Postblogging Technology, April 1952, II: Tired: Korea; Wired: Viet Nam

The Hon. A.,
_. Hall,

_,
England

Dear Cousin:

As Ronnie and I find ourselves together in Shaughnessy with my parents this month, niehter of us has reason to write one of these letters to him. But I do know that you have expressed your appreciation of them, and so I take the liberty --oh, gosh, you know that I don't talk like this, and, anyway, I know that it is you, P., and not your uncle, who is actually reading this. So I'm going to stop talking like I am writing to a peer of the realm and instead talk to you! Fair deal? Great! Do I sound a bit distracted and nervous! You know why! I found as I wrote that I was able to settle my nerves, but now that I'm doing the cover note I feel like that stewardess who was thrown free of the Miami Airlines DC-3 crash down in Washington State two weeks ago, which I am still digesting, since I have an inside account of the flight that makes me just sick to my stomach that they put our boys on those planes. 

Your Cousin,

The Dash(ing) Pilot

R.

Letters

Clarence Senior, who is a "research associate" at Columbia University, writes to explain why President Cortines is the greatest Mexican ever. Abert Reinhardt of Texas is pretty clear that Cain didn't marry an ape, while Mrs. Ridder of Berkeley is equally sure that he married his sister. Newsweek points out that Bible scholars have no idea who Cain married, but doesn't note that the answers might be wrong, but they say a lot about the writer. You can guess what's going through the head of a Texan, but I'm embarrassed for California. Mrs. Alvin Rusterbaker of Scobey, Montana, is just one of many readers who are pretty sure that the "Might Mite" cant' actually climb an 87 degree incline, but only Edmund Cooke of Manchester, Connecticut, has an explanation for how the claim got in the papers, which is that Marines exaggerate. The Publisher doesn't have much to say this week, so he reminds us that Newsweek gets on the breaking news fast, and that the American Cancer Society says that thirty million living Americans will get cancer, but that most cancers can be cured if caught in time. 

The Periscope reports that American fighters over Japan have seen Il-28s intruding in Japanese air space. Greek merchant ships are still carrying Red arms to Central America, especially Guatemala. There may be a Senate majority to oppose the Administration's Agriculture Department reorganisation. Stuart Symington is in the news because, he says, he resigned when the Truman Administration refused to shut down the auto industry to make ammunition, which led to the current ammunition shortage. Lincoln White of the State Department is in trouble with Secretary Dulles for using profanity like "damn" and "My God" during a press conference. Dulles is probably testy because he had to back McCarthy over his Department, and all the professionals are upset at him. IRS agents are carrying tape recorders in their briefcases, word to the wise. unnamed top US officers are tired of being patronised by French officers. US residents of Hong Kong are upset that the British didn't send a patrol boat to stop the Reds boarding a yacht carrying NBC correspondent  Richard Applegate and taking them into custody. The Reds are cheating in the air information war by recovering F-86s lost over Red territory, and in some cases have even used rebuilt F-86s against the UN. Eisenhower says that on the one hand we should be cautious about the Red peace offensive, and on the other hand let's get on with the Korean armistice! Soviet agents are approaching East Bloc emigres in Denmark and Sweden, while informed persons are saying that the Reds are training "North Koreans, Spaniards, Greeks, Yugoslavs, Vietnamese, Portuguese Negroes, and Goa Indians" as agents. General Maxwell Taylor has put his staff on a diet because they're getting too fat. American oil workers in Saudi Arabia are upset that it's a dry country. Iraqi Jews are being advised not to travel with documents identifying them as Jewish. Palmiro Togliatti is probably out as Italian Communist leader. William D. Hassett and former Senator McKellar are writing memoirs. 

In entertainment news, Will Rogers, Junior may become a television commentator. Mickey Rooney, Diana Lynn and Rosemary Clooney are getting shows. Mark Goodson and Bill Todman, producers of What's My Line, are developing a television quiz show, Four Grand, which will feature four panelists answering questions by playing a piano. Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea is being made as a 3D movie. Mario Lanza, fired by MGM, may produce an independent film opera starring himself. Boris Karloff will play the lead role in a biopic featuring Sitting Bull, while Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner will be in Cecil B. DeMille's remake of The Ten Commandments. 

The Periscope gets a staggering 2 out of 10 right this week, counting the casting of Ten Commandments as two hits. 

Washington Trends reports that US military authorities are warning Congress that the state of war in Korea will continue even if an armistice is signed, and that US troops will only be able to return piecemeal. Red negotiators will fight long and hard for every detail in a final settlement, including a demand that the US abandon the Koumintang, which would drive a wedge between the US and its allies. An armistice would also damage the Japanese economy, which depends heavily on war spending. The Administration also wants to avoid a "settlement" in Germany that might lead to a neutral Germany. The Administration will counter with an "Austria first" negotiation strategy. 

National Affairs

Washington is abuzz with rumours about the fallout of the Red peace offensive. Peace in Korea? Armistice in Korea? The Administration jettisoning the Koumintang? That last provoked such a violent response that the Administration  has been denying upstairs and down for days. In fact, there's something of an inquiry going on as to how the story got into the press in the first place. It seems that Dulles and Carl McCardle had dinner with twenty White House correspondents on Monday, and gave them what Uncle George calls a "tour d'horizon, which is French for he gassed on to them for a bit. He told them that the Administration was waiting to see what Moscow actually does, that a division of Korea "along the waistline" made sense, and would leave the Republic of Korea (South Korea) with 85% of the population, and North Korea with the hydroelectric power and industry that it could use to stabilise its economy. Would peace affect America's relationship with Chiang, a correspondent asked Dulles? Yes, Secretary Dulles replied, it would put America under tremendous pressure from its allies to recognise Red China. Dulles reminded everyone of the 1950 scheme to put Formosa under a UN trusteeship leading to independence, and how nobody liked that plan. John Lenard of Newsweek got the impression that Dulles was just kicking the can around. Walter Waggoner of the New York Times got the impression that he was open to the trusteeship/recognising Red China plan, and that was the story that the Times went with, leading to Senator Knowland's tantrum and Dulles' denial, which radio commentators are lining up to disbelieve. 

"2. Problems at Home" If you're wondering, I left off the title of the first story, because it wasn't really a story, and that's why this one starts as the second "bullet point." The question of the day is whether peace in Korea means recession at home. The Administration has lined up Senator Taft to say that at most $4 billion of "fat" can be cut from the $46 billion defence budget, leaving plenty of military-side demand to maintain spending. Other Congressmen, seeing the possibilities for a tax cut, are not convinced. Senator Ralph Flanders' Joint Committee on the Economic Report has said that a gradual cut of defence spending should not affect the economy that much. The Administration is also wondering if tax cuts will produce more purchasing power. Then it is off to make the rounds of the worst case scenario in which peace leads to a neutral Germany, lost Formosa, and Communism advancing all around the world. 

Ernest K. Lindley's Washington Tides actually has the kind of subject that Lindley likes to write about for a change: A Secretary of State talked to the press, and it all went wrong. How? How did that happen? Is it that Secretary Dulles is a sanctimonious idiot, floundering in office? No, that couldn't be, he's the greatest mind in Republican foreign policy! He is committed to giving the American public more information than ever, but he was misquoted! There was a misunderstanding! 

Chancellor Adenauer is visiting, and told Congress that the Russians could have peace with West Germany just as soon as they allow free elections in east Germany and return all those POWs they're still holding. In return Congress promised that Germany would get all the American guns it wanted the moment the EDC is ratified. Senator Margaret Chase Smith's Armed Services subcommittee has got to the bottom of General Van Fleet's ammunition shortage. It turns out that Army records are so bad that the Army has no idea how much ammunition it has and how much it needs. Others disagree. There was a shortage, but it was General MacArthur's fault. Or maybe it was Congress's fault! 

Newsweek goes for a Las Vegas vacation, and then it is back to real news, specifically Stillwater Prison, where prisoners were on strike against "green and rotton" liver with raisin gravy and a $6 million cut in the prison budget until the warden tricked them into a lockdown. Now they're rioting, instead, because this is America! Not happy about that is a raiding party of Dakota Indians (Sioux), who invaded Fort Yates, North Dakota and dug up Sitting Bull's remains, with the permission of his three surviving grand-daughters and an Indian Bureau representative in company. North Dakota officials are very upset. Leonard Hall of New York is the new Republican National Committee chairman. Hopefully he managed to stay away from real estate fraud! We had off-year elections. They were very boring. Newsweek interviews Vice-President Nixon on the first ninety days. That's boring, too. 

The Korean War

"Ailing POW Swap Signed, Set: Will Peace Talks Follow?" To be released are 450 South Koreans, 120 Americans, 20 Britons, and 15 Canadians, Turks, Netherlanders, Greeks, Filipinos, Australians, South Africans, and Colombians, one hundred each day for six days, in return for daily quotas of 500 Reds. (That is 5100 North Koreans and 700 Chinese.) The Reds seem to have been, if anything, more cooperative and conciliatory than the UN negotiators, and seem eager to get on with armistice negotiations. Captain Harold Fischer, the double jet ace, is missing and reported a POW over Korea on the same day that his wife filed for a divorce. US casualties in Korea have reached 132,967, including 23,577 dead, 96,519 wounded, 2,322 captured, and 16,549 missing, including 55,000 casualties since peace negotiations began in July of 1951.  

