Philadelphia+Navy+Yard

=**__ Philadelphia Navy Yard __**= ==== The Philadelphia Navy Yard, established at the beginning of the American Revolution in 1776, was America’s first navy yard and birth place of the United States Navy and Marine Corps. From its original beginning along the Delaware River at Federal Street, to its large industrial facility on League Island, the Philadelphia Navy Yard survived for over two decades and helped serve America in every major war. ==== ==== This study will explore the Philadelphia Navy Yard, not merely as a facility for building naval vessels, but as one where important advancements in technology were made by the scientists and engineers who worked there. The technology development and testing that took place before and during WWII at the Philadelphia Navy Yard played an integral part in establishing a powerful US Navy and winning the war, more so than the ships that were built there. From the development of iron clad ships that helped hold our country together to research for the atomic bomb, Philadelphia Naval Yard’s innovation was a force driving a young nation. ====

=**__ History __**= ====The Philadelphia Navy Yard was established at the beginning of the American Revolution in 1776 at Front Street in Philadelphia, Pa. It was made an official United States Navy site in 1801. After the American Civil War it was clear that there was a need for a larger and more efficient facility in order to build the new generation of iron-clad ships. In 1876 the Navy Yard was thus moved to its current location at Philadelphia’s League Island (Dorwart 1-2).==== ====During World War I, the Navy Yard contributed little to the war effort, constructing only three ships and four small Lapwing Class minesweeper boats that were not even commissioned until after the war ended. The Yard found its place in history books during WWII, after the New Deal enabled the Yard to build two 1,000 foot dry docks, one Hammer Head crane (at the time the largest in the Navy), and numerous other machines to add in ship construction. It was during this time the Navy Yard increased its ability to fulfill the role of research and development by establishing laboratories for fuel oil testing, steam turbines, propellers, naval aircraft, torpedoes, submarines and the atomic bomb. This period saw the largest work force it had ever employed at over 40,000 men and women, and they were responsible for constructing fifty three ships, including the famed and highly decorated Battleship New Jersey (Dorwart 1-4).==== ====Through the Philadelphia Navy Yard’s more than two hundred year history, it was constantly threatened with closure at the end of every major war. The Navy Yard was finally closed on September 27, 1996 after much effort by local government and Pennsylvanian Senator Arlen Specter who attempted to prove its usefulness and by sighting that the selection process for its closure was unclear and unfair (Dorwart 219)(Hess 15).====

=**__ Fuel Oil Testing Labs and Propeller Shop __**= ====Two of the most important facilities at the Philadelphia Navy Yard were the Fuel Oil Testing Labs and the Propeller Research and Development shop/foundry. The Fuel Oil Testing (and Boiler) Labs established 1909 became the core of naval research and development in the years before WWII (late 1920’s) (Dorwart 152). In the early 1900s the primary source of energy for propulsion and power systems was generated by coil burning systems. In the 1920s crude oil became very inexpensive, cheaper to handle and transport and was more efficient then coil fired systems (Times). The research conducted at the Navy Yard looked to further improve this fuel and to develop boiler steam turbine systems for naval vessels. The advancements of these technologies allowed the Navy to power their ships longer and more inexpensively, giving them further range and tactical value. These oil power systems were utilized on almost all of the U.S. ships before the use of nuclear power and they still contribute to 70 percent of the U.S. Naval Fleet (Hull 16).==== ====The other major facility at the Philadelphia Navy Yard is the Propeller Research and Development shop/foundry. This facility was responsible for the design and manufacture of the propellers for all of the Navy’s vessels. The shop continued to research designs where the power input could increase, while eliminating cavitation, thus generating more thrust and faster ships. The shop was crucial in designing screw propellers that, coupled with the new power systems could increase the efficiency of naval vessels (Dorwart 200).====

=**__ Advancements in Submarine Technology __**=

====The Philadelphia Navy Yard before and during WWII made critical advancements in specialized technology that would eventually enable the submarine to be used for tactical missions and not just as a support vessel.==== ====One of the most important sections of anti-submarine research conducted in the Navy Yard was underwater listening devices or Hydrophones. Hydrophones were used to “listen for sounds from other ships and the echoes of sound waves transmitted from the submarine itself” (Inventors). Accompanied with sonar, which sends out pulses of sound to detect and range an object under water, the listening devices could then be used to verify if the object the sonar picked up was indeed a submarine. This was especially important in combating the attacks by German U-Boats on merchant and naval vessels in the Atlantic during WWII, which were trying to bring supplies and aid to the allied forces. These combined allowed the ships to identify and engage the submarines before they were in range to attack them, which in turn opened up the shipping lanes for the allies into Europe (Spencer 104).==== ====Another critical submarine technology that was advanced at the Navy Yard was in power-storage batteries. The storage batteries were used to power all of the submarine’s systems during the times when it was submerged and were charged by running the diesel engine when it was surfaced. During the period when the submarine was submerged it was not heavily armed and became a large target, therefore losing its usefulness as a hunter killer. The increase in storage capacity in the batteries enabled the United States’ submarines to stay submerged longer, giving them a tactical advantage in combat. (Dorwart 152)==== ====These technological advancements and others, including torpedo firing apparatuses, dive pumps and diesel engines made at the Philadelphia Navy Yard amalgamated to give the United States Navy a useful tactical instrument in fighting war. An artifact of these advancements and achievements in technology can be seen in the development of the T-3 U.S. fleet submarine, which was the first “true” U.S. seagoing submarine. (Dorwart 152)====

