Postblogging Technology, October 1953, II: The Warren Court and the Idiots

R_.C_.,

Shaughnessy,
Vancouver,
Canada




Dear Father:

Greetings from London, where we only talk about the important things, such as Anthony Eden's digestion and Winston Churchill's weight! Oh, and whether we can have a nonaggression treaty with Russia before we're ready to throw H-bombs capable of flattening New York around. In the meantime, the RAF is working on being as good as it possibly can be at dropping the dang things. If you've got five million tons of dynamite under the hood, you only have to hit "Moscow" to get Malenkov. (But should it be Khrushchev?) But at 600mph at 60,000ft, can you even do that? Somehow the earliest version of the RAF's latest bombsight is in the pages of The Engineer this week, and it is all part and parcel of this new trans-Atlantic cooperation on electronic controls and relays in Very Secret Airplanes that has Reggie visiting Hadlett this week. As for me, well, if you deigned to notice, there was a little television serial over the summer called The Quatermass Experiment. And it has been proposed that one is not done making money from it just yet.  

Your Loving Daughter,

Ronnie

Letters

Two letters thank Newsweek for calling attention to ALS. Three readers write to point out that General Leon Johnson is shown wearing his Medal of Honour upside down in a recent picture, but when Newsweek asked the Pentagon about it, it was explained that the ribbon was photographed at a bad angle, and everyone who thinks that he is wearing his medal upside down should be ashamed of themselves. Donald Richberg of Charlottesville, Virginia,  has a  full-column letter of almost 2000 words, by far the longest I remember in the pages of Newsweek, so I guess it tells us something about Newsweek as well as Mr. Richberg that he endorses the following in order of priority for America''s "defence:" A "patriotic" government that can mobilise the nation; letting the rest of the world sink or swim; and lots of fighters and radars as part of what General Spaatz called, in his column, " a fairly tight barrier against bombers." Two writers have opinions about unions. I think one's in favour, and the other isn't? People are divided about the President hunting and fishing behind a "No Hunting or Fishing" sign, but he was invited by the owner, an "old crony," so it's okay. Joseph Slavin is still confused about the Peto paintings with William Harnett's signature forged on them. Daws Butler appreciated the favourable review. For Your Information talks about the United Way campaign and has some insights from the Newsweek side to go with the feature story about the auto industry. 90% of Newsweek families have cars, 30% have two, 81% have decided to buy new cars next year, 70% of them with cash. 1954 will be a "very handsome business year for the auto industry." 

The Periscope reports that Intelligence is warning that the Reds have smuggled 800 jet fighters into Korea, built 35 airfields, and raised 15 combat-ready divisions, and a fresh outbreak of fighting is likely at any moment. Two Americans  are said to  have been behind the recent Red plot in Guyana.Top-level insiders are say that if the current French drive against the Communists in Indo-China fails, the French may be forced to make peace and go home. The Italians have broken a seven-member Russian espionage ring. Vice-President Nixon is being "frank to intimates" that Republican Far Eastern policy has been unrealistic, as he gets ready for his big Asian tour. He is also pleased with all the letters he has received from union members apologising for the cold reception he got for his St. Louis AFL speech. Clyde Tolson, the number 2 at the FBI, is getting a publicity push in case he has to take over from Hoover, while Oswald Ryan of the CAB is probably for the long jump. Wilson is fighting with the Pentagon again. The next fight in the Senate between pro- and anti-McCarthy senators will be over Robert E. Lee's nomination to the FCC, as Lee has been a vital supporter for McCarthy. All this recession talk is just politics, due to fifty thousand government workers being fired, crashing the Washington economy and leaving the town all blue. It has nothing to do with all those weak economic numbers at all, it's just the Administration's soul-crushing austerity! The juvenile delinquency rate has jumped 29% since 1949, with 10% more juvenile court appearances lat year than the year before. The argument between the US Army and the British over rifle ammunition is over after the British .280 was bested in field trials. Attorney General Brownell's latest bid to stop farmers from using "wetback" labour is to disallow income tax exemptions for the wages paid to them. General Naguib's "illness" is face saving. Look for Colonel Gamal Abdul Nasser to emerge as the real power in Egypt. The Israeli Army is using Erwin Rommel's Infantry Attacks as their  training manual, and the Israelis have placed a $15 million order in German shipyards. The "one-sided load" the US is adopting in rearming the western European NATO countries has the U.S. paying $153 million for 572 planes while the British are paying $70 million for 250. The numbers breakdown: U.S. has ordered 245 Dassault Mysteres at a cost of $86 million while the French finance 150. The US will spend $42 million on 112 licensed Hunters for Belgium and Holland, which will spend $117 million for 348 Hunters. Italy has ordered 50 Sabres at a cost of $22 million. Should the British apologise because they can bring in a Hunter at three-quarters the cost of an F-86? Adenauer is said to have snubber Mayor Reuter by not attending his funeral, pleading illness. 

On the Hollywood side of things, the industry is said to be shying away from original stories in favour of remakes, books, and biopics. Audrey Hepburn will soon star in Fanfare for Elizabeth, based on the Edith Sitwell novel, Warner is producing a biopic of General Patton, while Fox is doing General Sitwell. Remakes of Covered Wagon, Ben Hur, and The Ten Commandments are in the works. NBC is going to shoot the 1954 Tournament of Roses, with Woolworth's picking up the tab. Fresh of Dragnet, Jack Webb has another TV series in the works. Edgar Bergen and Ken Murray are teaming up for a TV travelogue show, Where Were You, and ABC is doing an hour-long Christmas special with Sadler's Wells Ballet. Where Are They Now features William DeWitt Mitchell of Pearl Harbour inquiry fame, now a full partner at a New York law office; Walter Brown, President Hoover's Postmaster General, is 84 and still does about five hours at his law office a day; former War Secretary Major General Patrick Hurley is waiting for a recount in his senatorial election bid in New Mexico. Now, of course, if you were to use a reference work instead of a letter dropped by the office, you might remember Mitchell for dispersing the Bonus Army, Brown for the Air Mail Scandal, and Hurley for his shambolic mission to China and subsequent McCarthyism-avant la lettre, but can we just let bygones be bygones?

Three out of seven not counting the politics predictions, where there was no Korean War (the aircraft numbers are downright ludicrous), but good for The Periscope predicting Nasser's rise to power!

Washington Trends reports that it sat down with one of Richard Nixon's friends for coffee and now it knows what to say. The Administration is going to hold the line on defence, the economy drive, and hard money, no matter who says differently. Tax cuts will be confined to the ones already put through. The budget will not be balanced next year. Congress will come through for the President because he is just so darned popular, and to the extent that anyone leads Congress on the Republican side, it will be Nixon and Martin, not Knowland, who is still an idiot. Foreign aid will be scaled back, because nobody likes foreigners any more, and will be confined to defence, with Point Four handed over to private agencies. Specifically on the defence side, the Army will maintain current manpower and materiel strengths, the Navy will keep the same number of ships, and the Air Force buildup will continue. The "New Look" will appear on the runway at some near future date. 

