Postblogging Technology, Jun 1953, II: The Rosenbergs, Everest, the 707, and Transistors. Wow.

R_.C_,
The Oriental Club,

London,
England

Dear Father:

At your very strong suggestion, we have decided to go away from the major port city for the summer and the duration of all the emergencies,but we  haven't ended up in Campbell River, as for various reasons the house in Nakusp was in need of a tenant. So here we are, gorging on cherries and trout, waiting on corn and enjoying the difference between fresh turnips and onions and the ones from the grocery. The house has not had a tenant in two years, and one gets the sense that Nils is too old to do proper caretaking, so we have a contractor up from Nelson to put a new roof on and central heating and air conditioning while he is on it. Which makes for a much-interrupted summer idyll far from the madding crowds and atom bombs, but what do I know, I have two babies in tow! 

Your Loving Daughter,

Ronnie

So you see, Ethel Rosenberg had to die to protect VENONA and not because she was Jewish and public opinion was screaming for blood

Letters

R. L. Lockwood of Miami has a foolproof hiccup cure. Erle Pettus of Birmingham, Alabama, thinks that we should reuse "Medicine Hat" jokes about Frenchman's Flat because atom bombs are probably causing the strange weather he thinks. Willie Parent, of out California way, thinks that we should preserve the California condor. Colonel Barney Oldfield wants us to know that he's kissed the Blarney Stone. Sherman Fairchild liked that article about Sherman Fairchild. Stefan Valavania of Ann Arbor, has some fun coining Greek neologisms. John Fitzgerald of Lake Forest wants a "rigid programme" of loyalty tests to check the spread of Communism. For Your Information tells us all about the new Newsweek West Coat print run, which will be done at Pacific Press of Los Angeles once a million dollars of new equipment are installed. 

The Periscope reports that "the real reason for Senator McCarthy's mysterious visit to Texas and Mexico was to" meet with H. L. Hunt to talk about a national radio-television show.  The Periscope jokes about the recent job applicant to the State Department who told his Congressmen that he submitted his application to Senators McCarthy and Jenner and Representative Harold Velde before submitting it to State. Ike is upset at the reviews of his televised press conference. His next one will be a "slice of life" shoot. British left wing magazines apparently liked Taft's Cincinnati speech, but Taft's illness is much more serious than people are saying. The Air Force hears that missing British scientist,, Bruno Pontecorvo, is at a Soviet atomic test site in the Arctic. Diplomats in London are upset that Winston Churchill has taken over as Foreign Secretary in Anthony Eden's absence because he is a dotard, also see his abortive discussions with Ambassador Malik. Defence Secretary Wilson is upset that the Russian air force has twice as many planes as the American but half as many men. Wilson is also upset at the Senate for being unreasonable and the press for being unfair. Democrats in Congress want to stay in session all summer because they think they  have Ike on the ropes. Lieutenant General Maxwell Taylor is next on the list for promotion to four stars. When the Korean War ends, half the Pacific Fleet will be shifted to the Atlantic and Mediterranean. The B-52 is dazzling the Air Force with its speeds, being faster than even an F-86. Some Russian equipment is pretty good, some isn't, but it is all pretty up-to-date. Communism is terrible (arresting friends of defecting pilots, promoting the World Youth Games, trying to undermine the Schuman Plan with Ruhr industrialists). Gudrun Himmler, Madame Benes, and Alois Hitler are all still around and are trying to keep a low profile. There they are! Look at them! They're related to infamous people! Newsweek is on it!

  

Judy Holiday, Josephine Hall, Jessica Tandy, Hume Cronyn and Alan Mowbray will be on Broadway next season in "My Aunt Daisy," "The Solid Gold Cadillac," "The Flying Yorkshireman," and "Flame Out," respectively. Barry Fitzgerald, Peter Lind Hayes, Mary Healy, Sol Hurok, Fay Wray and Paul Hartman will have tv or radio shows next season, with the Hayes/Hund vehicle having the working title It Seems Like Yesterday and that for Wray and Hartman will be Life of the Family. Walt Disney is filming a movie about John Wesley Powell on location in the Grand Canyon, Olivier and Danny Kaye will do a version of Don Quixote in Spain next year, while Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman will play the leads in a version of Lloyd C. Douglas' Magnificent Obsession. 

Depending on how you count Ten Who Dared (1960), I'm getting 7/17. On the other hand, dead on about Taft. 

The Periscope Washington Trends reports that an armistice in Korea will bring an unsettled peace in Korea and a gradual demobilisation that will not be popular at home, but it will definitely boost the President's prestige as he fights economisers at home and peace offensives abroad. 

National Affairs

"Korean War Dribbles to End: Not Peace, But Armed Truce" 24,163 Americans died in Korea, 98,322 were wounded, 11,336 captured or missing. Now it is over, and, win or lose, we stood up to Communism, says Newsweek. And the President's televised press conference did not go well, as Senator Humphrey's reply stole the show. Oveta Hobby is the only member of the Cabinet who is getting anything done. The President has had to tell Congress to stop trying to run foreign policy again, this time over a resolution coming through the Senate Appropriations Committee requiring the government to cut all funding to the UN if it seats Red China, hauling in the entire Republican caucus to read them the riot act. Or the Constitution. Whichever. Meanwhile Representative Dan Reed of New York was trying to end the world in a completely different way, and was also outmanoeuvred. The grand Eisenhower reorganisation of the federal government is in, and I'm not impressed, but I would say that, wouldn't ? Also not very impressed is General Vandenberg, who gave a blistering retirement speech attacking the budget cuts. Also in trouble, the "B-girls" of Los Angeles and possibly not some very strange criminals in Texas, and some Molotov Cocktail-throwing juvenile delinquents in South Brooklyn. 

"Missiles of the Future" I don't know if you've heard, but the guided missile is the weapon of the future. About $4 billion has been appropriated for guided missiles since 1945, although not all of it has been spent. We've got turbo-jet missiles, rocket missiles, winged missiles, finned missiles. We've got liquid-fueled missiles, solid-fuelled missiles, air-launched missiles, ground-launched missiles, subsonic, supersonic, even faster missiles. About 70% of the average missile by value and weight is electronics (Yay!), and they are a royal pain to test because there are no test pilots and telemetering devices aren't perfect substitutes. "Guided" missiles need brains; that's a problem. Pre-set missiles don't. Guidance can be terrestrial, celestial, radio or inertial. As far as surface-to-surface missiles go, the Navy has the Regulus, the Air Force the Matador. In the surface-to-air department there is the Army's Nike and the Navy's Terrier. There's a bunch of air-to-surface, guided bombs really, and the Air Force has an air-to-air missile underway at Hughes, the Falcon. The services have been having some trouble deciding who gets to have which missiles, but at least we're in general agreement that the Air Force can't have all of them, even though they all fly, as that wouldn't be fair. I think Newsweek ran this article because the Regulus was test-fired this week and they  had to print something. 

A former tax-case prosecutor for the Justice Department is in trouble after some documents he tried to throw in the Patuxet River were washed up, instead, and Frank Coe, the "lost" former secretary of the International Monetary Fund has flown in from Mexico to appear before a Senate Investigations subcommittee, denying that he was a Communist or was working in the Communist interest in the 1949 Austrian currency negotiations. Senator McCarthy wants his passport revoked. Bob Taft had a press conference where he clarified his position that America should only be allies with countries it could boss around, and then booked it for the hospital.  

The Korean War

"Panmunjom Talks Bear Fruit After Years of Slaughter" It is amazing the way that this story just trickles out so that the official announcement of the truce is buried in the middle of the magazine. Which is fair, because we know it is coming, and it is not a peace, because we can't bear to have a peace. Will the truce last? It better, because we can't bear to have a war, either. Except Syngman Rhee. As far as he's concerned, the UN and South Korean conscripts can go on fighting for him forever.  It ought to end with Red China taking the Chinese seat in the UN, but everyone agrees that this is "politically impossible" in the U.S. "for now."It's the "Waiting for the toddler to get tired of the tantrum" strategy! Newsweek finds that a bit anticlimactic so attaches a history of the Korean War. "One year of fighting, two of talk." 

"Huge Turnout at Italian Polls Chooses a Chamber, Senate" Newsweek goes to press before the returns come in tand reveal the extent of Italy's turn away from De Gaspieri, the Church, and Christian Democracy, but in some ways that makes the coverage in this story better. We get a brief explanation of De Gaspieri's "winner take all rule" that would have turned a simple majority in the popular vote into a two-thirds majority in the Chamber, a discussion of his gamble in dissolving the Senate so that there would be simultaneous elections in both houses, a mention of the Chamberlain Report to the effect that the entire $3.5 billion in US aid to Italy has been frittered away, and some heartwarming attention on Claire Booth Luce's disastrous intervention in the campaign to implicitly threaten Italians with a loss of American aid if they vote against Christian Democracy. (At least she had the good sense not to endorse the neo-Fascists!) We also get coverage of the vote in the French National Assembly (Mendes-France could not get enough votes to become premier), with a much kinder look at Mendes-France than The Economist mustered, and Adenauer has boosted his electoral chances by manoeuvring to appear to put in a pre-emptive veto on discussions of Germany at the Four Power Bermuda summit. The Times of London calls on Britons to wake up and get very serious about things because this Coronation fuss has gone on long enough. Everyone is pleased with the B-47 deployment to Britain because it somehow brings the day when the B-47 turns into an intercontinental bomber closer. It is news that all the white women in Nairobi have domestic servants. Leon Volkov reads Pravda for us. Bargain Sale at Unimag! It's bigger news than the death of Stalin, and would never have happened if he were alive. It also has more personal interest stories and full page editorials. It shows something! Russia is loosening up! 

In Canada there is fussing about the Coronation, Admiral Peary's cache at Cape Columbia has been found by Geoffrey Hattersly-Smith while he was out for a constitutional, and the Montreal Gazette is very, very old.

Business

Periscope Business Trends reports that the Korean armistice won't lead to the end of the boom, which will go rip-roaring along unless dumb old Americans get all scared, in which case the President has a super-secret special plan to stop the depression in its tracks by stopping all the dumb things he's doing to cause it. (Looser credit, more public works, and a commitment to buying all the planes that American factories produce.) 

"EPT: Pros and Cons" Pros: Good for the economy, good for America, good for business; Cons: Businessmen, and by that I mean coupon clippers who read Hazlitt and gargle on about free enterprise, hate it. Guess it's gone tomorrow, then. 

"Expensive Boxcars" Well shut my mouth and call me Sally, because it turns out that Uncle Henry is turning out expensive planes at Willow Run! Also, there's a Republican Administration in, so my gentle suggestion is that he fold up his tent and light out for the territories before this gets any worse. In completely unrelated news, it turns out tha Gabriel Hauge is the smartest, handsomest, funniest fellow in the whole Administration, reliably reports sources close to Gabriel Hauge.

Notes: The Week in Business reports that the President is almost ready to name his new Council of Economic Advisors for the millionth time. Detroit may be the first American city to be served by an atomic power plant. 

