Postblogging Technology, November, 1951, II: The Full Moon Brings Out the Crazies

R_. C_.,
Shaughnessy,
Vancouver,
Canada




Dear Father:

I would get your darling son's chop on this, but he is celebrating his leave by taking the pram and his son  on a perambulation of the neighbourhood which will end (he does not fool me for a second!) in  celebratory drinks in Bill and David's shop down on Page Mill. Their appearance in New Aviation Products makes them  a "real company" at last, and not just a Navy shop with a Disney sideline. He will probably also tinker with the tape readers. I told him I needed a man around the house, it being Friday night, lest a passel of freshman engineers turn up on a panty raid, which he is actually taking quite seriously. We had a talk about whether we want to spring for one of Fat Chow's men as a "houseboy," but it would add a lot to the domestic budget my father is covering, and I would probably stand out more than I am protected. Besides, it is very unusual for this sort of thing to go off campus, and I have no late classes on Wednesday or Friday, so I miss most of it. 

I have to say that I would be a lot happier if the administration would just expel some of the worst troublemakers, but I gather that the university's books look very, very bleak this year, so if the boys want to drink and carouse and also crib, what are you going to do. At least, I look at my tuition invoice and know I am doing my part:  $600!!!! (Though it would be more than double that if I lived on campus, so I guess I am not being a true Daughter of Leland. Ugh.)

Your Loving Daughter,


Ronnie

Letters

Ernest Lee writes to point out that Raymond Moley is wrong to think that the British electorate repudiated socialism, considering that Labour had more votes and increased its votes on 1950, and points out that Labour "crushed Communism" without witch hunts by reforming the injustices that promote Communism. Newsweek argues for a combined Liberal/Labour "anti-Socialist majority" of 530,000 votes. Major Walrath of the USAF is confused about who invented the yellow fever vaccine, but thinks that it is the Nobel Prize in Medicine Committee which is confused. Coincidentally, the Boeing ad opposite shows a B-47 being catapulted into the sky by its 18 Jato bottles. Several people write to point out that Mmike DiSalle's coat is missing a button. Who can trust anything he says after seeing that? R. W. Parkinson is upset that Newsweek bad-mouthed Warren Harding, writing to point out that he was the nicest man ever, had the best cabinet, and was universally mourned, and that Albert Fall in particular was the best legal  mind in America.  Giovanni Cipollina of Genoa, speaks up for the honour of the Italian army, as does Lionello Boscardi of Rome. For Your Information tells us about the effort that Newsweek put into covering Eisenhower's visit to Washington to tell everyone that Europe can't afford to make all those guns, and ask about what's keeping American guns. 

The Periscope reports that it is shocking that Arthur Krock would say that the visit was political. The Russians saying that they have enough atom bombs to retaliate against "any nation used as a base by US bombers" is atomic blackmail. One third of all new Air Force fighters will have to be replaced within three years to keep the air force from mass obsolescence, which, yes, that is how it works. Senator O'Connor is in trouble in '52, so McCarran is going to let him be lead anti-communist for a while. US Treasurer is a job for idle but distinguished Democratic ladies. The US will send another division to the Far East in the fall, bringing the Army to thirteen overseas. Based on recent Korean experience, the Army is cutting back on bayonet and grenade-throwing training. Army chiefs in Europe have been warned not to hurt Wesbrook Pegler's feelings on his coming trip to Europe. Britain's home beef supplies have been hit by a lack of imported grain caused by the New Zealand dock strike, inflation in Australia, and low Argentinian deliveries. The Dutch are upset at the Americans because of the way they got run over during the Japanese peace treaty negotiations, and that is why they are dragging their feet over something to do with NATO. The French are going to kill the European army because the French left doesn't like it. Moslems are intriguing against the West all over the place, but mainly Morocco, Tunisia and Iran.   The Communists have set up the world's worst secret school in Bulgaria to train fake refugees to pretend to be anti-communists all the while infiltrating the West. The Greek premier will meet Marshal Tito to put athe past behind everyone. Paramount is shopping an Alan Ladd/Elizabeth Taylor project, Roman Holiday. Taylor will play a Princess Margaret type, touring the US. Jinx Falkenberg is "developing" a film version of her autobiography. Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini are still together, it says here. John Gunther is working on a tell-all, Eisenhower in France. Marion Davies has settled with the Hearst Press, guaranteeing no memoir about Randolph in her lifetime. Justice William O. Douglas has another travel book coming out. When does he find time for judging?

At least The Periscope got the studio and the title right.

Washington Trends reports that a shakeup is coming in the price stabilisation team, as Mike DiSalle will follow Eric Johnston out the door. If you were wondering whether Johnston actually did anything there, he has a report out on his way out the door calling for tougher controls on building, particularly residential housing. No, wait, that would hurt us! NO! More US troops might go to Europe, and, although you probably hadn't heard, there's a Presidential election next year, and General Eisenhower might run as a Republican.

National Affairs

I don't know if you've heard, but there's a Presidential Election coming up next year, and General Eisenhower might run as a Republican. 

"NATO Problems Aims Too High, Tensions Grow" The Europeans should have 28 division equivalents by next year, and 60 by mid-1954, but won't have even half the equipment they need before mid-1954. They can't make more arms without diverting capital from consumer goods production and depressing the standard of living while raising inflation, Congress has cut foreign aid, and the arms that are being delivered are increasingly not up to the mark. That doesn't just go for jets and radars, either. A recent scandal is the issue of Enfield 17 rifles to a newly raised French regiment. Newsweek halts the news for a paragraph to tell the story of this WWI era rifle which has presumably been stored in some dusty American warehouse for forty years, then pushes on to explain that the issue Italian rifle is even older and that the US hasn't even made up its mind about its new rifle. There are bright spots. The British are producing 75% of what they need and their armed forces are in good shape, and armour, at least, is being delivered in quantity. The concern here is that it is all Shermans, and the Sherman is a bit long in the tooth in Korea, while in Europe the Russians are fielding a new tank, the "Joseph Stalin" which I put in quotation marks because, thanks to far too much explaining from Uncle George, I know all the ways in which this is wrong. Newsweek goes on to explain that the "Pershing" did all right in Korea, but what's really wanted is the "Patton," and it is only coming along in small numbers. It also says that the "Joseph Stalin" is being produced in enough numbers to equip not only the Red Army but the satellite armies and replace the T-34. Again,  a bit confused. We're talking about the third version of the "Joseph Stalin" heavy tank, which supports the T-34, or its successor. A new mark of "Joseph Stalin" and the T-34 successor should be along any day now. There is also a shortage of planes.

Newsweek goes on to review the basic economics. First, there is rising employment and rising cost of raw materials due to world demand which we've heard about often enough. Second, there is the shortage of coal, and here Newsweek shares some numbers. The whole of Europe is short 50 million tons of coal, Britain is short 20, and Britain is also short a full billion kilowatt hours. Also, Europeans don't know how to mass produce things, since they are accustomed to making cuckoo clocks in nice cottages nestled in the Black Forest because European management and unions are against efficiency because they hate progress. Which I am being more than normally sarcastic about because Newsweek apparently doesn't remember WWII, and, in fairness, who does, it being six years ago and all. It does cover its derriere a bit by mentioning how the arms industry was ripped up root and branch by the Germans back in the war, but the real issue here is that the Europeans can't produce more with their unused industrial capacity because they can't afford to import raw materials for domestic consumption in guns. So Eisenhower wants to see the Atlantic alliance building up a cooperative defence industry over years, and cover the needs of his 60 divisions with American production now. Which would require more foreign aid than Congress will sign off on. 

Ernest K. Lindley points out in his Washington Tides column that there will be a Presidential election next year, and it looks like General Eisenhower is running. In other news, some off-year elections were bad news for incumbents, which goes to show something or other. There will be a Presidential election next year and Robert Taft is going to run on a platform of internationalism if necessary but not necessarily internationalism, and Southern Democrats are divided. (Except on the idea of pooling their resources to build a common graduate and professional school for Coloureds because the Supreme Court says they have to, and this would way would be cheaper; but since it would involved education Coloureds, so that's not on.) 

