Herbert Grove Dorsey (April 24, 1876 – 1961) was an American engineer, inventor and physicist. He was principal engineer of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey Radiosonic Laboratory in the 1930s. He invented the first practical fathometer, a water depth measuring instrument for ships.
Dorsey was born in Kirkersville, Ohio on April 24, 1876. His parents were Edwin Jackson and Mary Elma (Grove) Dorsey.
On June 21, 1900, Dorsey married Virginia Rowlett in Palmetto, Florida. Their children were Herbert Grove, Jr. and William Rowlett.
Dorsey received a Bachelor of Science degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1897. He did post-graduate work at Hopkins in 1897 and received a Master of Science honorary degree from Denison University in 1898. He did post-graduate work at Harvard University in 1900–1901 and earned a Ph. D. from Cornell University in 1908.
He was a member of Beta Theta Pi.
Dorsey taught physics at the University of Maine from 1898–1900. He was head of the physics and electricity departments at the University of Florida from 1901–03 and at the University of Rochester from 1903–1904. Dorsey was assistant instructor in physics from 1904–1905, and instructor of physics from 1905–1910 at Cornell University.
From 1910–1911, Dorsey worked as an electrical engineer in the research laboratory of Western Electric Company. He worked as an inventor at the National Cash Register Company from 1912–16. He was a physicist for the Hammond Radio Research Laboratory in Gloucester, Massachusetts from 1916–1921 and for the Submarine Signal Company from 1922–1925. Starting in 1926, he worked for the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey as the principal electrical engineer, continuing through the 1930s.
Some of his patented inventions were an automatic deposit box, 1908; an electric indicating system for railways, 1908; a telephone circuit, 1912; a telephone apparatus improvement, 1912; a device for graphically reproducing sound waves, 1912; a submarine mine, 1916; an electrical credit system, 1916; a safety device for electrical circuits, 1916; a submarine control system, 1918; a telegraphy device, 1921; and an auto chain applicator, 1921.
Dorsey invented the practical fathometer in 1923, which is also referred to as the Dorsey Fathometer by the director of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1934. It worked by sending a high pitched sound through the water. It traveled to the bottom at a known speed and returned an echo at the rate of four pings per second. This could then be measured and calculated as to the depth since sound travels at a precise speed in water. The "Fathometer" was so named by Dorsey because it measures fathoms.
The Dorsey Fathometer instrument was used to get a precise measurement of water depth. It could measure depths from 8 to 3000 fathoms. The accuracy of the instrument was to within three inches and it could be measured in a millisecond. There were different models of the fathometer made initially by the Submarine Signal Company. The indicator of the Dorsey Fathometer was a neon tube on a rotating disc. The instrument looked like a clock and was in the bridge of a ship. The transmitting and receiving electronics were usually below the deckhouse. Before this instrument a ship had slow down considerably or stop to take soundings to get the depth. With Dorsey's Fathometer a ship could go at full speed and get the measurements.
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