Materials Technology Laboratory
The Materials Technology Laboratory was a research facility under the U.S. Army Materiel Command that specialized in metallurgy and materials science and engineering for ordnance and other military purposes. Located in Watertown, Massachusetts, MTL was originally known as the Watertown Arsenal Laboratories and represented one of many laboratory buildings erected at Watertown Arsenal. Despite its name and its role in housing the arsenal's mechanical and metallurgical laboratory equipment, however, WAL operated independently from the arsenal. The facility remained in operation even after Watertown Arsenal closed down in 1967. WAL was renamed the Army Materials Research Agency in 1962 and then the Army Materials and Mechanics Research Center in 1967 before it became the Materials Technology Laboratory in 1985. In 1992, MTL was disestablished, and the majority of its operations and personnel were incorporated into the newly created U.S. Army Research Laboratory.
History
Throughout its long history, Watertown Arsenal maintained several laboratory facilities that conducted mechanical testing as well as research on material development and solid-state physics. The first known instance of a laboratory at Watertown Arsenal was a one-story wooden building built in 1842. This early laboratory did not specialize in scientific experimentation but instead supported Watertown Arsenal's mission as a military supply depot. The laboratory performed a wide range of special tasks from water-proofing paper cartridges to preparing ingredients for pyrotechnics, such as port-fires, fuzes, and signal rockets. Over time, however, the building was repurposed as a storage facility and later razed in 1917.The first notable instance of scientific experimentation at the arsenal took place under the leadership of Major Thomas J. Rodman, the commanding officer and superintendent of the arsenal from 1859 to 1865. Renowned for inventing a casting process that significantly extended the lifespan of cast-iron guns, Rodman promoted scientific investigation at Watertown Arsenal during his tenure. During the American Civil War, he supervised the construction of a second laboratory in 1862 and conducted metallurgical experiments and equipment tests in order to determine the best quality of iron for casting into guns. This second laboratory was a one-story wooden building with two wings, each 175 feet by 25 feet in dimensions. Used primarily for making small-arms cartridges, the facility was later moved to the east end of the arsenal and repurposed as a storage facility for field gun carriages in 1871. The facility was moved again in 1911 and used for lumber storage.
In the years following the Civil War, Rodman's work at Watertown Arsenal brought the U.S. Army Ordnance Department’s attention to the compound as a site for future materials testing. During the 1870s, the Army’s interest in steel as a material for manufacturing guns led President Ulysses S. Grant to launch a national scientific investigation to test the merits of cast iron versus steel in terms of their strength. As part of this investigation, the U.S. government contracted engineer Albert Hamilton Emery in 1875 to design and build a machine that performs precision tests on the strength of constructive engineering materials. The machine, named the Emery Testing Machine, was capable of accurately testing 800,000 pounds of tension and one million pounds in compression. Its precision in being able to test the tensile and compressive strength of anything from an iron bar to a thin wire was celebrated as an unprecedented innovation in American engineering and military science.
Upon its completion in 1879, the Emery Testing Machine was installed in Building 71 at Watertown Arsenal, which was renamed the Physical Testing Laboratory. Erected in 1821, Building 71 was originally a blacksmith shop that housed an 18-ton reverberatory furnace as well as other equipment for making iron. The installation of the Emery Testing Machine transformed the facility into a testing lab, which not only served U.S. Army and U.S. Navy needs but also those of civilian patrons who paid to use the testing machine for their own purposes. Commercial manufacturers in iron and steel, bridge building, construction, railroad, and boiler industries leveraged the testing services offered by the laboratory to obtain data on various structural materials. From 1882 to 1918, the results of the precision tests conducted by the laboratory under the direction of the U.S. Ordnance Department were published annually in a publication titled Tests of Metals. The range of materials tested during this 36-year period included iron, steel, brass, bronze, wood, stone, and concrete as well as miscellaneous items such as manila, cotton yarn, hemp, and roller skates. In total, 87,062 tests were conducted for the government, while 27,096 were performed for private enterprise.
Beginning in the 1890s, Watertown Arsenal directed more attention toward investigative research and development as it expanded its laboratory and testing facilities. By the early 20th century, the arsenal established two more laboratory facilities in the buildings near the Physical Testing Laboratory. Building 72, which was first constructed in 1821 and used as a machine shop, housed the Chemistry Laboratory on the second floor in 1896. By 1917, the Chemistry Laboratory had expanded until it occupied the entire building. Similarly, Building 73 was also originally built in 1821 to be used as a gun carriage shop but was converted into the arsenal's X-Ray Laboratory in 1923. By 1927, the laboratories at Buildings 71, 72, and 73 had obtained a wide variety of new equipment ranging from the nation's first Charpy impact testing machine to a diffraction x-ray apparatus for studying the atomic structure of metals. The laboratory complex's close relationship with the arsenal's industrial facilities allowed the arsenal to apply the scientific findings of the former to improve the manufacturing practices of the latter.