Products: What's New reports an adjustable metal screen door that snugly fits any doorway, from Stewart Screen, a better mortal mix from called Surco, from Surface Coatings of Atlanta, Georgia, an adjustable wagon frame from American Road Equipment, and a wooden slide that attaches to the upper bed of a bunk bed, from Herrmans' of San Francisco. Henry Hazlitt explains that it is wrong that we are sending so much money to Europe for defence aid when the Europeans spend less of their money on defence than we do. 

Special Report: "Air Conditioning: It's Always Fair Weather" Air conditioning is a booming business, with up to 50,000 new houses getting air conditioning this year compared with 15,000 in 1952. Total unit production including old and new houses is likely to be over 80,000, with a total retail cost of over $2 billion. One industry figure thinks that it will be $5 billion by 1960. (That includes industrial and retail installations.)   

Science, Medicine, Education

"Atomic Breeder" Can atomic reactors be powered by their own spent fuel? Well, yes; enriched uranium produces plutonium in fission when a U-235 atom releases a neutron which is picked up by inert U-238; and that plutonium can be extracted. However, the plutonium accumulates gradually and the chemical extraction process is costly, so it is important that the Argonne National Laboratory has demonstrated it in the lab. At Yucca Flats, the largest atomic explosion on American soil yet. 

"M.D.'s in Manhattan" The highlights of the annual meeting of the American Medical Association, in New York this year for the first time since the war, include a speech against socialised medicine from Oveta Hobby. The Secretary was gently criticised for not having filled the office of special advisor on health after two months on the job, but explains that she is waiting on the FBI security investigation of the candidates. Newsweek's round up of talks and discoveries of note includes progress against polio with gamma globulins and vaccines, New surgical techniques for all the big-name organs, C. M. Pomerat has discovered a chromosome test to identify the "true sex" of hermaphrodite children and guide urological surgeons, a typhoid vaccine treatment for encephalitis, the discovery of wonder endocrine trypsin, of plastic lens inserts for cataract patients, Probenecid, for treating gout, Diamox, for heart congestion. Apologies to all the pioneers of medicine whose names I have not repeated. It's too much writing!

"Bringing Up Mother" What's up with all this "women wanting freedom" talk, Newsweek asks. Simmer down, girls! However, Dr. Mirra Komarovsky of Barnard College is very pretty and wants to talk about how men and women can get along, and points out that there is a new wave of "anti-anti-feminist" literature these days that needs an answer from a Madam Professor Doctor who is also a girl's girl. Why, if girls want to study all this philosophy stuff, why can't they study the philosophy of cookery and flower arranging and waxing the floor? But on the other hand they should study geology and stuff like that too, in case they're too ugly to get  a man. In conclusion I have no idea what this women is talking about, but she works next to Newsweek and the camera loves her. 

Fred Hechinger is upset that educators talk funny with the jargon and the cliches. 
  

Art, Radio and Television, Newsmakers

Gardner Cox is getting a show at the Institute for Contemporary Art in Boston, which is good because he is the kind of artist Newsweek likes. 

"Who's On First" Newsweek's coverage of the NBC/CBS race to get the first pictures of the Coronation to America makes it sound even more childish than the British press. At least J. Fred Muggs didn't embarrass himself! 

Newsweek really liked the President's panel show and explains that it is better than televising his press conferences because if they do that, some clown will start asking questions. 

Franz Etzel, Greta Garbo, Roy S. Hilligen, Henrik Kurt Carlsen, the Duke of Edinburgh, Walter Wanger, Sonja Henie are in the column because they are news but not really news. Jacqueline Cochrane is in the column because my eyes needed some rolling. Judy Canova has had a baby, Ethel Merman and Sir Alexander Korda are married, but not to each other. (Wouldn't that be something!?) Alben Barkley is still alive and getting honoured. William Farnum, Roland Young, Jane D. Rippin, and Lewis G,. Wood have died. 

New Films

Not technically under the "New Films" sub-heading, a rapturous two-page review (including full page pictorial) of The 5000 Fingers of Dr. F celebrates "the first movie of its kind --a live action fairy story played strictly according to Freud." Oh-oh, Ronnie thinks, but, in relief, realises that it is only "Freudian" because it worries about Mom. 

Books

Thor Heyerdahl is upset that some people don't believe him about American Indians being all over the Pacific even though he floated from Peru to the South Seas (I refuse to be bothered to look up what island he arrived at) to prove it. So he is out with a picture to prove it, American Indians in the Pacific. Other Books looks at Felice Benuzzi on climbing Mount Kenya, Mika Waltari's latest sweeping historical saga, Emily Wooldridge's  diary of her shipwreck years, and Edward Barrett's memoir of psychological warfare during the war. Raymond Moley is upset that the Eisenhower Administration isn't firing everyone at State because they're probably redundant because what exactly does the State Department do, anyway? Is there really a "rest of the world?" If so, why hasn't Ray seen it?

Aviation Week, 15 June 1953

News Digest reports that a B-47 has broken the west-east Atlantic speed record with a cargo flight from Limestone AFB to Fairford, UK. Fairchild says that it is developing a 500mph jet cargo transport. The Collins integrated flight system began scheduled service with Swissair last week. Transocean Airlines will operate a trans-Atlantic air shipping service for Aristotle Onassis. Other Greek shipping services are also interested. The Saab J-29 has made its public debut over Stockholm in 6 June. The French have developed a 30lb "pocket-sized" anti-tank missile that can be operated by a single soldier. The unofficial Canberra Atlantic speed record is noted. (Canberra record, "unofficial." B-47 record, 100% official.)

Washington Roundup  reports that no-one has any idea how the Pentagon will penalise aircraft delivery slippages, as promised by Charlie Wilson. The biggest beating taken by the helicopter industry in the Pentagon cuts was the elimination of 5 Air Force assault helicopter squadrons that the Army felt were duplicating its units. The CAA is still fighting amongst itself over the recommendations of the Office of Air Safety. Funding of the second and third Navy supercarrier is likely to be controversial, as the Navy found the money for them by stripping out funds allocated for antisubmarine warfare, which is supposed to be its main job. The heavy press programme is up for budget cuts, and may lose the 50,000t press. Aircraft procurement has "nose-dived" since the new Administration entered office, Charlie Wilson needs to crack down on the "Government-Furnished Procurement" side next to continue his economy drive, and someone wants everyone to know that Assistant Defence Secretary Wilfred McNeil is getting good press in Washington by slipping questions to his buddy on Homer Ferguson's staff that he can then knock out of the park. 

Industry Observer reports that Pan Am is still negotiating for its first Comet 2, as the programme has been set back by the Calcutta crash. Allison is not eager to go ahead with its Model 520 turbojet conversion of its T38 turboprop unless it gets some orders, meaning that the TX trainer programme has to ditch its French engine, the Marbore. Cornell is investigating the all-attitude landing gear as a replacement for tricycle gear on light planes. Bendix-Pacific is investigating a five pound telemetering transceiver for Navy jets which would transmit a visual indication to the landing signal officer of airspeed, engine rpm, and rate of change of same. The USN is cool to the idea, so Bendix is negotiating to put  it on a new Canadian carrier. The story about Robert McCormick buying a Viscount is repeated, it is reported that de Havilland is fiddling with the Comet leading edge camber, GE is testing a new fire control radar in an testbed Skynight that feeds radar returns directly to the autopilot for "closed loop" interception control, and the USAF  Directorate of Flight Safety  has a complete set of recommendations for landing gear design. 

Katherine Johnsen reports for Aviation Week that "AF Cutback Heads to Fight in Congress" which is the story of the fight between Vandenberg and Wilson over whether the 120 wing cutback has enough reserves, and whether the new budget allows the Air Force enough personnel. Meanwhile, Air Secretary Harold Talbott confirms cuts of the Beech T-36A, Chase 123B, and 200 B-47s. Fighting dirty, someone leaked that Wilson was talking about cutting research and development, on the grounds that there are too many bum aeroplanes and boondoggles coming out of the research, which the Defence Department has no business doing, anyway. 

"K. F. Under Fire" I am just prostrate in shock at the news, coming out everywhere, that Uncle Henry has been charging far too much for C-119s coming out of Willow Run. This particular story pits Uncle Henry against Senator Styles Bridges, who should definitely know a confidence man when he sees one. Meanwhile, the Defence Department at this point plans to finish the Willow Run C-119 and C-123 contracts, keeping an eye on things in case Uncle Henry slips his automobile losses into his Pentagon bills, which he would NEVER! 

William J. Coughlin reports that 'UN Air Bases in Korea Open to Attack" Aviation Week went to press before the armistice news cleared, so here,  have an eye-glazing story about how the Reds could bomb our air bases if they just had a few thousand M-15s and Il-28s. We need more AA and F-86s. 

Engineers Earl M. Rader and John G. Rakowski told the recent annual convention of the American Society of Civil Engineers and American airports need to be bigger and better, and should look into opening their own industrial parks to keep costs down. McGraw-Hill World News reports the first deliveries of made-in-Italy F-84 parts and the revocation of Caribbean-American's license for flying too frequently. "Nonsked airlines" have to at least pretend not to be scheduled! 

What's New is taking A Short-Term Training Program in an Aircraft-Engine Plant, by the Department of Labour, Airtab the handy data sheet booklet, and no less than ten new catalogues of items ranging from single and double-pole switches to hermetic sealings to Teflon spiral rings to the beach with it. 

David A. Anderton reports for Aeronautical Engineering on "How Good is the Custer Channel Wing?" It turns out that NACA wind tunnel tests of crackpot inventor  Willard Custer do not bear out the claims he has been making for twenty years that no-one has ever been persuaded to follow up on. That certainly deserved two-and-a-bit pages! 

Thrust and Drag is upset about all this talk that the British were the first to fly a delta-wing plane, when, in fact, it was the Convair Sea Dart that was first. Then it makes fun of the atomic cannon, because it is pointless, notes a paper at the Society of British Aircraft Constructors that shows that adding extra weight to a fighter is a very bad  idea, and even a very small amount seriously reduces its performance, and that the SAE heard a paper by Allen Puckett of Hughes Aircraft on the "Air Force Air-to-Air Falcon," so maybe the Air Force could stop claiming that this was a secret? 

A full page advertorial for the Arnold Engineering Development Centre's shining new campus follows, and after that the even more interesting "New Value Set for Viscosity of Water" reveals that the National Bureau of Standards knows exactly how wet water is. 

"Exclusive Report: Analysis Shows MiG Limitations" The MiG-15 isn't all that, honest. On the other hand, it isn't the simple, spartan design first reported, either. 

Letters has a very long letter from Robert Gibson of the UP about his attempts to report on F6F "drones" being flown off USS Boxer and mainly used to attack railway tunnels.  Oddly, it wouldn't let the UP file, ostensibly because the story was top secret, or because it inappropriately designated the old fighter drones as guided missiles even though they weren't the "Dimension X" models from the slicks. But then it turned out that the AP could, because its story was about "'sleek, throbbing missiles' that zipped off the deck so spectacularly that it left the crew 'tingling with excitement.'" It turns out that the AP was allowed to print the story after it left out the bits about the missile being a radio-guided Hellcat with a 2000lb bomb and a television in the nose. So UP filed its story, and was threatened with being barred from Navy ships for being naughty, at which point the story hit Time, which described it as a "guided missile boomerang" hitting the Navy, which was clearly trying to  make something out of an experiment that was nothing new. 

