My favourite reference in my PhD thesis (1992) was to a paper from the 1940s which was titled “On determining the gradient of enemy held beaches”. I liked the way that the title gives an explicit description of what the paper is about and I also liked the way that it seemed so far removed from the time and purpose of my own study.
In reality though, a great deal of the modern-day research done on waves and beach processes has its roots in the work of scientists in the 1940s associated with predicting wave and beach conditions for Allied Forces landings in north Africa and Normandy. One such piece of work that anyone who studies waves to a reasonable level will come across is the SMB-method for predicting waves. The abbreviation SMB represents the names of the three protaganists in the development of the method – Sverdrup, Munk and Bretschneider – and the method uses a knowledge of three parameters, wind speed, duration for which the wind has been blowing and the fetch (distance) over which the waves are being built up by the wind to predict the significant wave height and peak wave period. It is based on a special diagram which cleverly combines all of the variables and presents the outputs in a graphical form called a nonogram.
So, given my own use of research originating from the World War II era, it was interesting to read an historical piece in New Scientist, No 2714 [27 June 2009] about how Walter Munk (now aged 91) became involved in wave prediction in relation to Allied Forces landings and how this work subsequently spawned the surf prediction industry. It’s a good example of how widely applicable research can be triggered by a specific requirement and how it is not always possible to spot the full value of research (Munk missed out on making money from surf prediction).
Tim O'Hare 