 |
| "We may make it --Approaching a strip . . . " |
R_. C_.,
Vancouver, Canada
Dear Sir:
Thank you THANK YOU for taking care of my flight. Constellation Speedbird! I feel like a movie star! I see that I am touching down in New York on the 28th, then by the Forty-Niner to San Francisco, so I will miss Christmas, but I will be there for New Year's Eve! I called around to tell people, but I find that a little birdie has beaten me to it! Oh, well, Ma Bell seems to need as much of my money as I can find for her. My parents' money. Remind me again why nice girls don't get jobs? Because I saw the chic-est young ladies carrying textbooks into Stanford Law the other day. What do you--
DON'T TELL ANYONE! Oh, dear. I hope you don't think the less of my calligraphy for that, but I can hardly contain my excitement. Have I mentioned how grateful I am?
I would say more, but this letter has taken a lot more time than I expected, and I will have to drive like a maniac to make my date with Q. and Mrs. C. I don' t want to make her mad, because we have serious Christmas shopping to do, and I am counting on them as my guides to Chinatown.
Yours Sincerely,
Ronnie.
United Flight 608 went down trying to make a strip near Bryce Canyon Airport Three weeks later, an American Airlines flight with a fire on board from the same cause made a successful emergency landing at Gallup. But seven months after that, United Flight 624 will crash with the loss of all on board while responding to a false alarm of a fire.
Time, 17 November 1947
Letters
Gene DeScherer thinks that we need to talk more about how bad
communism is (Stanley Podczaski helps out below), many people really liked the
article about India, although K. R.Sondhi didn’t, pointing out that the
one-sided focus on communal violence left the British off the hook for
promoting religious division. A. Menalda, of the Netherlands, thinks that the
Marshall Plan is wonderful. M. A. Bajwa is upset that a caricatured portrait of
the Prophet Mohammed [PBUH] appeared in Time,
as it is a blasphemy in Islam, and Fred Crawford of Toronto blames the
Canadian government, and not the United States, for Canada’s US dollar
shortage, due to setting the exchange rate too high.
The Publisher’s Letter is about how great European correspondent SamWelles is.
The Publisher’s Letter is about how great European correspondent SamWelles is.
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| For a Time man of his era, Samuel Welles has a pretty small Internet footprint, but his support of Whittaker Chambers is well remembered. |
National Affairs
“Peace and Prosperity” Americans have peace and prosperity. (There’s
that Rockwell painting of the turkey being served, even. So kitschy.) So, they should share it! Time takes a second to gloat about how even the New York Daily News has given up
fighting the Marshall Plan. Then it goes on about organisation and
administration for a while, before pointing out that America only has 7% of the
world’s population, and can hardly carry half the world on its shoulders. The
sixteen nations (and Western Germany) of Europe aren’t quite half the world,
but they are 275 million very productive people who should get on with it. The
Plan is “[N]ot a means of supporting Europe, but . . . a spark which can fire
the engine.” America will be able to fill the food needs (Did anyone mention
that there’s an election coming up in 1948?) but certainly can’t provide the
steel, mining machinery, heavy electrical equipment and farm machinery that the
Paris conference requested. The first-year costs of the Plan will be $7
billion, the four year total from $17 to $23 billion. Appropriations, the
reporting committee said, should come out of taxation, not borrowing, so there
needs to be a continuing budget surplus, and even some Republicans are willing
to forego a tax cut in the next session to pay for it. Also, Congress wants
Americans to run the programme, national sovereignty be damned. Also in foreign
aid and communism is bad news, Secretary Marshall says that the Koumintang are
our boys in China and should get foreign aid soon.
 |
| Madame Chiang's 37 acre estate at Lattingtown was purchased by "her family" in 1949. (It is not clear whether that means Soongs or Chiangs. It was sold in 1998 for $2.8 million and subdivided. |
“Wanted: An Idea” John Steelman oversees coming up with a way to
control price increases. He has no idea how. Some say rationing, which isn’t
politically possible, but could be hung on the GOP when they vote it down;
Others say cracking down on the commodity exchanges (If I thought Dad disliked
Democrats before), others think bank
credit should be tightened. The issues of 85-cent butter and Europe come
together with Chuck Luckmann’s Friendship Train, which is completely different
from the Freedom Train, because it is about sending food to Europe, and not
trains with or without Jim Crow. Also, it is about eating less chicken, which
has the poultry-growers up in arms. (Chickens eat a lot of grain, it turns out,
which makes them inefficient.) Also, there’s going to be an election next year,
so Dewey Stassen Taft Eisenhower Warren. The warm-up election in Mississippi
went to John C. Stennis, which is nice, because he hardly ever mentions White
Supremacy, and the one in Kentucky went to the Democrats, as it usually does,
but this is news because last time it went to the Republicans, which was bad
news for 1948.The warm-ups in states where both parties are elected sometimes,
went to the incumbents. So, taken together, making this good news for 1948, for
Democrats. (Not that I advertise myself as such. Our little secret, right?
Because I do not want to have to defend Jimmy Byrnes to Grace!)
“Full of Dynamite” The Senate War Investigation Committee has started
meeting again, with absolutely no Jane Russell whatsoever. Johnny Meyer is
okay, if he’s “unobtrusive.”
They heard that Uncle Henry and Howard Hughes got plenty of special
treatment in wartime Washington, that Elliott Roosevelt pressured the AAF to
keep going with the F-11. Then General Bennett Meyers, who was in charge of
procurement at Wright Field, was brought before the Committee. It was Meyers
who gave the F-11 its final approval, and, at that point, Johnny Meyers
produced one of his expense accounts, showing that Johnny had paid General
Meyers’ $1665 hotel bill at the Los Angeles Town House in April ’44. Mrs.
Meyers, a 31-year-old blonde, showed up to testify that she stuck $900 in an
envelope and put it in Johnny Meyer’s pocket to pay the bill, but Johnny Meyer
doesn’t recall Mrs. Meyers doing any such thing. He’s also not sure why Howard
Hughes offered him a job after the war, although various Hughes men turned up
to say that Meyers had asked for a $50,000 loan against his pay for the future
job. Or possibly it was $200,000.
Not a good day for the fight against anti-Semitism, I have to say.
(To be fair, I'm assuming that Meyers was Jewish. He seems to be a deeply embarrassing figure of Who Was Never Heard From Again.)
“We Did All Right” Pilot Charles Martin was the hero of the Bermuda Sky Queen last month, but
now that the CAB hearings are on, he cut another figure. He admitted to letting
on two extra passengers, because some of his fares were babies, “and they
couldn’t weigh very much.” He kept no watch on his fuel consumption as he headed
west into wind and ice, let his crew stand watches as they saw fit, and made no
effort to take a star or radio fix. Navigator Addison Thompson, meanwhile,
admitted to taking an eight-hour nap immediately after takeoff. On waking, he
found the flight engineer curled up under his navigation table, and the plane
past the point of no-return. Not actually a navigator, Thompson admitted that
his main experience was ten years as a yachtman, that he had flown the Atlantic
round trip only once before, and had never heard that there were wind and
weather broadcasts out of New York. Martin and Thompson thought they’d done an
all right job.
International
“Umbrellas and Broken Glass” It rained on a
communist rally in Milan, which is an omen about how wonderful the Marshall
Plan is, because of communism being bad.
“To Shake in Our Shoes” Molotov says that
Americans are weak, and so have made a “religion” out of the atomic secret, but
it is no secret, and Americans really are weak. This means, say some, that the
Russians have the atom bomb secret, including Molotov’s Russian audience, and,
more importantly, US news editors. Time,
finding itself in the uncomfortable position of reminding us that Secretary
Molotov is just talking horse sense, points
out that there is no atom bomb secret, just a few minor tricks they can easily
work out on their own.
“Alphabet of Destruction” Rear Admiral Ellis M. Zacharias, who used to do those wartime broadcasts to Japan, likes to make people’s
flesh creep, and did it again this week, reminding everyone that atomic bombs
are not “absolute weapons.” New, non-atomic
weapons could wipe out all life, and they are not an American monopoly, and,
unlike the atomic bomb, smaller nations can make them. The US now has atomic
bombs fifty times more powerful than the ones used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
but that is not what he is talking about; he is on about all those plague and
poison bombs, and also possibly a “military application of cosmic rays, which
is now, he thought, being developed by Russian scientists.” He ads that “A
single milliliter of psittacosis [parrot fever] virus could kill 20 million
men. This virus can be produced cheaply in bulk by a small laboratory anywhere
in the world.” That doesn’t sound good!
“The Great Gamble” De Gaulle is going to
overthrow the Fourth Republic any day now. (This is the cover story, so it goes
on for a bit, but that’s the gist of it. I’m not going to summarise it, because
I’ll get all smug and superior about reading Le Monde.)
“The Sixteenth” This is the first of three
stories about awful politicians and awful politics in eastern Europe. This one
is about Poland, the next is about Rumania, and the third is about Russia,
where the top ration is only 2,340 calories, and children get 1114, dependents
(old people and cripples), 894. The five rooms of an average small American
family would have to house 30 Russians in 1947, and the recent October
Revolution celebrations were very extravagant when there are people to be fed,
etc., etc.
“Churchillian Gesture” Conservative successes
in the municipal elections have squelched talk of getting rid of Churchill. Time also reports on the rationing of
potatoes in Britain, imposed this week. Many Britons were eating five to six pounds of potatoes a week, and, “’Many of my customers,’ said Brixton
Greengrocer George Kingston, ‘went away crying when they saw their three-pound ration.” But never mind that, the Royal Wedding is on, and it is reported that
the Prince will be made Duke of Edinburgh after the marriage.
 |
| The Spectator defending a Labour government is scarier than potato rationing. |
“The Battle for Greece” This is a very
important story, you can tell, because it is in a red box –much more important
than the British maybe running out of food. It is about how the $300 million
American aid-to-Greece programme is failing, because all the money is ending up
in Athens, greasing the wheel, and not in the countryside, helping the peasants
who are in the grip of “self-induced inertia,” except for the Communists, who
have ideology to fill their bellies and keep them warm.
 |
| It's strange that we haven't heard anything about those new International Brigades massing on the Greek border in a few months. |
Shorter news about how the British are like
that include a story about betting on the Macclesfield, Cheshire, garden show,
where “Chrysanthemum Champ Jim Jackson” briefly threw the bookies for a loop by
having his initial offerings wither on him. Also, the Queen Mary was briefly paralysed by a strike organised by some
troublemaker from Liverpool agitating against the National Union of Seamen. New
Zealand, which is related to Britain, had a fuss about the descendants of a
Maori hero demanding justice for his execution, long ago.Judge Yoshitada Yamaguchi, of Tokyo District Court, who died in August of
tuberculosis, is remembered as an honest man who refused to buy food on the
black market, and so died of malnutrition.