National Affairs

"Capitol Hill H-Bomb Furor: Ike Sets the Record Straight"All atomic statements are to go through the President or Lewis Strauss, the President has made clear, as he clears up the confusion. This after an informed, inside Washington source told newspapermen that the Soviets had found a way to set off an an H-bomb without an A-bomb trigger. (Which, as you told us yourself, is completely contradicted by the heavy metal isotopes in the debris cloud from the Russian test). If it were true, the Russians would have jumped into the lead, of course. When various officials said that America needed civil defence and lots of it, that seemed to corroborate this sudden Russian lead. On the other hand, Charles Wilson is still saying that the Russians don't have an H-bomb at all, presumably implying the theory you worked out at Whitehall, of an A-bomb "doped" with tritium. But the Soviets do have a stockpile of atomic bombs, including some pretty big ones. The President sets the record "straight" by saying that the Russians do have an H-bomb, and Air Force Secretary Patterson confuses everyone (even though he's almost certainly right) by saying that no-one has an H-bomb, as in, a thermonuclear device that can be put in a bomber. It will be several years before the Russians --or we-- are throwing Eniwetok-size bombs around, but when we do, we will have a weapon that kill a million people if dropped on New York City. Unfortunately, the Russians don't have a lot of New York-style cities, and a leak-proof air defence is simply not practical and would probably just give rise to a "Maginot Line" mentality. 

Also in news about the President, he is 63 this week, is trying to balance the budget, and isn't convinced that the TVA is good or bad, and will think about it some more. Also, people are terrible, Springfield, Missouri, is having a cobra infestation (presumably escaped from a pet store that used to stock them), and there's yet another mob scandal in New York leading up to the mayoral elections.

The Supreme Court's contentious term is reviewed. How will Governor Warren's appointment affect momentous rulings on segregation, anti-subversion legislation, offshore oil, baseball's antitrust exemption, and Taft-Hartley? James Paul Mitchell is the new Secretary of Labour, Thomas Burke the new Senator for Ohio, leaving the Senate with 48 Democrats, 47 Republicans, and Wayne Morse. 

Ernest K. Lindell is worried that the H-bomb story isn't screwed down tight enough, so he gives yet another summary. The Russians have big atom bombs now, H-bombs later. We have H-bombs later too! No-one but the President will update us when this changes. That takes Ernest about as long to say as me, so for the rest of his Washington Tides column he gives us the ol' Ernie K special, and repeats himself again and again. 

International

"Sir Winston vs. Washington: What About Top-Level Talks?" Sir Winston wants a Locarno-style conference and a non-aggression pact with Russia. The Administration thinks that the UN is fine. Meanwhile, the main issue at Margate was Eden's health, because Churchill has six more months, tops.  And that was so boring that the press decided to beard Lord Woolton about a market stand proprietor who specialises in cockles and mussels, who stayed open for the Labour conference but closed for the Tories because they are rich toffs who like oysters and lobsters, instead. Lord Woolton denies everything. 

"Intramural War" In France, Reynaud and Pleven are backing the Big Five conference because they think they can wrangle recognition for Red China in return for the Reds backing off their aid to the Viet Minh. Georges Bidault is opposing them, because he doesn't think that recognition can get by Washington, and the talk is just undermining Western unity. He also thinks that the leaks are intended to frustrate his bid for the Presidency, and also that bringing French troops back from Indo-China is the only way to get the European Defence Community off the ground. And shouting continues over Trieste. 

Mossadegh will be spared the death penalty by virtue of age, the first six "Atomic Annies" have arrived in Germany, the Greeks have signed an air base agreement with the U.S., and the 6th Tactical Air Force has been activated in Turkey. "Within easy bombing range: The Soviet oil fields in the Caspian Sea at Baku." Newsweek visits the Philippine elections, where "hero-worshipping Filipinos adore" Magsaysay (not to mention Newsweek) and violence is feared from pro-establishment forces.

"Lo, the Poor Indian Troops, Berated and Belaboured by All" The Indians are doing their best to get the remaining 22,500 "anti-Red" POWs properly interviewed and sorted out, and it is a disaster. At this point, "non-Korean UN troops" are guarding the Indians, who have to guard the POWs, because all ROK troops have been pulled out. Peace talks keep stalling, there have been two fatal riots, which the Indians blame on outside agitators, and the South Koreans are being as difficult as possible. It isn't even possible for Indian troops to go on leave. People like Wilfrid Burchett keep stirring the pot, alleging that secret murder rings are suppressing pro-repatriation sentiments in the camps. 

"British Guiana: Hot Potato" This story has already been covered in The Economist. The colony is wretchedly poor, there was an election, Cheddi Jagan led a Communist-aligned party to victory. He clashed with the colonial government over this and that. Britain sent over 500 Welsh Fusiliers and Superb, the Governor declared a state of martial law, the State Department is in favour, and Newsweek has dug up a couple of American expatriate union activists who might have been involved. International communist conspiracy!

The Periscope Business Trends reports that there won't be a manufacturer's sales tax next year, because as much as the experts like it, no-one else does. It's not a recession, it's a boom in salesmanship. Or maybe it is a mild recession. Retail sales are still high, and building is only down 5%, and that's a number that is smaller than other numbers!

"Economy Holds Steady Pace: Retail Sales Head for Record" Please don't vote Democrat in November. 

"Take Cover" The problem of protecting industry against H-bombs has defence-planners at "wit's end." Industrial dispersion hasn't been going well, with most industry still concentrated in the top fifty metropolitan areas. So now the Defence Department is asking for bombproof factories. The Office of Defence Mobilisation says that proper construction can cut damages by up to a third. Arthur Fleming of the OMB estimates that this will add up to 20% to construction costs, but the Korean War depreciation holiday has boosted the nation's productive capacity by up to 20 million tons of steel, and lots of other stuff, too, and Cincinnati Milling is putting two bomb shelters in its factory, which will definitely show the Reds. "No company has even hinted that it would build a completely underground factory," and I am sad. Sweden has them! Why are the Swedes so much more grounded than we are?

 

Notes: Week in Business reports that the Treasury doesn't have much cash on hand, but still thinks it can make it through the year. Pan Am plans to cut transatlantic air cargo rates by up to 45% if the CAB lets it. National Airlines is the latest to buy a helicopter and try a passenger route, between St. Petersburg, Florida, and Sarasota. David Donger is setting up partners to produce its sport shirts in Europe. The AEC has approved five companies to run atom power plants, and Dow is going  in half with Asahi for a chemical plant near Tokyo to produce fishing nets, to start with, anyway. Nickel is decontrolled. 

"Foodelectric Saunders" Clarence Saunders, who pioneered automated grocery stores in America 40 years ago and lost his shirt, is trying again with Foodelectric Memphis after folding Keedoozle (remember them) in 1949. It's a variation on the same idea. The National Hardware Show is really something, the 1954 Plymouths are really big and  have Hy-Drive automatic transmissions, and cost up to $2,115 for the Belvedere convertible. 

Products: What's New reports that Lux dishwashing soap is now on the market in cans to "eliminate the sneeze;" L. B. Miller Company has a flexible screwdriver to reach around corners; Seaboard Finishes has a transparent (obviously) spray that makes windows shatterproof and low glare. Silex has a two-cup coffee carafe to keep it warm, Newsweek going on to explain what a "carafe" is. 