"Western Cold Peace Strategy: Check the Gift Horse's Mouth" Chip Bohlen and the British ambassador, Sir Alvary Gascoigne, are now in Moscow. Bohlen has his marching orders from Senator McCarthy, so Newsweek lets Gascoigne in on the plan. In other news, the Russians are so thawed out they may play Wagner on the radio, while Malenkov seems to be losing ground within the Russian government in favour of Beria, while talks on air corridors to Berlin continue, the Irish are having a party to celebrate American tourists and the dollars they bring, King Baudoin of Belgium is married, notwithstanding the embarrassing appearance of his controversial commoner stepmother's appearance at the ceremony. Some British children have read Our Village, a child's picture book  by noted children's author John Garbutt (I guess you've heard of him, but I haven't). Newsweek, mentions this because it is a crisis due to the fact that an American is portrayed in a bad light, meaning that Britain is about to go neutral. The Central African Federation is official, in spite of the dangerous lack of white supremacy in its constitution. The Mau Mau rising seems to be turning into a Kikuyu civil war even as its leadership is jailed.

"Indo-China: It's French by Day, Red by Night" The French Union has 490,000 men in Indo-China, the Viet Minh about 400,000, but they receive up to 2000t of supplies from China daily, have the support of the inhabitants of the Red River delta, and fight and march in a way more suited to the country. There are, however, signs of progress. Notably, South Vietnam has become quiet under local authorities and militia. The Administration's view is that we can't take the Red peace offensive seriously until they are ready to talk about Indo-China as well as Korea. 

Ordinarily I would make a big thing about the Canadian Affairs section, which  has a big article about the Toronto Stock Exchange, but you dont' care and neither do I. Though I will mention that the article somehow makes Toronto sound shady.

Business

Periscope Business Trends reports that first quarter earnings are likely to be favourable, steadying the stock market, that machine tool orders are up, as is consumer credit. Conservative economists are worried about the volume of installment debt, with payment collection getting tougher. VA mortgage rates are going to go up to make them more attractive to big lenders, with other FHA rates to follow. The AFL is internally divided on tariffs (lots of infighting news from the American labour movement this week), and there is talk of oil import limits. Coal people claim that imported oil, which is running at a million barrels a day, has cost almost 10% of US coal consumption on the last six months.

Newsweek predicts that the future holds gas turbine autos with water-cooled brakes; "an instrument to measure the slowness of molasses; a government bond that pays 3 1/4 per cent interest; [and] push button salesmen that sell everything except money."

More seriously, Monroe Auto Equipment has a low-cost after-factory power steering accessory, while L. H. Middleton of Electric Auto-Lite is the source of that water-cooled (or air cooled) brakes and  gas turbine power rumour. Coincidentally, he is running an auto show in New York City right now. 

Newsweek surveys the ups and downs of the cost of living escalator clause in the GM contract with the CIO and reports on the Treasury's new  billion dollar 3 1/4% ten year bond. 

Notes: Week in Business reports that the Justice Department has a new round of antitrust actions against oil companies in the works, Bausch and Lomb is one hundred years old. Burroughs is changing its name, iron ore shipments on the Great Lakes are off to a fast start, GE has made Francis McCune the head of its new atomic division, while Babcock and Wilcox has done the same with C. H. Gray. 

"Ultra-Viscon" Fresh off inventing radar ("Yes, I did!" Lawrence Hyland yells at all the readers rolling their eyes), the great man is investing in an "ultrasonic viscosity measuring yardstick" that will be used wherever in industry there is need for viscosity measurements, which is a lot, because nowadays we are about consumers and babies and not missiles and. 

""Hot or Cold Anything" What about those vending machines? They sure are something! People can buy lots of things from vending machines as long as they have pocket change. Things like handkerchiefs and books! Or photos and voice recordings. cocktails! Clothes! Records! Butter, milk, and cream! But mostly bad coffee and cigarettes.  No wonder we need 40,000 engineers and are only graduating 19,000. There's no-one to design the nickel-operated milkfat centrifuge. 

Products: What's New reports that Everfresh bread that remains oven ready for months, is available from Arnold Bakers. Straeter Lite-On Company of Amsterdam has an internal light for women's handbags.  Fiber-Glas by Corning now includes fiber-glas cushions. Eversharp Pen's new "burp" pen uses pressurised air to expel the air in the chamber, allowing it to hold 40% more ink.  

Henry Hazlitt's Business Tides explains that inflation is bad. 

Science, Education, Medicine

"Gorilla Geniuses" Dr. Joan Morton Kelly of the San Diego Zoo has trained some gorillas to do some amazing things. It turns out that gorillas are as smart as chimpanzees. Meanwhile Dr. Myrtle Bryan McGraw, a child psychologist at Columbia and New York's Babies Hospital, is in the news. She has been  doing the same with twins Jimmy and Johnny Woods for 21 years, with the difference that she has been training Johnny intensively (for example, he learned to roller skate at sixteen months), while Jimmy has been left to develop at his own pace. It hasn't made much difference in the long run. Professor Glen Holland of UCLA has been doing population studies on twins. It turns out that stutterers, Scandinavians, left-handers and Coloureds are more likely to have twins than other groups, possibly for genetic reasons. 

Science Notes of the Week reports that whale milk is more nutritious than cow milk, whitewash may be strategically important in the Cold War since whitewashed homes will reflect atomic flashes better, and sleepers' eyelids have been found to jerk around when they are dreaming. 

Sweet Briar is quite the college, International Christian University of Tokyo is quite the Christian university, Swarthmore has appointed a new president. Harvard Law School has decided not to expel twins Jonathan and David Lubell for refusing to tell Senator William Jenner whether or not they were Communists, because that would just confirm them in their Communism, whereas Harvard Law expects that a Harvard Law education will quickly convince them of their errors.

Dr. Jonas Salk of the University of Pittsburgh has a flu vaccine to go with his promising polio vaccine. 

"Purine for Leukemia" In one of those stories where the researchers and research is buried below several paragraphs about the basic science, in this case potential "antagonists" which act against leukemia to slow its spread, such as folic acid, ACTH and cortisone, we hear about Drs. George H. Hitching and Gertrude B. Elion of the Wellcome Laboratories, who are testing purine at the Sloan-Kettering Institute. Studies on mice have been promising, so they are now doing a human study on 107 cancer patients, and are seeing positive results. a purine-containing compound is now available as a more-tolerable form of purine treatment for cancer sufferers. 

The current American Heart Association annual meeting in Atlantic City is hearing encouraging news about heart surgery, a new test for rheumatic fever (an important cause of heart trouble), the use of nor-epinephrine injections to reduce damage from shock after a heart attack, the use of isoniziad to reduce inflammation of the heart, a survey of a wide variety of traditional treatments for heart distress which show promise for Papaverdine while debunking the "dilating" effects of ethyl alcohol, which actually provides relief by "a sedative action." And Dr. Arthur Geiger of New York Hospital singles out steering wheel columns as an important cause of "heart attacks," because they crush chest cavities (and hearts) in accidents.   

Press, Radio-Television, Newsmakers  

Newsweek really liked "A Young Lady of Property" on NBC's Television Playhouse. Masterson, Reddy and Nelson have moved their radio marriage act to television, with 600 television weddings so far. and are branching out into different sects such as the Church of Scotland, and even a Moslem marriage with two Turkish medical students. They're hoping for a Hindu or Buddhist wedding, which would be nice."

 

Hearst has bought Sports Afield, the thirteenth magazine in its portfolio and a sign that everything's coming up roses. Jubilee is different from the other 331(!) Catholic magazines. Its publishers know someone at Newsweek, and they are "owned by their subscribers," so they are financially secure and can launch on some bold journalism about saintly Catholics being saintly. With pictures! And fashion! Meyer Berger writes a column for The New York Times. Those journalists who were invited to Moscow to do puff pieces for Communism are in so much trouble now that they're back, except their eagle eyes caught Communism being awful, and now they're telling those stories. 

  

Vice-President Nixon, his wife, Mamie, Herbert Brownell, Cherry Blossom Festival/Ohio Sesquicentennial Queen Janet Kaye Bailey, Joe Louis, Captain George S. Patton, Hedy Lamarr,  Tom Neal and Franchot Tone, Edith Sitwell, Anna Magnani and Clara Kinsey are in the column for being famous or close to someone who is. Mario Lanza is in the column for being fired by MGM specifically for being "temperamental, and Frank Cowan of Denver for being so tired of mowing grass that he has had his lawn paved with green cement. Al Jolson's widow and Mickey Mantle have had babies. Anthony Eden is recovering from gall bladder surgery. Sir Alexander Fleming has remarried. Air Marshal Hugo Sperrle has died, as have Whirlaway, C. E. M. Joad, Gano Dunn, and Malvina C. Thompson, and that's about it. 

