The Cold, Cold World of CRREL
Dartmouth's new scientific neighbor, the Army's Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, works for the nation in a sub-zero setting
WINTER, with its "long white afternoons," has always been a traditional part of the Han- over scene, and any alumnus worth his salt can remember the day the thermometer dipped to 35-below. Now, in a $3.25-million building out on the Lyme Road, just a mile or two from Baker Tower, winter is a year-round affair. Twenty-four cold rooms and laboratories hold temperatures ranging down to —58 degrees; scientists in hooded parkas and heavy gloves crush and test ice cores 2,000 years old; perfectly formed ice crystals pour like ice cubes from a weird- looking ice maker, and a wind tunnel blows snow faster and harder than any of mother nature's wintry gales.
This is the new headquarters, formally opened and dedicated last November, of the U. S. Army's Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL).
CRREL's major mission is to conduct basic and applied research and investigations in snow, ice, and frozen ground; research in cold regions environments, and photographic interpretation research on a world-wide basis. CRREL also supports various test, development, and evaluation programs of the U. S. Army Materiel Command, for the Army Corps of Engineers and for other governmental agencies.
Some 200 civilian and 45 U. S. Army enlisted personnel are engaged in the CRREL programs on a full-time basis. About two-thirds of the civilian force are scientists and researchers, most of them holding graduate degrees. The Army GI's are primarily technicians, carefully selected and most of them college graduates.
Two Dartmouth alumni are included in the civilian group - John T. Tangerman '53, technical assistant to the Chief of the Research Division, and S. Lawrence Dingman '60, research hydrologist.
Tangerman, who did graduate work at McGill in geography, with emphasis on the polar regions, started to work with the program in 1955 when he joined the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers' SIPRE (Snow, Ice, and Permafrost Research Establishment) which was established at Wilmette, Illinois, in 1951. Then in 1961 SIPRE was merged with its sister laboratory — The Arctic Construction and Frost Effects Laboratory (ACFEL), located in Watertown, Massachusetts and both were moved into the new CRREL building in Hanover in the late fall of 1961.
"It was good to get back to Hanover," Tangerman recalls, "and particularly great to have the new laboratory facilities and cold storage space which the new building provides. Out in Wilmette we had only six cold storage rooms. Some of our cold storage units here are designed for only one man so he can do his research with the temperature set at whatever he wants."
The actual move into the new CRREL building was slowed up by a 1961 fire which broke out one January morning in the lower level where the cold storage rooms were being installed. Major rebuilding became necessary.
"We're in full operation now," Tangerman says, "and everything seems to work well."
This was borne out by personal observation when we bundled up in a heavy coat and moved into one of the coldroom laboratories (a mild 15 degrees above zero) to chat with Larry Dingman '6O, a research hydrologist, who was cutting up samples of permacrete (frozen soil) for some, tests he was conducting.
Dingman, a geology major at Dartmouth, has been with CRREL only since June. Prior to this he had done graduate work, and some teaching, in the Geology Department at Harvard and also had some summer field work experience with the U. S. Geological Survey.
"I'm delighted to be with CRREL and, of course, to be back in Hanover," Dingman told us. "Right now I'm engaged in two projects which have a relationship. I'm doing field work in Alaska and laboratory work here on measuring and analyzing the drainage (flow of water) of a basin in Alaska. We're trying to get some idea of the drainage problems involved in a limited area and what effects this drainage has on such things as permafrost. Then, in connection with my Ph.D. thesis, I'm studying the flow of water over ice and the nature of river meanders on ice. Most river meander studies are done on sand, but I'm running all my tests on a sheet of ice, and I hope it will be a significant contribution to flow studies of water."
ALTHOUGH Hanover is home base for L CRREL's scientists and engineers, many of them spend a great deal of their time in the field, primarily in the Alaskan area during the winter months and in Greenland during summer months.
"We have a permanent field station set up near Fairbanks, Alaska, "reported Colonel William L. Nungesser, commanding officer of CRREL, "and our personnel also use other governmental facilities and services when they go into the field for their tests and research work."
Colonel Nungesser, a cigar-smoking, relaxed Army officer, is an engineering graduate of Ohio State. He took over command of the SIPRE installation at Wilmette in 1960 and subsequently directed the merger of SIPRE and ACFEL into the CRREL installation during 1961 and 1962.
