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40 so u R c e s o f we a p o n sy s T e m s In n o v a T Io n In T h e depaR TmenT o f defense
equipment. 7 The bureau also handled the production of the assemblies and
mechanisms—such as gun turrets and mounts, bomb racks, and power
drives—that enabled weapon systems to function effectively in the field.
The bureau’s Research and Development Division coordinated all technical
work conducted in-house and in academic institutions and industrial firms.
Before and during World War II, investigations of a long-term, fundamental
nature were rarely conducted in the bureau’s laboratories. Instead, researchers
focused their talents on more immediate problems related to development and
production, such as the design and standardization of ordnance materials and
the testing and evaluation of equipment procured from industrial contractors. 8
After the war, however, many of the bureau’s laboratories diversified into newer
fields of science and technology. This institutional transformation was driven
in large part by wartime advancements in weapons technology. The bureau’s
traditional output of guns and conventional ordnance gradually expanded to
include missiles and rockets, nuclear power, and microwave electronics. These
technological developments were exploited in myriad R&D organizations,
ranging from large, centralized corporate laboratories to small engineering
staffs assigned to the manufacturing operations of ammunition plants scattered
throughout the United States. Representative examples to be discussed in this
chapter include the Naval Ordnance Laboratory (White Oak, Maryland),
Naval Proving Ground (Dahlgren, Virginia), Naval Ordnance Test Station
(China Lake, California), and the Crane Naval Ammunition Depot (south
central Indiana).
The Navy had established the Bureau of Construction and Repair in 1842
and the Bureau of Steam Engineering (renamed the Bureau of Engineering
in 1920) twenty years later. Both bureaus merged in 1940 to form the Bureau
of Ships. This new bureau managed the network of shipyards that designed
and built vessels for the surface and submarine fleets and coordinated similar
activities of private-sector shipbuilders. The Navy yards also maintained
research and development laboratories to provide technical support for their
manufacturing divisions. Work in this field proceeded along two separate
but related lines. Testing and standardization laboratories evaluated and
inspected materials and equipment provided by industrial contractors. They
also helped the in-house production units solve chemical and metallurgical
problems and offered specialized expertise in the analysis and testing of
rubber, paints, and other critical materials. 9 Among the largest of these types
of R&D facilities was the Naval Boiler and Turbine Laboratory located at
the Philadelphia Navy Yard. 10
7 In 1862, the Navy transferred the bureau’s hydrography division (part of the original Bureau
of Ordnance and Hydrography that had been established two decades earlier) to the new Bureau of
Navigation.
8 Buford Rowland and William D. Boyd, U.S. Navy Bureau of Ordnance in World War II (Washington,
D.C.: Bureau of Ordnance, Department of the Navy, 1953), 20–22.
9 Wagner, “Navy Yard Laboratories, Bureau of Ships,” 243; H. A. Ingram, “Research in the Bureau of
Ships,” Journal of Applied Physics 15 (March 1944): 215–20.
10 The origins of the laboratory can be traced back to 1909, when the Bureau of Steam Engineering