 In December 1939 , Massey joined a group at the Admiralty Research Laboratory in Teddington led by Stephen Butterworth . They were soon joined by a number of other physicists , including Bates , Buckingham , Francis Crick and John Gunn . Together , they came up with a series of countermeasures that enable the Navy to successfully sweep the mines . With this in hand , Massey became Deputy Chief Scientist to the Scientific Section of Mine Design Department at the Admiralty Mining Establishment in Havant in early 1941 . This time , the job was to create mines as good as the German ones . Massey brought his team with him . While Bates worked on packaging to protect the mine when it was dropped from an aircraft , Buckingham and Gunn calculated its theoretical effectiveness , and Crick designed the circuitry . Their mine codenamed MX , was soon in service , and the group turned its attention to developing acoustic or pressure mines . On the retirement of A. B. Wood in 1943 , Massey became Chief Scientist at Havant . 
