Postblogging Technology, September 1953, II: Sweetness, Thorazine, and the Madness of Howard Hughes

R_.C_.,

Shaughnessy,
Vancouver,
Canada

Dear Father:

You will be pleased to hear that Reggie's paper went well, with none of the security-related theatrics that scuttled the conference's most anticipated paper, the Avro reply to George Schairer on pods. (I think pretty much everyone knows that the paper was considered far too embarrassing and dangerous because it discussed the extraordinary frequency with which B-47 engines explode, and J47s by extension, but the face-saving story is that it couldn't be given because the Vulcan is still on the Secret List, or something like that. 

Aside from attending conferences and sad associated"wine and cheeses," I have been enjoying London, although that must come to an end next week when I head out to the studio and find out what they've been doing with our money. Hopefully there will be a convincing explanation and some wonderful film is in the can, and I will spend the day enjoying out-takes and what passes for British food, which is even worse than Californian. 

Your Loving Daughter,

Ronnie

Letters

Various readers enjoyed and appreciated the recent article about the Air Force Reserve, but have concerns, and not just about hats. Daniel B. Scully raises several financial considerations that can make service difficult; Name Withheld by Request thinks that reservists are appreciated enough; Name Withheld By Request Number 2 is not impressed with being a "Reservist" when it means a year in Korea and a year in the next Korea. One reader (a secretary of the Montana State alumni association) wants more pictures of Aline Mosby's story about the nudist colony, while another thinks Mosby should see a chiropractor. H. G. Hartgerink of Guatemala City is a dirty old man. Mrs. Kelsey Gould of Suffield, Connecticut, writes to mention that she was part of that very high-brow art course in Pompei, which makes her better than the little people. For Your Information explains how the teletypesetter allows Newsweek to print in distant plants around the country, because for some reason this is still news. 

The Periscope reports that Western Intelligence has learned that the Soviets have developed a V-3 missile (like a V-2, but one better) which can hit anywhere in western Europe from bases in the Baltic and Poland. The US Army won't admit it, but they are quietly urging returning POWS to press charges against collaborating fellow POWs so that the progressives can be put on trial before discharge. The French may have "cut their own throat" by leaking word of a secret $385 million aid package for the Indo China war before it passes Congress, which will be peeved. NATO is going to hold an all-missile exercise soon, and Newsweek just heard about the Canberra height record and the Gnat. "Top policymakers" are tired of all this talk of civil defence, which would be vastly more expensive than a few bombers that will blow up an enemy bombing wave before it can take off. The US is going to use food aid against the Reds more, and is weighing an attack on the Soviets for continuing to hold vast numbers of Axis POWs for labour. The private papers of Senator Taft will be embargoed until the present generation of politicians are gone, while the Justice Department is looking at the original debates over the Fifth Amendment in cae Thomas Jefferson said that it is okay to put Reds in the iron maiden to make them talk. Secret Service agents were upset when President Eisenhower and Vice-President Nixon took the same plane. Russian UN ambassador Andrei Vishinsky is a very sick man with critically high blood pressure. Democrats are complaining that the Democratic Digest is too expensive when the party has a deficit. Assistant Defence Secretary John Hannah has suppressed a Defence Department report on the way that the Department treats peple because it isn't critical enough. You'll be hearing more about the amaazing Ontos anti-tank killer soon. The Periscope has learned about army dissension in Czechoslovakia. Russia has started exporting cars to the satellite countries, pro-American sentiment is on the decline in Japan, and the Dutch are more worried about the French threat to European unity than the German one. 

Bing Crosby and William Holden will co-star in Country Girl. Eddie Fisher will have his screen debut in Away We Go. Claude Dauphin will do a colour, 3D version of Poe's Murder in the Rue Morgue for Warner. Tex McCrary will be producing The President's Week for a fifteen minute NBC Saturday spot, Ann Harding will have a five-minute chatter/interview show on TV this fall, and Bob and Ray  have signed a long term contract with ABC.  

Where Are They Now? reports that Estelle Taylor, former wife of Jack Dempsey, is now single. Three Georgia insane asylum workers convicted of involuntary manslaughter three years ago are out and working various jobs around Milledgeville. Billy and Bobby Mauch, "leading Hollywood juveniles" of the 30s, are assistant film editors at Warners, are 28, and single.   
   
   

This actually comes from the 1 September issue, which I mistakenly began working on before checking the date/. The column was 1/5/5 on showbiz rumours and Pier Angeli is much more charismatic than anyone in the column this week, so she's staying. 

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The Periscope Washington Trends reports that "you can expect some of Eisenhower's top aides" to advise him to stop spending so much time away from the White House. You (and the President) head it here first, as it should be. The President is not upset at Labour Secretary Durkin and didn't ask for is resignation. The President wanted to liberalise Taft-Hartley, but the mean old GOP Congressional delegation wouldn't let  him do it, and made him sit at the supper table until he'd finished his spinach. But when he does get back to the White House, he will make momentous decisions, such as increasing the defence budget, or not increasing the defence budget. He will definitely make more of atomic weapons, but maybe not that much more. Atomic weapons are here to stay, and will be used more widely. For example, if the 280mm cannon can fire atomic or regular explosives, why not all artillery?  

National Affairs

"Vinson and Durkin Vacancies Make New Problems For Ike" The President is continuing his "half-work, half-play" routine, hanging around with regular, fun guys like Richard Nixon and John Foster Dulles as he gets ready to nominate successors. The next article says that Durkin resigned because Nixon and Weeks --and how is that man still in the Cabinet after the Bureau of Standards fiasco?-- and not "Congressional leadership," torpedoed the changes. Fred Vinson gets an obituary. Ernest K. Lindley's column explains that Durkin's resignation is no big deal, and that Governor Warren can't be Chief Justice because he has no judicial experience and isn't an ex-President (Taft) or an ex-Senator (Vinson). Warren L. Stephenson, chairman of the Taft committee for the District of Columbia, is up for what it says here is the first influence peddling scandal of the Eisenhower Administration, and forget Weeks and Talbot because they haven't resigned yet.  It turns out that Lucille Ball registered as a Communist in 1936, but no-one cares because it's Lucy and not some bookbinder or stenographer or Jewish housewife we can push around. The Army is going after Senator McCarthy for publishing their top secret high school vacation essay, "Siberia, Land of Contrasts." Senator McCarthy says that it isn't anti-communist enough, while the Army said there's no anti-communist way to say "there are seals in Lake Baikal." So the Army says that McCarthy leaks secrets, and McCarthy says that it the Army is a bunch of pinkos, and now they're going to meet behind the Capitol after recess on Friday and settle it up. Also, McCarthy is going after the United Nations in his spare time. 