"It's nice to be here in Hanover and our buildings and facilities are excellent," the Colonel said, "but there are some problems related to our new location. Transportation, both for our own personnel and for visiting scientists, is very difficult at times. Some of our visitors just never get here because of flight cancellations or schedules. Supplies are also a problem. When we were just outside Chicago, we could get laboratory equipment and certain machine parts at a moment's notice. Here we usually have to order from Boston or New York, then wait for shipment. But most of these are fairly minor matters that we will get used to as things settle down a bit."
We asked the Colonel how the staff felt about the shift to Hanover.
"I think most of them like the community now," Nungesser said. "We lost a few staff people because of the move - it isn't always easy to uproot families after they've been settled for some time - but most of our people stayed with us. The College has been very helpful in the move and in assisting our staff with housing and later by opening up Dartmouth's educational, social, and recreational facilities to the CRREL staff. I guess the high cost of living around here did surprise most of us, though," the Colonel added with a grin.
"What about relationships between CRREL and the College on the academic side?" we asked.
"We are starting to explore with Dartmouth the development of certain courses which would be mutually beneficial," Colonel Nungesser replied. "CRREL can help by providing funds to support certain programs, through contract research, and to some extent, by making our scientists and personnel available on a part-time basis."
Colonel Nungesser felt that as these programs moved forward it would be possible for CRREL to employ more Dartmouth men, trained in its specialized areas of interest, and mentioned the possibility of Dartmouth students, interested in polar areas, working during the summer months as field technicians for CRREL programs.
COLLEGE administrators and teachers are enthusiastic about the possibilities that CRREL has opened up for certain Dartmouth programs.
Prof. Leonard M. Rieser '44, Deputy Provost, indicated that there are two major developments that have been going forward during the past year.
First, we are gradually setting up procedures whereby members of the CRREL staff can enroll at Dartmouth as graduate students, mainly in certain science areas such as geology," Rieser reported.
"Secondly, and stemming in part from this move, we have begun discussions and studies to explore the possibility of establishing jointly with CRREL graduate programs, possibly at the doctoral level, in Glaciology and Petrology. Graduate work in these areas offers tremendously exciting possibilities, combining as it would the programs and personnel of Dartmouth's first-rate Geology Department with the facilities, laboratories, and outstanding scientists of the CRREL program. Such a cooperative program could be among the strongest in these fields in the United States."
Prof. Robert W. Decker, chairman of the Geology Department, indicates that relationships between CRREL and the Geology Department have already moved forward. "Dr. Wilford E. Weeks of the CRREL staff is currently teaching parttime in our department as a Visiting Assistant Professor," Decker said, "and we have a graduate student in geology Gary Lofgren - a Research Fellow whose stipend is being defrayed through a research contract with CRREL."
Decker believes that CRREL offers many other possibilities for working together. "We have many mutual interests, and as long as these can grow on an informal and flexible basis, I think there is tremendous potential." He went on to point out that the CRREL programs bring many outstanding scientists and engineers to Hanover for visits and frequently these men are available to talk and consult at the College."
The Thayer School of Engineering, under Dean Myron Tribus, is currently doing some contract work for CRREL, and Dean Tribus believes that the relationship between Thayer and CRREL will grow significantly in the years ahead.
From the logistics standpoint, as Colonel Nungesser pointed out, Hanover cannot be considered the best of all possible locations for CRREL, but even these difficulties are diminishing, or being taken more in stride, as the research establishment shakes down into full and steady operation. For Dartmouth, the beneficial impact of CRREL's programs and personnel is just beginning to be felt in a definite way, and it is not too much to say that in scientific and other ways the close ties with the College are proving to be beneficial to CRREL too.
In the years ahead, it is safe to predict, the two-mile stretch of Lyme Road between the Dartmouth campus and the CRREL installation will be a welltraveled one, with the traffic going in both directions.
CRREL headquarters, located on Lyme Road, about two miles from the campus.
Col. William L. Nungesser, commandingofficer, with John Tangerman '53, technical assistant to the Chief of the Research Division, who has been with theArmy Engineers' program since 1955.
S. Lawrence Dingman '60, a research hydrologist with CRREL, divides his timebetween field work in Alaska and laboratory work in Hanover, about drainage.