Other national news includes the premature cold snap back East, with snow, ice on the Great Lakes and blizzards on the Plains; more tragedy in the ongoing Groveland, Florida prosecution; and the arrest of Cuban racketeer Jorge Gregorio Simonovich under mysterious circumstances that may or may not ave involved him being kidnapped from Havana by federal agents, taken to an airstrip in southern Florida, and turned over to immigration. 

The Korean War

"Wintertime Adds Its Rigours to GI's Hardship at Front" The GIs on the line are suffering from the Korean cold, spartan conditions, constant danger, and the risk of getting stuck with the corned beef hash C ration. GIs spend six days in the lines, then a week in the rear. After five or six weeks the whole unit is rotated out and the men get to enjoy leave in frozen, ruined South Korea. They claim to not be attracted to Korean women, but the VD rate doesn't bear that out. Finally, there's a five day leave in Tokyo that they do enjoy, and then it is back to the front, with the prospect of rotation home after a year, but no idea what they're doing in Korea now that we're just waiting for an armistice to be inked. Meanwhile, "Manchurian," or epidemic hemorrhagic fever, continues to spread. 196 UN soldiers have been infected, 25 killed since it was identified in June. Never before identified in Korea, it is thought that it might been brought to the peninsula by Chinese soldiers or draft animals, that it might be caused by a virus or a Ricksettia organism, or be spread by fleas.

(I'll explain below)

 

International

"U.S. Proposes, Russia Disposes: That's Disarmament at the UN" All the countries want disarmament except the other guy, who doesn't even though he says he does. Newsweek says that it is all pointless, because international tensions cause armament, rather than armament causing international tensions. Which seems like it skips right over the whole "merchants of death" story. I'm sure Newsweek is being dumb, not disingenuous, though. Next after is yet another story about how NATO will have 43 divisions by the middle of next year, but no equipment for them, and no prospect of getting it, so maybe disarmament isn't such a bad idea. 

"Austerity Again" The new Conservative government is "returning to the grim austerity diet of Sir Stafford Cripps." Which translates as cutting imports by a billion dollars a year, almost 10%, cutting food imports by a quarter, reducing the allowance for British tourists from $280 to $140, increasing the bank rate from 2 to 2 1/2%, and reducing stockpiling by $476 million. Newsweek explains that this is not nearly enough. The bank rate needs to go up to 4% to actually address the outflow of gold and dollars, which might leave Britain without either in as little as ten months. On the other hand, "it is now clear" that much of the outflow is due to "speculative operations against the pound." That is, the patently obvious exports of silver (and gold) that have been going on for several months. I can't imagine why it wasn't "obvious" before the election, but there you go. All if this is in aid of the conclusion that even though the "austerity" won't accomplish very much, everything will be fine in the end, albeit with some kind of adjustment in the burden of European rearmament, of which Britain has carried some 60% so far. Not unrelated, the next story, "Transatlantic Tourist," explains how Pan Am's Atlantic coach proposal has gone from being anathema to everyone else, to being Europe's favourite new thing for the summer of '52. 

"Comes the Revolution" The October Revolution celebrations were particularly sinister this year because it was cold and the parade involved "robotlike soldiers" marching before "faceless civilians," and also because Stalin and Molotov were absent and NKVD chief Beria gave the address. Newsweek misses the chance to remind us of Beria's sinister reputation, although it does point out his thick, Georgian accent.

"Rebirth of German Militarism?" A long feature on the League of German Soldiers, the new political careers of some German generals, and a motley assortment of "neo-Nazi" parties that might or might not lead to the Fourth Reich shortly.

Over in this hemisphere, Newsweek notices the Premier of Newfoundland and asks whether he is "Saviour or Quisling" for uniting the island with Canada. I guess it could go either way, time will tell? Speaking of traitors or not, Peron has won the Argentinian election by a two-to-one majority of the vote. The Colombian volunteer battalion in Korea has been in action. 

Business

The Periscope Business Trends reports that everyone is worried about the steel price hike and the inflation that will come with it. The CIO is fighting with the UAW, the inventory of used cars is still heavy, department store and television sales have finally picked up, but shoe sales haven't. The CAB is "virtually certain" to give in on coaching, but not on applications to raise fares. The total value of American farms is up to $143 billion, due to inflation, but the farm labour force was down another 766,000 this year, counting family and hired workers. Tungsten is now being imported from Korea. 

"CIO, In Congress Assembled, Declares War on Stabilisation" That's what it says! Also, meat prices are up, OPA Commissioner Mike DiSalle has implemented the Capehart Amendment after dragging his feet for weeks, allowing 70,000 manufacturers to ask for price hikes. The National Production Authority has reserved the entire output of machine tools, freezing auto, refrigerator, washing machine and durable goods models. The new DeSoto was the star of Chrysler's annual show, taking the headlines away from its K-310 dream car. The new styling of the De Soto is strictly a "facelift," but a 160hp V-8 is coming. The show also featured a triphibian hull, designed by Grumman but to be manufactured by Chrysler for the Navy, its 760hp V-12 tank engine, the wing and tail assemblies that Plymouth will be building for the Douglas Globemastter at its Los Angeles plant, and the J-45 Turbo-Wasp and J-46 afterburner, which it will be building for Pratt and Whitney. In better labour news, the dock strike has stopped. 

Business Notes reports that the cotton crop projection continues to fall, that Canadian whiskey imports are up, and the Florida Citrus Exchange has bought a  huge frozen orange juice plant from Clinton Foods, which seems like something that the trust-busters might be interested in. 

"Long Distance by Dial" is a longer report on the Bell experiment with experimental direct-dialed long distance between Englewood, New Jersey, and five other cities. 

What's New reports on Gorham's of Springfield, Illinois' special purpose basting spoon, GE's one-piece plastic countertop, marketed under the "Monotop" name; Hace and Taylor's stocking with built-in-bracelet and charm; Make-It-Snow of New York's artificial plastic snow for Christmas trees; and Nox-Rust of Chicago's "Vapor Wrapper," sheets of paper for packing tools to keep moisture out.

"Lag in US Arms: A Story of Conflicts and Mix-Ups" The best measure of the "lag" in US arms production is that the country will produce no more than 4800 airframes this year, and probably less, with many of them being engineless. To give this number some context, the Soviets will produce 12,000 aircraft this year. Given that Charles Wilson promised Congress 50,000 aircraft a year by 1953 last January, this must be someone's fault, and it has been duly determined that it is all because of fuss and muddle. Hmm. So I guess the headline is wrong where it says that the problem is the steel shortage? I guess not, because the steel shortage is new news, and the production lags are old news. But back then it was machine tools and labour, and those are still short. This is really starting to sound like it isn't due to fuss and muddle at all! 

Henry Hazlitt's Business Tides is really, really upset at Eleanor Roosevelt. It seems that Mrs. Roosevelt chanced to read on air a pamphlet from the Foundation for Economic Education which denounced "the welfare state" as a euphemism for the "socialistic-communistic" state. Mrs. Roosevelt went on to point out that the phrase "welfare state" was coined by Chancellor Bismarck, who wasn't a communist at all; that socialism and communism are not the same thing, and the welfare state is neither. Which all sounds like common sense, but Henry, after admitting to being a trustee of the said Foundation at the head, is having none of it. I won't go into his argument in any detail, as you know that I have my axe ground for his neck already, but also because I am right to despise the man, and few things prove it better than this column.  
 
