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If anything, that's an understatement!
When I was in the EG&G building, fairly often there would be a big WHUMP! that shook the entire building.
When I commented about it, my host said, "That's just Doc down in the basement -- playing with his 'Thumper'... Would you like to meet him?"
Of course, I said, "Yes, please!"
In the basement, Doc had big, open tanks of water, set into the concrete floor. In the tanks there were huge capacitors -- built with deliberately-loose plates.
Doc "switched into professor mode" and explained that, when he was developing brighter and quicker flashes (to "freeze" motion) he noticed that when he discharged the huge capacitor banks thru the flash tube, the capacitor plates flexed and "thumped".
Instead of working to reduce the noise, he wondered, "How big a" thump" could I get if I built capacitors with deliberately-loose plates?" When I met him, he was was working to get maximum "thump" for minimum electrical charge expenditure.
He was using the "thumps" as "audio pings"for his new "Side-scan SONAR" unit.
Then he proudly showed us the world's first side-scan SONAR images -- of the Charles River and Boston Harbor. The bottom was beautifully profiled -- with several obvious shipwrecks lying on it. And, deep beneath the bottom, there was an obvious arch-shaped object. When I pointed to it, Doc said, "Oh -- that's the Sumner (automobile) Tunnel..."
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Doc -- and EG&G -- capitalized on observing, measuring and recording all sorts of phenomena -- and then, figuring out how to make use of them.
Frankly, my career followed Doc's example: several of my patents were based on making creative use of the physics of microelectronic device failure mechanisms that I'd identified and eliminated....
Bottom line: "Doc" Edgerton was one of the most charming, impressive -- and influential (in my life) humans I ever had the privilege of meeting!
TXnMA
