Shaughnessy,
Vancouver,
Canada
Dear Father:
And that's the end of my month. If I may dwell on the political for a moment (Moi? Never!), this really is Pierre Mendes France's moment, and I cannot help a smile on my face and a lift to my feet, even more than when the Capital deal went through. (We'll leave aside the question of whether they can pay for their planes.) He has a vision for Europe, and he is going to close out the Tunisian and Moroccan adventures as well as Indo China. Newsweek seems to have capitulated to him, describing him as a Dewey Republican or such. I hope he'll have a chance to apply his vision to France, although the times are running against his economics, with the Anglo Saxons catching up with the Fourth Republic's Government-by-rentiers. On the other hand, Ike seems too sick to run in '56, which means that Stevenson will have a good chance, and we might see the back of the odious Dulles brothers. (Not that the prospect of seeing McCarthy and Allen Dulles tussling doesn't do my heart good.) James is predictably disappointed that there aren't more signs of the party rallying to Kefauver, but I will take what I can get.
On the other hand, London is a bit giddy right now, so maybe I'm just being infected by the optimistic mood.
Your Loving Daughter,
Ronnie
Letters
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| Brave and the Bold #1, cover date August 1955, original character by Robert Kanigher and Irv Novick, definitely not the original art |
Murray Shapiro writes to complain about Israeli shipping being barred from the Suez Canal. Luke Hart, who is the Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, writes to explain that the Knights of Columbus are proudly behind adding "God" to the Pledge of Allegiance. Various people write in about the photo where Roy Cohn seems to have a halo, pointing out that he seemingly doesn't. Paul Blanshard writes in to point out that the Roman Catholic Church really is a fascist (not in those words) organisation, while Charles Wittier of the Tufts divinity school provides the necessary whitewashing for middlebrow America by pointing out that while Blanshard is a foaming-at-the-mouth bigot, he has a point even so, no doubt whilst stroking his beard and fondling his pipe. For Your Information tells us about Jim Deren, of Sports, who didn't just write this week's article bout fly fishing, he is a fly fisher! Photographer Ed Wergeles won a prize this week, senior editor Kenneth Crawford attended his daughter's graduation at Benoit, and Walt Kelly's Pogo is only one of the new newspaper comics which is actually funny.
The Periscope Washington Trends reports that GOP strategists now think that the Army-McCarthy Hearings are nothing compared to what's coming from McCarthy. Various senators now want to organise a vote of censure. Other senators want other senators to sit on McCarthy and stifle any noises he makes. Democrats meanwhile support making this all about Republicans. Meanwhile, McCarthy wants to go after Allen Dulles' CIA and Harold Stassen's Foreign Operations Administration next, so, I guess, yay McCarthy? Congress is probably going to tighten up the rules on investigations and fire some of the more people who were really annoying on TV, and there will be two reports from the Hearings by the Republican and Democratic members, so you can choose your own reality based on party membership. That seems like it will take care of things!
National Affairs
"Segregation: Yes, and No" The governors of nine segregated-school states met in Virginia this week to hash together a plan. Which is hard when the border states of Maryland, West Virginia, and Kentucky have all agreed to desegregate. The cost of running separate school boards may be the decisive issue, as it handicaps the schools compared to the ones across the border, although that is not mentioned in this story. For the same reason, Oklahoma and Maryland are likely to join them. Delaware and Kansas, which both make it optional to the local school boards, are also likely to comply, although they wreen't invited to the meeting. Arkansas and Texas are likely to comply reluctantly in the end, leaving Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama looking for ways to "soften the blow, Florida waiting for a change in the Governor's office, and South Carolina, and Mississippi getting ready for the next civil war. Georgia belongs in the last camp, but Talmadge is trying to show that he's still a moron by floating a blatantly disingenuous "tripartite" compromise.
International
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| AMX-10P, ordered in 1965, but the first clearly post-Indo China development cycle. |
"Key to Recovery and Victory for the West" Newsweek catches us up with what's been going on in the Ruhr and drops the names of the guys who took them out to dinner while they were there.
Guatemala is all jitters due to all the anti-Communist activity, a ship carrying ammunition for their new Oerlikons has been detained in Germany, the United Fruit Company strike in Honduras continues while Costa Rica celebrates its new contract as evidence that progressive Central American governments can get along with U.S. corporations. Bogota has been rocked by Communist-inspired violence. Labour unrest in Argentina is threatening Peron's regime.
