Postblogging Technology, 1952, II: If Daddy Had Only Seen

R_. C_.,
Arcadia,
Santa Clara,
California

Dear Father:

I hope this reaches you before Christmas Day. We've had a bit of excitement here in Chicago. First, Reggie's train was late. Then, the very next day, who should show up at his parent's brunch but the prodigal A., and with him, B. It made a bit of an odd couple. A. is celebrating the rise of the Dulles brothers, himself firmly planted in their hip (if not otherwise) pocket; B. explaining that the CIA deserved his talents less than that indefatigable crusader for truth, justice, and the American way, Roy Cohn. I believe he was editing a magazine in the fifteen minutes between  Mexico City and  Mr. Cohn. No doubt they didn't deserve him, either. He (and we  hear it here first) soon find himself promoted into the personal staff of Senator Joe, himself. 

So, yes, slugs and the lesser invertebrates have Christmas, too, at least in such time as they have to spare for the mother country before it is off (more hints dropped) to Teheran. And if you are worried, it is further intimated that the hydrogen bomb is about twice as powerful as expected. Surely no Communist can  resist! 

So, anyway, if you have a suggestion for a good bomb-shelter-digger in the Palo Alto area, I would be glad to take a reference. In the meantime, I enclose further model-train-and-earthmoving-equipment related information. 

Your Loving Daughter,

Ronnie

Letters

Mrs. Francis Harrison of Lake, Mississippi, thinks that Mississippi is full of great people and not outsider-hating thugs. Six writers blow hot and cold on Ava Gardner which is one more than Zinka Milanov's fans. Zinka has more fans, but she needs more fans, because she's not Ava Gardner! A former army chaplain sends in a long, boring letter about how chaplains weren't appreciated during the war. I have a theory about that! For Your Information tells us about Newsweek correspondent Jack Goodman, who is swell. 

The Periscope reports that Eisenhower wanted nothing to do with the Administration during his visit to Korea, and even though there's a lot of talk about how it was secret while it was happening, it really wasn't. Now that the details are out, the Air Force is very embarrassed by the engine failure on one of the two planes escorting Ike, since it comes after some other embarrassing crashes. The British Foreign Office has let it be known that it is upset that the new US ambassador was announced to the press before the British, as is the custom. The Eisenhower camp says that it meant to "elevate" the status of the ambassador by announcing him at the same time as the Cabinet. The army is hoping that Major General Harry Vaughn retires very quietly, while Congress is finally doing something for me, personally, by allowing working women to deduct the servants' salaries as a business expense. Ikeis expected to push through reforms at the Defence Department and take on Major-General John Michaelis as his aide-de-camp while the Army does its best to make sure that no-one gets called up for a second tour in Korea. Quiet talks are underway at the UN to find a successor to Tryve Lie, with Lester Pearson of Canada as one candidate. The French are very upset at criticisms of their Tunisian policy and might just flounce right out of the Western Alliance over it. US members of the UN Palestine Refugee Commission are just about fed up with it. The Koumintang is almost ready to start raiding the mainland again, and is getting F-86 and F-84 jets. Georges Bidault says that he will be premier of France again by the end of the year. The Czechs are leaving nothing to chance by recording the confessions in the Slansky trials in advance. While some Russian equipment is ending up in Viet Minh hands, most of the captured weapons are still US issue from arms provided to the Nationalists. Disorders in Albania are getting more violent as citizens protest food shortages. There has been an outbreak of fighting on the Bulgarian-Turkish border. Bishop Fulton Sheen may soon get a radio show to go with his TV show. Jimmy Boyd, singer of "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus," will get a role in the upcoming TV series based on "Peck's Bad Boy" while Paulette Goddard is getting a show as a lady detective. Warner Bros is working on an adaptation of Edna Ferber's So Big, with Jane Wyman. while Rita Gann gets her "talking" debut opposite Cornel Wilder and Mel Ferrer in Saadia. Laurence Olivier and Vivian Leigh are being "sought" for a Paramount production of Elephant Walk.

The Periscope's Washington Trends reports that prospects for peace in Korea are more distant than ever. The Reds are getting more "ornery," and obviously Ike can't back down. "Hope for a negotiated truce in Korea must now be considered all but out the window."The question is whether Ike should order a major offensive. Some want an amphibious hook like Inchon, but the Air Force warns that it cannot guarantee air superiority, and it heal divides between Peking and Moscow. Taft's outburst over the Durkin appointment is good news for Eisenhower, with talk that he can win back organised labour by overhauling Taft-Hartley. This is considered more plausible than talk of an AFL-CIO merger. 

National Affairs

"Thorny Free-World Problems Face Ike After Korean Visit" General Bradley and John Foster Dulles met Ike in Wake on the way out to urge against foreign aid cuts because of the damage they would do to Western defence. Then he met lots more people in Iwo Jima, Japan, and Korea. 

"First Taft-Ike Spat" It turns out that Bob Taft has all sorts of concerns about the Eisenhower cabinet, starting with Herbert Brownall, the screener, then the first eight, only one of whom was recommended by the Taft camp. Martin Durkin was well along in the list of grievances, but the one that provoked Taft's outburst last week. The Eisenhower camp says that the offence wasn't deliberate, but Taft's reaction just goes to show, and now Taft won't get to be Senate Majority Leader. Also, Walter Reuther is the new head of a "divided" CIO, on account of he is a long-haired, big-forehead "idea guy," what as no self-respectin' union man would let into his front parlour for a glass of the tall and refreshing. And speaking of, there's that grand jury in New York that wants to talk to all those American "subversives" in the UN Secretariat.  Directed by Special Assistant Attorney General Roy Cohn,  it is trying to subpoena Adrian Fisher of the State Department to find out how various pinkos like Frank Coe and Walter Posniak got security clearances from State. The NYC garbage collection business is crooked, it says here. 

The Korean War

"Clark's Views of the Korean War Help in Big Decision" You know who needs a fawning autobiographical story this week? General Mark Clark, that's who. Rome, you say? Not me!

International

"Political Battle in Germany Stalls EDC Settlement" This is so exciting! It turns out that they have politics in Germany now, and it might delay the Euorpean Defence Community agreement to arm a twelve division German army with the "newest and best weapons." I will now proceed to not explain how the debate raises questions about the relationship between the Diet and the Senate in the new German constitution, just so that you won't be able to sleep tonight! Because I am a very cruel daughter-in-law, that's why! At the next NATO meeting, there's going to be an argument about whether there should be more more guns, or less more guns.  In North Africa, labour leader Farhat Hached was machine-gunned down by either French colonial ultras, Communists, or local rivals, and this, it is reported, led to the Tunisian and Moroccan riots reported elsewhere. Which, to be fair, The Economist did report, so I am repeating myself in a way that suggests that The Economist "buried the lede," when I might have just been skimming too quickly. Either way, Farhat Hached, dead. There is also unrest in Indonesia, where an army faction is trying to drive the Sultan of Jogjakarta out of power because he doesn't support action against the Dutch in New Guinea. Newsweek's coverage of the "pea soup" fog in London mentions a crime spree by burglars and "cosh gangs." 

"Iran: British Backdown on Oil?" The British are privately saying that their legal case for seizing tankers carrying Iranian oil is weak, so they might end up giving in and accepting nationalisation in return for some kind of compensation. 

"Why the Congo is Happy: No Racial Tension and Everyone Makes Money" That's what it says here! For three pages. That's a lot of no racial tension!

In Latin America, Newsweek is a bit kinder on the Venezuelan opposition for having the nerve to win an election than The Economist, while the new President of Mexico is talking about doing something about corruption. Juan Peron is not pulling his anti-American punches just because we have a new President.

Business

Periscope Business Trends reports that wages are up, take home down due to higher taxes since Korea, but cost of living increases are going to level out through spring due to lower meat costs. It also doesn't count increased perks, especially pensions. Congress might finally sell off the rubber plants to private industry, and will be kinder to private utilities under the Eisenhower Administration. Military deliveries have hit $8.4 billion a quarter, up from $5.3 billion last year. There's not going to be a fuel shortage this winter. 

"Miner's Wage-Increase Poser: How Can the Price Line Be Held?" Truman is trying to persuade incoming Eisenhower officials that price controls are the solution. Not if the NAM has anything to say about it! They even had General MacArthur out to give the keynote address, although Senator Bennett warns that if Eisenhower starts a depression, it won't do wonders for the average Americans' recent warming to private enterprise. 

