171:, Massa stated that in the beginning of his career, he was assigned, against his wishes, as a production manager. "I didn't know; then that was the first thing about production, and there I was in charge of it," he said. But his feelings toward the role quickly changed. "Those were the best years I ever spent, because I got to work with a dozen highly skilled production engineers who taught me the importance of being able to produce transducers as well as invent them." In a 1972 article in
164:. Though he was responsible for theorizing and developing a plethora of new technologies, he credited his work in manufacturing as being the most important thing in his growth as an engineer. Throughout his career, he extolled the merits of engineers remaining not in offices that tested new developments via mathematical models but rather weaving themselves into the manufacturing process to keep production efficient and product reliability high.
228:, but Massa's research team received a reprieve from the sunken economy thanks to the growing motion picture industry's dire need for better sound equipment. Massa helped move the industry from its entirely mechanical sound recording and reproduction infancy to its golden age of high-quality electrical loud speakers and microphones—thereby rapidly advancing the field of electroacoustic engineering.
301:—devices that convert energy from one form to another—for underwater military applications. He helped design and build the first successful scanning sonar, which helped U.S. ships detect the locations of German submarines. Throughout the war, Massa's team produced new acoustic transducers on an almost monthly basis for the Navy, with applications in
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344:. Their devices were used for everything from air ultrasonic applications to whale tracking. Continuing his relationship with the Navy, Massa produced the world's largest sonar array in the 1960s, stringing together a 136,000 kg, megawatt sonar array that contained 1,440 separate transducers.
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tactics to stealthily take out Allied convoys—American ships carrying war material to
England—and the massive attacks were significantly hindering the U.S. war effort. Overcoming this challenge was assigned the highest national priority and the National Defense Research Council embarked upon a
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began contracting with RCA-Victor for electroacoustic transducers that could meet stringent demands for ruggedness and reliability. A specialized government sound engineering laboratory was set up at RCA-Victor, with Massa in its lead. He invented new production techniques to develop the first
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In 1945, with his wife
Georgiana, Massa founded his own company: Massa Laboratories, Inc., headquartered in Cleveland, where he continued to advance the development of transducers. Some of his company's earliest products were high-precision
175:, he is described as "one of those rare individuals with the unique ability to quickly get to the basic elements of a problem and convert good ideas into reliable hardware."
153:, published scores of technical and scientific articles, and developed hundreds of new products for an array of applications in the field of electroacoustics. An article in
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Massa, Frank (April 1985). "Some personal recollections of early experiences on the new frontier of electroacoustics during the late 1920s and early 1930s".
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The towed array was a success, and the Navy contracted Massa's Brush engineering group to work full-time on the continued development of
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full-scale effort to overcome it. One of Massa's former colleagues from RCA-Victor had recently been named the commanding officer of the
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286:. The plan was to tow streamers along the sides of U.S. ships with small charges of TNT explosives at fixed points. By developing a
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sent Massa a letter thanking him for his role in the Allied victory because of his development of sonar equipment for the Navy.
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equipment—enabling submarines to detect surface ships—as well as the equipment a 1985 expedition used to find the sunken
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The son of an
Italian immigrant mother, Massa was born in Boston during 1906 and did not speak English when he began the
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and underwater calibration devices. Massa grew a thriving business for five years before moving his operation to
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and he commissioned Massa to develop systems that could counter the devastating effects of the German U-boats.
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on-ship speaker to successfully withstand gun-blast pressures, as well as a low-cost, blast-proof, lightweight
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Sullivan, William G. (January 4, 1990). "Frank Massa, company chairman; developed sonar for Navy in WWII".
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that was placed at each TNT location, Massa created a device that could pick up noise from the approaching
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During the same time, Massa met and married
Georgiana Galbraith, who was the personal secretary of
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for the Navy's fleet—permitting the direct transmission of speech without the use of batteries.
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offered Massa the position of
Director of Acoustical Research, and he relocated his family to
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206:. After winning a Swope Fellowship, he continued at MIT to earn a master's degree in 1928.
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195:. He left for college with only $ 100 in dimes that his grandmother had saved for him.
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and many battles were occurring at sea. German navy U-boat submarines were utilizing
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Massa was able to graduate from MIT because of scholarships, and in 1927 he earned a
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By the 1970s, the company split its work evenly between underwater applications (
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Massa remained active as chairman of his company until his death in 1990. The
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and automatically fire a counter charge before the torpedo reached the ship.
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Graham, David M. (November 1985). "Massa Leads By 'Doing the
Impossible'".
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Their first tactic was to protect individual, slow-moving ships from the
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referred to him as the "father of modern sonar transducer development."
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With a career that spanned 60 years, Massa registered over 140
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Massa, Frank (November 1989). "Sonar
Transducers: A History".
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warfare developments) and electro-acoustic systems, including
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691:"How Massa Revolutionizes Sonars and Ultrasonic Products"
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333:, to settle into larger and more specialized facilities.
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644:"Frank Massa, 82, helped equip Titanic expedition".
103:who contributed to the development of the field of
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107:. He is best known for the development of
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789:Revere High School (Massachusetts) alumni
266:At this time, the United States had just
64:Learn how and when to remove this message
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193:Massachusetts Institute of Technology
119:, the development of the first towed
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779:20th-century American businesspeople
774:American people of Italian descent
36:tone or style may not reflect the
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187:. Massa went on to graduate from
769:MIT School of Engineering alumni
46:guide to writing better articles
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784:20th-century American engineers
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211:Victor Talking Machine Company
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754:American acoustical engineers
160:Massa described himself as a
759:Engineers from Massachusetts
99:(1906–1990) was an American
220:Shortly thereafter was the
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764:Businesspeople from Boston
729:Massa Products Corporation
308:Indeed, in the 1950s, the
251:Working with the U.S. Navy
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257:Brush Development Company
222:Wall Street crash of 1929
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284:U-boats' torpedo attacks
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238:sound-powered telephone
357:ultrasonic transducers
331:Hingham, Massachusetts
316:A career of innovation
231:In the mid-1930s, the
213:(later RCA-Victor) in
204:electrical engineering
105:acoustical engineering
372:Secretary of the Navy
336:The company produced
310:Secretary of the Navy
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167:In a 1985 article in
134:to detect and defeat
520:Under Sea Technology
268:entered World War II
173:Under Sea Technology
608:1985ASAJ...77.1292Y
200:Bachelor of Science
162:production engineer
111:technology for the
662:. January 29, 2016
648:. January 4, 1990.
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215:Camden, New Jersey
189:Revere High School
277:Naval Gun Factory
245:Vladimir Zworykin
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323:microphones
299:transducers
185:first grade
128:hydrophones
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115:and during
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80:Frank Massa
738:Categories
382:References
288:hydrophone
202:degree in
179:Early life
54:April 2022
261:Cleveland
233:U.S. Navy
132:U.S. Navy
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476:: 28–32.
272:wolfpack
145:Overview
101:engineer
604:Bibcode
365:bowling
292:torpedo
151:patents
139:U-boats
136:German
303:mines
121:sonar
703:2023
668:2023
126:and
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