Postblogging Technology, January, II: Newer, Better Bombs

Mr. R_. C_.,

Chateau Laurier,

Ottawa, Canada.

Dearest Father:

First things first: you asked to hear at the earliest date, about my appointment with Dr. Rivers. Since we are sending this on, via yourself, with the courier carrying the material for the General, this is the earliest date. So, rest assured that I am quite fully recovered, and cleared to resume all my normal activities. I can climb hills, ride horse, and, of course, sit at my desk and write. I can also clean house, not that I wanted to be cleared for that, but there is no help for it, with my girl back in college, and Fanny and Judith with their hands full.

If you miss your son, you may jump to the bottom, where my husband attaches a personal note.

So, that urgent matter taken care of, let me be more conventional, and say that I hope this letter finds you well. Or more than conventional, since you have my most profound and solicitous concern over your cough. Please, please say that it is on the mend! Being called across the continent so, and on a fool's errand, at that, is, well, when King and Country calls . . But still! I had so hoped to have you through the Lunar New Year, and now instead you must be off in Ottawa holding the hands of nervous civil servants who do not understand radioactivity.

If it is any consolation, "Mrs. Chow" says that the FBI's own live lead seems to be falling apart in their hands. They have more than a hundred named Red agents to follow, a number of them named by multiple sources, and none have been caught out yet. The Bureau is still optimistic, but Mrs. Chow has flatly told her "handler" that there is a leak, somewhere. (She says that it reminds her of the hunt for "Lucy.") Please, please let it be Hoover!

No, too much to hope for. Unless the Russians do not keep track of their cipher clerks, they  must be aware that their North American networks are compromised, and who knows who might be connected with whom?

On the matter of radioactivity, I pass on some information from Ensign Wong. The Americans have found more isotopes in New Mexico and Japan, and are increasingly confident that they may be able to reconstruct any Russian atom bomb from the isotope ratios --at least after the imminent trials in the South Seas. Just tell the Canadians to make sure that Chalk River doesn't vent into the air. It seems as though it would be good atomic hygiene, atomic spying or no.  

"Mrs. Chow" is resisting some pressure to move to Virginia. She is enjoying teaching, and is not sure that her connections would pass a background check. Besides, does the Bureau, or the Army and Navy really want to admit that they are taking pointers from the old enemy, no matter how well sanitised? And besides some more, with Queenie's translation work still coming in, there is the hope that whatever combined military intelligence bureau emerges in Washington, it will operate West Coast intercept stations. It would help if the Russians take up with the Chinese communists, though. 

We have a letter from your youngest, who reports that he is lonely at MIT. I am not quite sure what to make of it --I know that you will take it as a secret message to "Miss V.C.," but I remain unconvinced. She, for her part, has thrown herself into the archives. I had her along to lunch with the Fathers the other day, and she put searching questions to the old men about the Oregon Scandal. I wonder what she has in mind? I could ask her, of course, but it is more fun, for now, to speculate. 

Your son has an invitation to L.A. to show Uncle George's friend the finished product, again. Our show for the network went amazingly well --a full hour-and-a-half of recorded material, as good as from a disc. Whether it had any effect on the outcome or not, the friend has settled with Columbia. He will come back to his show for the last half of the season, and then be shut of his contract and free to move on. The new show will be pre-recorded. That being settled, the means of recording it counts for less, although he has insisted on taking a financial interest. Now he has money in tape-recorders and frozen orange juice. It is like he truly is a family friend! The point is, you can now assure the Earl that we will get the money sunk into magnetic tape recorders back, with every chance of good profits on top. Better than if we had invested in Fontana!

"GRACE."

Flight, 17 January 1946

Leaders

“What of the Clubs?” The paper is concerned about flying clubs.

“The Amphibian Again” The paper has an article about a proposed Norwegian amphibious flying boat. It thinks that they’re not likely to work out, but encourages a British designer to have a go, anyway.

“Pioneers” More eightieth-anniversary-of-the-Royal-Aeronautical-Society navel gazing. Although it is amazing to consider that the society’s first meeting came “but a few years after the first run of Stephenson’s ‘Rocket.’”

“A Norwegian Amphibian: Twin-EnginedCivil Flying Boat with Wheel land Ski Undercarriage: Ten Passengers and Crew of Two” Since I have things to do today, and the paper says that I can ignore this article, I will! 

“Young Octogenarians: The Royal Aeronautical Society Celebrates its Eightieth Birthday” Those who care, care.

Here and There

We are told (again) that the civil version of the Short Seaford will be the Solent. By the time that there is a military version of the Solent to civilianise, will England have run out of bodies of water whose name starts with “S?” 

All cynicism aside, a beautiful shot of Funchal and a very serviceable plane. Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3808419

The last aircraft flew over the “Hump” this week. The London Gazette has a citation for Flt. Lt. W. R. Jay, of the RAF Regiment, who won an M.C. for armoured car adventures on the Western Front. (He captured the entire Focke-Wulf technical staff before the Communists could steal them and carry their Nazi ingenuity off to the scientific-originality-less, Stygian depths of the Soviet Union. Douglas Bader, we are told, has not retired. Dr. Leo Szilard told Congress this week that without British assistance, America might never have produced an atomic bomb. The paper is ambivalent about this acknowledgement.  Fokker is to buildaircraft for the Dutch to save on foreign exchange. Ernest Dell, chief draftsman of Tecalemit, Ltd, died of pleurisy on New Year’s Day. Mr. E. Hudson has retired from the board of Blackburn Aircraft after 25 years as a director, twenty as secretary. An amphibious version of the Martin Mariner, designated the XPBM-5A, is reported as the largest such in the world.

“The Avro Lincoln: Great Bomb Load with High Performance and Long Range” The final release of the Lincoln is a good time for an article. A bigger Lancaster, it required a lower designed stress factor, while maintaining the best overall load factor. Performance considerations dictated better manoeuvre and climb over 20,000 feet, to which end the designer aimed for the same induced drag, which meant a higher aspect ratio (10), which meant greater length to give the necessary moment from the tail planes, which also meant increasing their incidence by 1.5 degrees. Spanwise stringers were dispensed with in favour of a higher tensile-strength material in the spars, giving a very flexible wing in bending, although not torsion, where the wing is considerably stiffer than the Lancaster’s. More stable than the Lancaster and with better controllability at high speeds, response to controls is also better. Bomb capacity is identical to the Lancaster’s, due to retaining the same bomb boys. This limits its bomb load capacity below its available lift. Two massive cast slings retain the bomb, and pressed spacers are pierced rather than notched to take the stringers around it. (I include these details because it seems to me that the Lincoln is an underwhelming upgrade of the Lancaster overall, with the most interesting question being the structure that allows it to fly with a ten ton bomb hanging in its bomb bay. At least up until ten ton bombs are replaced by “tennis-ball” sized ones, this is the important bit.

“The Lincoln’s Defence: Details of the Bristol B-17 and Boulton Paul Types D and F Gun Turrets” My husband will be quick to explain how these are a long step towards the moment when I shall have a domestic robot on call for nappy-changing. There are motors, reduction gearing, recoil mountings, slip clutches on the elevation motors, controllable sights, a jettisonable cover for easy bailing-out, hydraulic motors for the Boulton-Paul tail mounting, and an arrangement for radar sighting, although not automatic control from the radar, which is still a vexed question due to lag producing oscillations. (I imagine.) The paper ends by telling the reader how several Boulton-Paul turrets were sent to America to assist the Americans in developing their own power turrets.

It's cheating to call this a gun, but it's a lot more interesting than another turret. 

The Continental Flat-Six aircraft motor exists.

“’Indicator’ Discusses Topics of the Day: Speed and Thrust: Coping with Modern Aeronautical Parlance: Mach Numbers and Jet Effects Explained: Cap-and-Gown Versus Flesh-and-Blood” “Indicator” just doesn’t believe that the ordinary person is incapable of grasping the basic fact that since the speed of sound varies with pressure and temperature (or actually temperature, since by the beloved simplification of the Perfect Gas Law, they are one and the same), the Mach number may change, and indicated speed may rise while Mach number falls. He goes on to explain the difference between “horsepower” of thrust from propellers and “pounds” of thrust from jet engines –there isn’t one, it is just a question of terminology. However, given the ram effect, a jet’s thrust is constant with altitude and temperature, at least until the amount of air that can be fed to the engine falls away due to altitude.

