Postblogging Technology, July 1952, II:To a Green Suburb Beyond

R_.C_.,
Shaughnessy,
Vancouver,
Canada

Dear Father:

I hope that you won't mind the lack of a personal touch this week as Reggie and I make our final arrangements for our August European trip where we will do our duty to the world trade balance by seeing the sights and throwing dollars at them. Catch, Louvre, catch! Also, finally a chance to cross the Atlantic in a giant steamship luxury liner, the way Nature intended. (All kidding aside, I am getting so excited I'm forgetting to breath!) Of course now that tickets are booked, I find that the only way that I am making it back to Palo Alto in time for classes is by flying from New York. Your poor daughter-in-law, doomed to be a high flyer! 

Your Loving Daughter,

Ronnie

PS: I also hope that you don't mind missing The Economist this month, due to my subscription lapsing by a record-keeping mistake. Up until the last minute I thought it was just a late delivery, so when I wired London I got a nice, quick replay, but it was still too late for me to get to the library, which is on summer hours. And don't ask me why the library is closed early when everyone is at the beach looking for something to read! 

Letters

Mrs. Iva Reed is very happy that a hospital is studying what happens when cross doctors and mean nurses look after kids. Everyone in Philadelphia has sent in a letter about municipal politics, and Newsweek publishes way too many of them. W. N. Lee, of Schumacher and Company, really liked the picture of SS United States, whereas D. H. Berry of Windsor, Ontario, is upset that Newsweek says that it is bigger than the Queen Elizabeth. Nothing is bigger than Queen Elizabeth. (These letters need a laugh track!) K. M. Nicholls, of the Navy, wants to know what ship is crossing behind United States in the picture. It turns out that it is USS Wright. Merrill Rennick, of Santa Barbara, thinks that the Normandie is better looking. Fighting words! Mrs. Stuart Read of Thiensville, Wisconsin, wonders why the Chesapeake Bridge is curved, and what kind of difficulties that caused in construction. Newsweek explains that the curve puts the bridge at right angles to the shipping channels and clears a naval runway on shore, but doesn't go into the technical details of building curved bridges. Oops! Our Publisher wants us to that the huge staff Newsweek sent to the GOP convention did a wonderful job, and ladles out the compliments. 

The Periscope has lots of choppy bits that add up to an explanation of how Richard Nixon came to be Eisenhower's VP nomination and how hard it was to get the Taftites to admit defeat. Everett Dirksen has promised to sit the presidential campaign for the "proxy president" out and the Taft delegates from Georgia and Texas wouldn't remove their badges when they were voted out. Meanwhile, people are saying that Alfred Gruenther will be the new Army chief of staff because his brother is on the Eisenhower campaign, that Truman will probably be the Democratic candidate because Kefauver and Harriman are just not right for the nomination and Stevenson won't run. "US planes equipped to carry atom bombs are about to go into service in Korea," so you know what that means, The Periscope implies, breathlessly. Yugoslavia is worried about Communist military preparations across the frontier in Hungary while construction on that 7 mile, 26ft wide highway tunnel under Mont Blanc has begun. They're working so hard on the GOP platform that one guy had a heart attack. The DNC is buying up choice election television ad spots. Florence Chadwick is going to star opposite Johnny Weismuller in a movie about not having enough money to buy a shirt. Jennifer Jones will co-star with Hunphrey Bogart in Beat the Devil, while Lauren Bacall is going to be in a Twentieth Century Fox adaptation of The Greeks Have a Word for It.

Washington Trends reports that  now that the Republicans have nominated Ike after all, the electionis over except for the counting, especially since they have a Red-baiter balancing the ticket. "Nixon's youth will appeal to youth." If you say so! 

National Affairs

So I don't know if you've heard, but there's going to be a Presidential election in November, and there was a nominating convention last week. It was so important that they even brought Raymond Moley's column into the middle of the paper where it's nice and warm so that he could say . . .something. Mainly that he'll still vote for Eisenhower even though Taft is the nicest, best guy ever. Ernest K. Lindley, kicked down the paper a few pages, still pops up to say . . . something. Isolationism is bad, and the Eisenhower campaign will be progressive and conservative. At the same time! That's the kind of quality you get from hiring an Idaho Rhodes scholar. And that pretty much covers pages 21 to 34, where we check in with the Democrats and find out that they're waiting for Stevenson to make up his mind. 

If you were wondering, there is other news, like the tankers exploding in Rodeo and the newly published rules for Army Reserve rotations, but there's no room to actually cover them, so they get a picture with a blurb, and a paragraph, respectively.

Korean War

"Truce Hopes Brighten Faintly Under Downpour of UN Bombs" Now that we're bombing a city (Pyongyang), they're U.N. bombs. 1254 sorties dropped 1400 tons of bombs, 23,000 gallons of napalm, and at least enough bullets to kill 49 civilians in a strafing attack, according to the North Koreans, who have a long list of atrocities-by-bomb  to complain about. The Chinese, meanwhile, say that the attacks dimmed the prospects of peace! The UN explains through "sources" that the Reds have asked for private and "businesslike" talks, and have implied that they are willing to accept some kind of compromise on the POW front, with Korean POWs abandoned to its fate, and the outcome with Chinese prisoners simply being a bit less unlikely than that 14,000 out of 20,000 don't want to return to their homeland. 

International

Europeans (and, as far as they know what has happened, Japanese) are very relieved that Americans' aren't actually crazy enough to nominate Taft over Eisenhower, but they're still worried about Nixon, since at a trans-Atlantic distance, Red-baiting seems, well, actually, when you get right down to it, it seems a bit eccentric, if that's the word. William Marshall is going to jail because he was led astray by a charming cad of a Russian, Yugoslavia is meeting up with all those Asian countries to see of there's an appetite for an alliance of all the neutral countries. Anti-Ridgeway demonstrations have spread to London, and the Gaullists are fighting over something incomprehensible and French, like ennui and those cigarettes, or maybe cancan dancers. Who knows with these French? Germany is independent now, just in time for Berlin communists to behave very badly, although hopefully it will all be sorted out soon. And for the German officer corps to make a comeback, but under the leadership of the "20 July plotters," so hopefully with not as much goose-stepping as in the old days. 