 

Science, Medicine, Education

"Intellectual Pinball" Major General Chauncy decided to take the radio technicians course after becoming head of Air Force Technical Training at Scott Air Base, Illinois, but was stumped by the textbook description of the vacuum tube, so he ordered someone to rig up a giant teaching model, which they did, and now it is a Newsweek article, too. It has 60,000ft of wiring and 3000 lights, so it is quite the model, and the technicians who built it have been given the Legion of Merit and also an invitation to the Johnson Committee to explore the dictionary definition of "boondoggle."

"Of Rats and Men" Dr. Curt Richter[*], the head of the psychobiology lab at Johns Hopkins University, gave a lecture to the National Academy of Sciences at Yale last week in which he explored the shrinking adrenal glands of the common laboratory rat. Briefly, medicine and science use a lot of rats, and breed a special, albino breed for laboratory work, because wild rats do not do well in captivity. He points out that the adrenal glands of the albino laboratory rats have been shrinking, generation after generation, because they experience very little stress and don't use them very much, and he conjectures that they have been selected for small glands, as small-glanded, docile laboratory rats breed better in domestic conditions. He goes on to conclude that this is obviously happening to human beings, who are becoming ever more meek and mild under the stress-free conditions of civilisation. He plans to confirm his theory by examining the adrenal glands of Australian aborigines, because they are probably enormous, they being Stone Age savages and all. In the mean time, he proposes that the modern American epidemic of arthritis, asthma, and other diseases which are treated with ACTH are probably due to those shrinking adrenal glands. "Man has paid a stiff price for the security of civilisation."

"Neglected Nurses" Newsweek sent some poor guy to a surgical congress where he was so bored that he forgot to even write its name down, although he took long notes at the three sessions he caught, one on nose surgery; the second on the use of nitrofurazone, which might be useful for chemical treatment of some cancers as well as a wound dressing; the third a new method of promoting leg growth by treating the bone, explained by Dr. C. Laird Wilson of Montreal, who inserted a twisted wire of nickel and constantan (an alloy of copper and nickel) right in the "growth line," where it stimulated growth by its "battery effect." Which sounds fishy to me, but only because my nose surgery was done properly! 

"The Dolorous Tic" That's "trigeminal neuralgia," for which Drs. Edmond Smolik of the St. Louis University School of Medicine, and Dr. E. J. Hempstead, a dental surgeon, have discovered a new cure that doesn't involve cutting the nerve. Instead, you just "reconstruct the jaw," possibly with artificial teeth, to remedy the malocclusion that, they theorise, causes the condition.

Medical Notes reports that Dr. Leonard Ravitz of Duke Medical School has scientific proof that the phases of the moon affect people's sanity. He has measured a difference in electrical potential between insane brains and normal ones (where did he find those!?!), which increases as the moon gets fuller, and in the spring and fall. The original theory goes back to 1935, to Yale anatomist Harold S. Burr and   philosopher F. S. C. Northrop, who hypothesised an "electrodynamic theory of life," using "field physics." Dr. Ravitz was formerly "closely associated" with Burr, and is giving the theory a field test. Aren't I a funny one? Not half as funny as Ravitz, Burr and Northrop, I have a feeling. Also in detecting insanity news, Drs. Arthur, Raymond and Mortimer Sackler[!!!!], of Creedmore State Hospital, New York, have found that psychotic people's blood clots differently from normal people. (See above.) This is because crazy people's blood "absorbs sound waves" differently from normal people, so the actual test involves shooting subsonic waves at a test tube of blood hooked up to a sensitive scientific instrument. 'The test offers many possibilities," says Dr. Newton Bigelow, the State Commissioner of Mental Hygiene, which sounds too sinister for words, although fortunately he goes on to say that it will require more study.

Under Education, because it's cold outside,  Newsweek heads south to check in with the University of Miami. Also, the NEA reports that school superintendents are badly overworked, and it is affecting their health, while free English classes are very popular in Puerto Rico. 

Press, People

The New York Post is a really old paper, Newsweek wants you to know. The New York Herald Tribune has an "animal editor"? The Times makes fun of him, and he makes fun of them back while some paper is devoting the entire production of a Michigan newsprint mill it bought to South American newspapers for freedom of the press and all of that, while Britain's Watch Tower has a very un-hilarious funny column about how now that the Tories are in, Labour and Tory press are switching tones. 

Frank Sinatra, and Ava Gardner are on the page because he is a jerk and she is good-looking. Oh, and they got married. That will last!!!  (I'm being sarcastic.) Barbara Hutton,  Jack Benny, Princess Elizabeth and some guy, Jane Russell, Florrie Kavanaugh, Maxwell Anderson and Robert Mitchum are on the page because they did stuff and are already famous. Gwynne Nettler is in the news for being a professor and a "panty bandit," (I think, Newsweek doesn't spell it out). Tonsillitis Jones is on the page for being the real-life incarnation of my (which is a real name) joke. Joseph Fox is on the page for being the stamp collector who was the only person in the entire country to buy the special stamp book for bookies, and isn't he sorry with the newspapers camped on his doorstep waiting to see if he suddenly makes book, as they say. Do they say that? I don't know, maybe I need to start collecting stamps. 

Conchita Cintron Verril is giving up bullfighting to be a housewife. Zsa Zsa Gabor has separated from her husband, some guy. Betty Smith, of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, is also separating from her husband, some guy. The Governor of Massachusetts has proclaimed 27 November tobe Herbert A. Philbrick Day, after the FBI double agent in the US Communist Party, because stool pigeons are our heroes. Sigmund Romberg and Freddie McEvoy have died. Rosemary Clooney is the bomb, but I'm cheating because that's a Music story and I don't usually cover the section. 

Movies

Quo Vadis is a remake of a classic (I guess?) movie based on the Henryk Sienkiewicz novel. Unless I have it confused with something else, the original novel was popular because it had Jesus, or St. Peter, or just a very pretty Christian played ion this version by Deborah Kerr.  This version is going to be famous, if is famous, because it has lots of sandals, gladiators, and men in very short "togas." If I'm not repeating myself! Across the Wide Missouri is a "super-Western," which is like a regular Western, only with Clark Gable, Technicolor, and dialogue in the authentic Nez Perce and Blackfoot. Pool of London is a "hit-or-miss melodrama" from the Rank Organisation, while The History of Mr. Polly is a "gossamer wisp of English whimsy." Newsweek also didn't like Behave Yourself, because it is too professionally produced to have a comic edge, it says here. Let's Make it Legal is a "semi-civilised" comedy with Claudette Colbert, but at the end of the very short review Newsweek says it is "tedious." Make up your mind about why you don't like it, why don't you!?

Books 

There's a life of Charles Evan Hughes by Merlo Pusey. William Bradford Huie's The Revolt of Mamie Stover is an indecent novel from the editor of The American Mercury. I certainly wouldn't have seen that coming. George Fuerman's Houston is a "bright, slap-dash . .portrait in oils," while Murray Morgan's Skid Row: An Informal Portrait of Seattle," does the city of David Maynard and John Considine. 

Raymond Moley's column looks at the Indiana election. No, really, it does. What else is there even to talk about?

Aviation Week, 19 November 1951

News Digest reports that the CAA is getting its full steel allocation for airport building, after all. The USAF is building a $20 million electronics research laboratory adjacent to Major Holscomb Airport, Bedford, Mass. It will house MIT's electronics research programme, the Air Force lab currently at Cambridge, and a geophysics laboratory now temporarily at Watertown. Transocean has joined the Northwestern "Crash a 2-0-2" club by digging in a wing tip on the final approach turn, causing the death of one of 26 Army personnel passengers aboard. 