“Accident Analysis: Transport Command’s Trooping Record: A Comparison with Pre-war Civil Aviation” Transport Command’s safety record for scheduled flights has been quite good. Its record for trooping flights is three times worse, and this is bad news. This is because of difficulties in getting good meteorological information for non-scheduled flights; and because demobilisation is being BUNGLED.

“Air, Land and Sea Warfare: Sir Arthur Tedder on the Strategic Lessons of the World War” “Strategically, it is important to approach the man you plan on stabbing in the back casually and discretely, screening the stabbing motion with your body, so . . .” Of course, the man he mainly stabbed in the back was Monty, and everyone thinks he had it coming, so there you go. Although what Tedder actually said was something about how blowing up factories was important, because without factories, you do not have planes, and without planes, you do not have control of the air, and then you get knocked about trying to defend somewhere like Crete, even if you have command of the sea and more troops.

“Luxury York: Modified Version of Well-Known Transport: Special Furnishing and Layout by Air Service Training” the poshness of the lustrous panelling and padded leather interior is somewhat diminished by the low-quality black and white pictures.

Technically a Tudor, rather than a Lancastrian, York, Lancaster or Lincoln, but still a very big space.

Civil Aviation News

The Ministry is experimenting with mobile airport control station vans, to determine what kind of equipment they might required. The paper is hopeful that the Tudor I will have completed its first test flight by the time it goes to press, and that it will change the world. It also notes the upcoming Bermuda talks about talking about civil aviation. Discussions of the relationship between comfort and cost in the two versions of the C-54 have come up. Should the fare be low, or the accommodations luxurious? Let’s argue about this some more! The paper is also pleased that they will carry weather radar, as static often makes radio communication impossible on transcontinental flights. KKLM celebrated its quarter century this week. Qantas may have started its Pacific service to San Francisco by this time next month, once weekly in each direction. Quite an adventure for a single stewardess!

Correspondence

“Rebel” thinks that Britain is BUNGLING private aircraft. “Driver, Airframe,” thinks that recent accidents have a great deal to do with pilots not taking advantage of the navigational aids they have. S. B. Stubbs defends nationalisation.

Time, 21 January 1946

Letters

LeRoy Van Cott, Cyril Endfield and Harry C. Hart have dyspepsia, and take it out on the paper. If there is a theme, two of the complaints are atomic-related. Dr. Robert McAllister submits a photograph of Amelia Earhart supposedly taken from the pocket of a dead Japanese soldier, supposedly supporting the supposition that she was detained by the Japanese. Richard Lambert points out that the picture of Cyril Joad and Harry Price that appears in the 17 December number as current gossip was actually taken in 1933. Reuben Abel, of New York, thinks that the paper’s coverage of Harold Laski’s visit to New York was biased. The paper is very snappish in reply. Richard L. van Nort corrects the common misconception that one Montezuma was “emperor of Mexico,” as opposed to one of the two paramount chiefs of the city of Tenochtitlan. (Did you know that there is a Chinese translation of Prescott?) C. C. Moseley, of the Cal-Aero Technical Institute telegraphs to demand that the government immediately cease scrapping C-45s, C-46, C-47s, C-70s, C-78s, BT-13s and all trainers. Mrs. Ora Chester Barber, of Denver, denounces letter writer R. Singleton Sims, of Madison, Wisconsin, for wanting to “’free’ the Negro,” which is apparently a terrible thing to do. Also, “men of the North” are responsible for inflicting the black man on America in the first place, so Jim Crow is actually their fault in the first place.

Not just a white supremacist. Ora's interior design hits the big time in "Chicagoland" department stores in 1952. I don't know, Ora. That looks like the kind of bed where miscegenation happens.

The publisher’s letter celebrates Harold Gray William, who had the idea of running a ferry carrying cars from the Florida Keys to Havana. Since his original proposal was aired, he has been approached by the Navy with a suggestion that he bid 

Per Wikipedia, the briefly-Carib Queen had a complement of 69, a displacement of 10,000t, and an operating speed of 16 knots. Too expensive, too big, and with propulsion problems. Mr. Gray Williams is being killed with kindness.

on a new Landing Ship Dock, while other entrepreneurs have finalised plans to build “super service stations” on the Florida Keys causeway to support his proposed dock. The paper hopes for the best in the future for Mr. Williams.

National Affairs

“Gas on the Stomach” The rest of the world doesn’t really understand why America finds the present economic situation so disconcerting, given that it has recovered better and faster than any other country. It currently has 52 million employed, only 2 million unemployed, with reconversion more than 90% complete in many parts of the country, and payrolls and wages down only a little from wartime peaks. “The nation was stuffed with yeasty potential.”: It's bloated. Overfed. It's Thanksgiving night in America. It has “enormous quantities of surplus material.” Britain, meanwhile, needs food and cotton.

“Hold that Waistline” The President is gaining weight, and recently tried an exercise, sweatbox and rubdown routine to help lose it again. He has also reviewed plans to remodel the White House, and had some kind of meeting with various people over this whole “nationwide wave of strikes” thing.

“Apple Duck’s Travail” Major Boyington is marrying Frances Baker, and not Mrs. Lucy Malcolmson, who is upset.

Is he drunk right now?

“Troubled Week” The Association of Communications Equipment Workers is out on strike, leading to the shutdown of the 35% of American telephones still not on dial. Most large cities are largely dial, and Chicago (50% dial), was not affected by the strike, so that the largest city where telephone service was entirely shut down was Camden, New Jersey. However, long-distance is paralysed. The National Federation of Telephone Workers, whose 36,000 members include practically all of Bell’s workers, will go out on a sympathy strike in 30 days if the ACEW action isn’t settled. Other noteworthy strikes include the ones at Libby-Owens and Corning in Philadelphia, which would have been a bottleneck for the auto industry were they not paralysed by their own strikes.

Management doing the work. There is no way in which this isn't funny.

“As Steel Goes” The talks to avert a national steel strike earn Philip Murray of the CIO the cover this week.

“Inflation: The Tide” John Snyder of the Reconversion Bureau had a public fight with Chester Bowles of Price Stabilisation over how fast inflation might be advancing, and whether it might be stopped.

“The Philippines: The Last Word” Since the Philippines are unindependent again, they get to be under “National Affairs.” Specifically, this story tells us that Manilan Jimmy Baldassare thinks that General Homma should be shot.

“Races: Sauce for the Gander” A White man, Josana Quantian, was barred from Duke Ellington’s concert at Turner’s arena in Washington under segregation laws, and Tomlinson Todd of the Institute of Race Relations thinks that is terrible.

“Defining the Goal” The paper wants to be invited to Henry Ford II’s next party.

“Heroes: The 13,000” The paper covers the 82^nd Airborne Division’s ticker-tape parade through New York.  

“Morale: My Son, John” There have been demonstrations in Honolulu, Paris, Dayton and Manila by US Army troops dissatisfied with the rate of demobilisation. Major General Clovis Byers, of 8^th Army Command in Tokyo, decided to help with all the dissatisfaction by suggesting that “outside agitators” were disrupting the army for “peculiar reasons.” The average GI’s “peculiar reason” is that he doesn’t think he’s doing anything useful, that army life is terrible, and that he wants to go home. An editorial in the Pacific Stars and Stripes points out that “Enlisted men are tired of being treated as second-class citizens.” This went over with the Manila Command as well as might be expected.

“Jacfu on the Railroad” The paper interviews a Marine guard on the railroad between Tsingtao and Chinwangtao, who is distinctly unhappy about doing the Koumintang’s work for it. The marines assume that the Communists will take over the moment they leave, so why not leave now? The paper hopes for a change of opinion amongst the marines once they hear about the Marshal Mission. Unfortunately, it admits, when they do hear about it, they conclude that they can really go home. ‘Jacfu,” by the way, is the label for the Japanese troops who are assisting the Americans in guarding the rails. “Joint American-Chinese foul up.”

