Catalogue description SECTION B EXPEDITIONS AND RESEARCH

The pre-second world war material relates almost entirely to Bagnold's expeditions in the Middle East and North Africa from 1926. This material is supplemented by maps in Section D and photographs in Section E. Bagnold's explorations between 1926 and 1932 are recounted in his book Libyan Sands. Travel in a Dead World first published in 1935. At NCUACS35.3.92/B.38 is Bagnold's own set of his published papers, with bibliography.

Bagnold first became interested in the creation and movement of sand dunes as a result of his expeditions in the desert in 1929 and 1930. He began his study of the physics of blown sand on his return to England in 1934, in a laboratory at Imperial College London with a home-made wind tunnel. The results of this pioneering work were published in The physics of blown sand and desert dunes (Methuen, London, 1941).