Admiralty Research Laboratory, Teddington, Middx

Admiralty Research Laboratory, Teddington, Middx The Admiralty Research Laboratory, established in 1921, was the centre for Royal Naval research submarine stealth, weapons and sensors.

The Admiralty Research Laboratory (ARL) was established in 1921, as the centre for Royal Naval physical research, in response to the Board of the Admiralty aspirations to expand upon the technological advances in naval warfare made during the First World War; occupying the eastern end of Queens Road in Teddington, it was well placed to take advantage of the standardisation and testing facilities d

eveloped by staff at the (separate) establishment next-door, the National Physical Laboratory (NPL). ARL work areas were organised by group and included: Underwater Sound Transmission, Propagation & Reception; Acoustic & Non-Acoustic Submarine Detection; Vessel Radiated Noise Measurement and Reduction; Hydrodynamics & Hydro-Ballistics; Chemistry & Chemical Engineering; Optics; Maritime Mine Countermeasures; Special Problems; Infra-Red Sensors; Solid-State Physics; (Gunnery) Fire Control & Stabilised Platforms; Radiological Defence & Monitoring; Military Oceanography; Mathematics; Human Factors; Assessment; Instrumentation and Engineering Design. Such was the highly classified nature of ARL's work that practically nothing was generally known before the latter-day release of Admiralty documents under the Freedom of Information Act. Currently, thousands of documents are available from The National Archives at Kew, relating to ARL; principle references are ADM212 “Correspondence and Letters”, and ADM204 “Reports and Notes”. However certain areas of work remain classified as they pertain to modern-day naval equipment and operations e.g.

A post-1968 view of ARL's Centre Block commonly known as 'Fire Control' as the first occupants, in 1939, were the embryo...
27/07/2021

A post-1968 view of ARL's Centre Block commonly known as 'Fire Control' as the first occupants, in 1939, were the embryo Admiralty Gunnery Establishment (AGE).

ARL MONUMENTSAs a consequence of Bushy Park’s Assistant Manager William (Bill) Swan’s interest in things technical, undo...
04/10/2018

ARL MONUMENTS
As a consequence of Bushy Park’s Assistant Manager William (Bill) Swan’s interest in things technical, undoubtedly instilled by his father who worked at NPL, crucial and invariably ground-breaking scientific work of the Admiralty Research Laboratory (ARL), based at Teddington, would have passed unrecognised into history. Through remarkable good fortune and thanks to Bill there are now two, recently expanded, ARL monuments using items rescued during the demolition of ARL’s facilities, located inside Bushy Park.
One monument situated within what was ARL’s Upper Lodge (secure) site is now accessible to the public. This monument features two information plaques and a large gearwheel, part of the mechanism that drove a purpose-built, hydrodynamics research tool – the Rotating Beam Channel (RBC) with its 122ft beam and 15ft deep by 34ft wide annular water channel. The RBC was housed within its own purpose-built building; the 156ft diameter domed roof was larger than that of St Paul’s Cathedral.
The Stockyard, Hampton Court Road is the location of the second monument to ARL that comprises two information plaques together with other pieces of the RBC. Amongst these exhibits is a section of the centrally-pivoted 60-ton rotating beam, which could be rotated up to such speed that a 20ft long model test piece (mounted 55ft from the pivot point) travelled at 90 knots (45 metres/second) at a depth of 6ft in the water-channel. The RBC facility was used for experiments on a range of items to investigate how they behaved at high speed when underwater. It was also used to determine the propulsion and control behaviour of underwater vehicles e.g. torpedoes.
The RBC was just one of the many facilities underpinning ARL work, other in-house and outstation facilities also played key roles in the physical research that, during the Cold War, ranged from Radiological Defence, to Underwater Acoustics centred on a submarine’s ability to avoid detection and its capability to detect and prosecute targets - ships and submarines. Many aspects of ARL’s research remain highly classified.

24/08/2018

The Admiralty Research Laboratory (ARL) was established in 1921 as the physical research laboratory serving the operational needs of the Royal Navy. In the process, ARL transformed the Black Magic of underwater acoustics into a science by building upon, and expanding, the spadework undertaken by the staff at its predecessor establishments, Admiralty Experimental Stations (AESs), in chronological order: AES Hawkcraig, AES Parkeston Quay (and its annex at Kingswear, Dartmouth) and AES Shandon. Dr Albert Beaumont Wood OBE commenced his naval scientific career at AES Hawkcraig, and moved as the research was relocated to the various AESs (listed previously) and finally to ARL, Teddington. He was, later, appointed Deputy Superintendent of ARL prior to his appointment as Deputy Director of naval scientific and physical research. Upon reaching the (Scientific) Civil Service official retirement age AB Wood returned to ARL to work on underwater acoustics.

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Queens Road
Teddington
TW110LN

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