The paper describes some experimental investigations of
the formation and collapse of cavitation bubbles. The
experiments were carried on in the high-speed water tunnel
of the Hydrodynamics Laboratory of the California
Institute of Technology under the sponsorship of the Research and Development Division of the Bureau of Ordnance of the U. S. Navy and the Fluid Mechanics Section
of the Office of Naval Research. A detailed study of
the formation and collapse of the individual bubbles has
been carried on by the use of high-speed motion pictures
taken at rates up to 20,000 per sec. From these records
calculations have been made of rate of formation and collapse of the bubbles. Deductions have been drawn from
these results concerning the physical mechanism of the
cavitation phenomenon