Latin
America and Canada
Business
and Finance
“Freedom at Work” A long article to the
effect that there will be more wheat available domestically and for foreign aid
than expected, because free market! It’s due to low grain prices leading to
more livestock leading to high slaughter rates leading to falling meat prices
leading to less livestock leading to more grain, entering the market at a
steady rate over the winter so as not to crowd up prices. Or something like
that. I say with more modesty than is deserved, since I beaded Dad about it,
and although he couldn’t resist a “Well, Pumpkinhead” at the beginning, he gave
me a pretty good explanation, even if the Administration comes out worse in his
version in Time. I’d summarise his
summary, but you can ask him!
“Forbes at 50” Charles Forbes’ list of the 50
foremost business leaders is now fifty years old, and is as good a way of
currying favour with tycoons as ever. Commodity brokers and Canadian timber and
shipping barons still don’t qualify, I’m sorry to say, although if it is any
consolation, Uncle Henry does. “No. 30” The Nieuw Amsterdam is the 30th Atlantic passenger liner to go into service since the war. There are now around 20,000 berths available, which is not why I’m flying, but is an excuse for why I have to fly. Speaking of accommodations, there is also a bit about the rapid growth of the Palm Springs hotel business that opens with a colourful story about Nellie Coffman, who got it all started, way back in 1909. Or in 1924, if you start with the Desert Inn, and not her rooming house.
 |
| Scraped from the linked article, above, the original Desert Inn, first resort at Palm Springs, circa 1907 (as a boarding house), and, after 1924, the kitchen of the original hotel. I was going to put in a picture of the Nieuw Amsterdam (1938), so that I'd have an excuse to comment on how amazing I find it that there was a shortage of passenger shipping in the postwar, so that people couldn't escape Europe even though they wanted to do so, but it's just a big boat, and this is something else. |
State
of Business
American railways will soon be receiving 10,000
cars a month, and for the last two months, the United States has finally begun
receiving more new cars than the scrapping rate. American Airlines showed a
profit this quarter on the strength of its new DC-6 fleet, but not enough to
erase its losses in the previous quarter. The “Biggest Inch,” the $70 million,
300 million cubic-feet-a-day pipeline from the West Texas Panhandle to Los
Angeles, opened this week, a record nine months from the beginning of
construction, bringing relief to a fuel-starved West Coast. I really need to
ask someone why California exports oil, but needs to import natural gas, as Ihad the vague idea that they were the same thing.
Science,
Medicine, Education
“Mouse Hunt” The Roscoe B. Jackson Memorial Laboratory
at Bar Harbour, Maine, was gutted in a forest fire three weeks ago, and 900,000
pedigreed breeding mice were lost in the flames –which is horrible—and now scientist are looking for replacements, as
pedigreed mice are best for research, and the lab was the main source. It is
hoping to restore its stocks of various lines of specially-bred mice by
bringing back mice from research labs around the country.
“Tugboat Radar” The New Haven and
Pennsylvania Railroads are experimenting with radar on their tugboats to see if
they can prevent fog delays. The radar, specially designed by Sperry for
close-in work, can follow all harbour activity for a mile around the tug, and
costs $12,000, but the article says that everyone is confident that they will
pay for themselves, perhaps saving as much as $50,000-$100,000 when all tugs in
New York Harbour are equipped.
“Doped at Birth” Doctor Meyer A. Perlstein,
of Chicago, reported in the AMA Journal last
week that babies are being born addicted, to mothers who are drug addicts.
Treatment is a tapering-off dose of phenobarbital.
“Ether for Diabetics” Dr. Robert A. Katz, of
New Orleans, a diabetic himself, finds that intravenous ether injections arrest
gangrene due to diabetic hardening of the arteries. He has already started
self-administering ether as a precaution.
 |
| It turns out that ether injections are revived Nineteenth Century pseudo-science, which led me to ether doping in late Nineteenth Century bicycle racing, which led me to the sad case of Arthur Linton, who may or may not have overdosed on "tri-methyl" during a 600km road race in 1896. |
“How Am I, Doctor” Britain’s “Radio Doctor,”
Dr. Charles Hill, has a radio call in show where he gives out pungent and
sensible advice.
Lord Hill turns out to have had an interesting career. Who would have thought that a man who made his name making fun of people on a radio call-in show would go on to be a third rate Conservative cabinet minister, BBC patronage hack and all-around "vulgarian?"
“The Case Against Mineral Oil” Dr. Morris
Fishbein, of the AMA Journal, reminds
everyone that mineral oil is not necessarily as good for you as all that.
“No Place to Discuss It” Time is grimly amused that the Washington, D.C. school district has
refused the use of school auditoriums for a national high school speaking championship,
which will be on the theme of the Bill of Rights, because three of the twelve
local contestants are Negroes. In shorter news, Henry Clay Folger, who has been
assembling a rare book collection for years, gave his Folger Shakespeare
Library to Amherst College, which this week appointed a new director, who will
try to find scholars to use the library. And three Dartmouth men have published
a guide to women’s college towns, so that men will know where they can eat,
sleep and dance there. It’s called For
Men Lonely, and it sounds stupid. [Whatever.]
Press,
Art, Radio
“The Colonel in Tokyo” Colonel McCormick was
in Tokyo this week, having heard that these Zaibatsus might be warlike,
imperialistic reactionaries. So off he went to measure the cut of their jibs
himself, then find out if General MacArthur was interested in being President.
“The Man in the Mirror” For a yellow
journalism rag, Time kind of likes
the Daily Mirror, especially since it
is putting more clothes on Jane these days. I am not sure I see the point of
comics trying to sell themselves with bad jokes and drawings of shapely young
ladies in clothes. Although perhaps
if they were fashionable clothes? If they found the right model, a girl of
impeccable taste, such as your humble correspondent!
 |
| Next week in Time . . . |
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| By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38974961 |
Rita Hayworth has divorced Orson Welles. And James Landis, the “leathery” CABoss, has divorced his wife of 21 years, who has not seen sim since he left for the Cairo Conference in 1943. Also dead, Alexander Paterson, GeneralConstantin Sanatescu and Walter Henry Rich.
Time has
found a Surrealist it likes, Rolf Gugel, who is doing an altarpiece for a
Catholic church in Bavaria that is quite a thing.
While at the Carnegie Art Show, Director Catton Rich is ignoring the American art critics who think he’s too taken by all those “isms” and paintings that a five-year-old could do. That’s why he gave the top $1000 price to William Baziotes’ Cyclops.
While at the Carnegie Art Show, Director Catton Rich is ignoring the American art critics who think he’s too taken by all those “isms” and paintings that a five-year-old could do. That’s why he gave the top $1000 price to William Baziotes’ Cyclops.
“Television News” This is a sub-heading round
up of a variety of short news stories about television, which is rapidly
spreading to new stations, a popular attraction in Manhattan bars, is being
installed at the White House, and will have Charlie McCarthy soon. Gainsborough
Associates is buying foreign films to show on TV, since Hollywood won't sell to television.
In case you were wondering how Masterpiece Theatre got to PBS, it was the dollar shortage.
“The RAP” Bob Hope lost his position at the
top of the Hooper ratings this week, and is now tied with Fred Allen, who is,
unlike Hope, funny. That’s the leader to an article about the Radio Acceptance
Poll, a poll of college students by the National Federation of Catholic College
Students, which reports reactions to 16 big comedy shows. College students rate
radio comics on a four-place scale, and Bob Hope came in second from bottom
(the only comic to place so low), with only Jimmy Durante getting a top rating.
People
Nobel chemist Harold C. Urey says that other
animals have become extinct in the past, so there’s no reason that humans can’t
do so with atomic warfare. Such a cheery fellow! Producer Dudley Nichols says
that the reason Hollywood makes so many sensational pictures is that people are
sensational. Wendy Hiller, whose contract specified that her children would be
brought over to be with her if her show was a success, received Ann (8) and
Anthony (5) this week. Victor Cavendish-Bentinck’s divorce separation was annulled
this week, because his wife cheated on him while he was cheating on her.
Lovely! Lana Turner is also lovely.
Franklin Roosevelt Jr. may be getting a Justice Department job, Jimmy Durante is one of America’s top ten eligible bachelors according to a straw poll of Arthur Murray Dance Studio members, on account of his kind face, up there with J. Edgar Hoover’s “masculine courage,” Supreme Court Justice Frank Murphy’s unimpeachable honesty, Cornelius Vanderbilt’s money and widower status, Warren G. Magnuson’s statesmanlike dignity, Howard Hughes’ will to succeed, Jimmy Stewart’s ageless boyishness, Cary Grant’s good looks, and Glenn Davis, too obvious to mention. Dr. Hewlett Johnson, the “Red Dean” of Canterbury, is not going to tour America after all, as he has been bedridden by sciatica. Joan Bennett’s nineteen-year-old daughter, Diana, was attacked outside her house on her way home from night school. Also suffering from night intruders, the Duke of Norfolk, who was burgled by someone who got away with a gold-plated cigarette lighter.
Franklin Roosevelt Jr. may be getting a Justice Department job, Jimmy Durante is one of America’s top ten eligible bachelors according to a straw poll of Arthur Murray Dance Studio members, on account of his kind face, up there with J. Edgar Hoover’s “masculine courage,” Supreme Court Justice Frank Murphy’s unimpeachable honesty, Cornelius Vanderbilt’s money and widower status, Warren G. Magnuson’s statesmanlike dignity, Howard Hughes’ will to succeed, Jimmy Stewart’s ageless boyishness, Cary Grant’s good looks, and Glenn Davis, too obvious to mention. Dr. Hewlett Johnson, the “Red Dean” of Canterbury, is not going to tour America after all, as he has been bedridden by sciatica. Joan Bennett’s nineteen-year-old daughter, Diana, was attacked outside her house on her way home from night school. Also suffering from night intruders, the Duke of Norfolk, who was burgled by someone who got away with a gold-plated cigarette lighter.
The
New Pictures
Gentleman’s Agreement Is a polemic about anti-Semitism that Time thinks is still a very good movie, perhaps because it has
Gregory Peck and Elia Kazan directing. On the other hand, it thinks that Beware of Pity is awful. The Unfinished Dance is a movie about
ballerinas dancing and trying to kill each other, maybe on purpose, so it is
pretty much box office proof. I’ve seen it, and I thought it was strange, not
to say a little, how do you say, demi-monde?
Time can’t really review it as such, so it just summarises the plot with just the right phrasing to get across exactly what I just said. The reviewers here, they know what they’re doing, even if they don’t always get to show it. Man About Town is the subtitled version of Rene Clair’s Le Silence Est d’Or is the best movie of the year, Time says. I’m not sure I agree, and anyway it would be the best movie of 1934, but it is a good movie. I’ll spare you the review, because, after all, lit is old and arty and French.
Time can’t really review it as such, so it just summarises the plot with just the right phrasing to get across exactly what I just said. The reviewers here, they know what they’re doing, even if they don’t always get to show it. Man About Town is the subtitled version of Rene Clair’s Le Silence Est d’Or is the best movie of the year, Time says. I’m not sure I agree, and anyway it would be the best movie of 1934, but it is a good movie. I’ll spare you the review, because, after all, lit is old and arty and French.
