forces at key strategic points just
prior to the Allied attack on June 6,
1944. For this work he was awarded the National Medal Of Freedom
in 1946.
Field in Dayton, Ohio. He was asked
if he could make an electronic flash
that could take night pictures from
a low-flying plane of the ocean
surface along the shore line of the
northeast US - the purpose was to
reveal German U boats surfacing at
night to recharge their batteries.’
A more powerful version could illuminate a square mile from 1,500
feet. ‘The technique was simply a
very powerful xenon flash tube in
a highly reflective and efficiently
designed reflector, with a capacitor
of 1/2 Farad (the size and weight
of a very large coffin). It generated one million beam candle power
seconds! By the time the flash
recharged the plane had flown a
mile and was ready to fire again.
Harold Edgerton was a master educator, an innovator, a scientist and inventor, an Academy
Award winner, a collaborator with
thousands of thesis students, and
with such luminaries as Jacques
Cousteau, Brad Washburn, and the
National Geographic Society. His
images, seen in the popular media
as well as art museums, changed
how everyone saw and understood
the world. A few months before he
died he was asked to speak with a
group of major donors to MIT by the
Chairman of the Corporation of MIT
(the former President of MIT and
before that, a student and teaching
assistant of Doc’s). He was asked
what had he learned in more than
60 years at MIT. His reply was
“Tell everyone everything you know,
close deals with a handshake, work
like hell, and have fun!”
Good advice….
Development and testing of this
equipment, including the D-5 flash
unit and other devices, continued
until 1944 and included trips by
Edgerton to Ohio, Italy, England,
and France. Looking for a remote
site to do the final tests, just
weeks before D-Day, Doc discovered Stonehenge; it remained a
lifelong interest. His photographs
revealed an absence of German
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