Business

The Periscope Business Trends reports that the Eisenhower nomination is good for the stock market (there's a box story about Eisenhower's views on business, where it turns out that he is progressive and conservative). Businessmen still haven't had any relief from red tape thanks to the new Defence Production Act, Washington is looking into price support for metal production to maintain supply, the latest reason for department store sales slumping is that customers are moving to the suburbs, and so are company headquarters, and shrinking insurance payouts don't seem to be affecting the economy.

 

The steel strike may be over soon. It says so in writing, so it must be (may be) true! Drug companies Squibb and Mathieson are merging.

Notes: Week in Business reports that the FTC has stepped in to tell the Encyclopedia Britannica to cool it with its "school advancement programme," as the middlebrow millions cried out in anguish. The American Bankers Association says that consumer credit is in fine shape, and no-one should worry about a depression starting the moment there is a Republican in the White House again because Everything is Just Fine. (Ronnie runs out to bury the gold she smuggled back from Formosa in a coffee can in the back yard, remembers just in time that she is staying in a tourist hotel on the Delaware seashore and makes a note to remember to bury the coffee can in the garden of her house. As soon as Ronnie has a house. Grumble grumble.) Also doing just fine are the Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges, where things are going so swell that they have seats to sell. Private flying is also going swell really poised to take off! TWA flights to Hawaii are much safer now than they were 25 years ago. What kind of lunatic was flying commercial air to Hawaii in 1927? MGM is on a big economy drive because everything is just fine there. Never mind the house, let's just find a place to bury this coffee can. One thing that is, honestly, going quite well, it seems, is furniture sales, which are up six times since the war. Everyone wants "big" colours like turquoise, toast, pumpkin, black and white, and chartreuse and green, as well. Leather is making a comeback, and foam rubber is coming on strong. 

Products: What's New reports that the Victor Adding Machine Company of Chicago is just the company for counting votes when votes must be counted. Imported Motor Company of Houston has a dashboard indicator that tips you off about engine problems like shorts, generator discharges, loose connections, battery shorts, "etc." Copperweld Company of Glassport, Pennsylvania, has a brake drum that is perfect for heavier vehicles because it is made of copper, so it cools down faster. Titan Manufacturing of Buffalo has a "low-cost, portable heater." If it'll set an older wood house on fire, it will be the perfect Buffalo product! 

Henry Hazlitt's Business Tides reports on "GOP Platform Economics," which he finds to be more business-friendly than the Democratic platform, but not business-friendly enough. 

Science, Education, Medicine

"Shoestring Observatory" That's Berlin's Wilhelm Foerster Institute, which has been doing some very good astronomical work on the rare day when Berlin's skies are clear, and in spite of having no equipment. 

"X Marks the Era" Newsweek visits Muroc Air Base to see all these X-planes everyone is talking about. (If by "is," I mean, "was," and by "was," I mean, "four years ago"). I'm not sure why this story is here. It's illustrated by a cut of the Bell X-5, but it's not new, either. There's a "rumour" that the first of the inevitable, "pilotless X-planes" is on the base now, but that's not new, either. Remember the fuss when the first of the British pilotless speed rockets went the wrong way and disappeared? Looking at all the new British jets it's safe to say that they've sorted it out in the mean time, and since I know that American engineers don't let any moss grow, I'm pretty sure they've figured it out. I guess this story covers for something Newsweek can't report on, but I wish they'd give us a hint, because otherwise it just reads like a waste of time or maybe that someone is trying to put something over on us. I wonder if Hedy Lamarr's agent builds jet planes? 

"Finis for Sweatt" Heman Marion Sweatt, the subject of the NAACP lawsuit to enroll him in the University of Texas law school that went to the Supreme Court, has dropped out due to poor grades and returned to his job as a mail carrier, and the American school associated with SHAPE has held its first Commencement. I notice that the article doesn't mention that Sweatt was over 40 when he was finally enrolled, although it does mention his health troubles.

"Curb That Allergy" Doctors recommend that children at risk of allergies, by virtue of having allergic parents, can be kept allergy-free by "careful supervision of their environments." They should be kept from pets, stuff toys, dust, mold. Children must be kept from any food that might be causing an allergic response such as eggs, wheat, milk, chocolate, fish, tomatoes, and nuts. Children should be tested for pollen sensitivity before being sent to summer camp, given hygienic care, plenty of healthy food, and plenty of sunshine. Possibly allergic children should not grow up to be farmers, bakers, furriers, upholsterers, grain-mill employees, florists, or "workers around animals." How did the human race not go extinct a million years ago?

I'm glad they added that part about sunshine. I was beginning to worry that we were going to end up wrapped our children in plastic and put in a metal box until they grow tall enough to knock on the lid and ask to be let out.   

Medical Notes reports that ACTH is now being touted as a treatment for (fatal --there is such a thing?) delirium tremens, that Ilotycin is the latest wonder antibiotic proven in clinical trials in the Philippines, that Drs. Alfred A. Fracchi and Alexander Braunschweig of the Memorial Hospital Centre for the Treatment of Cancer and Allied Diseases, New York, have observed the highest scientifically confirmed rise in body temperature ever, to 114 degrees, and Dr. William Murphy of Brigham Hospital, Boston, has come up with a simple stomach test for pernicious anemia. A "stomach test" involves inserting a tube to sample stomach liquors, if you were wondering. The painful leg cramps experienced by expectant mothers are attributed to milk and calcium phosphates by Dr. Ernest Page of the University of California's San Francisco Hospital, reversing common medical advice.