Books
Frank Luther Mott’s Golden Multitude has the brilliant premise of being a study of
three centuries of American bestsellers. It is such a ludicrous collection of
oddities and masterpieces that it is hard to imagine him going wrong with the
material, and Time spends a page on
the details, and certainly doesn’t think that he did. I’m running out to buy my
own copy Bye! No, seriously, I wish I’d
thought of this! Gertrude Stein has a collection of longish short stories out,
and Guy McCrone has a “languid family novel,” perfect for Books of the Month
Club, and reading in December when everyone is at ease except the women of the
house, who are up to something in the kitchen, and the daughters, who are, and
I cannot emphasise this enough, flying across the Atlantic in the worst of the
season to see if their co-ed charms can pull the family’s feet from the fire
for the second December running, but also because her parents want to run her
life for her.
Not that I’m bitter, and ranting, or
anything, but if McCrone doesn’t end his novelisation of my family saga with me strangling my mother in a San Francisco hotel
lobby, it’ll be a wonder. More interesting is P. D. Ouspensky, Strange Life of Ivan Osokin, a novel
with the premise that a magician sends Ivan back in time twelve years (from
1912, so that Ouspensky can avoid the whole Soviet Revolution thing, which might
be hard to write about), to show him that even if he relives his life in every
detail, everything will go the same way. Time
thinks that it is a classic for the ages.
Flight, 20 November 1947
Leaders
“Demand –And No Supply” Everyone wants to buy British, so British
European Airways should get off its thumb and order the Ambassador, so that
Airspeed can start producing it.
 |
| Twenty built, in the end. |
“Collaboration” In America, builders and airlines cooperate in
designing aircraft. This is sensible. The British should do that, too. Besides
with the Vickers Viscount, where they did, and that’s nice. Flight even says that Vickers built
three prototypes of the Viscount, one for each of the competing turboprop
engines (except that you can’t say “turboprop” instead of “airscrew-turbine,”
or you must go be a remittance man in Wyoming), since no-one is sure which of
the turboprop engines will turn out to work. That sounds expensive!
“Stalls and Vanes” Flight wants
to remind us that there were the Savage-Bramson anti-stall gear and GirouetteConstantin,” years before America’s Safe Flight Instrument Corporation marketed
its stall warning device, the difference being that people actually buy the
Safe Flight Instrument device, including now Convair, for the 240, which makes
it Big Business. Not like the “Girouette,” which was installed on Major Jack
Savage’s SE5 sky-writing biplanes, where it automatically operated the
elevators to bring the aircraft out of stall, and weighed only 5lbs, including
a bottle of compressed air, a double-acting pneumatic relay, a working
cylinder, and the release valve operated by the vane.
“First Flight of the AW 52” The AW 52 has now flown once, and it
didn’t crash, blow up, cause world famine, or promote communism, which means
that the flying wing is alright so far.
“Introducing the Viscount: Progress Report and Brief Preliminary
Description of the Vickers 32-43 Seater Civil Transport” The three engines used
in the three Viscount prototypes were the Armstrong Siddeley Mamba, NapierNaiad and Rolls-Royce Dart. Mr. Edwards, the designer, thinks that the Dart,
which has a centrifugal compressor, will likely enter service ahead of the
axial types, because difficulties such as icing are easier to solve with the
centrifugal type, and the axials will come along later.
The hull is a double-bubble type, with construction method similar to that used in the Viking. Cabin pressurisation is based on Vickers’ experience pressurising Wellingtons during the war, and uses a Rootes-type blower in each engine, with air “carefully routed” into the cabin and combustion heaters are not used, as the air compression is controlled to provide a comfortable amount of heat for the passengers, with a heat exchanger and a turbo-expander refrigeration unit “upstream” of the cabin. There are silencers on both sides of this unit, which can be run with electrical power to provide conditioning on the ground. Fuel tanks are of the flexible, crashproof type, and as a further safety measure, there are anti-icing provisions “of the thermal system,” with exhaust gas led through the wings and tail unit. Double slotted flaps reduce landing speed, there will be reversible airscrews in later planes, and forward view, which is generally poor in pressure cabins, is improved by making the canopy extrude from the main pressure hull.
 |
| Unfortunately. . . By RuthAS - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29471494 |
The hull is a double-bubble type, with construction method similar to that used in the Viking. Cabin pressurisation is based on Vickers’ experience pressurising Wellingtons during the war, and uses a Rootes-type blower in each engine, with air “carefully routed” into the cabin and combustion heaters are not used, as the air compression is controlled to provide a comfortable amount of heat for the passengers, with a heat exchanger and a turbo-expander refrigeration unit “upstream” of the cabin. There are silencers on both sides of this unit, which can be run with electrical power to provide conditioning on the ground. Fuel tanks are of the flexible, crashproof type, and as a further safety measure, there are anti-icing provisions “of the thermal system,” with exhaust gas led through the wings and tail unit. Double slotted flaps reduce landing speed, there will be reversible airscrews in later planes, and forward view, which is generally poor in pressure cabins, is improved by making the canopy extrude from the main pressure hull.
It is hoped that the Viscount will be in operation on routes in 1951.
E. T. House, “That 3000 Hours per Annum: The Danger of Very Intensive
Aircraft Utilisation” If you use a plane too much, it might crash, blow up,
cause world famine, or promote communism. Contrary to everyone else in the
industry, which thinks that high utilisation rates are a good thing. This
article also only goes halfway down the page (with a to be continued, leaving
blank space below. Oops!
Here and There
Fourteen percent of passengers on the BOAC Baltimore-Bermuda service
are said to be on their honeymoons. Titanine petitioned for the winding up of
Miles Aircraft on 24 November. F. G. Miles is paying the 4 ½ % Preference
dividend out of his own pocket, and Mr. Hogg will not get his month to explore
the company’s prospects. Fairey has completed its head-office move from Hayes
to White Waltham Airfield, near Maidenhead. IATA is making arrangements for
certain European airlines to become responsible for civil aviation
telecommunications in their countries. The Caribbean Flower Company of Trinidad
is flying 240 Amsterdam lily blooms to London on KLM for Princess Elizabeth’s
wedding!! Beechcraft is calling in 250 Bonanzas for modifications, as the
welded wings have not proven as safe as the riveted ones. The Douglas Skystreak
II hasn’t flown yet, but there’s a nice drawing of it exceeding the sound
barrier, which it might do in the future.
The Americans who want to fly around the world in a Piper Cub are still news, for some reason, and so is the fact that some Argentinian police have bought a plane, with which they propose to fly around, staring sternly down at crime. Sir Edward Appleton has won the 1947 Nobel Prize for discovering the Appleton Layer, which is in the air, and so counts as aeronautical. He has been working on radar for the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research since 1939. Various persons, governments, or vast, shadowy conspiracies are negotiating to fly fish and chilled beef carcasses here and there in Australia and New Zealand. One could argue that this is the worst sort of free advertising for LAMS Australia, Inc., but I prefer to note that it takes two years to drive cattle from Australia’s Northern Territory to Sydney for slaughter.
 |
| . . . In 1953. |
The Americans who want to fly around the world in a Piper Cub are still news, for some reason, and so is the fact that some Argentinian police have bought a plane, with which they propose to fly around, staring sternly down at crime. Sir Edward Appleton has won the 1947 Nobel Prize for discovering the Appleton Layer, which is in the air, and so counts as aeronautical. He has been working on radar for the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research since 1939. Various persons, governments, or vast, shadowy conspiracies are negotiating to fly fish and chilled beef carcasses here and there in Australia and New Zealand. One could argue that this is the worst sort of free advertising for LAMS Australia, Inc., but I prefer to note that it takes two years to drive cattle from Australia’s Northern Territory to Sydney for slaughter.
William Green, “Light and Ultra-Light from Italy: Unconventional but
Attractive Private-owner Aircraft by Several Makers” Here, let me check. Do I
care yet? No, I do not care yet.
“Internal Airlines System” This is the third article on this subject.
This one deals with the Channel Islands Area. According to Funk and Wagnalls,
the Channel Islands are actually speckled off the coast of Normandy, and not
really in the Channel as advertised, but that doesn’t change the fact that people with
enough money to fly, go there often enough to make it worthwhile for someone to
fly there. (232,00 people take the ferry every year! Is there gambling and cheap alcohol? Frank Sinatra? Sun and surf? The possibilities are
endless!)
Things like this help me understand why Sinatra was a heart throb before he became the king of American kitsch.
“Rotating Wing Kite or Glider” The other day, Mr. Bruce Williams sent Flight a nice letter about how a nice
kite or glider with a rotating wing would be nice, and since Flight needs something to replace the
Miles’ ads that got pulled because no-one is paying for them, here it is!
“Engine-Off Landings: Part 2 of Lecture, ‘Some Work with Rotating-wingAircraft:’ The Case of Rotors with High Kinetic Energy” Some helicopter rotors
are heavy, or rotate fast, or otherwise have a lot of energy. They can land,
engine-off, by hovering to a near vertical landing, or even pull up from
difficult situations, or exploit the “ground effect” cushion of high-density
air created by the rotors’ beat.
“Seats for the Mighty and the Million: Problems in Aircraft Seating:
Complete Conversion Kits for Dakotas and Skymasters” Rumbold’s makes seats for
airplanes. Rumbold’s wants you to know that it is quite good at it, and that it
pays its suppliers promptly, and deserves free advertising.
Civil Aviation News
BEA is testing out helicopters. Cyprus Airways is being formed to fly
services in . . . Ronnie checks the article, just to be sure . . .Yes, it’s
Cyprus! The inquiry into the Sky Queen accident
has heard that it was, as Reggie said, overloaded, but not how much. Edward
Hodgson, the CAB inspector, points out that although the Sky Queen took off with 62 passengers, it should only have carried
25, and 2550 gallons of fuel, not 2,396, and that much less luggage should have
been carried. India has a new airline, and Australia has an old one, as Guinea
Airways has refused to stop running its Darwin-Adelaide service, even though
its license has expired, because it doesn’t think that the Australian CAB has
the constitutional right to stop them. The American CAB has suggested that
private companies receive subsidies to develop new commercial aircraft, since
it is “not too early” to begin work on replacements for the Constellation, DC-6
and Stratocruiser. The Cunliffe Owen Concordia is still flying around looking
for a buyer, and the Royal Aircraft Establishment and the Telecommunications
Research Establishment have brought out a brochure entitled “PICAO
Demonstration of radio Aids to Civil Aviation, September 1946,” for 5s. Britain
and Czechoslovakia have come to an agreement on route sharing between London
and Prague. In the wake of the 24 October DC-6 crash in Utah that took 55lives, Marvin Whitlock, director of service engineering for American Airlines,
has pointed out that it had numerous deficiencies in wear, compared with a DC-4
with equivalent hours, and that it had inferior and deficient wiring, poor
access for servicing, and thin engine cowlings. The cause of the fire is
unknown, but it might have started in the luggage compartment, where the crew
could not reach it for fire fighting due to design, or by the combustion heaters
in the rear of the fuselage. At least they have built-in extinguishers in the
engines.
 |
| The DC-6 had an ugly tendency towards mid-air accidents, in contrast to the normal landing and takeoff incidents. |
In shorter news, the French are allowing DNL to fly a service between
Marseilles and Rome, Star Tiger has
entered service with BSAA, 216 passengers and aircrew have been killed in
airline accidents in the United States this year, Air India curtailed services
last month, as the government needed all of its DC-3s for flights between Delhi
and Srinagar, and the Srinagar airfield is unsuitable for Vikings, which
maintained a skeleton service to the rest of India in this period. Australian
airlines are raising rates 20% to cover rising maintenance and operating costs,
even though the IATA Conference said that rates would be held steady this year.