Industry Observer reports that if Ford completes negotiations to build the Pratt and Whitney J-57, it will be producing the three most important engines in the national defence programme, adding the R-4360 and J-40, the Navy's top powerplant. When the Air Force made its "razzle dazzle" decision on the four-engine B-47 last summer, Chevrolet pulled out the the programme to build the Allison J-35, leading to it getting the contract to build the R-3350 instead, which took the contract from Hudson Motors, which was left high and dry, which wasn't fair. The Air Force should have thought of Hudson Motors before it cancelled the YB-47C just because the engine didn't work! GM is shipping machine tools down to Texas to mass produce the new Grumman fighter, starting in mid 1953.  Auto workers are not pleased with dispersal, because they don't want to move to follow their factories. GM production of Republic F-84Fs at Kansas City will get its Sapphire engines from Curtiss-Wright until they are in production at Buick in Flint. 

Katherine Johnsen's Washington Roundup seems to be suffering from a shortage of sources, as she fills out most of her column with the millionth article about "143 wing Air Force what's keeping it?", and explains that strategic air power is the Air Force's job. Then she checks in with the Army's $500 million programme to give every division two squadrons, more or less --16 spotter aircraft, 10  utility helicopters, plus five helicopter transport companies with one and two-ton helicopters. This part is lagging because of a shortage of suitable helicopters. Army spokesmen add that, unlike the Navy, they are not interested in helicopters in a weapon-firing role, as they are too fragile. Congress is looking into various cases of waste and mismanagement. 

"Better Planes Needed to Match MiGs" That's what General Vandenberg found out when he went to Korea, Alpheus W. Jessup reports. This is not a question of fighters, but of bombers. B-29s cannot operate in daylight in Korea, but the bombing campaign against potential Red air bases around Sinanju must continue or the MiGs will be able to interrupt the UN interdiction campaign against Red supply lines. As for fighters, the USAF could use something faster than the F-86, and a better jet fighter bomber than the Thunderjet. 

"Berlin Airlift Chief Assigned to MAC" Aviation Week reads the appointment of  Major General William H. Tunner, Deputy Commander of MATS, as deputy commanding general of Air Materiel Command as evidence that a "shakeup" is coming at Wright Field. 

"US Jet Liners" More talk about federal subsidies for American jet liner designs. Leslie Neville, formerly of this paper, has a new government job, while Oerlikon has selected a North Carolina site to build the stuff that it will be making in America. Explosives? Pan Am and TWA are fighting over the Atlantic coaching rate, even though CAB has told them to kiss and make up. 

"There's A Quick-Change AD for Every Job" Douglas really wants that Army contract for the Skyraider, so it decided to buy an advertorial in Aviation Week. Martin lost $17.9 million last year because of this and that, none of which was the company's fault, honest. "A weary delegation of British aviation industrialists" has just finished a tour of American plants, bases and research facilities. They are impressed with the high morale of American workers, the efficient use of plant space, and the fact that the industry is 3 and a half times the size of the British. to which I ask, why wouldn't it be, for Heavens' sake?

Aviation Week scoops Newsweek on the North American mini-reactor story, but because I got my magazines out of order, I've already written that story, so I will let Newsweek have the lead. It is interesting that reactivating a single WWII plant, the Douglas factory at Tulsa, will cost $28 million.

David S. Anderton reports for Aeronautical Engineering that "British Research: Quality, No Quantity" There were fewer British research projects shown at the Ministry of Supply static display at SBAC Farnborough than an American display would  muster, but what there were, were high quality. For example, the RAE's high subsonic aerodynamic test drones, last seen being made fun of as they flew off in  the wrong direction, have matured into solid and pretty little things. The telemetering transducers that go on them, are likewise good electronics, as are the inductance and resistance types, the accelerometers, and the data. In other words, Anderton is generalising wildly about one research project. Noticing that this is embarrassing, he pulls out a copy of the Estimates and lists off all the British aviation establishments. There's quite a lot, from the RAE down to the Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment. 

Did you know that Boeing has workplace training? It does! News!

"Baby Boxcar Details Revealed" Sure as flowers mean spring, an Aviation Week pictorial tells you that a plane has been turned down by, in this case, the RAF. Too bad, because it was going to use the Cirrus Bombardier, and they could use the orders. 

"Duplicator Traces 14 Jet Blades" Avro Canada has come up with a way to speed production of its Orenda jets with a "battery of duplicating machines" that traces the contours of a master blade on 14 work pieces simultaneously. Not to be outdone in the field of boringly obvious things, the Bureau of Standards comes through with a device for measuring clearances between rotating shafts and bearings by mutual inductance. (A cathode ray tube takes output from two probes.)

NACA Reports will have none of it from these amateurs. Jack Fischel and John R. Hagerman empirically investigate the effect of aspect ratio and sweepback on the low speed lateral control of untapered, low aspect ratio wings with retractile ailerons; while William R. Slizka and David H. Silvern take an analytic approach to the aerodynamic characteristics of turbines with unrotated blades with an eye to cooling; and Louis H. Smaus and Elwood Stewart (all the reports this week so far are pleasingly monogamous) have a practical approach to the calculations involved in an experimental study of autopilots and autopilot-aircraft interactions.  W. A. Crouse breaks with domesticity by gathering round a veritable harem of two other writers to investigate the effects of fuel immersion on laminated plastics, which sounds like sordid fun for all, especially co-writer Margie Canckhoff, who had two fuel-dippers all to herself. Not that I am suggesting anything! Reverting to Victorian sensibilities, Eric Reissner and Manuel Stein look at torsion and resulting transverse bending in cantilever plates. Unfortunate bachelor James R. Blackaby looks at the effects of jet-outlet angle on  thrust direction and pitching moment to rule out the purported advantages of a bevelled nozzle. A libidinous trio led by Harvard Lomax (which is a real name!) look at the very questionable subject of three-dimensional unsteady lift problems in high speed flight, particularly delta wings, which are very unstable, glug glug, if you know what I mean. 

Aeronautical engineering is the top freshman engineering pick at NYU this year, while some geology researchers at Rensselaer have a new method of testing material endurance, the R/S Dilastrain, that is promising enough to warrant its own article.  Dr. Howard Hardy, speaking to the Acoustical Society of America, explains how engine cells can be made more soundproof by putting 180 degree turns in their exhausts. 

Avionics reports that Bill and David have an honest-to-the-Heavens commercial product, although Aviation Week makes them, very officially and corporately, "Hewlett-Packard." It is a klystron power supply and bracket for testing waveguides, and is $300 free on board. Details follow, and I'm interested to see that they use a silicon crystal to measure relative level of rf energy, so that the whole "solid state" thing is not  new to them. Clarostat has a new potentiometer, while Electronic Devices, Inc., has a new line of miniature silicon rectifiers, and GE's X-Ray Department has a high intensity illuminator so that you don't have to retake an over-exposed X-ray negative. Brush Development Corporation has a direct-coupled amplifier suitable for use on a standard 19 inch rack. Anco Instrument Division has an electronic bearing stethoscope for locating friction noises in bearings and other mechanisms.  

The McGraw-Hill line editorial asks, "Will Defence Production Be Caught in the Squeeze?" That is, the squeeze on profits. It takes two pages to explain that this is the cap on profits that is completely unfair when other people might be able to escape their stabilisation caps with escalator clauses. Escalators for everyone!

Production has "AF Still Has Surplus Tools --But Hurry!" The AF wants its depots back in the production picture (including the Omaha one I just mentioned as requiring $28 million to be put to work making B-47s for Douglas), so all machine tools must go by the end of the year. No reasonable offer refused! Lots of it isn't junk! Otherwise we'll just dump them outside, and you dont' want that to happen, do you?

"Market Widens for Metal Decals" I'm sure it does. This is a Boeing sideline, if you were wondering. Also, "Special Tool Speeds Metal Cutting Study" A whole bunch of representatives from here and there came to Curtiss-Wright to see it run a Mona-Matic lathe (by Monarch Machine Tools) as it cut some high temperature alloys, really, really fast. I think the point is that Monarch makes good lathes?

