National Defense Research Committee
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
from June 27, 1940 until June 28, 1941. Most of its work was done with the strictest secrecy, and it began research of what would become some of the most important technology during World War II, including radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
and the atomic bomb. It was superseded by the Office of Scientific Research and Development
Office of Scientific Research and Development
The Office of Scientific Research and Development was an agency of the United States federal government created to coordinate scientific research for military purposes during World War II. Arrangements were made for its creation during May 1941, and it was created formally by on June 28, 1941...
in 1941, and reduced to merely an advisory organization until it was eventually terminated during 1947.
Organization
The NDRC was created as part of the Council of National DefenseCouncil of National Defense
The Council of National Defense was a United States organization formed during World War I to coordinate resources and industry in support of the war effort, including the coordination of transportation, industrial and farm production, financial support for the war, and public...
, which had been created during 1916 to coordinate industry and resources for national security purposes, by an order of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on June 27, 1940. Vannevar Bush
Vannevar Bush
Vannevar Bush was an American engineer and science administrator known for his work on analog computing, his political role in the development of the atomic bomb as a primary organizer of the Manhattan Project, the founding of Raytheon, and the idea of the memex, an adjustable microfilm viewer...
, the director of the Carnegie Institution, had pressed for the creation of the NDRC because he had experienced during World War I the lack of cooperation between civilian scientists and the military. Bush managed to get a meeting with the President on June 12, 1940 and took a single sheet of paper describing the proposed agency. Roosevelt approved it in ten minutes. Government officials then complained that Bush was attempting to increase his authorty and to bypass them — which he later admitted he was:
- There were those who protested that the action of setting up NDRC was an end run, a grab by which a small company of scientists and engineers, acting outside established channels, got hold of the authority and money for the program of developing new weapons. That, in fact, is exactly what it was. (Bush 1970, p.31–32)
In his June 15 letter which appointed Bush to the head of the committee, Roosevelt outlined that the NDRC was not meant to replace the research work done by the Army and Navy in their own laboratories or through industry contracts, but rather to "supplement this activity by extending the research base and enlisting the aid of the scientists who can effectively contribute to the more rapid improvement of important devices, and by study determine where new effort on new instrumentalities may be usefully employed." (Quoted in Stewart 1948, p. 8).
The NDRC was managed by eight members, one of which was the chairman and two of which were appointed automatically by virtue of their positions as President of the National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
and the Commissioner of Patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
s. One member was appointed by the Secretary of War
United States Secretary of War
The Secretary of War was a member of the United States President's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War," was appointed to serve the Congress of the Confederation under the Articles of Confederation...
and another by the Secretary of the Navy; the other four members were appointed without reference to other offices. The original eight members of the NDRC were: Vannevar Bush
Vannevar Bush
Vannevar Bush was an American engineer and science administrator known for his work on analog computing, his political role in the development of the atomic bomb as a primary organizer of the Manhattan Project, the founding of Raytheon, and the idea of the memex, an adjustable microfilm viewer...
, President of the Carnegie Institution (Chairman); Rear Admiral Harold G. Bowen; Conway P. Coe, Commissioner of Patents; Karl Compton, President of MIT; James B. Conant, President of Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
; Frank B. Jewett
Frank B. Jewett
Frank Baldwin Jewett was a physicist and the first president of Bell Labs....
, President of the National Academy of Sciences and President of Bell Telephone Laboratories; Brigadier General George V. Strong; and Richard C. Tolman
Richard C. Tolman
Richard Chace Tolman was an American mathematical physicist and physical chemist who was an authority on statistical mechanics. He also made important contributions to theoretical cosmology in the years soon after Einstein's discovery of general relativity...
, Professor of Physical Chemistry and Mathematical Physics at California Institute of Technology
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...
. Strong was succeeded by Brigadier General R.C. Moore on January 17, 1941. During its first meeting on July 2, the NDRC elected Tolman as its Vice-Chairman and appointed Irvin Stewart as its Secretary.
The NDRC members met approximately once a month until September 1942, after which it met either weekly or bi-weekly until the end of the war with Germany, after which it met irregularly.
NDRC research
Under the chairmanship of Bush the NDRC created new laboratories, including the Radiation Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which aided the development of radarRadar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
, and the Underwater Sound Laboratory at San Diego
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
, which developed sonar
Sonar
Sonar is a technique that uses sound propagation to navigate, communicate with or detect other vessels...
. The former grew to be the largest single activity of the NDRC. In the year of its autonomous existence, the NDRC received approximately $6,500,000 (out of a requested $10,000,000) for research.
The NDRC's most important project eventually became the Manhattan Project
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...
— the full-scale project to produce nuclear weapons by the United States. An Advisory Committee on Uranium had been established to consider the feasibility of an atomic bomb as part of the National Bureau of Standards during 1939 as the result of the Einstein–Szilárd letter, but had not made significant progress. It was instructed in Roosevelt's June 15 letter to report to the NDRC and Bush, establishing the chain of command which would later result in the full-scale bomb project. During June 1940 Bush reorganized the Uranium Committee into a scientific body and eliminated military membership.