Products: What's New is excited about Paul Wedekind's "jeweled" zippers, which add decorative elements instead of being hidden like zippers used to be. Okay, as long as they work as zippers! Dial Products has an extended receiver so that two people can listen to a telephone conversation. Strand-Plax Industry's plastic bath tub is very light. Notes: Week in Business reports that US Steel's new Fairless Works has had its grand opening, that Lockheed's Super Constellation is very nice, that the Republic's F-84F is the Air Force's first "600mph plus " fighter, powered by the British-designed Sapphire. Pacific Mills and Victor Chemicals have developed a new method for dying wool without redying, and are offering royalty-free licensing. 

Henry Hazlitt's Business Tides has "The Cabinet Change-Over," in which Henry explains why his "business" column has been talking about politics for weeks. It's because politics is easier to gas on about than business. That taken care of, Henry repeats his line about how the presidential interregnum caused the banking crisis of 1933. Wrong and a rerun, run it and send my cheque direct to my bartender, thanks' very much, Newsweek! 

"Special Report: Highway Program --Imperative and Costly"  Truman is in the rear view  mirror and we have the best cabinet General Motors ever bought, so it's time to build a freeway to every suburb where there's enough parking for all the cars needed to carry everybody to work in the city. It will cost a cool hundred million for Chicago alone, so you can just guess how much it'll cost for the whole country, so don't count your Republican tax cuts just yet. 

Science, Medicine

 "Microbe Hunters, Jr" The Story of the Microbe Hunters is a great juvenile science book that Newsweek reviewed the other week, so it is time the magazine mentioned that it is co-authored by Albert Schatz and credits him with the codiscovery of streptomycin, which  he had to sue to get Selman Waksman to acknowledge, and this week Waksman gets the Nobel and Schatz doesn't, so it looks like the feud is still on. 

"Labour of Love" William Webster Hansen died, probably in large part of overwork, in 1949, and now Stanford is honouring him by naming its finally completed particle accelerator after him. It's a special honour because it is the first linear accelerator, unlike regular ones that cheat by whirling electrons in a circle until they are fast enough to really probe atoms. 

Science Notes of the Week hears some faint hope that the principles of the hydrogen bomb might have peaceful uses, as Senator Hickenlooper's strange comments about the possibility of hydrogen atoms being fused by "the heat of an electrical current forced through an ultra-thin wire" are parsed by George Gamow. Who presumably explained what that would accomplish." Produce power, would be my guess. Dr. Alberto Ruz of the Mexican Institute of Archaeology has announced the discovery of a tomb in a pyramid in the southern Mexican city of Palenque, surprisingly similar to Egyptian tombs in having a double-lidded sarcophagus. H. N. Dunning leads a group who held a conference in Little Rock and offered up the prospect of extracting nickel and vanadium from crude oil.

"Southern Charms" Speaking recently to a meeting of the Southern Medical Association, British neuro-psychiatrist, Dr. Vernon Kinross-Wright, summarises his research into cases of "hexed" Nineteenth Century victims of black magic and concludes that if you really believe it, it isn't just superstition. I think I'm with Newsweek in noticing that there is something "sectional" in the finding that, as Dr. Kinross-Wright puts it, "there are more Negro than white . . ." cases. Meanwhile, the AMA's General Practitioners had their own convention in Denver and heard about a counterweight gadget to help polio sufferers exercise paralysed limbs, the use of resins "similar to Plexiglas" internally (drunk as a powder in water!) to strengthen "water-logged" bodies that suffer heart failure, cirrhosis or high blood pressure, and a warning from Dr. Misha Lustok and co-workers that doctors should take note of colds that don't heal, because they might actually be myocarditis. 

Radio and Television, Newsmakers

Bob Hope's new noontime radio show is "souped down Hope." Radio news people say that radio news is better than television news and also better than the newspapers in one-newspaper towns. 

Novelist Margaret Culkin Banning, author of "Is Virginity Old Fashioned?" and "I was Betrayed by Sex!" tells the House committee on pornography that smut is everywhere, and she should know! Ivy Baker Priest, too. Mamiemomentum! Jeanette MacDonald knows how to dress. Red Skelton is getting divorced. Marilyn Monroe was the surprising winning bidder for Max Reinhardt's library, including many manuscripts. Sheppard King and Samia Gamal are still married. Wayne Morris is still a former Republican. A Vermont farmer wounded by a New York hunter is more hurt by the imputation that his farm is undeveloped than by buckshot. 

New Films

Esther Williams wears bathing suits in Million Dollar Mermaid, which is an MGM production. Bloodhounds of Broadway is from Twentieth Century Fox and is a "blithe and foolish" piece from Damon Runyon starring Mitzi Gaynor. Well, that's a combination right there! Outpost in Malaya is the answer to the question, "What if a Western, but in Malaya?" Only better because in the Old West they only had six-guns, and six is less than Bren. Its from Arthur Rank via United. Because of You has Loretta Young in tights as a change from bathing suits and Esther Williams. 

Books

It's time for the annual roundup of the year's best, which I'm going to skip since it will probably tax your patience now, never mind anyone rereading these later! I'll close instead with Raymond Moley interviewing Governor Byrnes and finding that South Carolina is close to tipping over to voting Republican in presidential elections because Eisenhower is more a white South Carolinans' kind of President than Stevenson. And to think the Democrats threw over Kefauver for you! 

Aviation Week, 15 December 1952

News Digest reports that the B-52 is undergoing engine synchronisation tests, that CAB oversaw a 2% increase in traffic control tower landings and takeoffs last  year, that the crash last week of a de Havilland Dove at Staten Island, N. Y. was caused by a low altitude stall, that San Diego Convair has delivered the last of 130 modernised B-36s to the Air Force. 

Industry Observer reports that GE's X24A turbojet is gaining acceptance, while Boeing's new tanker, the KB-47, is an easy adaptation of the B-47. Cessna's experiments into boundary layer control in the Cessna 170 will be quickly adapted into helicopter rotors. Fairchild will not be designated as a second source for the Chase C-123. Military experiments with external fuel tanks will have applications to executive aircraft. Doman's 8-passenger helicopter will cost customers, if any, $120,000. The USAF and Navy   have agreed on shorter test run periods for new engines, but with disassemblies instead. 

Katherine Johnsen's Washington Roundup reports that Naval Aviation's budget will dip next year to $3.5 billion before rising to $4.5 billion in 1954 to covet the costs of a target force of 16 carrier aviation groups plus Marine aviation. Navy Assistant Secretary John Floberg's annual report says that aircraft procurement orders are down to improve standardisation. As a result, the Navy will be short of targets for modern aircraft in the short term until the Navy's preferred F3Hs and F4Ds are available in numbers. The Fleet's guided missile procurement is up, and missile and water-borne aircraft are not competition for carrier air, but complementary. Helicopter procurement will level off, and the navy is working on adequate maintenance facilities. W. A. Paterson's push to restrain further expansion of air coach and abolish the CAB by including its functions into those of the Interstate Commerce Commission have the backing of industry.

Robert Hotz reports for Aviation Week that "USAF to Buy 20,000 Planes in 3 Years." Production will peak at 800 aircraft a month by next spring, a total that will taper to 300/month by '56.  The Lear L-5 automatic pilot has been approved for the DC-6, Indonesia is doubling its airfields in a three year programme, and Washington guesses who might be the GOP air appointees, with Aviation Week well behind Newsweek. There's a bit more about Harold Talbott, even if Aviation Week hasn't heard confirmation of his appointment. Did you know that he is a brother of the late Brigadier General Nelson Talbot, of Air Materiel Command, and director of TWA?

"Engine Failed on Crashed Airliner" That's the Cubana DC-4 that crashed into the Atlantic at Bermuda with four survivors and 37 dead. The Defence Department has struck a committee to study the reliability of avionics. 

"Korean Air Fight" General Vanderbilt says that the Reds won't come out and fight, so about all the Air Force can do is back up the artillery. Rick Helicopters of Los Angeles is setting up a helicopter ground base, and the first test flight of the Bell XHSL anti-submarine helicopter is due about the New Year. 

Nat McKitterick reports for McGraw-Hill World News that "Austerity Again Hits British Air Industry." Again, Aviation Week has been scooped, but McKitterick's tone is a lot more pessimistic than the British press. The rocket-boosted Republic XF-91 has passed 1000mph, and Japan has launched a three year programme to build up its civil aviation. Israel has a new airport and Air Force preflight training is going back to Lackland AFB. 

Aeronautical Engineering has just the most interesting article about "[Marquardt] Ramjet Favoured for Mach 2--4 Range" Which is why you should buy Marquardt ramjets for all your flying-very-fast-needs. This is actually a precis of a paper given by Marquardt's Malcolm Harned to the American Rocket Society mainly devoted to all the uses a ramjet could have besides pushing an aircraft through the atmosphere so fast it almost melts, which might not turn out to be that big a business. He's skeptical about helicopter rotor tip ramjets, but likes them in convertiplanes, where they would only have to run at landing and takeoff, and in expendable aircraft, where first cost of engine matters more than fuel efficiency. 