Henry Hazlitt's Business Tides explains "How America Can Help." Europeans are always using the American tariff as an excuse not to go fully convertible, so even though the tariff isn't as big a deal as they say, Congress should make a solemn, cross-its-heart promise not to raise tariffs without a really good reason, no, really good; and then the Europeans would have a predictable situation and could go convertible. 

Science, Medicine, Education

"Childbirth Essence" Dr. Vincent du Vigneaud of George Washington University has announced the culmination of 25 years of work, the isolation and crystallisation of oxytocin, the hormone that "dominates childbirth and lactation in mammals." It's the essence of childbirth! So now that he's done that, he is working on isolating vasopressin, the hormone that checks kidney output and raises blood pressure. Previously, he has done biotin and penicillin, and hopes that synthesis of oxytocin will be an immense help for obstetricians and veterinarians. The US Wildlife Service has announced that the trumpeter swan is no longer endangered. 

"A Great Teaching-Healing Institution at 25" Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital is twenty-five. Newsweek checks in. It is a really good hospital. The x-ray department takes up the entire third floor (which is a big floor), and the blood bank has made 111,000 transfusions since being established in 1939. It introduced oxygen tents, oxygen-helium mixes for treating lung disorders, and has more than 100 scientists working in it. 

Antioch College is having a significant anniversary, while Our Nation's Schools is a new magazine devoted to same, with an article in the October number about how Australia is experimenting with a new programme to save wear and tear on school furniture by allowing boys to carve up old pieces. 

Press, Radio and Television, Newsmakers

The Marquis du Cuevas is suing Il Osservatore Romano for saying that his recent costume ball was too much. John Harold Johnson is starting two new Negro magazines, Hue, and Copper Romance. Let's learn all about John Harold Johnson! Some Americans went down to the meeting of the Inter-American Press Association and lectured everybody about press freedom. The press strike in Portland, Maine, is over. 

NBC is staging a prize giveaway to prop up ratings for the Dennis Day Show, which runs against I Love Lucy. Where's Raymond? starring Roy Bolger, is great. Except for not being funny. But Bolger is handsome! On the other hand, Newsweek didn't think much of CBS's new Topper series. "Radio is still trying to find the niche TV left it." Dragnet's theme played on Your Hit Parade this week, whic his awkward, because Dragnet is sponsored by Chesterfield's, and Your Hit Parade by Lucky Strikes.  

The Marquess of Milford-Haven, the Count de Marigny, Oveta Culp Hobby, Leon Feuchtwanger, Vivian Leigh, Bernard Baruch, and Adlai Stevenson are in the column because they're famous. Florence Chadwick has made a record (58 minutes, 10 seconds) crossing of the Hellespont after swimming the Channel, the Bosphorus, and the Strait of Gibraltar in the last five weeks. Betty Betz is engaged, Vincent Astor is married; Vice-Admiral Gordon Campbell, Porter Hall, Nigel Bruce, James Earl Fraser, Lord Strabolgi, and the Duke of Bedford  have died. 

New Films

Little Fugitive is a shoestring movie from Joe Burstyn with a great performance from child star Richie Andrusco. The Titfield Thunderbirds is the latest "delightful British import . .. that it is difficult to be critical about." Murder on Monday isn't as delightful, but is saved by great acting. Torch Song, the only American studio production in the column this week, is a Joan Crawford vehicle, a song-and-dance number crossed with a melodrama(?)

Books

George Eggleston's Tahiti is a good sailing memoir. Nadime Gordimer's The Lying Days is a much-anticipated first novel from a soulful South African writing about how her country is terrible. It's not fair that some novelists get to be from terrible countries! (Or states, Mr. Faulkner.) Herbet Feis' The China Tangle is a dispassionate and academic look at how America and China got in this mess. It was the Reds! Ignazio Silone's A Handful of Blackberries is an affecting Italian novel (by an anti-Communist author), while Agnes F. Meyer's Out of These Roots: The Autobiography of an American Woman gets a solid push from Newsweek because it is by an old-time American journalist who is married to a very rich man. 

Raymond Moley is his usual idiot self, digging up an excuse for why the Bricker Amendment is actually a good idea in Perspective, missing about half the point of Holland vs. Missouri. 

Aviation Week, 19 October 1953

News Digest reports that carrier trials of the Douglas F4D start next week. GE has delivered its 10,000th J47 and is flight trialling the J73. Airlines are having trouble retaining electronics technicians who are being hired away by television. US trans-Pacific airlines need high subsidies to compete with foreign flag carriers. The RAF's Gloster Meteor fleet is grounded for individual checks after inspections uncovered loose wing spar bolts. 

Industry Observer reports that west coast observers report that North American has come up with an improvement on the F-100 as dramatic as that from the F-86 to the F-100. Douglas has designed a whole new wing to improve the performance of the DC-7, but can't decide which engine to put in it as between the 3350 Turbocompound and the Pratt and Whitney T-52. Yet two more Avon models are announced, and the current production model of the Swift is the Mk 4. The three new British V-bombers are not all alike, the Valiant being an interim model to an earlier specification. "Open secret in Britain is that an improved Valiant will serve as a super-pathfinder for the production Vulcan or Victor." Sperry and de Havilland are working on an improvement to the Zero Reader which will show the exact angle indication during takeoff to avoid over-rotation. US Army Ordnance is testing a French anti-tank missile based on the wartime German X-4, which has wire guides to prevent jamming and a two mile range. The De Havilland 110 prototype for the Royal Navy is reportedly heavily reinforced, and it is speculated that the service model will be modified with a much more conventional single-tail, single-engine configuration. 

Aviation Week has "Pentagon Rewrites Cost Allowance Rules," which is as exciting as it sounds, and "Douglas Rules Out Early Jet Transport," meaning that the company will not push out its DC-8 to compete with the Boeing jetliner, because there is still time for it to make its money back on the DC-7. 

"RAF Centres Strength on A-bomb Force" Right now the RAF's main strength is Canberras and Canadair Sabres, which is sad, but soon it will have strategic bombers and British fighters again under super-priority production. The V-bombers will be able to take off from any airfield in Britain, and attack the Russians from many directions thanks to their long range, up to 5000 miles without refuelling, cruising at "near-sonic speed" above 60,000ft, using electronic countermeasures to defeat defences. 

"Wilson Leaves New Policy in the Air" The industry is fed up with Charlie Wilson. 

The Federation Aeronautique Internationale is not going to change the rules for the world's absolute air speed record any time soon. There are already rules for an any-altitude speed record that no-one bothers with, and if the industry is going to complain about the stringency of the low-altitude test, it can switch to competing for that record, subject to accurate recording devices. 

"Skeptics Endanger Air Power Lead" Without naming names, Nathan Twining denounced critics of air research and development in a speech to the National Aeronautic Association's annual convention. That's "Anonymous," which is spelled C-H-A-R-L-I-E W-I-L-S-O-N. 