George L. Christian reports for Equipment that "Pan Am Building a DC-6 Simulator" Pan Am really liked the Stratocruiser simulator, so when none was available, it decided to build its own DC-6B simulator. Or, it will. It's doing it now. Champion Spark Plug is offering a new spark plug again, because it hasn't done that since last week. This one is shielded and explosion proof! GE's leak detector detects small leaks in pressure systems. Walter Kidde's 4-cfm, 3000psi airborne compressor is going to go in to the Republic F-84F to power its hydraulic system, while the oleo drag struts on the 4-0-4 make for the nicest landing yet. Northwestern is going ahead with its order of Sperry analysers for its 10 Boeing Scratocruisers, while Bendix has a small jet starter.

New Aviation Products Yes, after all of that, there's still a New Aviation Products section. And it really is digging through the dregs, because the first item is a jet engine dolly from Towsky Trucks, Inc, which is a dolly for moving jet engines around, while a hydraulic clamp from Anchor Coupling Company, and a "centre of gravity" mounting for dc voltage regulators from GE and the BuAer, follow. Superior Electric, of Bristol, Connecticut, has a line of variable, high frequency transformers for aircraft that are, as usual, very cute, very small, very space-saving, very light. H. H. Thompson, Inc, reminds us that there are many new and even better uses for Refrasil, its fibrous silica insulation. Gorrrell and Gorrell's multispeed timing drive is "second to Mouth."

The CAB has killed some, but not all coaching services, and W. A. Patterson, President of United, says that it was the DC-6 that finally allowed US air lines to stand on their own, without federal subsidies. Heard that one before about the DC-3. I want to see your books!   The Italians want ECA  money to buy planes, airlines are upset about the shortage of high-octane gas which has led the Petroleum Administration to order the refineries to increase lead content from 4.0 to 4.66cc per gallon for domestic, 4.6 for overseas flying. (Because it will burn out their engines.) Near East Airlines has almost finished the mass airlift of 110,000 Iraqi Jews from Baghdad to Lydda and is now evacuating 2000--3000 Persian Jews a month.

Letters has  congratulations on the subcontracting article and F-94 article and a request for reprints of the ALPA articles. E. P. Wheaton of Douglas points out that it had the help of the California Institute of Technology Jet Propulsion Laboratory on its Corporal Missile and from Bell, Sperry, Bendix, Raytheon and GE on the electronics. 

What's New has torn itself away from its usual, exciting diet of operating manuals and catalogues to read the Jubilee history of the Royal Aero Club, Fellowship of the Air, by the one and only B. J. Hurren, because you cannot keep a terrible writer down, as much as you'd like to. 

Robert H. Wood's Editorial tears into "The Gratuities Clause," which, says the industry, is "laudable but unrealistic." Corruption is bad, but you can't do anything about it and you shouldn't try! 

Letters

The first half of the column is a response to the story about Joe Louis. Jennie Brownlee writes to point out that there are women amongst the "hurricane hunters," too. There is also a vigorous, mostly negative response to Dr. Hunter's article about how dentists can avoid bad patients who don't pay their bills on time. There's also a spate of letters about the article about the First Marine Division. For Your Information covers the response to its story about the Eisenhower visit. A Defence Department spokesman says there isn't a crisis, but a Senate staffer says there is. Senator Capper read a Newsweek article about Philip Jessup over the radio back home, and now everyone in Topeka is talking about it, and For Your Information is talking about Topeka! Everyone likes lots of other Newsweek articles, too. 

The Periscope reports that the Czechs are letting American diplomatic staff visit Bill Oatis, so he will probably be sprung, soon. The British warn that not only do the Reds have a two-to-one margin in "top-grade" jet fighters in Korea, they are bringing in artillery and will soon have a ground firepower advantage, too. American observers are less pessimistic. Mike DiSalle says he'll take the price stabilisation post if he's given a free hand by Charlie Wilson. The K-2 bombsight can pick out targets through night and fog eight miles away. It weighs a ton, has a "complicated electronic brain," and costs $250,000 compared with $800 for a WWII Norden bombsight. The total US atomic budget is closer to $10 billion than the $2 billion AEC budget, while the Pentagon warns that Russian universities will graduate as many scientists and engineers in the next five years as American. Pilots flying high altitude missions are experiencing toothaches due to air bubbles trapped in the teeth, while we should not be surprised at the "considerable number" of Douglas C-124 Globemasters in service. The Army is looking into setting up auxiliary AA batteries manned by older reservists around the US. Both Gerald L. Smith and the Communist-backed National Negro Labour Council are flopping, showing that Americans are natural moderates, because Fascism and "pinkism" are the two extremes of American politics. Hmm. HMM. The US is going to yell at the European allies to get more guns going now, while the British are very hopeful that the Egyptian government will fall or something. The Red boss in Rumania has a Swiss passport and a secret Swiss bank account, and so do the Perons, which just goes to show. Trotsky's murderer is being treated very well in jail, while George Polk's alleged killer is living it up in Bucharest. Emotions are still simmering in Greece over the Civil War, Newsweek observes after being searched before being allowed to enter the Athens Telephone Company. Victor Kravchenko, of I Chose Freedom fame, has bought a silver mine in Peru, while Alexander Korda has sewed up the rights for a Churchill biopic, and Ann Blyth's RKO contract gives her the right to approve publicity photos so that "Bosomy shots of the Jane Russell type are right out." 

Washington Trends reports that the Johnson Committee is set for a full-blown inquiry into military production schedules, which it thinks are being manipulated to make the armed forces look good. The Army, Air Force and Congress are squabbling about the draft. The Army thinks that the Air Force is taking skilled workers from defence industries, and wants Congress to improve conditions for reservists in various ways to improve its chances of replacing the two-year National Guards callups, when their terms expire. The army is still not attracting anywhere near enough recruits. The CIO is riven with dissension as various union chiefs and potential Phil Murray successor, Allan Haywood, fight. The CIO is also lowering its sights for the next election from fighting for the Fair Deal across the country to targeting 100 close House and Senate seats. 

National Affairs

I don't know if you've heard, but there's a Presidential election next year, and Governor Warren of California is running for the Republican nomination. 

"The Arms Lag" We've been hearing this story for the last two weeks. This week, General Olmstead, Director of Military Assistance, was tasked with replying. He reports that 800 of 1535 light tanks; 1200 of 1350; and 148 of 153 "other" tanks have been delivered. All 46 promised F-84Es gave been delivered, but none of the promised F-84Gs, nor of the T-33 trainer, although 18 of 85 offered will be delivered by the end of the year. However, all 90 T-6Ds have been delivered, and 658 of 847 promised 105mm artillery. The problem is that, Senator Johnson says, these totals do not match earlier published schedules. They do conform to the new revised, schedules, but that's cheating. Although Johnson is quoting classified information, he has been corroborated by Senator Lodge. We're told that Eisenhower had no idea that this was going to blow up into an issue for him to campaign on next year. No idea at all! Newsweek is very concerned that ordinary Americans might start doubting State and Defence Department statements, undermining faith in our system of government. Also, there's too much brass and too many bureaucrats in Washington due to those fat cats wasting taxpayer's hard earned dollars. A court in Yanceyville, North Carolina, didn't lynch a man for "assaulting" a woman by following her at a distance of at least 75 feet through a cornfield, and it is a national story because this is America.
 

"Chinese Torture" Village Communist Party officials in southern China are reported to be detaining the relatives of American Chinese and holding them for ransom, meanwhile inflicting all those exquisitely cruel Oriental tortures you hear about in pulp magazines and Republic serials. Also, some hoods in Detroit have been arraigned for claiming to be able to get draft deferments for money, and whatever was holding up the slaughterhouses, the dam has broken and beef production is up 18%, meaning more, cheaper meat, soon. 

Ernest Lindley's Washington Tides is going to sort out "The Arms to Europe Controversy" for us. Production was within striking distance of the old plan, but is far behind the ambitious new plan that envisions many more divisions in the field, much sooner. 

