On the acoustic disturbances produced by small bodies in plane waves transmitted through water, with special reference to the single-plate direction finder

Abstract

The experiments to be described were carried out for the Board of Invention and Research, under the direction of Sir William Bragg, between October 1916 and February 1917, on the Cullaloe Reservoir, near Aberdour, Fifeshire, and are now published with the permission of the Admiralty. A form of directional hydrophone has already been described by Sir William Bragg. It consists of a metal diaphragm, A, about four inches in diameter, mounted in a heavy ring, B, and open to the water on both sides ( vide Chart 9). In the centre of the diaphragm is a small metal box, C, carrying a carbon granule microphone of the button type. The microphone is connected into an ordinary telephone circuit. If the instrument is rotated about a vertical diameter in water through which sound waves are passing the sound heard in the receivers passes through a number of maxima and minima. When the diaphragm is turned “edge-on” to the source of sound it is obvious that the pressure pulses will reach the two faces of the diaphragm symmetrically and the diaphragm will fail to vibrate. As, however, either face is turned toward the source this symmetry ceases to exist and the diaphragm is thrown into vibration, which reaches a maximum amplitude when the instrument is “broad-side” on to the source. The instrument, therefore, indicates the line of propagation of the sound, but owing to the existence of two positions of maximum or minimum its indications are ambiguous as regards the sense of direction.