Irving Stone reports for Production on Production Details on Republic F-84F" That's the Thunderstreak variant with the mildly-swept wing that is being built in numbers for NATO, with a Sapphire engine, automatic pilot, and inflight refuelling. It, and especially the spars needed for the swept wing, use extensive forging, as part of the USAF's heavy press programme. Republic also made gauges for subcontractors, but had to subcontract some of that when it couldn't get optical tooling into practice in time. The rest of the (fairly long) article is a design writeup. 

Philip Klein reports for Avionics that "Computer 'Erects' Its Own VOR, DME" A new Collins Radio airborne navigation computer effectively creates its own VOR (omnirange) station and DME (distance measuring equipment) at practically any US airport by using a plastic version of the IBM-type punch card to tune the two VOR-type receivers to "desired stations along the route." (That is, a card for each station.) The equipment is a new version of the offset-track, or arbitrary-course computer, but improves on them by having the ability to take two separate VOR broadcasts and combine them. The computer is housed in a half ATR pack, has four servos and twelve vacuum tubes to solve for distances on arbitrary angles using a trigonometric approximation. There is no information about the weight and mechanics of the card reader. Error is less than a mile for most approaches, a tenth of that if ILS is available.

Filter Centre reports a new source of error for B-52 radars, as stratospheric cold shrinks waveguides. Meanwhile, Convair has dropped all temperature limits for the B-36 because all the wrinkles are out of the design.

George L. Christian reports for Equipment that "Hydraulic Experts Study Pumps, Fluids" George went to the recent Vickers-sponsored Transport Hydraulic Aircraft Conference in Detroit and reports roughly a  million gnomic findings. Skydrol has only nuisance problems! TWA is worried about accumulators in a Bendix equipment! PWA has gotten rid of noisy filters in another Bendix accumulator! Carbon and Carbide is proud of its new water-based fluid! TWA likes Ermeto couplings! Northwest figures that Hytrol anti-skid brakes will last 38% longer than conventional ones! I could go on. Christian does. 

New Aviation Products has a vertical boring machine from Ex-Cell-O, a broached bushing from Aeroquip, and a plane tank cap from Eton, matching all military specifications. 

The McGraw-Hill Linewide Editorial follows up the last one showing that average American prosperity is only up slightly "in recent years" by showing that income is much more evenly distributed these days, showing that America has created a whole new middle class. Everyone has benefitted except the poor rentier, says Arthur F. Burns of the National Bureau of economic Research. 

Letters has wide-travelled salesman Ray Von Culin speaking up for the airlines, which are doing as well as they can by customer service in the age of aircoach. Lt. Colonel Lippincott of the USAF Maintenance Division gives CAB a piece of his mind. Is that even allowed? C. F. Cornish of the Aeronautics Commission of Indiana, explains how air shows can be made safe. Specifically, the way his commission is doing it! Lots of people like Aviation Week.

I notice under  Air Transport that MATS is still hoping for a subsidised jet transport. Uncle Henry is in trouble with Congress again. And that's before the 84 Congress comes in! Everyone is worried about jetliner engines setting grass on fire and melting tarmacs. 

Editorial has Brigadier General Leighton I. Davis in for Part V of "The Complexity Problem," in which he explains why there isn't one. Complexity is the only way to defeat the Red hordes!

Letters

John Evans points out that glass fibre has been around for a while, and R. R. Chittenden points out that it is good for making stuff, evidently because he wants to claim credit for discovering this for the Puget Sound Navy Yard. Dr. Samuel Levy points out that someone has been shelling out a lot of money on the Eisenhower Administration. It's fine, Newsweek says. It comes from a "nonpolitical committee" and it will all be accounted soon. Earl Wyman explains that the reason that Saudi Arabia banned the import of alcohol is to keep alcohol out of the country. Which needs explaining! Several correspondents write to point out that not only did Newsweek neglect to give the name of the new cardinal from El Salvador, he is actually from San Salvador in Brazil. For Your Information points out that the new Eisenhower Administration is effectively a political revolution, and that John Falter is a magazine illlustrator. 

The Periscope reports that Governor Warren will pick Representative Donald Jackson to replace Nixon, that the reason that Ike wouldn't answer questions in Seoul wasn't that the crowd was disappointingly small, but that the foreign press was there and would probably ask embarrassing questions. Ammunition and helicopters are so short in Korea that the helicopter that delivered Ike to the hotel had to return directly to the front. A source close to Styles Bridges says he is still a lock to be Senate Majority Leader if Taft will just lie down and shut up. The Communist Party of the USA is introducing strict security restrictions on who can be in the Politburo. Democratic senators are already running for '54. Insiders say that Trygve Lie will be asked to purge the Chinese delegation to the UN of about 20 employees who are loyal to Beijing and not the Koumintang. Western nations at the UN are pleased that they have beaten back two "Arab-Asian" resolutions since the General Assembly voted to approve the Indian proposal for a Korean ceasefire, over Palestine and Tunisia. The Air Force is embarrassed about B-36s getting too cold to fly at Thule, unlike jet interceptors, which are flying routine missions only a thousand miles from the North Pole. The Navy lost more men in traffic accidents last year (600) than in noncombat aircraft crashes (400). Now that's what I call burying the lede! "Reputable scientists" are suggesting that a global hydrogen bomb war would lead to a "radioactive 'rainstorm' with a devastating effect on the human race." Israel's OPERATION RESCUE aims to get Jews out of the Eastern Bloc. The Red Baltic Fleet is said to be cruising with a 42,000t battleship with radar and rocket-launchers, and four heavy cruisers, three with rocket launchers, while an additional two heavy cruisers are being converted into aircraft carriers in Estonian harbours. The Czechs will probably break off diplomatic relations with Israel soon. Chinese Nationalists have launched no fewer than 324 commando raids against the mainland,

with US underground activities on the mainland on a "bigger scale than realised." Buster Keaton will soon make his Broadway debut, Henry Fonda will be in a version of Mr. Roberts for Paramount in the summer, while Gregory Peck is doing A Man Called Peter for Twentieth Century, John Gunther is off to Africa for a seven-month research trip, George Jessel will soon launch a Will Rogers-style newspaper column, the Aga Khan's memoirs are coming along, Myrna Loy and William Powell have approved a script for a TV series based on "The Thin Man," Erle Stanley Gardner's "Perry Mason" is coming to TV as soon as the lead can be cast, Collier Young plans a dramatic TV show featuring his wife, Joan Fontaine, and his ex-wife, Ida Lupo. 

The Periscope Washington Trends reports that Ike and his team is about to invade Washington like an invading army that invades!

National Affairs

"Sure of Korean Results, Ike Settles Down at Home" It sure looks like Eisenhower was  trapped and helpless between Truman on the left and MacArthur on the right, but actually he is the master of the situation, and is completely open to anyone's solution to the Korean situation. Except maybe India's. Ernest Lindley points out that it is going to be hard for Eisenhower to satisfy all the demands for Republican patronage, and also he should raise salaries to attract the best-quality political appointees. 

"Atomise Foe if We Must" Newsweek interviews Senator Bridges on the subject of stopping Communism with a worldwide atomic firestorm. Yes, please! But only if we can't replace our American troops in Korea with assorted Asians. Also, the 84th Congress will deliver tax cuts, spending cuts, and military security all at once! Then we check in with the "overhaul" at State and for some more tidbits about personalities in the incoming Administration before we finally get to some boring non-Eisenhower related news about that silly little thing about nationwide state desegregation, which is no big deal, since the South already agrees that segregation has to go "some day," so why now? 

"Red Front Funds" Representative Cox's special committee to investigate tax-exempt foundations was supposed to reveal Marshall Fields' red-handed giving money to Reds. Oops! Fortunately, the Carnegie Endowment gave Alger Hiss a job and some money to the Walter Hines School, which employs Owen Lattimore, and to the Institute of Pacific Relations and to T. A. Bisson, Maxwell Stewart and Daniel Thorner. However, Dean Rusk, of the Rockefeller Foundation, pointed out that its grants to the IPR have a "no Communism" clause that makes it hard to complain. 

