science · 29 October 1885 · 139 years ago
birth
Born 29 Oct 1885; died 2 Jan 1948 at age 62.
Rear Admiral Sidney Rupert Dight was an English navy officer and engineer who originated the petroleum smoke screens used to confuse the pilots of German bombers. They were rapidly developed and used for protection of industrial targets from aerial bombardment during WW II. During the war, the majority of high-output boilers designed by the Admiralty were equipped with the circulation augmentor he invented. His navy career began as an Engineer Sub. Lieutenant on 4 Jul 1905, and he served a few years at sea, some in WW I. During the war, he was appointed, though briefly, as Assistant Secretary of the Board of Invention and Research. By the 1930s he was the Commanding Officer of the Admiralty’s Fuel Experimental Station. During WW II, in early 1940, he was appointed Director of Development in the Petroleum Warfare Department (Local Defence Division).
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