Taken from the Weirs Times article a few years ago.
And that’s how Dr. Quimby Duntley, the U.S. Navy, and M.I.T. came to Diamond Island to conduct secret experiments, and these experiments lasted until 1955! Arrangements were made for the Navy to lease the property on which the experiments were conducted and Carroll Spooner built a tall observation tower near the island’s yet-to-be completed “Lagoon” which is the Spooner-preferred word for “breakwater.”
When Quimby Duntley and his wife Mabel first arrived at Diamond Island they camped out in a tent, but a generator was brought to the island to help with the experiments. “Somewhere during this time, Dr. Duntley left M.I.T. and went with Scripp’s Institution of Oceanography. The next thing we know they’re working underwater on one of the first laser beams ever produced!”
A metal “laser track,”looking much like a miniature railroad track, or a small horizontal ladder, was constructed on the beach before it was submerged in the lake. “They put a long tube under the water with a cement foundation on the bottom. Winnipesaukee Marine would come and lower the tube into the water every spring and take it out in the fall,” recalls Dave. “It had a window where you could look out and see the lake. The experiments were always conducted at night of course and through the window they could aim the (laser) beam of light on the track and move the ‘target’ back and forth on the track.”
Will keep looking for the pictures of the camp that was shown in the article.
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