The Australian CAB is restricting unscheduled airlines from operating without
blind flying equipment.
Correspondence
David Brice points out that Sky
Queen was a grossly mismanaged freak. The problem with flying boats is the
difficulties they experience in regular operations,
mainly in finding good places to land. “Aetheris Auidi” points out that L.
Heather, he of the He-Man Woman’s Hater Club, has no idea what he is talking
about with regards to women pilots, who are “every bit as good as the men.” At
least. Harold Burgomaster and F. Y. Symondson write to point out that private
flying clubs are Argle Bargle! Argle!
The Engineer, 21 November 1947
Seven-Day Journal
The Engineer congratulates the
royal couple. Aww. Fusty old fuddy-duddies are so sweet! (So did Flight, but I missed it first time
through because it was in one of those little boxes with special type and I
thought it was some kind of message to subscribers.)
Imagine this announcer talking about corrosion stress in cold-rolled aluminum alloys. Sorry. "Aluminium," all syllables enunciated.
Mr. W. Van Helden gave a nice talk to the Stainless Steel Fabricators
Association, in which he congratulated everyone for becoming “stainless
minded,” and regretted that, with demand so high, supply was so limited. His
own company is investing one-and-a-half million in new cold-rolled stainless
steel strip capacity, but until such works increase existing capacity, there
would be control of the supply of polished sheet soon, although he did not know
the form it would take, except that it would favour exporting industries. Also,
Mr. W. Key, the Building Minister, made basically the same speech to the
Building Exhibition, except that the cavalry coming to save us is light alloys
for constructional purposes. The Minister of Health made the same point in a ministerial
order, only about ground water. In this case, it isn’t imported into Britain,
but “abstraction” does have to be limited, until the Geological Survey finds
more. Dr. H. G. Taylor gave a different speech to the Welding Association,
which was about how more research needs to be done, and also about who
administers the regulations of executing the orders of directing the coordinating
of the cooperating of the research. You don’t like my summary, you read it! The
Chancellor of the Exchequer gave a speech about the Supplementary Budget, which
raises a bunch of taxes to fight inflation.
“American Anti-Corrosive and Anti-Fouling Paints” The US Navy has been
painting steel bottoms with mainly red lead and white zinc-based paints ever
since it has had steel bottoms (wink to Uncle George!). It didn’t work until in
1932, the Navy began testing an Italian coal-resin paint, the “Moravian” paint.
Unfortunately, the Americans failed to discover the formulation of the Italian
Moravian paint, which is some kind of lead in a phenolformaldehyde resin, so it
invented its own American Italian Moravian paint, a “hot-paint,” which led to a
“cold paint,” which is better because it is often cold. During the war, the US
Navy consulted with the Admiralty and with the National Paint and Varnish
Manufacturers’ Association to develop a better cold-paint American Italian
Moravian anti-corrosion paint, leading to a successful, top-secret,
super-improved American Italian etc. Most of the rest of this article is about
the water pistols they use to spray the stuff on American ships at the
dockyards. Uncle George says that when the United States Navy starts talking
about a “secret formula” that improves on a foreign product, what it usually
means is that they’re trying to get out of paying the license fee on the
patent, but, who knows, maybe this is an authentic Scientific Breakthrough.
 |
| This would appear to be a reference to manufacturing Bailey bridge components. |
However, far too many of the 70,000 welders in the country are untrained, and some of the welding rods are made of inconvenient material because they are easier to use, and that’s bad. Sometimes, it takes a while for the stresses to show up, because science is complicated. Mr. L. Rotherham points out that the welds in carbon-molybdenum steel steam pipes fail in service. Is this like in Admiral Cook’s last assignment, I wonder? Anyway, it usually happens because the pipe gets banged up while being made or installed. Several commentators pointed out that because the stresses are internal, you can’t see them, which isn’t very fair of science.
“The Institution of Mechanical Engineers, No. II” The Institution had
an occasion, a very nice occasion, and then there were commentators. Mr. L.
Lynes was a commentator. He points out that the brakes used in “heavy stock” by
the Southern Railways gets very hot when it is braking, and that this can lead
to tyre cracking, or even craziness! The authors are wrong about how quickly
the heat dissipates. Mr. H. R. Broadbent liked the thing the authors did at the
occasion, but has concerns about the material the block is made of, and its
shape, and also whether the blocks should go into new construction, or also
into old construction. Mr. Nigel Turner remembers some troubles someone else
had, years ago, and points out that cast iron blocks should be made with
different alloys, or in different compositions. Someone else also got upset
about rain and snow, so one author, whose name is R. C. Parker, pointed out
that their blocks work just fine in the wet. I think.
In conclusion, The Engineer probably
doesn’t realise that some readers skip issues, so I probably shouldn’t be so
hard on it, but it is still ridiculous that there isn’t some kind of summary at
the head of a continuing series.
“Production of Vehicle Engines” “An interesting ceremony took place. .
.” this article begins. And that’s it. The word “interesting” is now banned.
Persons wishing to say “interesting” should either get themselves a thesaurus,
or write me for an exemption, with a show-cause. That rant out of the way, this
is about the P6 “vehicle” engines built by F. Perkins, Ltd. The article
eventually gets around to explaining that the P6s are diesel engines for industrial
and marine requirements. The rest of the article explains how the F. Perkins
factory is laid out for the most efficient manufacture of vehicle engines.
 |
| According to Perkins, although probably not anyone else, Perkins built the first high speed diesel engine, in 1932, and its Vixen, of 1934, won various diesel speed records. |
“Nelson Research Laboratories, No. II” English Electric has research
laboratories at Stafford and Blackheath. That might mean that there are two of
them, and that they are both named “Nelson.” Or not! One of them (if there are
two) has a gigantic alternator for testing industrial circuit breakers. Don’t
trust The Engineer about how gigantic
it is, though. It will tell you!
 |
| It's very gigantic. I had no idea that old time electrical engineering companies built surge-generators to test the circuit breakers on their high-powered industrial machinery. |
 |
| Banglori silk dress by Jennifre Winget, Model not identified. Order through gravity-fashion |
“Conductor Rail De-Icing Equipment” The conductor rail is another name
for the third rail. The London Passenger Transport Board has been using a
de-icer that consists of a roller bath, over which all cars run. Their shoes
pick up de-icing fluid, which is then spread on the third rails as they go
about their runs. This is far better than running de-icing trains.
Professor W. J. John, “Research in Electrical Engineering at an
Engineering School” Dr. John is very proud of his high-voltage laboratory, and
supervised five Ph.D. theses in the last session. Examples include “LichtenbergFigures: Their Characteristics and Practical Applications;” “Heaviside’s
Methods Applied to Analysis of Behaviour of Rotating Electrical Machinery;” and
“A Theoretical and Experimental Study of Surge Phenomena in Windings.”
Professor John proudly describes the five theses. He describes the first two,
with the other three coming later, I guess.
Leaders
“Railway Wagons” There are 1,209,000 wagons in Britain right now, of
which 199,000 are under or awaiting repair. After deducting wagons used for
moving coal, only 600,000 are available for all other purposes, whereas the
need is estimated at 750,000. Thirty thousand were built last year, but 50,000
were scrapped, as the fleet is aging, with 30% built before 1914. Things are getting better, in that the industry will receive enough steel to build 48,000
next year, and the rate of scrapping and repair backlogs are both falling, but
in the mean time everyone must be very careful and conscious of wagon usage,
and, in particular, do something to get them unloaded on weekends, which is a
problem of the Government’s making. (Damn those Labourites for getting rid of
the seven-day week!)
 |
| A holiday excursion train arrives in Llantilio Castle, Wales, sometime in the early 1950s. Source. |
“Standardisation of Turbo-Alternators” The Control of
Turbo-Alternators Order (No. 1) issued by the Ministry of Supply under
Regulation 55 of the Defence (General) Regulations requires that all new
turbo-alternators produced for use on land in Britain of more than 10,000kW
rating be capable of a continuous rating of 30,000kW or 60,000kW. 30,00kW rated
turbo-alternators must be supplied by 600 degree steam at 850lb pressure, and
bled steam can only be used for make up evaporators and feed water heating,
while 60,000kW alternators must be supplied at 900lb/sq in at 900 degrees, and
bled steam is only to be used for feed water heating. This is not as big a deal as it could be,
since only 7% of plant built in the last ten years has fallen below these
performance standards, and most of those were for replacement of existing
plant, which means that even though standardisation is good, the way the
Government did it is bad, and it should have waited for the industry to
universally agree to standardise itself.
The Engineer regrets to report
the death of one of its American correspondents, Robert G. Skerrett, of
Maplewood, New Jersey, son of Rear-Admiral Joseph Skerrett, who served in the
navy in submarines before becoming the long-time editor of Compressed Air, a journal sponsored by Ingersoll-Rand. He also
wrote for Harpers and such. Also
recently dead at a great age is R. A. Hopkinsons, of the Huddersfield
engineering company Hopkinsons, Ltd. Robert had been on its board for many
years, thanks to skilfully arranging to be J. Hopkinsons’ grandson.
 |
| Rear Admiral Skerrett reviews the men of USS Boston outside of the Iolani Palacce, Honolulu, Hawaii, on 16 January 1893. Grover Cleveland would have tart words on the subject of the United States Navy annexing an independent kingdom. There's probably some contemporary humour to be mined here. |
Letters
J. F. B. Jackson and A. R. Greatbatch (which is a real name) are
agreed that an earlier letter asserting that radon would soon replace radium in
industrial radiography, was wrong. J. M. Gallant, of the Ford Motor Company’s
sales office, is sad to hear that that seaweed farm had so much trouble with
its Ford engine, and thinks that there is a perfectly good reason for it, and
reminds everyone to tell their Ford salesman what they plan on using their
engine for, as Ford might have solutions to problems like immersion of ignition
points in salt water. T. F. Thomas writes to correct the algebra of Mr. L. S.Dzung on the subject of the air cycle heat pump.
Publications and
Announcements
The Engineer alerts us to
publications about the Geneva Tariff negotiations and Germany’s wartime
petroleum and synthetic oil industries. It also reminds us that Sir Edward
Appleton got the Nobel in physics this year, so there foreigners, and reports
that China now has 1179 ocean going merchant ships and 2138 river vessels,
almost twelve times the tonnage of V-J Day, but an increase of infinity percent
in ocean-going vessels.