"Atom Subs: To the Earth's End with a Sunday Punch" Nautilus, or SSN-571 in the Navy's "fancy mumbo-jumbo," looks like just another submarine, only bigger, but she will be over 20kts, be able to submerge indefinitely, sail under the North Pole, and has a top secret depth limit because we don't want the Reds to know how deep to set their depth charges, the way that loose-lipped Congressman gave it away in WWII.  The Navy won't say how you fight an atomic submarine, but it does give Admiral Rickover all the credit for promoting it, and retired Rear Admiral Andrew McKee for leading the design team. General Spaatz points out that once atomic submarines can carry guided missiles, no aircraft carrier or city is safe, and the atomic submarine is necessarily the predominant naval vessel of the future. Air antisubmarine patrol from land bases is essential. my husband's job is guaranteed! 

"Chicago Optimism" Democrats are going into their party for Adlai Stevenson full of optimism for the future, or at least the 1954 midterms, as Eisenhower's personal popularity might be too much to crack. Inland states like Arkansas and Missouri are suing for "their" share of Tidelands money. 

The Korean Truce is a section, at least this week, as we wonder if there ever actually will be an international conference over Korea. Chou En-lai has cabled the UN that neutrals as well as participants should be invited to the conference, and that North Korea and Red China should be able to send delegates to address the General Assembly, and the U.S. is opposed to both. General John Edwin Hull, who is well known as a self-effacing, modest, all-around good guy, say sources close to General John Edwin Hull,  is taking over Far East Command, because he is Eisenhower's man. 

International 

There is "new pressure" to ratify the EDC says one story, while another interviews Konrad Adenauer pushing for the ratification of the EDC. It seems like the only thing standing in the way of an EDC is that France doesn't want it, and that since America is fine with a German national army, that's probably what we'll have. Hopefully, Adenauer will have the sense not to put any Nazis in his new general staff (or whatever it's going to be called). Leon Volkov's column notices new "Reverses for the Kremlin." Specifically, the West German election, the East German riots, and, Volkov presumes, bad advice from his ambassadors, who are too dogmatically Marxist to see reality. 

"Prototype Supremacy" Newsweek reminds us that, as impressive as Farnborough is, all the really exciting planes are prototypes, existing production is of obsolete types, because the Treasury delayed the completion of rearmament until the 1955--58 period, and because not enough have been ordered, and "modern designs rendered obsolete Britain's traditional hand production methods."  

In Russia, Nikita Khrushchev is the new number 2 man behind Beria. In Iran, Mossadegh is on a hunger strike, for which Newsweek has no sympathy, the government is grateful for $45 million in US emergency aid, but says that it is not enough, ditto Newsweek, and negotiations are under way to get Iran's oil flowing in sufficient quantity, and quickly, and to compensate Anglo-Iranian for its losses. In Morocco, the new Sultan's first public appearance was marked by an assassination attempt. In Finland, lots of people are getting married, prompting the headline, "Finnsey Report," and for some reason King Farouk's latest divorce folly gets a full page. 

"GI-Ville, West Germany: Relaxed and Combat Ready" The team Newsweek sent over to cover the defeat of the Adenauer government has nothing to do, so instead it visited the GIs at home and checked to see how they're faring. Germany is pretty swell!

In Canada, "summers are likely to be long, hot, and dull." Even the general election was boring, it says here. (It was! Jimmy Byrne gave a speech at the community centre and the CCFer (I forget his name) threw a picnic in Burton, and that was it for the Upper Lake.) At one point, James McCallum was the only cabinet minister in Ottawa, and was appointed acting Prime Minister in case the Prime Minister had to act while Uncle Louis was at the lake. But recently we had Hurricane Carroll, the Doukhobors getting restive, and the Prime Minister announcing that he was off to see the world and would send postcards. So that's exciting! It's actually a sect of Doukhobors, the Sons of Freedom, who are opposed to mandatory state education, which has led the Attorney General to send in the RCMP to seize the kids and take them to residential school (which hasn't been reported), and to arrest 18 activists, which has, in part because they are on hunger strikes. This has lead the Sons to blow up railway lines, burn their own homes, and hold public nude demonstrations.  "There is no patent-medicine solution for this kind of problem, Premier W. A. C. Bennett admitted." Which reminds me that there hasn't been much coverage of old "Wacky Bennett," who has been a breath of something

around here, but you knew that, of course. Canada is also set to rule that Ontario can't import Texas natural gas because if it did there would be no funding for an all-Canadian pipeline to take Alberta natural gas east, which is goig to be a problem for the government's official holier-than-thou position at trade talks. Sam Carr,, the last espionage conspirator in the Gouzenko ring, has been let out of jail. 

Business

The Periscope Business Trends reports that even though sales and activity are trending downwards in key industries, it won't be much of a downturn, nothing to worry about, just some minor layoffs. 

"Cars, Tanks, and Stocks" Further on various indicators: Will Detroit  hit its target of 6 million passenger cars and a million trucks? Probably, in spite of Studebaker's announced one-third cut. Also, under Wilson's "most efficient producer" policy, GM will produce all the M-48 tanks and Chrysler will get nothing. I'm not sure what that has to do with anything except some people's low opinionof Wilson, but I'm glad to be up to speed! A separate "box" story explains that the plane cutbacks won't affect the larger economy because they are confined to cancelling satellite production of B-47s at Wichita, Tulsa, and Marietta, while the additional B-47s, F-84s, F-86s, trainers, and helicopters were all "gleams in the Air Force's eyes," with contracts not even placed. The $75 million earmarked for these aircraft may be shifted to procure more B-52s, F-101s, and F-102s.

"Everyone Makes Policy" Newsweek checks in with Robert C. Hood, President of Ansul Chemical Corporation, who has implemented "participative management," which replaces the old "boss-and-subordinate concept" with one in which everyone participates in making policy. The Post Office is considering a 6 cent airmail stamp that would almost guarantee that the letter went by air. 

Notes: Week in Business reports that the President will personally decide if the American handblown glass industry gets tariff protection, that the first step in the liquidation of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation will be an auction of its $9 million holding in municipal bonds. Volkswagen is opening a car plant in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Kennecott Copper is shutting its electrolytic refinery in Garfield, Utah, down. Crane Corporation is opening a $25 million titanium plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee. John Dow Farrington is doing a great job of sorting out the Rock Island and Pacific. Not a Note, but worth about a Note, the current National Homefurnishings Show will be the last exhibition at the Grand Central Palace, which is being sold to the Internal Revenue as office space. 

Products: What's New reports instant jelly, which can be made for a cost of about 5 cents a glass from powder, sugar, and water[?], from American Brands Corporation, "envelopes by the yard" from Uarco of Chicago, rolled out on a paper mill in continuous strips with perforations for separation, a quiet outboard motor from Johnson Motors of Waukegan, Illinois, which has some kind of dampener between motor and hull, and a bobby pin with a finger ring and ridges from Master Products of Clearwater, Florida, will spare women's teeth. 