International 

"Many Troubles Beset France: Politics, Race Riots and War" Pinay might have escape the latest nonconfidence motion in the Assembly, but he might not live down the death of 300(!) Moroccan protestors in the Casablanca riots and the arrest and imprisonment of another 2000. Similar French "firmness" has "restored a tense calm" in Algeria and Tunisia. The Quai D'Orsay explains that only "blood" can calm these Arab malcontents. While in Indo China, it turns out that blood isn't calming anyone, and especially not the French troops who are shedding their share. It turns out the French Viet Namese army is politically unreliable while the Viet Minh are stronger and more disciplined than ever. France would like everyone to shut up about North Africa and send more guns to Indochina, and have now asked Canada and Belgium for same. Canada has already said no. In Britain, Colonel George Wigg (Lab) asked about a recent Army statement that 805 of the Army rankers granted commissions came from south of Birmingham, was told that it was not news, and therefore there was nothing to be done about it. Egypt is creeping closer to being a republic, while in South Africa, Manilal Gandhi was one of the "defiancers" arrested for defying South African race segregation laws. The Japanese are outlandishly attached to a Western-style Christmas even though gas rationing is putting a crimp on traditional winter pleasures like hot tea and baths. The outgoing Administration's efforts to broker a deal between the British and Iranians continue.

In Canada, the prime minister has admitted to dropping "dominion" from the official title of Canada because it is demeaning, leading to a bit of a scandal when the British High Commissioner said that it was a "matter of regret" for the British government, only to be told that it wasn't. The Canadian government is also in trouble for not licensing private television stations. 

Business

The Periscope Business Trends reports that the Administration would like to suspend the Excess Profits Tax and introduce a national excise as priorities, but realists don't expect substantial tax reductions this year. The defence stretch out won't cause a recession because it won't really affect spending, but we do have to acknowledge that farmers are already in a recession. Congress will fix this by giving the Europeans more guns, allowing them to buy more American food with the money they save. 

"Defence Stretch-out for '53: More Houses, Cars in the Offing" Newsweek's take, in more detail. Ford is talking about suing the Wall Street Journal for reporting that Ford had earnings of $2.95 billion and profits of $87 million, with other numbers going back to 1950. The Journal won't say where it came by its numbers, and Ford has denied them. The Wage Stabilisation Board is suspended, and gift calendars this year feature lots of subjects besides girls. But also girls!

Notes: Week in Business reports that profits look good so far, that antitrust action against American soap manufacturers is coming, that some steel companies are merging. Not under Notes, Howard Hughes is back at RKO because the purchasing syndicate is having trouble coming up with the requisite $6 million. Products: What's New is taken with the new Singer Fancy Stitcher, a 17lb portable sewing machine with 150 attachable patterns, a dry coating lubricant from the Lockrey Corporation, snap on shades from Wallen Lamp and Shade, and a hatbox-sized Hi-Fi with dual speaker system from Columbia.  

Henry Hazlitt's Business Tides dances on the grave of price and wage controls, blaming Truman for the sweetheart deal he presumably made with John Lewis to call off the strike during the election and thereby unleash an avalanche of wage increases that will drown the Eisenhower Administration in inflation. Or it would if inflation was caused by anything but unsound money, which is its only cause, according to Hazlitt. 

Medicine

Medical Notes reports that the average doctor earned $25,000 in 1951, up 35% over four years. Dr. William Feinbloom, an associate professor optometry at Columbia, has developed a "clear image lens" to give sight to the estimated 150,000 partially blind people in the United States using parabolic rather than spherical lenses. At Wright-Patterson's Aero-Medical Laboratory, doctors have come up with a spray-on, transparent, flexible plastic dressing. Drs. Carl E. Nurnberger and Alys Lipscomb of the University of Tennessee College of Medicine warn that nursing mothers should not receive radioactive iodine. 

"Asiatic Fever" The mysterious illness which has afflicted UN troops in Korea definitely, and maybe the Reds, too (as see "germ warfare") is epidemic hemorrhagic fever is still a mystery to army doctors. Also, the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis is building up a gamma globulin bank to immunise children against polio. Gamma globulin injections after exposure are thought to confer five weeks of immunity to polio, and the Foundation, along with the American Red Cross, is hoping to build up a large enough supply to inoculate all 2 million of the children expected to be exposed in the upcoming polio season. The short term immunity means that it is no substitute for a vaccine, but it is better than nothing. 

Art, Press, Newsmakers

"Artists with Brush and Talent Paint Americans for Americans" To judge what gets reproduced outside the slicks, you would think that Norman Rockwell is the only American magazine illustrator with a photorealistic style and an eye for an image. In fact, if you take all the big weeklies, you know there's lots of them (at least four, because that's how many Newsweek has room for). Rockwell is just the best of them. Even if, when you listen to the retired old illustrators, these days it is all downhill compared to when they were working in the Golden Age from the 1870s to the 1930s.

Peru's newspapers are fighting with the government, Pal Smith as resigned as editor of the San Francisco Chronicle in protest of money-saving cuts involving the cutting of twelve reporters' jobs. Hamilton Grey Park is a very funny local columnist at the Salt Lake City Tribune. The Defence Department has new guidelines for censorship in active combat zones out. 

 

In a fairy tale ending, it says here, 44-year-old former Navy lieutenant Sam Byrd has married the eighteen-year-old British girl he met during the war as a 10-year-old and has previously tried to adopt. Not mentioned here for some reason is Byrd's 1157 performance run as "Dude" in the New York run of Erskine Caldwell's Tobacco Row. For some reason!  Lady Wonder, the talking horse, is now assisting police in their investigations. Into missing children, not fraud! Various royals are in the news. Mayor Dorothy McCullough Lee of Portland, Oregon, is closing out her term early so that she can take a three month State Department appointment studying civil government in Germany. President Truman has an office in Kansas City ready for his departure from the White House. Bing Crosby's twin sons are doing animal-husbandry courses at Washington State College. Dr. Selman Waksman was greeted in Stockholm by Bertil Hellstrom, who is in charge of giving him the Nobel Prize for Best Inventor of Streptomycin Who Isn't, To Be Frank, A Bit Of A Pain. Mario Lanza has had a baby, Jan Sibelius has had a birthday, Angier Biddle Duke and Bertrand Russell are married, Lt. Colonel Irene O'Galloway is the new chief of the WAC, Red Skelton has reconciled with his wife following abdominal surgery, Commander Lightholler and Charles Duffy have died. 


New Pictures

Stars and Stripes Forever has John and Philip and Sousa. I'm so happy I could just blow a trombone! Er, excuse me. Your daughter-in-law has been in rough company and does know how that sounds. Ahem. It also has stars and Technicolor and I'm sure people will love it, and I will stop right there. Hangman's Knot is a "rugged, square-jawed western" for Randolph Scott. Babes in Baghdad (United Artists) is "one of the worst movies ever made." Stop, You're Killing Me is a Warner Colour version of a Runyon comic script already done in 1938 with Edward G. Robinson, but funny, with loony efforts from Margaret Dumont. Forbidden Game sounds like the title of a French movie, and Ooh la la, but served with extra Nazis. 

Books

Teen Age Book Parade brings the radio show to life. John Cowper Powys' The Inmates is "queer stuff," speaking of euphemisms a young mother isn't expected to know and Newsweek might not, either. It's about odd people at an insane asylum, so perhaps. Theodore Gaster rewrites ancient Middle Eastern myth as The Oldest Stories in the World, May Sarton gives us A Shower of Summer Days, and Ruth Park has The Witch's Thorn, a "domestic tragedy, but in New Zealand.

Raymond Moley manages to explain why the Supreme Court shouldn't strike down school segregation by talking law from one end of his column to the other without once mentioning Plessy vs Ferguson. (Which established segregation as legal only on the test of "separate and equal" that modern segregation so  hopelessly fails.) Surprisingly enough, in South Carolina everyone was completely fine with however it all worked out, because that's how Southern white people are. Segregation has nothing to do with them. It just came ambling up the road one fine day and decided to stay! 

Aviation Week, 22 December 1952

News Digest reports that a TWA Super Constellation has been damaged in an emergency night landing at Fallon, Nevada NAS due to two engine failures. That was quick! The Martin Viking 9 achieved 135 miles altitude in its most recent firing. The keel of the second USN supercarrier, Saratoga, has been laid. SBAC expects the layoff of 2500 British aviation workers as a result of the stretch-out, then a hiring of 10,000 in 1953.

Industry Observer reports that  the USAF is about to award a development contract for a "stripped down" helicopter, with North American likely to get it. Convair's supersonic bomber will be known as the "Hustler, and will probably be designated the XB-58. Another accident, this one a fire during hydraulic fluid draining, has further delayed the Handley Page crescent-wing HP80 bomber, which is now at least three months behind schedule. The Army has revised its convertiplane development contract to get rid of the jet engine hybrid and stub wing options. Allison Indianapolis jet engines have now built up twice the flight time as Rolls-Royce engines. UAL has given RCA a contract to develop a short-range radar for terrain clearance and storm warnings. The Heavy Press Programme is running into trouble with final finishing. Manufacturers would like to convert to precision heavy presses. Pratt and Whitney's general manager says that the main sore sport troubling US manufacturers of British jet engines is that the British accept engines giving as much as 4% thrust below what US manufacturers re required to guarantee. 

