Previous image preload Next image preload
Back to catalog
Lot 14
Louis W. McKeehan (1887-1975) Director of the Physics Laboratories Yale

Louis W. McKeehan (1887-1975) Director of the Physics Laboratories Yale. He took leave of his teaching position to help out with the war effort. He was the driving force behind the creation of the torpedo called Fido. Capt. Louis McKeehan, head of the Mine Warfare Branch of the Bureau of Ordnance. Scientists at the Naval Torpedo Station at Newport, Rhode Island had been considering acoustic homing torpedoes for fifteen years but insisted that torpedoes made too much noise themselves to be able to home on any external noise source and until McKeehan came along to challenge them they seemed to have a point. But McKeehan was not a career naval officer. He was a reserve officer, on active duty for the duration, whose peacetime job was director of the physics laboratories at Yale University. Unimpressed by the received wisdom of Navy engineers, McKeehan turned to HUSL and BTL where his idea for an acoustic homing torpedo quickly bore fruit. With support and funding from the NDRC, HUSL and BTL proved Newport wrong and only seventeen months after the beginning of the project Fido had entered service and made his first kill. After the war, the scientists at Bell Labs who had worked on Fido returned to telephone work, Captain McKeehan returned to Yale, and Harvard - like some other universities - anxious to shed the military connection as soon as possible took back its buildings and ended its classified work. Louis McKeehan was, among other things, author of Yale Science: The First Hundred Years, 1701-1801 (New York: H. Schuman, 1947). Captain Louis W. McKeehan, United States Navy, was awarded the Legion of Merit for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services to the Government of the United States while attached to the Research and Development Section, Bureau of Ordnance, from the outbreak of hostilities in 1941 to March 1944. Offered here is a signed 1939 ANNUAL FITNESS REPORT, NAVAL RESERVE OFFICERS. Signed by McKeehan at the bottom. 8 x 14 in. VG.

    Condition:
  • VG

Accepted Forms of Payment:

American Express, MasterCard, Money Order / Cashiers Check, Paypal, Personal Check, Visa

Shipping

SHIPPING:
We do our own in-house shipping and only charge for the actual cost, which includes shipping, insurance, registered & confirmation services will be charged to the bidder. Shipping will be thru the US postal service unless otherwise instructed. Shipping outside the US is more expensive - often requiring registry or express mail. Insurance coverage to some foreign countries may be limited or unavailable. Any shipment to a foreign country may require a customs form which will show the value of the item[s] being shipped. All international buyers are responsible for customs, duties and additional taxes, if any.

There is NO pickup or delivery service.

by East Coast Books
February 18, 2023 2:00 PM EST
PO Box 849
Wells, ME, US 04090

East Coast Books

You agree to pay a buyer's premium of up to 20% and any applicable taxes and shipping.

View full terms and conditions

Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $49 $5
$50 $199 $10
$200 $499 $25
$500 + $50