"The Fungus Fighter" That would be Dr. Emanuel Schoenbach of Maimonides Hospital, Brooklyn, who has found a treatment for blastomycosis, the fungus that invades the body and takes it over, turning you into a shambling monster that only wants to feast on the flesh of the living. It turns out that a course of a "diamidine" known as "stilbamadine" clears that right up. 

Radio-Television, Art, Press, Newsmakers

Television was at the GOP Convention. News! Betty Furness is famous now because she advertised for Westinghouse at the convention, Joe McCarthy sure knows how to play to the cameras, and the FCC must be happy because it just authorised fourteen new TV stations, the first since the start of the Korean War. 

Gladys Rockmore Davis, "A Conservative Modern," had a show at the US Embassy in Spain to show that we're a very artistic country which is okay with Spain because it isn't Fascist at all, any more, and so that is why she gets a nice long writeup in Newsweek that explains that, while she doesn't go  in for all that confusing Modernist stuff, she is technically up to date and knows all the latest tricks from the art world.

 

You know who else was at the GOP convention? The Press! The press was at the convention! Where they reported on the news! Eight million words of copy, it says here! At least when the journalists look back at the end of their long lives they will be able to say that they did something worthwhile with their lives. Meanwhile, it looks suspiciously like the 28 Reuters correspondents who declined to go to Chicago and covered the convention from New York, did the best job. Some kind of lesson there, but since it doesn't put bums in the seat at Chicago strip clubs, we're going to ignore it. Also, Consumer Reports is having a fight with the Newspaper Guild over the new contract and it turns out that there's a newsmagazine in Brazil now. 

A showing of New York Zoo's prized new jaguar twins to a crowd of raucous children was brought to an end after only a few hours because the kittens had a nervous breakdown. I know the feeling, jaguar kittens! The US Foreign Services Journal doesn't like the new mural in the lobby because it has troops and bombers, and doesn't seem all that diplomatic. That old farm lady who has been resisting eviction from her farm near New York since forever has been evicted. Gloria Swanson thinks men are a bit much these days. Stratford-on-Avon is getting tired of all this Shakespeare stuff. Sam Levine, assorted Rossellinis, James Farley (of Coca-Cola), Elliott Roosevelt, Rosemary Clooney, Danny Kaye, and that 28-year-old divorcee who ran away with her 14-year-old paperboy are in the paper because they're famous or just scandalous. Henry Kajewski is in the paper for running for President for some quixotic third party and then having a nervous breakdown, just like the jaguar twins and the mother of quadruplets recently born in New Jersey. I know where you're coming from, too!

C. F. Menninger has had a birthday (he's 90), Horace Taft is getting engaged, because there can't be enough Tafts, Tommy Manville is getting married to a "blond songwriter and actress," because if he keeps marrying women thirty years younger than he is, no-one will ever suspect that he likes boys. Steven Nelson of Pennsylvania is going to jail for twenty years and paying a $10,000 fine for being a Communist, because America is a free democracy. Walter Van Dyke Bingham, Harold Ely Griswold, Eliezer Kaplan and Arnold Lenz have died. 

New Films

Twentieth Century Fox's We're Not Married is a comedy about how some couples find out that they weren't legally married in the first place and what they do about it. Newsweek liked it, more or less. 3 Sinners is a British import and not very good. Lady in the Iron Mask is a Twentieth Century Fox is a historical swashbuckler mainly featuring swordfights and Patricia Medina in nice dresses. Katy's Love Affair is a big hit in London because it is touching, corny, and sometimes good.

 

Books checks in with Lydia Kirk's Assignment Moscow, which is about all the carrying-on at the US Embassy in Moscow, which is funny and revealing, but, because it is by a woman, doesn't really grasp how serious it all is. Also, Pamela Johnson's Catherine Carter is the official midsummer Book of the Month Club selection and Jerry Mangione's 1943 Mount Allegro is out in a new edition for some reason. 

Aviation Week, 21 July 1952

News Digest reports that the Aircraft Production Board has propose a new plan programme that will cut back on F-94Gs in favour of Fs, keep F-86Fs in production until the F-100 arrives, stop the Grumman F9, F-89 and F-94C, concentrate on the F-86D until it is replaced by the F-102, and build up the B-52 at "the expense of other long range bomber programs." The B-57 program will be completed, B-66/A3D production will be boosted on completion of the Canberra program, continue the present heavy B-47 schedule, replace the F9 with the F-2H, and the F-10F with the G-3H, stop the unsatisfactory F3D, phase in the F4D-1 as soon as possible. Piston engine contracts, particularly the A2D, will be cancelled as soon as turboprops, particularly the Allison T-40, are satisfactory. These are only recommendations, and it is up to the Air Force and Navy to respond. Civil aircraft production is up, the Port of new York is spending $1.665 on Newark's passenger terminal, General Vandenberg is up and about after his surgery, fear of flying has led to the separation of 86 officers from the USAF, but the separation rate will fall as the backlog is dealt with. Forrestal's keel has been laid, and the Comet proving flight has landed in Tokyo after flying 10,000 miles, 27 hours in the air.

Industry Observer reports that the latest F4D Skyray is wearing a "swordfish-like probe" on its nose for flight trials, which will be replaced by a nose radar installation in production. Lockheed will announce a jet transport in the next few weeks, with a thick, swept wing rather than a thin, straight wing as previously reported, due to fuel storage problems. Boeing B-47s doing test flying at Wichita are not using their drogue parachutes to land because auxiliary brake is enough on the new twelve-thousand foot runway. McCulloch's tandem rotor MC-4 helicopter absolutely will exist soon and will be sold to the Navy and isn't just another imaginary helicopter. The Douglas F4D bears comparison with the P-39, which Aviation Week expects us to take as a compliment?

