The Admiralty Research Laboratory (ARL) was established in 1921, as the centre for Royal Naval physical research, in response to the Board of the Admiralty aspirations to expand upon the technological advances in naval warfare made during the First World War; occupying the eastern end of Queens Road in Teddington, it was well placed to take advantage of the standardisation and testing facilities d
eveloped by staff at the (separate) establishment next-door, the National Physical Laboratory (NPL). ARL work areas were organised by group and included: Underwater Sound Transmission, Propagation & Reception; Acoustic & Non-Acoustic Submarine Detection; Vessel Radiated Noise Measurement and Reduction; Hydrodynamics & Hydro-Ballistics; Chemistry & Chemical Engineering; Optics; Maritime Mine Countermeasures; Special Problems; Infra-Red Sensors; Solid-State Physics; (Gunnery) Fire Control & Stabilised Platforms; Radiological Defence & Monitoring; Military Oceanography; Mathematics; Human Factors; Assessment; Instrumentation and Engineering Design. Such was the highly classified nature of ARL's work that practically nothing was generally known before the latter-day release of Admiralty documents under the Freedom of Information Act. Currently, thousands of documents are available from The National Archives at Kew, relating to ARL; principle references are ADM212 “Correspondence and Letters”, and ADM204 “Reports and Notes”. However certain areas of work remain classified as they pertain to modern-day naval equipment and operations e.g.