Irving Stone reports for Production on "Why Designers Are Using More Plastics" It turns out that William Braham of Zenith Plastics gave a paper to the IAS, and summarising it makes for a good, low-effort article. If you're wondering, it's because they're light! No, it's true! And they're not as bad as all that. Maybe they'll even be used in turbine blades! And they're transparent to radar, so that's good.

Philip Klass reports for Avionics that "Plane, Missile Reliability Needs Differ" F. A. Paul and C. R. Gates of Cal Tech told the Electronics Components Symposium that missile components need to resist vibration better. Also, there were thirty other papers about things like  transistor troubles, new solid dielectrics for capacitors and gas dielectrics for transformers and wave guides, and "rugged" missile environments, which is where Paul and Gates come in. There's a lot of work on vibrations and temperature resistance to be done, before we get back to transistor troubles (they need to be kept dry, especially during manufacture), and those dielectrics,  including Lanosterol. 

You will be glad to know that Industrial Electronics has an electronic counter which can be used by the "unskilled," while American Gyro has a two-axis gyro that floats in liquid for vibration and shock proofing. Filter Centre reports the new Gilfillan radar trainer, Chance Vought's purchase of a Bendix-Pacific air-to-ground telemeter for flight test monitoring, Hydro-Aire's purchase of a Electronic Analog Simulating Equipment analog computer (EASE) from Berkeley Scientific, and some bulletins and catalogues that didn't make it into What's New because it was already ridiculous. 

George L. Christian reports for Equipment onn "Jet Fuel Controls Tested Cheaper," which is about a jet engine simulator built for Navy BuAer by Vickers to develop, test and calibrate fuel control components for jet turbines. (It also uses an analog computer to analyse the results.) Also, Edison has a new fire detector which uses a solid-state semi-conductor thermistor to detect temperature changes. It is being tested in a Stratocruiser. 

New Aviation Products has a CAA-approved conversion kit for a four-abreast, 28-seat DC-3, an electronic device for accurate control of fluid level in tanks from Haledy Electronics, a high pressure switch for 3000psi aircraft systems from Wallace O. Leonard, solenoid-actuated Micro-Switch relays from Electrical Products of LA, a portable pickler (protective sprayer) from Texas Metal and Mfg, as self-aligning barrel nut from Shur-Lock, and the high reflectivity V-Cockpit cockpit cover from du Pont. 

Transportation notes that the Germans are planning an all-piston fleet to get their new national airline in the sky in the shortest possible time, considering training requirements. 

Robert H. Wood's Editorial is very upset with the the Air Force cuts, but also with Uncle Henry's latest Willow Run fiasco, which helps explain why the Air Force can't get all the money it needs --it keeps throwing it away on Uncle Henry, and Congress doesn't like that. 

 

Letters

Robert Leopold of New York City is pleased that the President is too responsible to cut taxes but John Wicker of Richmond thinks we could balance the budget and cut taxes if people would stop whining about their share of the Federal budget being cut. Many people feel the need to say something about the Coronation, and some of them decide that saying something dumb is better than saying  nothing. A. R. Simpson wonders if something like the American Cancer Society would be a good idea. The Science editor of the American Cancer Society really liked Marguerite Clark's article about cancer research and so did Drs. Lee Clark (Director and Surgeon in Chief at the M. D. Anderson Hospital of the University of Texas) and Alton Ochsner[!]. Who, according to Who's Who, could toot his own horn at least as loudly as Dr. Clark, but chooses not to. For Your Information reminds us about the National Safety Council and, well, safety. Paul William, the author of the Press story about the Omaha World-Herald's campaign promoting the Council, started in journalism in 1941 and married his wife, then working for his paper, just before leaving for the Army "primarily to be sure there would be a vacancy on the news staff when I returned." 

The Periscope reports that "[k]nifing and backbiting are as prevalent as ever in Washington under the New Administration." Some at State are talking about arranging Secretary Dulles' retirement, and others are saying that  Ambassador Bohlen will come back to Washington in August and resign. These are in the same paragraph, so I suppose they're related. Washington is worried that Churchill's efforts to organise a Big Four conference will succeed. Oh no! Paris has asked President Eisenhower twice to commute the Rosenberg's death sentences, rumour has it. The joke around Washington is about a rabbit that is running from Senator McCarthy, who is hunting kangaroos, because he can't prove that he's not a kangaroo. The Air Force is "quietly arranging" a Magic Carpet airlift out of Korea this summer, which is why no-one has heard about it except the airlines which have been told how many planes they will have to give up. Shhh! The President is surprised and disappointed that the Chamber of Commerce and the NAM won't back his plan to extend the excess profits tax. In other news, the President's fifth birthday party was a great success, with clowns, balloons, and a pony! The President's golf buddies say that he is really watching his weight. Latin American countries are insulted that the President is only sending his brother to talk to them. An unnamed French official explained that if someone like Syngman Rhee spoke out of turn in one of their colonies, an accident would be arranged, but Churchill explains that Eisenhower's firm letter to Rhee was an act of courage considering the problems he is having with Congress. Harvey Higley, the McCarthy-backed Wisconsin GOP chairman is almost certain to be the next  VA Administrator. The Parks College of Aeronautical Technology at St. Louis University will hold classes on the theory of space travel in the fall. Boeing says that its first sweptback jet transport prototype will fly next year. Civil Aeronautics is testing a one-man British radar for GCA at small airports. The Swift, here a "supersonic fighter," may be delayed in service by a year or more by wing flutter. RAB Butler is now "generally accepted" as Churchill's heir, while General Templer is expected to succeed Monty as Deputy Chief of SHAEF. The Soviets have released the Japanese fishing crews they interned in January, while on a less peace-offensive related note, are reported to be reinforcing the bridges of western Hungary to take 60t Stalin tanks. General Naguib is reported to be on his way out in Egypt, to be replaced by the younger General Gamul Abdul Nasser. The East Bloc press is also not sure about the peace offensive, with Radio Prague claiming that Rhee's anti-armistice position was orchestrated by Washington and Pravda giving a shamefully inadequate 13 lines to the Coronation. Oh, those Communists. So anti-monarchy! 

Arthur Godfrey will be returning to his show without leaving his home in Virginia, appearing in split-screen. A 3D Moby Dick, directed by John Huston and starring Gregory Peck, is "in the offing," while Darryl F. Zanuck is working on a movie about the wartime exploits of the US Foreign Service, inspired by Claire Booth Luce's helpful suggestion. Sonja Henie is "dickering" to get her "ice extravaganza" filmed in colour and 3D. Rumoured Broadway shows next season get their own paragraph, a typographical convenience that allows me to ignore them.

  

Moby Dick wasn't 3D, but I'm giving Periscope that one. It's one out of four on the plays, as far as I can tell. 

The Periscope Washington Trends reports that we shouldn't be misled by newspaper headlines saying that Senator Taft is giving up his power, because he isn't. he's just dumping all the dirty work on Knowland because Taft likes and trusts Knowland. Knowland will succeed Taft if Senator Taft's health continues to worsen, and is expected to work well with President Eisenhower, except for the whole "Senator from Formosa" thing. Meanwhile, the President's speaking tour proves he is still popular, so Congress better shut up and sit down! No way, replies Congress. You fire all the Democrats in the Government and then we'll listen to you! The Pentagon cuts are now certain, and Secretary Wilson says that he won't punish anyone who spoke out against them before, but from now on, Pentagon insiders need to toe the line.

National Affairs

"Truce in the Hills of Korea Could Bring Big Four Talks" Peace brings poetry to the headlines, so why can't it bring Malenkov, Churchill, Eisenhower, and a French Premier to be named later, to Bermuda? 

"Taft to Knowland" It can now be reported that Taft's left hip started bothering him on 15 April, and that within two weeks the pain was so intense that he checked into Walter Reed, but didn't stay long enough to be diagnosed, as he had to make several speeches in Ohio. He was taking bed rest at the Holmes Memorial Hospital while doctors examined X-rays taken at Walter Reed when he wrote his Cincinnati speech that called for America to continue the Korean war alone if cease-fire talks broke down, but his doctors made him delegate the reading of the speech to his son, Robert. Cincinnati doctors found a lesion in the hip bone from the x-rays and suggested a wheel chair, but Taft left the hospital on crutches. He soon returned to Walter Reed with worsening pain, and the doctors there sent him to New York because as Army doctors they didn't feel comfortable ordering a Senator to bed rest. It was at New York Hospital, which he entered under a false name, that Senator Taft became convinced that he was seriously ill, which is when he delegated his more physically taxing jobs as Leader of the Senate to Senator Knowland. And that's where we are!

"Air Battle" The President, now more popular than ever after his speaking tour, has won his heroic battle to cut $5 billion off the Air Force budget, in this new version of the history of the last three months I'm learning right now. We're not abandoning the 143 wing Air Force, just not building it. And we probably didn't need it, anyway! B-47s can fly anywhere n the world, as long as they start flying there from somewhere close by, after all. The Pentagon points out that with the personnel cuts, a quarter of the planes will have to go into storage, anyway. In other news of dire threats to national security, the Supreme Court says that Harry Bridges doesn't have to go back to Australia, but the Rosenbergs do have to die. A story updating the President's tour notes that it was frenetic, although the President took time off to fish in South Dakota, and that he urged graduating seniors of Dartmouth College "not to join the book burners." (If I haven't remembered to update that, some of Senator McCarthy's friends are touring Europe scrutinising embassy and other agency libraries for evil books.) Speaking of Senator McCarthy, he is in trouble with his colleagues for attacking Senator Herbert Lehman, a critic, for using his franking privileges, in language that suggests that he thinks that franking is bad. Newsweek explains: It is bad, because it is expensive and can be abused. Looks like Tail Gunner Joe is right again, and he should know, considering he's sitting on a bill from the Post Office for abusing his franking privileges. Also, it's been a bad tornado season in the Midwest so far this year, and the EPT might be dead because the Democrats are refusing to rescue the President's budget after he blamed the "mess he was left" for forcing him to  keep it. And it looks like another Chicago politician has crossed the wrong people. 

Ernest K. Lindley uses this week's Washington Tides to explain that diplomacy is actually quite important and the President and Secretary Dulles are pretty good at it, so for God's sake everyone stop back-biting them, it just plays into Senator McCarthy's hands. Look, if Nehru says the President is doing a good job, the President is doing a good job! (Just in case you were wondering who was in charge of deciding that.)