“Merger: Down to Planning” A committee consisting of three senators assisted by General Norstad and Admiral Radford is doing the detailed planning for the new, merged army-navy department. IN other news, Chester has formally taken over from Admiral King, with Dewitt Ramsey, Forest Sherman, John Connolly, Spike Blandy, Louis Denfield, Art Radford and one SWPA holdover, William Farber, as his family. It’s quite a gunnery purge, though Ray isn’t gone because he’s from the gunline. He’s out for health reasons –and because of the whole “Fleet Admiral” thing, and will be going to the War College long enough to complete service for pension.

International

“For Us, the Living” The paper covers the inaugural meeting of the United Nations Organisation at some length. The Russians are not happy about being outvoted on everything.

“Cornerstone of Steel” The Allied Control ‘Commission has officially agreed that Germany will be allowed 5.8 million tons of steel a year, about 25% of the prewar level, and a compromise between the Russian (3 million) and British (12 million) proposals. In other German news, Russell Nixon of the Enemy Property Commission has accused the State Department of making it impossible to trace German property in various places (notably Argentina), in order to deny Russia its share. It is thought that there might be as much as 4.5 billion in German property in Latin America, and the State Department is not doing a good job of tracking it down, whatever the specific merits of Nixon’s complaint.

“Atomic age: Failure” Dr. Otto Hahn, who has been missing since before his Nobel award was announced, has been found, living on a farm 40 miles outside London with ten other German scientists. The British will now release him, and his colleagues. He notes that the Germans failed to develop an atomic bomb, after all.

“Breaking the Circle” Congress is making trouble over foreign loans, so Dean Acheson went before it to argue that Greece could not stabilise without the loan, so it did no good to demand that it stabilise before receiving its latest loan, which will hopefully improve the Greek situation enough to allow elections to be held.

“Refugees: Awkward Exodus” General Frederick Morgan, UNRRA director in Germany, is in trouble for accusing Polish Jews of planning to flee Europe, because it is both anti-Semitic and true. Though “[f]ew were the well-fed, well-dressed Jews whom General Morgan described.” A Senate Committee in Washington is hearing testimony advocating for the emigration of 1.5 million European Jews to Palestine, led by Dr. Albert Einstein, who contends that British interference has prevented Arab-Jewish cooperation.

“War Crimes: Under the Hammer” Testimony suggests that the Nazi death camps were awful.

1. “Policies and Principles: Zigzags and Gasoline” The paper reports the New Leader reporting on a memorandum to the German Communist Party dictating that it press on to the world revolution in some way that might involve zigzagging on policy and something about gasoline. I’m not sure, because who wants to read the paper gasbagging about communist gasbagging?

“Winnie at Ease” Winston Churchill is relaxing and losing weight in London, but not as much as he could, because he must still receive callers, so he is off to Florida for a sun cure. In other British news, the paper notes that Ellis Smith has left the cabinet over a disagreement about nationalising the pottery industry; and makes bizarre fun of a controversy in the Times over bowler hats.

Albanians, Haitians and Latin Americans are excitable.

“Indonesia: Muddle” The British hold Surabaya, Sembang, Batavia and Bandung, while the nationalists hold the hinterland. Dr. Moogk has won approval of his plan for an “autonomous Indonesia within a Dutch commonwealth,” and is hurrying back to Batavia to promise Javans “full equality of status with Europeans” in as little as a single generation! Indonesians will be impressed with that! In preparation, the British have sent 1200 of the 2000 “trigger happy” Dutch marines recently received back to Malaya. With friends like that, etc.

Via Yusikom at Pinterest

“China: Truce” More coverage of the truce in China.

“Japan: Shakedown” General MacArthur’s purge continues. 107 members of the Diet have been deemed militarists and ineligible to stand for election next year. Also barred from public life are 12 Imperial princes. The paper also reports high attendance at the Ise Grand Shrine and Atsuta Shrine for the New Year’s festival. In yet other news, the Go-Daigo pretender, so-called ‘Emperor Hiromichi,” surfaced recently to ask General MacArthur for the emperoring job.

 

In Canada, the country was agog over General Eisenhower’s visit, and reports that, thanks to ration book statistics, it knows that the nation’s population is 12,119,000, up 612,345 from the 1941 Census figure, with your own British Columbia up the most (proportionately), gaining 131,000 citizens to stand at 949,000. The weather back east was unseasonably mild for a week, which for Canada counts as news. (57 degrees in Toronto.)

Science, Medicine, Education

“Tugging at the Ropes” Dr. Jean Piccard, the grandfatherly Swiss-American scientist best known for several stratospheric ascents in 1933 to study cosmic rays, is back at it. After all, “many, notably the Russians, believe that cosmic rays in the stratosphere hold the secrets to more atomic knowledge –perhaps bigger and better atomic bombs.” Dr. Piccard, now a professor at the University of Minnesota, has designed a gondola supported by 100 balloons. He needs a “financial angel” to back him with $200,000, and hopes to beat the 72,000ft record.

Per Wikipedia, the Captain of the Enterprise is named for Professor Piccard. Also, about the whole "cosmic rays and atomic bombs" thing?

“The Test at Station S” Station S is where the Office of Strategic Services tested its “volunteers for ‘dangerous and hazardous’ duty.” The testing is described in some detail, presumably in case one of the paper’s readers needs to hire a Mata Hari replacement.

“Out of the Labs” The Army tested various potential sun-tan lotions extensively. Dark red veterinary petroleum took first place. Also out of the labs are three new synthetic engine lubricants, and a daytime star-sighter to allow aerial navigators to plot their location from star sightings during the day.

 

The University of Heidelberg has denazified and reopened. One George Henry, principal of a Dover, New Jersey, high school, is of the opinion that about a third of American high school students cannot read well enough to get any benefit from a textbook, and this will never change. He does not think that they are stupid, only “non-verbal,” and while some cities have established vocational high schools for them, he thinks that this is stupid itself,  as they are spending four years learning something that they could learn in industry in a few months. He recommends more music and radio in school to reach these students. Meanwhile, Harvard’s Dean of Architecture, Joseph Hudnut, wants to cut down on textbooks and rote learning for everyone, and not just the “non-verbal” third. Instead, he wants “workshops.”

People, Music, Art

Lincoln Ellsworth is going on an expedition to Africa, while Quentin Reynolds is sad that his freeloading days as a war correspondent is over, and Mayris Chaney is in the news again for overcharging tenants of her apartment building near San Francisco. The Duke of Windsor made a controversial visit to London. Chester defended Admiral Yamamoto’s honour. Gandhi is upset about violent Congress demonstrations in India, as is Nehru. Sadja Stokowski and Marika Rivera are attractive young women who have volunteered to help the paper sell copy, Miss Rivera in a two-piece bathing suit. Not attractive, and not pictured, are the “Four Hundred,” of New York’s Social Register,. Although the point of the bit is a new rival to the Register, the Almanac of Society. Carmelita Maracci, Sol Hurok’s latest discovery, is dancing in his new national tour. 

Choreographed by Maracci? The best Youtube can do, apparently.

A thirteen year-old song, The Peat-Bog Soldier, in Paul Robeson’s hands, is the hit of the season in Berlin. Charles Ephraim Burchfield is having his first exhibition since 1943. Dorothy Lamour and Benjamin Welles (eldest son of Sumner Welles) are marrying, while BernarrMcFadden is divorcing (again). Countee Cullen has died of uremic poisoning, as has naturalist, author, and exhibitor of large snakes Dr. Thomas Barbour, and Harry von Tilzer.

Business

“No Cars, But. . .” Kaiser-Frazer may not have produced a car yet, but it is poised to make a profit this year on stock gains. Uncle Henry really ought to be ashamed of himself, but isn’t.

“The Patient Feels Fine” The unexpectedly good employment news released by the Committee for Economic Development have already been discussed.

“Call it a New Number” The National Retail Dry Goods Association” is upset at the Office of Price Administration.