Science, Education
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| Aviation Week has the explanation |
The Free University of Berlin gets a brief discussion, followed by a notice that Mortimer Adler (which is a real name!) has now spent the $655,000 given him by the Ford Foundation after he resigned from the University of Chicago in 1952 (Yes, that is exactly what happened!) to set up the Institute for Philosophical Research in San Francisco (consisting of him with three friends consulting, in the former German consulate) and publish his Summa Dialectica. Accordingly, he has issued the Institute's "first biennial report," which concludes that the Summa is on track for its 2002 completion date. It had honestly never once occurred to me that we pay too much for Ford cars, but now I'm beginning to wonder. I guess I'll find out for sure when I'm 75! Communism is awful, this time because the "Jdanov Advanced School for Social Sciences in Bucharest teaches its students Communist ideas.
Business
Periscope Business Trends reports that the recession that wasn't going to happen and wasn't so bad and was already almost over, is already almost over, although TV advertising, soft sales,and unsold car inventories are still an issue. However, construction and hard good sales are up, there are favourable signs on employment, and Congress is still posed to act on that emergency programme.
Lead stories are more on the recovery, followed by railways. The Senate is talking about a tax on partnerships. Notes: Week in Business reports that the consolidation of Braniff and Pan-Am routes in Mexico will probably go ahead soon, that the 35 day transit strike in Pittsburgh is over. Products: What's New reports that Standard Oil will soon have some very hard oil-based varnishes and finishes, which have been licensed to Glidden Co., of Cleveland, while the Land Camera (the one you pull a developed photo out of a minute after taking the picture) has been shrunk down to a size producing 3 1/2" by 2 3/4" pictures. It is made by Polaroid.
Press, Newsmakers
"Our Archives of Culture: Enter the Comics and Pogo" There are comics in 1785 American newspapers, 80% of readers look at them, or probably 100 million Americans read them every day. Newsweek blithers on about how they're a complex and under-documented social phenomena, a popular form of expression like shadow plays in Indonesia and "wittily scurrilous political anecdotes in Central Europe," and that they illustrate American life. (Americans like humour, excitement, and children!) All this middlebrow philosophising is in aid of a collection of original Pogo drawings by Walt Kelly being deposited at the Library of Congress. After only five years of syndication, Pogo is carried in 415 newspapers. Set in Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp, they're funny because the talking animals talk funny, as Georgians do. Comics have been around for a while, Newsweek continues with some middlebrow cultural history. (Something that actual historians do, although Johann Huizinga doesn't need to watch his back.) After catching us up with Hogarth through Krazy Kat, Newsweek rhymes off Dennis the Menace, Beetle Bailey, Hubert, Peanuts, and Ferd'nand as also being worthy of attention before getting back to Blondie and the rest, and ending with a brief blurb about Kelly that mainly points out that he works hard.
The Census reports that one American is born every twelve seconds, that the latest population estimate is 162 million, and that the number of children born to college graduate parents continues to increase due to, the Census says, "An improvement in economic conditions and changing attitudes towards marriage." Somerset Maugham, Edith Sitwell, Arthur Deakin, the Lebanese ambassador, Senator Green, Albert Schweitzer, the President and Mamie, and John Foster Dulles are in Newsmakers for the usual reasons. Victor Borge and Ann Blyth have had babies, Nina Foch is married, Winston Churchill is knighted, Charles Francis Adams, Arthur Greenwood, and James J. Finn are dead.
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| Kelly owned all rights to Pogo and died relatively young, at 60 in 1973 |
The New Films
Mr. Hulot's Holiday is France's version of Mr. Blandings, except that instead of building his dream home, Monsieur Hulot goes on vacation and everything goes wrong. That doesn't sound like the kind of movie that wins the grand prize at the Cannes Festival, but who doesn't want to watch a 6ft 4"former rugby player (Jacques Tati) tootle around Norman beaches in a tiny sports car? And Nathalie Pascaud is pretty. From London comes Hobson's Choice, which has Charles Laughton also being funny because he looks funny. The lone domestic film reviewed this week is Paramount's About Mrs. Leslie, a Shirley Booth vehicle, with not much else.
Books
Talk about middlebrow, get the King of Middlebrow, as Nietzsche gets the Viking Portable Library treatment. Now, Nietzsche gets some unfair criticism these days. He wasn't a Nazi, it was his sister who made him out to be one. Newsweek tries to make him out to be less of an anti-Semite by quoting him out of context, but after that mainly natters on, proving that writing clearly is no guarantee of being read clearly. A bizarre review of Marguerite Clark's After the Doctor Leaves: A Practical Guide to Approved Post-Medical Care and Treatment of Chronic Diseases in the Family follows. Clark is a Newsweek Medicine writer, and the reviewer is Raymond Moley. It sounds like a worthy book, but I don't understand why it is being treated this way, and the editor's note doesn't really explain it. Shirley Jackson has a collection out, which doesn't live up to "The Lottery," but what can? Mary Anne Clark's historical novel is definitely looking for the Daphne du Maurier audience. Raymond Moley visits Columbia University campus with school out and has contemplations while he walks around and finds signs of Communism everywhere.
