Lt. Philip Dalton (April 1, 1903 – July 25, 1941) was a United States

military scientist Military science is the study of military processes, institutions, and behavior, along with the study of warfare, and the theory and application of organized coercive force. It is mainly focused on theory, method, and practice of producing mil ...

, pilot and engineer. Dalton is best known for his invention of several

slide-rule The slide rule is a mechanical analog computer which is used primarily for multiplication and division, and for functions such as exponents, roots, logarithms, and trigonometry. It is not typically designed for addition or subtraction, which is ...

analog Analog or analogue may refer to: Computing and electronics * Analog signal, in which information is encoded in a continuous variable ** Analog device, an apparatus that operates on analog signals *** Analog electronics, circuits which use analog ...

flight computer A flight computer is a form of circular slide rule used in aviation and one of a very few analog computers in widespread use in the 21st century. Sometimes it is called by the make or model name like E6B, CR, CRP-5 or in German, as the ''Dreieckrec ...

s, the most famous being the

E6B The E6B flight computer is a form of circular slide rule used in aviation and one of the very few analog calculating devices in widespread use in the 21st century. They are mostly used in flight training, because these flight computers have bee ...

Early life and education

Dalton was born in

Scotia, New York Scotia is a village in Schenectady County, New York, United States, incorporated in 1904. The population was 7,729 at the 2010 census. Scotia is part of the town of Glenville, and is connected with the city of Schenectady by the Western Gatewa ...

to William and Ida Dalton, and studied engineering at Cornell University's

College of Engineering Engineering education is the activity of teaching knowledge and principles to the professional practice of engineering. It includes an initial education (bachelor's and/or master's degree), and any advanced education and specializations that ...

where he joined the

ROTC The Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC ( or )) is a group of college- and university-based officer-training programs for training commissioned officers of the United States Armed Forces. Overview While ROTC graduate officers serve in all ...

. Upon graduation he received a commission as a Lieutenant of

Field Artillery Field artillery is a category of mobile artillery used to support armies in the field. These weapons are specialized for mobility, tactical proficiency, short range, long range, and extremely long range target engagement. Until the early 20t ...

in the United States Army Reserve . He continued his studies at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

, where he received a Masters in Physics and

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

after which he resigned his Army commission and joined the United States Naval Reserve. He received his wings at

NAS Pensacola Naval Air Station Pensacola or NAS Pensacola (formerly NAS/KNAS until changed circa 1970 to allow Nassau International Airport, now Lynden Pindling International Airport, to have IATA code NAS), "The Cradle of Naval Aviation", is a United State ...

, and flew scout planes on the cruiser ''

Northampton Northampton () is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England; ...

''.Philip Dalton: The Lost Navigator
by Keith Smith, retrieved November 5, 2016

Invention

While serving as US Naval Reserve Pilot, Dalton took an interest in slide-rule flight computers. His first models were designed in the early 1930s but it was not until 1932 that the first revision of the E-6B, originally known as the "Dalton

Dead Reckoning In navigation, dead reckoning is the process of calculating current position of some moving object by using a previously determined position, or fix, and then incorporating estimates of speed, heading direction, and course over elapsed time. ...

Computer", came into existence.

Death

On October 30, 1940, Dalton was recalled to active duty and assigned to

Naval Air Station Anacostia Anacostia is a historic neighborhood in Southeast Washington, D.C. Its downtown is located at the intersection of Good Hope Road and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. It is located east of the Anacostia River, after which the neighborhood is nam ...

, across the river from Washington, DC to help train naval aviators. On July 24, 1941, Dalton and Harry Lee Rogers, Jr., a student pilot, were killed when their aircraft crashed near

Hybla Valley, Virginia Hybla Valley is a census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, south of Alexandria. The population was 15,801 at the 2010 census, down from 16,721 in 2000 due to a reduction in area, resulting from some of the eastward ...

. By this time, Dalton's devices were in widespread use by all aviation branches of the US and British military services.

References

1903 births 1941 deaths 20th-century American naval officers American aerospace engineers Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in the United States Cornell University College of Engineering alumni Engineers from New York (state) American navigators Princeton University alumni People from Schenectady County, New York United States Army reservists United States Naval Aviators 20th-century American engineers Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1941 United States Army officers United States Navy reservists {{US-engineer-stub