"C-123 Contract" Fairchild has won the first fixed-price Air Force contract since before the KoreanWar, to produce the C-123. It will also complete the 300 C-119Gs under contract, including the 88 that Willy Motors was working on, under a stretchout extending the time of completion to 1956. Tools and parts from Willow Run will be trucked to Hagerstown for the contract, but Fairchild is limiting tooling since its experienced workforce knows how to build C-123s already. Speculation now is about where Michael Stroukoff, the designer of the C-123, will end up, since his work on boundary layer control is considered vital to the C-123. Also, there will be a full news briefing on the F-100 at North American soon.

Also in production news, which really shouldn't be news, the aircraft production labour force has levelled off, but wages continue to go  up.  

"Canberra, DC-6 Win Christchurch Race" As expected, a Canberra won the military side, while the DC-6 took the price from a Viscount on the handicap. "Observers here speculate that this wil be the last big international air race." The $28,000 prize is completely inadequate to the expenses of participating, with the last-minute withdrawal of the Valiant reflecting widespread opinion that it was far too valuable to risk in a race. The RNZAF Hastings had to withdraw from the race in Ceylon due to engine trouble. 

"ATIC Begins Study of Saucer Reports"The Air Technical Intelligence Centre is beginning a statistical study of the 3000 "flying saucer " reports received between 1947 and 1952. It has provisionally concluded that between 80 and 90% can be explained and that the astronomical phenomena are the main cause of UFO reports, but weather balloons are another important factor, just because there are so many of them. Balloons are launched from nearly every airfield in the country four times a day, and can be up to 119ft in diameter, with  highly reflective mylar coatings. Hughes Aircraft has appointed William C. Jordan as general manager to cover last week's walkouts.

Reporting for McGraw-Hill World News, A. W. Jessup has "F-86F is 'Top' Fighter-Bomber" A fairly long report is highly favourable to the F-86's aerodynamics, bomb racks, and of the various modifications and repositionings required for the F-86F's long range fuel tanks, improved engine maintenance and A-4 radar gunsight, although pilots wish the gunline could be adjusted, since you want a different angle for ground attack than for air-to-air combat. 

Aeronautical Engineering has a nice article from Convair, "Engineer Analyzes Landing Gear Trends," which is about the work of Wendell E. Eldred's work at Fort Worth. Eldred concludes that tailwheels are on the way out (no, really!) and that bicycle gears are not a very good idea (also!), that tracked gears are not a good idea, that crosswind gear may show promise (or forever be next season's big thing, says I), that droppable gear, zero-length launch and landing mats are unlikely gimmicks. Outrigger gears and multiple wheels are all unsatisfactory. But you know what's great? The "diamond gear" on the Convair YB-60. That said, the trend to multiple wheels on the same gear is unstoppable because it works. The switch from one to four wheels on the Comet, for example, saved 217lbs on an original weight of 3,815lbs. Multiple wheel gears als reduce the danger of blowouts, reduces maintenance effort, reduces taxiing problems, but does increase manufacturing cost. In the future, we will see co-rotating nose gear, an effort to reduce the number of joints, more use of high-strength aluminum alloy, and also of high-strength steels, although these will require exacting metallurgical work due to the variable properties of steel alloys with carbon content. Titanium will be great, regular fatigue testing is necessary. 

David E. Anderton reports that "Hisso Boosts Centrifugal Jet's Thrust" The Hispano-Suiza Verdon turbojet has been brought to7700lbs with afterburning, and will replace the Hispano-built Tay on production Mysteres this summer. Air-cooled blade roots and higher temperature steels have allowed an increase of outlet temperature by 90 degrees (F), and the engine has been redesigned for better air flow. 

A nice story from Ryan Aircraft about Ryan Aircraft's new abrasive-wheel tool, which cuts stainless steel fast, but abrasive-wheel tool is very sad because no-one wants to go to coffee with abrasive-wheel tool because all the other tools think it is hard to get along with, what with being an abrasive tool. Resdel Engineering's preheat cabinet, on the other hand,is a warm and welcoming place for plastic and rubber moldings, while the National Waste Dealers Association welcomes your useless garbage, and GE is helping the little guy by building midget motors for "bomber D.C. jobs," which isn't an arcane political insight, because in this case it means "direct current." "It is reportedly capable of responding to field currents of .075 milliamperes! Which I think is small, unless the ampere is one of those metric units that measures a lot of what people are mostly interested in, as some of them are. Slip Ring Company of America has lines and lines of smaller, lighter, better electronic components. IBM's Type 650 Magnetic Drum Computer is perfect for your company (so strange to see a new IBM computer advertised down in here, right?), four companies are offering better relays, and Filter Centre reports that Collins has sold its omnirange subsidiary, TVOR, that all eyes are on Ramo-Woolridge, the new electronics company formed by the Hughes walkouts, that Bell Labs is demonstrating a barium-titanate memory crystal which can hold up to 256 bits of data indefinitely, that the Armour Research Institute is looking at emergency alternating current generators, that the Centre has received interesting brochures about selenium rectifiers, ferromagnetic cores, nonlinear resistors (Varistors), taper terminals, electronic timers and controls, Single sideband filters, microsyn indicators, "Instruments for Modern Measurements," and concrete news of a new altitude control from Lears. 

Pioneer I, by Ramo-Woolridge

Letters gives George E. Beck, "Manager of statistics" for Midway Airlines, (address: "Dundee Road West of Waukegan Road") a full column to explain why the company's Chicago air shuttle is so great. IBM and Thompson Products sure are happy with coverage of IBM and Thompson Products! (That's how you know that your aviation technical journalism is in good hands, if everyone in the industry they cover think that it's very positive and inoffensive.) More people write in to mourn the passing of Alex McSurely. The line-wide McGraw-Hill editorial crunches the numbers ahead of Congressional deliberations on the excess-profits tax to find that profits are not excessive right now.

George L. Christian reports for Equipment that "Bristol Freighter Paces Bush Operation" Associated Airways, out of Edmonton, has 24 planes and is the sole source of supply for the Salmita Gold Mine, which it provisions with a Bristol Freighter, which has brought in 500 tons of equipment and supplies, including tractors. The plane's virtues, mainly having to do with ease of loading, are discussed in detail, and we are told that the plane's Bristol Hercules sleeve-valve engines are easy to start and low  maintenance. He also likes his Bell helicopters.  

Temco will be the prime contractor for maintenance of Navy R7V-1 Super Constellations, the electronics division of Curtiss-Wright is delivering an electronic flight duplicator to Air France, the Douglas DC-7 is getting triple glaze windows on some positions not because of strength issues, as reported here last week, but for noise reduction. UAL is expanding its underground power and fuel capacity at five airports. New Aviation Products reports a snappy new Koch fibre glass case for electronics, a Lear airborne VHF receiver modified for ground use, a GE console for calibrating electrical instruments, a "tool  makers ball" from Flabob for measuring holes drilled in jigs and assemblies, and a magnetic clutch and pressure transducer are Also on the Market. (Along with assorted fasteners we care less about.) 

Crash Injury Research at Cornell wants stronger cabins with rear-facing seats, a special Aviation Week report finds that people are moving west and to the suburbs, so that's where future demand for air transport will be concentrated. The FCC has rejected a UAL proposal for a 70 station VHF network to be subcontracted to ATT by the current monopoly operator of ground based radio aids, Aeronautical Radio, on the grounds that the subcontractor will probably just flake off. What a horrible thing to say about Senator Capehart's company! 