“Off Again, On Again” Speaking of dubious New Deal dealmakers, Andrew Jackson Higgins is talking about making boats in New Orleans again, if he can only rearrange the ownership of his plant.

“Out of Hibernation” Banker Harvey Dow Gibson also owns a ski hill in North Conway, New Hampshire, which is out of hibernation because of peace.

The paper also covers the Alcoa deal, and first news of the Malayan gold mines, which are in much worse shape than the rubber plantations. Talks on the Atlantic quotas continue. Glenn L. Martin has $7 million in orders for its 202s, and Braniff has ordered 18 airliners. All told, twelve airlines have placed $520 million in orders. One of these is presumably not the giant flying boat which is now all Howard Hughes’. This is because Charles Perelle, the crack production man hired to complete it, has quit in a huff. Lured away from a vice-presidency at Consolidated Vultee with a salary offer of $75,000/year to be Vice-President of Hughes Aircraft, he seems to have concluded that it will never fly. In fact, right now the issue seems to be getting it out of Culver City. After that, it’s all Hughes, to do what he wants with it. Including, perhaps, even fly it.

Press, Radio, Books

“The Morgan Mess” The American press needs to look itself in the eye over the way that General Morgan’s candid statement was blown out of proportion[?]. The PM headline, “Morgan’s Hitlerite Attack on Europe’s Jews” was, it is now thought, a bit overstated. Sir Frederick, on the other hand, while not actually guilty of making anti-Semitic statements, “should have known better.”

“Mugg’s Birthday” Variety is celebrating its 40^th birthday.

“Hearstwhile News” Alfred Rosenberg told the Nuremberg trial this week that Hearst asked him for “more articles” after publishing five in 1935.

“Interesting, With Reservations” Anthropologist Raphael E. G. Armattoe, “interviewed in Londonderry last week,” told the press that the Russians had developed a new atomic bomb which “rendered the Anglo-American effort almost obsolete.” No bigger than a tennis ball, it had a “horizontal pulverisation range of 53 miles and a vertical liftof about 6.2 miles, generated a temperature in the range of several million degrees centigrade.” The New York Times not only buried the story under a small head on page 5, but added that, in his capacity as an anthropologist, Dr. Armattoe said in a London dispatch last April 29^th that brunettes “in the main have more brains” than blondes.

“Suds Can Be Beautiful” CBS announced the renewal of four veteran “soap operas,” all sponsored by Proctor and Gamble. NBC’s renewal of the Contented Hour came with new introductory music, Percy Faith’s arrangement of Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes.

A famous German writer named Thomas Mann has written introductions for six short Dostoevsky novels. Something edifying about Dostoevsky being a sex maniac? Speaking of maniacs, Memoirs of Governor Murray and True Historyof Oklahoma is out. Speaking of edifying, the paper reviews Twilight on the Danube. Is it ever morning on the Danube?

Misty dawn on the Danube at Passau. Lifted from 360cities.net . Prints available for purchase.

The New Pictures

The paper thinks that Scarlet Street is an ambitious melodrama. It Happened at the Inn is the first French postwar movie screened in America. A “fantastic, melodramatic family comedy,” it apparently hints at being an allegory, but the paper can’t make head or tails of what it might be an allegory. Portrait of Maria is a Mexican drama with the English dubbed in, in reverse of usual practice. The paper thinks it would have been better left undubbed.

Flight, 24 January 1946

Leaders

“Things are Moving” Last week, a return to the multi-age advertising insert ahead of the leading articles. This week, a full-colour cover. But what the paper means is that the Tudor has flown, and that Air Vice-Marshal Bennett is in Latin America showing off the record-setting Starlight and promising the world, while Air Commodore D’Aeth and his crew set a record of their own on Aries, covering the distance between Thorney Island and Cape Town in 32 hours 21 minutes elapsed time. “Or seven hours better than the record set by Alex Henshaw in a Percival Mew Gull in 1939.” Which does not sound that impressive.

“General Critchley’s Resignation” General Critchley’s resignation as Director-General of BOAC “does not come as a surprise.” General Critchley claims to have converted BOAC’s profits from 2.3 million in the red to 1.5 million in the black, which would be impressive, if true, but the paper does not believe it.

“Sub-Arctic Experiments” The British and Canadians are cooperating in trials to see if they can get modern British types into the air in a hurry from Arctic bases, so that they can fly over to unspecified places in Eurasia (that happen to be Red on the map, and not that kind of Red!) and bomb them to peace. Or, in the case of Spitfires and Tempest, prevent peace from being performed on North American cities.

The Sea Hornet exists more.

“The Desford Trainer: A New Twin-Engined Trainer Based on the Earlier Reid and Sigrist Design” With the current critical shortage of surplus war trainers, the world clearly needs a new design from a company which has never sold a commercial aircraft.

After this they gave up on planes and went into cameras.

“Fireflies for the Dutch Navy” The Dutch buy British!

Here and There

The paper is very excited that the movie about “Smithy” will be on the screens by Easter. As “Rebel” pointed out in last week’s number, America is going all out on new civil aircraft, with 30,000 units expected next year. Air-Vice-Marshal Graham was in New Zealand to talk Pacific security, which apparently involves New Zealand buying British. You can write your own "sheep" joke here, as due to my son's love for little Baa, I'm done. A picture of a fuselage section for a half-size Brabazon flying scale model is shown. The Brabazon will be very, very big. The RCAF is ordering a Canadian made jet fighter. The Curtiss-Wright ResearchLaboratory will be known from now on as the Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory, on account of it being made over to that university. Sqdn Ldr J. G. D. Armour, the “crazy flier” of the old air pageants, has rejoined his old firm, Henderson Safety Tanks, Ltd.

“the D.H. Hornet: an Outstanding Two-Engined Fighter: Combination of Wood and Metal Construction: Compact Installation of Merlin 130 and 131 Engines: The Sea Hornet” The Hornet is a follow-on to the Mosquito. It is very fast, and has a wing similar in section to that of the Vampire. It has very impressive performance.

“The Merlin 130 and 131 Engines” Are amazingly powerful, have good performance, and a remarkably low frontal area to horsepower ration. 2030hp is seen at 1500ft, and as much as 2600hp has been seen on the testbed in Derby.

“Indicator,” “A Spitfire Score: Part I: From the I to the IX: Varying Characteristics: Early Troubles” Indicator remembers how, in flying the first Is, it was unlike anything he’d ever flown before. Lighter than other contemporary types and so fast that one’s mental map of distance had to be thrown out, it also seemed like flying blind, before he discovered ways of seeing around that leading edge and flat-topped engine cowling. He also remembers his odd, pitching departures as he tried to control rudder with one hand and pump the undercarriage up with the other. One had to tighten the throttle dampener with a pair of pliers before every flight, and the first ones with variable pitch had a two-pitch airscrew controlled by a plunger-type control on the dashboard. The undercarriage selector would suddenly lock sometimes, and since the only way of progressing with lowering the undercarriage was to unweight the assembly, Spitfires might occasionally be seen flying inverted in the landing circuit. Vs, with their clipped wings, first metal ailerons, and unprecedented +18lbs of boost, were the best handling of them all. Landing Spitfires was easier than the narrow undercarriage made it look due to their good performance at the stall. The VI and VII, with their early pressurised cabins, were strange beasts. The VIIIs were nice and very advanced, but they were all shipped to the Far East, leaving the IXs to the European theatre, but “Indicator” really doesn’t want to talk about the IXs, at least, this week.

Civil Aviation News

Pan American has ordered 20 Boeing Stratocruisers, while Martin has just received a 50 aircraft order from Eastern, a 35 machine order from PCA, and 20 from Colonial. There are to be talks about talking about civil aviation in Dublin in March. In a talk to the Royal Empire Society, Lord Winster said that jet engines do not lend themselves to civil use yet, Sir Arthur Gouge emphasised comfort for air passengers, and Sir Frederick Sykes called for British machines owned by British companies, flown by British crews, with extra-Britishness. There is talk of FIDO at Heathrow again. Starlight is home. Mr. J. A. Mollison is delivering a Percival Proctor by air to a customer in Brazil via staging in Morocco and Bathurst. “The project has been none too happily designated ‘Project Nuts’ for purposes of inter-departmental messages.”

