Seeing in the Dark
Malcolm Kent
ISBN 9781915803146
 
This is the story of how thermal imagers were developed at the secret government research laboratory, the Royal Radar Establishment (RRE), in the quiet town of Malvern, in the shade of the Malvern Hills in a beautiful area of Worcestershire.
 
The book starts with the mention of the discovery of infrared radiation, by Sir William Herschel in 1800. The wartime ‘Seeing in the Dark’ activities are then described. For the UK these were principally what today we would call radar techniques, infrared took second place to the already successful radar systems. It was not until approximately 1950 that we had records of infrared work being carried out at the RRE laboratories. However, in 1958 it was decided to abandon research into thermal imagers because it was decided that it was of little practical use. One man, W. D. Lawson, one of the inventors of the detector material used by modern high-performance thermal imagers, managed to keep research interests alive.
 
The author joined the Royal Radar Establishment in 1969 to work with W. D. Lawson. The book describes the physics of thermal radiation, the transmission of infrared radiation through the atmosphere, and the physics of infrared detectors including methods of cooling. Some of the early types of thermal imager together with some of the early results are described. Examples of the imagery are given together with an explanation of the features. The General Staff Requirement 3845 was issued in June 1980, for a thermal imager for observation and gun aiming on the UK main battle tank, Challenger. Work then started in earnest to meet this requirement, this was the innovative high-performance, UK Common Module Thermal Imager Class II. The crystals involved, the techniques, and the measurements involved are described. The book concludes with a short account of the war to free Kuwait in 1991.