“The Iron and Steel Institute, No. I” The Autumn Meeting of the Iron
and Steel Institute heard many papers on hydrogen in steel. Hydrogen might get
there by accident, or be put there on purpose. Either way, it can have good or
bad effects.
“Ice-Breaking Car Ferry Abegweit”
At 7200 GRT, the Abegweit is
the heaviest all-welded vessel built in Canada, and is intended for the ferry
service to Prince Edward Island. It has eight 1500hp “V” two-cycle,
water-cooled oil engines (Dominion Sulzer), driving eight generators (Canadian
GE) giving current for four 3850hp motors that drive four 13ft cast nickel
steel propellers, two aft and two forward. It has a reinforced bow, and can
defeat ice in three ways: pure speed of 16 knots, the cut away bow, which has
been designed to part ice packs, trimming and heeling tanks that allow it to be
rocked forward, aft and sideways in event of becoming wedged in the ice, and
the forward propellers, which can be used for ice chopping and to suck water up
and over the ice. It is not actually all-welded,
as the superstructure is rivetted on. It is insulated by limpet asbestos, has
five decks, including a main or railway deck, a mezzanine, automobile, and boat
deck. It has a gyro-compass, echo sounder, radio-telephone, radar and hydraulic
steering gear, is completely internally subdivided.
“The Engining of Cargo Vessels of High Power” This was the title of a
symposium held by the Institute of Marine Engineers on Tuesday and Wednesday,
11-12 November. Six papers were read, the first by Dr. T. W. F. Brown of
Parmetrada, about the “Geared Steam Turbine.” He considered plants ranging from
a single-screw, 7500 hp plant operating at 420lb, 790 degrees to one operating
at 13,000hp, with two-stage re-heat, 1400lb pressure, 790 degrees. (So, bothfall well short of the “They knew what they were getting into when theyincreased the temperatures above 800 degrees! They knew! And they did itanyway! It’s plain treason, if you ask me! Someone should go to Congress.” I
mean, I love the Admiral as much as you love your son, but after a while. . .)
C. C. Pounder dealt with the “Direct-Coupled Diesel Engine,” and J. G. Belsey
and J. G. Robinson dealt with “Diesel-Electric Propulsion,” so the two
competing approaches to getting power from the diesels to the propellers, not
omitting direct drive, which Pounder also dealt with. C. Wallace Saunders and
T. Halliday Turner dealt with turbo-electric propulsion, which is apparently
still a thing, and Mr. J. Calderwood with the “Combustion Turbine,” which is
what you call jet turbines for ships when you’re being professionally
unexciting. Sulzer has an advanced proposal. When all the papers had been
heard, the Chief Engineer Surveyor for Lloyd’s, Dr. Stanley F. Dorey, reminded
everyone that shipowners care about reliability, not fancy gadgets. This is why
marine engineers are often accused of being conservative, although combustion
turbines, 1400lbs, and two-stroke diesels with turbocharging from exhaust
scavenging aren’t exactly “conservative,” says Uncle George. He points out to
me that Dr. Dorey is on about not only first costs (how much the engine costs
is important! Who would have thought!) but also crew training. He then puts a
knowing finger a little further up this very page, to the bit about the rapidly
expanding Chinese merchant marine. “They’re cheap,” Uncle George says, “But
they don’t know their way around reheat. Given ‘em time, and they’ll learn it,
though!” Or, at least, he adds, the Hakka will. Oh, Uncle George. I’ve never
even been to Hong Kong, but by the time I get there, I’ll know all about who
hates who. Anyway, Dr. Dorey compares the papers at very great length,
penetrates through illusion and flim-flam about installation weights and fuel
costs and type, and crew and –comes down in favour of the most conservative,
direct-drive diesel installation. Authors and discussants, not surprisingly,
sometimes disagree in favour of the most gadgety-gadgets, with W. Nithsdale
speaking up for a double reduction geared turbine with water-tube boilers at
450 degrees and 750lbs, so the prewar RN standard, and I guess I misspoke
myself in saying most gadgety gadget,
since he’s not talking 1000lbs pressure at 1300 degrees, as the young men are.
“A Drill Chuck Guard” Air Ducts, Ltd., of Great West Road, Brentford,
Middlesex, has a fine new guard for chucking drills. (There’s a picture, but
it’s clear as mud.)
 |
| HMS Apollo, a Leander-class frigate. The Leanders only used steam at 850 degrees superheat, 450lb/sq inch, but that is the most extreme steam conditions ever used successfully at sea. |
Canadian
Engineering News
Dominion Rubber has a new rubber conveyor belt that is 250% to 400%
stronger than the old ones. Canada is using aluminum in nine new ships being
built for the Chinese river trade on the Yangtze Kiang. The first pulp board factory in Western Canada is being build in Vancouver by the H. R. MacMillan Export Company. The CPR will convert all its cars on the Esquimalt and NanaimoRailway to diesel-electric by 1948. It will be the first section on the CNR to
go entirely diesel-electric. The Federal Government is going to review the 1926
board of engineers report on the Lachine section of the proposed St. Lawrence
Seaway with the thought of perhaps actually building it, which will let bigger
ships through to the Great Lakes and generate electricity. Speaking of, the
hoped-for “recession of the power load” in postwar Canada that would let the
system take a breathing space for rehabilitation and repair of hard-pressed
machinery, hasn’t happened, and, in fact, the load has gone up 25% and is still
increasing rapidly. The current Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario
building programme will add 900,000hp to present power supplies, and increase
its generating capacity by 50%. A four-million-dollar expansion of the Ottawa
municipal water supply is almost finished, someone is building a “sulphite” liquor distillery (sounds yummy!) and the freight car and locomotive builders of
Montreal, Hamilton, Kingston and Trenton, Nova Scotia, are going great guns
with orders for 1295 cars and 52 locomotives right now, and more to come.
Dominion Steel is modernising at Sydney Nova Scotia with new ovens. There’s to
be a new Canadian industrial Research Centre at the Polytechnic Institute of
Montreal.
 |
| Black liquor is a lignin-rich byproduct of wood pulp manufacture. People have been trying to do something useful with it, besides burning it in boilers, for a long time. Industrial alcohol is one of the possibilities. |
Industrial and
Labour Notes
Miners wages are up, small exporters are complaining about paperwork,
someone is preparing a report on German war industry assets to be used in
reparations, the TUC points out that while national expenditures must be
reduced, unions can be partners in doing it. Coal production in Britain in the
week ending 1 November was 3,867,200 tons, while that for the week ending 8
November, the first under the new overtime rules, was 4,035,700 tons, while the
provisional output for last week was 4,049,500 tons. So production is up by
about 5 million tons on a year-over-year basis over last year, and consumption
is also down slightly. The yearly total would likely be 197 million tons, below
the 200 million target, but high enough to avoid any shutdowns this year.
French Engineering
Notes
French petroleum industry and petroleum research industry doing well. Natural
gas discovered at Lalongue, and oil in Morocco at thirty cubic metres a day.
The preliminary phase of the reconstruction of France is now complete, with
440,000 hectares of land, including 197,000 hectares of agricultural land now
cleared of the fifteen million mines laid. The removal of shells and bombs is
well advanced, with 8400 of 12,100 communes now cleared. 66 million cubic
metres of rubble have been cleared, and 63 million cubic metres of craters
filled.
Rehousing needs are estimated at 12 million square meters, and 9 million meters of temporary housing is now available. One and a half million buildings are deemed repairable, while 1.2 million have been patched up, and 384,600 definitively repaired. 450,000 families have been rehoused. Agricultural building needs are estimated at 1,150,000 square meters, of which 765,000 square meters have been satisfied. 19,000 new housing units have been constructed.
Rehousing needs are estimated at 12 million square meters, and 9 million meters of temporary housing is now available. One and a half million buildings are deemed repairable, while 1.2 million have been patched up, and 384,600 definitively repaired. 450,000 families have been rehoused. Agricultural building needs are estimated at 1,150,000 square meters, of which 765,000 square meters have been satisfied. 19,000 new housing units have been constructed.
Notes and Memoranda
Railway receipts in Britain are up ten percent over the previous month
at 30 millions; there were 44,00 new cars and trucks built in Britain in
August, and 19,000 registered. GWR’s new oil refuelling deport at Old Oak
Common, London, is now operating. The
Engineer regrets to report the death of Mr. T. E. Pitt-Kennedy, late
superintending engineer, Grade I, of the Directorate-General of Works, Air
Ministry. Mr. Carl Holmquist, of the World Trade Corporation, reports that
European ports now have more capacity than current shipping needs require, and
they are very efficient from the port labour point of view, while New York has
made great strides there as well, and both have faster turnarounds than British
ports. The Engineer has received some
very nice pamphlets on assorted technical subjects, and it encourages everyone
to keep on pamphleting, even if The
Engineer can’t publish multi-part summaries of all of them. Britain used
fewer “electrical units” last month than the month before, due to all that
economising.
Time, 24 November 1947
Letters
It’s time to nominate the Man of the Year again, which means it is
time to hear about the President, Secretary Marshall, Arturo Toscanini, General
MacArthur, Senator Vandenberg, Robert Taft, Yehudi Menuhin, and, for comic
relief, the manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers. I’d put money on Marshall, if
there were a bookie handicapping it. A story about starvation and privation on
the Navajo reservation in the Four Corners gets even more reaction, with six(!)
Time readers sending in cheques for
$5 each for relief. Time reports that
Congress might chip in, too. Dr. O. G. Landsverk writes in to correct an error
in an article about radiation protection. Geiger counters are not good for
that, because they do not assess the energy in a given radiation strike. The
Gamma Ray Pocket Dosimeter, issued to nuclear workers, does, and this is what
the article was about. John Montgomery Mahon. W. C. Metz, E. P. Wilson, and
Andrew Boyd, of London do not respond well to letters published in Time from Britons upset about the dollar
loan and austerity over there. They think that if the British don’t want the
loan, they’re free to starve quietly. A.
E. Cornell is upset that Teachers’ Colleges teach too much teaching, and not
enough about the subject that teachers are supposed to be teaching. Rounding
out the letters columns are letters correcting Time about when Indian Summer happens, and about the University of
Michigan’s football team.
Later, Dr. Landsverk used his sweet dosimeter money to promote the authenticity of the Kensington runestone.
National Affairs
I don’t know if you’ve heard this, but there’s to be an election next
year Dewey Taft MacArthur Stassen Eisenhower Warren, America is sending aid to
Europe, and communism is bad.
At least, I assume that would
have been on the first page, if it
hadn’t had an unfortunate postal accident. Grr. Page over, and we learn
that the Republicans have decided that they need to give Voice of America money
after all, notwithstanding the way that it hires suspicious foreigners.