The investigation into that irregularity in the IRS office in St. Louis is not going well. Lots of people are being dismissed or are retiring for health reasons, but we are not going to know what was behind it. 

The Korean War

"Hope for a Speedy Armistice: Anguish From Atrocity Report" I'm not going to go into the blow-by-blow in any details, but there's currently a thirty-day deadline for an armistice. It sounds like the negotiators aren't going to make it, but the fact that it has been imposed is a good thing, if that makes any sense. Meanwhile, Colonel James M. Hanley, who is with the office ofo the Judge Advocate General of the Eighth Army and a soldier with frustrated political ambitions, has produced a report that blames the Chinese for the majority of POW killings since they entered the war, and gives very specific, and quite high figures for massacred POWs. For example, the Chinese have murdered 2,513 American POWs, the North Koreans, 3,757. From elsewhere, notably General Ridgeway, there is the suggestion that the exact numbers are dubious and that Colonel Hanley spoke out of turn and unhelpfully. (Time is a bit clearer; they're hearsay. The army has only confirmed 180 cases and all next of kin have been notified.) This is against the latest casualty returns, with Americans currently at just a hair under 100,000, including more than 10,000 missing. Many of these are in POW camps, and to recover them, according to the Geneva accords, the UN will have to return all their POWs. At the end of WWII, the western Allies returned many POWS who had joined anti-communist and nationalists forces, and this was tragic. Likewise, there are many anti-communists among the Red POWs, and the UN would prefer not to return them, but this would sacrifice our own POWs. 

A slightly sillier story reminds the boys in Korea to wear their helmets, even if they are unfashionable.

"Vehemence at UN Assembly Emphasises East-West Split" UN delegates made nasty speeches at each other about disarmament, a black cat walked across the podium while Anthony Eden spoke, whereas Ambassador Vishinsky released a white dove. Then they called it a night and went out to the cafes, because it is Paris, after all, even though the actual French are going to have an austerity  campaign.

 (Paris!)

"Adenauer Speaks Out: West Needs a Strong Germany: Europe's Integration Essential to its Freedom" Newsweek's feature interview. Adenauer is reasssuring, smart, and chooses his words carefully, and Newsweek could stand to learn a bit from him, not that it will. Britain is in a stir over steel denationalistion, because the Tories have no idea how to unscramble the egg, and Labour has promised to rescramble it, reducing investors' appetite for British Steel stock, whenever there is such a thing.  We're sending more arms to Tito, and Prime Minister Churchill's daughter raises cattle.

"Small Change in Iran" Premier Mossadegh is fishing for a payoff to make the whole thing go away, a $120 million US loan on top of the pending Import-Export Bank loan of $25 million. The British have "just about given up their claim to management," agreeing to allow Royal Dutch-Shell take over under contract to the Iranian government, but so far on unacceptable terms. Both sides have agreed to compensate the British by a preferential price on Iranian oil, but are haggling over terms, again. The Iranians don't want to make concessions on marketing, because they think that they can break through the British-coordinated front and get their oil to market in spite of them. As for final terms, the British are for sitting tight and waiting for Mossadegh's inevitable overthrow, but this leaves them vulnerable to charges of stalling, and the Americans are more worried about a Communist coup in Iran if the oil doesn't start flowing again, also, they suspect that the Iranians really are capable of running Abidjan without British help.

"Ferment in Morocco" Everything is okay in Morocco! With giant American bulldozers building giant American air bases, the French Communist Party gave the names of the Moroccan Communists to the authorities, in the interest of amicability with the source of US dollars. (That's us!) Actual Moroccans are probably very happy about this, because stool pigeons are national heroes in every country. In Egypt, a pitched gun battle between British troops and Egyptians left four British soldiers and two Egyptians dead, but everything is fine there, too! And in Sudan, which will be independent (of Egypt) b next year, say the British. In Nepal, one king is out, and another is in. 

"Argentine Significance: Peron Wins More Votes: But Economic Troubles May Be His Undoing" Another story where the headline seems to cover off the details. One reason that there are "more votes" is that Argentinian women voted for the first time. If you're wondering about the cause of the economic difficulties, which I've been hearing about for weeks, there is a drought that is cutting grain and beef production. Although blaming the weather isn't nearly as much fun as blaming "Peronism"!

Business

The less-entertaining back page of The Periscope reports that it turns out we can't have guns and butter at the same time. The auto industry will be lucky to make 4,000,000 cars this year, more than half of domestic copper is going to the military, wage demands are through the roof. Public spending is up, so is the trend to starting new banks and expanding the credit facilities of existing ones. Business bankruptcies are down 7%, aircraft engineers are so scarce that the big builders are turning to hiring foreign talent in exotic, faraway lands like Britain and Canada. The boom im plastic dishware and Japanese imports have American pottery makers badly worried. Japanese imports previously peaked at 5 "million dozen" pieces in 1937, could hit that level this year, and "[l]ayoffs are heavy in many plants." The price of lumber, or, more specifically, Douglas fir, has finally broken.

I'm not sure that anyone ever said that rearmament wouldn't hit consumer goods production? But what can I say? People who can remember yesterday aren't really Newsweek's target market. Or The Economist's, either. (People who can remember 1912, but not 1948, are Time's target.) Also, a big story about how the "sudden Fall upsurge" erased the Department store slump. Eric Johnston gets another story about how he is leaving the Economic Stabilisation Agency to go back to the Motion Picture Producers Association, which patriotically kept his doing-nothing-in-LA seat warm for him while he was doing nothing in Washington. The Salary Stabilisation Board has capitulated and says that executives are fine to use stock options to get around salary freezes. The ECA thinks that the Anglo-American Productivity Council is so much fun that it is having one for Europe, sending 5000 US experts, from shop foreman to engineers to labour leaders, over to Europe to explain to Europeans how it is done, the American way. I don't know how much help that they're going to be directly, but if they splash their spending money around at the clubs while they're there, they'll sure help the dollar balance! Vaguely related: Pfizer's new synthetic pig food (with bonus added antibiotics) really packs the meat on porkers. Remember when we were worried that bugs would develop immunities to antibiotics if we splashed them around too much? Those were the days! Pfizer dreams of a day when "Terralac"-fed piglets are raised in a scientific hatchery and then farmed out for fattening. 

Business Notes reports that rail rates are up, that the RFC has loaned Copper Range Mining Company $57 million to reopen a Michigan copper mine, and rereports that TWA, BOAC and Air France have joined Pan Am in offering coach rates on the Atlantic this summer.

"Whale: Medium Rare" Sure, blubber makes yummy margarine, and the Japanese and Scandinavians have been known to eat a whale steak now and then, but you know who doesn't eat whale meat? Everyone else, that's who! Including the British, when they tried this a few  years ago. But that doesn't mean you can't throw money away trying again in America.  Here those whalers go to all that effort to hunt down whales and shoot them with exploding harpoons, and people won't dig into those yummy steaks just because they stink like fish! What a waste! Besides, the Vatican says that if it smells like fish, you can eat it on Fridays. So, Kristin Gjoelberg of Norse Foods, a US importer of Scandinavian food specialties (it says here), aims to hit the American market in volume. So far he hasn't found any restaurants that will feature whale meat, but he figures if he hits the housewife in the grocery store freezer aisle, he can change that, because the price of beef is going up! Or, actually, down, as of right now, but that's the kind of nitpicking up with which we will not put!

"School Days at Schenley" Schenley Distributors slipped Newsweek a fat envelope to send it to night school, right after it put in an explainer about its corporate sales-training programme. Newsweek likes money, so it was okay to that, and let's not talk about night school ever again.

What's New reports that Paul O'Dea of Terre Haute is selling adhesive felt strips under the "Ric-o-Brac" label for, well, labelling things. The Envelopener Corporation of Harrison, New York, is distributing envelopes with pull-tabs for easy opening. Hallmark has a Christmas card for kids that folds out into a 36" steam train, with pockets for holding other cards. Reynolds Manufacturing of Sumner, Washington, has a plastic flower holder/arranger. Malco Plastics has a transparent, vinyl card holder, just the thing for place settings at convention banquets. 