Correspondence

H.E. Wimperis complains that Air Transport Command’s scheduled flight safety record is quite good, and the paper takes him to task for being disingenuous about the trooping record. “T.H.B.” writes to remind the paper to mention Whittle more in articles about the history of jet power. R. E. J. Garmeson hates nationalisation. S. H. Goodright thinks that airliners should have retractable rotors, for extra safety, and even provides a drawing of an airliner with its helicopter blades extended.

Time, 28 January 1946

Letters

Mrs. E. T. Erickson of Kalmia, N.C., and Paul J. Flamand, of the USN, are ashamed to be American when Europe is starving and America is not even rationed. Robet W. Ehrich, of Amherst, Massachusetts, thinks that the atomic bomb was fine, because in war, you blow people up, and the Japanese had it coming. ore correspondents disapprove of President Truman being man of the year, than approve. The paper claims that letters are selected proportionatel, I think. Robert Dinsmore, of San Gabriel, California, thinks that the paper has been too doom-and-gloom lately, suggesting, on the contrary, that it is a “bright new world” out there. I wonder if he has written The Economist? The Estonians who fled Sweden in Erma write the paper to tell it that they did not leave Estonia when the Soviets took over, but after the Germans did. J. Ventura Sureda, of Forest Hills, writes that Appelles Fenosa, sculptor of Oradour, is not a French citizen, but a Catalan, who fled “Franco’s fascist hordes.” Fritz Goodwin is upset at the way that a Catholic missionary was treated in Japan, and the way his battalion was treated, for helping him. Allen Kalb, of Cincinnati, writes to defend Martin Luther against Thomas Mann. Pvt. James Fleming, a former correspondent in Moscow, objects to Markoosha Fisher’s characterisation of the correspondent corps as not being anti-communist enough. They are plenty anti-communist.

National Affairs

“Voice of Patience” J. P. Morgan Bank’s annual statement reads like a James McGraw editorial. All will be well in the long run.

Because of steel's great tensile strength, it is very hard to roll into thin sheets. Tools need to be more powerful, controls more precise. Anyway, point is, new technology promises new products, etc, etc. (Though the most important new products are buried at the bottom. Bet you can't guess which!

“The Presidency: Mathematics of Peace” The State of the Union presents the President's budget. The U.S. Government has been run in the red for 16 years and has built up $275 billion in debt. To cut taxes even as far as they have already been cut entails a $4 billion deficit in 1947. So, no tax cuts next year. This year, a $26 billion saving on the early end of the war means a $4 billion payment on the national debt, the first since 1930. The 1946 budget is for $67 billion, the 1947 one for $35.86 billion, on the assumption that the national income will be $140 billion. The only secret is the cost of atomic research, which is in the budget, but “not apparent to the eye.” The paper goes on to summarise the non-budgetary aspects of the State of the Union Address, about which you will have surely heard. The President has appointed Stuart Symington, of St. Louis’s Emerson Electric, to be the Secretary of War, and “rich, ambitious Edwin Pauley” to be Secretary of the Navy. Pauley’s background as an oilman is calculated to raise hackles in the Senate, but the President thinks that Pauley will get through confirmation. One reported compromise is to transfer all Navy oil reserves to the Interior Department. Two cronies, George Allen and Jake Vardaman, get Federal appointments.

“Labour: Quiet Week” It’s only quiet in the sense that with steel, the Chicago meatpackers and GM out, there is nothing doing at the factories. Although the Philadelphia glass companies are back, so if there are cars, there won’t be a windshield-related bottleneck.

“Congress: What Can We Do” Congress is having hearings to establish just what it can do about all the strikes. The Senate is also having related hearings that it probably didn’t want, after New Mexico Democrat Dennis Chavez manoeuvred the Full Employment Act onto the floor, much to the upset of the Southern senators. Bilbo has promised two thirty day filibusters. So, on the bright side, at least he’ll be dead.

“Footnote to World War II” In Manila, the court hears from more Filipinos, looking for more reasons to shoot Homma.

“Pearl Harbour: Tempting Target” With Churchill in Florida on his rest cure, Senator Homer Ferguson of Michigan could not resist the temptation to move to subpoena him. The rest of the committee was not impressed. Admiral Kimmel, who did get a chance to speak, did not do much to clear his reputation.

“Communist leader William Z. Foster” is terrible, as is Mayor Curley of Boston.

“War Crimes” The French presented their opening argument this week, calling for death for all 20 defendants. In Minsk, a Russian trial is probably going to end in death for 18 German defendants, including 3 generals. Meanwhile, veteran Berlin switchman Fritz Walther was executed at dawn for diverting a goods train into a Red Army troop car, killing 20.

“Sighing Dutchman” 22-year old Dutch romantic Dick Bergman wrote the village of Killkee in County Clare for a wife, got 60 takers, on account of Irish courtships taking so long. That will end well, I am sure.

“Homecoming” It is reported that two German POWs, returning from Russia sought out the informer who turned their father into the Gestapo for “damaging the morale of the Wehrmacht,” and securing his execution. In full reparation, they beat Hubert Knopf to death outside of a beer garden.

“Labour: Everybody’s Doing It” Americans can be comforted with the news that there are also strikes in Japan, Denmark, Dakar and Brazil.

“Thin Man Out” Lavrenti Beria is out as head of the NKVD, replaced by Kruglev. There are two takes on this. One is that Beria has attracted the Red Army’s ire, and will soon suffer his predecessor’s fate. The other, more likely, given that he remains Stalin’s number two, is that Kruglev has been tasked with some dirty work of his own, which will not taint Beria.
   

“Existentialism” Is the philosophy of Frenchman Jean-Paul Sartre, who is in New York this week to be intellectual and French. Women are swooning, we are told. I'm not, but I suppose that there is some critical threshold of women swooning, rather than it being an all-or-nothing situation.

“Great Britain: Depressing Diet” Air Chief Marshal Joubert has written the Observer to complain that Britain’s current, starchy diet is leaching Britons of their will to live, and perhaps their strength to work.

You said it, Andrei Gromyko and Time!

“Job in Java” Sir Archibald John Kerr Clark Kerr has been sent to Java to fix everything.

“Australia: For Two Pins” BrigadierDerek Schreiber, the Harrow-and-Sandhurst educated chief of staff to HRH the Duke of Gloucester has offended Australians and been “blacklisted.”

“France: Au Revoir” General de Gaulle has resigned again.

“Korea: The Russians Come” A Russian delegation has finally arrived in Korea’s coal-less, cheerless, frigid capital. It is hoped that they will negotiate a trade of 240,000 tons of northern coal and 2000 tons of steel for surplus southern rice. Other things would be nice to be negotiated, too, but the coal is the main thing.

Seoul has changed a bit in the last seventy years.

Business

“Cash on the Barrelhead” The Federal Reserve, which is trying to rein the stock market in, this week put margin requirements at 100%. This is, however, unlikely to do anything, since most buying is already on cash. It’s because of, not driving inflation. This is why Marriner Eccles would prefer to see the federal budget balanced and for the government to stop selling bonds to commercial banks, which swells the supply of capital. He also thinks that capital gains taxes should be increased to reduce the volume of speculation.

“The Shrinking Globe” It took Pan-American’s “lumbering flying boats” a ridiculous, old-fashioned, 24 hours to fly the New York-Lisbon route via the Azores. Oh, those ancient days of 7 years ago! Now, sleek new Constellations are doing it in 10 hours, although only in a proving flight. Its DC-4s will do it in 19 for a one-way fare of $295.

“The Slick Brothers” Slick Airways, which is the brainchild of the Slick brothers, just got underway in Texas. I am sure that the paper doesn’t want to be invited to their parties, so I am not sure why this is a story.

“The Sugar Situation” We are close to a sugar famine, at least on the east coast. Cuba is trying to leverage this into a 10-year deal for America to buy 50% of its crop, but Washington, mindful of the sugar beet, Hawaii and Puerto Rico interests, is balking.

