A historical review of moiré interferometry

High sensitivity moiré interferometry is now a technique in fairly general use. Its development arose from the efforts of a number of workers over a period of nearly 40 years. This progress is reviewed in the ligh of the individual contributions that have led to the presentday accurate and user-friendly systems. In the first instance, the story is related in approximate chronological order; the contributions of individuals and groups are outlined in more detail in a series of appendices.It will become apparent that moiré has not developed in a smooth, linear fashion—rather, a number of people reacted to the problems they were asked to solve, in a particular manner, and using methods and equipment available at the time. This view of the progress of science and technology as the creation of a climate of opinion and opportunity is very much in line with modern analyses of the history of science.