“Discomfited General” The Senate War Investigating Committee heard
this week from Lieutenant General Barney Giles, wartime AAF chief of staff, who
argued that the F-11 was needed, and that it failed largely because of lack of
priority. Then it relaxed and watched everyone shiv Benny Meyers for being a
very smart, unlikeable, shifty person of the Semitic persuasion. It looks as
though he was the only man on the take in the entire Air Force!
 |
| The committee will lose interest when it is discovered that the money trail is more likely to lead to General Arnold than to President Roosevelt. |
“Redhead’s Revenge” The UAW convention in Atlanta featured a
not-a-fight between Walter Reuther and Phil Murray, mainly because by the time
he got to Atlanta, Reuther was invincible on the floor. This year, it is
Reuther who is laying down the law to the auto companies. Next year he might
make a move on Murray’s job. So that’s inside baseball-inside-the-UAW.
“Old Girl’s new Boy” New Orleans is a city. It has French
associations, and is therefore all about French letters and French postcards
and French-what-do-you-do, because those French, if you know what I mean. For
four pages!
 |
| Time is stretching the conceit of cover stories about people by using the excuse of a story about New Orleans' mayor to cover America's sin capital. (Before Los Vegas and Atlantic City.) |
“Frightened City” Speaking of cities of sin, Indianapolis is having a
crime spree. It has been pointed out that it has 65,000 Negroes, who are 15% of
the population, so that must be the explanation. Except that it turns out that
it is because the police force is paralyzed by its own incompetence. Beeville,
a town of 7000 in south Texas, is not a city, and does not have a French
Quarter, but it would seem to have more crime than Indianapolis, considering
that its sheriff, Robert Vail Ennis, has shot and killed seven people in the
last four years with his Colt .44 and .45 submachine gun, including two who
were in handcuffs at the time and three on the porch of a ranchero outside
town, cut down by a machine gun burst under disputed circumstances
Americana reports that eight
Japanese mines were swept along the Oregon coast this week, that one of every
four workers in American factories are women, that twenty men in American Legion
caps tried to break up a Democratic party club meeting in the home of Hugh Hardyman in La Crescenta, California, calling themselves “The Progressive Citizens of America.” Other veterans broke up a Communist Party rally in
Bridgeport, Connecticut.
 |
| So, to be clear here, these guys, who broke up a meeting of "The Progressive Citizens of America," called themselves the "Americanization Committee for Community Betterment" before they were identified as a group of guys from the American Legion. Further details establish that all the principals were assholes, as so often in the edge cases. At least there's no murderous psychopaths opening up on a porch full of people from behind a grease gun and a badge. |
“Big Gun Victory” Per Time, LouisDenfield’s appointment to replace Chester Nimitz is a victory for the “gun
club.” Or, as the Admiral says, for common sense. He’s convinced that John Towers plants all these stories.
 |
| This just in: Battleship admiral fights airnavy by resigning in protest when United States is cancelled. |
“wondrous Week” Time is
impressed by the new Skyrocket and the McDonnell Aircraft ram-jet helicopter, a
310lb “flying bike,” and Consolidated Vultee’s new “flying auto.”
 |
| I'm not sure why I had to scrape this image. Maybe I thought I already had it? |
International
“A Rattle of Bones” The Conference of Foreign Ministers will meet in
London next week to hash out the German peace. But Communism is bad, so nothing
will happen. In Germany, bad things are happening. Some, like the 18 year-old
girl in Munich charged with attempting to obtain an abortion, who defended
herself on grounds that she had been wandering around Germany for two years
since being expelled from the east, and was living in a train station, are due
to Germany being awful right now. Others, like the 17-year old boy who murdered
his mother because she wouldn’t give him money for the movies, don’t really
have to do with anything except selling magazines. The Germans are tired of
rummaging through trash cans for food, of being occupied, and especially of the
Russians. However, Ruhr coal production hit 274,000 tons a day, a postwar high
this year. Time thinks that the
reason that the Russians will scuttle the London talks is not that they’re
thuggish Russians who love a good police state and think that all German
capitalists are Nazis, but because they have an ingenious plot to get a say on
the administration of the Ruhr, strangle the pits with administration, and doom
capitalism by choking off its “black gold.”
“One Man’s Popeye” You know, considering that UNESCO is all about
education and culture, I should care more about the meeting in Mexico City; but
it is all about organising the administration of the coordination of. . and
that stuff is just as boring when it’s about culture as when it’s not. (If
you’re wondering about the title, India is trying to stem a tide of American
comic books, which are bad for culture and the dollar balance.)
 |
| Time gets a bit paranoid about communism sometimes. |
“Subject: Women” The Nuremberg War Crimes Trial has I. G. Farben men
on the dock, and the prosecution entered some letters on the subject of “Women”
this week. Specifically, the company was doing some drug trials, and wanted 150
women from the camps, got them, and tested them to death. “We shall contact you
shortly on the subject of a new load.”
“Good Grounds” Andrew Gide received the Nobel for literature this
week. Time approves because he
doesn’t like communism.
“Twilight” Riots in France and Italy are a “Communist offensive” that
“broke out last week in western Europe.” The Communists are trying to wreck the
Marshall Plan, says Time. There are
detailed stories on the individual battlefields of this sinister offensive,
which seem to consist of some street theatre in Marseilles between Gaullists
and Communist, and a riot against the Qualunquists in Milan. If the
Qualunquists are on our side, I want an audit of our side!
“W-Day” Time decided to be
clever and contrarian, and sent reporters out to interview all three of the
Londoners who aren’t excited about the Royal Wedding, before gritting its teeth
and spending the next four pages on Wedding coverage!!!
“Bittern’s Fall” You’ve heard in the dailies about Hugh Dalton having
to resign for leaking his own budget; this is Time’s take.
“Attrition” Time reminds us
that the Communists are sure to win in China unless America gives the
Koumintang aid on its own terms.
 |
| I waver between being appalled by Luce's politics, being sympathetic to his sympathies, and, finally, coming to a stop firmly on the realisation that he had to know exactly where this money was going to end up. |
Latin America
A lot of words boil down to Time hoping Vargas isn’t on his way back
in Brazil, and Argentine closing a deal to sell 28,000 tons of Argentine corn
to the American Army at $104/ton, better than the $5.90/bushel that Argentina
is getting from Europe for its wheat. The thing is, if Argentina will take
soft-money payments, it has a monopoly, and if America wants to fight that, it
needs to get dollars into circulation, not criticise Argentines for getting
what they can. Speaking of, in Canada, the shortage of dollars means that
Canada is cancelling import permits for everything from oranges to sporting
goods, slapping excise taxes on Canadian steel to keep it in the country, and
restricting the amount of money Canadians can take on their Florida vacations,
or anywhere else in America.
Business
“How to Make a Buck” Inherit ten bucks! Actually, it’s the $143 million payment to the War Assets
Administration by Texas Eastern for the Big and Little Inches. This means that
the Government “gets back all but $2 million” of what it spent on the
pipelines, and the taxpayer is not burdened with all the filthy lucre that
Texas Eastern shareholders will get, instead. Dad, not usually a fan of
Government ownership(!!!) was on a tear about this when we talked. At least,
until I got him explaining the commodity business, instead. He really
appreciates your giving me this job, by the way. (You and I know it wasn’t your
doing. He’s just glad to be able to talk business with his daughter! Even if
–well, now that I write this, I distinctly recall already mentioning that he
had to call me “Pumpkinhead” before getting serious, even if I can’t find the
characters now that I scan back over what I’ve written. So, anyway, forget I
just wrote the last three sentences.)
“Grounded” A week after saving American’s quarter, the DC-6 fleet isgrounded over a fire in the same spot as the one that caused the Gallup crash.
There are 75 DC-6s in service, so this is going to play merry heck with
Christmas flying. Cross my fingers, prayer sent . . .
“Master Plan” America does not have a master plan for merchant
shipping, says President Truman’s blue ribbon panel, established to get America
into the passenger liner business and find a replacement for the Maritime
Commission. Uncle George reminds everyone that the Maritime Commission replaced
something else, and says that the problem isn’t the master plan. It’s America!
“Scrap” Morris and Julius Lipsett, are New York junkmen, who have
handled jobs as big as the Second Avenue El, the old approaches to the Brooklyn
Bridge, and the Normandie, but their
plan to anchor the USS New Mexico at
their Newark dock and cut it up for scrap ran into opposition from Newark,which agreed to lease its port to the New York Authority for redevelopmentbefore being told about the plan to block it up with a slowly-dismantled battleship for the foreseeable future. Lipsetts, meanwhile, were having trouble
finding enough tugs to move New Mexico, which
was just fine floating along in the Long Island Sound, not taking direction
from no tiny tugboats and their tiny cables. Once that was sorted out, Newark was put straight by the observation
that the steel industry is desperate for scrap, and the Navy is desperate for
money. Now, the Lipsetts will have only eight months to dismantle New Mexico, and will have to find
another place to dismantle Wyoming and
Idaho.
“Randlord’s Progress” Norbert Stephen Erleigh made himself very, very
rich running a gold mine on the Rand. Unfortunately, it turns out that he was
selling more stocks and options than gold, and now American buyers may get
their chance to own their own South African gold mine, once they’ve finished
sorting out the mess that Erleigh has made.
“Growing Midget” Remember the story from forever ago, about Crosley
Motor’s midget car, the cheapest postwar cars, including a two-passenger
multi-purpose sports and general utility car at $799 fob? The story continues,
at least so far.
 |
| 1951 Crosley Super Sport. By dave_7 - originally posted to Flickr as 1951 Crosley Super Sport, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6588109 |
Sate of Business reports that
business inventories increased to almost $900 million on optimism over future
demand. The Heatron Stirrer is a cartridge-like charge that can head a hot
drink to fumeless boiling point at $3 for six charges. TWA is also showing a
profit this quarter after a loss last quarter. In its case, it is the return of
the Constellation fleet from grounding that makes the change. In Boston, surety
agents uncovered $35,000 in US securities that were confiscated by the Nazis
during the war and went missing at war’s end. There are still millions worth
out there, and a list has been published, in case any more turn up in the
United States. W. C. Johnson and Company is building a new research building to
a radical new design by Frank Lloyd Wright.
Science, Medicine
Education
“En-Nobeled Britons” Besides Appleton, Sir Robert Robinson also won a
Nobel this year.
“First Nebraskan” Nebraska may have had the oldest known inhabitants
in the United States, says Dr. C. Bertrand Schultz, of the University ofNebraska, who found an ancient spear, knife and arrowhead making site at Lime Creek, near Cambridge, Nebraska. The site is beneath a loess deposit associated
with the Mankato glacial advance, that is, between 20,000 and 30,000 years ago,
which would make it the earliest known site in the United States.
“Eight Jumps to Boston” A solid two years after Radio News, Time covers
Bell Telephone’s experimental microwave-relay between New York and Boston,
explaining how antennas work as “metallic lens,” and how microwaves are line of
sight thanks to their not bouncing off the stratosphere.