In 1923, the Ferrous Metallurgical Advisory Board was founded at Watertown Arsenal to promote cooperative research and development activities between the arsenal, private industry, and university laboratories. The advisory board worked with 45 private industrial firms to develop cast and rolled armor plate for aircraft, helmet, and body armor. The arsenal also carried out gun erosion studies with Bahelle Memorial Institute, developed improved refractory ceramics with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, developed improved pyrometric quartz with Ohio State University, and improved forging steels with the Carnegie Institute of Technology.
When activity at the arsenal boomed during World War II, Watertown Arsenal rapidly expanded not only its industrial facilities but also its research and testing facilities. In 1941, the arsenal purchased seven acres of land to the west, which included a large factory building owned by the Simmons Mattress Company. Denominated as Building 39, this factory building was used to house several divisions of government agencies, including the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and the U.S. Air Force Geophysics Laboratory. In 1953, the arsenal converted the entirety of Building 39 into the Watertown Arsenal Laboratories, which led research in metals and ceramics, organic materials and mechanics, and structural integrity.
In 1954, the Chief of Ordnance moved the Ordnance Materials Research Office to Watertown Arsenal, where it not only administered materials research at other Army laboratories but also conducted in-house research. That same year, the arsenal established a new metals processing laboratory called the General Thomas J. Rodman Laboratory. Named after the former arsenal commander during the Civil War, the Rodman Laboratory focused on improving the quality of Army products while reducing their manufacturing costs, in addition to creating new materials and methods for manufacturing strategic resources. However, the Rodman Laboratory was later absorbed into the Watertown Arsenal Laboratories. With the dissolution of the Ordnance Corps in 1962, the newly established Army Materiel Command combined WAL and OMRO to form the Army Materials Research Agency. As a corporate laboratory for the Army, AMRA developed and improved materials for Army weapons and equipment as well as set up materials specifications and standards. In addition to conducting basic and applied research in structural materials, the facility also operated and maintained the arsenal's Horace Hardy Lester Reactor, the Army's first and only research nuclear reactor, in lieu of OMRO.
When Watertown Arsenal ceased operations in 1967, AMRA became the Army Materials and Mechanics Research Center and remained on the site. Following the end of the Vietnam War, the budget squeezes and hiring freezes felt throughout the Army threatened to close AMMRC in 1984 due to the age of its facilities. Instead, AMMRC became the Materials Technology Laboratory in 1985. Despite this attempt to rebrand its identity, MTL continued to face the possibility of closure throughout the 1980s. Finally, the decision to establish ARL in 1989 led to a recommendation by the Department of Defense in 1991 to consolidate the Army's corporate laboratories, including MTL, at Adelphi and Aberdeen, Maryland. As a result of the Base Alignment and Closure of 1991, most of MTL was relocated to Aberdeen Proving Ground to become part of the Materials Directorate at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, while MTL's structures element was transferred to the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, to form part of ARL's Vehicle Structures Directorate.
Research
Much of the scientific activity that took place at Watertown Arsenal was designed to support the installation's role as an ordnance depot and a manufacturing plant. Workers at the arsenal regularly conducted tests and experiments to improve the metallurgical production processes that drove the compound's industrial facilities. With the installation of the Emery Testing Machine in 1881, the arsenal expanded the scope of its testing beyond products and materials related to Army manufacturing. Private tests commissioned by citizens and corporations uncovered the properties of countless materials from boiler plates to locomotive tires, and the data reported annually in Tests of Metals bolstered the arsenal's national reputation as a premier testing facility. However, it wasn't until 1906 that Congress formally authorized “investigative tests” at Watertown Arsenal in its appropriations bill. When this change was enacted, commanding officer Major Charles B. Wheeler increased the amount of investigative and research work performed at the arsenal until it became a major element in its operation.The laboratory installations at Watertown Arsenal and their successors conducted both basic and applied research in a wide variety of disciplines over the course of the 21st century. Overall, these research pursuits focused primarily on the field of material science and metallurgy. Areas of interest included high-strength steels, armor materials, armaments, engine technology, electro-optical materials, chemical defense, corrosion research, and nondestructive testing. Notable research activities are listed below.