Henry Hazlitt explains that he does "not attempt to forecast business conditions" and does not even believe that economic forecasting is possible, and he often says so in the column when he is not predicting imminent doom for any country that dares to implement anything but the full rigours of free enterprise. So he is very happy to see a recent column by John Jewkes attacking "the fashionable idea that economists can predict the future." And not just because it spares him the need to come up with a column! Except Jewkes goes too far. Some predictions are just ideologically wrong. "Secular stagnation" is specifically called out here. Others, well, businessmen have to have some idea of what the future holds, and all other things being equal, increasing the money supply will lead to inflation, for example. Well, velocity of the money supply, says Keynes. But aside from arguing in a circle, not a bad column. 

Science, Medicine, Education 

"Sweet Synthesis" Two chemists at the Canadian National Research Council, Drs. Raymond Lemieux and George Huber, have synthesised a carbohydrate (sucrose, that is, sugar) in the test tube after first synthesising maltose. Although artificial sugar isn't really  a practical idea, synthesised sugar with radioactive carbon atoms would be very useful for studying body chemistry.  

"Steel's Hell Broth" What should be done with the sulphuric acid used to pickle steel? It can't just be dumped down the drain, because it could be harmful to "man, livestock, or vegetation," which is why there are stringent regulations against it, leading to steelmakers accumulating ponds of liquid waste. Now "officials at Salt Lake City's EIMCO Corporation" have announced a method using the carbide lime byproduct of acetylene welding to neutralise the acid, ultimately producing a brown cake which can be trucked off to city dumps. Reggie points out that this is ridiculously wasteful, since the whole point of having lakes of sulphuric acid around after using it is that it can be reclaimed, and that throwing away the sulphur you have spent good money on buying as sulphuric acid is even dafter. Why not just truck it over to your competition instead, if you're that determined to go out of business? 

"Doomsday Warning" The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has advanced its "doomsday clock" warning from eight minutes to twelve to two minutes to twelve, because of the hydrogen bomb, and has dedicated its entire current issue to civil defence, with an editorial criticising the military for not doing enough. We live in "tragic times," when the threat to American security has never been greater, the Bulletin says.

"Doctor Surplus" As with jet fighters, the end of the Korean War has left the armed forces with more doctors than it needs, and Wilson has had to step in to let them go. 

Medical Notes reports that the new tuberculosis drug, isoniazid, is showing promising results treating a dangerous fungus infection that I am not even going to try to spell out here. Red blood cells from cancer patients seem to lose phosphorus faster than regular red blood cells, say University of Texas researchers. Chloropromazine is a new drug with a potent anti-nausea effect, say Kline and French Laboratories of Philadelphia.

Education needs some filler, so here's that story about how vocational high schools are great and you shouldn't be ashamed that your kid is too dumb to get into a better school because he'll be a rich plumber some day! Speaking of plumbing school, the University of Delaware at Newark has introduced an "American Civilisation" class for people who want to say smart things about jazz instead of Sartre. I don't disapprove! 

Art,  Press, Radio and Television, Newsmakers 

R. H. Ives Gammell's life of Dennis Miller Bunker explains why the tortured artist died young. He was too sensitive for this world! And also he caught the flu. Continuing with the book reviews, Alfie Frankenstein's After the Hunt is a look at a "bizarre phase" in American art, seventy years ago when William Michael Harnett (and Dennis Miller Bunker!) was painting. It turns out that "dozens of pictures recently ascribed to Harnett are forgeries." It turns out that Harnett was famous back in the day, and got a big revival in '48, and didn't sign his paintings, leading to similar paintings from back in the day with likewise no signature, being signed as by him.

Harry Truman is writing for the Hearst Press because they offered him a lot of money and he's not made of stone. If you want to know who has the most friends in the newspaper business, it's like that crop duster plane at Texas Agricultural, just look for all the stories about him in Press. (It's Lucius Beebe.) William Oatis is back in the free world but isn't going around denouncing Communism.  

Bob Siegrist has been scooping the military with news of POW releases down at WGST in Atlanta, but now he's used up his information and some people are pretty broken up about it. Are there any POWs left in Korea? Ezio Pinzo's new TV show is called Bonnino. My Favourite Husband is a new show that's been put up against Your Show of Shows, so don't blink or you'll miss it. John Womack Vandercook has a daily news commentary soon, sponsored by the CIO, which hopes that it will help organising, especially in anti-union areas. 

Leo Durocher, Carl Furillo and Rocky Marciano are in the column for that fistfight. Evelyn Margaret Ay is this year's Miss America and wants to help the starving people of India. Eva Snyder is Mrs. America, and wants to share her recipe for devilled clams. Harry Truman, Artur Rubinstein, Dag Hammerskjold, Helen Traubel, Rita Hayworth, Lola Montez, Shepphard King,and Babe Didrickson Zacharias are in the column because they are famous. Representative John J. McCarthy is being feted all over New York City in his run for city council because people confuse him with Senator McCarthy, even though he's a Democrat. 

Tyrone Power has had a baby (with the help of Linda Christian), Senator Kennedy of Massachusets has married, former AEC chairman Gordon Dean has divorced. Abe Nobuyuki, W. E. Playfair, Curtis Whittlesey  McGraw, Lewis Stone, and Reginald Werrenrath have died. 

Evelyn Ay said that being Miss America was "like being Doris Day in real life." Her Wikipedia biography is longer than Samia Gamal's.

New Films

Little Boy Lost is for Uncle George three times over. It's Bing, it's in Paris, and it's not terrible. Desperate Measures is from Britain via Universal, a "middling adventure-pursuit story." Vicki is a remake of a 1941 mystery for Fox, starring someone named Jean Peters, who mainly acts like she's trying not to scratch an itch, and a director who hopefully will do better next time. Warner's Islands in the Sky is about the survivors of a plane crash in the Canadian Arctic. It's not bad. 

Books

Saul Bellow's latest book is pretty good, they say. That's all I'll say about that, having met the man.Delos Lovelace's Bible thriller about the Holy Family's journey is a bit jarring because it uses modern slang, but Newsweek still liked Journey to Bethlehem. Elizabeth Borton de Trevito's My Heart Lies South is about how Mexico used to be a pretty good place back when the locals knew their place. H. St. John Philby's history of the Hause of Saud, and biography of Ibn Saud, Arabian Journey, is an insightful look by the man who was there. Well, not the part a hundred years ago; the part with Palestine! 

Raymond Moley gives the endless Big Government War on the virtuous American businessman/segregationist a rest to explain why he's taking the train back from California instead of driving, as much as he loves motor touring. It's because there's CARNAGE on the highways! Carnage! And he's not wrong. Forty thousand dead and 2 million injured last year. Why? Part of it is bad roads. Part of it is all the trucks on the roads these days. Part of it is that speed limits are just plain too high, says Robert Moses, whose opinions form the meat of the column. And part of it is that there's not enough traffic police.

Is it just me, or does this kind of scene land differently these days?