New Films

Penny Princess is a British import distributed by Universal with an American star, Yolanda Donlan, as a Macy's salesgirl who inherits a tiny little European country of 4000 smugglers and cheesemakers in the high Alps and has adventures with Dirk Bogarde. No, not that kind! Okay, that kind. Columbia's Glass Watt is a "Grade B escape story" set in Manhattan that does right by Gloria Grahame and no-one else. Columbia's Man in the Dark is the studio's first full-length adventure in 3D, and the first since Bwana Devil. 3D is still more distracting then entertaining and the movies sounds silly. Warner's The System is another gangster film, "pat and contrived." 

Books

Ernest K. Gann's The High and the Mighty is a thriller set on an airliner beset on the route from Honolulu to San Francisco. That's over water! Reginald Pound's biography of Arnold Bennett (same title) catches the man who wrote eighty books our grandparents like. There's a picture of him looking like the Kaiser, if that tells you anything. William Owend' The Slave Mutiny is a good account of the Amistad case, which you probabl know more about than this engineer. There is an Other Books section this week, featuring Persia is My Heart by Najmeh Najafi and Helen Hinkley and The Square Trap by Irving Shulman. Najafi recounts her early life in Teheran while Shulman has strong opinions about the way that Mexicans are treated in Los Angeles and Texas. 

Raymond Moley spends his column profiling the New York Republican machine man who is the new chair of the RNC. I won't try to explain what the chairman of the two American national party committees do, because I'm not sure, either. (Except back in '48 I thought that the Democratic one was a very, very bad person.) All I can tell you is that they're important for party insiders, that they tend not to last very long, and that the last one exploded on launch.

 

Aviation Week, 20 April 1953

News Digest reports that a Miami Airlines DC-3 has crashed in the Cascades southeast of Seattle, killing all 40 aboard. The first DC-7 will be test flown 1 May. C. C. Pearson has resigned at Martin. The first North American T-28B has been test flown. Aviation pioneers Carl E. Johnson, John Kerr Lagrone, and David L. Behnke have died. 

Industry Observer reports that  there will be a world speed record attempt by a Republic F-84F this summer, that Chance Vought's ground support version of the Cutlass will be the A2U, and will have automatic fire control for rockets and bombs. The navy has sent a Douglas XA2D Skyshark to Allison as a testbed for further development of the T-40. The Air Navigation Board has sent a Sikorsky S-55 with VOR, DME, marker beacon receiver, glide slope receiver, radio altimeter and ADF for "simulated helicopter airline operations" in the area. Boeing has been doing periodic hearing tests on staff exposed to jet operations at Wichita, and finds no evidence of hearing loss. Which brings us to the latest complaint about high power climb outs from airfields, which cause engine wear as well as human wear. NACA has instrumented up a gift B-47 with more than 200 instruments so that it can take lots of measurements during test flights. CAA has developed a fire detection system for the B-36 (about time?) and a fire suppression system for the B-45. (Ditto.) Fred Lee predicts that when the full set of CAA approved equipment has been installed, airfields will be able to operate at 98% reliability. The Navy has sent Westinghouse a B-45 for J-40 flight tests. Does this story just mean that something has gone wrong?

Katherine Johnsen's Washington Roundup reports that Congress is beginning to cool on the Red peace offensive and is back to buying planes and sending them abroad. Yay! Well, except for the getting ready for WWIII part of the news. I am just not convinced that WWIII is a good idea! Charlie Wilson is in trouble with Congress for "narrowing the base of defence production," because it is okay to close someone else's plant. Just not ours! Fred Lee will be confirmed as  CAA very soon, we are told. Senate opposition has "evaporated." This is in spite of the CAA being in trouble for overspending on navigational aids, which were often installed without properly testing the location. The GAO is probing airmail subsidies while the CAA is investigating air fares. The CAA is also double checking its process for approving aircraft weight limit increases, and "putting the brakes on the Bricker constitutional amendment" that would limit agreement-making powers, because it would make international aviation agreements, for example, all but impossible. 

Aviation Week reports that "CAA Faces Major Overhaul Under GOP" (Unlike the CAB, which will soldier on.) This story is actually an interview with the new Under-Secretary of Transportation, Robert B. Murray, who certainly  has some interesting views about how the CAA will revise the original 1946 civil aviation plan according to the way that people are actually flying. (More airliners, fewer private planes.) A longer article following details all the airport problems so far discovered by House investigators. In one case, an airport was developed with CAA money in spite of being only 16 miles from another one, mainly because some private owners wanted it, and it was cheap. 

"MiG Alley Scoreboard to April 1" The longest jet fighter sortie in history, an 800 mile round trip attack on Chongju by 16 F-84s rounds off Far East Air Force's report on the first three months of 1953. The UN lost 6 F-86s and 3 B-29s in air combat, 24 to ground fire, 31 to other causes, while scoring 814 kills, 146 probables and 903 damaged, almost all of them MiG-15s. B-29s made almost 1200 sorties, while B-26s made an unspecified number. At least one of the F-86 wings in Korea will be converted to fighter bombers.

Alexander McSurely is at the ALPA Air Safety Forum, where he reports on a new water spray device for cooling exhaust collectors, requests that radio altimeters be made standard airliner equipment, that the Grimes G-570 taillight is being installed in United and American planes. A resolution calls on the CAA to make inflight fire detection system tests mandatory, some recommendations for safety upgrades of DC-3s are heard, television towers ought to have lights, and various recommendations for noise abatement are heard. Get it? Heard? 

"Jet Transport in Policy Muddle" That's what it says! The French have tested an 1100mph missile, the Societe Matra M. 04, at a secret base in North Africa. Boeing engineers say that now that they've worked on a bunch of jet bombers, they're ready to try a jet transport. the Army is looking at newer, bigger helicopters. 

Irving Stone reports for Production Engineering about "What To Do About Materials Shortages," which turns out to be something that a big meeting between the Air Force's Air Materiel Command and 500 representatives of industry, government, management, engineering, and New York show girls discussed. Actually, the show girls didn't discuss it, because they have honest jobs.  Anyway, it was generally agreed that when one material was short, you should use another, or just use it as an excuse for not delivering on the contract, if you're Wright. It goes on for a good seven pages if you're interested in possible ways of reducing the amount of nickel in your bolts. 

The Hurd-Dubois H.31 is doing even better than expected in its test flights, while Lockheed's Lockfoam makes a great stiffening material in this and that. (Mainly F-94 tails). Harvey Machine Company is going to open an aluminum rolling mill on the west coast very soon, while Ryan Aeronatuical makes stainless steel exhaust cones even faster now thanks to a new roller that can handle tapered pieces. (Hydrotel also has a tapered rolling mill now.) The AMA has recognised aeromedicine as a distinct specialty. Thompson Products has expanded its test facilities in Cleveland. Goodyear and the Navy can't waste enough money on blimps, but they're trying as hard as they can!

Philip Klass reports for Avionics that "Eastern Uses CAT to Track ILS" CAT is an 8lb device from Wilcox Electronics that makes it easier to track the ILS localiser beam. And this story is bovine excrement! The abbreviation stands for "Computing automatic tracker," and EAL calls it "the poor man's Zero Reader." What that means is that EAL has lent Wilcox some Beechcraft, and some pilots who have  never flown with a Zero Reader or a Bendix Omni-Mag, and they are testing whether it is an acceptable and cheaper alternative to those expensive equipments. As for details, the CAT uses compass and gyrocompass information, and the heading of the ILS localiser receiver needle, rather than the actual localiser beam. This information is used to drive a needle which will be centred on the needle tracking the localiser beam if the plane is on the centre of the beam. Besides the CAT, and synchros in the compass and gyrocompass, the pilot to enter compass headings into the CAT before use. Wilcox is enthusiastic about the possibility of airline sales, citing interest from TCA and PAA as well as its collaboration with EAL. 

The 1953 Electronics Components Symposium will have a classified session on guided missiles.

Filter Centre reports that the navy is buying the new GE magnetic amplifier voltage regulator, that the Airborne Instruments Laboratory of Air Force Air Navigation Development is working on predicting ILS "bends" caused by buildings and other nearby reflecting surfaces, that Lear has the tiniest rate gyroscope ever. 

George L. Christian reports for Equipment that Fafnir's new DSRP roller bearing is the toughest by smallest ever. It is also corrosion resistant and sealed against dirt. 

New Aviation Products reports that Consolidated has a vibration-measuring pick-up, ideal for missile and high-altitude work. A magnet burrs up and down with the vibrations, cutting an electrical loop and producing an interrupt signal. Euetectic Welding Alloys Corporation's self-energising Dyna-Trode welding tip is very, very hot and can even be used on rock. Grinding and Polishing Machinery Corporation has a   deburrer that cuts the time for deburring aluminum rings by automating it, and hopes that its machines can do the same with turbine blades. Rosan has a thread insert for soft cast metals, Scintilla Division of Bendix has a high tension lead, Goodyear has an amplifier for its galvanometer recorder for flight testing and analogue computers. 

Letters Captain Robson's Cockpit Viewpoint column calling for Air Force transport pilots to have air experience hours equivalent to airline pilots has stirred up some criticism! The Letters column runs pages 70 to 76 this week, albeit with only five columns of text in order to fit in all the lucky advertisers in a pretty bland issue. 

Air Transport notes that Qantas has ordered 7 Super-Constellations as a stopgap until Britannias are available. 

