The branch of acoustics, the subject of which is artillery acoustic devices, as a branch of military knowledge arose in the first decade of the XX century. The most rapid growth was observed towards the end of the First World War 1914-1918. In subsequent years, in all large armies, the design and combat use of acoustic artillery devices attracted the closest attention of military specialists and organizations.
Before proceeding to our brief review of the history of the development of acoustic artillery devices, let us note that acoustics has its historical roots in the cradle of the history of modern science - Egypt and Greece.
From the available materials, we can conclude that at first one of the sections of acoustics began to develop, namely, the section of musical acoustics. Various musical instruments appear, some basic relationships are established (for example, Pythagoras of Samos developed the so-called Pythagorean commune, etc.).
The names of Empedocles, Aristotle, Vitruvius are associated with the development of acoustics as a science, and the latter of them brilliantly developed the practice of architectural acoustics.
The extremely low level of medieval science in the field of acoustics, as well as in other fields, gave almost nothing to mankind. But already starting from the 16th century - in the works of Galileo, Mersen and, later, Newton - proper attention was paid to the problems of acoustics.
The middle of the 18th century in the history of acoustics is closely associated with the names of scientists - Euler, d'Alembert, Bernoulli, Ricatti, and others. These scientists brought the mathematical foundations of acystics to such a brilliant state that their works underlie modern acoustics.
In the 19th century, the work of the above noted scientists was continued by the Chladni, the Weber brothers, Helmholtz, Reilly, Duhem, and others.
The exceptional attention to the problems of acoustics, shown by the most famous scientists during the last centuries, led to the fact that all theoretical problems of classical acoustics were solved; physicists ceased to be interested in acoustics, which allowed some of them to interpret acoustics as "the most perfect classically exhausted and complete department of physics" (lectures by Professor Khvolson in 1928). And only the rapid development of industry at the beginning of the 20th century, associated with the use of telephones, telegraphs, radio engineering, with the use of acoustics in military affairs, raised a number of new questions for scientists.
Acoustic phenomena were used in military technology before (see, for example, Vitruvius. guns firing from closed positions, the appearance of aircraft and other "sounding" targets).
With regard to artillery, military acoustics has developed a number of issues, but the main ones are the issues of observation and shooting in ground artillery (sound measurement), in anti-aircraft artillery (sound detection) and the question of the nature and propagation of shock waves in the atmosphere.
Chronologically, the first of these questions began to develop a section on shock waves, and later - sound measurement and sound detection.
The beginning of theoretical work devoted to the question of shock waves should be considered the work of Riemann - relating to the seventies of the 19th century. The work was continued by Hugonyo and Christophe.
Parallel to the development of the theory, applied and experimental work in the field of shock waves appeared and developed. Among the earliest works are those of Mach. This scientist was the first to obtain photographs of shock waves accompanying the flight of a bullet. By 1890, many well-known artillery magazines were reproducing Mach's photographs of shock waves.
Thus, shock waves discovered by Riemann have received universal scientific recognition over the course of thirty years. The question of shock waves was of particular importance for ballistic artillerymen (and later for specialists in explosives). Therefore, already in 1884, an attempt was observed to use acoustic phenomena (shock waves) in ballistic experiments at the Le Havre range - and even then it was possible to clearly distinguish between muzzle and ballistic waves accompanying the phenomenon of a gun shot and the flight of a projectile. At the same test site in 1891, special devices were built to determine the speed of a projectile in flight - and the creation of these devices was also based on acoustic phenomena.
In the subsequent development of the question of shock waves, a turning point occurred: since the question of shock waves was necessary for a correct understanding of the phenomena studied in ballistics (movement of a projectile at different speeds, the question of air resistance, stabilization of a projectile, etc.), then this section of acoustics moved to the field of ballistics.
And only later, in connection with the development of more rational apparatus for sound measurement, the question of further study of the nature of shock waves arose again before military acoustics. Here, first of all, it is necessary to note the work of the French academician Esclangon. The work of Taylor and Mac-Col should also be highlighted. Of the Russian researchers, it is necessary to note V. G. Tikhonov.
Let us now turn to another issue of military acoustics - to reconnaissance and firing of ground artillery using sound metering.
The rearmament of the Russian field artillery with rapid-fire 76-mm cannons made it possible to fire from closed positions. And, according to the testimony of the artillerymen (Barsukov. Russian artillery in the world war. T. I. S. 91, etc.), the Russian artillery paid great attention to the preparation of firing from closed positions with the help of a protractor - but the Russian-Japanese war revealed a number of shortcomings, mediated the inertia and routine of a number of combined arms and even some top artillery commanders, who considered shooting from closed positions ineffective.
The experience of the Russian-Japanese war forced the artillerymen to come to grips with the development of optical reconnaissance and observation devices; there were mnemonic rules, schedules, etc. - all this was intended to ensure the possibility of firing from closed positions. Acoustic sound reconnaissance of enemy artillery pieces (sound measurement) was gradually gaining in importance.
The main property of acoustic reconnaissance was the ability to work in poor visibility conditions. And, as practice has shown, in conditions of poor visibility, sound reconnaissance worked even better than in good weather. This property of acoustic reconnaissance made it the most valuable for artillery.
But, possessing such a valuable property, sound intelligence also had a number of disadvantages. The sound reconnaissance equipment turned out to be less portable and inactive than the optical reconnaissance equipment. Under, respectively, equal operating conditions, it gave less accuracy than optical reconnaissance. As a result, sound reconnaissance did not exclude, but supplemented the work of optical, as well as other artillery reconnaissance means.
Sound reconnaissance entered the battlefield later than optical reconnaissance. This is natural. If we look at the issues of artillery reconnaissance from the point of view of ground-based sound reconnaissance, it should be noted that in the Patriotic War of 1812, artillery effectively fired at a distance of up to a kilometer. The opponents saw each other well and fired, as a rule, at visible targets. When shooting at such close distances, it never occurred to anyone to think about any reconnaissance of the enemy's artillery in its modern sense.