=**__ Naval Aviation Factory __**=

==== The Naval Aviation Factory was established in 1917 at the Philadelphia Navy Yard and experienced its greatest time of technological advancements in the late 1920s and during WWII. This facility was initially constructed to help the Navy build aircraft with their specifications, when the aircraft manufacturers at the time were only focusing on the large number of aircraft the Army was ordering. This led to the Aircraft Factory becoming a bed for new technology in aviation (AbsoluteAstronomy ). ====

==== A major advancement in aviation technology, which was ahead of its time, came in 1 943 with the design of the XBQ-4/TDR-1. The TDR-1 was an un-manned aircraft capable of carrying up to one ton of bombs or torpedoes. It was controlled with radio signals sent to it from a “mother” aircraft or from ships close to it. The biggest advancement in technology made to this aircraft was its ability to be flown without ever seeing the aircraft through its use of TV cameras. Though never used in combat, it became very valuable in many different experiments conducted at the Navy Yard. Its largest contribution was that it was a forerunner for the UAV’s being developed today, designed in an effort to un-man aircraft to increase their capabilities and save pilots’ lives (AeroFiles). ====

=**__ Atomic Energy __**= ==== During WWII the United States was bringing all of its resources, industrial infrastructure, and best scientific minds together to be the first country to develop an atomic bomb. A critical component in making the bomb possible was the ability to produce enough enriched uranium (uranium-235), which enables a reaction to take place. Only one percent of the isotope-235 can be found in common uranium so processes had to be developed to extract the necessary amount of between two and one-thousand kilograms of uranium-235. Two processes had been previously developed to extract uranium-235, but by 1944, the expected date for the specified amount of 235, it was clear that the product would not be sufficient to build a bomb (Misa 201). ====

==== A third process would be needed in order to attain enough uranium-235, and this would come from a man named Philip Abelson. Abelson had developed a process in which, “he lined up thermal diffusion tubes to enrich liquid uranium. Trapped between hot and cold surfaces, the lighter uranium-235 drifted up while the heavier uranium-238 drifted down” (Misa 201). In order for Abelson’s revolutionarily simple process to work he needed to develop a way of generating heat up to 1000 degrees Fahrenheit and pressures upwards of 1,500 pounds per square inch in order to separate the isotopes. Because of these factors it made the Philadelphia Navy Yard’s Boiler and Turbine Testing Laboratory the perfect location to construct a 100 foot-tall column to test the process (Dorwart 188). ====

==== Abelson’s process was the most reliable process at the time, producing very large quantities of enriched uranium. After the success at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, twenty-one exact copies were built at Oak Ridge, a site already enriching uranium. Because of the advancements made on Abelson’s process at the Navy Yard, the United States was able to produce enough enriched uranium to build the atomic bomb, which effectively ended our war with Japan and WWII (Misa 202). ====

=**__ ­Present Day __**=

==== Constantly threatened with closure throughout its many years, the Philadelphia Navy Yard was finally closed on September 27, 1996. Even though the Navy Yard closed its doors to ship building, it never turned its back on the advancement of technology and research. There is still a Navy presence at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, alongside various different commercial companies. The facilities that remain at the Yard include the Navy’s only ship propeller design and manufacturing facility and Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division, and Ship Systems Engineering Station. NSWCCD’s primary responsibility is to provide research, development, and engineering services to the United States Navy. NSWCCD has the “capability to test and engineer the full range of shipboard systems and equipment from full-scale propulsion systems to digital controls and electric power systems” (FLC). They currently manage a variety of different test sites, including submarine antenna sites, radar systems, and steam and auxiliary power system test sites (Hess 15). ====

==== Though the Philadelphia Navy Yard in best known and remembered for the many vessels it built, these are only artifacts. The Philadelphia Navy Yard’s true contributions were in the technology that was researched and developed there. These technologies have carried through to all of the Navy’s ships and helped shape the United States Navy to where it stands today. ====

=**__ References __** = = = United States of America. Department of the Navy. Bureau of Aeronautics. __Photographic__ __File of the Naval Aircraft Factory__. Philadelphia, 1918 - 1941. United States of America. Department of the Navy. Bureau of Engineering. __Reports of__ Tests at the Naval Boiler Laboratory of the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Philadelphia, 1933-1940. United States of America. Department of the Navy. Bureau of Engineering. __Reports of__ __Tests at the Fuel Oil Testing Plant__. Philadelphia, 1925-1936. United States of America. Department of the Navy. Bureau of Ships. __Reports of__ __ Experiments Conducted at Naval Laboratories __. Philadelphia, 1940-1947.
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