Henry Hazlitt continues to be Henry Hazlitt in this week's Business Tides, "How to Depoliticalise Money." He starts with some partisan huffing and puffing, gets a bit more reasonable as he ponits out the inflationary habits of some New Deal/Fair Deal politicians, and points out that they have had their way because the Federal Reserve Board has lost its original, statutory independence, and suggests that that independence might be usefully restored. And then he adds that it should first have all its powers to "inflate or 'reflate'" taken away. Because apparently even the Great Depression can't reach some people. 

Science, Education

"Nobelists of 1951" Glenn Seaborg and Thomas McMillan have won this  year's Nobel for Chemistry for discovering plutonium and a growing list of other -niums. Sweeping the awards for atomic science, J. D. Cockcroft and E. T. S. Wilson have won it for physics for vandalism, specifically atom-smashing. Cockcroft is the director of the Atomic Energy Research Establishment these days, so he's probably not quite done smashing things. In other atom-smashing news, North American Aviation has built its own baby atomic reactor that is just the thing for any university lab needing an "atomic furnace." 

"The Steady Eye" Kurt Lion, "biophysicist at MIT," has somehow got print space (in the Journal of Applied Physiology, which, who knows, may be desperate) to assert that eyes are special because they don't get tired like other muscles, because he created an electronic device to stimulate the eye to move back and forth by shining bright lights in it, and while some people were able to bear it for as much as a half hour before it was too painful or nauseating, according to his instruments they weren't "tired."

Science Notes of the Week reports that physicists F. C.  Champion and A. A. Ahmed of the University of London claim to have found "traces of atomic fragments which have positive electric charges but weigh nothing at all." Does that sound unlikely? Well, no more unlikely than those "neutrinos" that other physicists have come up with! The National Science Foundation has started  handing out grant money. Du Pont's new weedkiller, 3-(p-chloropphenyl)-1-1-dimethylurea, which can "wipe out all plant life" at an application of 20 to 100lbs per acre. I am not sure that "wiping out all plant life" is what they should be aiming for, but I guess you can't have scientific progress without breaking a few eggs. 

"Ivy Suspended" Dr. Andrew C. Ivy, celebrated doctor and vice-president of the University of Illinois, has been suspended for relentlessly promoting crank cancer cure, krebiozen, and falsifying research into the secret recipe's effectiveness, has been suspended by the AMA. Dr. Ivy thinks it isn't fair, because it's not  like selling some snake oil invented by a mysterious Yugoslav doctor to desperate cancer patients is a violation of medical ethics or anything like that, and the University of Illinois agrees. St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington is the first geriatic hospital for the mentally ill, and the armed forces have announced that they won't have to draft "many" doctors for Korea for the next few months. 

"The Cheats" Surveys at Cornell and UCLA reveal that just under half of all students will admit to cheating in anonymous surveys. The Land Grant Colleges, which are having their centenary this year, get an explainer, and Newsweek explores the universities' desperate effort to make up for the loss of GI money by courting business money for work training in night school courses. 

Radio and Television, Press, People

Spyrous Skouras, president of Twentieth-Century Fox, has dropped more than a million dollars on the Eidophon-CBS large-television screen colour television system that is being developed in Switzerland, and thinks that it is the end of the movie musical. The current UN general assembly session is generally considered the best thing on television right now. ATT is making a bundle off rentals of microwave relay time for tv shows. Ampex has officially annoounced its erasable, reusable, sound-and-video recording tape, even though, as we've heard, it's still pretty hazy. NBC gets a short, explaining puff piece (and a full page pictorial.) Today, it has 4000 employees, 17,000 miles of wire, and 180 stations in the continental US, Alaska, Canada and the Philippines.

Press has puff pieces for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Sam Newhouse, who bought yet another paper last week, in spite of it giving him a local monopoly in a big chunk of New Jersey. Westbrook Pegler continues to be handled with kid gloves in his European tour, and the Chicago Journal of Commerce newsroom has voted to unionise. 

 

  

Judy Garland has recovered from her collapse in Paris. General MacArthur, the Vice President, James T. Carter of the Galveston News, assorted British royals, Mary Pickford, Joseph Tuczak and Lana Turner are on the page for being famous. College dorm moonshine and the Confederate flag are on it for being the crazes of the day, and Syracuse engineer James Dwyer is on it for being shot by an arrow while riding the Empire State Express near Utica. (No, I didn't make that up. Of course I didn't make it  up.) W. C. Handy has had a birthday, Captain George S. Patton is engaged, Robert Sterling is married, Senators Pat MacCarran, Styles Bridges and Kenneth Wherry are all ailing or recovering. Eve Trostyle, 17, a touring member of the "Great Arturos" acrobatic trio, has died after slipping and falling while performing at the Shrine Circus in Baltimore. Mary Kingsbury Simkovitch has died at the less tragic age of 84. 

Movies

The Whip Hand is a thriller about a vacationing news-magazine writer who discovers a Soviet germ warfare laboratory conveniently set up in the little Midwestern town of Winnoga, and has to get away from their agents for the rest of the movie. Newsweek thinks that it is terrifyingly "contemporary." The Yellow Cloud is another Ranke import, a melodrama in which Jean Simmons something about butterflies. Who cares? You need to see Simmons' crop! Super stylish and it looks like it would save me a good half hour in the mornings. Newsweek liked the movie, too. The Big Night is a thriller and a John Barrymore, Jr. vehicle. The Lady Says No is a bad comedy that takes on the hilarious premise that sometimes, ladies say "no." (The only reason this one does, you see, is because she is crazy, and the love of a good man, etc.) Too louche for Newsweek is really something! Come Fill the Cup is an adaptation of a Harlan Ware novel about a drunken journalist who is too close to criminals, and who then joins Alcoholics Anonymous and fights the gangsters. Newsweek likes it. Newsweek is pretty easy this week.

Books

 Eileen Bigland's biography of Ouida is a very favourable biography of an awful woman. So awful that she "lived in public scandal and private propriety," which was cheating her fans, apparently. Also, she was homely, and in her later life she kept too many dogs and was one of those ladies, the kind who are apposed to animal cruelty. Burn her for a witch, I say, and her biographer, too! Not to be outdone by Seattle last week, Lloyd Morris' Story of New York has even more scandal. Alice Tisdale Hobart's The Serpent-Wreathed Staff is a novel about socialised medicine. It is supposed to be neutral as between its pro-socialism and anti-socialism protagonists, but tips towards the former. John T. Flynn's While You Slept is a contemporary history of the ongoing crisis in the Far East (or is it several crises by now?). It is "much more moderate" than his previous attacks on the Roosevelt Administration. It says here, although that just makes his books about Roosevelt sound even worse.

Raymond Moley's Perspectives column is actually good political writing in a horrible way. He points out that Republican hopes of securing an electoral majority are a demographic delusion. They can win the Presidency thanks to independent voters, but not the House and Senate. Going over the races where the GOP has a chance, he concludes that 1952 could easily see a new GOP President, let's call him "Iron-hewer," but a Democratic Congress. The trends towards bigger cities and less populous rural areas are irreversible, and it is a fantasy to think that the Republicans will break through to city voters. Now, there is some questionable stuff here. Moley rejects the idea that Presidents still have "coat-tails" on thin evidence, and his vision of city "bosses" with their "disciplined voters" is the old-time Republican self-delusion, but he's not wrong about his central point, which is that without breaking into the South, the Republicans have a nearly impossible problem. He then goes on to point out that by (in effect) joining the Klan, the Republicans can pick up the votes that the Democrats are imperiling by leaving it. 