The Korean War

Stories about "Rhee Tangles the Truce Talks With Adamant Unity Stand" and "Nehru of India: Korean Middleman" catch us up. The truce talks at Panmunjom are going well and the British expect to be able to paper over differences within the alliance about trading with China on the grounds that they have always "sold pots to cannibals." What a nice thought! Rhee is talking about fighting on alone, which is ridiculous, and seems to be sponsoring demonstrations in Seoul, but his goal might actually be to secure a solid defence pact with the United States as the price for ending the war. Nehru, and Indian diplomacy, finally gets some recognition for trying to contain and then end the Korean war, and Prime Minister Nehru, who gets a long profile here, will play a leading role in administering the transition from war to armistice. 

International

"Sweet Music by the Kremlin Winning Audience in Europe"

The new Soviet cruiser Sverdlov is visiting Britain and everyone is in a good mood because of that darned peace offensive. The Soviets and the Communist government in East Germany have rolled back controversial reforms, and so has the Czechoslovak government. In Italy, de Gaspieri's ability to control Parliament is razor-thin after his coalition won only 303 of 590 seats, losing ground to the left and the right. In France, Andre Marie is the next politician to be tasked with forming a government. Cambodia's King Sihanouk has fled into exile in Thailand because of differences with the French, Prime Minister Nehru is trying to mediate the Canal Zone dispute, with a loan to Egypt and American financial and technical assistance smoothing the way to an agreement in which British "technicians," but not combat troops, remain in the Canal Zone to maintain its facilities in the event of war, when they would be reoccupied by  British forces. And Doria Shafik is quite the Egyptian suffragette, fighting for women's rights in that backward Egyptian country. (Her picture is on the same page as swimsuit-clad Yoko Kimura, this year's Miss Japan.) 

Business

The Periscope Business Trends reports that the steel settlement means that the boom is going to go on booming and the Korean peace doesn't mean that the boom is going to end, so we shouldn't make too much of the fall off in corporate profits last month or the government's move to offer incentives to businesses opening factories in "areas where unemployment is a problem." (There are sixteen metropolitan areas and eighteen smaller communities where unemployment is over 6%, but they're mostly one-industry towns so it is all understandable and their Congressional delegations are just being whiners when they complain.) 

The main page of Business has the stock market anxious about a recession due to the end of Korean war spending. Newsweek reminds us that business investment will be a record high this year, that the country's 61,658,000 "job holders" still have full employment due to part time jobs, that the first quarter GNP is setting a record breaking annual rate of $361 billion, that steel's concessions to labour indicate that the industry thinks that the market is buoyant, and we shouldn't worry about soft farm prices. 

Professor Lloyd Reynolds explains that we can have a depression just on the strength of people believing there will be one and reducing their spending, while Arno Johnson of J. Walter Thompson reminds the National Sales Executives Conference in Atlanta that it would take only a 5% increase from 1952 consumer spending to balance a $10 billion cut in government expenditures.  On the bright side, you can deduct up to $750 for babysitting expenses now! 

"High Costs, Low Prices" Meanwhile, in the real world, bumper crops are running up against a 33% fall in exports, while farming costs are being driven up by the defence boom. Price support programmes are running out of space to hold the surpluses and cost up to $3 billion this year. The Department of Agriculture is working to take land out of production, but is running out of time. As for turning our farmers into sturdy champions of free enterprise, as promised in the Republican platform, maybe next year. Speaking of exports, Hans Christian Sonne, the new head of the NPA, promises to erase the world's $2 billion to $3 billion dollar gap in the next few years with a bit of foreign investment and a miraculous increase in American goods imports that can't possibly run into any political trouble. 

Notes: Week in Business reports the first concrete cuts in Air Force orders, for Beechcraft trainers, the first GM debenture offer since 1936, the fiftieth anniversary of Ford Motor Company and the appointment of Tom Lyon as the new head of the Bureau of Mines. Not a note at all is news of a Cynamid resin-treated paper "cloth," demonstrated by some models doing their best to make paper bags look good. 

Products: What's New reports a "metal file with a replaceable cutting surface" from 3M and Monarch Machine Shop, Incorporated. Brazamco International of New York offers corrugated plywood, imported from Brazil, Willard Storage Battery has an adjustable battery with water content adjustable by key to the season, and Ranger Trailer of Texas has an easy boat launcher with a valve-controlled, folding rear gate. Hedco Manufacturing of Chicago has announced that all employees with more than ten years service, starting from 1951, will qualify for a full  year's vacation at full pay, or one year at double pay, beginning in 1961. 

Henry Hazlitt thinks that the Federal budget is "out of control." Isn't it great when you can run the same column week after week, year after year? I particularly like the part where the forces of economy have been routed, year after year, for the last twenty years. Which, if you take off your shoes and count all the way back, would make Herbert Hoover's 1932 budget the last "victory" for the "forces of economy." This is why no-one trusts the Republicans to run the economy. 

Science, Medicine, Education

"Electromechanical Traffic Cops" Newsweek covers Henry Haugh's "volume density traffic controller," the relay switch that activates a green light or red light depending on traffic in the intersection. It is being produced through Automatic Signal Corporation, and GE and Eagle Signal Corporation are offering competitive controllers. It sounds as though it is a bit tricky to implement in practice, but seems necessary, especially in Eastern cities with strange intersections from before the automobile. Button-controlled pedestrian crossings are integrated into the system by means of automatically controlled delay periods based on congestion. 

"The Drunkard's Wife" Dr. Samuel Futterman, an LA psychologist, has gathered evidence of a "reciprocal relationship between a husband's alcoholism and the wife's neurotic state." That is, he found a 30-year-old psychiatric nurse who went into clinical depression after her husband went cold turkey. He concludes that there is a mutual dependency. The husband was dependent on alcoholism, while the wife was dependent on her status as the protector and manager of her husband's condition. These women are crazy, he says, and no wonder they're always volunteering to join charitable societies! 

"Victory over Yaws" Yaws can be treated with penicillin, and UNICEF is making rapid progress against it in the tropics. 

"Einstein Says Don't" Albert Einstein has blasted the Senate Internal Security Committee, telling it, and educators, that all teachers should refuse to appear before it and discuss their politics on principle. Senator William E. Jenner, chair of the committee, points out that communist teachers are all controlled by Moscow, which makes teachers' politics the committee's business. (Way over in Newsmakers, the head of the Pentagon's service for disposing of all the newly classified papers in classified burners is complaining about all the half-eaten sandwiches they're having to fish out of the top secret document bins.) At the University of Nevada, the new President introduced relaxed admission standards last fall, because honestly, who goes to university in Reno? The chairman of the biology department, Professor Richardson, disagreed with this, so President Minard W. Stout called him a "buttinsky" and told him to stop butting in, at which point professor and best-selling author Walter Van Tillburg Clark resigned, leading to the Board of Trustees to ask for Richardson's resignation, and now it is going to the Nevada Supreme Court. Valparaiso University has found a great alternative to raising fees to cover its declining enrollment. It is going to get students to work in a furniture factory it bought. I'm not going to go into the details because it just sounds so ridiculous. Piedmont College, the Demorest, Georgia, Congregationalist college which has been teaching white supremacy (that's white supremacy, not "white supremacy"), thanks to generous donations from the one and only Major General George Van Horn Moseley, and which is too much for even Demorest, Georgia, has been kicked out of the church, and is on its own after rioting students attacked a town councillor. 

Radio-Television, Press, Newsmakers

KIXL is the only radio station you can pick up driving around Dallas that doesn't play hillbilly music, so that's good, which is why owner Lee Segall gets the lead story in Radio-Television. The TV station in Kansas City is on strike, and that's news, too. 

Press gives Bill Marriott of the newspaper-insert Weekly Family Magazine gets a full page in Press. 

In Latin America, the army has launched its first coup in Colombia in a hundred years. Having backed the Conservatives in the five-year civil war against the Liberals, the Army has now been caught by a split within the ranks of the Conservatives between the really conservative ones and the not-as-conservative ones, and has decided that things have gone far enough. And Canada's election gets a story. George Drew of the Progressive Conservatives and M. J. Coldwell of the CCF are upset that an election in August will have a low turnout, effectively disenfranchising farmers and students. Newsweek likes George Drew, which is great, someone has to, and his wife is giving him that sideways look.

Two of the Marx brothers are in hospital. Edy Gilmore of the AP's Russian wife has been granted an exit visa. Louis Grasso, Ingrid Bergman, James C. Petrillo and Oscar Levant, a syndicate of Hollywood actors turned oil well investors, and James Bryant Conant are in the column for being famous or else settling a labour action. Three Uruguayan businessmen who drove motorcycles from Uruguay to New York City in just three months are in the paper for being supermen, and British MP Peter Baker for twitting Joe McCarthy.

Cornelius Vanderbilt is getting divorced again, in Reno. So is Randolph Turpin. Harry Truman is an honorary Indian chief of the Oklahoma Chamber of Commerce "tribe." Douglas Southall Freeman, sir Godfrey Tearle, Joseph M. Darst, and Robert M. Haig have died. (All in their late 60s.)

New Films

The coronation is a film! So is Column South, a Universal-International vehicle for Audie Murphy, which is an acceptable Western. Pickup on South Street (Fox) is "an undistinguished but reasonably exciting slapdash of sex and sadism with cops and crooks and Communists." Sangaree (Paramount) is a pirate movie set in colonial North Carolina, completely different from a Western except for the violence and the melodrama and the "enforced kissing." I guess the slavery part is a different angle? And it's based on a Frank G. Slaughter movie, so it's literature! Speaking of, The Paris Express is a British import and a bit more sophisticated, and, it says here, a good movie. Will wonders never? Keepers of the Night is a German religiously-minded movie that starts out "luminous, revelatory," and descends into allegorical inventions and melodrama. Too bad, Newsweek thinks. 

Books

The annual summer reading feature gives us Shirley Jackson's Life Among the Savages, which is Jackson being domestic, believe it or not, Jane Soman's Love is a Lonely Thing, which is good, in spite of a seemingly-cliched beginning, E. W. Bovill's thrilling history of the battle of Aleazar, the catastrophic 1578 battle in Morocco that temporarily ended Portugal's existence, Robb White's odd .memoir of a writer's retreat to the West Indies, Audrey Lindsey's "natural and spontaneous" thriller, Singer and Not the Song, Howard Swiggert's biography of George Washington, the collected letters of Sherwood Anderson, and archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley's memoirs.

Raymond Moley doesn't like the EPT.  

Aviation Week, 22 June 1953

News Digest reports that the aircraft industry has formed a special committee on equipment cooling systems for the Air Force's supersonic planes, that the DC-6C is in the air, that Air Force C-124s were grounded for several days this month after a fire on an Iwo Jima-bound plane(!) that Aerojet's latest Rato rocket-assist has been approved for commercial use, and crashes of a Costa Rican airliner, the prototype Gloster Javelin, the first test flight of the Fairey Gannet, and a prediction that Lufthansa will have Comet 3s by 1960. 

Katherine Johnsen's Washington Roundup reports an uphill fight in Congress to contain the size of the Air Force cuts, that the latest way to irritate Charles Wilson is to compare him to Louis Johnson, that the Air Force wants to slash tactical wings rather than strategic, that the Office of Defence Mobilisation is "here to stay," that Senator Lister Hill is General Vandenberg's biggest defender, even though he sure doesn't sound like it, and blah blah we really should do something about civil aviation subsidies. 