A guest editorial from the engineering editor, titles "Now They Tell Us" is upset at a Life article that made ridiculously exaggerated claims for new Russian planes like the MiG-17, purported "atomic bomber," and Il-28, and its entirely made up Russian versions of the Me-163, missile, and "Mikoyan" fighter, as separate from the MiG-17. Then we do some Periscope-style stuff. Reports from Washington are that CAB had no idea what the consequences of its Pioneer Airways decision would be until they made it, and it is now scrambling to fix the mess. Wilson's order cancelling all releases on secret weapons and inadvertently stopping a scheduled press junket to see the Nike, gets another mention. Many engineers have left CAB's safety section for one reason or another, and Charlie Willis is leaving his job advising Sherman Adams, which was always intended to be a short term position advising the Administration. 

Air France has received its first Viscount, Scandinavian doesn't expect to buy its first jet for several years, Captain Rickenbacker says that they're six to eight years away at Eastern, because of noise and braking problems on the runway. Pan Am is talking about braking chutes.

Letters Yes, there are two Letters sections this issue. John Nicholas of the International Air Line Navigation Council writes to explain that the grotesque navigational error in the 26 May 1952 BOAC Hermes accident in the Sahara was not a mistake by an air navigator, but by a pilot acting as plane navigator --and a very bad pilot, it seems, from the relish with which Nicholas dishes out the man's record. Air navigators think that qualified air navigators should be in the cockpit, not washed-up pilots. William Irvine, an "Air Line Co-Pilot," writes to object to Max Karant of AOPA's attempt to "pin the blame for most aircraft accidents" on pilots. Jack Anderson of Marquardt, Henry Reisnes of Aeroquip, and B. W. Bigelow of Sperry are very  happy with the articles about Marquardt, Aeroquip and Sperry. 

Letters

Readers really appreciated the articles about the Cornell Diet and the White House grandchildren. However, at least one is appalled by the abnormal upbringing that Prince Charles and Princess Anne are getting. Newsweek explains American history to Maurice Thompson of Louisiana.  Edmund Arnold of East Lansing warns us that just because the Russians aren't testing atom bombs doesn't mean that they aren't swimming in them. Several writers are touched by the column that Raymond Moley dedicated to multiple sclerosis. Even Moley's not all bad!  Our Publisher explains why it got an anti-communist to write a column about the Russian peace offensive and put Senator McCarthy on the cover. Leon Volkov is going to be a regular, and so is McCarthy. 

The Periscope reports that Taft is not feuding with Eisenhower; that the big cut at the Labour Department comes out of funds set aside for unemployment benefits for Korean veterans, who are expected to get good jobs in the Eisenhower Boom that will absolutely not be the Eisenhower Depression. Moscow observers expect Marshal Zhukov to be sent on a peace mission somewhere far from Moscow soon. General Eisenhower visited General Bradley for coffee and cake; or possibly to tell him that he, Collins, and Vandenberg are going to carry the can for the ammunition shortage and will be gone in six months.  Radford and Twining are coming up, but we don't know who the next Army chief will be. Labour is upset about Senator Harry Cain's appointment to the Subversives Control Board, because they figure that they're the subversives Cain will try to control. Federal agents say that "conscientious objector" status is just a big racket down at the draft board. The Defence Department has wiped out funding for the Community Services section that keeps things smooth between military bases and their surrounding communities, which could cause problems down the road. The Navy's atomic carrier might be a victim of budget cuts, while Boeing is talking up how cheap the B-47 is. China has signed a treaty with the Viet Minh undertaking to arm five divisions and take a more active role in the war. General Clark and Marshal Juin's were very unimpressed with the training of the new Viet Namese army in the recent joint trip to Indo China. Chiang says he won't order the Nationalist troops in Burma to withdraw to Formosa because they wouldn't obey him and he would look ridiculous. The Russians aren't off the hook on anti-Semitism because they haven't said anything about Slansky. The Russians are doubling the Trans-Siberian Railway between the Urals and the Yenisei, with obvious strategic consequences. Tito is keeping up good relations with Mao, and de Gaulle with regular politicians. People are saying that the bombs that interrupted that Peron speech might have been planted by Peronists trying to make him look good.

Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour are gong to be back for another road movie, this one science fictional, The Road to the Moon. Danny Kaye will not change his mind and go to television next season. Teresa Brewer will substitute for Jane Froman on CBS this summer. David O. Selznick will make his Broadway debute with a musical version of Gone With the Wind next year, with a highly publicised search for a new actress to play Scarlett O'Hara. Broadway thriller Dial M for Murder will be filmed by Alfred Hitchcock with Cary Grant, Olivia de Havilland and James Mason, while Lana Turner's next movie will be British, The King's General.   

 

Fifty-fifty this week. Much better. 

Washington Trends reports that the Administration has adopted a bold new strategy of pushing the Reds around until they do what we want them to do, mainly a "realistic settlement." The President has also told unnamed officials (Dulles) to simmer down with the stunts. Also, we are giving up on the whole maximum NATO mobilisation for the 1954--55 year of maximum danger in favour of the "long haul," and this will mean less US military aid for Europe. 

National Affairs

"Ike Demands Deeds, Not Words, as Reds Talk Peace, Wage War" The President is in a touchy mood because he has the flu. Maybe he should go golfing again! Fugitive German POW Reinhold Pabel was picked up in Chicago this week, where he has a bookstore, a wife and a one-year-old. As he is in the country legally, having been brought as a POW, and had a duty to escape, and US policy is against forced repatriation of POWS, he's probably going to come out of his deportation hearings fine. That lady who has been fighting her income tax bill since 1944 because it was going to Lend-Lease to "crumbling nations" is out of trouble because she is out of money and too crazy to prosecute anyway. Newsweek explains the current state of the Tidelands dispute. The GOP gave Texas and Louisiana their near-shore mineral rights, but the ones further offshore still belong to the Federal government. The arcane tax evasion case of Henry Grunewald is back before the courts, and Senator Taft drops in to explain the latest version of "The Reds say they want peace but they don't actually want peace." The special feature on Senator McCarthy is very even handed, just to show that it is always possible to be even-handed. "The Devil's not so bad! Who hasn't wanted to argue with their boss?" The big issue is how much McCarthy's personal popularity with Republican (and some Democratic) voters delivered the defeats of Millard Tydings and William Benton along the way to the win in 1952. I'd hold off on taking credit for '52, never mind planning a run for the Republican nomination in 1956 if you can't take the Senate! Newsweek also visits the Williston Basin to see what is up with oil plays in North Dakota. 

Ernest K. Lindley's Washington Tides explains why universal military training, and not just Selective Service, is inevitable. The country cannot maintain 3.6 million men in uniform without it. 

The Korean War has "'It's Good to Be Free Again:' Swap Brings Ill POWs Home," and catches us up with armistice negotiations, which are currently hashing out the repatriation or non-repatriation of POWs through the offices of neutral nations. 

International

"NATO Council Guessing Game: What's the Kremlin Playing?" Look, I don't know, either, so don't ask me! They're also arguing over the SHAEF 50 division force, since the 25 reserve division component is in rough shape and, being largely French, we can't agree on whether the problem is that the Americans haven't given the French enough guns, or that the French haven't given the reserves enough training. 

"Butler's Tax Bracer" Brace yourself because I am going to say something nice about Newsweek. It is good to read a paper that stops to explain what happened before launching into what should have happened. And at the beginning of the article, no less! I don't have to tell you, but I do need to tell someone that the Tory budget cut the income tax by six pence on the pound, the sales tax by 25%, ended the excess-profits tax and restored tax write-offs of 10 to 40% on new industrial equipment. (Oh, and raised the sugar ration with a promise of abolishing it soon. Economists argue that the estimated $460 million cut in government revenues is folly when the budget surplus was far smaller than projected and only existed at all because of American aid, but it is a good set-up going into a potential fall election.  It further ties Labour up with its own strife, and makes Butler look good, compared with Eden, his main rival as Churchill's successor. I'm sorry, no man nicknamed "Rab" will ever be Prime Minister of England, I say. 

Scottish protestors have blown up a mailbox in Edinburgh because it says "EIIR," which (again, I know I don't have to explain this to you, but . . .) she's the first Queen Elizabeth of Scotland. Wait till they hear that she's named her brand new royal yacht, Britannia. 

The Viet Minh have invaded Laos, another ( actually three) of the Hundred Kingdoms, sending three divisions into the highlands flanking Annam while leaving a French garrison besieged on the Tranninh Plateau. And Premier Yoshida's faction of the Japanese Liberal party has been able to muster a bare majority in the second general election in six months after an American intervention to assure the Japanese that American spending in Japan would not drop off for at least two years after a Korean armistice. 

"Vs. Fanaticism" The Governor General of Pakistan has fired Prime Minister Khwaja Nazimuddin and replaced him with moderate progressive Mohammed Ali. Newsweek explains how and why Pakistan is divided. 

"South Africa: Mandate for Malan" Sadly but inevitably, Malan's Nationalists have won a stronger majority in the House of Assembly, 94 seats instead of 86, in spite of the United Party taking a majority of the popular vote that was too heavily concentrated in the cities. Obviously this gives him a mandate, he says, to press on with white supremacy. At least, it is hoped, this will free the United Party to be explicitly anti-apartheid. Reasonable South Africans now expect a resurgence of "the race hatred  which had brought riots, murder, rape, and arson in the past."