Nat McKitterick reports that "U.S. Funds Will Aid Europe's Air Industry" The $225 million US offshore buying programme will pay for Swifts, Hunters and Venoms for Britain, Holland and Italy, if delivered by 1955 and built without American machine tools. France will not get machine tools under the programme, which means that Ouragan and Mistral deliveries aren't likely by 1955. Canberras were not offered, as Britain hasn't a surplus, nor Gloster G. A. 5s, which will not be available by 1955. Britain is still short of skilled labour, although the industry is recruiting at 3000 per month. On the other hand, machine tool exports already authorised are ahead of schedule. There is some concern that the programme is not fully funded, however. 

Ben S. Lee reports that "Strong Carrier Force is Urged" By the Under-Secretary of the Navy! Really! John Floberg said that! It appears that the reason we need more

carriers is in case WWII happens again. I don't know. Not completely convinced? That's how I feel! 

"Thermals Blamed in Banshee Crash" Which, you will recall, took place during routine manouevres for an Aviation Writers get-together in LA. Stern measures were taken, the Air Force reports. Thermal updrafts in the Los Angeles basin were sent to bed without any supper, and letters of censure were placed in their permanent file. The one thing we should put out of pur pretty little heads is the possibility that the reason the plane broke up in the air while making a normal recovery at the normal altitude was that the plane is badly designed.

Also, responsible persons at the supply agencies want a standard defence catalogue, and MATS will receive its first Convair C-131 air evacuation transports next year. These are the ones with white, solar-resistant lacquer on their roofs and an auxiliary power unit forward to cut cabin noise. 

"Grand Jury Issues Crash Findings" The grand jury investigation into the Elizabeth crashes has found that the CAA has "minimised repeated safety violations" and that its enforcement policy has been too "liberal."  It also wants the New Jersey Bureau of Aeronautics to stop rubber-stamping new nonskeds. 

In breaking news, the Johnson Committee thinks that the armed forces are misusing scarce manpower, and the steel shortage "may" be affecting plane output. 

"Skyrocket Data Being Applied" If you were wondering if the Douglas Skyrocket was just a great big boondoggle that mainly existed so that the Navy could pretend that backyard stopwatch checks equalled homologed records, worry no longer. NACA is looking at the flight data, specifically, the plane's wild oscillations, which obviously be avoided in service aircraft. So whatever Douglas did, don't do that! CAB has estimated how much money the Post Office is subsidising airlines with. The answer is, "a lot." Fairchild has a license for the Fokker S. 14, which it is flogging to meet the new USAF trainer requirement, and deliveries of B-47s are up 20%. Air Material Command has farmed out almost all maintenance so no-one at Wright Field will be tempted to take a kickback, and the Colombian Ministry of Making Imaginary Helicopters Real has bought 3 Hillers for survey and freight work in the highlands. 

David S. Anderton reports for Aeronautical Engineering that "This Piasecki Helicopter is Actually Real and Not Imaginary Because They've Built A Hundred Or So and Flogged Them to the Air Force And Maybe There Will Be Another Production Contract Let Me Tell You About the Mechanics So  You Can Go White With Fright and Forbid Your Husband to Ever Fly in One" (not the real title.) 

Canadian Aero Service is going to "Map a Large Area," and Boeing is testing its 502 turbine on a Kenworth truck to see if that's a use for it. 

Thrust and Drag tells an absolutely hilarious parable about how jet fighters are getting too big and complicated these days. Some of them even have computers in them! And the AEC has released 40 new patents, unfortunately for things like thermal flowmeters and high voltage multiple-core transformers, and not atomic disintegrators and flying saucers. 

Production gets one from Uncle Henry, as it reports without attribution that "Heavy Press Program Takes a Big Step" Specifically, Kaiser has just cast the largest ingot of 75S aluminum alloy ever. It will be fed into big presses to make big forged pieces. We're reminded that casting big pieces of 75S is complicated because they have to be degassed and chilled quickly. And how big are they? 32 inches in diameter, that's how big!

"A Close Look at Bristol Olympus" For a little more copy, Aviation Week copies from the kid with the smart English accent at the next desk.  Then it looks around all embarrassed and allows how the J-57 is probably better, anyway. 

Facts for Filing has "CAB Report on Fatal United DC-3 Crash," the one at Denver on 4 December, 1951. in which the plane, on a training flight with an instructor and two flight trainee first officers, which went into an unrecoverable spin, probably while practicing stall-speed approaches at a lower level than regulations allow. 

George L. Christian is back in the country and reporting for Equipment from the maintenance base of yet another airline, this time "S and W's 3-Way Approach Makes Money" Well, good! It turns out that Seaboard has lightened its DC-4s by almost two tons by this and that. For example, getting rid of oxygen for passengers and floorboards. Pshaw. Who needs floors? Also, navigators are in charge of looking for headwinds to coast on, saving fuel. Electronic digital computers might really help with this, Seaboard thinks.

"Airborne-Portable Analysers Preferred" From the Scintilla Magneto Division of Bendix comes this precis of a conference paper about how the airlines just can't get enough analysers from Scintilla Magneto Division. Accept no substitutes!

New Aviation Products has the American Instrument Hydrotector, which is a moisture detector for sealed spaces.  Providing a sensing unit  has been sealed inside. It is quite a long writeup. 

What's New can't put the Rebat aircraft battery catalogue down even to watch the new movie, Riveting with Hi-Shears, unless it is to read Michigan Tool Company's latest, The Case for Re-Refined Oil.  

Philip Klass reports from a Curtiss-Wright sponsored symposium and from the President's Airport Commission report for Air Transport about the "New Airline Boom for Flight Simulators" Airlines like them, and C.W. and Link are optimistic about future orders. 

Robert C. Wood's Editorial worries about "Aid or Trade: Crisis Ahead" Stop me if you've heard this one, but the US exports too much and doesn't import enough, but any attempt to change that spells doom for everyone. 