Industry Observer reports that sources are reporting that the DC-8 will be turboprop, not turbojet, at a very considerable saving, and that military money may underwrite its development. Convair's spring-loaded canopy release latch on the F-102 is popular with the Air Force. Allison has a monopoly on turbojet engines for missiles right now, good for it! Lockheed is racing to finish its F-104. Rolls Royce is making progress reducing jet engine noise. Allison deliveries of the J35 will fall by half this summer when the Air Force receives the last F-84G and the Curtis-Wright J65-powered F-84F replaces it. Grumman is testing a ramjet guided missile at Marquardt Aircraft's California jet lab. The Douglas DC-8 mockup is hidden behind a green canvas curtain and guarded by plant police at all times. 

Katherine Johnsen reports for Aviation Week that "USAF Loses Ground in Cutback Fight" This is probably better followed in Newsweek's less invested coverage, because no-one cares about General Vandenberg's "yes, but . . ." explanations of cost overruns and unspent allocations. Senator Margaret Chase Smith's sharp questions about naval aviation and the atomic cannon are also being ignored. 

India is buying the French Ouragan jet fighter, Piasecki reminds us about the H-21, the latest word is that F-84F spare parts will be made in Europe, the Air Force is recalling 37 C-54s from the airlines and threatens to take back C-46s from the nonskeds, next, for mysterious and not-to-be-disclosed reasons that definitely isn't preparation for a "Magic Carpet" operation in Korea. Cuts in military aircraft production now extend to the North American XA2J, and, of course, Willow Run C-119s, even though Uncle Henry says that it is all a big misunderstanding and that he will soon be getting his costs under control. 

"AF Tries 'Weapon System' Plan" The Convair XB-58 bomber is being ordered as a 'weapon system,' which means that Convair will be responsible for all the installed equipment, hopefully cutting the time and cost of development, which is undermining the value of new bombers. Westinghouse has signed a ten-year development pact with Rolls Royce to get access to its jet development work, while the "Comet Crash Report Draws Fire," according to McGraw-Hill World News. The Indian court diagnoses structural failure. BOAC and de Havilland believe that this is premature. Robert Gross of Lockheed says that avionics are of growing importance, while Northrop is closing its school

"RCAF Shows Off First Comet" It does! George L. Christian reporting. Italy's Fiat will build 50 F-86Ds, and Alexander McSurely reports on the Temco turboprop trainer and Australian Canberra and Sabre production is hitting snags. 

David Anderton has been a very bad boy and is sent off to cloud cuckoo land to investigate the rocket-assisted autogiro, convertiplanes, and personal helicopters on offer from Bruno Nagler of Nagler Helicopter, Westchester, New York. 

Thrust and Drag has Dutch Kindelberger on atomic aeroplanes: They're ridiculous, Dutch thinks. Well, maybe some day in the distant future. 

Letters

Frank Highley asks whether there is actually an engineer shortage, or just a shortage of engineers willing to work for aviation industry money. Three readers write in to say just how good various articles were. 

Convair writes for Production that "Many Plastics Go Into Convair 340" About 3.4% of the structural weight, mainly in the cabin. What's New loved Perkins Bulletin L453 about magnetic amplifier regulated power supplies, Alpha Corporation's Bulletin 100 about Molykote silicon-based lubricants, Chicago Tool's untitled catalogue about machine tool accessories, South Bend Lathe Work's Catalog 5304 about same, . . . And you know what? The next FOURTEEN entries didn't make the first of the three pages of this feature this week, and so don't get any coverage because they are big stinky LOSERS. Pony up a bit more next week. Aviation Week had a bad streak at the track last Saturday. 

Ryan Aeronautical reports, I suppose still for Production, that "Streamlining Speeds Parts Production" They have an overhead conveyor now. And a heat treatment vat and a pressure ram for forming skins on a mandrel. Those aren't really "streamlining," but we'll just shove it in here anyway.

Aviation Safety has the CAA report on the Lake Central Airlines Bonanza crash in Indianapolis last year. It was caused by turbulence. 

George L. Christian reports for Equipment that "Fram Strikes Pay Dirt in Engine Oil" Fram has done a study that proves that engine oil filters in big engines pay for themselves, and that is why the USAF and now TWA are using them. 

New Aviation Products reports the tiniest VHF receiver ever from Schuttig and Company, the toughest silicone coating ever from GE, a non shorting single-pole rotary switch from Shallcross, an environmental test unit from Gavin, a  miniature, geared, torque producer from Globe Industries, a self-closing drain from Technical Development Corporation, and a dual-purpose cockpit control wheel from Adams-Rite. Air Transport, which we don't ordinarily cover here, has an interesting article on BOAC's search for a Comet successor, a 150-seat jetliner, with the Vickers VC-7  having the inside track, notwithstanding the Avro Atlantic's high speed. Handley Page's Victor design doesn't have a pretty model yet, the Comet 4 is just a rumour, and Peter Masefield is pushing for the VC-7so as not to risk Britain's lead. 

Captain Robson's Cockpit Viewpoint looks at the weather this year, which fortunately hasn't been lethal to air passengers, but has been very hard on planes. What can be done to  help? Better weather radar! And why has it been so long appearing? One can only wonder. 

Letters (again) has a reader who is impressed by coverage of the SAE, Colin Nicholson of the RAeS who wants to talk, of course, about the old days, before the war. Joe Jessup, of Air Force Manpower Management Training, is impressed by Convair's executive development programme, Robert Smith of Pioneer Air Lines reminds everyone about the need to replace the DC-3, Arnold Hayes liked the article about Howard Hughes, H. W. Richardson of McGraw-Hill liked Captain Robson on plane lightness, and Burt Dyar has a joke for us. 

Leaders

Julian P. Muller, who is the Editor of the Vanguard Press, has strong opinions about the diabolical Chinese technique of brainwashing, fully explicated by Vanguard Press's book, Brain-Washing in Red China, by Edward Hunter and now on show in Korea. Deejay John Luther of Station WERC writes Newsweek to explain that the new music is great. I think. It's all in the lingo the young folk talk nowadays, and I'm beginning to suspect that I'm not one of them, anyway. (By age, by the fact I have two kids, and above all by the fact that I'm approximately over the edge of the world this summer.) Cash Sanderson of Lancaster and John McDonald of Costa Mesa are agreed that the British shouldn't be building an extravagant royal yacht when they're taking American money. Kenneth Hood of the Better Business Bureau of St. Louis must have got an earful, because he writes to explain that his bureau never once meant to suggest that anyone should hesitate for a second to get a UHF TV or convert the one they had to receive UHF channels, even though it is a stupid thing to do right now. Albert Woolson may or may not have been the oldest Civil war veteran when he died, but he was a very nice man, say two readers. For Your Information welcomes Leonard Slater back from the distant wilderness of Los Angeles, Ernest K. Lindley got a nice plaque from the Navy for giving a talk to the Naval War College, and this week's cover picture is of the East Berlin rioters who are shaking the Iron Curtain. 

National Affairs

The Periscope reports that a "usually reliable source" (How would The Periscope know a reliable source from a bump on their bum? HOW?) says that the Communists are going to spirit the Rosenberg boys off to Moscow for a free Communist education with extra propaganda as a reward for their parents' silence. Central Intelligence reports that American intelligence is still getting to the Soviets, and according to one intelligence estimate, has "seriously affected the national security of the United States." The sudden collapse of Congressional resistance to Air Force cuts is due to discovery of a sinister Air Force plan to expand the Air Force to 160, and not 143 wings against the will of the civilian government. Eisenhower's speech at Dartmouth against the "book burners" was completely spontaneous. McCarthy headquarters are rife with dissent due to the rising influence of young Roy Cohen, who is elbowing out older stalwarts like Howard Rushmore and Joe Zack. The Pentagon notices that the President never talks to the Joint Chiefs during emergencies, and also doesn't wear his seatbelt. The VA is overstaffed, the Civil Defence Administration has a plan for a $100 underground reinforced concrete bomb shelter, and a $200 cinder-block one, Washington-area real estate agents report the worst market since the Depression, an "influx of known espionage agents, political opportunists, and FBI agents" in the Miami area points to a possible Cuban revolution. Senator Johnson and Speaker Rayburn are talking up Frank Pace as chairman of the DNC. US B-47s are flying practice bombing runs out of Elgin Air Force Base with radar countermeasures, pathfinders, and "some still secret devices," and are passing evaluations with flying colours. General Vandenberg is literally sick over the Air Force's manpower shortfall. The "100" series of USAF fighters --the North American F-100, McDonnell F-101, Convair F-102, Republic F-106, and Lockheed F-104 are the bee's knees. SAC is having such a serious divorce problem due to long overseas and Alaska postings that General LeMay is preparing a report to Congress about it. French businessmen in the United States report visits from mysterious Americans claiming to be important figures from various agencies and wanting to know all about their dealings with Communist countries. They are upset and want to know if these men are from McCarthy, Central Intelligence, or what. Tito is said to have called Aneurin Bevan "naive." As soon as there is a French premier, Emperor Bao Dai and Premier Van Tam will fly to Paris to demand that he be made commander-in-chief in Indo-China, that the "mixed-law courts" in Vietnam be scrapped, and that Saigon's exchange-control bureau be transferred from French to Vietnamese hands. Ernest Wollweber, the "chief Soviet instructor of saboteurs," has been seen in Swedish ports, explaining all those maritime accidents we've been having. Scientists at the University of Wisconsin are testing the idea that salmon are led back to their spawning beds by scents, and could perhaps be diverted to good spawning sites by artificial odours. 

Deborah Kerr, Mickey Rooney, Eddie Bracken, and Noel Coward will have shows in the fall, and there will be an adaptation of the Nathaniel Benchley novel, Side Street, called "The Frogs of Spring." Adlai Stevenson will make his first public address since his world tour on CBS on 11 September, while Inner Sanctum will make the leap to TV in the fall, and Hendrik Van Loon's Story of Mankind" will be a major colour TV film series. The next Bob Hope-Bing Crosby travelogue will be Road to the Moon, Claire Bloom will be in a made-for-TV version of The Tempest, Alec Guiness will do Father Brown, and Jean Crain and Debbie Reynolds will be in Gentlemen Marry Brunettes. 

The only clunker is the Road to the Moon repeat

The Periscope Washington Trends reports that the next thirty days will be the most momentous in the history of the United States because the Kremlin will have to "give the tipoff" as to whether it is serious about peace or is just luring us in before doing something about the East Berlin rising or something. That's it, I'm cutting The Periscope off. Meanwhile, the President is going to continue to be cautious with McCarthy, since the man makes a grand a speech, and attacking him will just mean that he'll start charging two grand instead. Still, there's probably going to be a show-down at some point, as the "book-burners" speech shows. Meanwhile, Democrats might start criticising the President directly soon. 