In this hemisphere, Buenos Aires is in absolute turmoil. 

Business

The Periscope Business Trends reports the good news that car sales volumes have been high so far this year, which is good news, the boom is on, no Eisenhower Depression in sight. Well, except in used cars, where prices are falling fast. Dividends are up! Steel is up! Arthur Burns is  hardly worried that the Administration isn't putting together a board of economists to advice it about the upcoming slump at all! The nation's bankers are "preparing a sweeping denial that people are dropping behind on their installment payments." 

 "Outlook for New-Home Buyers: Higher Interest, Easier Terms" Higher interest rates threaten to choke off the housing boom. 

Banks in Texas are a bit goofy, and an American wildcatter syndicate may have struck oil in Spain's Ebro valley, while Freeport Sulphur reports a nickel find at Moa Bay in 
Cuba, 500 miles east of Havana. Harry Firestone is off to Europe to fight schemes to stabilise the rubber market with a "buffer," because that isn't free enterprise. 

"Result of a Rumour" Word that the Air Force was dropping 400 B-47s from its production programme leaked last week, leading most of the men at the Lockheed Marietta plant to quit overnight before plant management could reach them and tell them that the plant was not going to be closed. 

Notes: The Week in Business reports that National Phoenix Industries is set to bring us soda pop in cans, while the New York Central has ordered 184 diesel-electric locomotives from GM. 

Products" What's New reports that Toni has a special wave lotion that will treat gray hair. McLaughlin Steel's new driller's rope has a more durable core made of plastic which is immune to the various chemical and moisture effects that damage traditional hemp cores. E. G. Jackson of Los Angeles offers a snap on/snap off tool bit or change pocket for work aprons. Aro Equipment's new chain hoist weighs 28lbs and can lift a half ton at 40 ft/minute. 

Henry Hazlitt's Business Tides column explains why any inflation is too much inflation, which is why we need high interest rates and the gold standard. 

Science

"Astin Reprieved" Dr. Allen V. Astin, the head of the National Bureau of Standards, faced a "retire-or-be-fired" deadline last week because Commerce Secretary Weeks was upset that the NBS had rejected "Battery AD-X2, "white powder supposed to revive worn-out lead storage batteries." The NBS had not been sufficiently "objective," Secretary Weeks concluded. With 400 NBS employees ready to quit in protest, the Secretary has backed down, saying that Astin was a terrible administrator but that wasn't reason to fire him, and he could stay on until the fall. 

"River Clinic" Newsweek visits the University of Minnesota St. Anthony Falls Hydraulic Laboratory, which does meticulous tests to see if a proposed hydroelectric project, like the one currently proposed for the Pend Oreille River in Washington State is a good idea. They do it by building giant models, which are neat. The lab was built by the WPA, cost $500,000, and was designed by Dr. Lorenz G. Straub. 

"Small Fry Ulcers" Everyone knows that peptic ulcers are psychosomatic,  "the wound stripes of civilisation," but the Utah Child Guidance Centre of the University of Utah is examining children as young as nine with ulcers, which goes to show that even children can have these kinds of emotional wounds, even when they seem to have normal family lives, although some sufferers were having traumatic childhoods. Two of the children had fathers with ulcers, and three had particularly strict fathers. Five of the original six cases were unwanted children. Some are nervous, some linked the onset of symptoms to difficult situations, all had "marked body tension," all were boys, since no girls have yet been referred to the clinic.

"Cells Without Oxygen" Dr. Harry Goldblatt of Cedars of Lebanon Hospital, Los Angeles, has been doing studies depriving cells of oxygen, to determine how cancer cells metabolise. Differently, and they don't need oxygen, and furthermore when normal cells are deprived of oxygen they turn cancerous. Is this the cause of cancer? Probably not, but it is surely a factor. 

Medical Notes reports that cancer of the prostrate can be controlled with radioactive gold treatments, say Dr. Rubin Flocke and colleagues of the University of Iowa. Dr. Landrum  Shettles has been looking at human reproductive material in a microscope to determine when human life begins. Dr. Mark Hayes of Yale Medical School has been having success in reversing surgical shock by injecting  adrenal gland extracts like cortisone and epinephrine. He recommends building up a "reserve" of the extracts by injecting in advance of the surgery. 

Radio and Television, Art, Press, Newsmakers 

The FCC's year-long suspension of business applications for the 240 TV channels reserved for educational programming will be up on 2 June. Newsweek surveys the field of would-be private business broadcast educators and the people fighting for some kind of structure for educational television that isn't government-run, but which isn't private business, either. Milton Eisenhower has roped in the Ford Foundation, and other philanthropists will probably join pioneers like KUHT of Houston. 

ABC is by now officially the third US television network and needs a flagship show, which is ABC Albums. Newsweek likes it so far. 

MoMA is having a big show on the history of "plastic art," or in other words sculpture, and Newsweek went to see it, especially the Venus de Milo. Ooh la la, as Ronnie would say.

 The press is beside itself at the latest cold shoulder from Charlie Wilson's Pentagon, including a disinvitation from a demonstration of the Nike missile. Which reminds it of all the other Administration officials not giving press conferences or issuing news releases. 

"Ups and Downs" It's tough to run a newspaper these days. the publisher of the Los Angeles News has fired his chosen "newspaper doctor" three weeks into Robert Townes' tenure and substituted mass firings for a revived local reporting section. On the other hand, Canadian Roy Thomson, who has turned the Timmins Press into an eighteen paper chain, is now branching out to Britain, where  he will be publishing the weekly Canada Review. James Reston has been promoted to chief Washington correspondent of the New York Times in a bid to retain his highly-sought-after services. 

Ronnie fought with Newsweek for a long time over the section heading, and this week there is actually a People feature separate from Newsmakers, covering Charlie Chaplin's renunciation of his American citizenship, but also the same old column of short features of slice of life and gossip. So here's the scoop: Coach Herman Hickman is an actor now, too. Kirk Douglas danced with Olivia de Havilland in Cannes. Sakai tribesmen in Kuala Lumpur issued Adlai Stevenson an eight-foot blow gun ahead of the 1956 election. Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit has abruptly left London for India without explaining her reasons. William Inge and Arthur Miller have won prizes for playwriting. (which is writing plays and not playing writing.) Charles E. Wilson's compensation from GM is down to a mere $22,000 this year from $581,000 last year on account of him being Secretary of Defence this year and not working at GM at all, which seems fair to me. The President has reversed his earlier decision and  mothballed the Presidential yacht because he doesn't like boats anyway. Stefan Heym has sought political asylum in East Germany.


Glenn Davis is married, Benny Goodman is sick, Babe Didrikson Zaharias is getting better, Marianne Moore has won an award, Frederick Lawrence Greene, Charles R. Knight, Frank Purnell, and Gustaf Winqvist, inventor of the (spherical) ball bearing, have died. 
 

New Movies

My issue was bound without the first page of this section, so all I can tell you about Bright Road is that it is a problem movie about race. Universal-International's Desert Legion is not a problem movie. It has Alan Ladd and Arlene Dahl in the "Trousers of the Year." It seems to be a bit of false advertising in that it is a "lost city" movie and not a Legion movie, but, hey, Trousers of the Year! 

Books

Eva La Gallienne's With a Quiet Heart is the story of her life as famous actress. burn victim, and very worthy person. Leon Uris' Battle Cry is a recruiting ad for the Marine Corps. Lajos Zilahy's The Angry Angel is the story of a Hungarian noble dynasty that did not impress Newsweek. Frank Round's A Window on Red Square is a colourful account of his two years as press attache at the embassy in Moscow. I have no idea what kind of book it is, because the review doesn't tell me. So I assume that it is bad, and he has a friend at Newsweek. The worst! I am assuming the worst! Other Books has Howard Swigget's history of the Foreign Legion, and a biography of Sigrid Unset, another novelist our grandparents liked. 

Raymond Moley and John Foster Dulles agree that the President shouldn't have signed the UN Convention of Human Rights, because what if the treaty comes into conflict with the Bill of Rights, what then? However, Mr. Dulles underestimates the dangers because one time the Supreme Court made New York State recognise Communist Russia just because Congress had recognised Communist Russia. Now that's what I call a constitutional crisis! 

Aviation Week, 27 April 1953 

News Digest reports the Western Airlines DC-6 last week at Oakland, Colonial's new air safety record, Braniff's new labour dispute, General Quesada joining the board of Lockheed, a new ADF from Gavco, and the airlines going on Daylight Savings Time for the first time. 