Robert H. Wood's Editorial sums up the job report. Aviation is a big employer, second only to autos. And he highlights an internal C and O report finding that the railway isn't doing a very good job of passenger services. 

 Letters

Your little province is in the news as Quaker Howard Elkington (of Philadelphia, naturally), protests that not all Doukhobors should be tarred with the same brush as, specifically, Michael Verigin, and A. Laforge of Newcastle, California, points out that the Sons of Freedom have mainly been burning their own houses, and there is no way that the value of their arson has risen to $420 million. Newsweek accepts the correction. The number was garbled, and was actually $20 million. Mrs. George Handler of New York City also has a correction. A picture labelled as that of Anita Böjrk is actually Rita Gam. The only person on this Earth dumber than Henry Cabot Lodge is letter writer George H. Clark, who disputes Lodge's defence of the UN as the keeper of peace from the "more war is more better (against Communism)" angle. John E. Cranch, of Ames, Iowa, points this out, for Ambassador Lodge, at least. Two people write to explain how funny Red Buttons is, although Seymour Serebrick has a correction on Yiddish usage.  Professor Victor Cleveland of New England College and J. Atwood think that miniature pigs are cute, and are glad that they were saved from extinction, with Professor Cleveland predicting a bright future for them as housepets. No child of mine is going to New England College!!! Jasper Hutto explains that Baptists are very modern nowadays. For Your Information pats itself on the back for keeping the story of Dan Dixon and Richard Applegate alive, for winning a Christopher Award, and because a nice English professor in California arranges to have back issues of Newsweek sent abroad.

The Periscope reports that the MiG-15 that defected in Korea is no big deal, because it is three years old. Then it tries to explain the current situation in Trieste in a single paragraph, which is admittedly a huge improvement on pages and pages, but PLEASE wake me up when it's over! The President wants us to think of atom bombs as normal, "conventional" weapons like rifle bullets, and has established a line of succession in the Defence Department in case a normal, conventional bomb blows up Washington and kills a million people, just like a rifle bullet. A special bill to promote Colonel Bernt Balchen is expected in Congress, as he has had his "three and out," in spite of being the leading expert on Arctic flying. The White House has noticed everyone calling Eisenhower the "do nothing President," and will do something about it soon, for sure. Nehru is said to be convinced by anti-Communism now that some Korean POWs don't want to go back behind the Iron Curtain. Ambassador Lodge popped by the White House to propose that we troop our POWs to the General Assembly to tell the UN about Red atrocities, and was duly dressed down by all and sundry for wanting to make a spectacle of men still recovering from their ordeal. Governor Dewey is warning the GOP to make its peace with the farm belt before the election, and "some Presidential intimates" are explaining that Knowland is an idiot. Which I'll grant, but there sure are a lot of idiots around the current Administration! SAC is going to do a giant exercise later in the month to illustrate how it is going to perforate Russia with a few rifle bullet-like atom bombs in the event of trouble. The Democrats have come up with the brilliant idea of running against the Administration in the fall. The Air Force is worried about recruiting again. The new 3 cent air mail stamp may be available by Christmas, the Army's new 106mm recoilless rifle will punch through 12" of armour, infantry tacticians are thinking about massive, helicopter-borne commando raids and want a helicopter that can fly 1000 miles at 200mph. So do we all! Hans Globke is the next big name in German politics. The Russians are angling for Stockholm as the venue for Big Four talks. The Russo-Argentine trade pact will no doubt lead to Russian penetration of Argentina. Japan is also trading with the damn Reds. Insiders say that baseball will be fine if its antitrust exemption is revoked. 

Insiders say that Rita Hayworth can't be broke when she made a half million last year. Marilyn Monroe will be female lead of thriller Vera Cruz, opposite Burt Lancaster and Gary Cooper. "A film version of  . . . Hedda Gabler will be shot on location in Oslo . . ." A two hour production of Richard III will appear on NBC's Sarah Churchill show next month, while John Steinbeck will narrate a TV-film series of based on his short story collection, Pastures of Heaven. Where Are They Now? chases down Notre Dame's 1924 Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, who have all succeeded in life like Notre Dame Old Boys. 

Fairly accurate this week, because we're saving the mistakes for Letters! 

The Periscope Washington Trends reports that Secretary Benson is out of the Cabinet just as soon as the President finds someone who's not him to fire the Agriculture Secretary. Secretary Humphrey thinks he's out of the woods over  his hard money policy now that people are tired of yelling at him. 

National Affairs

"Farmer's Revolt on Prices: It's a Major Problem for Ike" [Dit-dit-dit] Announcer voice: "Now we go over to the Newsweek desk for breaking news. What's the story, Ernest K. Lindley?" Ernest K. Lindley: "Duh." Announcer: "I'm sorry?" Ernest K. Lindley: "That's what it says here. 'Duh.'"

Speaking of Our Washington Correspondent, he uses his bespoke page over at Washington Tides to explain that the President is still a great guy, and super, duper fit, no worries about that! And he sure is popular, everywhere he goes! It doesn't hurt, Lindley goes on, that he just talks in empty platitudes. But some Republicans are worried, you have to admit. Then it is off to Wisconsin to find that voters are having second thoughts. Secretary Benson gets a box story entitled, "He's Not Worried." I would be, but I don't have the Mormon church behind me, so I would probably be fired by my boss if I was a complete idiot costing him the election. Idiot. I know I'm saying that a lot, but come on, this Administration!

"Penalty for Victory" The Senate is squabbling over how to give Thomas Burke some committee seats without completely disrupting Senate business, since he would flip the majority, but only in those committees, in the middle of the term. The surprising off-year election victory for the Democrats have them raring to go in the upcoming Congressional special election in California. Harry Byrd might be in trouble in West Virginia.

"Like a Subway Train" An explosion aboard the ("long hull") Essex-class carrier Leyte, currently undergoing an overhaul in Boston, has killed 36 and left 40 in hospital. Since there are no surviving witnesses, and there as no ammunition or fuel aboard, all we have is speculation that it was due to fuel oil vapours. It is the worst peacetime naval disaster since the sinking of Hobson in 1952 with 175 men, and confirms a pet theory of a certain pet husband of mine that "The Essex class are even worse death traps than other carriers." Senator McCarthy's latest lead in his "investigation" of security lapses at the Army Signal Corps laboratories in Fort Monroe is a group of witnesses claiming that the Rosenbergs set up a spy ring there. One witness, who broke down on the stand and promised to confess everything, was whisked off to a secure location in an obscure hotel to be looked after by Roy Cohn, and the Administration, which hasn't seen any actual evidence, seems to be counterattacking, floating an investigation of McCarthy's involvement in the campaign against Millard Tyding, and allegations of financial irregularities, before backing off.  Speaking of which, it is now clear, thanks to Edward L. Murrow, that USAF Reserve Lieutenant Colonel Michael Radulovich was recommended for dismissal on security grounds because his father and sister are Communists, and not because of anything he did. 

"Klan for Negroes" The Florida branch of the Southern Knights of the KKK has announced through leader C. L. Parker that they are offering memberships to pro-segregation Negroes and are against terrorism. 