Aviation Week, 21 September 1953

News Digest reports that the Navy has cut orders for 91 McDonnell F3Hs and the entire Douglas A2D Skyshark order, because their engines have been abandoned. The USAF has cut orders of the J47 to match cuts in plane orders, while the Wright J65 might be cancelled entirely. An American Airlines Convair 240 has crashed near Albany killing all 28 on board, apparently after hitting a radio tower. Aviation Week scoops Newsweek with a story that, as framed here, is about the Navy's pilot :automatic machine factory" for assembling electronics components. In news from the masthead, Alexander McSurely has died. Did you know that he was a friend of Orville Wright and is the source of much of our written record of the Wright brothers? He died at his brother's house, which suggests an extended illness, and is survived by his wife and two daughters, both co-eds, at Duke and Miami.

Are  you interested in pictures from Farnborough? There are pictures from Farnborough!

Industry Observer reports that the Comet I that crashed in Dakar is being rebuilt. British sources point out that on at least three occasions, all three of the jet turbines on one side of a B-47 have been lost to a turbine disintegration, and so much for the argument that pods are better because blade fragments won't penetrate the wings. The loss of the prototype DH110 last year is being attributed to loss of lateral control due to flutter.  The Rolls Royce A14 is the best Avon yet. Westinghouse will be getting one or two in the near future as a result of its deal with Rolls Royce. That company is pressing the USAF to accept the RA7 for the F-86Ds being assembled in Italy, which would be good for the British Avon surplus. Westland is fiddling with its S-51 to get more work out of the installed Alvis Leonides. Armstrong Siddeley is working on a long-life version of its Viper. Production versions of the Fairey Gannett will cost $224,000 and are delayed due to Admiralty requirements, and not because of Fairey. "Washington belief that Russians do not have an imporant axial-flow jet" is preventing Rolls-Royce engine sales, it says here. Anglo-American clearance is required before the sale of Avon Comets to countries like Japan, is the specific example given. 

Aviation Week reports from Farnborough that "British Accent Need More Production" Except Avons. There ae far too many Avons. "If they can't produce the Hunters and Swifts and Britannias that raced through the bright skies over Farnborough, they can't survive as an independent nation. It's as simple --and tough-- as that." Britain has too many prototypes and not enough new planes in production. Also, there are not enough new new prototypes at Farnborough this year, just the Seamew. The Valiant 2 doesn't count, because it wasn't cleared to land at Farnborough and just flew by overhear. The real low was the pathetic huddle of airliners, just a familiar Comet, Viscount, Heron, and Britannia, and the Bristol 173. There were hardly any missiles, and the models at the static show were just that. Boo, England!

Well, of course no-one wants Comets if they're going to let you pretend that the DC-7 can fly New York-LA in eight hours. Actual speed versus regulators in your pockets. Which one do YOU choose?

Erwin J. Bulban reports that the Fairchild Petrel guided anti-submarine missile was on display (as a model) at the National Aircraft Show in Detroit last week. Other than that it was mostly propellers and new small engines, and the FBI was patrolling the halls to make sure that Red spies didn't come away with any secrets. 

In his last story for Aviation Week, Alexander McSurely reports from Philadelphia International Airport about the rolling out of the new, giant Piasecki YA-16 Transporter. The Air Force is not going to recall its leased-out C-54s, after all. CAB is going to hold hearings into the two recent mid-air collisions. GE is working on a new and more powerful rocket motor, with a 20,000lb thrust. An Army demonstration of helicopter shuttle flights in Dayton has drawn crowds. The aircraft delivery backlog stands at $19 billion. Whoo-hoo, Douglas Skyrocket! Iraq Airways has bought three Viscounts. 

What's New, from it's new bottom-of-the-page, mid-issue spot, reviews eight manuals, catalogues, and brochures devoted to various machine tools, welding techniques, electronic parts, material handling systems, and industrial coatings. 

William J. Coughlin reports for Production Engineering that "'Beast Tests New Connie Developments" The "Beast of Burbank" is the first Lockheed Constellation, which was retained by Lockheed as a testbed. It is ugly and not very nice, and that's why they call it that, and it shows the influence of the P-38, and it still has the radome fairings for the early warning and nose collision-avoidance radar prototypes. It has also tested various engines and propellers, leaving memories of those installations in its flight engineering panels, and tested the de-icer boots used in the modern Connies, antenna, and high-stress wing panels, and has a water ballast system for changing the centre of gravity in flight. So that's the story of the beast, which is much more interesting than the following story about "New Drill Speeds B-47 Production," which is about a table installation replacing hand drills for making the rivet pilot holes. Hufford wants us to know that it is selling the curver developed for Northrop, while Kaiser is happy with its new stretcher and the Chance-Vought F7U-3 uses Redux-Metalite panels to reduce weight, and Robinson Aviation has a new vibration-dampening mount. 

 Philip Klass reports for Avionics that "F-86D Flies With New Automatic Engineer," which is about how the new model of GE J47 has an automatic engine control unit, which makes it easier for him to handle the complex fire control system. It's a feedback system that uses rpm, inlet and outlet temperatures to adjust fuel and air flow. The real trick is in the amplifier setup, which gives rapid response without surging. Four companies have new potentiometers for aircraft use on the market, including G. M. Giannini Corporation. Banking is not enough! Or there are possibly two families named "Giannini." Logistics Research, Inc's Logrinc Digital Graph Follower is an automatic digital plotting device which can be used as a curve follower, just like California Computer Products' Model 701 Digital Point Plotter. Filter Centre reports that Ford Instruments has set up a fellowship at Cornell, that the NBS has developed the most sensitive micromanometer yet, while Mellon Institute's nonlinear resistors have a resistance that varies as the seventh power of the input voltage.  The Engineering Research Associates Division of Remington Rand developed the data reduction computers to be used at the Arnold Centre. Wright Field has a CRT for air navigation, Hughes is expanding its diode production facility, Bendix has a new flush ADF antenna, RCA's premium 6101 vacuum tube is a ruggedised version of the 6J6, and Lear's new 12 channel VHF light plane radio is very small.

George L. Christian reports for Equipment that "CPA's Varied Air Fleet Covers Canada" Mainly its some DC-6s and a pile of junk like Ansons and Catalinas, but at least it  makes life interesting at the Vancouver maintenance base! GE has a new flow meter, Northwestern is testing the Grimes rotating beacon. New Aviation Products has a self-cleaning hydraulic servo valve from Saunders Associates, a "new air-ground radio communicator" from Aircraft Radio Corporation. Also, steel clamps, hose couplings and a work station grinder with knee pad control. Also On The Market has a rummage sale sort-of ad from Vickers for "all sorts" of gyro components, as well as the usual junk too cheap to advertise above the fold. 

"Newer Connies" Lockheed has worked out a plan to compete with the Britannia by putting turboprops on the Constellation 1249B model. No-one's ordered one yet, and the proposed engine was cancelled by Pratt and Whitney, but other than that it's a go! 