Aviation Week, 21 June 1954
Washington Roundup reports that the USAF has recovered $1.45 billion in unspent procurement for 1953, that the USAF's defence of its research contract with Harvard University into social studies of Russia reveals that it wasn't a complete boondoggle, because they learned important things, like that it is difficult to occupy areas that you've only ever bombed, and that the people you occupy might not like you, especially if you use particularly cruel bombs. The Navy's stock of reserve aircraft dwindled from 4500 to 600 during the Korean War, revealing the extent of aircraft attrition in that war. Aviation Week repeats the story about the forthcoming U.S. air "showdown" in Asia, but with a point: The Koumintang is flying F-51s against Red MiG-15s. US military aid is embarrassing! The Air Force and Navy are hashing out a common approach to undercarriage testing, and we're told that we are not to be surprised if the 1956 defence budget rises.
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Katherine Johnsen reports for Aviation Week that "U.S., Britain May Merge Missile Efforts" Congress is bugging the Pentagon to coordinate missile development and eliminate duplication, so why not include the British, too? Sure; They can't even get the Army to admit that its 280mm atomic cannons are stupid, but we'll be able to coordinate programmes between two countries! Quick CAA approval of the Viscount is expected. The Senate has boosted the CAA budget by $1.5 million, partly to cover a new low frequency radio range.
Also while in San Diego, Coughlin checked in with the Convair XFY-1 as it gets ready for its first free flights, where it will silence its critics by safely flipping over into regular level flight. Or not! Since we've heard all about the VTO itself, Coughlin goes into detail about the tethering rig and the modifications to the Allison T-40 needed for it to fly in the vertical and horizontal, and the turboelectric props.
Thrust and Drag reports that Cornell is studying fuel tank jettisoning in its wind tunnel, and points out that there are many other such situations to study, especially missile launch. It also points out that the Red Geneva mission flew in Dakotaskis, and not the newer Il-12 transport that the Soviets sold to the Czechs. Why? Is there something wrong with them?
The McGraw-Hill Linewide Editorial has "What Business Can Do to Help Our Colleges and Universities" Last month we determined that America's colleges and universities, and especially the private ones, faced a financial squeeze that was likely to get worse, and which might end in disaster. Business should help in any way short of actually giving money, since they pay much too much in taxes already. Nevertheless, business holds the key for our private colleges and universities. (The public ones can go pound sand.) Obviously the private institutions shouldn't take tax money, as they would loset heir independence. Instead, business should, I don't know, start scholarships or something.
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George L. Christian reports for Equipment that "Pumps Keep Abreast of New Jet Needs" Pesco's new fuel pumps are the bomb! They're all high pressure hydraulic pumps, so remember when that was the frontier of engineering progress ten years ago? They're eyeing a 6000lb pump, an unheard-of pressure (1000lb is still standard) for which their single-gear motor is ideal. They are seeing a move away from emergency pumps, and think that the ideal replacement is a ram air turbine. A high speed gear, which can be put on the turbine shaft 1-to-1, no transmission needed, is ideal. They are also working on miniaturised "cartridge" pumps, AC motor pumps, new metals, and a new factory in Wooster. Air Materiel Command is building twenty or so "flying photo labs" to provide on-call photo development services. Coltex of Canada is offering the Dutch made New Mercator B-4 computer for airline use while Shell Oil is developing a 225gpm refuelling truck, up from the 160 used at your airport right now.
New Aviation Products reports a hot-wire anemometer from Flow Corporation, an "air-propelled" abrasive that's presumably better than sandblasting, a new high-impact plastic application for castings, and a very powerful portable arc welder from Kasson Die and Motor Corporation.
Letters has Ken Cook, President of Ken Cook Corporation looking forward to the new Cessnas, which are perfect for business flying, Jack McKay talking up the classic Super Dart, William Allen explaining how the Boeing 707 is actually an example of private enterprise at its best, a point with which Harold Mansfield of Boeing agrees, while Carl Cleveland of Boeing is very happy with Aviation Week's coverage of their taxiing accident. Alfred Wolfe points out that an Italian jet (but not combustion turbine) plane flew before the Heinkel, and Robert Blodget likes Aviation Week and wants to marry it. Robert H. Wood's Editorial points out that "Low Fares Win the Millions," supporting CAB's refusal to raise passenger fares at this time.
Several writers say, forget about the stupid hearings, who was that pretty girl in the audience? Betty George, that's who.
Douglas Bain writes to point out that ramp actually delicious, and L. J. Uttal to point out that it really is just a variety of wild onion, no matter how much the mountaineers deny it. (I don't know why anyone is surprised that hillbillies won't admit that they like eating wild garlic; they have enough trouble with prejudice already.) John Blumberg of the American University of Cairo writes to take credit for Sam Souki. Robert Young of New York City likes New York Central. Hardwicke Stires writes from New York that Scudder, Stevens and Clark's Canadian investment fund is absolutely on the up and up. For Your Information reports that John Lardner has been promoted(?) out of the Sports beat to cover international affairs as well.