"Suribachi to Skid Row" Ira Hayes, the Marine who helped raise the flag at Iwo Jima has had a rough time since coming home and was living on Skid Row because "Indians can't hold their liquor," but now he hopes he is dried out and will turn over a new leaf. Race riots accompanied the arrival of four coloured families at Trumbull Flats on the far South Side of Chicago this week. 

 International 

"Big Three Meet in London: Will Malenkov Make It Four?" The Big Three in question being Eden, Dulles, and Bidault. Big deal! 

"Dulles: Testing Time Ahead" Speaking of John Foster Dull, a special story (and the cover banner) about the "testing" times ahead, the "crisis." That crisis will take the form of rampant Chinese expansionism, as everyone knows that the Chinese are anti-foreign, anti-Western, nationalistic, and facing population pressure. Also, Dulles' new house in D.C. is very nice.  Speaking of the cover, Winston Churchill is 77. That's old! And he had a stroke! (Although it is impolite to say that in the pages of The Economist.) He is probably too sick to be Prime Minister and will be gone soon. Wait. Someone already told you this? Well, that's a waste of a cover!

"Israel and Ibn Saud: Double Trouble in the Middle East" Ibn Saud is ailing, Israel is fighting with Syria (diplomatically) over water rights, and in a retaliatory raid into Jordan for an attack at Yehud that killed 3 Israelis, Israeli troops massacred 60 villagers, which you can agree is not only a war crime, but an excessive war crime, which is worse. Herbert Hoover Jr is in Teheran as a special adviser to John Foster Dulles on the subject of whatever Junior is expert in, which isn't much, while there are intimations that the average Iranian was quite fond of Mossadegh, and is a lot more fond of him now that foreigners have overthrown him. Fancy that! Fortunately, the new premier has $45 million American to spread around and buy friends with. 

"Navarre Moves" The French are conducting a spoiling offensive against the Viet Minh to prevent them from building up their stockpiles for a campaign against Hanoi. And in Trieste [SNORE!!!!]. Leon Volkov's column concludes that on the one hand, a Big Four Conference could be good for Malenkob, but on the other, it could be bad! 

The Korean War has "'Father Mao' Thrown for a Loss: But POW Game Far From Over" The Reds are now at Hind Nagar to make their case to the recalcitrant POs, but they won't turn out to hear the presentations. Peace talks might be inching closer.

In this hemisphere, the American embassy has thrown a party for the Argentinian army while Peron and his followers celebrated "Loyalty Day." That's not ominous at all! Cheddi Jagan has managed to get to London to protest his removal from office after the Dutch let him fly out of Surinam. In Guatemala, a "Communist-inspired" crowd held a demonstration against the British intervention. Communists everywhere! Brazil is having a fight over its Import-Export Bank, which might be playing favourites with scarce foreign exchange. 

Business

The Periscope Business Trends reports "two significant signs that there's enough purchasing power to keep US production going until Spring." There's more money around and savings are holding up. And maybe steel production won't fall any more! Yes, there have been layoffs, but not that many, and air force plane deliveries are high and foreign aid is going to be higher than expected. Which sure likes like easy money and stimulation, but what do I know? 

"The Razzle Dazzle" Studebaker is upset that the competition keeps advertising. It's not fair! Also, Standard Oil's new refinery outside Boston is going to be great, and so is Canada's Trans-Mountain Pipeline, which had been finished three months ahead of schedule. 

"Research: Poor Penny" Interviews with the youth today establish that the minimum weekly allowance has to be 25 cents, because a nickel doesn't  buy anything any more. GE is definitely going to have an atomic reactor producing electricity very soon now. 

Notes: Week in Business reports that the price of steel scrap is up, the NYSE Board of Governors has approved higher commission rates for stockbrokers, GE's "stork derby" was oversubscribed, with 180 babies instead of the thirteen expected, the Hilton Group has sold the Plaza Hotel for a nice profit, Pillsbury is doing a cooking promotion in Paris. 

Products: What's New reports that Dunbar Novelty of Toledo, Ohio (naturally) has a novelty drinnk-carrier that attaches to a golf bag and which can hold six cans of beer. Audak has a record needle that shows gray when it is too worn to be used. National Service Sales of New York has an electronically-amplified megaphone weighing only 2 3/4lbs, battery-powered. Westinghouse's new electric welder saves 100lbs on old electric welders. Various business executives who have been in Eisenhower's cabinet told the Illinois State Chamber of Commerce that it was a lot harder than they figured. 

Henry Hazlitt's Business Tides has "More About American Help," which you'll remember from last week was trying to do something about tariffs. He also wants guaranteed loans to foreign business in the "transition period" to full free enterprise. 

Science, Medicine

"Return to Physics" James Hillier, the co-inventor of the electron microscope, gets a profile. A separate story that could  use the same title features Gordon Dean's Report on the Atom, which he has been working on since he resigned from the AEC to join Lehman Brothers. Apart from some goldbricking at the AEC, the most important point is that the US atomic stockpile should be large enough to deter the Russians, and not just keep on increasing to stay ahead of them. 

Two professors at Louisiana State,  Roland Coulson and Thomas Hernandez, are studying alligators to learn more about how hormones work because they take a lot of abuse and their processes are so slow that they are easy to observe. We're doing a good job fighting child tuberculosis these days. 

Press, Art, Radio and Television, Newsmakers 

The Hyde Park Herald gets a feature, the negotiations for the sale of the Brooklyn Eagle to the New York Herald Tribune have collapsed, David Laux is reviving Judge magazine, Florabel Muir has been fired from the Los Angeles Mirror for alleged insider dealing. 

The Virginia Museum's Artmobile sure is something, while Bruno Caruso had a show in Rome. Where he lives. There's an American connection, but I don't care to read any further. 

Orson Welles is back on the news, Garry Moore is very popular with theaudience he does have. The NTSC demonstration of their colour television system for the FCC was a roaring success.

Barbara Rockefeller, Fulton Sheen, Larry Parkes, Betty Hutton, Clark Gable, Georgie Joe, and Dwight David Eisenhower are in the column for being famous. (Also, Georgie Joe is a 3000lb rhinoceros. Let's see Clark Gable kiss that!) The Rosenberg boys are in the column because Toms River, N.J. school officials tried to kick them out of school for being the children of Communists. (They have been living with family friends in Toms River.) The Moon is Blue has been banned in Jersey City. Princess Fatima of Iran has had a baby. Ted Lewis has had an anniversary, Hjalmar Hammarskjold has died. So have John Taylor Arms, George Saunders (just a week after he planted his latest story!), and Frederick G. Katzmann. 

New Films 

The All-American (Universal) is an okay football movie starring Tony Curtis and Mamie Van Doren. Decameron Nights (RKO) is not nearly as spicy as the original stories. The best thing about it is the Spanish scenery. Columbia brings us Rock Hudson in Gun Fury, which is a Western with lots of guns! and action! And predictable plot points!Marry Me Again (RKO again) is "an embarrassing little comedy." The Overcoat is an Italian version of Gogol's story, with Renato Rascel doing a thanklessly good job of a bad script. 