Industry Observer reports that late model F-86s can now outmanoeuvre MiG-15s at high altitude thanks to the GE J47-27 engine with 6000lb thrust. Recent British reports that the USAF is considering ordering the Vulcan or Valiant is "propaganda," because the USAF "believes that it is well ahead of the RAF on medium and heavy jet bombers." United Aircraft Corporation has confirmed that the F-100 Super Sabre will have the Pratt and Whitney J57 engine. The proposed 100,000lb payload Douglas Freighter, tentatively designated the C-132, will have four of the new Pratt and Whitney turboprops based on the J57. The Navy has confirmed that the $154 million Westinghouse J40 production contract scheduled for Ford's Lincoln Mercury Division at Lansing, has been cancelled. The Convair Sea Dart has had more flight trials. The first F-84H supersonic propeller testbeds have been shipped to Edwards Air Force Base. They will fly with the Allison T54. NACA is doing "basic" research on an atomic plane at Wright-Patterson. Bristol will soon announce three variants of its Britannia, all of which will be 10ft longer than the original prototype, with a gross weight of 155,000lbs and a payload of 30,000lbs, made possible by the Proteus 3, with a rating of 4,150ehp. BOAC has ordered 3 Britannia 200 freighters, Qantas 6 Britannia 300 passenger types. A firm contract for offshore production of the Hawker Hunter will be signed in Paris soon.

Katherine Johnsen's Washington Roundup reports that the President's plan to rationalise the armed forces will have significant consequences, but Senator Johnson of Texas has no time for defence cuts. Neither does Senator Russell, while Senator Symington wonders why we are talking about cuts suddenly when what we need is increases. The Forrestal aircraft carrier is the Navy's top priority next year after a comparatively small minesweeper order. Only zeroing out the Navy's $995 million shipbuilding budget will stop it. The nuclear carrier will be the fourth or fifth carrier built, not the third, so it will not be available for the Navy to gain experience with nuclear propulsion until 1960. The Army expects a tough battle over its $200 million helicopter procurement programme, because its spending authorisation is still in doubt. Local service lines are more hopeful of Canadian than US aid, as there is talk that the Canadian air force will buy the Canadair CL-121, making it an economical feeder liner design. The Senate is fighting over air mail subsidies again. 

Alexander McSurely reports for Aviation Week that "CAB Adopts Airliner Cockpit Standard," and about time! Fred Lee has passed out of committee and seems certain to be confirmed as Administrator of the CAA. The Chase 123B had its public debut in front of "US and foreign military observers and press." There is considerable foreign interest in the C-123, and  a big production contract, of which Kaiser-Frazer's Willow Run plant has the largest share. As I'm sure you know, we over here in the wilds of West America are very dubious about "Uncle Henry" pulling this contract off. The House Appropriations Committee has cut the NACA budget, CAA has ended the freeze on '53 Airport funds, CAB is studying a cut in its safety staff. Nothing to worry about there! 

"B-47 Workout: Stratojet, Aided by Jetstream, Hits 794mph; Bombs From 40,000ft in 1000 Hour Test." B-47s have also flown 8 hour missions, albeit with mid-air refuelling. In other new model news, Bell's new 47G has synchronised elevators and a hydraulic control boost, while MATS is increasing the C-124's allowed maximum takeoff weight, and F-94s have been seen using their braking chutes. 

"Flying a Jet Bomber in 'Combat'" Derek Wood, reporting for Aviation Week, descrribes riding with a Bomber Command Canberra in the recent exercises. There's not much actual detail about the flight, probably because Wood was in the back seat and couldn't see anything except three RCAF Sabres go zooming past after a successful "intercept," He went through the same agonising GCA approach as the Flight reporter, and brings us interesting details of the B. Mk. 2, which finally has the intended bombing radar and can get rid of the bombardier, a third crew position not envisioned in the earlier design. The radar was used in JUNGLE KING, in which bombing also brought to attention the poor accuracy of bombing from 40,000ft with "conventional" bombs. Just to be clear here, dropping bombs from 40,000ft gives you inaccuracy because they fall a long way. There's nothing you can do about that except maybe invent a gadget that measures wind speeds all the way to the ground. Atomic bombs don't hit the target more accurately; they blow up larger areas. 

The annual report of the Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Aviation Safety Centre of Cornell University explains that this was the safest year for domestic air transport ever recorded, but international fatalities rose slightly.  Work on crashproofing, reducing collision hazards, cockpit visibility and ventilation, fire safety, noise, ditching equipment and procedures, continues. 

United is building a double-deck loading dock to be attached to the end of a Whiting Loadair unit to speed airliner cargo loading. Ansett is modifying its fleet of DC-3s with Turbomeca gas turbine auxiliary powerplants to boost takeoff. 

David Anderton reports for Aeronautical Engineering that there are "Two Paths to Day Fighter Superiority" With all the talk about "light" fighters, people are forgetting about fighter pilots' other favourite thing, more vroom. Bigger engines means more performance! The new generation of fighters, building on MiG Alley experience, will be needle-nosed with batteries of four 20mm cannon at the nose, and delta wings at the back. An ejection capsule may improve survivability over ejection seats. Pilots keep saying that getting rid of the gadgets will reduce the weight difference, but starting with power gives more room for growth, and previous experience with light fighters has not been good. The F-86D is heavier than the Sabre, and a better performer because it has more power, and even stripping two tons of weight out of the Sabre to bring it below that of the MiG-15 won't give the Sabre the same performance because it lacks power. So: More Power!

"Wide Peace Use Seen for Earth Satellites" Artificial satellites (like the Moon, but not as romantic) will have all sorts of uses, says Harry Ross of the British Interplanetary Society. They're not for war, since they are as easy to shoot down as they are to launch. (Hmm. HMM.) But they could take pictures or bounce radio waves, relay television transmissions, measure space stuff, produce electrical power from the Sun for more elaborate activities like experiments that would benefit from being done in free fall. They would also be a great place to monitor the world's weather, and would be a great place to put astronomical telescopes. 

Lillian G. Murad of the Society of Women Engineers urges wider education for engineers. I don't know what all she are talking about! French manufacturer Sncaso calls our attention to a helicopter that didn't crash, showing just how safe they are. The Air Force is starting a Flight Safety School at the University of Southern California. McDonnell has opened a jet test facility, J. A, Maurer has a three-way camera for recording instrument data, and the British are doing their best to increase jet transport production in spite of a shortage of manpower and housing, although the machine tool shortage has been solved. The Comet II is about to start coming off the Chester works, while Viscouts will start to come off the lines at the Vickers plant in Hurn, as well as Weybridge, next year. Bristol is trying to get up to 25 Britannias a year, is thinking about calling in a second manufacturer in Britain, aside from planned production in Canada. Fletcher and Miller wants everyone to know that its latest remote indicator really indicates remotely.

Vultee Aircraft Corporation reports for Production that "Fast Miller Gives Fine Finish" Built by Cincinnati Milling Machine and demonstrated to the National Tool Builders Association by Air Material Command, it is really fast and really smooth and Vultee bets that lots of companies will buy it soon! 

What's New, buried in the mid pages, has the new SAE Aeronautical Drafting Manual, Bulletin ANC-22 of the subcommittee on Air Force and Navy Design Criteria, Munitions Board Aircraft Committee, which is Climactic and Environmental Critieria for Aircraft Design. The AN Standard books, which appear to be books of design standards, are being published by Air World Books. Fifty Years of Powered Flight is a 125 page pocket book available now from Admaster Creations of Cincinnati. Proceedings of the 1952 National Electronics Conference, Vol 1, is avaiable from same, since the IEE wouldn't pick up the bill. 

Philip Klass reports for Avionics that "General Putt Challenges Avionics Industry" Major General Donald Putt is the head of Air Research and Development Command, and this week he told the Institute of Radio Engineers annual  meeting in New York City what he wanted from them, which was more and better electronics. The equipment should be simpler, more reliable, easier to maintain, and be produced in greater quantities, and the industry needs to produce test examples and booklets in a timely way. Oh, and better packaging, too. And smaller!
And every box of transistors should come with a bubble gum card! 

Plug-In Division of Electronic Engineering of California has 26 new plug-in circuits for easier design, while Oregon Electronics Manfuacturing has a portable resonance meter for measuring the imperance of aircraft antennae. As long as the battery doesn't run out while you're up on the wing of a Neptune on a rainy winter morning, is all I am saying. And, yes, it should be the ground crew's job, but if they keep telling you there's no problem, what else are you going to do? 

Filter Centre reports that Northwestern is trying the Collins integrated flight control system on a Stratocruiser, while GE has a new fire retardant insulation material, Textolite, a laminated plastic that puts itself out double time. TCA is going to try out the Wilcox CAT on a DC-3 for evaluation. The University of Alaska is studying polar communications blackouts to see if they can be predicted, while Berkeley Scientific Division of Beckman Instruments is distributing Coleman Engineering's "digitiser," which switches element voltages from analog to digital. 

George L. Christian reports for Equipment that "New Oil Will Make Hot Jets Hotter" Standard Oil's top secret Esso Aviation Turbo Oil 15 has the widest temperature range yet. It is also the first synthetic lubricant to get military approval in the US. It is based on EATO 35, a British specification. It does, however, require new seals, since synthetic oils corrode the existing natural rubber seals. Vickers (I think, the American firm) is experimenting with joining tubes without special fittings with an external wrap, which doesn't count as a special fitting. The Navy is interested in long life nickel-cadmium batteries after losing 3 Grumman F9F Panthers to overcharged lead-acid batteries.The US has been working on nickel-cadmium batteries since encountering them in a FW190 during the war, but so far without coming up with a suitable design, although the French have been building the original German design for years
. 

