The Story of an Old Timer: WWI

By the start of the U.S. involvement in the Great War (April, 1917) there were seven people working full time in the Radio Section. By war's end there were over 40 full time. There were multitudes of guest researchers, including Dr. Austin, who is not listed in this 1918 report (see below). But he and the full time staff, and all the guest researchers, contributed greatly to the war effort.

NBS researchers contributed greatly to the advances that were made on ship to shore and ship to ship communications. This involved our signals and "theirs"! Our ability to capture their communications was very important. This included submarine communications (see photo showing antenna below).