Books

Thurber's latest collection is out, which is good news, but review proof. E. M. Forster's The Hill of  Devi avoids the pitfalls of age and fame by being based on his youthful journals. A terrible review summarises the plot with nothing more to say. William Lindsey Gresham's Monster Midway is "a breezy encyclopedia of the institution." For some reason, it is necessary to continue the review of Boswell's private papers, being slowly published at the rate of one volume a year, while  Samuel Shellabarger's latest historical novel, Lord Vanity, gets a more professional review

Raymond Moley is off to Wisconsin to find out what happened. 

 

Aviation Week, 26 October 1953

News Digest reports the EAL Constellation crash at Idlewild, ending EAL's safety streak at 6.7 billion passenger miles. (It was also flying to Puerto Rico, which figures.) General Dynamics is still working on its takeovers of Doman and Canadair. Curtiss-Wright is laying off 700 of 20,000 employees at its Wood-Ridge, N.J. plant due to the los of military orders. The USAF is turning its base on Pavlof Island over to the RCAF this week. The Navy is sponsoring a new factory for Tube Reducing Corporation to make tubes for helicopter frames. 

Katherine Johnson's Washington Roundup is back in a new location ahead of Industry Observer  to report cuts in Army aviation, a short blurb about all the great things Donald Quarles is doing as an Under-Secretary of the Air Force, the dissolution of the Cooper Subcommittee for being a bunch of shills for the nonskeds, and also for trying to rope in McCarthy in an investigation of the scheduled airlines, a new Shipbuilding, Ordnance, and Aircraft Division of the Business and Defence Service Administration, to be headed by Charles F. Honeywell, and that the expiry of the Renegotiation Law won't actually change much.

Industry Observer reports that Republic is going to put a GE J73 in the F-84F to see if it will make it go like the cancelled Curtiss-Wright J65. Lockheed is mating an F-94 to the front of a Bomarc missile for flight testing. North American is working on a two-seat F-86, the US has built 15,000 jet aircraft to date, they're talking about rooftop heliports in New York again, that Napier's Eland and Nomad engines will fly towards the end of the year, that a British study of jet troop transports points to their obvious advantages, with two Vickers Valiant conversions able to do the work of 12 Hastings in a third of the time. HMCS Bonaventure will operate McDonnell F2H-3 Banshees, while the latest idea in helicopters is a "copter tug" that will snag a plane in flight and lower it to the ground.  

Aviation Week leads off with a big feature on the North American F-100, the 45 degree sweep-wing fighter developed from the F-86, which has exceeded Mach 1 in dives and has a ceiling of more than 50,000ft. 

Katherine Johnsen reports that "Titanium Sortage Blocks Buildup" The Senate has called for a "hundred-fold expansion" of titanium production to make up the current 1000t shortfall on an allocated 3500t annual production and meet future increased demand. As Senator George Malone says, he's against socialism but in favour of lots of titanium, and one principle has to give, and it won't be the one that involves cool planes that go vroom! A Canadian Pacific DC-6 has flown the Pacific nonstop from Japan to Vancouver International Airport exploiting favourable winds and registering an average speed of over 300mph.
 

"F-102 Features Thin Delta Wing" It does! Project Tinkertoy was the hit of the Aircraft Electrical Society's annual display (the automatic factory, you might remember). Secretary Talbott says that the Red Air Force is the world's biggest, TWA has started its nonstop LA-New York service, with Turbo-Compound DC-7s flying both ways. The Aircraft Industry Association's "No raiding" pact has drawn criticism from engineers. Gee whiz, no! 

Aeronautical Engineering has a nice article from GE, "Analysis Bares J47 Design Details" So if you want to know more about the ten-year-old engine now going out of service, here it is! And I do mean it. This is one of those old-fashioned, detailed design analyses. It comes as USAF reports are finally being frank about the maintenance difficulties of keeping them in the air --which don't seem excessive, just weren't reported before. There's also a pictorial from SBAC,

including one of the Armstrong Whitworth guided missile test vehicle that Flight can't show(?)
Aviation Week also describes some hits of the model show, including the Saro Copter Coach, Percival P. 87 DC-3 replacement, the P.74 "pressure copter," another wingtip jet job, this one with a Napier rig using low pressure gas from an Eland compressor, and the Victor's tail. 

Aviation Week's George L. Christian also visited Champion's annual Aircraft Spark Plug and Ignition Conference to get the latest on fouling and gumming, and  mainly word on Shell's Tricresyl Phosphate additive, analysers, and spark plug usage in modern engines, with the R-2800 doing much better than the turbocompound engines. Plug cleaners are great, and moving on to jet ignition, we have a ways to go yet.

New Aviation Products has an electronic roughness gauge that takes very little skill to use, distributed by Brush Electronics under license from GM. Herington's small panel indicator gives  a wide angle llight, Rahm has a variety of transducers for measuring pressure and acceleration changes. Also on the Market are steel thermocouple protectors, small aircraft motors, and a "metallising machine" called the Vanco. Filter Centre has heard from GE about its autopilot for the F-105, that Honeywell has a new altitude controller, just like Lear, and the Armour Research Foundation has built a three-axis missile simulator for Wright Field Development Centre. 

Finance reports that the nonskeds are in trouble. News Sidelights reports that companies are looking for second sources for fire control systems after the management troubles at Hughes, that the first F4D will be delivered in the spring, that the President has been firmly told that he cannot demonstrate an early atom bomb model at a televised conference because it would be taken the wrong way, that the Air Force version of the Douglas A3D, the B-66, will be much heavier than the navy version because of Air Force goldbricking, that the Snark missile might come off top secret soon, that NACA is fiddling with wing fences to improve the Douglas Skyrocket's safety and handling, that Secretary Talbot has vetoed a proposal to demonstrate the F-100 to the public, that the Convair XF-92 disappeared from the news because the nosewheel collapsed on a taxing run, that no-one knows what caused the fatal crash of the X-5, that Slick is selling all four of its DC-6s, that Eastern is buying some DC-7s. 

Robert H. Wood's Editorial stands firm on the magazine's position that business aircraft are grerat and all, but no-one knows anything about their economics, and use, and we really need to find out. 

Now it's on to The Engineer for 16, 23, and 30 October, 1953

By Thomas Nugent, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.w
ikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=128687987

(Not the) Seven-Day Journal for the 16th reports the bicentennial of the Royal Society of Arts, the Institution of Production Engineers throwing a party, Sir John Hacking retiring from the British Electrical Authority, the British Transport Commission hearing about the right way to rubbish road hauling units, and the announcement of the electrification of the Fenchurch-Southend Railway. 

"North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Schemes". up to Part v as of the 16th, looks at the Cowal Scheme and others such as the Glen Lussa dam (23rd) for providing a local supply. This doesn't quite take up four pages, so a bit about the Army's handling of mechanical handing in the field, as demonstrated in Exercise KING KONG, is shoehorned in. They have forklifts to life ammunition, that sort of thing. 