“Sludged Blood” Dr. Melvin Knisely, of University of Chicago, has
found that “sludged blood,” or red blood cells clumping together, is
characteristic of numerous human and animal diseases. He and his research group
think that it is because certain injuries lead to red cells being coated with a
substance that makes them sticky. (I have a feeling that I should be writing
“sticky.” The stuck-together cells then cannot pass through blood vessels,
which deprives tissues of food and oxygen and kills patients by killing
important tissues. He thinks that this may be a factor in psychosis, aging and
even senility. The rest of the page is more about medicine as business (many
hospitals are in budget troubles because of rising prices) and history. (Dr. Hawley, of the Veterans’ Administration, who is famous and celebrated, recently
gave a talk on Dr. Jonathan Letterman, who was an army doctor in the Civil War
and who should be famous and celebrated for doing important Civil War stuff.)
“Rebel” 88-year-old John Dewey and 76-year-old William H. Kilpatrick
gave nice speeches at an occasion at the Horace Mann School celebrating
74-year-old Boyd Bode, another educational Progressive. Together, the three
hope to reform American education any minute now(!) Also, the United Nations
has a multinational kindergarten, although parents were initially taken aback
to hear that the teacher was educated at the University of Alabama, because
Alabama is a global embarrassment.
 |
| I'm not sure I get John Dewey. |
Press, Art, Radio, People
The lead story in the press is the way that the New York press covered
opening night at the Metropolitan Opera. Attendees dressed their best,
journalists acted their worst, I’m told. I could have gone to Columbia! There’s
an “inside bit” about the Chicago Journal of Commerce that I’ll hear about from Dad. Having given us the scoop
on the merger of the two Chicago Journals
of Commerce, Time is all fatigued and spends the rest of the column making fun
of “its contemporaries” for making a variety of mistakes such as printing old
chestnuts as news, and, in the case of the New
York Times, getting “chastity” confused with “celibacy,” as who wouldn’t?
The art page covers Hans van Meegeren’s
embarrassing forgeries again, then covers Korczak Ziolkowski’s outlandish plan
to carve a mountain in South Dakota into Chief Crazy Horse to go with Borglum’s
Presidents.
 |
| I remember it from a scene in the original Logan's Run novel. It's got to be something. |
“Situation Wanted” The cancellation of Henry Morgan’s show took a funny turn when Walter Winchell broadcast a “Situation
Wanted” ad for him. Not so funny are the cancellations of Jack Paar, Robert Q.Lewis and Alan Young, none of whom are making it in the Hooper ratings, going
to prove that being funny doesn’t pay in the radio being-funny business.
Sir Hubert Wilkins was trapped in a stalled elevator in Seattle for a
while. Basil Rathborne’s dog broke his left wrist. Artur Rodzinski was late for
work due to taking too many sleeping pills. Edmund Wilson’s publishers have
been fined $1000 for obscenity. Danton Walker is in trouble for making up
stories. James Branch Cabell says that he is writing a book, because no-one has
told him that the Twenties are over.
Audiences in Chicago have forgiven Kirsten Flagstad, but, in Vienna, Wilhelm Furtwängler is not off the hook. If you are wondering about the lack of
marriages and divorces, most of the ones we report here are actually under a
separate heading, “Milestones,” that Uncle George merged with People just to save his wrist; however,
that was a weirdly brief People section,
impressions don’t lie. Under Milestones,
we hear that Prime Minister Atlee’s daughter has married (an electronics
engineer, no less!), as has Adolf Dehn, at 51, to a 25-yearold fledgling
artist, and Donald Nelson, who had the decency to settle for a 51-year-old.
Preston Sturges has divorced, as has D. W. Griffith, while novelists Lincoln Ross Colcord, Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes and Baroness Orczy have died. So
has John Bassett Moore, America’s number one authority on international law.
The New Pictures
Mourning Becomes Electra sounded very
highbrow back when it was a Eugene O’Neill play, and the adaptation is
“creaky,” but “magnificent,” but far too long, at 2 hours, 59 minutes. Not for
people who need to pee or sleep, but fine for everyone else! Cass Timberlane is here to answer the
question of whether the mediocre Sinclair Lewis novel was a good movie script.
No, it wasn’t, says Time. Lana
Turner, some say, emerges as an actress in this movie. Time says that she only “protrudes.” Get it? Because it’s a clever
decollatage joke! I’m so glad that there’s a polite character I can use for
that joke . . . And I don’t want to hear a word from you about “Not exactly a
joke . . . !” Fierce Glare! The Upturned Glass is just boring.
Books
 |
| As Ronnie interprets her instructions to avoid the subject of suicide around Reggie, Sr, she can't mention the lead review, which is of former American ambassador to Britain, John Gilbert Winant's Letter from Grosvenor Square. Winant's sensational tell-all (well, tell-most) memoir of his days in wartime London came out the day of his widely-publicised suicide |
Flight, 27 November 1947
Leaders
“International Air Transport” Speaking of argling and bargling, Sir
William Hildred, Director-General of the International Air Traffic Association,
recently gave his annual report at the annual general meeting in Rio, and now
another one, in Springfield, Illinois, which is very, very nice at this time of the year, too, and I don’t just say
that as a Chicago girl! Anyway, blah blah argle bargle until he got to the
point of comparing ILS and GCA, which, remember, was very much the question of
the day in America last year. The issue is between Instrument Landing Systems
and Ground Controlled Approach, and while the latter has its uses, it is a
“talk down system,” by which he means that the ground controller must give
verbal instructions to the pilot, and, well, that’s just not suitable when you
might have a Venezuelan or a Chinese pilot up there. That’s why the Instrument
Landing System is the way to go. Flight, however,
thinks that this is overwrought, since the pilots only have to learn a few
words like, “For God’s Sake, pull up!” and “That shouldn’t be on fire.”
“Realism” Wellwood Beale recently pointed out that no-one is sure how
to make a jet airliner yet, and while it is a good idea for the British, who
have had to “abandon today in favour of tomorrow,” to focus on jets, Americans
should make short steps, and one short step is to not replace the reciprocating
engine just yet.
 |
| Once we've crashed all the Stratocruisers, then it will be time for jets! |
“Gain and Loss” These are “troublesome times,” because Cunliffe-Owen
is not going ahead with the Concordia, the Ambassador has had an accident, and
orders for the Viking have been cut from 50 to 35 “as a result of the economic
crisis,” that is, because BEA won’t be carrying as many tourists, because
Britons aren’t going to be allowed to tour, lest they spent precious dollars.
Finally, the “threat of liquidation hanging over Miles Aircraft” is “one of the
most regrettable aspects of the time.” First, it’s not a “threat.” Second,
grifters get what’s coming! Unless they’re my Dad, and, to be fair, he only
grifts as a sideline.
“Joint Services Staff College” Britain has lots of service colleges.
One lets in officers from all three services, which makes it “joint,” not
because it’s where they learn to keep the joint jumping. Although they should.
“Big Dipper,” “Riding the Ranges,” “Big Dipper” recently flew a
Handley Page Halton round trip from New York to Bovingdon, southabouts via the
Azores and then up to Gander, due to icing around Iceland. It wa a very long
and wearing trip (97 hours both ways), but Santa Maria was nice, the Halton is
fast, and the space that should have gone to a Miles ad is filled!
W/C G. R. Leather-Barrow, which is a real name, writes “Flying in the
Sudan; New Radio Convoy System Overcomes Most Objections to Original Contact
Regulation” The Sudan Government Notice to Airman, No. 3, said that, as of 1947,
aircraft wold no longer be allowed to fly in the Sudan without reliable long
distance, two-way W/T, except in convoy with another aircraft “of similar
type.” Various people complained, but some planes were found to convoy anyone
who wants to fly a banned plane down through the Sudan, and Bob’s your uncle!
Here and There
British aero clubs will all have to fold soon because of the petrol
ration, the Silvaire is almost ready for delivery, the Americans have developed
a 42,000lb conventional bomb, because bigger is better, Hunting Aero Survey is
surveying in the Middle east again, Dr. Eckener has returned to Germany from
the United States, Major-General Lawrence S. Kuter is critical of the delay in getting
American weather ships to sea in the Atlantic, the Montreal Board of Trade had
a luncheon recently in which all the food was flown in (paw-paws, tuna, dates,
mangosteens and brussel sprouts from Britain), because aviation is the coming
thing. People on Pelsart Island, 38 miles off the coast of Western Australia,
may now book air passage by pigeon, until such time as the Governor sends a
radio. The Canadian Air Line Pilots Association is concerned about the safety
of streptomycin, which may cause permanent impairment of balance. Film of the
royal wedding will be flown to Singapore
on KLM (for shame!) and transferred there to Qantas. The Ministry of Supply
says that employment in principal aircraft factories has declined 4.2% in the
last twelve months. Woomera Rocket Testing Grounds in Australia now has 2000
square miles of range.
 |
| So 1947 had a very different idea of what kind of exotic fruit might be the coming thing. No avocados, no mangoes, to papaya. What happened to the pawpaw? |
“Resurgam,” “Peace (of Mind) In Our Time: A Plea for Using Approach
Equipment Which has Stood the Test of Long Usage” “Resurgam” has been flying
for twenty years and more, and he likes the combination of ILS and SBA more
than GCA. Flight disagrees.
American
Newsletter, by
“Kibitzer:” “The Fastest Yet?”
Douglas Aircraft Company has released information about the Skystreak
II. Probably because the Navy thinks that the Air Force might be about to try
to break the sound barrier with the Bell XS-2.
 |
| I went to Wikipedia to look for spoilers. The article is a little confusing, but XS-2 flights began on 14 October, and the first supersonic flight was Number 50. I guess we'll hear about it when we hear about it. |
“Flight Pilots a Jet: A Personal Account of a First Flight in the de
Havilland Vampire” Flight’s Maurice
Smith flies the Vampire, part II. He likes it, and it is quiet and fast, but
the windows are too small.
“Sealand Prototype Completed: Shirt’s New 5/8 Seat Amphibian for
Flight Trials: Two Gipsy Queen Engines”
“Alpine Air Force” Switzerland’s air force has planes, mostly Bf10s,
although the D-3802, derived from the Dewoitine 520 (there’s a two-seater, the
C-3604), shows what the French might have built in 1942 if they hadn’t lost the
war in 1940.
Civil Aviation News
Correspondence
D. W. N. Carter has opinions about flying clubs. H. G. Tube thinks
that a statement from your doctor should be enough to start pilot training,
Alex Matthews reminds us that women really can fly planes, the Independent
Committee for the Future of Civil Aviation is throwing a party for Leslie
Irvin, and F. W. Meredith replies to “B License Pilot’s” criticism of the
Smiths Electric Pilot. “B Licence Pilot” argues that the SEP is inadequate
because it does not have automatic pitch control and altitude monitoring.
Meredith says that modern powered controls don’t need pitch control, because
pitch doesn’t change when the undercarriage comes down, and, anyway, the SEP
will be modified with an automatic trim-adjusting motor before it enters
service. Finally, in answer to the question, “What is a safe automatic pilot?”