Letters

Allen Hayes of Chartair disagrees with Captain Robson on the subject of mid-air collisions. It's the fault of the overtaking plane, period. Richard Boutelle of Fairchild liked the "Airpower Sabotaged" article and congratulates Aviation Week for predicting unfolding developments back in 1950. Robert H. Wood's Editorial buys into the passenger helicopter buzz and prints an obituary for Curtis W. McGraw, the third son of James McGraw, who died at home on 10 September at the age of 57. 

Letters

Various Alaskans are upset about the article about religion in Alaska that suggests that's it just a Catholic mission field. There are Episcopalians, too! Harry Menezes and Andy Collins really liked the latest article about Joseph Brown, the sculptor who does all those undressed male athletes in intimate poses. A. R. Bartlett of Sebring, Florida and Charles A. Smith of Kingsland, Georgia, are upset in advance in case the Administration comes out against segregation. Joe Santley of the Los Angeles Examiner is upset that Newsweek is promoting scuba diving as "skin diving." Four other writers liked it, except that Charles Barham of New York City wishes that there was more about Hawaii in it. Frederick Richardson of Minneapolis doesn't like drinking, but Dr. C. O. Thienhaus does. For Your Information reports that Newsweek is very impressed with how hard Newsweek works.

 

The Periscope reports that "this is pretty drastic talk," but people are saying that Nikita Khrushchev is going "all the way to the top." Fifth Air Force intelligence has word that there might be 944 Americans still held in Manchurian detention camps, including 300 fliers. The Reds are building up their air power in North Korea in flagrant violation of the armistice conditions. Some 150 Chinese and North Korean soldiers have defected south since the armistice. Ike is going to make an appearance in Boston this week to quash rumours that his long stay in Colorado has been a "medical necessity." Meanwhile White House staffers have persuaded the President that he needs to travel with a doctor. The Administration is cracking down on leakers, while the RNC plans a newsletter. Stephen Mitchell is going to get twenty-five grand a year to be DNC chairman because his firm was going to pot while he was holding down the fort. Estes Kefauver is upset that there was hardly any attention on him at the Chicago Democratic shindig. Bryce Harlow is taking over speechwriting duties for the President, Herbert Hoover is going to advise the Administration on oil, no-one expects Brownell's campaign against "wetbacks" to come to anything in the face of Imperial valley growers' resistance, and no-one can understand why the Administration still hasn't got a Solicitor General. Eisenhower is reminding his buddy generals that being against the atom bomb is like sticking to horses in the Thirties. Admiral Nimitz has joined the "submarines are the capital ships of the future" crowd. Egypt will see a series of bloody purges due to Communist backing of the Wafd. Malenkov is being mean to Stalin's daughter. A Portuguese shipping company has been selling steel, copper and nickel to Communist Poland through London. The Central Committee of the Austrian Communist Party thinks that something is in the wind. The next Philippine general election will be he bloodiest yet unless the Quirino Administration allows an honest vote. 

Gregory Peck will star in Lawrence of Arabia. Doris Day, Robert Cummings and Phil Silver will do a musical for Warner, Lucky Me. Humphrey Bogart will do Nick the Greek, and an independent is shopping Mossadegh and the Shah around Hollywood. Frank Sinatra will play a private investigator in an NBC radio series, Frankie Galahad. Whom Am I will be a children's quiz show on NBC in the fall, with Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom. Bing Crosby's first show for GE will be on CBS at Christmas. Film of the ill-fated K2 expedition will be shown on NBC this fall. 

Where Are They Now reports that Howard Scott is living on  a farm and earning a living as "director-in-chief of Technocracy." Marion Talley is living with her sister in California and raising her daughter. 

So very, very white. The Periscope is downright accurate this week.  

The Periscope Washington Trends reports that we can completely disregard rumours that the :President wants to get rid of Dulles. They are not quarrelling, but rather are in perfect agreement. That's why you'll hear more about Communism and "creeping socialism" going into the '54 election. Meanwhile, Congressional Republicans are confident that they'll finally get their tax cuts next year. On the other hand the Administration is going to move heaven and earth to keep farm prices from sagging further. Democrats will come out swinging, are worried less about "winning the South," and will abandon the loyalty oath at the next convention. 

National Affairs

"Ike Back at the Old Grind, Facing Time of Decision" The President is back and will probably maybe fight McCarthy a bit, and launch a new programme of aggressive candour with the American people. Except about a national sales tax. No national sales tax for us! Farmers still hate Ezra Benson, the Secretary of the Interior says that the Administration's power policy is to jump right back in the private utilities' pockets, because it is so warm and cozy there, and the main theme of the Republican convention in Chicago is that Stevenson is soft on Communism. Two returned Korean War POWs were killed in a car crash last week, because everyone is doing it. Unions are fighting a non-union barber chain in Detroit, a nice Czech lady who fled Communism is happy in Sioux City. Senator McCarthy is in trouble for having Abraham Unger evicted from a hearing by force and because his committee is talking up a rumour that Lavrenti Beria has escaped from Russia and is in the committee's custody at some undisclosed place in eastern Europe, ready to talk. Sinclair Weeks has decided that his Assistant Secretary, Craig R. Sheaffer, was responsible for the whole Bureau of Standards thing, and has asked for his resignation, like the leader he is. Harold Talbot has a nice interview in the paper explaining "USAF Still Best."All criticisms are without merit, the  Red Air Force is larger but less effective, we have plenty of A-bombs, practically have a 143 wing air force when you count all our planes, and those crybabies at SAC better shut up about training. And like the cover says,people in Illinois still like Ike. Ernest K. Lindley's column explains how Dulles is going to pull the European Defence Community out of his hat and counter all those complaints about American rigidity with one masterful UN speech. 

International

"West Approves Dulles Speech As UN Faces Grave Problems" Everyone liked Dulles speech but they are very impatient with the whole "no Red China at the UN" thing. Another MiG-15 has defected. All POWs have been returned now, the Reds say. The other 3404 names on the UN list have either escaped, died, or been released. All 23,000 Red POWs have now been turned over to the Indians, who will start admitting Red "explainers" to persuade them to return to the East bloc soon. 

"The Long Voyage to Oblivion: Melinda McLean Disappears" Donald McLean's disappearance is still officially unexplained, but now his three children and his wife have also disappeared. Because obviously McLean and his pal Guy Burgess were Red agents, and now McLean's family has gone to join him. Even though they looked like they were on the path to divorce before McLean disappeared. Go figure!

"Peace or War?" The Egyptian authorities have arrested the leadership of the Wafd. The crackdown was inspired by rumours that Mustafa Nahas had been meeting with General Sir Brian Robertson. Senator Knowland is in Cambodia this week to warn Prince Sihanouk not to be so "neutralist." Ambassador Vijaya Lakshim Pandit is to be the first female head of the General Assembly. Newsweek is predictably overjoyed to hear her say something that can be construed as anti-feminist. If only there were some few, rare, voices of anti-feminism to be heard in the world today! (That's sarcasm.) Also, the United States of Europe (also known as the EDC) is just around the corner! 

