G. I. Taylor was another sailing friend. Richardson was here at Easter 1912 when the news of the Titanic disaster arrived. He immediately thought that a ship could detect an iceberg by listening for the echo of a sound beam. He tested this in Seaview Bay, with Dorothy rowing and he blowing a penny whistle and timing the echo, using an umbrella over his head to focus the echo. The results were sufficiently satisfying that he filed for a patent in October 1912 - the basic patent for sonar and, later, radar. [Taylor]
See also National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, Baird and Watson-Watt under London individuals.
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An extract from The Mathematical Gazetteer of the British Isles created by David Singmaster
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