IOA The first 40 years IOA The first 40 years Published and produced by: The Institute of Acoustics, 3rd Floor St Peter’s House, 45-49 Victoria Street, St Albans. Design and artwork by: oneagency.co London 81 Rivington Street London, EC2A 3AY e-mail: [email protected] web site: www.oneagency.co Printed by: Newnorth Print College Street Kempston Bedford MK42 8NA © 2016 Institute of Acoustics IOA The first 40 years A message from the President …………………………………………… 7 Acknowledgements ………………………………………………………… 9 Preface ……………………………………………………………………… 11 1. The origins of the Institute …………………………………………… 13 2. Forty years of the IOA ………………………………………………… 25 3. The Institute’s finances ……………………………………………… 53 4. Committees ……………………………………………………………… 59 5. Groups and Branches ………………………………………………… 75 6. Spreading the knowledge: the Institute’s education programme …………………………… 101 7. Conference spotlight ………………………………………………… 109 8. Foreign affairs: the international perspective ………………… 115 9. Appendices …………………………………………………………… 121 “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” The life of reason by George Santayana IOA - The first forty years 5 A message from the President It is a matter of great personal pride that the Institute’s 40th anni- versary occurred during my Presidency which meant that it befell to me the huge honour of inaugurating the celebrations at the special conference we held at the NEC in Birmingham in October 2014 to mark this significant milestone. As those of you fortunate enough to have been present will have noted, the range of topics was a won- derful showcase of the wide range of our members’ interests and expertise and, above all, a great advertisement for their contribution to society. As this book clearly shows, the Institute has come a long, long way since 1 January 1974 when, after a protracted “birth”, it officially came into being. At times the road was not always easy nor the route to take obvious. But thanks to the immense dedication and sheer hard work of both members and staff, the curve on the graph has always continued to rise steadily upwards. The list of its successes is huge: the staging of internationally ac- claimed conferences, the establishment of a highly regarded educa- tion programme, a strong commitment to improving professional standards, the creation of specialist interest groups dedicated to knowledge sharing, the provision of nationwide networking oppor- tunities for acousticians and the raising of the public profile of the science – these are some just some of the achievements listed here of which we can be justifiably proud. With the increasing recognition of the impacts that acoustics, noise and vibration issues have on all our daily lives, it can be strongly argued that the role of the Institute, and with it the work of its members, has never been more important. The challenge for us all, therefore, is to build on the work of our founding fathers so that, through a steadfast commitment to the advancement of acoustics, we can continue our mission. To both members of the Institute and the wider public, I heartily commend this book. For the former, it provides a wonderfully de- tailed history of how our Institute has grown from small beginnings to the modern, professional, thriving and well-regarded members’ body that it is today, while for the latter it provides a fascinating in- sight into the world of acousticians, the many diverse areas in which they specialise and why their work has made and will always contin- ue to make a difference. William Egan President 2014-2016 IOA - The first forty years 7 Acknowledgements Preparing the history has involved many Institute members, es- pecially from the groups and branches, and I can only mention by name those with whom I had direct contact. However, this in no way diminishes the gratitude that I feel towards all the other unsung he- roes for the considerable effort that they have put in to ensure that their own committee, group or branch contribution is as accurate as can be. In many ways this merely reflects the history of the support from its members for the many projects that the Institute has under- taken during its 40 year history. The names of main authors and/ or co-ordinating authors are provided with each contribution and I acknowledge the effort that they have all put in both in the writing and in the co-ordination of the detail, sometimes provided by others, sometimes all down to their own individual efforts. I am particularly grateful to those who have moved on into or towards retirement but nevertheless were happy to provide their reminiscences. Particular thanks must go to the History Project Committee who volunteered their time and effort to guide the project towards a suc- cessful conclusion. In person, Ralph Weston, Peter and Sue Bird, Alex Burd, Bob Peters, Bridget Shield, Roy Bratby, Graham Parry, Ian Bennett and by e-mail Chris Rice, Peter Wheeler and Bernard Berry. Peter Bird and Rebecca Hutt who did much of the photocop- ying and production of electronic versions of Acoustics Bulletin and Council minutes deserve the gratitude of the membership generally because that long and difficult task will pay dividends in future when those documents are researched for information. Ralph Weston also assisted with the task of distributing the electronic files via his own drop box when the Institute’s website was in a state of flux. The St Albans office team have also been pretty active in providing information, especially in their areas of expertise, and in assisting with photocopying. A team of proof readers including Peter Bird, Paul Freeborn, Brian Tunbridge, Rob and Alison Hill and Janet Webb provided much wel- come assistance in preparing the final document. When we failed to find a local champion, Peter Bird, Ralph Weston and Graham Parry stepped in to assist with the preparation of several branch histories using whatever records we had available. I cannot finish without thanking our two editors, Ian Bennett, without whom I would have been totally lost, and Charles Ellis, who has found time, between his Bulletin editing and other publication and publicity tasks, to round the job off. Geoff Kerry Co-ordinating Editor and Chairman of the IOA History Project Committee IOA - The first forty years 9 Preface Geoff Kerry I cannot remember exactly when I first discussed the idea of having a his- I am tempted to say that putting the remainder of the history together, tory of the IOA written up. I do recall having a conversation about it with the important bit about the IOA, has been a nightmare. But as my involve- Bob Chivers and Mike Ankers at a Spring Conference, probably at Oxford ment over the years has told me, the IOA doesn’t do nightmares. You might in 1989. I can also recall discussing it with various other members at times, think you are entering a nightmare but your fellow acousticians are always no doubt prompted by the preparations for the Institute’s 21st anniversa- there to help you out, you only need to ask (occasionally more than once, ry and then its 25th anniversary. In those days I rather assumed that Bob or perhaps even more than twice) but help and advice is always at hand. would write up the history since he had shown some interest in doing so. And so it was from a general call for assistance I was able to find several old Unfortunately it was not to be and the idea next surfaced, in my mind at hands who were prepared to do much of the donkey work, and as things least, during the numerous discussions I had leading up to the formation progressed, several young hands too. From the outset we decided not to of the Senior Members’ Group, more often than not with Peter Wheeler on be too ambitious, but we had the resources and time to produce a general train journeys to and from St Albans. The driving force behind my returning history augmented by members’ reminiscences. We could not hope to re- to the idea every so often was my lack of knowledge on exactly what hap- search all the activities that had been undertaken by the Institute over the pened within the acoustics profession before the formation of the Institute. past 40 years, nor could we acknowledge by name all the members who Yes, like so many of my contemporaries, I had, upon graduation with had been involved in those activities. As the project progressed we did a physics degree, joined the Institute of Physics (IoP), in those days the decide to make sure that documents we had found and used extensively, Institute of Physics and the Physical Society, and working in the aircraft or not used, as the case may be, would be copied into electronic format industry dealing with noise and vibration, I had ticked the Acoustics group and archived for future use. So, with the help of the office staff and several box. But I was, of course, fully aware that at that time (1967) another acous- members we have scanned and recorded the Council minutes, the annual tics society had just left the starting blocks, the British Acoustical Society reports and most importantly the Acoustics Bulletins. The last-mentioned, (BAS). I joined that as well. I say another acoustics society because being a in particular, will be available online to the membership once space can be student at Salford and with Peter Lord as my tutor, I could not have failed allocated on the website. to notice the emergence from 1963 of the Society for Acoustic Technology The way we decided to proceed was to follow what is in effect the -or (SAT).