Thomas Edison gave a speech in which he proposed a group of scientists should be involved with the
World War I effort. In a statement issued in the
New York Times on September 13, 1915,
Josephus Daniels, the
Secretary of the Navy asked
Thomas Edison to be president of an advisory board.
Miller Reese Hutchison who was Edison's chief engineer also became part of the Board. Secretary Daniels "approached eleven engineering and scientific societies to nominate two members to present their society on the Board." •
American Chemical Society •
Willis Rodney Whitney •
Leo Baekeland •
American Institute of Electrical Engineers •
Frank Julian Sprague •
Benjamin Garver Lamme •
American Mathematical Society •
Robert Simpson Woodward, a civil engineer, physicist and mathematician. •
Arthur Gordon Webster •
American Society of Civil Engineers •
Andrew Murray Hunt •
Alfred Wingate Craven, Chief Engineer of the New York city Rapid Transit commission. • American Aeronautical Society •
Matthew Bacon Sellers Jr. •
Hudson Maxim • The Inventor's Guild •
Peter Cooper Hewitt •
Thomas Robins •
American Society of Automotive Engineers • Andrew J. Riker •
Howard E. Coffin •
American Institute of Mining Engineers •
William Lawrence Saunders •
Benjamin Bowditch Thayer •
American ElectroChemical Society • Joseph William Richards •
Lawrence Addicks •
American Society of Mechanical Engineers •
William Le Roy Emmet • Spencer Miller • American Society of Aeronautic Engineers, merged into
Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) in 1916. •
Henry Alexander Wise Wood •
Elmer Sperry Later, the physicists
Arthur Compton,
Robert Andrews Millikan and
Lee De Forest, inventor of the radio tube and
William Lawrence Saunders later replaced Edison as chairman. Initially the board had no legal status, budget or staff, and its mission was unclear. Not until August 1916 did the
United States Congress appropriate $25,000 for its operation. The initial publicity surrounding its creation resulted in a flood of suggestions about how to improve the US Navy's ships, totaling 110,000 during the war. The Board's members decided that they could be most effective if they divided into technical committees to utilize their specialist expertise, including the Committee on Aeronautics and Aeronautical Motors. They provided consultants and arranged for research to be carried out in established civilian laboratories. During World War I, the board was responsible for approving camouflage schemes for civilian ships, including one invented by
William MacKay. One of the most significant committees was that on Industrial Preparedness, which drew up an inventory of manufacturing capacity and sought to develop common manufacturing standards. On 10 February 1917 the Board established a Special Problems Committee with a Subcommittee on Submarine Detection by Sound. This led to the collaboration of the
Submarine Signal Company, engaged in acoustic research and producer of
submarine signals devices since 1901, the
Western Electric Company and
General Electric Company in experiments on the problem. An experimental station was established at
Nahant, Massachusetts. On May 11, 1917 the
United States Secretary of the Navy created a Special Board on Antisubmarine Detection "for the purpose of procuring either through original research, experiment and manufacture, or through development of ideas and devices submitted by inventors at large, suitable apparatus for both offensive and defensive operations against submarines". Dr. Millikan of the
United States National Research Council, Dr. Whitney of the General Electric Co., Dr. Jewett of the Western Electric Co., and Mr. Fay of the Submarine Signal Co. were appointed as advisory members. ==References==