Anti-Aircraft Experimental Section

The Anti-Aircraft Experimental Section of the Munitions Inventions Department was an organisation set up within Lloyd George's Ministry of Munitions in early 1916. Originally based at Northholt aerodrome, in May 1916 the section moved to the National Physical Laboratory at Bushy House, Teddington before finding a more permanent home at HMS Excellent on Whale Island near Portsmouth in Hampshire.[1] The section was led by the physiologist A. V. Hill, who was previously a Captain in the Cambridgeshire Regiment. While on leave suffering from flu in January 1916, Horace Darwin approached him to work on anti-aircraft measures. Hill accepted and started to find the personnel for the unit, which acquired the nickname "Hill's Brigands".[2] Hill accepted and started to find the personnel for the unit, which acquired the nickname "Hill's Brigands".

Precursors

Horace Darwin's brother Leonard Darwin had been an officer in the Royal Engineers. In the 1880s he had developed a method of locating the position of a military balloon according to the x, y and z axes of Cartesian co-ordinates.[3]

References

Pattison, Michael (1983). "Scientists, Inventors and the Military in Britain, 1915-19: The Munitions Inventions Department". Social Studies of Science. 13 (4): 521–568. ISSN 0306-3127.
Smith, Meg Weston (1990). "E. A. Milne and the Creation of Air Defence: Some Letters from an Unprincipled Brigand, 1916-1919". Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London. 44 (2): 241–255. ISSN 0035-9149.
Van der Kloot, William (20 December 2011). "Mirrors and smoke: A. V. Hill, his Brigands, and the science of anti-aircraft gunnery in World War I". Notes and Records of the Royal Society. 65 (4): 393–410. doi:10.1098/rsnr.2010.0090. Retrieved 2 December 2020.

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[Pattison-1] Pattison, Michael (1983). "Scientists, Inventors and the Military in Britain, 1915-19: The Munitions Inventions Department". Social Studies of Science. 13 (4): 521–568. ISSN 0306-3127.

[MWS-2] Smith, Meg Weston (1990). "E. A. Milne and the Creation of Air Defence: Some Letters from an Unprincipled Brigand, 1916-1919". Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London. 44 (2): 241–255. ISSN 0035-9149.

[VdK-3] Van der Kloot, William (20 December 2011). "Mirrors and smoke: A. V. Hill, his Brigands, and the science of anti-aircraft gunnery in World War I". Notes and Records of the Royal Society. 65 (4): 393–410. doi:10.1098/rsnr.2010.0090. Retrieved 2 December 2020.