Katherine Johnsen's Washington Roundup reports the Office of the Secretary of Defence keeps on growing, that while aircraft procurement orders will taper off in 1954, research and development projects will keep on growing, that the the US has flown 750,000 combat sorties in Korea, that the ATA has no time for W. A. Patterson's idea of merging the CAB and the ICC, that Senator Wiley wants an investigation into whether assorted prominent Democrats were possibly not hired by industry on their merits.  

Robert Hotz reports for Aviation Week that "AF Aircraft Deliveries Hit Postwar High," notwithstanding production delays and engineering difficulties with the J65, F-89 and F-84F. The USAF now has two wings of B-47s. J656 compressor blades keep failing, F-89 wings keep falling off, and we can't actually build the F-84F, as such. SNECMA has a system for "deviating" the thrust of a jet engine by as much as 120 degrees to assist in landing. The USAF is experimenting with pulsating seats to ease the strain of fighter pilots on long flights, while the new Lear VHF set is getting CAA certification and Alexander McSurely is here to tell us that the Army is the latest prospective buyer to "cool" to the Convertiplane as it learns that convertiplane inventors are all nuts. (I especially like Dr. J. A. Bennett's proposal for "flying crane jet rotor helicopters" to physically lift airplanes out of downtown airports, so they won't need runways. 

"Jet Prices Too High: Littlewood" William Littlewood, Vice President, Engineering, American Airlines, has told the R.Ae. S., in the annual Wright Brothers Lecture, that jet airliners are just too expensive, and also they're probably pretty dangerous. 

Nat McKitterick reports for McGraw-Hill World News that "Britain to Ask NATO Air Slash" Chester Wilmot reports that the British chiefs of staff urge a revised target of 50 front-line divisions and 5000 aircraft by 1955, half the Supreme Headquarters target of last spring. It is based on British estimates of Russian capability, and the "bleak" British economic outlook. The British are especially uneasy about the garrison costs of the British Army of the Rhine after Germany stops paying for it, and the large fighter buys, when it would prefer to spend money on Valiants and the later medium atom bombers. 

Irving Stone reports for Production that "C-W Naturalises Sapphire Jet Engine" They couldn't make a keystone piece the British way with American labour and equipment, and came up with an alternative design that was better anyway, but it took some time. Shorter advertorials note the CHW Plain Grinder, United Aircraft Products dip-brazing plant, a new helicopter engine, the Continental R975-42, and a stretchable glass fabric from Hess, Goldsmith and Company. 

Scott Reiniger reports for Aeronautical Engineering that "Flight Lab Learns to Tame Stalls" Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory is working on automatic stability controls that will make stalls a thing of the past, even allow them to be used deliberately to brake jets in mid-air.  Follows brief summaries of papers given at the recent meeting of the American Rocket Society, including a study of the atmospher of the Moon from H. Strughold and one on "escape and survival in space travel" by Fritz Haber, who I bet is the son or even grandson of the poison gas guy. 

Philip Klein reports for Avionics that "Sperry Cutoff Monitors A-12 Autopilot" The cutoff turns the autopilot off if there is a sharp pitch-axis manoeuvre. Instead of carrying out the manoeuvre, the cutoff turns the autopilot off and administers the pilot a quick kick in the seat to let him know that he is back in charge. Also in the news are a Thompson Products Electronics sensing switch,  an electronic micrometer for pressureless measurement from Carson-Dice, and a plug-in frequency standard from American Time Products. Filter Centre reports that EAL is getting a microwave communications link from a remote VHF receiver-transmitter to its Washington DC airport station. Tube failures still account for almost 60% of all nonscheduled replacements made by one large airline last year. DeMornay-Bonardi's new microwave manual is a useful reference guide for engineers. A GE ILS approach coupler for its G-3 autopilot is being delivered to the Navy. A new missile is reportedly being "transistorised." The expensive new Douglas electronics lab in Tulsa will be used to test the avionics of Douglas-built B-47s. Everyone says that jets must have radars. The National Science Foundation  has given Northwestern University a grant to develop a new microwave detector, along with other grants in solid-state physics to give a better knowledge of transistor principles. Magnetic Research Associates is a new company. Consolidated Engineering's new SADIC computer has gone to work at White Sands transcribing missile test results. Collins h ad sold its first 144-channel HF transceiver. Industrial Condenser Corporation's Stabelex condensers are very temperature stable, while International Resistance company's low-value capacitors are  moldable. Electric and Relay is very proud of its sealed, ultra-sensitive relays. Chase Resistor Corporation's precision carbon-film resistors, also sealed in an inert atmosphere, are very stable. 

Letters is mostly full of people saying nice things about Aviation Week, especially its coverage of the World Soaring Championship, but Richard Bean of Lockheed wants us to know that the F-94 Starfire isn't as bad as people are saying. 

George L. Christian has been a very bad boy, so Equipment sent him to Aeroquip to look at their new  fuel hose for three pages. (Also, Stratos has a new cabin supercharger for the PAA Convair 240 fleet.) New Aviation Products reports on the Fischer and Porter manometer, which is reliable and light, and the drill chuck from Continental Tool Works that makes everything better. Minneapolis Honeywell's new multiple microswitch is very nice, and so is Globe Industry's dc servo motor. And US Electric Motor's 2hp general aircraft motor, too!

Air Transport has a report on the "revolt" at the CAA safety office and some filler from Irving Stone about how air transport refuelling is just around the corner. What's New is mostly devoted to reviewing Jane's all the World's Aircraft, 1952 (it is Christmas!) but there is an index to 50 years of ATSM Technical Papers out, and Second Wind for Busy Aircraft, a how-to manual for rehabilitation from Greenville Overhaul of Temco Aircraft. 

Captain Robson writes Santa in Cockpit Viewpoint for proper approach and runway lights, airborne radar and radar beacons, better weather reports, fireproof airplanes and less jargon. 

No Editorial this week, instead the Line Publisher explains that Robert Martin is taking over as publisher of Aviation Week starting in the New Year. 

Letters

Newsweek explains Japanese customs to several Old Japan Hands who think they've caught a mistake. J. O. Lambert of Dallas points out a real mistake. Ann Saling, for several veterans and members of veterans' families,  is piqued by an article about an unclaimed veterans' benefit and wants to know how to go about claiming it. R. D. Courtenay-Browne writes from Tokyo to make fun of Woodrow Wyatt and other assorted British socialists.  

The Periscope reports that "Red truck and rail movements are rising ominously" in Korea. An offensive might be imminent! Or not. The Army is gong to start testing its missiles out in combat in Korea. Red China is going to repatriate all of its Japanese prisoners of war to show that it believes in the repatriation of POWs, but also to "send indoctrinated Reds to Japan." The US Communist Party is giving up on backing the Progressive Party. Foster Dulles and Anthony Eden don't  like each other very much. Dulles will keep David Bruce on as Under Secretary of State. Adlai Stevenson is going on a world book tour. The Justice Department is going to try to bring in a surprise bombshell witness against Owen Lattimore in the upcoming hearing. The witness is an anti-communist who works for US Intelligence, but has previously been denied entry into the country. The members of Walter Reuther's own office union didn't support his bid for the presidency of the CIO, and Selective Service  has only found 385 alternative national service jobs for 6000 conscientious objectors. The US is now  making 60 jet engines a day, compared with 17 a year ago, while the Navy will spend $152 million on guided missiles this year, up from $11 million last  year, and is still working or is now working, I don't remember, on a rocket track in California. An attempted bombing attack against W. S. Semjonov, the Soviet ambassador to East Germany, was probably carried out by members of the People's Police, but it has been hushed up. Sirs Oliver Hardy, Victor Mallet, Alvary Gascoigne and William Strang will all soon retired from the British Foreign Office. Philippine President Elpidio Quirino may resort to "drastic methods" to win the upcoming election against Jose Laurel. Eva Gabor and Sarah Churchill are getting TV series. The Metropolitan Opera is televising two performances this winter. James Steward will star in The Glen Miller Story, and Burt Lancaster in The Firebrand, a movie about Benvenuto Cellini, while Greer Garson is doing Interrupted Melody, a biopic of Marjorie Lawrence, the polio-stricken Australian singer.
 

The Periscope Washington Trends reports that Ike has promised to end the Korean War. He can't do it by a major offensive, which would require months of buildup and five new divisions. He can bomb, blockade and raid, although the UN allies aren't keen on it. He can't launch an amphibious "end run," because the Reds are ready for it. Whatever happens, there won't be an increase in Selective Service callups until the spring. (Under National Affairs, Ike's reported plan to raise yet another twelve ROK divisions is discussed.)