Letters

From engineers, E. G. Hanff of Eastern thinks that Aviation Week misrepresented the NACA crash fire tests, and J. H. Wiles of Pangborn liked the article about "saving new ideas," and thinks everyone should pay attention, as does John Gaty of Beechcraft. J. Kenneth Hull of Lockheed Aircraft Service really liked the article about Lockheed Aircraft Service, R. J. Greffen of Aeronautical Radio Services liked Philip Klass' article about air tansport radar, and Merrill Johnson of Honeywell Regulator Company points out that, while the photo of an F-89 without a tail was an error, the plane could fly without a tail with the right Honeywell equipment. 

Letters

Peter Van Bieck of Zenith writes to point out that Newsweek missed a trick in a recent article about television, because subscription television will probably be very important in years to come, and Newsweek agrees. Thomas Pearston of Loch Arglegargle, Scotland, writes a really, really long letter about someone who used to play the bagpipes years ago, before the war. O. A. Griffen, of Excelsior Springs really enjoyed the television coverage of the convention. Other correspondents thought it was a bit much.  But also not enough! Newsweek is offering free copies to Europeans who want to know more about European politics, and Raymond Moley is going on a swing tour of the North and Northwest to find out what people there think about this "politics" stuff we're all talking about these days. He will also be giving speeches as he tours, for all of us who just can't get enough holy Moley. 

The Periscope reports that now we're getting ready for the Democratic convention that will nominate Adlai Stevenson as soon as we're done having "boomlets" for everyone on Earth who has a party membership and isn't Kefauver. The Eisenhower campaign is awed by the fact that the General is in the office at 8am, unlike all those other politicians who sleep till noon. (Who??? Also, isn't 8am a bit . . . late in the day for a former commander-in-chief?) George Smathers or Frank Pierce might be nominated for VP. Lots of Truman Administration officials want out, and the President's Fair Trade bill was a surprise for some. The military is upset that it can't complain about the steel strike like everybody else, the occupation of Iceland is running into red tape problems, the army is testing an atomic storage battery that lasts twenty years, top Air Force officers are going to have a retreat to talk about atomic strategy, the British are so embarrassed about losing the Blue Riband that they'll probably start flying jetliners across the Atlantic soon. Marshal Juin says that he will criticise Americans if he wants to, Canadian troops in Germany have been in a bar fight(?), Communism is bad, the Spanish are dragging their feet on negotiations with the US because they hope that the Republicans will be kinder to them, foreign ambassadors in Washington are also lying low until the election is over, it looks like hardly anyone watched the convention. Orson Welles is shooting a modern-dress Julius Caesar in Italy this summer with Trevor Howard and Alida Valli, Twentieth Century Fox is experimenting with a better and cheaper colour film than Technicolor, Dale Carnegie, the Natural History Museum of New York, and Zsa-Zsa Gabor will have radio or television shows this year. 

Washington Trends tells us that the Democrats are confident of victory in November  and explains how they plan to win. Either the Democrats aren't very bright, or Washington Trends isn't very bright. Probably the last one. 

National Affairs 

Only enough election news for ten pages this week (including Lindell's column)! Eisenhower is triumphant but tired, Democrats are advised not to count on a repeat of '48. Some Democrats want to go all in on a strategy embracing "labour unions, racial minorities and other interest groups," while others want to campaign in the middle-of-the-road, where Southern votes will also be found, especially in crucial Texas. Truman doesn't like Stevenson, Byrd doesn't like Truman, no-likes (or will mention) Kefauver. 

In non-election news, Congress is trimming the defence budget, especially the Army. The Army will have to reduce all America-based divisions to 60% of authorised manpower, the Navy will get at least a second Forrestal, but other building is being cut back, and the Air Force loses a mere 4% of its budget by comparison with an overall 10% cut, and is still "advancing" on its 143 group target strength. Two random shooting murders in New York City have been cracked when the police found the murder weapon in the possession of people who then obligingly confessed. And it turns out that a 77 year-old spinster in Detroit died with $400,000 in a safe in her house.  I'm so glad that Newsweek found a page and a half to cover all the non-election-related news in America this week. 

The Korean War

"On-Again, Off-Again Pow-wows in Dreary Week at Panmunjom" The peace-talks are so deadlocked that the Red negotiators brought two electric fans to the table to match the UN's fans, so that both sides will have some relief from the sweltering Korean summer of '52 and possibly '53. Then, instead of talking about that some more, Newsweek turns to the F-84Gs of 31st Escort Fighter Wing, SAC that flew across the Pacific . I think I reported on this last month as something that had happened, when it was still something that would happen? Or was it last week, when it actually happened? It's all some fever vision in which repetition blurs the walls between waking reality and the dream world. Anyway, last week, the 31st definitely finished their flight across the Pacific from Hawaii to Iwo Jima, supported by B-29 tankers, as reported or predicted last time or the time before that. Now that it has actually happened, I can report that it didn't go off without a hitch, with one plane, and pilot, lost landing at Iwo Jima. But for sure it's actually happened now!

"Warnings to Reds" General Lawton Collins has flown over to Korea to inspect the troops, which goes to show that the Reds better make peace before we do something we'll all regret. 

"Behind the Peace Stories: An Indian Rope Trick" Remember when Time was implying that effeminate Indian diplomats were trying to negotiate peace because they were too feminine and too socialist to fight wars, and also so  naive that the Chinese were taking advantage of them?  Here's some more.

International

"Britain Faces Tougher Times: Churchill and Tories on Spot" It says here that the British are having one of those periodic economic crises they have been having since the war (implying that they are normal) and that they are due to Socialist overspending (implying that they are not normal), and that obviously the country needs  less spending and also working harder for less pay, but the Tories are unpopular for some reason and would lose an election, which could be called if the Government loses a confidence motion because the United States suddenly decided to drop an atom bomb on Mukden, and Churchill is obviously senile, so that would be bad if there were an election. Therefore, some unspecified thing needs to be done.  Also, the Queen's cousin got married, and the "National Vigilance Association" is withdrawing its patrols of "matrons" who formerly stalked the halls of Britain's train stations keeping young women away from "agents of vice." I had no idea, and I wonder how many matrons the NVA was actually still fielding. 