No longer beholden to the military for funds, the NDRC had greater access to money for nuclear research. However there was little impetus until the British MAUD Committee
MAUD Committee
The MAUD Committee was the beginning of the British atomic bomb project, before the United Kingdom joined forces with the United States in the Manhattan Project.-Frisch & Peierls:...
's findings were presented in 1941.
Creation of the OSRD
The increasing hostilities in Europe cause a desire to create a new organization which would supersede the NDRC and remedy some of the problems the NDRC was facing, in particular in converting scientific research into usable military technology ("development"), increased liaison between the different parts of military and civilian research in different government agencies, and creating a system for funding military medicineMilitary medicine
The term military medicine has a number of potential connotations. It may mean:*A medical specialty, specifically a branch of occupational medicine attending to the medical risks and needs of soldiers, sailors and other service members...
. At Bush's insistence Roosevelt issued Executive Order No. 8807 on June 28, 1941, which established the Office of Scientific Research and Development
Office of Scientific Research and Development
The Office of Scientific Research and Development was an agency of the United States federal government created to coordinate scientific research for military purposes during World War II. Arrangements were made for its creation during May 1941, and it was created formally by on June 28, 1941...
. The NDRC technically still existed after the creation of the OSRD but its authority had been reduced from being able to actually fund research to becoming simply an advisory body to the OSRD. The NDRC ceased to exist officially after its last meeting on January 20, 1947.
When it became the NDRC of the OSRD, the committee membership and structure was re-organized. The NDRC of the OSRD membership consisted of Conant (Chairman), Tolman (Vice-Chairman), Adams, Compton, and Jewett, along with the Commission of Patents (Coe until September 1945, and then Casper W. Ooms), and the representatives of the Army and Navy (which changed periodically). The Committee on Uranium was reorganized as a Section on Uranium until it stopped being part of NDRC jurisdiction during December 1941.
Select NDRC projects
The NDRC funded research into hundreds of different projects at many different educational and industrial sites around the country. Some of the ones it is best remembered for include:- Atomic bomb research (would later become the Manhattan ProjectManhattan ProjectThe Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...
) - DUKWDUKWThe DUKW is a six-wheel-drive amphibious truck that was designed by a partnership under military auspices of Sparkman & Stephens and General Motors Corporation during World War II for transporting goods and troops over land and water and for use approaching and crossing beaches in amphibious...
– amphibious vehicle - Project PigeonProject PigeonDuring World War II, Project Pigeon was American behaviorist B. F. Skinner's attempt to develop a pigeon-guided missile....
- Proximity fuzeProximity fuzeA proximity fuze is a fuze that is designed to detonate an explosive device automatically when the distance to target becomes smaller than a predetermined value or when the target passes through a given plane...
- RadarRadarRadar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
at the Radiation Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
NDRC research organization
The NDRC's research organization changed constantly during its single year of autonomous existence. During early June 1941, shortly before it was superseded by the OSRD, its organization was as follows:- Division A (Armor and Ordnance) – Richard C. TolmanRichard C. TolmanRichard Chace Tolman was an American mathematical physicist and physical chemist who was an authority on statistical mechanics. He also made important contributions to theoretical cosmology in the years soon after Einstein's discovery of general relativity...
, Chairman; Charles C. Lauritsen, Vice-Chairman.- Section B (Structural Defense)
- Section H (Investigations on Propulsion)
- Section S (Terminal Ballistics)
- Section T (Proximity Fuzes for ShellsProximity fuzeA proximity fuze is a fuze that is designed to detonate an explosive device automatically when the distance to target becomes smaller than a predetermined value or when the target passes through a given plane...
) - Section E (Fuzes and Guided Projectiles)
- Division B (Bombs, Fuels, Gases, Chemical Problems) – James B. Conant, Chairman
- Synthetic Problems — Roger AdamsRoger AdamsRoger Adams was an American organic chemist. He is best-known for the eponymous Adams' catalyst, and his work did much to determine the composition of naturally occurring substances such as complex vegetable oils and plant alkaloids...
, Vice-Chairman- Section A-1 (Explosives)
- Section A-2 (Synthetic Organics)
- Section A-3 (Detection of Persistent Agents)
- Section A-4 (Toxicity)
- Physical Chemical Problems – W.K. Lewis, Vice-Chairman
- Section L-1 (Aerosols)
- Section L-2 (Protective Coatings)
- Section L-3 (Special Inorganic Problems)
- Section L-4 (Nitrocellulose)
- Section L-5 (Paint Removers)
- Section L-6 (Higher Oxides)
- Section L-7 (Oxygen Storage)
- Section L-8 (Gas Drying)
- Section L-9 (Metallurgical Problems)
- Section L-10 (Exhaust Disposal)
- Section L-11 (Absorbents)
- Section L-12 (Oxygen for Airplanes)
- Section L-13 (Hydraulic Fluids)
- Miscellaneous Chemical Problems
- Section C-1 (Automotive Fuelds; Special Problems)
- Section C-2 (Pyrotechnics)
- Section C-3 (Special Problems)
- Synthetic Problems — Roger Adams
- Division C (Communication and Transportation) – Frank B. JewettFrank B. JewettFrank Baldwin Jewett was a physicist and the first president of Bell Labs....