Away down south Latin America way, Panama is pushing to increase rents on the Panama Canal, feeling that $450,000 a year isn't much of a cut on the $31 million the US collects in tolls. They're also a bit less than impressed with the white supremacy rules in the Canal Zone. Newsweek points out that even though the Canal Treaty is cordially hated in Panama, the recent agitation is still the cause of the rabble-rousing Panamanian president. Newsweek gently suggests throwing him a bone, anyway, because the Canal is kind of important. 

Business

The Periscope Business Trends reports that there's not going to be a recession or it will be over by Christmas. Meanwhile the Administration is trying to save money over at business regulation by cutting the budget of the ICC and the FTC. Beef prices are likely to remain steady, the pork shortage will continue, some American businesses will invest in Germany now that Adenauer has won re-election and the Office of Defence Mobilisation is going to mothball all those machine tools it bought, instead of trying to sell them to private industry, which would be bad for machine tool makers. 

"The Economy in U.S. Industry: It's A Time of Readjustment" The Treasury Secretary says that it isn't  a slump, it's a readjustment. The various bankers Newsweek talk to think that either everything is great, or that the need to fund the public debt is going to keep interest rates low and consumer credit easy for the foreseeable future. 

Notes: Week in Business reports that General Sarnoff is saying that tiny radios you can carry in your pocket are the next big thing. Dividends are up 4% over the same period in 1952 at $4.8 billion. Bethlehem Steel is building a ship at San Francisco. It's the "rebirth" of American shipbuilding. I'm going to be cautious and wait to celebrate until the second hull is laid down. 

"Operation Tinkertoy" The Navy is very excited about same, a project, farmed out to the Bureau of Standards and worked on by the Electronics Division of Kaiser Motors and the Doughnut Corporation (no, really, that's what it says), of fitting electronic components into a "ceramic module of electrical grade steatite," allowing a mechanical structure for electronic assemblies. 

"It Costs Dough" It is super-expensive to drive in New York City. For example, one national baking company says that it costs $1.25 a mile to deliver in NYC compared to 40 cents on average in the rest of the country. A major oil company says that its trucks need clutch jobs very 40,000 to 50,000 miles outside New York, 18,000 inside. The total wage bill for traffic stoppages in New York City is $350 million, while the delivery costs add up to an extra $1.25 with gas mileage about half (9.77 compared with 19). 

Products: What's New reports that G. W. Davis is marketing lawnmowers with head lamps for those who want to mow their lawns at night to beat the summer heat. Kendall Corporation of Walpole, Mass., has fragrantly scented diapers. B. F. Goodrich has a conveyor belt which can be adjusted to either drain its load or contain the water. Du Pont's Dacron is soft and strong. 

"Can Britain Keep Jet Transport Leadership?" Turbojets are not promising. The Comet is small and uneconomical by modern standards, and requires 80% seat booking to make a profit for BOAC, although bookings are reported at only 65%. The Comet II is better, but still not the plane the market wants, and doesn't have trans-Atlantic range. Turboprops are more fuel efficient and have been held back by military investment in speed. (Reggie: "Bullshit! It's the propellers and gears!") Miles Thomas thinks that the Britannia is ready to make an 8 hour Atlantic hop. Turbocompounds sound promising, and the British are full of pessimism because they have become disillusioned by the Comet and are worried about chronically slow delivery times. "They are still worried that American manufacturers will catch up," and that second generation American planes will be as good as British. Someone should tell Newsweek about the Conway! 

Henry Hazlitt's column is titled "Italy's Creeping Capitalism," and it is about how Italy is getting more capitalist and its inflation has disappeared thanks to its corrected thinking. 

Science, Medicine, Education

"Man Against the Gods" The National Research Council's study of peoples' reaction to the kind of disasters that already happen (tornadoes, floods), shows that people are surprisingly tough and sensible, so even with H-bombs there's hope! However, ringing church bells isn't as helpful as you might think unless people already know what it means. 

"India's Birth Control" India is promoting birth control to solve its overpopulation problem, and a new medical encyclopedia could enlighten patients about their conditions or just make Dr. r. Lee Clark of the M. D. Anderson Hospital for Cancer Research rich. (Richer.)

School is in, the numbers are a record, here are some colourful stories. Also at record size is the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's incoming class of engineers, which is an illustration of how engineering class sizes are increasing. I'd be worried if my husband weren't already an engineer.  If you're running from  a bear, you don't have to be faster than the bear, just everybody else! The Student Marketing Institute is helping college students make money in door-to-door sales. 

Radio-TV, Press, Newsmakers

Red Buttons is on the cover, and a profile runs in Radio-Television as part of a longer article about up and coming TV comedians like Walt Cox, Joel Gray, and Sammy Davis, Jr. Buttons claims that there is a shortage of TV comedians because most people on the comedy circuit lack his kind of intensive training in the Catskills "Borscht Belt." Meanwhile, the Ford Foundation is sponsoring lots of children's television story hours. the new school in the new town of Dell City, Texas, is quite nice. 

In Press, some attempted censorship by Fulgencia Batista has blown up in his face because everyone hates Batista, including the Archbishop of Havana. New York newspapers have discovered another way to have a price war, The Ashville Citizen has a very annoying subscriber, which is obviously national news. Howard Norton of the Baltimore Sun is a really good reporter. Like, once he found some people getting unemployment insurance who didn't deserve it, and another time he did a profile of Wallace and the Progressive Party, and still another time he found some corruption at Maryland mental hospitals. Just such a wonderful reporter. So good. Everyone, my good friend, Howie! When the Russians started granting exit visas to the wives of American newspapers in Moscow, all the reporters jumped on it and now the bureaus are unstaffed, but they're working on it.  

Evelyn Ay, Christian Dior, the Queen, Mamie Eisenhower, Margaret Truman, John Sparkman, Joseph Martin, Gandhi's son, Perle Mesta, Ava Gardner, Frank Sinatra, Gregory Peck, General William Dean, Eartha Kitt, Dick Haymes and Sophie Tucker are in the column for the usual reasons, and Sing Sing prison for being done up in a new pastel green finish.

 

Gotta have a little Christmas!

Joe McCarthy is engaged, so much for those rumours. (No-one who is that way ever got married to throw them off the tracks before!) Rosemary McMahon and Colette Marchand are married. Vincent Astor is divorced. Bill Maguire is dead, as is General Isaia Medina Angarita, Lewis Corey, Dr. Colin Fink, and Percival Wilde. 

New Films

The Robe, from Fox, is a Bible epic in CinemaScope. It's something, and so is Victor Mature, but the drama is not up to the scope of the movie. Half a Hero is a Red Skelton vehicle from MGM. It's about Red being a regular guy, only funny, and it's pretty good even if he isn't showing off his muscled chest like certain dreamboat actors I could name. Also from Fox is Dangerous Crossings, "a satisfying melodrama." With Mary Anderson! The Actress is a "sentimental and intermittently funny" movie from MGM, a period piece from before WWI, so costumes and old collegiate times. But it's got Spenser Tracy, so there. 