Everybody makes fun of Jello desserts these days, so I went a different way. Source. Check out the tomato soup cake!

“Mooney for Willys” Sorensen is out at Willys-Overland as president, although he is still the production boss, for now. Jim Mooney is in, after a personality clash between Sorensen and Canaday.

“New Midget” Crosley Motors has a sleek  compact with the new four-cylinder sheet-metal stamping engine from Lloyd Taylor’s Taylor Engines, which I’ve noticed here before.

“Gangplank Rebuilt” French Lines is resuming liner service out of New York with its “I kiss your hands” service. It is also commissioning 18 new freighters.

“Stimulator” Business does not like Henry Wallace, which makes his position as Secretary of Commerce a challenge. This may be why he just appointed Albert J. Browning as his deputy, Director of Domestic Commerce.

Science, Medicine, Education

“Are Mothers Necessary” Dr. W. L. Russell and Patricia M. Douglas, of Bar Harbour, Maine, have successfully produced fertile eggs from the ovaries of female rats and the sperm of males, in the petri dish, and then implanted them in females. Scientific doodling, or horrifying future dystopia? Neither, it is just a genetics experiment.

“Flying Gas Tank” At the end of the war, the Japanese had a plane that could take off from Tokyo, scout the “U.S. West Coast from Vancouver to Los Angeles,” and then get back to Tokyo. This A-26 could carry 9 tons of gas, 54% of the aircraft’s gross weight[?]

“Up Sea, Back Rivers” The Russians are going ahead with a grandiose “Greater Volga Project” of vast dams and reservoirs that will provide an “all-water route” from Archangel to Batum.”

“While the Earth Shook” Harvard Professor L. Don Leet built and operated the seismograph which documented the atom bomb test at Alamagordo. Apparently, it had a unique seismic wave signature, which, if true, should allow atomic bomb tests to be detected anywhere on Earth. Which, considering the way the story is buried, I think is a bit unlikely.

“My Aching Back” Dr. Clarence A.Splithoff, in the current number of American Journal of Surgery, suggests that the main causes of back trouble are poor posture, extra fat, poor bone structure, accidents and high heels, and concludes that corsets, special shoes, horsehair mattresses, special diets, radiant heat and plenty of sleep are the cures.

“Vassar Calls it Romage” Previous stories have noticed Harvard’s new “cafeteria learning” approach of letting students take just any course they want, subject to limits that make it no fun at all. This week, retiring Vassar president “Perry” McCracken was very critical of the approach. In other educational news, the paper reminds us that this is the 240^th anniversary of a book by Ben Franklin, who is so little known in America that there are only two capital ships named after him. The National Educational Association this week indicted the superintendent of Chicago schools, William Harding Johnson, for being the man he is. I did not know that the NEA could do that? Headmaster Charles W. Balles, 33, of Warminster Military Academy, was charged this week before a real court for rape, adultery, assault and battery and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

People, Art, Radio

Hedy Lamarr is upset that her third husband, John Loder, has walked out on her.

Lady Astor has returned to America, and obligingly said many outrageous things to the press. Ralph McAlister Ingersoll, also a political controversialist, and also back in New York from his adventures, also said outrageous things to the press, mainly about how the strikes are the start of a good thing. Gertrude Stein has a play out, and Erich Maria Remarque now says that All Quiet on the Western Front was an anti-war novel. Dr. Robert Ley’s brain has been autopsied. He was apparently demented. A Hollywood party for Diana Barrymore went very, very badly. Nedenia Marjorie Hutton, “who will inherit a fraction of her mother’s General Foods fortune, wartime USOverseas entertainer and stepdaughter to Joseph E. (Mission to Moscow) Davies, onetime ambassador to Russia; has married StanleyRumbough, Jr. Colgate Soap heir and wartime Marine fighter pilot, in Manhattan. I wonder what Ambassador Davies’ former hosts think about that? Also rich and married are Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney Henry and John Wayne. (Not to each other, but I would pay to see that!) I do not know about newspaperpeople Stanley Walker and Ruth Howell, so I am just going to go ahead and assume some scandalous secret. Or perhaps it is hearing about the divorce of a ballerina and a choreographer (Vera Zorina) and of a songwriter (Vincent Youmans) and a Ziegfield girl (Mildred Boots Youman).

Dead artists Hogarth and Modigliani are famous this week. As is Wyeth, only very recently dead.

“Ugly Duckling” Cass Daley, radio’s most popular comedienne, is to be the focus of the current season of the Fitch Bandwagon, instead of the music. In other radio news, game show Truth orConsequences is getting publicity for large prizes.

Press, Books

“News or Propaganda” Hearings over whether the US Government should continue to disseminate news through AP and UP, or undertake its own news service continue in Washington, with the balance of probabilities on the latter. Private Joe Hicswa, of Wallington, N.J., who was condemned to die this week by a military court in Osaka for stabbing two Japanese to death with a bayonet, and this led to one of those “feature story” moments that put American journalism in a bad light, since his grieving family opened up to the press, and put enough pressure on Tokyo that it looks as though MacArthur will commute Hicswa’s sentence.

“The World’s Mouthpiece” the New York Times carries a Sunday signed editorial by the publisher which really is quite respectable and all, and should be a rebuke to, for example, all the Russian and Russian-dominated east European press, Argentina, where all the available newsprint is going to papers which support Peron, and the leftist Inmimbo of Seoul, which said awful things about General Hodges.

“On Its Own” Transatlantic, the, well,  trans-Atlantic paper backed by Allen Lane, got into trouble over paper allocations this week, and the upshot is that Geoffrey Crowther is out, and “bachelor Scot and prewar book publisher Tom Smith Farley” is in.

This week’s cover story is author Craig Rice, a woman in spite of the name. I adore her mysteries, and this week her own mystery magazine, Craig Rice Crime Digest debuted. This makes her notable enough for a full profile, which, since she is a mystery writer, also allows the paper to meditate on crime novels, which are definitely a fashion in America right now.

Erich Maria Remarque’s Arch of Triumph is about how awful it is to live in Paris with all the most picturesque people in the world. Dead and therefore famous is English poet William Wordsworth. He’s the one who was on about daffodils, which at least makes him congenial to Chinese tastes. Not to be unpatriotic to the homeland of so many of my ancestors, but I prefer “hard-boiled” mysteries.

The New Pictures

“The Harvey Girl” is a Technicolour musical celebrating Harvey girls, who were, apparently, nice eastern and Midwestern girls in the old wild West. Judy Garland is miscast, the paper thinks. Western musicals . . . I suppose. Abilene, Texas, another “Western omelette,” has Ann Dvorak, Randolph Scott and very unrealistic prop-furniture..

Flight, 31 January 1946

Leaders

“the Air Trooping Programme Halved” This drastic step has been taken to reduce the accident rate.

“Nationalised Heterogeneity” While the Government promises a future of jet airliners cruising at 40,000ft with passengers as comfortable as though they were sitting in a drawing-room, 20 Ju-52s are procured for internal routes, and five Constellations for the Atlantic service.

“Getting into the Air” Various steps are being taken, including having BOAC take over British South American Airways, which is the Bennett-directed firm that was just in the news last week over Starlight’s record-setting flights. I assume that there is a story, here.

“Westland Cabin Atmosphere Control: Review of Components and Installations for Typical Cabin Interior Conditioning Scheme” Westland is the company which made the Welkin, which was that early high-altitude fighter. I guess they were about the first to do a pressurised cabin, and this is a discussion of the equipment they developed for it. In case you were wondering, Westland aims for 1lb air/minute per passenger, at 65 degrees Fahrenheit, and uses Marshal blowers, which are rated at up to 8lbs. Marston-Excelsior air-to-air coolers cool the air after compression. There is a spill valve and a recirculating fan, and automatic pressure control, as well as ground conditioning for those endless delays on the ground (or the waters of San Francisco Bay.)

It's Campbell River standing in for Marlin County, but let's remember a day when San Francisco was cold and rainy.