Meredith answers, it is one that does not suddenly apply dangerous movements to
the controls, or fail un unforeseen weather conditions. Putting in a cut-out
that turns off the autopilot if this happens is not equivalent to the SEP’s
“failure to safety” design. I had to call Reggie to get an explanation for why
this is so cutting, and after all the talk of rate-rate and
velocity-displacement, I’m as confused as ever. I do understand the part where
“B-License Pilot” is pushing the Sperry A-12, and that’s who Meredith is
criticising.
 |
| No-one officially knows anything about early postwar autopilots. It is frustrating, but we're going to get to the bottom of this! |
The Engineer, 28 November 1947
A Seven-Day Journal
The Ministry of Works has published a report on the results of the
“payment by results” scheme under the Essential Work (Building and Civil
Engineering) Order, 1941. That was the British version of cost-plus, and it was
generally satisfactory, the Ministry is saying. The British Hydromechanics
Research Association met last Wednesday to discuss why they had such a dumb
name for hydraulics, and also science, although the blurb is all about
coordinating associating combinations of institutional administrative
organising. The Southwick B Power Station site was officially opened for
building this week. The British Standards Institution reminds everyone of the
importance of having standards. The Dutch motor liner Willem Ruys launched this week for service between Europe and the
Far East. It made 24.6kn on trials. Hopefully the Dutch will not run out of
poor people who want to go to the Far East on a smelly, high vibration, slow
diesel. The Paymaster-General, of all people, spoke to the Commons about how
the new steel priorities are going to work. All for the best, he thinks.
 |
| MV Achille Lauro, ex Willem Ruys, did not make the Indonesia run for very long, and had a colourful subsequent history even before the notorious hijacking. |
Johan van Veen, “Analogy Between Tides and A. C. Electricity, No. 1” I
asked Reggie about this, and he laughed and laughed. Since the phone calls are
expensive, even when we talk, and my parents see the bills, and we do have
other things to talk about sometimes, I settled for getting him to look up the
Institute’s copy, and he came back with an apology, since this is actually
quite interesting. Real tides and real electrical currents, he pointed out,
don’t really conform to the simplistic picture of the mathematics of the wave
equation, because they are very complicated. Work with tidal calculations have
resulted in some useful solutions of complex waveforms, and they can be applied
to the analogous case of electrical currents moving through complex conductor
circuits.
“The Iron and Steel Institue, No. II” This group of papers are
concerned with brittle fracture, which might be due to temperature change,
manganese content, and notches.
“Shimsha Hydro-Electric Scheme” The Shimsha scheme in Mysore state is
a further step in Mysore’s pioneering work in the field of making electricity
out of water. It is very interesting for those who like to say “dam” loudly and
enjoy the shocked looks. Speaking of which, the International Congress on Large
Dams will meet in Sweden this June, and will not be associated with a meeting
of the World Power Conference, as it was when it was held before the war.
 |
| the falls of the Shimsha. |
“Track Reinforcement on the Southern Railway” Older sections of the
Southern Railway were laid on a clay foundation, and modern train working is
hard on this foundation. The easiest solution to this is raise the level of
track above the clay by increasing the ballast layer by cutting out clay and
putting in ballast. I can’t believe that paper was spent on writing that! The
rest is just as –I mean, do you need to know how many tons of cheap concrete
replaced how many cubic feet of clay on just what length of track? Well, here’s
where you can find out! Speaking of, the U.S. Public Roads Administration has
approved a 40,000-mile highway system to be jointly administered by the states
and federal government, with 37,000 miles of main route and 3000 miles of
connections through urban areas, connecting all the State capital cities and
200 cities of over 50,000 population, with six lane divided roads in the
highest traffic density areas of 3000 vehicles per hour, and four-lane divided
highways elsewhere.
Metallurgical
Topics covers heat
resistant aluminum coatings, the effect of hydrostatic pressure on the fracture
of brittle substances, and internal stresses in metals and alloys. The aluminum
coatings in question are on steel, and create an aluminum-steel alloy of little
depth on the surface of the steel by a variety of methods, and results in
stronger materials at higher temperatures than ordinary mild steels. The tests
of brittle materials under high hydrostatic pressure were to determine if all
brittle materials lose their brittleness under high pressure, as some do. It
turns out that some don’t. Crystalline materials do better than amorphous
materials like glass, but more research is needed. The bit on internal stresses
is more research. It’s that sneaky
internal stress corrosion, again!
Leaders
“The Unwanted Job” People are lazy, and, now that unemployment is so
low, keep asking for more money to do bad jobs such as domestic service and
coal mining. This is awful and unacceptable, and apparently slavery isn’t an
option, so engineers and scientists should probably invent robots.
“Austerity and Civil Aviation” It’s all a terrible mess.
There’s a letters section, but it is entirely devoted to engineers
talking about things like science, liberty, peace, tyranny, religion,
philosophy, and other things that perhaps engineers shouldn’t rush to have
opinions about.
Sir Alwyn Crow, “The Rocket as a Weapon of War in the British Forces”
The Admiral tells me that not only is this paper appearing in the Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical
Engineers, that he saw a draft
almost two years ago, which he promptly filed somewhere, and off he goes, with
hmms and haws, to rifle through filing cabinets, and decide, inevitably, that
it must be around somewhere, or maybe
he left it in Australia? Sir Alwyn was appointed director of rocket weapon
research, and whereas the Germans were on about ballistic missiles and guided
missiles and anti-tank missiles, he decided
to focus on those unguided antiaircraft rockets that mainly contributed lots of
highly inflammable material at the point all the bombs were trying to hit. This
paper spends a very long time trying to justify all of that wasted effort,
mainly by pointing out that the rocket motors were useful for other things,
about which more next week. (Not to give away the ending, but we’re probably
not going to hear it, so JATO. At least, as far as your son remembers the
paper.)
 |
| An Unrotated Projectile mounting on HMS King George V. WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA? |
“A Prototype Stainless Steel Coach” Budd does up a nice stainless
steel coach in America, and the Pressed Steel Company, in cooperation with
Budd, decided to see about doing one up in Britain. The builders point out that
corrosion resistance makes for low maintenance, and double-glazed windows make
them less miserably cold/hot than a Budd car is apt to get.
“A Large Narrow Gauge Locomotive” The Hunslett Engine Company has
recently built a 2-8-0 of this type for the Trujillo Railway of the Peruvian Corporation.
It is designed for demanding grades and curves, and could not have an axle load
above 12 tons, in spite of towing 400t trains. It’s nice design work, but very
conventional, unless it’s new to have steam brakes on all wheels. (It might be,
as this is a lot of wheels.)
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| It turns out that Hunslett is still around, and wants you to know that it owns all intellectual property and design rights of pretty much all of the old British private locomotive builders, making it the winner, for now, in the all-in game of Battle Royale that is modern capitalism. |
“A Sand Cooling Plant” Is what? [probably] Okay, it turns out that sand is used
in things, perhaps construction, and it gets hot while it is being processed
for use in the things it is used in, and this plant uses a novel approach to
cooling it from being too hot.
Continental
Engineering News
The Swedes are building an underground railway in Stockholm. The first
line, Alvik-Johanneshov, to be 6 ½ miles long, is now in progress. All lines,
once finished, will be 22 miles.
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| Remember when cities could afford to do this? |
“Locating Partial Breaks in Multi-Core Jumper Cables” British
Insulated Callender’s Cable has designed a novel partial break locator, which
is a transformer with a battery. You hook up the cable to be tested, fire the
battery, and current moves through the cable. A three-stage
resistance-capacitance amplifier is linked to a set of headphones, and the
expert operator listens for the specific sound produced by various kinds of
partial breaks. From the context, I think that a “jumper cable” might be those
overhead cables that power streetcars, but your guess is as good as mine. In
other electricity news, Chislet Colliery is getting fluorescent lighting.
This week’s British Industrial Standards Association bulletin
discusses copper alloy castings.
Industrial and
Labour Notes
British Overseas Trade was up about 9% at £108 million in October over
September, but down 2 millions from the all-time July peak. Machinery and
vehicle exports were at 62,00 tons, compared with 38,000 tons in the same month
in 1938. Vehicle exports were £19.4 million, a substantial part of that ships.
Imports were valued at £161 millions in October, far below the August and July
figures of 174 million and 179, and the final adverse balance was £49 million,
the lowest since March. The Industrial Association of Wales is on about
industry in Wales, the Ministry of Labour is changing the rules for registering
for conscription, Sir Stafford Cripps says that the rules for setting export
targets are under review, the British Iron and Steel Federation warns of
increasing Swedish competition, and the TUC had a nice report about how unions
are working to reduce national expenditure, which will not include stopping its
fight to increase the wages of the “lower sector” of labour.
French Engineering
News
Fires in natural gas cylinders used to provide fuel for private cars
and utility vehicles are being investigated. The French merchant fleet is still
much smaller than it was in 1939, and this is disturbing, two years after
Liberation. “Monsieur Duguet, President of the Administrative Council of the
French nationalised coal mines,” has resigned, because coal sale prices are
being subsidised, and this will soon lead to national bankruptcy, which is bad.
Notes and Memoranda
Other railways have other methods of fighting icing with chemical
treatments. The Fairey move is reported here. The RAAF is testing JATOs on
Grace’s least favourite plane, the Catalina. The Dutch are air-surveying Dutch
Guiana, and the Parliamentary Assistant of the Minister of Civil Aviation had
to fight off suggestions of FIDO for everyone in the House of Elected
Loudmouths. The Ministry of Supply said that the approved coal-to-oil
conversion programme in the steel industry was almost complete, while the
Belfast Association of Engineers heard a talk on “electronics,” which, they
heard, is not just how Americans say “electrics”
when they are being pretentious. There were lantern slides. The Electrical
Development Association (speaking of. . .) had a very nice presentation on the
Electric Kitchen in Small Homes. The Aston Chain and Hook Company did its best to have a nice presentation on
chains and hooks. The ten thousand page report on the special session of the
Institution of Electrical Engineers on electronics (yes, yes, yes) that the
Admiral has been carrying around for months and nearly didn’t get back from
Reggie, finally hits the pages of The
Engineer, with the session on radio research buried way down here in the
“miscellanea” section. One paragraph on efforts to improve radio research seems
like more than enough coverage to me! (I’m sorry, I spent a whole afternoon
with Uncle George while I was writing this, and I think I might be terminally
infected with sarcasm. Look what he’s already done to Grace!)
The Crescenta-Cañada Democratic Club story is fascinating! x-random Brit turns up at the heart of American radicalism, gets rich somehow, doesn't turn into an arsehole, stands up to McCarthy, repeats a bunch of Stalinist propaganda (oops), does good works, vanishes in Mexico?
ReplyDeleteAs for the money I'd take a wild guess and say he turned the date farm into a suburb? But then it's even more impressive that having made a fortune in *real estate* he didn't turn into a nazi pig.
But wait! It gets better!
ReplyDeleteHindenburg Park? OH, THE HUMANITY!
ReplyDelete