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Behind a wall, a historic find

This spring, two blackboards from 1986 were unearthed during renovations of Smith Building in Woods Hole, 22 years to the day they were sealed away behind a new wall. Gene Terray had authored the math formulas written on the boards. They include an analysis of an instrument that today is widely used in oceanographic research: the broadband acoustic Doppler current profiler, or ADCP. As pleased as Terray was to see the formulas, he was struck by unrelated notes people had added in 1986, including the cost of gas (82.9 cents a gallon). (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)