DEGAUSSING

Abstract

FOLLOWING closely on the recent conference on radar held at the Institution of Electrical Engineers, another well-guarded war-time secret was discussed in a symposium of papers on degaussing, held at the Institution during April 4 and 5. Naval uniforms were well in evidence among the several hundred who assembled on the first night to hear the symposium introduced by the Third Sea Lord, Vice-Admiral C. S. Daniel. The First Sea Lord, Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope, who had agreed to make the introductory speech, was unfortunately unable to be present. Admiral Daniel directed attention to the immensity of the task involved in the application of degaussing to hundreds of warships and thousands of merchant ships in the first few months of the War, but stressed also the importance of the preliminary work which had been done in the period between the two Wars. Degaussing was an example of the frequently observed fact that problems which were matters only of academic interest to one generation might become of vital practical importance to the next. As further evidence that we were not behind the Germans, he mentioned that both magnetic and acoustic mines had been used by the British in the War of 1914-18.