Books

Caroline Kirkland's (1839) A New Home: Who'll Follow? is back in print,, which is good news, even if it needed a bit of editorial touch-up, especially because it combines the original with two sequels. This in way of introducing a discussion of all the American classics no longer in print, before we get to recent editions of John Lloyd Stevens, Gouverneur Morris, Theodore Winthrop, and Thomas Wentworth Higginson. The feature article compresses reviews of new novels by Jerome Weldman (The Third Angel) and Ramsey Ullman( Sands of Karakorum) into a  brief Other Books section. 

Raymond Moley says his taxes are too high. You can tell, because he's not working very hard! But he is going to work if Sumner Schlichter says that high taxes might be stimulating investment. Or at least long enough to round up some criticisms in the clippings. 

Aviation Week, 28 September 1953

News Digest reports that the Administration might be digging in its heels against would-be defence budget cutters. Donald McGraw will succeed his brother, Curtis, as President of McGraw-Hill. The CAB is planning to shift more airline traffic from L/MF routes to VOR routes by filling gaps in partially-completed VOR routes with VHF aids such as ILS localisers, visual-aural ranges, and low-frequency beacons. Neville Duke's record now has to be homologed. BOAC registered an operating deficit in the most recent quarter after paying off issued capital. Australian National is receiveing some DC-6s, Japan Airlines some DC-6Bs. Industry Observer reports that the Russians are equipping fheir first combat groups with the new turboprop, possibly designated a Type-31 or Tu-75. Russian sources have confirmed production of the Il-28 jet bomber. Aviation Weekk reports that American officials are upset that the Avon RA-14 will be available on the Comet 3, because it is a great new axial engine and will end up in Commie hands, and they need it, because Commies can't figure out axial jet engines any more than they can grasp the H-bomb. (Yes, not really an H-bomb, but that's what we're calling it!) GE's atomic aircraft engine will be designed by a special division at the company. Aerojet is building rato units for the air force, Curtis-Wright will start testing a Bristol Olympus soon, Piasecki has terminated its subcontract to Goodyear, the Navy has issued a contract to GE for an 800shp turboprop, because why run before you walk, oh, wait, too late! Current cost of British airliners to the corporations is: Comet 1, $700,000; Comet 2, $1.4 million; Comet 3, $2.1 million; Britannia, $1.68 million; Viscount 701, $700,000; Viscount 801, $784,000, including initial provision of spares. De Havilland will crystallise the final design for the Comet 3 as soon as the CAA has finished its evaluation of de Havillandn proposals. USAF officials will reveal the F-100 and J57 next month. 

A. W. Jessop reports for Aviation Week that "Fugitive MiG Heads for U.S. Test Centre" This is apparently the first break in a three year search, not counting the two wrecked MiGs recovered in Korea last year or the Polish one. It can still fly, and so is worth the bounty and all the bad publicity over it. Or over the realisation that the defecting MiG-15 reached Kimpo Airfield with no warning whatsoever, meaning that an offensive raid by jet bombers based on the MiG-15 could do the same, which makes allegations that the Red Air Forces are moving aircraft into North Korea in violation of the armistice. The Hughes flying boat has been damaged in a flood, while Temco is working on a basic tainer for the Navy.

Richard Balentine reports for Aviation Week that "Engine Cuts Save AF Half Billion" The cuts, between engines ordered and the ones only programmed, will save the Air Force up to $400 million, although the details  have not been finalised. Secretary Talbot is on a press offensive asserting that it will not affect the 143 wing target. It is due, Talbot says, to the surplus engines on hand as times between overhaul keep increasing and the general decline in attrition. The largest number of engines cancelled are GE J47s, and secondary suppliers including Packard, Buick, Chevrolet, Studebaker and Nash will have their contracts cancelled for J47s as well as R2800s and J65s. The J33 will be affected, and the Air Force will officially have all their eggs in the J57 basket. 

"Hughes Blowup" Six officials have quite at Hughes in protest over owner Howard Hughes' policies. Harold Talbott flew to LA in an attempt to forestall the resignations, but was unsuccessful. Departing officials have urged their subordinates to remain with the company as is their patriotic duty. (The seniors have a patriotic duty to spend their bonusses to stimulate the economy, and these have not been paid.) The senior engineers have left to form their own company, the plan to sell the company has fallen through, and no-one can speak to the financial health of the firm. Oops! 

"Don't Sell Piston Power Short" Roy Hurley of  Curtiss-Wright confidently predicts another round of piston-powered airliners before turbos replace them. Meanwhile, NAL denies that it is in negotiations to buy some Comets. And the Project Tinkertoy "automatic factory" gets the longest story yet. The Channel wing is in the news again, demand for jet fuel will surpass demand for aviation gas in 1954, it is predicted, and something that isn't in the news is the debate over jet pods at the Anglo-American air conference, where Avro was going to reply to Boeing, but now won't, because of security concerns. The latest Post Office Airmail experiment is underway, a Comet 2 made a record run from London to Rio last week, Hiller is subcontracting Doman designs, residents around Van Nuys Airport are upset at the recent T-33 crash and want jet flights over southern California curtailed, and even picketed Lockheed over it, and France is revising the Air France setup. 

Irving Stone reports for Production that "AMC To Test All-Magnesium F-80C" An extensive article on metal forming practices with aeronautical grade magnesium follows. Many forming techniques had to be worked out before magnesium products could replace aluminum in the structure. Lockheed wants us to know that it is modifying a DC-6B to use more plastic in the structure. 

George Schmidt, formerly of Focke-Wulfe, "reports" for Aeronautical Engineering that "Noise is Cut in New Pulse Jet Engine" His pulse-jet, the Para-Copter 2, is in production at a New York factory and is intended as a one-litter aerial stretcher for evacuating wounded soldiers. Saunders-Roe is also experimenting with a pulse jet for helicopters. No indication on the effectiveness or not of the silencing. 

Philip Klass reports for Avionics that "Single Computer Combines Flight Data" The Air Force wants to replace the multiple instruments that receive altitude, air speed, air density and temperature information with a single flight data computer, and Kollsman Instruments has a candidate. It's an electro-hydraulic analog computer, and Kollsman hopes that it will be an intrinsic part of the new "weapon system" concepts. 

George L. Christian reports for Equipment that "Runway Visibility Reporting Improved" Sperry's ANDB Low Ceiling/Visibility Programme is sponsored by the Air Navigation Development Board and the US Weather Bureau. It uses continuous reading ceilometers and transmissometers at the end of the runway for up-to-the-minute weather reports from the ground station to the trial aircraft, which has an elaborate photographic installation to measure visibility conditions itself. I think. I kind of faded out for a bit of the article and I am not rereading it because it's got the NBS in it New Aviation Products has a B-47 shut-off valve. So that's what the Air Force used! No, on second read, it is from Standard-Thomson for fuel systems, not satellite plants in Kansas. GE also has a pump for jet bombers, while D and R Limited has a miniature high frequency alternator with lots of power. Also on the Market is really long and I would break down and tell you what is in it if there was anything interesting, which there isn't. 

