David Watson TaylorBorn 4 Mar 1864; died 28 Jul 1940 at age 76.American marine engineer who used the first ship-model testing facility in the U.S. to evaluate basic principles in the design of ships. The Experimental Model Basin built at the Washington (D.C.) Navy Yard (1899) enabled experimentation on the shape of a ship's hull that affect its motion against the resistance of the water. He developed the internationally known Taylor Standard Series Method (1910) that enabled an estimation of water resistance from the planned dimensions before a ship was built. |