National Affairs

"Rhee' Revolt, Berlin Riots Upset West --and the Kremlin" Rhee's decision to release the POWs has brought armistice negotiations to a stand still while the Kremlin is shaken by the East Berlin riots. Now Rhee is refusing to order his troops to withdraw to the armistice line when the ceasefire comes into effect. In fact, he has given them orders to follow the retreating Reds, reigniting the war. So far, he has resisted all calls and invitations to back down. Is something going to  happen? The Periscope thinks so, which is probably the best argument that it isn't, but if the atom bombs are going off over there are you read this, I apologise! From, as I said, Nakusp. 

"Relief Pitcher's Error" Senator Taft is back in Washington, still on crutches, but so far is content to watch Knowland drop the pitch in a negotiation with Lyndon Johnson for a quorum to vote on a provision of the Defence Production Act. 

"Something Burning" The President's "bookburners" speech came right after Senator McCarthy's committee called for the removal of 30,000 "controversial" volumes from Government libraries overseas, so it might seem like it puts the Senator on the spot, but, after all, he says he hasn't, personally, burned any books, and the President didn't specifically mention him, so he's fine! Then the question came up again when James Conant was hauled before the committee. Conant is currently the United States High Commissioner in Germany, so he's kind of responsible for all those controversial volumes as being in charge of all that government stuff over there in that one country, AND because he's an egghead from Harvard. Meanwhile, Dulles says that there has been actual, literal book burning at the United States Information Service libraries in Sydney and Singapore, where eleven actual volumes were burned. "Officials denied it." Meanwhile, the President says that he didn't mean to single anyone out specifically, and he wasn't endorsing Communist books. He just wants to know exactly how controversial volumes have been handled overseas, because burning Dashiell Hammett's The Thin Man and Owen Lattimore's Pivot of Asia would be too much. Meanwhile, the Senate Investigations subcommittee has moved on to the pressing matter of FBI informant Joseph D. Mazzei naming Lou Bortz as the Philadelphia Communist Party's designated assassin, tasked with killing Senator McCarthy himself. 

"Ike Today: Still a Middle Roader, Still Learning"Considering that he's had to learn on the job, the President is doing a great job! Great! He has come to realise the importance of social security, the TVA, farm price supports, and the EPT, so forget what he said on the campaign trail. Except that one time he said privately that he didn't like Joe McCarthy. That's still true! But that doesn't mean he's against government security investigations. Why, the reports on some members of his own campaign were shocking! Also, the slimmed down foreign aid bill is going to be a "must pass" bill for the GOP, so everyone get in line, and the Rosenbergs are absolutely going to fry, says the President and now the Supreme Court. Earlier, Justice Douglas had issued a stay, on the grounds that the jury never recommended a death sentence, which is required under the 1946 Atomic Energy Act, but not the 1917 Espionage Act, the argument being that the Rosenbergs were improperly charged under the latter and not the former. Douglas might have intended to give the courts, or the President, a safe exit from the highway to execution, but "the Justice Department and the White House" decided that there would be none of that and ordered an expedited hearing, and on Friday a 6 Justice majority voted to vacate Douglas' stay. (Not to be outdone, Congressman Wheeler of Georgia wants Douglas impeached.) 

At 8 pm Friday, 19 June, 1953, the Rosenbergs were executed.

 

Ernest K. Lindley thinks things are out of control, what with the Four Powers meeting and Rhee's mutiny and the riots in Berlin. "[O]ther people do things which could not reasonably be foreseen, or, perhaps, could not have been prevented if they had been foreseen." A special report details the duties and makeup of the National Security Council. 

The Korean War/International

"Syngman Rhee Poses a Riddle: Will the Reds Still Sign a Truce?" Rhee's decision to release 25,000 anti-Communist North Korean POWs, less the 76 gunned down by American guards at Camp No. 10 and the thousand who have since turned themselves in to the UN, does not invalidate the armistice from General Clark's point of view. He will still sign it, in spite of Rhee's threat to withdraw the ROK army from UN command. The question is whether the Reds will follow through on the armistice, and whether 8th Army and the UN will have to depose Rhee, declare martial law, simply abandon Korea, "continue the war on Rhee's terms," or pass the buck up to State. The embarrassing thing is that none of this should be surprising. Rhee threatened to release the POWs repeatedly, and action had to be coordinated with guards, prisoners, and the ROK army, which received the fleeing POWS and issued them clothes and "old identity cards." Speaking in Japanese with ROK soldiers and Seoul-area civilians, Newsweek finds brought support for the President's action, and for continuing the war.
 

"Berlin Surprise Outbreak Jolts a Weakened Kremlin" East Berliners protesting the new work norms have provoked a general strike leading to an uprising, with Red Army tanks and machine guns seen in the streets as martial law was proclaimed in the city and sympathy rioting broke out in West Berlin. Also, "Significance of Setbacks to West and Reds" explains the other problem, which is that our allies are not behaving as they ought. It looks like the European army, and thus West German rearmament, is out, and Winston Churchill is fighting for that Four Powers Conference that the Administration is desperate to avoid, and thereby reasserting the importance of diplomacy versus, as Western Europe sees it, dictation. 

Follows an interview with Mayor Ernst Reuter of West Berlin, and Leon Volkov's meditation that the riots in East Berlin must be worrying the Kremlin, which can hardly count on the Red Army to protect them if the same thing were to happen in Russia, especially since the German riots have already resulted in the work norm increases being reversed. 

In briefer International notes, Newsweek covers the latest MATS crash, the Douglas C-124 Globemaster that went in due to engine failure at Tachikawa air base outside Tokyo, with 129 crew and passengers dead, the worst accident in aviation history. In Malaya, the bodyguards of Communist guerilla leaders Law Fatt and Ha Yong have murdered their bosses and turned themselves in to the police. King Sihanouk has put himself in command of a Cambodian army of national liberation just across the border from Thailand, General Naguib has been kicked upstairs to be President with the proclamation of the Egyptian Republic, while Gamal Abdul Nasser runs the army. (If you're wondering why he was "Gamul" last week, it is because Arabic vowels can be confusing and no-one at Newsweek could be bothered.) Now we just have to settle the Canal Zone, which is hard because Winston Churchill won't say what Britain's position is. A Russian ship captain interviewed on Radio Moscow says that life is pretty hard in Harlem, that there are underaged workers on the LA docks, and working class suburbs of LA are full of oil derricks and stink of petroleum, while the homes are "rusty car bodies" and huts knocked out of plywood. Which is obviously Communist propaganda. The French still don't have a government, with Marie winning the lowest vote of confidence yet; Pinay will try next. The British are mad for horses and Four Power conferences in Bermuda, with Downing Street announcing that the conference will open on 8 July and that Churchill will leave Britain on 30 June aboard HMS Vanguard. 

On this continent, everyone in Colombia is happy about the coup, because five years of civil war is very inconvenient, and lots of people died, which is bad, one supposes. Brazil is having an economic crisis, which is their own fault for being so extravagant and absolutely not that of the U.S., whatever those silly Brazilians say.

Business

The Periscope Business Trends reports that "Cautious optimism marks the business mood. Even though business is at record levels, businessmen are becoming increasingly concerned over some of the soft spots." Besides farm incomes, there is the first April-to-May slump in housing starts since the war, and the $5 billion rise in consumer credit to $256 billion, which all the responsible economists say is no big deal. So don't worry, the soft spots are perfectly explainable, incomes are up, and in fact the AFL and CIO are planning where to strike next! (Which is a good thing, at least on this page.)

"Shoppers Buying Widely, But Warily, Nationwide Sounding Shows" Meanwhile, in the real world, retailers are worried because consumers are only buying the sales. 

"Idea Man" The $194,000 essay contest sponsored by GM on solving the nation's traffic congestion problem has been won by an obscure fellow named Robert Moses. (He's mainly been employed in New York City on tidying up matters like planning Central Park, which I'm sure you've never heard of.) Obviously with that kind of low-profile job, he's had plenty of time to work out the perfect solution to our traffic problem, which is to spend twice as much on the highways as we do right now, mainly by giving Federal highways money (raised by increasing the gas tax) to congested urban areas to spend as they see fit. More stoplights, a ban on truck loading and unloading, more one way streets, more parking meters, more white lines, more one-way streets, fewer taxi-cabs, are other suggestions. 

Steel prices are up, corporations should be thinking hard about how much money they are borrowing, since the boom won't last forever, says Paul E. Crocker of the Pepperell Manufacturing Corporation to the American Management Association annual convention, and Manhattan developer Harvey Zeckendorf is the best real estate developer ever. Harvey Firestone is the latest American businessman who can't understand how the dollar shortage works. 

Notes: Week in Business reports that the Southern is the latest railroad to dieselise, that the Agriculture Department is trying to figure out  how to deal with its butter surplus without crashing the market, that Olin is buying Interstate Natural Gas from Standard Oil of New Jersey to develop its 455,000 acres of land in East Texas and Louisiana. 

"Lockheed First" The first Super Constellation to be delivered to KLM this week is the first turbocompound airliner to fly anywhere in the world. 

Products: What's New reports gas ranges with "deep-toned, antique copper finish" from Chambers of Shelbyville, Indiana, an ice maker from Polar Chips Company of Fort Worth, and a high-fidelity record player with adjustable turntable speed from Zenith. 

Over at Business Tides, Henry Hazlitt asks "Can We Prevent Depression?" Yes, he explains, by preventing booms! You see, when things go up, they have to come down, and so if you have a boom, you will have a depression. (He is very upset at Dr. Burns for saying that capitalism leads to cyclical economic trends and that the government has to manage them "countercyclically.") Because what causes booms? Government! So the solution to not having depressions is not having governments, as was clearly shown by all the depressions we didn't have back in the Nineteenth Century. 

Science, Medicine, Education

"Atomic House Cleaning" At Oak Ridge, there are special atomic janitors in charge of radioactive spills who sandblast away surfaces exposed to radioactive spills and strip special wall paper. But what if there is some kind of uncontained atomic accident (like, for example, World War III)? What's a mere housewife to do? Dr. Foster Dee Snell, "an eminent consulting chemist of New York" says, wipe it up with some Vim and some elbow grease! 

"Formulas for History" The University of Chicago's Committee on Mathematical Biology, headed by Nicholas Rashevsky, is working on the "mathematical foundations" of various sciences, and is now looking at the "challenge of the social sciences." For example, there was a recent study on the spread of rumours, and now the committee is ready to tackle the question of "Why did the tremendous acceleration of technological development take place in Western Europe rather than in older sites of civilisation . . .?" It wasn't race or climate, Rashevsky concludes, but rather the length of shoreline in Europe. That's actually surprisingly sane considering some of the things I've read on this subject. "Mathematical history is in its infancy," so look forward to more mathematical "postdicting" of historical events. 

"Scared Fish, Safe Fish" Hatchery-raised trout are far too complacent and need a  healthy dose of random terror to flourish once released into the wild, say three Michigan State College students who have studied the matter. Wait 'till they're released from Michigan State College! 