, Chairman; C. B. Jolliffe, Hartley Rowe, R. D. Booth, and J. T. Tate, Vice-Chairmen.- Section C-1 (Communications)
- Section C-2 (Transportation)
- Section C-3 (Mechanical and Electrical Equipment)
- Section C-4 (Submarine Studies)
- Section C-5 (Sound Sources)
- Division D (Detection, Controls, Instruments) – Karl Compton, Chairman; Alfred L. Loomis, Vice-Chairman.
- Section D-1 (Detection)
- Section D-2 (Controls)
- Section D-3 (Instruments)
- Section D-4 (Heat Radiation)
- Division E (Patents and Invention) – Conway P. Coe, Chairman.
The Committee on Uranium
S-1 Uranium Committee
The S-1 Uranium Committee was a Committee of the National Defense Research Committee that succeeded the Briggs Advisory Committee on Uranium and later evolved into the Manhattan Project.- World War II begins :...
, chaired by Lyman Briggs, reported directly to the Chairman of the NDRC and as such does not appear in the chart above.
Following the reorganization of the NDRC in December 1942, it had the following divisions:
- Division 1 (Ballistics Research), L. H. Adams, Chief
- Division 2 (Structural Defense and Offense/Effects of Impact and Explosion), John E. Burchard, Chief (1942–1944), E. Bright Wilson, Chief (1944–1946)
- Division 3 (Special Projectiles/Rocket Ordnance), John T. Tate, Chief (1942–1943), Frederick L. HovdeFrederick L. HovdeFrederick Lawson Hovde was an American chemical engineer, researcher, educator and president of Purdue University.Born in Erie, Pennsylvania, Hovde received his Bachelor of Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota, where he played on the football team...
, Chief (1943–1946) - Division 4 (Ordnance Accessories), Alexnder Ellett, Chief
- Division 5 (New Missiles), H. B. Richmond, Chief (1942–1945), Hugh H. Spencer, Chief (1945–1946)
- Division 6 (Subsurface Warfare), John T. Tate, Chief
- Division 7 (Fire Control), Harold L. Hazen, Chief
- Division 8 (Explosives), George B. KistiakowskyGeorge KistiakowskyGeorge Bogdan Kistiakowsky was a Ukrainian-American chemistry professor at Harvard who participated in the Manhattan Project and later served as President Eisenhower's Science Advisor...
, Chief (1942–1944), Ralph A. Connor, Chief (1944–1946) - Division 9 (Chemistry), Walter R. Kirner, Chief
- Division 10 (Absorbents and Aerosols), W. A. Noyes, Jr., Chief
- Division 11 (Chemical Engineering), R. P. Russell, Chief (1942–1943), E. P. Stevenson, Chief (1943–1945), H. M. Chadwell, Chief (1945–1946)
- Division 12 (Transportation Development), Hartley Rowe, Chief
- Division 13 (Electrical Communication), C. B. Jolliffe, Chief (1942–1944), Haraden Pratt, Chief (1944–1945)
- Division 14 (Radar), Alfred L. Loomis, Chief
- Division 15 (Radio Co-ordination), C. G. SuitsChauncey Guy SuitsChauncey Guy Suits , often known as C. Guy Suits, was a distinguished director of the General Electric Research Laboratory, and a founding member of the National Academy of Engineering....
, Chief - Division 16 (Optics), George R. HarrisonGeorge R. HarrisonGeorge Russell Harrison was an American physicist.Harrison became Professor of Experimental Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1930, and was appointed the school's Dean of Science in 1942; he also headed MIT's Spectroscopy Laboratory...
, Chief - Division 17 (Physics), Paul E. KlopstegPaul E. KlopstegPaul Ernest Klopsteg was an American physicist. The asteroid 3520 Klopsteg was named after him and the yearly Klopsteg Memorial Award was founded in his memory....
, Chief (1942–1945), George R. Harrison, Chief (1945–1946) - Division 18 (War Metallurgy), Clyde Williams, Chief
- Division 19 (Miscellaneous Weapons), H. M. Chadwell, Chief
- Applied Mathematics PanelApplied Mathematics PanelThe Applied Mathematics Panel was created at the end of 1942 as a division of the National Defense Research Committee within the Office of Scientific Research and Development in order to solve mathematical problems related to the military effort in World War II, particularly those of the other...
, Warren WeaverWarren WeaverWarren Weaver was an American scientist, mathematician, and science administrator...
, Chief - Applied Psychology Panel, W. S. Hunter, Chief (1943–1945), Charles W. Bray, Chief (1945–1946)