Non-destructive testing (NDT) is not a new procedure and it is not intended that, by choosing the thirty odd years since the War, the impression should be given that before 1945 little or no attention was paid to determining component, system or structural quality by non-destructive means.

Archimedes, having discovered the principle of flotation, applied it as a means of determining whether his King's new crown had been unduly alloyed with silver. He is therefore probably the first on record to practise what is now known as NDT.