"'Old Mossy' Resigns" The premier of Iran has resigned. His successor, Ahmad Qavam, has promised dto  negotiate an end to the oil impasse with Britain, but even Newsweek thinks that that is something for the distant future when Mossadegh's supporters are rioting in the street and fighting the army, which has been called out to maintain order. Newsweek thinks that will fail, and that Mossadegh may be back in office soon, possibly following Qavam's execution, for which Iran's leading cleric has already called.

Canada's dollar has risen well above par with the American dollar, causing some to worry for the health of the Canadian economy and others to go dancing in the streets. The Twentieth Century belongs to Canada! British Columbia, on the other hand, belongs to the Social Credit Party.

Business

Periscope Business Trends reports that the steel strike is bad, that Chilean copper producers are "flooding" the US with copper, that the outlook is for ever  weaker wage and price controls, that the trend to keep business records on microfilm is gathering steam, that leases and rentals are becoming more popular, and that it is a challenge to find a use for closed movie theatres. 

"U.S. Economy Riding High Despite Burdens Put Upon It" That's what it says here. The gross national product is up from $300 million to $340 million since the outbreak of the Korean War in 1951 prices, wages and investments are up, people have more stuff, especially kitchen and laundry appliances. The steel strike, and stop me if you've heard this before, is still on. Powell Crossley has sold out Crossley Industries to General Tire, which is auditing the books before deciding what to do with its purchase. 

Notes: Week in Business reports that the Colonial/Eastern Airlines merger is proceeding, that Alcoa has asked for permission to hike its prices, that the Administration is working out the details of its anti-price-fixing "fair trade bill," and Dun and Bradstreet's reference guide is very handy, but also very thick these days because of business being more complicated.

"Challenges to the Cities" As people move out to the suburbs, cities face lower tax revenues, but still have to provide services to suburban dwellers, who, after all, come downtown for this and that. St. Louis, which has gained 5% in population since the war while surrounding counties have gained 48%, is a particularly stark example. Ninety suburban communities provide their own services, such as police, fire, and garbage, often at very low levels. Sewers, roads, and transit, which cross these boundaries, are "unintegrated." Possible solutions include incorporating surrounding communities, as Atlanta has done, or going with the trends, as New York City has done by saying good-bye to manufacturing and concentrating on the Port Authority. Also, Wall Street is extending operating hours to 3:30 so that brokers in the Midwest and West will have more time to play. It is also thinking about changing its name to "the International Stock Exchange."

Products: What's New reports that Rajon Industries of California has developed a "fast unloader" for unloading box cars of raw materials. Paul-Reed has come up with a silver cleaner that works by simply putting the silver in the sink. B. C. Moses of Houston has a "put up or shut up" kit that basically consists of a letter-writing kit so that you can send letters to people and tell them to get on with it. Proctor and Gamble's new Zest detergent gives you that new-cleaned feeling! 

Henry Hazlitt's Business Tides has "Price Control by Default," which is about how we've ended up with price controls (which don't work), because we're afraid of simply letting interest rates rise to inflation-fighting levels.  

Medicine, Science, Education

"Life Without Germs" James Arthur Reyniers' inspiration, the sealed, germ-free LOBUND (Laboratories of Bacteriology, University of Notre Dame), are now hard at work. Dr. Reynier gave a talk to the NIH last week to describe them, and Newsweek got some nice pictures showing scientists working in sealed suits. Some experiments are detailed (for example, rats raised in this sterile environment do not get tooth decay), and more are proposed. (Cancer tumours seem to grow faster on germ-free animals). Everyone has ideas about experiments to do at LOBUND.

"Polio at Sioux City" Another field test of the gamma globulin inoculation will take place this summer in Sioux City, Iowa, which is having an even more severe outbreak than Houston.

"Luxurious Lifeboat" The Navy's new lifeboat looks positively cozy. It is covered, has circular  hatches at either end with ladders and a sea anchor to keep it stable so that it can be boarded in difficult seas, and will stay afloat in pretty much any weather. The canopy cover is double-layer, with dead-air insulation, and when full to its 17 man capacity, body heat will keep it at 70 degrees in sub-zero weather. Drinking water condenses on the layers, and it is light enough to be dropped by a helicopter. 

James Stannard Baker, the director of research at Northwestern's Institute of Traffic Research, thinks that "high grade morons" make the ideal drivers, because intelligent people are too easily distracted and question driving rules. It looks like high grade morons make ideal directors of research, too. 

Notes: Week in Science reports that state and Federal veterinarians are launching all-out war against vesicular exanthema, because it kills pigs, which are delicious. UCLA physicists Isidore Rodnick and Robert Leonard are trying to create the world's loudest noise with twin Rolls-Royce aeroengines blowing air through a siren, which will make as much noise as the entire population of Los Angeles shouting at C-below-middle-C. They hope to make a killing testing aircraft engine mufflers, but the most surprising thing about the story is that they're experimenting in a remote canyon, and not under the window of my old sorority house on a Friday night. A group of psychologists at the Illinois Institute of Technology have studied the psychology of businessmen, Skid Row bums, and their fellow psychologists. It turns out that businessmen are the most disturbed, because they only worry about money. A USAF crew which has been studying the weather at the North Pole for two years are going to take it a step further this year by boarding an ice floe and hopefully sailing it down through the Davis Strait to the Atlantic. 

Newsweek also has some keen photos from the Forest Products Laboratory of the National Forestry Service, which must be a jumping joint, considering that it had sixteen thousand visitors last year, which is not actually a very big number compared with, say, a library. The blurb doesn't say anything else about what they do at the "Headquarters for Wood," so neither will I.

"Work and Study" The 3000 students enrolled in the city of New York's high-school work study programme earned a record amount of income this year, which goes to show something interesting considering that "Foundation Confusion" reports that the great educational foundations are confused about how to deal with the recent IRS ruling that their grants should be considered taxable income. It is possible to appeal, but only case by case, and the Guggenheim has decided to just increase the grants to cover the expected tax payment. Which way is better? That's the confusion! 