Aviation Week, 26 November 1951

News Digest reports that Northwestern is buying 10 Hytrol anti-skid units for its Boeing Stratocruisers, and covers the Overseas Airlines C-54 crash in Oakland that killed the crew of three. Carrol B. Vickers has died, bringing an end to a career of hopefully confusing careless aviation press readers. He really should have merged with either Metropolitan Vickers or Vickers Barrow or some other Vickers!

Industry Observer reports that  the USAF is getting ready to make JP-4 its official fuel, replacing JP-3. American Airlines is going to be the first of several airlines to try out Shell Oil's tricresylphosphate fuel additive for preventing spark plug fouling. The Douglas X-3 test plane will be ready to fly really soon now. Ford, GM and Hudson are "feeling their way" into helicopter subcontracting. MIL-L_708 is the first joint service specification for a synthetic lubricant for gas turbines. Prototype studies for the CAA's low-cost feeder plane are somehow still going on no matter how often Congress says, "No."

Katherine Johnsen's Washington Roundup is so tired of "What's keeping the 143 Wing Air Force?" in  the top left hand of her column that this week we get "Global Air Navy." So far the Navy has only been able to secure a 15% boost from 14 to 16 or 17 carrier air groups and a "slight" increase in patrol air wings and Marine aviation. This is obviously not enough and it needs more, but production is bottle-necked and everyone keeps laughing when the Navy talks about its atomic flying boat of the future. The Navy's guided missiles are "years away," because guided missiles are hard. Industry is backing Senator McCarran's proposal for a "construction differential" to open the way for an American jet transport. The services are going to do their best to push contracts Canada's way before it gets even more upset. 

"CAA Blocks US Test of Comet" Overseas National Airways was trying to get a purchase order for 3 Comets in, but the CAA was too slow in clearing it for American service, and Air France took the three planes that will be available before 1955 or 1956 instead. The only way that American airlines can get Comets earlier is if de Havilland expands its production facilities, which may be on the table considering how eager the British are for dollars. Overseas thinks it could make a lot of money flying on American trunk routes, which might have been a selling point, since there is a school in Britain that says that it can make more dollars flying Americans on BOAC Comets than by selling Comets to BOAC's competitors. 

"Senators Look into AMC Job Changes" It turns out that shuffling everyone around at Wright whilst the high command hit the silk right out of the boardroom into private enterprise, just made the Senate more suspicious. Four more companies have been suspended, and the Senate has passed a new rule requiring ex-generals to be out for two years before they can get a corporate job that involves dealing with the Air Force. Since people have been evading the old one-year restriction, however, it is not clear that this will work short of aggressively investigating links between the various companies that an ex-serviceman might take on, and prosecuting when they are found to be dealing with the Air Force, as is  happening in some cases now, notably Adam Cappel and Luther M. Kratz. 

"Piasecki's Civil Copter Plans" Are pie-in-the-sky. 

In other news, discussions/hostage negotiations/death-stare matches on the Atlantic ocean coach rate continues, while Aviation Week's continuing coverage of delicious vintages of sour gapes discovers that "US Jets Superior in Power, Economy," says Frederic Rentschler of United Aircraft, who says that Pratt and Whitney's J-57 is ever so much better than those British pieces of  junk like Avon and Sapphire. United, of course, is the monopolistic cartel that owns Pratt and Whitney, Chance-Vought and Sikorsky, and used to own United Airlines before the Air Mail Scandal. As usual when he says these things, he compares the afterburner power rating of the J-57 (17,000lb) with the regular power rating of the British engines (c. 10,000lb). 

"1953 Procurement Set at $10 Billion" That's a lot of planes, engines and fiddly bits!

Aeronautical Engineering has "What We Have Learned From V-2 Firings" A brief summary of how the Air Force came to be launching V-2s, and what it studied with them. There really was a lot to learn about firing rockets through the high atmosphere, and we learned it! The 36 failed launches were also instructive, telling us that rockets are really quite complicated considering how simple they sound. Plus, four failewd due to a top-secret experimental guidance system. 

"New Hot Oil System For Cold Engines" Aircraft Products of Dayton has found a way to blow hot air from the engine back past the oil tank to speed up heating. Details follow at excruciating length. Northrop has a "device" or "augmentor" that goes on a high-speed plane and reduces its sideslipping. Carboloy wants us to know about the new chrome carbides that fight heat and oxidation. When they're used as bearings, to be clear. Northrop is also using its rocket sled to test what happens when you shoot test subjects at 45Gs. Nothing, it says here. I have some doubts.

Alexander McSurely reports for Production on "What Chrysler Is Doing For Airpower" Well, someone had to go to the Chrysler Show and try to get the phone  numbers of the models showing of the K-310! I'm pretty sure that this will all be covered by Newsweek, so we'll leave McSurely practicing his chat-up lines. Oh, wait, there are some interesting bits about how the Grumman amphibian subcontract will involve trucking hulls something like a thousand miles, since they will have to go 400 miles out of their way to find highway overhead clearances and bridge loading requirements, which seems like an odd way of going aobut it, although it is only 12 hulls taking the scenic route. Also, so far Chrysler has only 7500 out of 105,000 employees working in aviation. Now go get some flowers, man!

Lockheed is fiddling with silent engine testing and McDonnell is building anew hangar, while the Bureau of Employment Security, which I just now learn exists, says that the aeronautical labour force must double in '52.  

Equipment sends George L. Christian to see "Frontier's Pattern for Low-Cost Overhaul," and I decline to go with him. Meanwhile AA is scouring the world for spare parts, Lockheed is refitting some Connies so that their navigation cabins can be converted to a forward passenger cabin, and the Convair is being modified to carry more.

New Aviation Products is very excited by a  very light pressure fuel cap from Lightolier of Jersey City and an Aircraft Hose Tester from Sprague Engineering, which actually looks like it belongs in Dr. Frankenstein's laboratory. Pacific Airmotive has a series of "motor-actuated air valves" for high temperature use in aircraft, while GE has three-phase ac generators, also for aircraft use. This is tricky stuff, because it is meant to provide power for radars and radios as well as things like de-icers, so the quality of the input signal is important, and the equipment includes diagnostics to make sure that you're feeding the gizmo the proper square waves and so on. 
 

Air Transport has some interesting safety discussions such as standardising airport signage so that pilots aren't confused when they're trying to land, and an investigation into just how many exits are needed when airliners flying coach. New York Port Authority Director, Fred M. Glass, just won't give up on short-haul helicopter passenger services to and from airports, and demands a study to show that they can make money as soon as there are helicopters which can fly them. 

What's New is back to more normal reading, including Carl Jants and John Shipman's Sheet Metal Tables of Bend Allow and and Setback, which gets a brief review (good, but needs page numbers), and Some Good Things to Know About Metal Cleaning, from Oakrite Products. Air Terminal Vehicular Safety Guide explains how fast  your plane has to be going to kill you. No, it doesn't! Basic Facts About Materials Handling is about the best use of existing machines through utilisation of attachments and multiple usage, from Clark Equipment Company's Industrial Truck Division. They're in Battle Creek, if you were thinking that they only do Corn Flakes there. But you probably didn't think that because you are too old for Corn Flakes. Oops, sorry, it's a beautiful afternoon and I am free for a precious half hour as soon as I finish this! 

Letters has several letters from people who somehow liked "The Well-Tempered Aircraft," one from Edward Watson of San Mateo Airport who liked the one about noise, and from Martin Sharp of de Havilland, who was not impressed by comments about the Comet's noise. R. W. Blake of Pan Am explains the company's position on stall warning, about which it continues to be unenthusiastic. Homer Strickland of American Airlines writes to give credit where credit is due for a quotation. Specifically, Captain A. G. Lamplugh of the British Aviation Insurance Corporation who said that aviation was "safe except it wasn't, like sea travel," or words to that effect, in a talk to the Royal Aeronautical Society in the impossibly distant days of 1928, and not the American insurance company that quotes him in their literature.