Rear Admiral David Watson Taylor was a naval architect and engineer of the United States Navy.
Background
Taylor was born in Louisa County, Virginia, on March 4, 1864. He was the second of four sons and the fifth of nine children of Henry and Mary Minor (Watson) Taylor. His father, a well-to-do farmer, was descended from James Taylor, who emigrated to Virginia from Carlisle, England, in 1652 and founded a family which included Presidents James Madison and Zachary Taylor. His mother was descended from James Watson, a Scottish adherent of the Stuart cause who was taken prisoner during the Earl of Mar's rising (1715) and sent to America as an indentured servant.
Education
Young David was educated at home and entered Randolph-Macon College at the early age of thirteen. Graduating in 1881, he was appointed a cadet-engineer at the Naval Academy, from which he graduated in 1885 at the head of his class of thirty-six with the highest scholastic record attained by any graduate up to that time, taking an active part also in athletics. Because of his marked ability, he was sent to the Royal Naval College at Greenwich, England, for advanced study of naval construction and marine engineering. He completed the course in 1888; there again his was the highest scholastic record yet attained.
He received degrees from Stevens Institute of Technology, George Washington University, Randolph-Macon College, and the University of Glasgow.
Career
During his term at Greenwich he was appointed an assistant naval constructor, United States Navy, and soon after his return he was called upon to assist in preparing naval ship designs for consideration by the Board of Naval Policy, which was then planning a new naval building program. His creative ability in the field of naval architecture even at this early period was evidenced by his paper "Ship-shaped Stream Forms, " given before the British Institution of Naval Architects in 1894, for which he received their gold medal, the first American to be so honored.
His first book, Resistance of Ships and Screw Propulsion, was published in 1893. From these studies Taylor could see clearly the need of scientific research in naval architecture, for the art of ship design was still largely a process of evolution from previous successful practice. Facilities for experimental work, and particularly for a basin in which models of ships could be towed to measure their resistance to propulsion, were needed. Several European nations already had such basins, which, however, were used principally to test specific designs.
Taylor planned to make tests on a series of related models of hypothetical ships in which the changes in form could be made on a systematic or methodical basis, varying the elements of the design one at a time. The results of such tests, properly analyzed and reduced to tables or curves, would permit the naval architect to determine in advance with confidence the horsepower which a proposed ship would require to make a given speed. What was even more important, such data would permit the design of the underwater form most suitable to meet the desired characteristics of a proposed ship. When the navy decided to build its Experimental Model Basin, Taylor was naturally selected to supervise the design and construction. He remained in charge from its completion in 1899 until 1914, a clear recognition of his outstanding ability and reputation.
In addition to a great deal of work on specific designs, he carried on his research on the series of related models, eventually publishing his findings in The Speed and Power of Ships--A Manual of Marine Propulsion (1910). In this book he proposed the "Standard Series Method" of estimating the power required to drive a ship and supplied curves derived from model tests to implement the method. The work was immediately acclaimed, and the Standard Series became thereafter the accepted basis for design in the United States and a valued addition to the art in Europe.
In 1914 Taylor was appointed chief naval constructor and chief of the Bureau of Construction and Repair. The appointment involved many problems and responsibilities, including the design and contracting for the new types of ships provided for in the 1916 building program. Before this work was more than started, America's entry into World War I forced a major change. Under his calm but highly effective leadership, not only was the revised ship program accomplished (involving the building of some 1, 000 vessels) but a major effort made in the development and production of naval aircraft, both heavier-than-air and lighter-than-air. The navy's famous "NC" type of seaplane was developed under his direction.
Taylor was given the permanent rank of rear admiral in 1916.
After his retirement from active duty in the navy, on January 15, 1923, he was reappointed from civil life, serving as vice-chairman, 1927-30. He was largely responsible for the development of the unique and highly successful experimental and research facilities at the N. A. C. A. Laboratories at Langley Field, Va. He also remained active in the field of ship design after his retirement, serving as a member of the firm of Gibbs Brothers (later Gibbs & Cox), 1925-32.
Stricken with paralysis in 1932, Taylor was thereafter largely confined to the Naval Hospital at Washington, D. C. , where he died eight years later. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Achievements
Taylor is best known as the man who constructed the first experimental towing tank ever built in the United States. His honors included the Franklin Medal of the Franklin Institute (1917), the John Fritz Medal awarded jointly by the American engineering societies (1931).
In 1936 the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers established in his honor the David W. Taylor Gold Medal "for notable achievement in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering. " On October 5, 1937, the Secretary of the Navy, in a singular tribute, announced by General Order that the new naval model basin building at Carderock, Md. , would bear Taylor's name.
Religion
He was president of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, 1925-27, and an honorary vice-president of the (British) Institution of Naval Architects (1931).
Membership
In 1917 he was appointed a member of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. Admiral Taylor was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1918. He was president of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, 1925-27, and an honorary vice-president of the (British) Institution of Naval Architects (1931).
Personality
Taylor was a simple man of great warmth and understanding, a generous friend and unstinting benefactor and counselor.
Connections
He had married Imogene Maury Morris, also of Louisa County, Va. , in 1892. They had four children: Dorothy Watson, May Coleman, David Watson, and Imogene Morris.
