|
BLIP.
|
BLIP.
A little background history.
In the early 1950s the US Navy initiated Project Caesar, which was to develop systems to counter the Russian Submarine threat. The system chosen was to monitor low frequency sounds in the Sound Channel Axis using multiple underwater listening stations and shore-based equipment that could detect and locate submarines at distances of hundreds of miles.
‘Back in the day’, AT&T (American Telephone & Telegraph) had four divisions:-
AT&T Long Lines, specializing in Long Distance traffic,
Bell Operating Companies, which provided local exchange telephone services,
Western Electric Company, (WECo) which was the manufacturing arm of AT&T,
and Bell Labs, which conducted research and development for AT&T.
The latter two, WECo and Bell Labs, had a presence in Bermuda from the mid-1950s to 1995. They set up shop at the top-secret ‘Tudor Hill’ complex in Southampton, which also housed the US Navy-operated ‘NavFac’. It was quite heavily speculated around the Island that the NavFac had something to do with ‘submarines’, and obviously, then, Bell Labs and WECo were developing an underwater telephone system, right? No! (An underwater telephone system was, in fact, developed, but probably not by the Tudor Hill branch of Bell Labs). Bell Labs became involved in Project Caesar during its initial stages, because of their research into ‘Speech Recognition’ – the ability to recognize and identify a voice, and detect the imitation of one person’s voice by an imposter. This research was in its very early stages when they were asked by Project Caesar to expand the ‘subject base’ to include underwater sounds, specifically, the sounds that submarines make.
Their underwater research was progressing nicely at the Tudor Hill facility, but occasionally, they would get some strange sounds that would interfere with their work. These sounds were very low frequency – about 18 to 20 cycles per second (this research was being done before the adoption of the term ‘hertz’ to replace ‘cycles per second’ – a retrograde step in my opinion!). The duration of these sounds was less than a second, repeated quite regularly about every 3 seconds, for a series of about 5 to 8 times. Then there would be a pause of a minute to several minutes, and then the series would begin again. These sounds might go on for a few minutes, or up to a few hours. Initially, it was surmised that these sounds were being generated by the Russians as some kind of communication system, or navigation aid, or even an underwater death-ray!
Quite how SOFAR became involved with this is unknown, but we could see these signals appearing on our drum recorders** although we could not hear them on the Recording Room speakers, because their frequency (cycles per second) was below the range of the human ear. Anyway, we were asked to undertake a Project to determine the source of these 'Interferences' in the Bell Labs research.
Hence, the name Bell Labs Interference Project, or ‘BLIP’ for short.
Our wonderful electronics whiz, Brian Turner, created a gizmo that would isolate these low frequency ‘blips’, as they were called, and turn them into a sound that could be heard on the Recording Room speakers, warning the staff of their presence. (Sure beats watching a drum recorder** all day!)
It was soon determined that the Russians had nothing to do with it, because the signals were heard when there was not a ship in sight (or submarine nearby). Hence, it was generally believed that they were being generated by a marine animal. Additionally, the occurrences were seasonal, but only approximately matching the annual Humpback whale migration past Bermuda each year.
Once this was determined, the project took on a less urgent status, so that only if there were staff available to man the B.E. Stations, and/or go out on T-Boat, whenever we got ‘blipped’, would we continue the search. The project had started just before I arrived in 1959, and was still going on when I left in 1969. We could get an approximate location of the source, based on the arrival times of the signals received at our hydrophones, but whatever the elusive creature was – it wasn’t going to be discovered easily.
It was not until 1973 that the elusive creature was determined to be the Fin Whale.
** Drum recorders. Click here to be transfered to the 'Drum Recorder' Description page.
31st Dec. 2013
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A little background history.
In the early 1950s the US Navy initiated Project Caesar, which was to develop systems to counter the Russian Submarine threat. The system chosen was to monitor low frequency sounds in the Sound Channel Axis using multiple underwater listening stations and shore-based equipment that could detect and locate submarines at distances of hundreds of miles.
‘Back in the day’, AT&T (American Telephone & Telegraph) had four divisions:-
AT&T Long Lines, specializing in Long Distance traffic,
Bell Operating Companies, which provided local exchange telephone services,
Western Electric Company, (WECo) which was the manufacturing arm of AT&T,
and Bell Labs, which conducted research and development for AT&T.
The latter two, WECo and Bell Labs, had a presence in Bermuda from the mid-1950s to 1995. They set up shop at the top-secret ‘Tudor Hill’ complex in Southampton, which also housed the US Navy-operated ‘NavFac’. It was quite heavily speculated around the Island that the NavFac had something to do with ‘submarines’, and obviously, then, Bell Labs and WECo were developing an underwater telephone system, right? No! (An underwater telephone system was, in fact, developed, but probably not by the Tudor Hill branch of Bell Labs). Bell Labs became involved in Project Caesar during its initial stages, because of their research into ‘Speech Recognition’ – the ability to recognize and identify a voice, and detect the imitation of one person’s voice by an imposter. This research was in its very early stages when they were asked by Project Caesar to expand the ‘subject base’ to include underwater sounds, specifically, the sounds that submarines make.
Their underwater research was progressing nicely at the Tudor Hill facility, but occasionally, they would get some strange sounds that would interfere with their work. These sounds were very low frequency – about 18 to 20 cycles per second (this research was being done before the adoption of the term ‘hertz’ to replace ‘cycles per second’ – a retrograde step in my opinion!). The duration of these sounds was less than a second, repeated quite regularly about every 3 seconds, for a series of about 5 to 8 times. Then there would be a pause of a minute to several minutes, and then the series would begin again. These sounds might go on for a few minutes, or up to a few hours. Initially, it was surmised that these sounds were being generated by the Russians as some kind of communication system, or navigation aid, or even an underwater death-ray!
Quite how SOFAR became involved with this is unknown, but we could see these signals appearing on our drum recorders** although we could not hear them on the Recording Room speakers, because their frequency (cycles per second) was below the range of the human ear. Anyway, we were asked to undertake a Project to determine the source of these 'Interferences' in the Bell Labs research.
Hence, the name Bell Labs Interference Project, or ‘BLIP’ for short.
Our wonderful electronics whiz, Brian Turner, created a gizmo that would isolate these low frequency ‘blips’, as they were called, and turn them into a sound that could be heard on the Recording Room speakers, warning the staff of their presence. (Sure beats watching a drum recorder** all day!)
It was soon determined that the Russians had nothing to do with it, because the signals were heard when there was not a ship in sight (or submarine nearby). Hence, it was generally believed that they were being generated by a marine animal. Additionally, the occurrences were seasonal, but only approximately matching the annual Humpback whale migration past Bermuda each year.
Once this was determined, the project took on a less urgent status, so that only if there were staff available to man the B.E. Stations, and/or go out on T-Boat, whenever we got ‘blipped’, would we continue the search. The project had started just before I arrived in 1959, and was still going on when I left in 1969. We could get an approximate location of the source, based on the arrival times of the signals received at our hydrophones, but whatever the elusive creature was – it wasn’t going to be discovered easily.
It was not until 1973 that the elusive creature was determined to be the Fin Whale.
** Drum recorders. Click here to be transfered to the 'Drum Recorder' Description page.
31st Dec. 2013
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~