Here and There

Star Light left Heathrow last weekend on a special flight carrying Admiral Sir James Somerville, Captain-Surgeon A., W. Lays, Lt. K. R. H. King, RN, Major-General Beaumont-Nesbit and Mr. Pleydell-Bouverie to Brazil to be very important and visit things. Air Chief Marshal Joubert disclosed that Coastal Command sank more than 200 submarines and damaged approximately another 280 during the war. Canada is borrowing the aircraft carrier HMS Warrior, with Fireflies and Seafires to go with it. Brooklands needs three volunteers to look after the local ATC squadron’s papers. Some Dutch scientists are visiting to learn about wartime developments and future trends. Napier is allotting its Liverpool plant for “peacetime production.” Handley Page’s house organ, the Handley Page Bulletin, is back. Sweden is developing a jet fighter.

Air Commodore West is resigning his post and retiring from the RAF to join Eagle-Lion film distributors. Group Captain Cunningham is joining de Havilland as chief test pilot. Aircooled Motors Corporation, makers of the Franklin engines, have been purchased by Republic Aviation for $1.5 million. Mr. Charles B. Baker, who has been with the Fairey Aviation Co., Ltd for “many years,” is resigning immediately for personal reasons, and is going to New Zealand, while Mrs. Marya Greenless has been appointed to the publicity section of the development manager’s office. Well. Those are two interesting pieces of information to put beside each other. And I suppose, given that New Zealand might deserve some kind of warning, they should be.

“Civil Aviation Plans: The Government’s Development Arrangements in Detail: Dealing with the Present Aircraft Shortage” I think the key information was in the leading article, here. Constellations and Ju 52s now, Brabazons later.

“Sea Fury X: Latest Single-seat Hawker Fighter” Ingenious Hydraulic Wing Folding: Outstanding Rate of Climb” Finally, the paper says, the Fleet Air Arm is getting a hotter fighter than the RAF. It is a Centaurus-powered, light-weight development of the Tempest. It is highly manoeuvrable, has a good visibility, and fewer vibrations. It is very ingeniously made, too.

“Indicator,” “A Spitfire Score: From the IX to the XXII: Trimming Problems: The Griffon-Engined Series” Production test pilots had difficulty getting the trim of the later Spitfires right, reporting so many “inches,” or “degrees” of trim being needed, and with ground crews then going over the aileron trailing edges with a wooden mallet and block to get the necessary “dressing.” Some aircraft, which showed roll on one sided and near-limit “upfloat tendency” on the other, required a complete aileron or even wing change. With the XI, one finally got an easy-going aircraft for medium high-altitude work, albeit without a pressurised cabin. The XII, the first Griffon-powered type, was as easy-going as the V, but after extensive flying was inclined to develop high speed surging tendencies due to problems at the air intake.  The XIV, in spite of its automatic engine controls, could reach “remarkably acute” conditions in boost pressure while making adjustments. The Seafire was nice to fly because it was not very complicated.

“New Profile Projector: Objects Up to 6in. Diameter Magnified Ten Times” This is a device for projecting the profiles of form tools, press tools, templates, plate gauges, gear teeth, screw threads and hobs on a screen. It’s quite nice.

“Halton School: The ‘Public School of the RAF’: Comprehensive Training for Aircraft Apprentices” Halton trains aircrew apprentices for the RAF. More than 18000 have been trained, and 4000 have gone on to commissions. The average age of apprentices is 16 ½ years. They must have a school certificate-level education, and spend three years at the school, and are signed up for twelve years of RAF service on turning 18. Halton trains fitters, mechanics, fitter armourers, electricians and instrument makers.

“Safer Flying: Fire Risk Greatly Reduced by Henderson Crash-Proof Tank” Send all your money to Henderson Safety Tank Company, Elstree Way, Elstree, Herts.

Civil Aviation News

KLM has a Zurich service, and is planning Lisbon and Madrid ones, followed by a New York route in the future. A Prestwick-Belfast service is in the offing. The talks in Bermuda have reached a “general agreement.” Two charter companies have been formed, Morton Air Service and Lancashire Aircrft Corporation. Drastic changes to the board of BOAC have been announced, with the resignations of Sir Simon Marks and Mrs. Cusack Fahie, “better know as Miss Pauline Gower.” Lord Burghley, Major McCrindle, Mr. Garro Jones, Mr. Wakefield Jones, and Major R. H. Thornton join the board. The Paris-New York service of Air France is expected to start in April. No word on whether it is an “I kiss your hand” service. Group Captain Rollason has returned to the world of aircraft service with Rollasons Air Service, from being Group Captain Commanding, 43 Group, Maintenance Command.

Major F. A. de V. Robertson, V.D., “Costal Command’s Own War: Part I: From First to Last on Active Operations: How the U-Boats Were Hunted” It’s an improvement for the Major, in that he manages to start with this war, but perhaps it is the alluring prospect of spending a vast amount of time on 1939, when Coastal consisted of five squadrons of flying boats, equipped with Londons and Stranraers and a few Sunderlands, 8 squadrons of Ansons, “which had a range of 600 miles and could carry only 2 1000lb bombs,” two squadrons of Hudsons and two squadrons of Vildebeests, only 171 aircraft in all. By August of 1940, there were more Ansons, Whitleys and Wellingtons, a base on Iceland, and a new Group in Liverpool. By May, 1941, Coastal was offensively patrolling the Bay of Biscay, and in May of the next year, the patrolling was by Wellingtons equipped with surface search radar and searchlights, so that they could hunt by night as well as by day. By that time, Coastal had 31 squadrons. Robertson notes the replacement of Amatol in depth charges with Torpex, and the introduction of sonobuoys, developed in America. Mosquitoes had cannons, Hudsons had rockets, D-Day, victory. (Because if you had to talk about what Coastal was doing in its years of maximum effort, you would never get down to the bar to spend the five quid the editor of the paper gave you for banging this out to word limit and on time.)

Correspondence

“Puzzled” wonders what is up with landings cross the wind at Heathrow. R. J. Hitchman thinks that British airlines “should not have to use” American machines, suggesting that British planes are wonderful, and we should use them. “Impecuniator” thinks that private types need low-powered engines which are cheap and do not use much gas. “Martlesham” corrects the paper about who flew the Halifax first. “Candid Cadet” thinks that the Government is BUNGLING the ATC. But what about the hats?

Radio News, January 1946

For the Record

This month, our editor is on about amateur radio station call signs.

Spot Radio News

So is this feature. Eventually, we get to news that someone besides a ham would care about. The Signals Corps promises progress in long-distance communications thanks to the discovery of the “ionosphere,” a belt of ionised molecules encircling the Earth at highaltitudes, from which high frequency radio waves are said to “bounce,” or in an equally inaccurate, but in a more technical way, analogy, are refracted. By analysing the way in which the ionosphere is stratified, it may be possible to make this refraction more accurate, greatly improving the accuracy of long distance radio communication broadcasts. The OPA has published price guides for reconverted electronic parts.

Andrew R. Boone, “The Army’s Radio Relay Equipment” The US Signals Corps continues to develop new radio and telephone relays that may have commercial applications. The AN/TRC-8 is a three-meter long-range set. AN-TRC-1 operates in the 230-250 MHz bands, weigh2 135lbs, and supports the army at shorter ranges. The AN-TRC6 is a multichannel system using pulse modulation. Operators can use up to 8 telephone circuits simultaneously. AN-TRC5 works on the same principle as the 6, but at a different frequency band. Also of interest are the details of transmitters and antennae, all of which may have civilian applications.

S. R. Winters, “Radio-Operated Airplane” Are neat toys.

Dorothy Holloway, “FM in Canada” Canada isn’t just a place of ice and snow. It has radio, too. It’s almost like American radio, but with more moose and maple syrup. Actually, the story is about the fight between commercial radio stations, would-be commercial radio stations, and the CBC.

Guy Dexter, “Introducing the UHF Frequency Measurements” Amateurs who want to receive and broadcast at UHF frequencies will encounter new problems and need new instruments to calibrate their equipment to the correct frequencies.