National Affairs

"Ike Keeps Peace on GOP Earth: Good Will to Taft, MacArthur" Ike is supporting Taft for Majority Leader over Bridge, and has met with MacArthur. The following story discusses how Taft "complete[d]" "his coup." Ike is also moving to extend more patronage to the South, while Mennen Williams is the first Democratic Governor of Michigan to win three consecutive terms. Ernest K. Lindley, is the laziest columnist at Newsweek, incredibly, taking the title by recycling Hazlitt's campaign for a "shorter 'interregnum'" while avoiding the poisonous subject of Herbert Hoover that might lead to letters. Newsweek then interviews Senator Alexander Wiley on his pinko liberal positions, such as that Russia shouldn't be kicked out of the UN, that Voice of America isn't that bad, that there shouldn't be any tax cuts until the budget is balanced, and that there's not much point in kicking alleged American Communists out of the UN Secretariat when it is full of actual Communists appointed by Communist countries.  Then it is time for yet another set of profiles of new Eisenhower officials. (They're all businessmen. I especially like the fact that the new Secretary of the Air Force isn't just a member of the board of North American. He's a Dayton boy who had a Wright sister as a grade school teacher.) Oh, and the Department of the Interior is bracing to be told that socialistic priorities like land reclamation and public power are off the table. 

"Grand Jury Indicts Lattimore Ending Months of Conjecture" Roy Cohn's grand jury has indicted Lattimore based on the perjury charges coming out of the Tydings Committee hearings, charges that a Federal justice has already declined to proceed with. The ninth military transport crash in six months is also the deadliest, a Globemaster crashing at Larson Air Force Base shortly after takeoff with 86 of 116 crew and passengers dead and most of the survivors in hospital. 

Canadians have begun to suspect that Americans are crazy ever since that General MacArthur showed up, and are annoyed at the number of Canadians turned back at the border on suspicion of Communist ties. Less of that Communism stuff, they ask. Good luck with that, I say. Meanwhile, it turns out at home that the Army Works Services has been slopping money all over the place and the Conservatives expect a report on the subject to be an issue in the next election. 

International

"NATO Slows Down Build-Ups: More Quality, Less Quantity" The Paris talks have scrapped the plan to build NATO's central European force from 30 to 70 divisions by the end of 1953, and only $229 million will be spent on "infrastructure." Admiral Mountbatten becomes CinC Mediterranean, and NATO declares its support for the French war effort in Indo China. The EDC will be "rapidly" ratified. General Ridgeway is upset, and blames lack of leadership and the Indo China war. The city of Delft in Holland has held some kind of "United States of Europe What's Keeping It?" party. Tito is upset with the Vatican, either because he confused the Archbishop of Canterbury (who said a mean thing about him) with a Catholic prelate, or, more likely, because he is upset at Stepinac's elevation. India is in turmoil over demands for a Telugu-speaking state.  Pakistan is  having an old-fashioned Northwest Frontier war with some Pathans, the Truman Administration effort to broker an agreement between the British and Iran continues, and Egypt is selling off King Farouk's stuff. 

Business

Periscope Business Trends reports that there are major backlogs of construction and paperboard orders. New plant construction is expected to fall only slightly next year, Christmas sales so far have been high, especially department store sales, and the South will boom next year. However, private business debt is rising, there will be no rush to sell off government-owned industry next year, utilities will raise rates, and the CIO is not going to change course with Reuther in charge. 

"Blue Print for Foreign Aid: Cut Staffs, End 'Giveaway'" I am not sure why this is Business. New York advertising firm Kenyon and Eckhardt wants us to know that it is sponsoring seven lucky war orphans overseas in Europe again this year. Lionel Trains is having a good Christmas. 

Notes: Week in Business reports that Shell is joining Northern Pacific to develop 6000 acres in Fallon County, Montana, probably as oilfields, although Newsweek doesn't say. Automobile makers will get 70% of the steel used before the Korean War, the highest allocation since the war's outbreak. aluminum producers will get a third of a cent more per pound of aluminum next year, 4 cents for fabricated products. What's New reports another electronic brain, this one by Arthur Little Corporation, issuing information on punch tape, "ready for transmission by Teletype." Tragesser has two types of non-rusting, corrosion-proof water heaters. Cribben and Sexton has a combined dishwasher gas range. (The dishwasher rolls into the space under the range.) Round Chain Companies has a tire chain that fastens on without rolling or jacking the tire.

Henry Hazlitt read the title of Helmut Schoeck's "Age of Envy" and that gave him an idea for a Business Tides column that wouldn't take any research. Specifically, it reminded him of how the only reason for progressive taxes is that the poor people are envious of rich people. Envy is a sin, people! A Communist sin! 

Science, Education

"Solar System Close-Up" The Palomar Observatory feels like it is slumming, but has bowed to popular pressure and taken some nice pictures of the planets. Also, Gottfried Samuel Frenkel of the University of Illinois has a big bug collection, and some scientists are burning up insects with atomic pile waste in case highly radioactive substances it turn out to be a good insecticide.

Laval University is the best French university in the Western Hemisphere. 

"New Pregnancy Test" Dr. Maxwell Roland's [top search return for "Maxwell Roland Pregnancy Test"] new test verifies pregnancy with 99% accuracy only a day or two after a missed period. Unfortunately, it sounds like it requires a direct examination for sampling, and examination in  a lab. The Truman Administration-commissioned Magnusson Report lays out the need for the Federal government to act to remedy the doctor-nurse shortage, build more hospitals, and fund medical research. It also has a painfully indirect scheme for "socialising" medicine. Newsweek gleefully announces that while Taft is curious about it, the Administration will scuttle it as "conspicuous waste."  

Art, Press, Radio and Television, Newsmakers

"Pruning the Pulps" The Hillman Press is dropping four detective and five comic monthlies. Together, they brought in only two million persons a month, a drop in the bucket compared with Pageant, People Today, and Movieland. On the other hand, it only cuts the fifteen head needed to produce the magazines, so not that much of a saving, so they will redirect staff to "men's magazines" instead. The Chicago Tribune has an eye-opening feature story on teenage drinking. No! And David Low is moving from the Daily Herald to The Manchester Guardian, albeit at a fifty percent cut in his $28,000 salary. 

"The Style That Spread" The Dutch "De Stijl" art school, and specifically Piet Mondrian, get a feature, but a pretty meagre spread with no colour. 

Newsweek gives its favourite radio station a plug. John Henry Faulk makes enough on the radio to afford a press agent. News Adventures for Young America is quite good, with St. Nicholas and no murders or divorces and a good explanation of elevator garages. 

Shirley Temple is upset at her daughter's private school. Jane Russell is adopting under highly suspicious circumstances. Mamie Eisenhower makes eleventh place in this year's New York Dress Institute List of Best Dressed Women. Rudolf Bing, Kurt Baum, Brian Sullivan, William Conroy, Robert Cummings, Marilyn Monroe, and Lana Turner are famous. Arizona Governor Edward Pyle served fruit cocktail, consomme, olives, corn relish, celery, filet mignon, baked potatoes with mushrooms, glazed carrots, grapefruit sections, strawberries on lettuce, Valencia orange rolls, date-nut partfait pie, mint candies and coffee to the National Governors' Convention. The point of the menu was to feature Arizona produce, but it's still worth taking notes! 

New Films

Paramount's Come Back, Little Sheba is "one of the few outstanding films of the year." On the other hand, My Cousin Rachel is an "exceptionally moody and tricky film," with Olivia de Havilland in a film adaptation of a Daphne du Maurier's novel about a misplaced French particle that gets lost on the Cornish moor and gets mixed up in romance and possibly murder. Tifness Films imports Two Cents of Hope direct from Italy, where you can do a Hollywood blockbuster for about that much, but you don't need to, because the cast is better. 

Books  

Rebecca Reyher checks in with the situation at the royal compound of the Fon of Bikom and produces The Fon and his Hundred Wives, which establishes that once you send in a woman instead of some men from the UN, the situation is actually about as bleak as the premise of one 87 year old man and a massive conscript draft of wives, would suggest. Giovanni Papini's Michelangelo is another biography of the artist, which we so sorely needed. Benjamin Thomas, Abraham Lincoln, as see previous. 

Raymond Moley complains that Christmas these days is just too materialistic, but, somehow, it's about politics! In the grand tradition of Newsweek, nothing is said that would require Moley to shift an inch from his desk. 

