Trial 7
TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS
FACILITY
CONDUCT OF TRIAL SEVEN
31 AUGUST 1954, COMMENCING 0814 HOURS
PERSONNEL PRESENT IN THE PRINCIPAL CHAMBER:
Dr. , principal technical officer, presiding at the control station Dr. , instrumentation Dr. , metallurgy and materials, at the displacement field , senior technical assistant, at the manufactory bench of this Agency, recording
PERSONNEL PRESENT IN THE OBSERVATION GALLERY:
W. Seaton, Division Chief, Western Europe , liaison officer to OSI
The following transcript is prepared from the contemporaneous shorthand notes of the undersigned and from the wire recording made at the control station. Conversation conducted in the German language has been rendered into English; the original utterances are preserved upon the wire and are available for verification. Pauses, instrumental readings called aloud, and remarks of a strictly technical character not bearing upon the conduct of the trial have been omitted in the interest of brevity and are indicated by the customary ellipsis.
- Dr. announces commencement of the pre-trial sequence and requests confirmation of readiness from each station.
DR. (instrumentation): Plates loaded. Chronometers running. We have the second chronometer at a variance of one part in ten thousand from the principal; I propose to log against the principal and to report the variance.
DR. (presiding): Logged. Proceed.
DR. (materials): The articles are placed. Steel sphere, ceramic disk, oak fragment, in the configuration as the diagram. The oak is from the same baulk as Trial Five.
DR. (presiding): The same baulk. You are certain.
DR. : I cut it myself on Friday. It is the same baulk.
DR. (presiding): Very good. , the bench.
: The replacement coupling is fitted. I have run it at half load this morning for twenty minutes. It holds.
DR. (presiding): Twenty minutes is not one year.
: No, Herr Doktor. Twenty minutes is twenty minutes. But it holds.
- Brief consultation between Dr. and Dr. at the instrumentation panel, inaudible upon the wire. Dr. then addresses the observation gallery.
DR. (presiding): Mr. Seaton, we are setting the magnitude at one year in the rearward direction. I tell you this because we have not before today exceeded ninety days with a composite article, and the gentleman on my left has expressed certain reservations.
MR. SEATON: Noted, Doctor. The reservations are of what nature?
DR. (instrumentation): The energetic demand at one year is not in itself the difficulty. The difficulty is that the demand curve, between ninety days and one year, is not yet established by our trials. We are interpolating, you understand. Between the points we know.
MR. SEATON: And if the interpolation is in error?
DR. (instrumentation): Then the coupling will be the part that tells us so. has fitted it well. But the coupling is the part.
: It will hold.
DR. (presiding): It will hold or it will not hold. We shall know in a quarter of an hour. Mr. Seaton, I am content to proceed. Are you content that I proceed?
MR. SEATON: I am here to observe, Doctor, not to instruct you. Proceed when you are ready.
DR. (presiding): Thank you. , mark the time and begin the log.
- Recording officer marks the time. Dr. commences the displacement sequence.
DR. (presiding, calling the sequence): First stage. … First stage stable. Second stage. … Second stage stable at the predicted value. Third stage. … Third stage. , the coupling.
: The coupling is warm. It is within the figure.
DR. (presiding): Fourth stage. … We are at the threshold. , the field.
DR. (materials): The field is formed. The articles are within the field. I have the index at the predicted value, plus a small quantity.
DR. (presiding): How small a quantity.
DR. (materials): Two per centum, perhaps three. It is not increasing.
DR. (presiding): Initiate.
- Initiation. A pause of approximately four seconds is reported upon the wire, during which the only sound is the principal chronometer.
DR. (materials): Recovered. All three articles are recovered. I have them in the field still. Permit me a moment.
DR. (presiding): Take your moment. , the coupling.
: The coupling is hot but it is whole. It held, Herr Doktor.
DR. (presiding): So you have said. So it has done. Very good. , you may bring them out.
- Dr. transfers the test articles from the displacement field to the examination bench. A short interval of silence upon the wire as the articles are weighed and measured. Dr. then speaks.
DR. (materials): The sphere is unaltered. The disk is unaltered. The oak is reduced. I shall have the figure in a moment.
DR. (presiding): Take the figure.
DR. (materials): Twenty-three per centum, by the balance. Twenty-three per centum, against eleven at ninety days.
A silence of perhaps ten seconds upon the wire.
DR. (instrumentation): It is not linear.
DR. (presiding): No.