Radio-Television, Press, Newsmakers

"International Television" The British and French have come to a television-sharing arrangement in which French television is rescanned to the British standard at a facility in Calais and then microwaved to London, where it is put on air. Unfortunately, the great and worthy have decided to televise parliamentary debates instead of the "Folies Bergere," and no-one is watching. Also, the broadcast quality is terrible. 

The relaunched Boston Post is going great, so far, but on the other hand the State Department has given up on Amerika, its glossy, Russian-language newsmagazine which it has had ever increasing difficulty distributing around Moscow. Especially ever since it banned the Russian equivalent. Lieutenant Colonel Melvin Voorhees, the Army's official censor in Korea, is in trouble for not submitting his recent book about Korea to the censor, while it turns out that the character Wanda Witch, in the McClure comic strip  King Aroo, has been talking Tagalog all along. 

Mary Astor's "purple" diary has been burned. Pat Nixon, 6, and David Kefauver, also 6, have been romantically linked. It is funny when drunk, blind men drive around a neighbourhood, or when a circus elephant collapses in the heat in Maine. The Chinese are setting up shrines to Mao Tse-tung while Governor Dewey has sent Emperor Bao Dai some bass so that he can stock a lake with them. Marion Davis is famous, one of the Vice-President's grandsons is a ne'er-do-well, a beauty queen has a big head, Denise Darcel wants to be famous, Johnny Ray says that he can't sing, and news reporters are coming to suspect that Taft might have lost because no-one likes him. 

Judy Garland is expecting and Billy Graham has had a son. Bob Hope has been honoured, Bill Hassett has resigned, Senator McCarthy is laid up for a sinus operation, W. Somerset Maugham is laid up for what might be a real hernia surgery, Sisley Hiddleston (which is a real name) and Frederick Herbert Sill have died. 

New Films

The Story of Will Rogers, gets a super-long review, which concludes that it is a very worthy movie. Carrie is a Paramount adaptation of the Theodore Dreiser novel, Sister Carrie. It's pretty overwrought. So is Twentieth Century Fox's Don't Bother to Knock, but it has the advantage of Marilyn Monroe sinking her teeth into a role where she can play against type. 

Books

Eric Linklater's Laxdale Hall is somewhere between Wodehouse and Waugh, it says here, and is "pleasant and relaxing" reading. Sounds like a winner! It turns out that it is about a Highland village full of amiable eccentrics who have to deal with the scheming interference of someone from away. How refreshing and original! Ominously, the next review is headed "Moravia's Politics," but it turns out to be about Alberto Moravia's The Fancy Dress Party, which is a satire of dictatorship and not something uncomfortably contemporary. Victoria Chase's The Quiet Life of Mrs. General Lane is a historical novel of the Civil War, while Dorothy Evelyn Smith's Lost Hill is a sentimental novel, while "Clare Jayne's" The Early Frost is a "warm, appealing novel" about a girl coming of age by two Chicago authors who want to remain anonymous for some reason. It can't be because they write awful political columns for a national news  magazine, though, because here's Raymond Moley's face staring back at me as he explains "The GOP Farm Programme," which is just like the Democratic programme, only good.

Aviation Week, 28 July 1952

News Digest reports that N.Y. Airways have bought three S. 55s because the Post Office paid them to do it, but for sure they'll make money soon. Colonial Eastern blah blah. "Top secret bases at Inyokern and Muroc, California" escaped damage in the recent earthquake. They're not top secret now! The XB-52 has been rolled out following its sister, YB-52, which is just confusing, and eight flying saucers were reportedly picked up on the Washington National Airport radar screen, flying in the vicinity of Andrews Air Force Base. Hey, that was us! And seven friends. From Venus. Minneapolis Honeywell has a $4.5 million contract to put autopilots into the Air Force's Piasecki H-21s. A Supermarine Swift flew London to Brussels at an average speed of 665.9mph, which goes to show. The French are testing their SO-6025 combined Nene-and-rocket propelled jet fighter. 

Industry Observer reports that Pratt and Whitney is raising the price of the R4360 because it couldn't get a contract for the DC-7. Aerodynamicists are getting away from power boost for high speed aircraft because NACA is doing a better job of balancing unpowered ones. The AWA notices that the turboprop planes were all grounded at the AWA demonstration, while the jets flew, suggesting that all is not right with the turboprop development programme. The industry is also worried about illuminated instrument panels,w hcih still don't work right. Douglas will be announcing its four-jet DC-8 soon. NACA calculates that supersonic propellers will be enormously noisy and that "chances for public acceptance appear slight." The next attempt to get some use out of the Boeing 502 gas turbine will involve installing it in the Cessna L-19 as a turboprop engine.

Ben S. Lee reports for Aviation Week that "Defence Department Calls APB Plan Unrealistic" By not building bad planes, the armed forces will end up with fewer planes, and we can't have that.  Other than that, this is basically the same story as last week, with some added pointed comments about getting a commitment from Wright and Allison that they can deliver some engines, or, perhaps better, just plane cancel the J40, at least, and probably the J65, W-5 "Sapphire," and J67 "Olympus." It does add that W/ L. Campbell of the APB thinks that the J57 should be expedited and the Chrysler contract for the J48 and the Ford contract for the J40 cancelled before it goes too far.

Hawker-Siddeley is thinking about investing in Australia, German insurers are looking at special flight insurance for the Berlin corridor, and  the young brains of the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences have lots of suggestions for the Navy, but still no idea about how to free up the best research and development brains from the need to make a living.

Katherine Johnsen reports that "Air Bases: USAF Gets Only About Half Its 1953 Request," because its worldwide, $10 billion programme won't complete until 1956 at the earliest. 

