What is the process of decreasing or eliminating an unwanted magnetic field, a term first used by Commander Charles F. Goodeve, RCNVR, during World War II while trying to counter German mines?
Charles F. Goodeve was knighted, and awarded the U.S. Medal of Freedom. Charles F. Goodeve Sir Charles Frederick Goodeve, OBE, FRS, (21 February 1904 – 7 April 1980) was a Canadian chemist and pioneer in operations research for the British. During World War II, he was instrumental in developing the "hedgehog" antisubmarine warfare weapon and the degaussing method for protecting ships from naval mines. Goodeve was born in Neepawa, Manitoba, the son of Frederick W. Goodeve, an Anglican clergyman. His early childhood was in Stonewall, Manitoba, but when he was around 10 years old the family moved to Winnipeg, where he grew up.
Degaussing used by then-Commander Charles F. Goodeve, RCNVR, during World War II while trying to counter the German magnetic naval mines that were playing havoc with the British fleet. The mines detected the increase in the magnetic field when the steel in a ship concentrated the Earth's magnetic field over it. Admiralty scientists, including Goodeve, developed a number of systems to induce a small "N-pole up" field into the ship to offset this effect, meaning that the net field was the same as the background. Since the Germans used the gauss as the unit of the strength of the magnetic field