boyle, the New Zealand physicist Sir Ernest (later Lord) Rutherford, and French researchers headed by physicist Paul Langevin, assisted by Russian inventor M.Constantin Chilowsky. Almost immediately after the First World War, Chilowsky and Langevin claimed full credit for developing active sonar and pressed claims on the British government for financial compensation for lost patent royalties. The patent dispute continued until 1932. Full details of the legal battle have survived in the National Archive of the United Kingdom, including transcripts of hearings and all supporting documentation. An analysis of these records will shed new light on First World War anti-submarine research, and allied scientific cooperation.