New Aviation Products has the Dextrex Ultrasonic Cleaner from Remington Rand, a porous nickel sheet for storing instruments and avionics gear that maintains ambient air pressure while excluding moisture. Western Metal's new copper alloy uses nickel, silicon and aluminum to replace scarce beryllium in electronics. American Research Corporation's sand and dust cycling machine simulates desert to service standards. Air-O-Tronics has a test lead with a variety of snap-on accessories for universal testing of avionics equipment. The Navy's Aircraft Instrument Laboratory in Philadelphia has a cold chamber that can drop temperatures down to -150 Fahrenheit. Scientific Instruments, Inc, wants you to know about its new range of measuring instruments. 

In Air Transport, I learn that the problem for New York Airways is the lack of heliports at airports, and not that no-one wants a helicopter airline. 

Captain Robson is back with a Cockpit Viewpoint, "It's the System, Not the Pilots," explains that he is not criticising the pilots for the fact that they lack experience, but rather the air force, and he goes on to say that rather than rebutting all the criticisms of "old men in the cockpit" in detail, wh ich is beyond his word limit, he is just going to tell you whippersnappers to show some respect! 

Robert Wood's Editorial asked aviation executives to write in about publicity the other day, and now he has a bunch of advertorial letters he can run instead of writing something. Hurrah! I look forward to the day when everything in this magazine that isn't an ad, is an advertorial. But wait! That was last week! 

The Engineer for 17 and 24 April 1953 starts off with We Don't Call It The Seven-Day Journal Any More, which leads with a disaster in London. But enough about the new budget, there was a tube collision that killed 9 passengers on the London Central Line. Lord Hives gave a nice talk about how engineering does not get enough respect in British schools. The annual report of the British Electrical and Allied Manufacturers' Association tells us that the British Electric Authority has 1540 MW installed capacity this year compared with 1233 MW a year previously, that direct exports of electric machinery are up 15% over 1951 at £218 million, and is the largest exporting industry in the UK. However, German and Japanese competition is coming on strongly. Germany can offer better payment terms and shorter delivery times, while Japanese competition is being felt in India and Pakistan. Also, the third stage of the development plan of the Dorman, Long Tees-side steel works development gets a blurb. 

U. M. Barske summarises his work on "High-Pressure Pumps" for the Ministry of Supply and before when he was working in Germany. This installment of the series discusses two kinds of impeller pumps with mathematical details. 

"The Institute of Metals Annual General Meeting, No. III" The meeting terminated with a general discussion of the symposium on "The Control of Quality in the Production of Wrought Non Ferrous Metals and Alloys," which is summarised here. Dr. Parker of Aluminum Laboratories, Lrd thinks that there should have been more about cast alloys, and better statistical control. Mr. Batchelor of ICI is disappointed that we don't take more care to ensure that individual operators make all the samples we are statistically testing, and Dr. A. R. E. Singer is deeply disappointed that people don't want X-ray machines in their factories, on the grounds that they are fragile. Nonetheless! He says, repeatedly. 

Seeing off one continuing feature means room for another, "The International Motor Show at Frankfurt," No. 1, reviews this rapidly growing show, which is so important to British makers, but more so German. Britain exports 80,000 cars to Europe, and 200,000 to the rest of the world, while Germany exports 80,000 to Europe and 20,000 to the rest of the world. How urgent is German competition? Germany has only 1.5 million cars, and 30% are more than nine years old, but private Germans can't afford cars. The Engineer likes Mercedes cars, but the star of the sow has to be "the VW," and its sports variante, the Porsche. The VW is particularly notable for improvements in the gearbox and suspension that greatly improve riding comfort while fitting within the established shape of the car. There is a broad trend to synchromesh and synchronisers in the gears, but Hauser has an automatic transmission. 

The National Bureau of Standards has developed a "simple" portable gamma radiation survey instrument for the Bureau of Ships, which is going to need them.

"The Institution of Naval Architects, Annual Spring Meeting, No. III" This installment begins with the discussion after the reading of "The Effect of Radial Pitch Variation on the Performance of a Marine Propeller" by Processor L. C. Burrill and C. S. Yang, followed by a discussion. There's also a discussion of the limits and advantages of this kind of study, with a full-size propeller, which I should mention after the stink over "statistical control" in the Metals meeting. That's when you make sure that your data is actually data using statistics, by the way. So this discussion is also in part about the methods used in the study. The conclusions are only as good as!  Following is a discussion of R. Wreck(!), "Fatigue in Ship Structure," which everyone is talking about these days. James Turnbull wonders if we should be. Welded ships are pretty tough and sloppy, surely they can stand up to some wear! Dr. Wreck thinks that too much fiddling with fatigue is just leading to more expense than the savings on maintenance could ever cover. D. E. J. Offord is happy with the concrete results of the study (an assessment of the filleted welds on fatigue life) but is appalled at this jejune approach to fatigue, with the exception of brittle failure, where the author thinks fatigue is important, which is obviously dumb. G. M. Boyd points out that we don't actually know the proportion of failures caused by fatigue, as they tend to be repaired without investigation, and brittle fractures might start with fatigue cracks. Others agree. Next week's installment has two articles on hydrodynamics, and is not nearly as interesting. 

"Large Capacity Hydraulic Dynamometer" The Admiralty building at the National Gas Turbine Establishment has a huge hydraulic dynamometer! It is really big! And it has ancillary gadgets, such as brakes for the turbines, which unfortunately don't have reverse gear. 

The Engineer being The Engineer, it isn't enough to note that the Athlone Engineering Fellowship for Canadian Graduates exists. There has to be a "general sketch of the situation" including figures for annual machinery exports to Commonwealth countries for 1949--51 to show that Canada is an important and growing market. Hence the Athlone Fellowship, which is justified because it promotes trade with Canada. There you go. Three pages for a scholarship scheme that will have fewer than 60 Canadian students studying in Britain at any given time. 

Leaders

 "The Budget, 1953" The Engineer explains why tax cuts combined with a tiny budget surplus only covering direct spending and a deficit when "below the line" expenditures such as loans to local authorities and nationalised industries are included, is a good thing. The previous postwar governments ran large surplusses to contain inflation, but now that a single year of "monetary control" (that's higher interest rates) have shown that they can control inflation, it is time for a party for rich people! Two parties for rich people, counting their income from the funds! It's great! Happy times are here again! And more depreciation allowance will encourage investment in productive capacity. Hurrah! 

"Nuclear Propulsion" The AEC is satisfied with its two experimental reactors and is proceeding with trial atomic submarines. "Little has been heard, however" about the atomic plane. Well, you see, that's because water is  natural shielding (and a neutron moderator), so putting a reactor in a submarine and a single reactor shield forward protecting the crew, is enough. At least, when you take into account a 2500t submarine! An airplane would need to lift 50 tons of shielding. A large enough plane can possibly be imagined, but the submarines will cost 1400 dollars per kilowatt hours, or $26 million for Nautilus alone, so you can imagine what the airplane would cost. It is all too expensive for a commercial nuclear power plant this decade, although a submarine with unlimited range and no need to surface is worth having. 

Two correspondents, a librarian and a representative of the new profession of "information officer" write in to explain that librarians are not "information officers," and that while modern industry is drowning in information and needs "information officers," it isn't exactly clear what they are just yet. 

Literature

G. E. Fussell's The Farmer's Tools, 1500--1900 sounds very interesting for an antiquarian, while Cornelius Ryan is the editor of Across the Space Frontier, which is kind of the opposite of the Fussell book. It is based on a symposium in Collier's, and the presence of V-2 project director, Dr. v Braun, looms large. He predicted the V-2, so his predictions of interplanetary travel deserve a careful look. At the same time, his vision of 500t rockets taking off from the Earth seem a bit unlikely: 700 tons is closer to it. The project envisioned in this book calls for four launches a day of 7000t rockets for several days in order to build a complete orbiting space station, 1075 miles above the Earth, with a crew of 80, stored for regular replenishment, built of a 259m diameter wheel (so that it can spin and give artificial gravity) and exchange by two further launches a week. This all seems impossibly ambitious as a first step and "engineers cannot be expected to take a serious interest" in it. The first artificial satellite is worth studying. This monster, The Engineer thinks, is a great deal of experience and "many years" away. 

Inevitably

"The Athlone Fellowship Scheme" Because the first three pages weren't enough, the fellows of ICL discuss it for two more. 

"The Physical Society's Exhibition," No. II The Physical Society of London is giving its 37th annual exhibition of interesting instruments. I'd say that once you've seen one load analyser you've seen them all, but if there's anything that New Aviation Products has taught me, every single High Voltage Insulation Tester is newer and more different and smaller and more rugged and operates across a greater temperature range. But I'm not writing a page of that out!

"A 70BHP Four Cylinder Petrol Engine" Designed at the Dagenham works of FMC for the 2 and 3 ton Thames vehicles, this is a 3610 cubic inch engine and Ford has been nice enoough to send us a cross-sectional drawing

Or we can just look at a '64 Thames Trader: CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=305520

"The Electrical Research Association" The 32nd annual meeting leads to the 32nd annual report and covers a range of studies in single sentence summaries that are beyond me to summarise further. 