"Team Nursing" The Division of Nursing at Teachers College, Columbia University, has been studying the graduate-nurses shortage since 1947. It has concluded is that the solution is for the graduate nurse to boss around some underlings, and also the patients, who, Heaven knows, could use more bossing. 

Medical Notes reports that Marius N. Smith-Peterson, the famous orthopedic surgeon who recently operated on Arthur Godfrey's hip, has died of a massive heart attack at 66. Dr. Irving Cooper's artery-crushing surgery, which has helped some victims of Parkinson's Disease, is being extended, as Dr. Cooper looks for other kinds of paralysis, rigidity, and tremors that he can treat with "artery crushing." (This seems wise, as the patients can't run away from the artery crushers very fast.) Warfarin, the rat poison, is also great for heart patients. I mean, besides the ones who are rats, says Dr. Sephard Shapiro of the New York University College of Medicine. He's been experimenting, you see. Two doctors in Raleigh, North Carolina, have been successfully treating polio paralysis victims who are stuck in braces with a surgery which was abandoned forty years ago for being too gruesome for people back then, but this is a bright new day, so why not remove the ankle bone and peel the bone of its cartilage and covering, then scrape and clean adjacent bones, before reseating the ankle bone. The resulting stiff foot will support the patient without braces. Success! Commander Gerald J. Duffner of the Navy Medical Corps has discovered a promising technique for choosing men for submarine service involving torturing them and removing whoever breaks first. Okay, okay, it is a specific kind of torture that is vaguely submarine related. (High frequency vibrations.) Happy? 

Lee Mohrman Thurston, who is, sources close to Lee Mohrman Thurston confirm, a great educator and "practical philosopher," is the new Commissioner of the United States Office of Education, filling the office vacated by Earl McGrath over budget cuts. The American Association of University Women heard some interesting papers about prejudices and peer pressure at its biennial convention. 

Press, Radio-Television, Newsmakers

Press has stories about the El Paso Herald-Tribune investigating corruption at City Hall and the police department and Maxine Hall uncovering a sad case in the Knoxville News-Sentinel. The Eisenhower Administration has responded to newspaper complaints about the Truman secrecy act by reducing the number of classifications and stripping 29 agencies, some faintly fairly ridiculous (American Battle Monuments Commission, Committee on the Purchase of Blind-Made Products), of the power to classify documents. Arthur Sulzberger of the New York Times thinks that Americans who gave up being Communist before some date like the Berlin blockade should get a "political amnesty."
 

Wasn't that Ford Anniversary Show something? Also, Bert Parks, Paul White (of CBS news) and KFMB-TV reporter Harold Keen are great guys. 

Ingrid Bergman and Isabella and Ingrid Rossellini, Faith Baldwin and Hugh Cuthrell, Hoyt S. Vandenberg, the President's grandchildren, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Clark Gable, Suzanne Dardolle and Jacob Epstein are in the column for being famous, related to someone famous, or standing next to someone famous. The national marbles champion, Princeton valedictorian, Clarence Beutel, and a crook in LA are here in their own right. 

Frank Borzage and Bob Mathias are married. Donald O'Connor and Martha Raye are divorced. Anthony de Bonaventura is recovering from the appendicitis that interrupted his honeymoon with Sara Delano Roosevelt di Bonaventura. Margaret Bondfield and Rene Fonck have died. I'm a little surprised that he is still alive, but I misremembered his entry into the Orteig Prize as killing him, where it was only the other three other crew members. 

His estate was probated. He was seventy grand in debt, which is perfectly reasonable. 

New Films

 United Artists' The Moon is Blue, based on the hit 1951 touring play, has been refused a Production Code seal and has been released without the approval of Eric Johnston's office. (Remember when he was going to be the Republican nominee in 1944?) It is funny, flippant and frank, and far too racy for its own good. Hundred Hour Hunt is three episodes of a British drama covering the search for a blood donor for a tragically ill little girl. The last part is a bit melodramatic, the rest is a "deft and credible exercise in suspense." Never Let Go (MGM), is a Clark Gable vehicle in which he plays a "conquering American" getting his Russian ballerina bride out of the country and back to the Land of the Free. 

New Books

We lead off with Pete Martin's life of Bing Crosby, Call Me Lucky, illustrated with a picture sure to  have Uncle George swooning. Besides that, it isn't much, and we can bring him down to Earth pretty quickly by rubbing a copy of the eighth volume of Samuel Eliot Morison's history of America's war at sea, or, as Morison would have it, "US Naval Operations in WWII." Or maybe not, because this specific one covers Leyte, and  might bring back unpleasant memories, so never mind the cheap joke. Other Books notices Vina Delmar's historical novel of the Civil War, Francois de Bernardy's study of Albert and Victoria, translated from the French. (No, I don't understand, either.) 

Raymond Moley is upset that people are complaining about Congress. Congress rules, it says so in the Constitution, so shut up, sit down, have a drink and watch Senator McCarthy having a drink on the TV while he assassinates another reputation! 

Aviation Week, 29 June 1953

News Digest reports that Republic has given SNCASE a $30 million contract for spare parts for the F-84F and that the Navy cancellation of 30 Piasecki HUP helicopters will have no effect on the work force at Piasecki. There has been a $100,000 cash settlement in the case of the first family in the apartment hit by the Elizabeth NAL DC-6 crash, with more to come. Pratt and Whitney is about to begin mass production of its T34 turboprop. The Air Transport Association forecasts 60 passenger helicopters by 1960. Rear Admiral Apollo Soucek is the new head of BuAer. Pan Am is furloughing 80 co-pilots out of its total pilot roster of 1340. A single Pan-Am crew will be able to fly non-stop Los Angeles-New York when the DC-7 enters service. Pan Am is adopting the Selsig Selective Signalling Device, which is like a telephone ringer for air crews. The new de Havilland Gyron, advertised as a 15,000lb turbojet, is running considerably below that power. Advertised as a simple, light weight engine with an efficient compressor, it does not use titanium, contrary to reports, and is expected to give 20,000lbs by 1960. GE engineers have been working on it under the GE-de Havilland technical cooperation agreement and it is likely to be the engine of several new British fighters on the secret list. Rolls Royce may get an off-shore purchase contract to build Avons for the Italian F-86Ds, but the first 50 will have GE J47s. Avons will aslo go into the Australian F-86s, and on paper will give them better performances than MiG-15s, Hunters and Swifts.  

Aviation Week has "First U.S. Jetliner to Be World's Fastest" The Boeing 707 will make its first flight in 1954 and will be faster and more powerful than the de Havilland Comet, cruising in the "near 600mph class, presumably around 580mph," with block-to-block performance as high as 550mph on some routes. It will use a commercial version of the J57, the JT3L, giving 11,000lbs with water injection, to get its edge over the Comet 3 (four Avon 3s giving 9000lbs) and be comparable to a stretched-out Stratoliner in size and cabin capacity. Wings will be swept 35 degrees with podded engines, as in the B-47 and B-52. There will be inner and outer ailerons, the latter locked when flaps are used and only deployed at low speeds. There will be upper surface spoilers, as in the B-52. Wing loading will be a hair under 80lbs, undercarriage four-wheel bogies like the B-52, cockpit protruding unlike the flush B-47 to give better visibility.  

Two stories on the developing cuts to the heavy press programme, which are heavier than expected, but also not unexpected. If that doesn't make any sense, it's because even the Air Force sees the need to clarify what is going on. Seven presses are being cancelled, including Uncle Henry's 35,000 and 25,000lb presses at E. W. Bliss in Newark (75% complete when cancelled) and the 35,000lb press at Harvey, so two of the biggest presses are going, although the 10 continuing include the two 50,000lb presses, at Loewy, Grafton, Connecticut and Mesta-Alcoa, Cleveland. 

"Wilson Hits AF 'Over-Financing'" The Air Force and Secretary Wilson are still in the bedroom screaming at each other. WE CAN STILL HEAR YOU! Also, Canadian Pacific is cancelling its jet service to Hawaii for this year because it can't run the service with a single plane. Also, just in case it hasn't been foreshadowed enough, "USAF Axes Kaiser Aircraft Role" 

"House Vetoes Wilson Cut in Atomic Funds" Specifically, the House vetoed the cancellation of the aircraft carrier atomic engine programme and earmarked funding for it. It is okay with the cut to the atomic aircraft programme. 

Nat McKitterick reports for McGraw-Hill World News that "RAF Picks New Swift F.4 Over Hunter" While the USAF selected the Hunter for the offshore defence procurement programme, the RAF has given it a bit more thought, waited on the F.4, and selected it over the Hunter, Aviation Week has learned. It is more expensive to build than the Hunter, requiring more machining, but Vickers-Supermarine has "set up an American-style production network of seven plants in the vicinity of Marsden, Wiltshire." General Boyd didn't like the Swift's wing stall,  liked the Hunter's handling, and was persuaded that it would match the Swift's endurance with under-wing tanks. But the F.4's wingtip stall problems have been rectified with fences, the Avon engine installed now has afterburners, and power boost to the controls has been increased. Hawker now has 500 orders in hand for the Hunter, 450 for the USDAP, while the RAF's order for 350 Swifts will be considerably increased. Also, Canadian Pacific plans a DC-6B service to Hong Kong starting in the fall to serve the "Orient-South America immigration market" by skipping right past American immigration red tape with direct flights to Mexico City. And Ansett Airlines has been refused government aid in Australia. 

Alexander McSurely reports for Aviation Safety that "AF Research Cuts Crash Rate" McSurely toured the Air Force's Air Safety Research Directorate at Norton AFB, in San Bernardino, California, and came away with the important information that crashes are down this year, and that there are many reasons why the boys at Norton might be partly responsible, including better arrangements for reporting, better education efforts, and the fact that there's lots of good people at Norton, so it stands to reason all that investigating, engineering, and design brief-writing must be doing some good!

Production has "Forum Answers Heavy Press Questions" That is, a forum of engineers from the various companies building heavy presses at their aluminum plants held a forum at the SAE National Aeronautics Meeting, and here's a precis of the question and answer session. So now you know whether you can use stainless steel dies and whether extrusions or rolling stock makes better forgings. Also, De Havilland wants us all to know that its plant turns out a new plane every two hours, and wouldn't it be great if they were Comets and not Vampires and Herons. H. F. Steere is a new company in Seattle that does nothing but repair rejected vender-collect subcontracted parts to Boeing standards. There's not nearly enough titanium sponge to meet the demand, and Lockheed is speeding up spot checks, while Boeing has recently found a way to triple the power through its wind tunnel. 

"Magnetic Blocks Aid Computer Design" The Naval Ordnance Laboratories this week revealed standard magnetic blocks for building computers, or Magnetic Decision Elements, developed by 3M. They can be  used to build "the entire arithmetic, program, control and memory sections of digital computers," and consist of cast blocks of epoxy resin containing no vacuum tubes or transistors, so just logic circuits, I guess. Cooper Alloy's new stainless steel alloy is harder and non-galling. 

"Now Showing on TV: Jet Tests" Pratt and Whitney is using closed-circuit TV to monitor test cells at its Willgoos laboratory. 