Aviation Week, 29 December 1952

News Digest reports that they're still trying to fix reverse props while Industry Observer reports rumours of a Presidential cut of the draft Defence Department budget. The Grumman F9F-5 Panther is in action over Korea, reportedly shooting down two MiG-15s attacking Task Force 77. The Grumman F9F-6 Cougar will be the next to see Korea. Allison's T38 turboprop has now totalled 160 flying hours. Ansco Division of General Aniline is coming out with an autopilot, while Kellett is making a comback in helicopters soon and Reynolds Aircraft has the newest, bestest, longest helicopter rotor yet. The Short SB5 variable-sweptwing is the "harbinger of a new British fighter type that will probably be made by English Electric." Sweden is giving up on its own engine programme and will license the Avon for its Saab-32. McDonnell's F-101 long range fighter will have the Pratt and Whitney J57 in its production models.

Katherine Johnsen's Washington Roundup reports that  it's Christmas and Washington is basically sitting around and waiting to see what Eisenhower makes of what Truman leaves him. 

Robert Hotz reports for Aviation Week that "Services Blueprint Dual-Economy Plants" Two hundred aircraft firms will be set up with special high volume standby tooling to take over mass aircraft production in the event of war. The CAA says that airborne radars will need 'saucer' filters to distinguish between aircraft and temperature inversions. Four generals are on the scene at Larson AFB to investigate te MATS C-124 crash. Ford is getting a contract to produce J57s, while BOAC will soon be using a cargo version of the Britannia turboprop to carry the bulk of its overseas freight. The 49th Anniversary of the Kitty Hawk flight saw overflights, the President giving a speech, and Arthur F. Kelly of the Air Force Association calling for more money for research. Harold Talbott has been named AF Secretary.

R. P. (Pepper) Martin reports for McGraw-Hill World News on the proposed Japanese air buildup. The USAF wants Japan to have an independent air force of jet interceptors, while the army wants tactical groups. One blueprint has the Japanese operating 53 fighter groups, 16 light bomber groups, 7 1/2 transport groups, 23 patrol and reconnaissance groups, 4 groups of flying boats and 16 training groups for 1700 combat and 288 training aircraft at, it says here an "enormous" cost. The Air Force suggests cutting it back a bit. 

David A. Anderton reports for Aeronautical Engineering on whether "Will Prone Flight Lick High G-Loads?" So far, everyone thinks its great. 

Philip Klein reports for Avionics that "Digital Computer Trend Seen" A Hughes digital computer for "an unidentified 'airborne control system'" maybe the harbinger of new ways and times. The article goes on to explain the advantages of digital versus analog computers in some detail. I'm torn over whether to summarise the article here, as I don't think this particular issue has been discussed here, and not doing it, because anyone who has talked to Reggie has had it discussed a lot. Having faith in my darling husband, I expect the "trend" will sweep us all away soon enough and that no-one will ever want the dry and dead history of the death of the analog computer --at least, explained to them here! So I'm skipping it, final conclusion. We just have to turn these "programmable" machines with their standard components and universal "memory" into something light enough to fly. Filter Centre reports that Sperry has a new gyro-stabilised platform, that BuShips is working on long life standards for subminiaturised parts, that Arma is getting rid of gyro bearings entirely, that the J73 will use Scintilla ignition, and GE's vacuum tube reliability is up 400% since a year ago, that Minneapolis Honeywell is setting up a Dallas group.

Irving Stone reports for Production that "Magnesium Gains Favour As Plane Metal" Magnesium is being tried out as castings, forgings, and sheet on a wide variety of designs. There is 850lbs of magnesium in a B-47, for example, while the Sikorsky H-19 is 17% magnesium and Osbrook is making a radar dish out of it. Engineering schools will graduate an estimated 93,000 engineers over the next four  years, 23,000 in 1953; 19,000 in 1954; 22,000 in 1955; 29,000 in 1956. 

R. P. (Pepper) Pots reports for Equipment on "Combat Tire Report from Korea" Only nine "unsatisfactory" reports on tires have been received from FEAF in the last three months, all from fighter groups. Tire failures are basically due to bad landings complicated by poor surfaces, notably PSP. New Aviation Products reports that National Aeronautical's Simplexer Model VC-12 is a great, low cost VHF radio set. Minnesota Silicon Rubber Company's silicon can use the same molds as natural and synthetic rubber, eliminating the cost of separate molds. Unitex's Unimatic 1012 is the most portable spotwelder ever. Purolator's refuelling truck filter rig cleans out 99% of particulate. 

Nat McKitterick reports for McGraw-Hill World News that the De Havilland Comet accident in Rome has been blamed on the pilot taking an excessively nose-high attitude. The crashed Comet 1 will be replaced from the next production series.

Letters  

Tom Moore, of the Manufacturing Engineering Department of Kaman, suggests internal upgrading of the training of drafters and others to stretch the supply of engineers. Leroy Stoner of the SAE corrects an error in the technical specifications of titanium recently published, George Christie of the Red Lake Falls Gazette one about the calculation of induced drag, while the USAF's publicity department is happy that Aviation Week put all those nasty rumours about the F-89 to rest. Various people really like Aviation Week. 

Robert F. Wood is finally back at Editorial to talk about what's going on at the CAA, and bringing down airline costs. 

The Engineer, 19 December and 26 December 1952

For the week of the 19th, the engineering news is the centennary of the Leeds Waterworks, a meeting of the British Agricultural Engineers to discuss ventilation fans, the award of the Melchett Medal to Dr. Harold Hartley, an upcoming Institute of Physics conference on "The Physics of Particle Size, including fluid dynamics, optics, and "systems of particles." An interesting film of the atomic explosion at Mont Bello is available, and Hatfield Technical College has opened. 

Edward Livesay summarises his most recent railway experiences in Canada and Britain, specifically this time during his last, 1952, trip to London, when British Railways made up for his poor experience of the previous year with a knackered locomotive by sending him off on "Seagull," pulling "The Capitals, Limited,"London to Edinburgh nonstop. (Theoretically, as there was a traffic problem just out of London.) Six minutes early to Edinburgh to match the 1939 time of the "Flying Scotsman," but six minutes late into London pulled by "Skylark" to balance it out. 

D. McAllister, "Aluminium as a Cable Stretching Material, Part 1" Why is aluminum tending to replace lead in cable sheaths? It has its advantages (strength) and disadvantages (corrosion), but mainly it is cheaper. That out of the way, what we really came for, a discussion of sheathing methods. First up, the Died Down Sheathing Process. This particular method of sheathing cable by pulling the core up on a hawser onto a die and pressing an aluminum shell around it is obviously more complicated than I describe it, to avoid damaging the cable, but is faster than when aluminum is sheathed onto cable more quickly than traditional methods that make tube out of billets with heavy forging presses, because each billet has to be set in place individually. Then there is the "welded seam in sheath from strip," extrusion, and so on. The 26 December installment goes into the physical properties of aluminum sheathing and its corrosion resistance.

The Iron and Steel Institute's Autumn General Meeting heard two papers. The first was on the addition of boron to steel by the reduction of boron oxide. Boron improves the weldability of steel, and using boron oxide distributes the boron through the steel more efficiently, and it turns out to be very hard to assay the quantity of boron in a steel sample, and the Americans may not be doing it at all, since their nitrogen analysis doesn't work. It is also hard to separate boron from other elements that reduce the value of steel, such as calcium and aluminum. The second paper was on the effect of rolling direction on the straining and aging effects on mechanical properties of mild steel plates. Rolling is a form of prestrain, and adversely affects impact resistance improvement with aging in particular. The discussion in this case was more critical, focussing on some bad phrasing in the first discussant, with a disquisition on the evolution of the physics of solid materials in the second place. Modern physicists tend to talk about materials as lattices of atoms and about the movement of "dislocations," which are places where the crystalline structure is discontinuous; older physicists talk about steel as though it were a fibrous material with distinct large-scale properties like a piece of cotton. Hopefully it will all be sorted out one day!

"Eastham Oil Dock" A long article on the new oil dock at Liverpool, part of the "vast amount of civil engineering" which has been going on in Britain since the war. I've quite a few pictures, but I don't think that a blow by blow of the construction campaign, which continues into the next issue, really warrants a summary. There are more pictures and details in the next week's installment. 

"The Smithfield Show and Agricultural Machinery Exhibition" The Earls Court xxhibition hall held a show of new agricultural machinery last week. For all the talk of vacant acres and plugging the food import holes (with more domestic grain), the  British sure do love their grass cutters!  An advertorial about a Matthews Brothers "Heavy Duty Fork Truck," specifically for lifting agricultural sorts of things out in the fields, follows.

A view of the Sloss Furnace Entry Road scraped from
Google Maps by Denis DeBruler at
http://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/2020/03
/skip-hoists-load-blast-furnaces-and.html

"Construction of a Tubular Steel Skip Bridge" A skip bridge is one of those spidery walkway/stair/lattices that they have in steelworks, "skips" being a technical term for one of those counterbalanced bucket things, if I am describing them right. Making them of tubular steel is somewhat new, since it hasn't been that long since tubular steel was accepted as a structural material (they used to rust from the inside out, if I recall correctly), and the particular arrangement was a design challenge.