Robert Edall, “Design of High-Frequency Relay Systems” Many factors, such as terrain, operating frequency, and antennae height have to be taken into account. Radio relays will be very important for extending short-range television services, hence this article. There are tables. Did you know that for a 1000mHz TV signal, a 75-mile spacing of the relay stations will require a 930ft high antenna? For 2000mHZ, it goes down to 877, albeit with a 70db gain in lieu of 76. This is why aircraft repeaters are being proposed.

They can be art deco antennas, though. Nice!

A. N. Moerman, Sales Engineer, Potter Instruments, “Two-Decade Electronic Counter” It counts to a hundred with neon lights, actuating a mechanical counter for every hundred units. This system is in use for Geiger counters for cosmic ray measurements, but has proven too expensive for industrial use in the past.  The Potter Decade Counter solves all these problems.

Richard H. Bolt, MIT, “Studio Acoustics, Part II” We are not investing in architecture, so I am not bothering further with this series.

D. B. Sinclair, General Radio Company, “High Frequency Measurements, Part II” Sinclair discusses the kind of voltmeters, oscillators, standard-signal generators, and wavemeters appropriate for high frequency measurements. For voltmeters, he likes bolometers.

Russ Travison, Instructor, New York University, “Basic Wave Guide Principles” An educational article.

Personals

Nelson Crane has been appointed chief engineer of Hallicrafters. Dr. Howard Doolittle has joined the engineering staff at Machlett Laboratories, of Springdale, Conn. William J. Larkin has been named chief engineer of the National Radio Company of Malden, Mass. E. A. Leach, formerly of GE, has been named Executive Engineer of the Hammerlund Manufacturing Company. Lt. Comm Richard E. Mathes, USNR, hs joined the Finch Telecommunications Inc. as Chief Engineer and Plant Manager. Mathes has recently been released from the Navy, where he assisted Captain Finch in the development of special electronic equipment for the Fleet. J. B. Trescott has been appointed St. Louis Rural Electrification Authority Representative to Westinghouse.

New Products

Reiner Electronics had a vacuum tube voltmeter and amplifier. North American Phillips is offering a Geiger-Muller Tube, mainly for testing x-ray equipment. Bell Telephone is offering a 6AKS miniature pentode, a receiving tube whose miniature size proved of use to the Services. Aircraft-Marine Products is offering a new high voltage capacitor, 25% smaller than previous equipments and especially adapted for radar and other, similar applications. Rowe Radio Research Laboratory Co., of Chicago, is offering its own radioactivity meter. GE’s Electronics Department has a new electronic switch, designed for electrical studies of wave forms. The Universal Microphone Corp, of Inglewood, California, is offering a new, unbreakable material for use in constant velocity recordings for checking the frequency response of phonograph pickups. I think it takes records of records being taken?

Industrial Review

GE has a new line of more powerful thyratrons. Hearings in Washington are establishing the details of the merger of two radio-related departments of the federal government, the FMBI and NAB. Tenney Engineering is offering an insulated variable temperature and humidity chamber for testing components. The General Ceramics and Steatite Co, of Keasbery, N.J. is offering a new ceramic material, Material M-244, with unprecedented resistance to thermal shock. JETEC, the Joint Electron Tube Engineering Council, has been formed to establish standards in tubes. The FCC is holding an inquiry into radar.

Television

Westinghouse says that colour television is just around the corner. RCA’s “Aladdin’s Lamp of Television” will bring television coverage to all kinds of spot news and events. The “Roc,” television-guided bomb, was unveiled at Wright Field some more. The Television Broadcasters Association is planning 401 major video stations.

News Briefs

Jack Kaufman and Dr. C. N. Kimball have been appointed by Aeron Engineering of San Francisco to the important Transmitter Tube Committee of the Radio Manufacturer’s Association. Experimental FM radio stations are going ahead, and some fellow named Major Armstrong gave a talk in Cedar Rapids about the history of FM, which is news for some reason. Perhaps because Major Armstrong sent it in? It has that feel. A lot of this paper is stuff people send in. Cheap copy!

Or people talking about their not-boring-at-all hobbies. John Wopnsowicz, W09DUT and Herbert S. Brier, W9EQG, “135 to 500mc Signal Generator” It’s a reference generator for calibrating UHF equipment, again.

Christian A. Volf, Director of Research, Robinson-Houchin Optical Company, “Improved Sound Reproducer” It is properly designed according to well-known acoustical principles, and you should therefore buy it. The fact that this “home” equipment is as big as a stove should give you not a second’s pause. You can always have it instead of a stove!

Rufus P. Turner, W1AY, “Unusual Transmitter for 28—54 mc” Mr. Turner is not blessed with any doubts about the intrinsic interest of his hobby. That’s why he ranks as a “1.”

Shepherd Litt, W2LCC, “Resistance Measurement” I am not sure that I should even give the time of day to a mere “2,” but as my standards have slipped so far as to mention an article by not one, but two “9s,” I suppose I should mention this review of the various ways of measuring resistance.

Henry J. Seitz, “Technical Operating Dept., CBS, “From Studio to Master Control: The Versatile Technical Skill, Speed, and Cooperation Required of all Broadcast Engineers Has Made Possible the Development of Present-Day Commercial Broadcasting”  Truly, they are godsd among men.

Vincent Cavalieri, “R.F.-I.F.-A.F. Signal Tracer” It is a service diagnostic equipment you can make for yourself. Here is how.

Edward S. Nott, Television Tech Enterprises, “Television Sweep Oscillators, Part II” Continues his previous discussion of these important devices which generate the sawtooth voltages in television receivers.

W. J. Stolze, “R.f. Chokes at U.H.F.” Services relegated to the high frequency bands have to take into account the fact that they are awful.

Christopher Cross, “Listening to the World: BBC’s Achievements in the Development of its Famous Monitor Service: Equivalent to Our Own FBI” Good Heavens, I hope not! The BBC has some operators who spend their time listening to random radio broadcasts.

What’s New in Radio

And now for another review of publicity releases!

Hickock Electrical Company is proud of its new Chargicator, which indicates battery charge. The Weston Electrical Instrument Corporation has an insulator tester. The Waterproof Electrical Company has a waterproof switch cover. The Radiadart Midget Vibrator is a very excitable midget. Or something. Aereon Manufacturing, whose envelope must have made quite a thump when it hit the desk, has a mobile VHF broadcasting station. 

Seriously, Aireon is all over this issue, although I doubt I spelled the company name the same way twice.

Stevens-Arnold Company has a hermetically-sealed, sensitive relay capable of speeds of p to 10000 operations a second. United Cinephone Corporation is offering a video amplifier, mainly for use amplifying the complex patterns seen in an oscilloscope. General Radio Company has a UHF wavemeter. Clipard Instruments Laboratories has a semi-automatic coil varnishing machine. General Electric has a “Watch Dog” fluorescent lamp. Stephens Manufacturing Company has the Tru-Sonic coaxial speakers. The Industrial Electronics Division of Sylvania Electrics Products is offering a cold cathode recorder tube. And the Andrews Company offers an antenna ammeter for remote measurement of antenna performance.

Within the Industry

Everyone who has been fired and rehired, or promoted, who wasn’t mentioned before, is mentioned now. Several companies are expanding, including Baldwin Locomotives, who, you would not think of advertising here. The Products of Tomorrow Exhibition in Chicago wants you to know that it will run from April 27^th. (Everybody else is going to have to earn their publicity some other way. Except Lynn S. Saylor. I like his name. 

Captain E. L. Hannum, Development Officer, AACS, AAF, “A Simple Remote Tuning device for Receivers"

George Duvall, “Television for Urbanised Areas” Installing television antennas in crowded urban environments will be a challenge.

Clark E. Jackson, “The Signals Corps On-and Off-the-Air” A three-page summary of the Signals Corps activitries since the start of the war. I think some details may have been left out.

Letters

Irving S. Couvillon, of Marksville, La, does not think that service technicians should need high school to be certified. There’s a joke in there about Louisiana . . . W. A. Ritchie, of Bremeton, Washington, emphasises the importance of customer service in radio repairs. Charles Shaffer loves the world listing of call stations in the November issue. So did I –much less to read!