Philip Klass reports for Avionics that "Hughes Aircraft Company Accents the New" What that means is that Hughes no longer just builds equipment that employs "closed loops" and "feedback." It is organising the company around these concepts! For example, people talk to each other, which is why Hughes has such a fresh and vigorous atmosphere. Also, they give machine operators precision gauges without worrying whether they'll be damaged. So that's definitely fresh and new! Everything is being sped up and streamlined. Everything is a "system." "Know how" is being transferred. Feedback is being fed. The company is learning to "cope with complexity." 

National Aeronautical's new DME for corporate and executive aircraft is the easiest to use and lightest yet. Equipment reports that the latest version of the runway light is almost good enough for the CAA. 

New Aviation Products has a cockpit sun visor from Hardman Tool and Engineering, a pressure regulator for airborne radar from Accessory Products that can cope with up to 200 cubic inches of leakage, a canopy desiccant from Socony-Vacuum and a compact valve reconditioner from Black and Decker. Air Transport breaks from industry news to report the Douglas press conference revealing the Douglas DC-6C convertible cargo-coach  version, which does not sound comfy, although it sounds like it would work for MATS. But you know, if you make Seattle alive aboard a MATS flight . . . 

Robert H. Wood's Editorial tells us about how TWA's new management team is revitalising the company, which doesn't seem like something for the Editorial page, especially for a magazine that blatantly sells editorial (small "e") pages to advertisers. 
 

 The Engineer for 19 and 26 June, 1953

Is it time to check in with the world's most boring magazine? (That I know about. Actuarial Weekly try harder!) 

For the week of the 19th, the Not-the-Seven-Day Journal reports that the seventh report of the Select Committee on Estimates urges that funding increases and expansions at the Naval Construction Research Establishment, Rosyth, Radar Research Development Establishment, Telecommunication Research Establishment, Admiralty Signal and Radar Establishment should not be "stretched out," as this would be a false economy.The annual RAeS Garden Party was a smashing success with old planes and new. The annual meeting of the British Road Federation heard that Government cuts on road maintenance were a false economy. The annual general meeting of ICAO is going on this week. The British Rubber Development Board heard about rubberised asphalt at its annual general meeting. 

R. Haslam and J. Hancock aren't waiting for the actuaries to be heard from and pre-empts them with "The Excavation of Rock and Silt From Watercourses by Blasting" Sure, you can blow up riverbeds (goodbye fish, goodbye turtles!) any old way, but it is better with science! To be fair, from the sketch map, it looks like Mother Nature has been beaten to  a bloody pulp along this stretch of creek long before the mad bombers got there. 

A. G. Dean begins a series on "Structural Applications of Stainless Steel" with a look at the use of various grades of stainless steel to make a luxury railway coach, the "Vista Dome," painfully explaining how the body of a railway coach requires construction techniques that call for those various grades. since one installment can't possible cover the whole of this fascinating problem it is continued in the 26th June issue. Maybe in July we'll get things made out of stainless steel that aren't luxury rail cars! 

Continuing this week is C. A. Cameron Brown, "Electricity for Agriculture," covering various uses of electricity mainly in dairy farming other than the obvious. (So, in other words, mainly heating things that you wouldn't think need to be heated, such as hay and mud.) This is followed in the 19 June issue at some distance by the session on "Electricity and Food Production" at the British Electrical Power Convention, which concluded that farms need more electricity. (Electrification is still only a third done!) New for the 19th is "The Preparation of Structural Steel Sections," describing Boulton Paul's shop for same. 

"Ship Failure Research at the National Bureau of Standards" (by Our American Correspondent) It turns out that this is something they are doing at NBS. Also from OAC is a short article on the recent atomic tests that blew up those dummy homes, cars and people. A-bombs are pretty good at levelling cities, it turns out, but perhaps not at killing troops in trenches. American Engineering News catches us up with the "Kinorama," a testing equipment joint effort by BuAer and the NBS for airport lighting that improves on RAE Farnborough's "cyclorama."  

"The Hogmuddle Rotatory Niggler and Fidgeter" Is a joke from Rowland Emett, but it is an engineering joke, so we'll print it. Actually, the published specifications are also part of the joke, which The Engineer gets too pretty gleefully. 

"The Avro 'Atlantic' Delta Transport Project" The Atlantic will carry 94 passengers in basic seating, up to 131 in tourist with bar at 40,000ft and 600mph, London-New York direct with an AUW of 200,000lbs and a payload of "10 to 20 tons." 

Clino Machines has an "automatic shell mould making machine" and Ferguson Pailin an 11kV fuse switch ring-main unit, while the new gas plant in Berwick-on-Tweed is something. B. Elliott has asn improved milling machine,  with a short article on "Mechanised Joint Maintenance for Concrete Roads," the latest from the Road Research Establishment following because it mainly seems concerned with two new equipments, the priming machine, and melter-pourer. Auto-Diesel has an aircraft starter kit for Comets. Next week, Trojan of Croydon will have a universal oil grooving machine,specially built to meet its need to produce more phosphor bushing machines and now available to those interested. Crompton Parkinson has a "fault-making, load-breaking ring-main unit" and a mobile high-voltage testing unit,  for cable connections, Gillott has an electric steam steriliser and combined water heating unit, George Cohen a power press attachment, Chamberlain a two-stage,  hand-operated hydraulic pump, Stenzel a die-grinding and polishing machine, Switchgear and Equipment a high voltage isolator with ice breaking contacts, and Brooke Marine has built a fleet of custom launches for Nigeria

"Moulding Equipment at the Plastics Exhibition" is about same, in some detail. "The Annual Meeting of the Association Technique Maritime et Aeronautique" heard a wide variety of papers (servos, gamma ray examination of hull flaws, "Flexible Isotropy of Warped Tubes." How do you summarise? You don't, you take a tour of the Seine and head to the hotel for the banquet. Industrial and Labour Notes reports mainly improving trends this week, and Launches and Trial Trips has three new motor vessels, two new steamships, 800 and 900 degree steam respectively. Two oil tankers, two cargo liners, one banana boat. 

Not The Seven-Day Journal for the 26th June has the BBC's announcement of its television expansion plans, the ceremony opening the particle physics laboratory at University of London, the sixteenth annual report of the Air Registration Board, which seems to down play the role of fatigue in the Central African Airways Viking crash, an expansion of the Pilkington Committee with a section advising on industrial fuel efficiency, and the productivity council's visit to American ammunition factories that concludes that their higher productivity must be due to administration because it can't be anything else.  

Leaders

"Loss of the Princess Victoria" The Engineer is reminded of things long gone, years ago, before the war. Then it leaps down the throat of Gurney Braithwaite, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport, for poo-pooing all that expensive "safety" stuff since what we need for fewer accidents is for people to pay more attention. One Letter, on the article on "Present Day Locomotive Working in Great Britain," and two and a half cheers to those who read and write those articles. 

The first noncontinuing material in this week's issue is Commander (E) H. G.. H. Tracy on "The Training of Engineering Designers," laying out the current training scheme of Engineering Branch officers --two years basic engineering, one year at sea, one year "post-graduate" training, focussing on engineering design. Some examples of student designs and the course curriculum are explained. And speaking of education, the Times "Careers in Industry" Supplement had a nice article on vocational training that we quote here. There should be more of it!

Our indefatigable American Correspondent has "Transistor Development in America" It summarises four hears of progress in the germanium triode transistor device since it was first announced. The Army Signals Corps has now placed orders for the production of machinery sufficient to make 5000 transistors per week, and Bell is widely using them in its telephone network relays. Information in this article is from Bell Labs, and was provided by J. A. Morton. 

The previous four years have been spent working out the bugs in the transistor device so that it could fulfill its potential as an amplifier replacing vacuum tubes that was smaller, more reliable, and did not need a heater current. Much progress has been made and transistor performance is now as consistent as commercially-available vacuum tubes; they are more rugged, but more subject to temperature variation. 

Letters has a jeremiad from H. Clausen in connection with the article on training engineering designers (in the Navy Engineering Branch) about how people don't appreciate engineering drawing enough and how not enough people want to be engineers in Britain and it is ruining our export trade. 

"The Mount Everest Expedition Oxygen Equipment"  Elegantly burying the lede, The Engineer explains that when the successful attempt on Everest was made (a month ago, if you somehow weren't paying attention), they used this equipment. Also in Coronation-relate news, the Spithead review used ship-to-shore VHF transmitters provided by GEC to give television coverage.

"Cunard Cargo Liner Pavia" Is a motor ship with refrigerated and regular holds, 4400t deadweight, 14 knots, one crane.Boilers to provide steam for auxiliary equipment. Also, steamship World Enterprise is a 33,000t deadweight oil tanker under production at Vickers-Armstrong's Walker yards. There are three turbines to drive the pumps, and four-ram electro-hydraulic steering by Brown Brothers. Turbines are by Parmetrada, operating at 850 degrees, with 45% of ahead power for reverse. Boilers are Foster-Wheeler Ds, closed feed systems by Weir. 

"The British Transport Commission's Report" £600,000 in improvements this year, a bit under 600 new diesel locomotives ordered, 85% of London Transport busses now postwar, £3 million in improvements to docks authorised. Not bad for a Commission that is going away this year. 

Metallurgical Topics hears about the effect of nitrogen on blue-brittle steels, the activity of "fresh"metal surfaces, red-shortness due to sulphur in steel, and a new method from NBS for electrode-less nickel plating. 

Leaders

"Swan Song of the Iron and Steel Corporation" on 15 February 1951, the new Corporation became responsible for 298 companies employing almost 300,000 people. It seems that the company had a good year, with substantial profits and expansion. We hate it and are glad that it is gone, but  it was fine. 

"Report of the Transport Commission" And speaking of nationalisations that are horrible and have been reversed, but which turn out to have been fine while they lasted, the fifth and last annual report. 

 

Professor A. W. Tuplin will no longer suffer fools: "Commonsense in Applied Mechanics" explains with examples how "common sense" principles can guide the solution to complicated problems at which the textbooks, and so engineering designers, tend to throw up their hands. 

The British Electric Authority is carrying out cross-Channel cable laying trials. H.S. Prosser and A. W. Pedder look at "Combined Electricity and Heat Supplies" A look at the current economics of "district heating." It is probably pretty good? The council of the Machine Tool Trades Association has issued comments on "certain sections" of the British Metalworking Tool Productivity Team, published last January. Those comments are, roughly speaking, it was a terrible and stupid and wrong report except for the conclusions to Chapter 5, which were written by an independent author who seems to have taken his commission as an excuse to not only go off the reservation, but to scalp any paleface this side of the Great Water.

The trans-Atlantic cable has been almost completely renewed, there is a nice exhibit of engineering models at the Institution of Civil Engineers annual convention, Industrial and Labour Notes are on an upward trend, including productivity for a change. Only a single pilot cutter, diesel-powered, 550t, the Corvette No. 3, built at Forges et Chantiers de la Mediterranean for the port of Dunkirk, makes it into Launches and Trial Trips.