 Captain Robson's Cockpit Viewpoint reports that he really appreciates the report on the May 1952 IATA meeting on air  transport safety, and he is going to make it the subject of a follow-up column. That's great, because it was a good report, and I am actually interested in what Captain Robson has to say, and I might even share some of it depending on when the column is printed. Editorial is devoted to Robert Wood's personal reminiscence of  Alexander McSurely and letters of condolence. 
 

The Engineer for 18 and 25 September 1953

For the 18th, Not The Seven-day Journal reports that the Public Lighting Engineers are having a party, R. A. Riddles has retied, Dr. B. Mount Jones has died, the NCB is offering some mining engineering scholarships, and a joint announcement by Duncan Sandys and the Australian minister indicates that work on guided weapons is going ahead swimmingly at Woomera. 

For the 25th, we are told the Birmingham Engineering Centre will open early in the new year, that the associated British Chambers of Commerce have submitted a report on roads and bridges (they are old and worn out) to the Ministry, the Institute of Marine Engineers had a party, there was a Commonwealth Conference on Aeronautical Research in London last week, and various appointments to the Transportation Board have been made. 

We will be visiting the "Engineering, Marine, and Welding Exhibition" at Olympia for the next two weeks. We lead off with some marine diesels from Perkins and Dorman, followed by a "weigher recording unit" from Williams, which has something to do with dock cranes, pumps, tanks, oxygen generators, a mobile diesel engine from Kelvin, am arc-welding machine, an x-ray control desk, more crane accessories, more welding machines, and a BTH exhibit including its latest marine radars. More diesels and one mixed-fuel engine, a plotting table (Dobbie McInnes), a petrol engine from Coventry Victor, and a Flow Indicator are seen on the 25th.  

Also continuing and to be continued, T. W. Chalmers' "A Short History of Spectroscopy" devoted on the 18th to refraction. On the 25th, Stefan's Law of Total Radiation is explained. 

Also worth  a visit is the "Third European Machine Tool Exhibition" in Brussels, where 2500 machines are being exhibited, although nothing too new considering all the other machine tool exhibitions lately, but that doesn't preclude coverage both weeks. 

At the British Association this week's coverage of the proceedings looks at electronic methods of telephone switching, colour television, management training, and flight, years ago, before the war. Oh, and some frauds from America are over to talk about time and motion studies. Okay, okay, they're not all frauds! Getting two exciting pages is GEC, with an article on "Speed Control of AC Winders" Which are things that wind things, mainly spools of wire and cable. Controlling their speed turns out to be surprisingly complicated. Probably because the power at the winding drive is coming from AC current, not that I care to parse the details. On the 25th, papers and subsequent discussion on heating (districts and buildings) are reviewed. There was also a session on calculating machines. The most promising are digital machines, In the future, one could expect more use of numerical analysis to solve problems, "the revitalisation of many areas of applied science," greater insight into the brain, and so psychology and medicine, and greater use of automation in all spheres of activity. Other discussants proposed the use of punch cards to greatly expand our ability to encompass the vast amount of research going on these days, and the incorporation of mathematical tables into computers for greater facility. 

On the 25th, Short Brothers sends in a long piece about "A General Purpose Electronic Analogue Computer," which they  have been using to solve difficult problems with flutter and dynamic stability.  Also on the 25th we get Metallurgical Topics, with papers on the strain aging of aluminum, the diffusion of hydrogen from pickling through cold-worked steel and its possible detrimental effects, and the use of titanium as a desulpheriser. 

Leaders 

"Afterthoughts on Farnborough" After the war, Americans were confident that they had the world air transport market to themselves, but now they know how wrong they were! But they will come back, now that they have had to admit that the turbine really did sweep the piston away. Britain has the advantage that its engines are still better; but America is building the B-47 in vast numbers, so it has experiencve, and production, which Britain doesn't. And then there is the matter of the podded engine and the thin wing. This is a big divergence between the two industries! Who is right? 

"The Rival Bombs" The Engineer makes an effort to understand the H-bomb news. As it notes, fusion requires that light elements be heated to millions of degrees, and for an H-bomb to be possible it had to be triggered somehow by an A-bomb,, which raises the question of whether an H-bomb is necessary at all, considering how powerful an A-bomb already is. It also doesn't appear that there is a civil use for the thermonuclear reaction, at least as currently initiated. Perhaps it makes more sense to ban the hydrogen bomb? 

On the 25th, The Engineer discusses "Mechanising Colonial Agriculture," which, it turns out, is going forward on its own without any need for grand initiatives on the one hand, or hand-wringing on the other. Then it celebrates the centenary of the Doncaster Railway and reports on developments at the Transport Commission and the NPL, where W. P. Jones has taken over the theoretical aerodynamics division.

Letters draws a painfully long-winded dissertation on "the role of experiment in applied science," framed as a response to The Engineer's review of the author's Studies in Elastic Structures,. A. J. Sutton Pippard explains his understanding of the role of experiment over and against that of the reviewer. C. W. Whitmore writes that it is his son's eyewitness position that the recent "Harrow Incident" was a "footplate accident." 

The Doncaster today. By Walter Baxter, CC BY-SA 2.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=110865879

"Fifty Years of Undercarriage Development, V" appears in the 18 September issue, and brings us upt to the Valiant, B-52 and Blackburn Freighter. Then we head off for yet more Farnborough coverage. American Engineering News checks in with the NBS working on radiant glass heating panels as a technique for heating houses, concluding that they might be more efficient than current systems. A uranium rolling mill is visited, the elevated South Street highway in Manhattan, and a very large tractor from Allis-Chalmers. Industrial and Labour Notes has British exports still doing well, the electricians' strike dispute still not settled, and the price of raw materials index at its lowest level in three years. Launches and Trial Trips records three ships, all motor vessels, one banana boat, one oil tanker, one cargo ship. 

On the 25th, the first After-the-Lead piece is a review of the Institution of Naval Architects meeting, starting with a paper on developments in Dutch ship model research, which I think we can skip, discussion and all. The British Standards Institute has published a unified machine screw and machine screw nuts standard, while the NCB is quite proud of its new prestressed concrete bridge, and proposals for development at London Airport have proceeded as far as a model of a monstrously large new terminal building. George Schairer's much extracted "Pod Mounting of Jet Engines" follows and scarcely needs a summary at this point. Farmers Company writes about its splendid new phosphoric acid plant at Barton-on-Humber, B. C. Bond talks about locomotives in a "year of transition," to diesel, that is. Industrial and Labour Notes has British overseas trade still on the up and coal doing middling, a wage dispute developing on the railways, the Ministry of Labour encouraging the employment of older workers, the role of films in industrial training and the problem of training foremen. No Launches and Trial Trips for the week of the 25th.