Laurence Batchelder's contributions to engineering acoustics and underwater acoustics

Abstract

During Laurence Batchelder's career, while underwater acoustics was still in the early stages of development, he was associated with several of the outstanding pioneers in the field, including Professor G. W. Pierce, Dr. H. C. Hayes, and H. J. W. Fay. During his 40 years as an engineer with Submarine Signal Company and its successor, the Submarine Signal Division of Raytheon Company, his technical contributions were significant and embraced a number of engineering disciplines. The challenging technical environment of the 1930s and 1940s and the small group of Government and industry engineers involved with the development and applications of underwater sound equipment produced a working atmosphere ideally suited to his analytical and creative talents. His contributions included developments in the JL series of listening equipment, the QB and QC series of echo ranging equipment, Fathometers'?? and echo sounding equipment, and participation in the 1937 Guantanamo Bay Expedition, a joint effort involving scientists from the Navy and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. This expedition established for the first time the close relationship between underwater acoustics and oceanography. His many published works include the post‐war report, “Sonar in the German Navy,” prepared for the U. S. Navy.