Signal Corps Laboratories

Signal Corps Laboratories (SCL) was formed on June 30, 1930, as part of the U.S. Army Signal Corps at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. Through the years, the SCL had a number of changes in name, but remained the operation providing research and development services for the Signal Corps.

At the beginning of World War I in 1917, the U.S. Army Signal Corps opened a training facility named Camp Vail in east-central New Jersey. This facility was named after Alfred Vail, an inventor associated with Samuel F. B. Morse. Later that year, the Army established the Signal Corps Radio Laboratories at Camp Vail, devoted to research in radio and electronics. The overall installation was upgraded and became Fort Vail.

Under the direction of Col. (Dr.) George Owen Squier, the Radio Laboratories centered on the standardization of vacuum tubes and the testing of equipment manufactured for the Army by commercial firms. Experimentation was also being done on radio communications with aircraft, detection of aircraft using sound and electromagnetic waves, and meteorology. Squier had earlier made a major contribution to communications by developing multiplexing, for which he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1919.

After the end of World War I, aviation communication was transferred to the Signal Corps Aircraft Radio Laboratory at Wilbur Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio. The Radio Laboratories at Camp Vail continued at a low level, centering on design and testing of radio sets, field telephone and telegraph equipment, and meteorology. The facility survived as an Army installation by the Signal Corps moving all of its schools to Camp Vail, with the consolidation named the Signal School.

In 1925, Fort Vail was renamed Fort Monmouth. Although overshadowed by the Signal School and at a reduced scale due to budget restrictions, the Radio Laboratory remained an important activity at Fort Monmouth. Developments included a variety of radios for voice and Morse code communications. Coupling capabilities in electronics and meteorology, in 1929 the Laboratory developed and launched the first radio-equipped weather balloon.

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