"The Development of Broadcasting in Great Britain" is an Institution of Electrical Engineers inaugural address reprinted. Here is Part 1, covering frequency allocation, external broadcasting, home sound broadcasting and the future of VHF broadcasting. We get to television and colour telecision on the 23rd. Then we're off to the Swan Village Gasworks, which handle a lot of coal very handily, and we look at a "Precision Screw Thread Corrector Lathe" from Craven Brothers of Manchester. It's massive! This is followed by a historical article about old time steam engines at the Stoke Newington pumping station, London, which lifted water from the New River to the Dartmouth Park Hill Reservoir. Then it is off to the Pametrada Research Station to look at assorted test turbines, the Fluid Dynamics and Combustion Research Laboratory in Baden, where we look at wind tunnels and a combustion laboratory, and, to fill out the page, an advertorial for the smallest and cheapest submersible pump yet, from Sumo Pumps, Limited. Leaders look at power station design and take a skeptical view of the costs of actually implementing the Colombo Plan. Letters feature an explanation of "sonic booms: from W. A. Tuplin, nature preservation from the impact of industry, from Kenneth Lech, and R. G. B. Gwyer's opinion of the "Britannia" locomotives. Then we visit the Iron and Steel Institute in Holland, or, rather, take a canal voyage there, passing through all sorts of interesting locks and windmills that use steel, on the way. We get there for the week of the 23rd, snap a picture of the Werkspor Machine Shop, and then it's welcoming addresses, well lubricated I'm sure, followed by works visits on the 30th. Not voyaging, but visiting, is RMS Andes, the flagship of the Royal Mail Lines, and specifically its Denys-Brown stabilisers for the prevention of sea sickness. I don't know if they work, but they're keen gadgets! And we visit an ice cream plant, and the testing house of the Electrical Development Association. 

"Work of the U.S.A. Atomic Energy Commission" (By the American Correspondent) The AEC is worried about uranium mining this year, is meeting production requirements for fissionable materials at an average cost of 92 million dollars a month, is testing atomic bombs mainly for "battlefield" use this year, is working on a number of reactors, and is sponsoring fundamental physical research into subatomic particles in hopes of making sense of the zoo, which might help it build up theoretical models for the various isotopes found in various kinds of nuclear "ash."Continental Engineering News only has an Esso refinery in Antwerp, a new bridge over the Aar, and the San Vicente Pipeline in the file to cover, so we fit in P. Ransome's inaugural address to the Institution of Agricultural Engineers on the progress of national standards in agricultural machinery. Northern Rhodesia, we're told in another insert, is up to a production of 22,000t of zinc, and of lead and copper in proportion. Industrial and Labour Notes covers discussions over engineering wages ongoing, the latest labour numbers (23,473,000 workers, up 121,000 since July due to school leaving), unemployment (291,000, down slightly, employment in various engineering industries, over 10 million variously defined). We continue to hope to get more old people working, and no Trials and Trips for the 16th.

(Not the Seven-Day) Journal for the 23rd reports a party for the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and at the national association of petroleum equipment supplies, news of particle accelerators for the Hammersmith Hospital, contracts for work on the south bank of the Thames,, highlights of Lloyd's Register for the third quarter of 1953, when 47 ships were commenced and 57 launched, plus 104 oil tankers, and slightly more than a third of the free world's tonnage being built in Britain.

A. Roebuck's Presidential Address to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers is extracted. It was about "Craftmanship." A discussion of the two "Novel Fendering Systems" for absorbing the energy of a berthing ship at the Dover Ferry terminal has more facts, but less talk of years ago, before the war. And if that's not enough Presidential addresses, we get one to the Commonwealth Telecommunications section of the IEE a bit later, mostly regretting the closing of telegraph lines on grounds of economy.  

After more continuing series, we visit a "planetary hot rolling mill," which is the kind of gears that put the rolls on the hot steel plate at Ductile Planetary Mills of Willenhall, Staffordshire. Leaders cannot get enough of craftsmanship and intelligence (if we don't keep the lower classes out of th euniversity, how are we going to get smart craftsmen), or the Swiss railways, which import smart people from poor countries. Literature has a review of R. H. Fraenkel's Manual of Rock Blasting which is quite explosive (well, on the best methods for blasting,anyway); Letters has Walter Harris speculating that gas turbine and diesel-electric locomotives will probably come in in the heavy service areas around London, first.

"International Motor Show" This is Part One. something tells me we're going to be here for a while. Ford sent over its "car of the future," Jaguar and Austin-Healey sports cars are quite exciting, and we even get a few cars people might actually get to drive, likje the Ford Prefect and Standard Eight. On the 30th we see the Austin Z-30, Daimler Conquest Roadster, Austin Pathfinder, Rover 4-cylinder engine and gear-changing linkage, and Burman steering gear. 

British Railways is getting its own wind tunnel, the British Internal Combustion Research Association was hearing papers on what happens in high pressure engines, the Coal Board's "Automatic A.C. Winder with Dynamic Braking" is quite the gadget, the Coquet Viaduct is being strengthened, Sigma Instrument Company is expanding, the Aluminum Development Association is quite taken with a furnace on wheels for keeping aluminum rivets hot, Sadford Electrical has a pressure transducer for remote indication, while S. K. Dean explains "A Sensitive Pressure Switch" with an interesting detail of a a compressed-air-operated switch in the Mark XIV bombsight, which I guess isn't secret any more! There is also a commercial for Adcock and Shipley's high-speed radial and tapping machine before wer get to Industrial and Labour Notes, where we hear that the economy is going well but we need more exports, and also more education and investment. Once again no Launches and Trial Trips. 

(Not the Seven-Day) Journal for the 30th has more about the Colombo Plan, acres reclaimed here, ploughed there, sort of thing. The British Coal Utilisation Research Association had a party, the House of Commons heard about the Transportation Commission's plan for rolling stock,  the Ministry of Supply is building a tank factory to be managed by Leyland, and there will be another institution dedicated to industrial efficiency soon. 

Tired of Scotland, we turn our attention to "Hydro Electric Development in Portugal" followed by a look at "Automatic Headgear for Tunnel Driving," an "8MeV Accelerator for X-Ray Therapy," the Stockwell Bus Garage, which is quite a big bus barn! The "refuse disposal plant" at Sheffield sure sounds stinky! British Standards is concerned with aluminum-bronze alloys and electroplated coatings for nickel and chromium this week. Leaders share the magazine's opinion of auto design and district heating, while in Letters the reviewer responds to Professor Pippard's extraordinary discussion of experiment in applied science provoked by the original review of his book, while P. B. Semmens looks at automatic train control and P. W. Loveday continues the "sonic boom" discussion. There's an extensive visit to a Guard Bridge Paper Company paper mill in St. Andrews, Scotland, fitted out with electronic controls, and a Swedish manufacturer of pneumatic mining equipment, and a factory made of welded tubular steel sections. Profile grinders from Svenska, an amphibious tractor from John Fowler, nd a twist drilling machine from Elliott Company get advertorials in this issue, Industrial and Labour Notes considers the coal situation as reported in the Commons (bad, then good), the oil tanker drivers' strike, current conditions in the drop forging industry (needs improvement), exports (needs improvement), coal exports (promising to a degree), and changes in the laws concerning iron and steel capacity. Have we dropped Launches and Trial Trips for good?

By Diliff - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29278332