DR. (instrumentation): It is not linear, but it is not exponential either. Not upon four points. We cannot say what it is upon four points.
DR. (presiding): We cannot. But Mr. Seaton will wish to know what we think it is.
MR. SEATON (from the gallery): Mr. Seaton wishes to know what you think it is, Doctor, but Mr. Seaton can wait until you have a fifth point.
DR. (presiding): Mr. Seaton is generous. , are you noting this conversation.
(recording officer): I am noting it, Herr Doktor.
DR. (presiding): Note also that I do not, at this moment, undertake any prediction as to the figure at the magnitudes contemplated for the operational trial. The figure may be of the order of forty per centum. It may be of the order of ninety. I do not know. I shall not know until I have run the trials.
MR. SEATON (from the gallery): May I ask a question, Doctor?
DR. (presiding): You may.
MR. SEATON: The oak. If the oak were the timber of a vessel, and the vessel were of the magnitude under contemplation, what would be your view of its seaworthiness upon recovery?
A pause of some seconds.
DR. (materials): I should not wish to put to sea in it.
DR. (presiding): Nor I. But we are not putting to sea in it, Mr. Seaton. We are putting to sea in steel. The oak was a question. The steel is the answer.
MR. SEATON: I take your meaning, Doctor. I should like, however, for the record, to have it noted that I asked the question.
DR. (presiding): It is noted. has noted it.
(recording officer): I have noted it, sir.
- Dr. commences the post-trial examination of the apparatus. Conversation between Dr. and concerning the condition of the coupling, conducted in the German language and of a strictly technical character, is omitted. The principal exchange of substance during this interval is set forth below.
DR. (instrumentation, to Dr. ): I have looked at the plates. There is a thing upon the third plate.
DR. (presiding): What thing.
DR. (instrumentation): I do not know what thing. There is a shadow upon the plate which is not the articles and which is not the field. It is in the lower quadrant. I shall develop the others before I say more.
DR. (presiding): Develop them. Say nothing yet.
DR. (instrumentation): I have said nothing yet.
DR. (presiding): You have said it to me. I count that as nothing. Develop them.
- The wire recording is interrupted at this point for the changing of the spool. The recording is resumed at 0858. The intervening interval is reconstructed from the notes of the undersigned. During the interval, Dr. withdrew with the plates to the darkroom adjacent to the principal chamber. Dr. spoke briefly with Mr. Seaton in the observation gallery. The substance of that conversation, as reconstructed from the notes of who was present, was as follows.
DR. (presiding, to Mr. Seaton): The figure of twenty-three is the figure I shall report. I tell you now that it gives me less comfort than I should wish.
MR. SEATON: You wish to defer the operational trial.
DR. (presiding): I do not wish to defer it. I wish you to understand that what we are sending will not return as what we sent. The steel will return. The instrumentation, I am confident, will return. The timbers of the deckhouse, the cordage, the small stores, the paint upon the hull — these will not return as they went. You should be prepared.
MR. SEATON: I am obliged to you, Doctor. I shall convey your view to the Division.
DR. (presiding): Convey also that I do not advise against the trial. I advise only that you understand what you are doing.
MR. SEATON: I understand it, Doctor. Or I shall.
- Dr. returns from the darkroom with the developed plates. The wire recording resumes.
DR. (instrumentation): The shadow is upon three of the four plates. It is in the same quadrant in each. It is not an artefact of the development; I have checked the bath.
DR. (presiding): What is it, then.
DR. (instrumentation): I have an opinion. I should prefer not to give it upon the wire.
DR. (presiding): Very good. , suspend the recording.
The wire recording is suspended at 0859 upon the instruction of the presiding officer. It is resumed at 0912, at which time the presiding officer announces the conclusion of the trial and the commencement of the post-trial sequence. The conversation conducted during the interval of suspension is not preserved upon the wire and is not within the knowledge of the undersigned. Upon resumption, no reference was made by any of the personnel present to the shadow upon the plates, and no reference to it appears in the technical report subsequently rendered by the Office in respect of Trial Seven.
The trial concluded at 0934 with the customary sequence of post-trial observations and the securing of the apparatus.
These minutes have been prepared from the contemporaneous shorthand notes of the undersigned and from the wire recording made at the control station, excepting as noted above. They have been reviewed by the principal technical officer prior to circulation. Any correction or addition is to be addressed to the undersigned within ten days of the date of the present document.
Recording Officer
Office of Scientific Intelligence