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A Cambridge scientist developed a way of working out how far away the Germans were on the battlefields by the sound of their guns.

It was called sound-ranging and it involved microphones, watches, hot wire and a fair wind.

Physicist William Bragg developed a French idea of determining the distance between a given point and the sound source by measuring the time lapse between the origin of the sound and its arrival point.

Bragg was awarded the Military Cross and appointed an Officer of the British Empire for his work. In 1915, he jointly won a Nobel Prize for Physics with his father.

Sound-ranging enjoyed particular success at some battles (notably Passchendaele in 1917) and played a major role in identifying enemy artillery throughout the war.

Sound-ranging is still used today: HALO (Hostile Artillery Locating) uses similar technology and was used in Sarajevo in 1995.

Location: Cavendish College, Cambridge CB3 0HE
Image of William Bragg
Photograph courtesy of Malcolm Longhair

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