{"id":201662,"date":"2016-12-07T09:35:06","date_gmt":"2016-12-07T14:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=201662"},"modified":"2025-12-01T14:03:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T19:03:20","slug":"institute-of-optics-specialized-in-devices-for-night-warfare-201662","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/institute-of-optics-specialized-in-devices-for-night-warfare-201662\/","title":{"rendered":"Institute of Optics specialized in devices for night warfare"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Institute of Optics Director Brian O’Brien, at left, looking at an Icaroscope, developed at the Institute. The device used phosphor to make the sun appear only 20 to 50 times brighter than the surrounding sky, compared to 10,000 times brighter to the naked eye. This helped antiaircraft gunners keep track of enemy planes diving with the full glare of the sun behind them. (University photo \/ Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The night after Pearl Harbor was attacked, Brian O\u2019Brien, director of the Institute of Optics<\/strong><\/a> at the URochester, took off in a seaplane from the Naval Air Station at Norfolk, Va., with several of his staff.<\/p>\n

They wanted to test a new night binocular they had developed for Britain\u2019s Royal Air Force, so that its fighter pilots could engage German bombers at night without shooting down their squadron mates by mistake.<\/p>\n

The station\u2019s antiaircraft defenses, informed of the test flight, had been ordered not to turn on searchlights. However, because of the Pearl Harbor attack, \u201ceveryone at the station had the jitters, and rumors were flying about thick and fast,\u201d O\u2019Brien later wrote.<\/p>\n

At each pass over Hampton Roads \u201ca dozen dazzling fingers of light, half a billion candlepower each, would hit us with the impact of something solid,\u201d O\u2019Brien wrote. In desperation, the seaplane and its target plane headed farther out to sea to complete the test.<\/p>\n