"A Sheet Metal Bending Machine" Turner Brothers sends in the "full particulars" of this "very interesting machine." It's another machine that can handle curves. That's pretty complicated math! 

"Electric Power Generation by a Nuclear Reactor" The AEC is now producing small amounts of commercially useful electricity from an experimental homongenous reactor at Oak Ridge. It is the first reactor to operate hot enough to produce enough steam to run a turbo-generator. 

Rolt Hammond, " A Novel Hammer Foundation" The International Nickel Company's new steam forging hammer at its Huntington works uses superheated steam to produce just about the most forging pressure possible to forge nickel ingots. Traditional steam hammers pound the ground so much that the sites are down for maintenance most of the time, but this one has a foundation of giant blocks of high strength concrete arranged to damp out vibrations. The author explains. 

British Standards Institution This week, engine lubrication oils. Then two advertorials close out the issue, one for the Power Gas Corporation's new Pease-Antony type gas scrubbing plant in Stockton-on-Tees, the other for a high pressure hose end fitting from Bowden (Engineers.) 

Industrial and Labour Notes, Notes and Memoranda, Launches and Trial Trips

The work force has fallen by 4000 this month, losses mainly in the metal-using industries being greater than the economy as a whole as there has been  a gain of 10,000 in construction. Mr. Sandys was in Wales to celebrate industrial development, mainly in tinplate steel production. A slight increase in the price of steel, with annual production now at 18.272 million tons. Copper scrap has been de-ontrolled, there is to be an inquiry into the problem of duty-free machinery imports. The S. S. Hebble, which wsa driven through the dykes of the Humber during the February flooding, inundating the Immingham Docks, has been refloated. There have been seven launches and trials, of 5 diesels, 1 steam turbine and 1 reciprocating steam plant. (The last being a cargo liner, Promothee, for French owners.) They include three tankers, two cargo liners, one passenger ferry and one passenger liner. 

The Engineer, 24 April 1953

We Don't Call It The Seven-Day Journal Any More

Britannia,(the royal yacht, not the airliner) has been launched. The Diesel Engine Users' Association had a nice lunch this week where they talked about vibration and supercharging. The British Steel Founders Association had a three day convention, which mainly focussed on castings, quality control, and customer service. The Department of Scientific and Industrial Research will be conducting a tour for an investigating group for the EEOC this week, so don't be surprised if some odd-looking foreigners poke around your works to find about how you use low-grade ores. The British Electric Authority sold 5460 million kwH in March, 1953, compared with 5042 last year. The Southern Junior Branch of the Institution of Naval Architects and Institute of Marine Engineers has been reorganised. 

"British Industries Fair," No. 1 The Engineer has the prospectus of next week's show, and it sounds very interesting, with not just heavy machine tools and boilers, but also laboratory meters, concrete mixers, forklifts, and even a nice new engineer's square on show. 

"The Athlone Fellowship Scheme" Like all other readers, I literally cannot read enough about this scheme to bring sixty Canadian postgraduate engineers over to study at the Imperial College of Technology. Honestly. There should be a book --several books! A whole series, like the Radar Handbook! 

"French Cross-Channel Steamer Lisieux" A steam turbine railway ferry, this article is devoted to the layout of the passenger decks. I suppose we'll miss the installment that visits the machinery but it doesn't sound very novel, so we probably won't miss very much. 

"The International Motor Show at Frankfurt" Due to taxes and the war, most Germans can't afford a car, so commercial vehicles are the most important, if not most prominent part of the show. The Engineer supposes from driving the Autobahn that the German market is approaching "saturation" for heavy commercial vehicles and that there will be a flood of exports soon. German builders are less handicapped by all those rules about weights and axles than British, although that does not mean that their vehicles aren't heavier and more cautiously rated than British. Germans like their unique layouts, so there is lots to see, including nice cut-out diagrams of a Hanomag diesel and a Voith hydraulic transmission. 

This year's James Clayton Lecture is by James R. Bright, and is "American Industry and the Problem of Materials Handling," from which The Engineer prints extracts from the full lecture, to be published in Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. It is about how mechanised material handling saves labour and increases productivity but might not be considered real engineering, which is a very important thing to think about at some length.

 

"The 2500bhp 'Deltic' Diesel Engine" Napier, the London shop with the fertile imagination that gave birth to the Sabre, has been awfully quiet for the last eight years. It turns out that it has been working away at topping the Sabre, with the Nomad turbocompound and now a two-stroke, double-acting Diesel laid out in a six-deep, stacked triangle (Greek letter 'Delta') of eighteen opposing pistons (and their cylinders). Did you know that maths uses the letter Delta to signify change? A revolution is coming! The new ways are sweeping away the old! In spite of sounding almost unbearably innovative, the main virtues of the Deltic are said to be simplicity and efficiency of working, since double-acting pistons get rid of many of the fiddly bits in a traditionally aspirated Diesel. Unfortunately this means a very complicated gearbox. We have got very, very brave about automotive gearboxes over the last few years, and that courage hasn't served Allison or Wright, or even Bristol well, but maybe Napier can beat the odds.

Leaders

The price of steel is too low to support increased production, and British steel plants make too many kinds of steel for real efficiency. Low steel prices are good for exports, and the investment problem was an important cause of nationalisation. Now that we are denationalising we must not lose that advantage, so it is disturbing to see that the industry intends to take up a price increase with the Iron and Steel Board as soon as the denationalisation bill is through. The debate about librarians versus "scientific information officers" continues. 

Literature has Donald De Carle's Practical Clock Repair, which is just exactly what the title says, and J. Stewart-Remington and W. Francis, The Composition and Assaying of Minerals, which gets a very brief and negative review. 

"The Physical Society's Exhibitions" An ultrasonic drill! (There is also an "ultrasonic flaw detector" from Kelvin and Hughes. The "Camera Unit of an Image Converter.!" You know, I like to be all worldly-wise in these letters, but I am dying to see this exhibition now. I am definitely going to have to drop in on the Physical Society next fall, although I guess these things will have long since been returned to their makers by then. The "Image Converter," for example, does exactly that. Turns an image, into an electronic signal! Which, of course, television cameras already do, but it is better.  As no such show would be complete without an electronic digital computer, Elliott Brothers of London have sent in the one they built for the National Research Development Corporation. Compared to that, Metrovick's vacuum pump and W. Edwards' "Non-Ferrous Metal Tester" are pretty humdrum. 

"Precision Drilling of Sugar Beet Seed" I know it sounds like a device to torture innocent beet seeds, but this turns out to be a planting drill. The Engineer explains that there are 400,000 acres in sugar beet in Britain, so this is important! Speaking of important, the ninth annual report of the British Iron and Steel Federation is full of interesting information and useful details of which a half-column blurb could only hint if it chose to, or, instead, because it is easier, claim that that is what is in the report with no evidence at all. 

Continuous Shielded Arc Welding" That's what the British Oxygen Company's new Argonac does. It is based on the American Aircomatic, but is better. The Dyestuffs Division of ICI has an "instrument for controlling compressed air supplies." It's two valves and a bubble chamber so you can see what's going on. Thorncliffe Works is having an exhibition, Hall Harding a centenary. 

"Work of the Atomic Energy Commission" By Our American Correspondent 

The AEC has developed two new sources of uranium, gold ores from South Africa and phosphate beds in Florida. Ore bodies have also been found in Wyoming and North Dakota, although the Colorado Plateau remains the most promising prospecting area. Expansion of production of enriched uranium continues. Development of an atomic shell for the 280mm gun continues, and the thermonuclear trial at Eniwetok was a success. Reactor progress in producing both electricity and "breeding" plutonium continues, while a Westinghouse prototype of a nuclear reactor for naval vessels has run successfully. Various accelerators and piles continue fundamental research, particularly at Brookhaven. I notice that new types of mesons and new isotopes have been identified. Fundamental work on measuring the gory details of atoms and fundamental particles continues, and engineering research into materials suitable to keep nuclear reactors safe in earthquakes, for example. 

"Ore Preparation and Blast-Furnace Plant at Shotton" Head, Wrightson and Company's new furnace receives ore by ship, blasts it through a single furnace plant (with the largest hearth, at 27ft diameter, in Britain) at the rate of 5000t of iron ore a week. 

African Engineering Notes is mainly  news from the mines here and there, although there is a new lumber plant in Natal.

The Engineer is quite taken at the aluminum patrol launch made by Astor for the Burmese government, and reports on the new National Coal Board personal respirator and the maiden voyage of MV Wokingham, for what it is worth. 

Industrial and Labour Notes, Notes and Memoranda, and Launches and Trial Trips reports various meetings, for example of the Federation of British Industries (but also the Incorporated Plant Engineers' Conference and the Combustion Engineering Association), a new distribution scheme for a steel type in limited supply (plates), some details about where exports are now (down last year, up this year, down this quarter). and reports considerable improvement in coal output. I'm beginning to suspect that nationalisation worked and that the coal crisis is over. Shh! Don't tell anyone!  Only three launches and trial trips this week: SS Ajasa, a self-trimming collier for Nigeria, MV Middlesex, a refrigerated cargo liner, and MV Longfellow, a cargo ship.