"Completion of a Water Supply Scheme in the Edinburgh District" Two more tributaries of the Tweed river have been diverted into the Talla reservoir via the newly built Fruid Reservoir, increasing the amount of water currently available to the many residents of the Edinburgh era. (Currently 33 million gallons per day for 600,000 residents.) 

"'Standard-'Class '4' 2-6-0 Locomotives" British Railways has received 25 new locomotives from its Doncaster Works. Follows a brief advertorial about a Mullard Electronic Temperature Controller for Laboratory Use. It is an immersion heater with a thermometer. You can put it in a "liquid," but shuld probably avoid gasoline or concentrated acid. You're welcome. 

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"Railway Signalling Development" The new London Transport Line opened through Ealing Broadway has the newest signalling equipment, described in the 28 November issue. Railway engineers still tend to be more interested in the way that flags are lifted, barriers lowered, claxons sounded and lights  flashed than, oh, say, "signalling" everyone the information that there's a stopped train around the corner when said instruments are for some reason not told to lift, lower, sound or flash. 

"Pollution of the Derwent" That's not the river that recently developed a foam on top like a Continental coffee. Only soap suds, not milk bubbles. Which is not good for living things! It is the river which has been receiving untreated sewage from Derby for lo these many years. A judge has told everyone concerned to stop, because it is interfering with the fishing, although waterborne diseases, dead cattle, and suchlike trifles must also be considered. The Engineer is satisfied that Derby is trying ever so hard to fix the problem, and cannot due to some technicalities in the governing laws and regulations. Good thing that rivers tend to be self-cleaning! 

P. E. Erikson and Professor J. S. Brame are dead, while L. L. Asher has edited the very timely Locomotive and Train Working in the Latter Part of the Nineteenth Century for the "years ago, before the war-"involved needs of all concerned. In Letters, E. W. Kowol points out that fluoroscopy does have a place beside radiographic inspection. Because it is cheaper! W. A. Tuplin has thoughts about years ago, before the war. 

Air Commodore F. R. Banks is a Very Important Person, so his talk to the Future Engineers of Stratford-upon-Soapsuds gets two full columns, and well worth it, since it is about  The Air and the Future. He explains how jet engines work, since sodium hydroxide stunts the growth of the brain, and the Future Engineers are a bit behind the times. 

"Wilton Works Power Station"  The brand new power plant that provides electricity and steam for the ICI works at Wilton is described.
 

R. Llewellyn "The Removal of Sulphur Oxides from Flue Gases" This is actually a historical treatment of the development of modern methods, with an interesting few paragraphs at the end about the effects of atmospheric sulphur dioxide on plants  and human health. The Engineer frankly admits that the following "High-Pressure and High-Temperature Jointing Materials" is an advertorial from James Walker and Company, Woking. Metaflex is for gaskets, Twistele for jointing. "Shell Moulds and Cores" is an advertorial from Bakelite about its new techniques, which make bits from Bakelite. We also hear about industrial fork trucks, an improved rheostatic brake for trolley buses, a dumper, and a soil boring machine  before a precis of E. J. Duffy, "Radiography in a Clyde Shipyard," originally published by the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland. (A powerful X-ray machine is normally used, but radium is employed on thick sections.) From India, news about the Central Board of Irrigation and Power, and from America, first the planned deep-water pier foundations of the new Hudson River bridge between South Nyack and Tarrytown, then a discussion of subsidence due to the pumping of ground water for irrigation in the Central Valley, and then, strangely buried at the bottom of American Engineering Notes, a very short blurb about "Explosion of a Hydrogen Weapon," with no technical details. Labour Notes has yet another conference on productivity (everyone should try very hard to improve productivity), improvements in exports, and some strikes. Launches and Trials notes four liners and one tug, all diesel, Karamu, Waimba, Beaverbank, Leopold, and tug Maamai. 

Not the Seven-Day Journal for 26 December 1952 reports a party for the centenary of the Patent Office, the retirement of Lord Nuffield, the annual report of the Road Research Board is out (pavement reinforcements are worth the cost), the British Association for Commercial and Industrial Education wants to train more Latin American engineers to promote British exports there, and the latest British Productivity Council report finds that management should manage maintenance more, as they do in America. (Also they possibly have more labour and spare parts, so British firms should look into labour-saving gadgets.) 

"The Euclid Works of the Lincoln Electric Company" is a description of the Euclid works outside Cleveland, Ohio, from Our American Correspondent. It manufactures arc welding electrodes and welders in an enormous, brand new plant. It is designed to maximise production flow. 

Metallurgical Topics covers B. R. Byrnes (British Railways), "Metal Fatigue: Facts and Theories Reviewed," given to the Society of Engineers; several papers on temper brittleness, including R. D. Chapman, "The Endurance Limit of Temper-Brittle Steels," and notices that the October issue of the Nickel Bulletin has a "useful summary" of copper-nickel alloys with less than 50% nickel. Brynes emphasises the need for better statistics on actual failures versus fatigue life limits because of the risk of extreme events pushing the limits out uneconomically far. Cold rolling is the best way to harden steel pieces. Bending should avoid overstraining. Single-blow notched-bar impact values have no bearing on a steel's fatigue limit. 

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"Trials of Standard Locomotives" have been carried out, which will surely be of interest to the antiquarians of the future looking at the last days of steam. "Road Transport and Road Research" is inspired by the annual report to complain about politicians and call for more research, better roads, and brighter tail lights. Letters has E. B. Parker of Wirral worrying about locomotive cutoff indicators, Ewen M'Ewen getting properly outraged at the oversimplification implied by Professor Tupin's identification of a screw thread with a helical gear (the nerve!); John Fox having hat-related opinions about the Engineer's Guild; and G. Kitching thinks that Livesay's recent articles are bloated travelogues. 

An "Aircraft Production Conference" involved experts talking production problems at each other until The Engineer's correspondent got up in the middle of the hall, screamed at them to "Stop being so boring," and then threw his pencil at the plenum. Paraphrasing! Literature appreciates N. S.  Billington on The Thermal Properties of Buildings; A. Guiner (in translation) on X-Ray Crystallographic Technology; and Kenneth Garland on Development of the Guided Missile. Billington is too brief on comfort, excellent on condensation, and far too mathematical overall. Guiner represents "the French school;" and speaking of ooh-la-la, guided missiles are being kept far too secret, which is why progress is so slow. (As far as we know.) In spite of secrecy, it is clear that supersonic missiles are just around the corner, rendering manned jet bombers instantly obsolete. Russian long-ranged winged missiles are, one is told by impeccable sources, particularly formidable. Interplanetary flight might be fun. 

R. H. Falconer, "Frame for Testing Structures" RAE has one! On the other hand, the Verkersbahn-Studiengesellschaft MBH of Cologne has a "high speed electric mono-railway," and that's much more fun. It is even gyrscopically stabilised! The Admiralty has a new submarine market buoy, Australia wants us to know that it has a blast furnace now, at the Kembla Works in New South Wales.

"Gas Turbines for the Royal Navy" Experiments with HMB Grey Goose have been in the news for years now, and both the proven Metropolitan Vickers Gatric and the newer Rolls-Royce RM60 gas turbine get attention. The USN has ordered two of the latter for its own experiments. "A Self-Levelling Loading Dock Ramp" seems to be a powered draw bridge for joining vehicle decks to docks, and is available from Cleco Industries in Leicester. Jones and Laughlin Steel of Pittsburgh has a very simple "Flex Tester" for testing the drawing qualities of sheet metal pieces. Brake and Signal Corporation has an "electrically-operated traffic barrier" whose main virtues seem to be the opposite of anything that gets into the aeronautical press. It's huge! For stopping locomotives, or just telling them that they should be stopped? Either way! Leyland's new 150hp, 11 litre diesel engine is for heavy earthmoving equipment. Chandos has a "Carbocell" gas-fired heating system. Krupp of Essen and South African Railways are proud of their new shunting locomotive. The Greeks are doing reclamation works along the Nestos River. Industrial and Labour Notes says that "trading" is up in the UK, that the imports situation was improved last month, that industrial production continues to be below last year's because of a shortage of raw materials, and the Institution of Chartered Accountants is offering a fellowship in Management Accountancy. 

HMS Chillingham has been launched. Four Launches and Trial Trips this week: Mixed steam/diesel powered oil tankers Atlantic Lord and Caltex Bahrain; triple expansion steam-powered cargo liner Ramsay; and diesel-powered cargo liner Hacienda, plant from Swan Hunter-Doxford.