"Combat Alert: Night Alarm Looked Like Real Thing Last April" It seems that Air Defence Command got a false alarm about a massing of Russian aircraft "just across the polar wastes in Russian territory at "X," followed by an alert about four high altitude vapour trails heading towards the western United States over Nunivak Island. This led to a continent-wide alert and attempts to call Alaska, but communications were out. Finally, three unknowns were detected, which turned out to be Air France, BOAC and Pan Am airliners, all far off course due to weather. Finally, communications were re-estabished with Alaska, and it was learned that the vapour trails had disappeared, and the intelligence chief realised that the aircraft at "X" were just looking for Owen Lattimore's passport. That's a relief!

"ANDB Now Studying Cockpit Visibility" The Air Navigation Development Board, having learned teh hard way not to stick its nose into airport equipment, is worrying about  real and theoretical (that is, as announced from the ground) cockpit visibility. 

George L. Christian reports for Equipment that "Trained Personnel Needed for Analysers" Having been sent to the same conference as the Magneto Scintillator Division, Christian differs with the Division about just how clear it is that only Bendix equipment will do. It seems like the Sperry analyser isn't flying junk, and that even foreigners like British Thomson-Houston have something to offer. Others at the conference think that you can get carried away, because you need to be able to use the things to get any value out of them, and that might be a problem mid-flight, even with airlines that use flight engineers. Also, airborne analysers need to be installed in a vibration harness, which is a lot of trouble to maintain. Portable analysers could go aboard when there is an operator to use them, but then they won't necessarily be available when they're needed, say, on the tenth hour of a long flight when an engine starts to go bad. 

Reggie points out that using an engine analyser in practice means squinting at an oscilloscope trace and registering whether or not it looks right, and that's a skill, or even an artform, and that makes objective measures of their usefulness pretty difficult. Then he made that "letting the smoke out" joke, as he does. And, to be more than fair to my husband, it is getting to the point where there simply aren't that many pilots who have flown long flights with a load of experimental equipment on board than he has. 

"Is Kerosene Safer than High Octane" Yes. Yes, it is. So forget what some anonymous "oil industry spokesman" has to tell someone from Aviation Week. Next article. 

Production has a nice article from its frat brother at NAA.  "NAA's Recipe for Cost Reduction" The recipe is to not spend money on unnecessary stuff. Also, Ford is placing orders for machine tools for J57 production.

Aeronautical Engineering has "New Capsule for High Speed Bailout" Douglas has  developed a rocket-launched escape capsule for the Navy, to go into an unspecified Douglas plane, possibly the F4D, while Vultee has developed a "circular slide-rule compter for flight solution of piston and jet power plant performances," which it is distributing to B-36 crew members.

Avionics has "Hi-Fi Recorder Seen as Test Tool" The Model S-3079 is a lightened version of the Ampex Model 307 (so yay, money for us!), designed for receiving and recording FM and AM telemetry from aircraft and guided missiles. It is very accurate, and weighs only 40lbs, and can be remotely located if necessary, perhaps on a rack. 

New Aviation Products has a drilling machine from the New Britain Machine Company, which always makes me think of the South Sea Island, even though it is in Connecticut, and the drill is for speeding up jet engine part production, and not better hula dancing. Wiancko Engineering's AN-E-19 accelerometer is a very good, very cute little accelerometer. Gaylord Container doesn't just have bags, it also has a simple airfreight box for shipping . . . Oh, for Heaven's sake, "cut flowers." (Uncle George will explain if you ask him after a few drinks.) Mitchell Industry's battery-powered radio is "very competitive in the lightplane field."

Air Transport reports that five airlines are interested in the 25 C-97s Boeing has available, and that Washington National Airport has come to an agreement on low flying with Alexandria, Virginia, pending a final settlement of the question of whether  municipalities have the power to ban low flying at all. 

Captain R. C. Robson's Cockpit Viewpoint has "The Phonetic Alphabet," in which Robson complains at length about how the new ICAO spoken phonetic alphabet is too newfangled for him and tells us that the pilots are all upset. 

What's New has a 64 page manual from Tool and Die Salvage Welding to read at the beach along with Wheelco Instrument's Bulletin TC-9 on its thermocouples, radiation detectors, resistance bulbs and other accessories. Barber-Colman's horsepower nomogram is a convenient way of reading off the unknown in an electro-mechanical actuator if two of three of speed, torque and thrust are known. Cincinnati Machine and Tool has a manual for the Weipert toolroom and engine lathe, which is convenient because the manufacturer's instructions are the German in which sentences reversed are! Elastic Nut has outdone itself with a comprehensive catalog of its rollpin self-locking fasteners, Servomechanisms of Westbury, N.Y., has a 16 page catalogue of its control system instrumentation and analog computers. Scott Aviation's Oxygen catalog is about all the different kinds of oxygen you can buy, or possibly something else, but I'm not reading further in case I learn something I didn't want to know. Hiller has a company history out. Or will, soon, just as soon as it squares away some problems with its publishing process, which consists of simultaneous printing two pages on two high speed printing presses balanced precisely against each other so that the one flies off in all directions killing everyone in sight if the other fails. Turco's Serving the Metal-Working Industry is about chemical processing operations, and not catering, as you would expect. Parker Appliance's Catalog 5160A1 is about Parkone molded O-rings. Metron has a booklet about its tachometers, including circuit diagrams.

Letters

 Robert K. Dunn, of Englewood, N.J., writes to describe the reckless way that American Airlines refuels its planes at LaGuardia. Jurgen Rosenstock writes from Hamburg about how much fun it is to pretend to kill yourself with gliders. Next year for real! R. G. Hoof of Bendix Pacific and T. R. Hilton, the PR director of de Havilland Airspeed Division both like Aviation Week. Harold Coonley, a Flight Engineer with Eastern, explains that aircraft cockpits are not, in fact, too confusing.  C. M. Belinn, of LA Airways liked the article about new ideas, which  he had plenty of time to read while waiting for someone to want a helicopter ride from the airport. (Also see "killing yourself with gliders.")