The Periscope reports that Churchill's visit is no big deal, since he is on the way out, although he and Ike will announce German sovereignty without waiting for the European Army. McCarthy's investigator, Don Surine, may be next in the Democrats' sights after Roy Cohn. If the FTC doesn't drop its case against AD-X2, the snake oil battery additive that got the Bureau of Standards into trouble, its manufacturer, Jess Ritchie, is threatening to reveal evidence that will "startle" the FTC and the Bureau. The Pentagon is upset at the release of the Oppenheimer testimony transcript for security reasons. Meanwhile, SAC wants everyone to know that it was in on Oppenheimer, helping out because it was mad at him for opposing the H-bomb. There's also "sharp backstage friction" about "military men's public pronouncements on national policy" after Admiral Carney recently seeming to call for preventive war against the Soviet Union. Admiral Radford's recent California speech, on the other hand, was "carefully edited" by the State Department. US Army planners say that it would take 10 US divisions to keep what the French now hold, and $6 billion and 250,000 men for the whole of Indo-China, which would require doubling the size of the army.
General O'Daniel, the head US military advisor in Indo-China, was in Hong Kong this week briefing General Van Fleet. Senator Porter of Michigan won't join the Democrat report on the Army-McCarthy hearings, because he is a Republican. Mendes-France will put Robert Schuman into the Foreign Ministry if he gets his Indo-China cease-fire. Greece and Yugoslavia are trying to persuade West Germany and Austria to join their defensive alliance. Premier Nasser is reportedly turning anti-Communist. The Syrian government survived a threatened coup d'etat last week when Iraq threatened to intervene. Western intelligence agents say that the Red Western hemisphere espionage headquarters is the Czech embassy in Mexico City, in the Middle East, the Biarritz Hotel in Beirut. Where Are They Now catches up with Robert E. Burns, who escaped from a Georgia prison camp in 1932 and wrote a best-selling book about it. He is a 62-year-old insurance broker with four children, living in New Jersey.
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| Robert E. Burns |
Because Chain Gang wasn't released until 1960
Periscope Washington Trends reports that Washington is getting ready for Churchill's visit and happy that the President seems to have broken out of the depression that gripped him two months ago. Senator Knowland says that the GOP majority has too much on its plate to finish in time, and that the President's agenda is in even worse trouble if someone breathes the word "McCarthy" in the Capitol before adjournment. At least there have been compromises on farm price supports and tariffs, and the defence budget has passed. 
National Affairs
"Churchill and Ike: Unity Or Else" The world is falling apart due to Communism, so everyone should agree about everything. Does that mean agreeing with Admiral Radford's idea of giving Communism a "Stop right there or we'll shoot" ultimatum, or rearming Germany, notwithstanding France, or just coming up with a policy of united action. A politician in New Jersey did some very naughty things. Everyone says Tom Dewey has to run for another term as Governor no matter what he thinks. No-one is sure what to do with the fights over McCarthy and Oppenheimer. Senator Lester Hunt's death[!] returns the Senate to Republican control, 48--47 again, as the Governor of Wyoming is a Republican. In the Imperial Valley of California, Immigration Service agents everywhere, rounding up Mexican migrant farm workers, who cross the US border at a rate of 75,000 a month. It is estimated that there are 70,000 Mexicans working in Californian industry, 200,000 on the farms. In contrast, just 20,000 qualify for the legal bracero program. No-one expects the drive to be successful when the standard of living is so much higher in the U.S, but Newsweek quotes that "the Imperial Valley is cleaner than it has been in years," and, in a quote attributed to District Immigration Director Herman R. Landon, "We want to get control of the situation again. We've been overrun for years." Winthrop Rockefeller is now divorced from his showgirl wife, and the adventure only cost him $6 million, and he gets a son who might actually be good looking and a lot smarter than your typical Rockefeller! Charles Wilson is still convinced that the Reds are about three years behind us on defence, and the Eisenhowers are working on their dream home, a farm near Gettysburg. (I had the vague impression that all the farms there are constantly beset by sightseers? It does seem like an appropriate place for Ike to live, though.) Ticking It Off reports that Elmer ("Trigger") Burke is a "kill-crazy psychopath," that Democrats in Congress are holding up the President's plan for the AEC to sign a 25-year contract with various private companies to build atomic plants, that Leroy Gore of the "Joe Must Go" campaign is being investigated by the local DA for "irregularities," that the latest Civil Defence exercise shows an atomic attack would kill 9 million, wound 4 million. That sounds bad!
Ernest K. Lindley has had an earful about what the Oppenheimer testimony tells us about war strategy, and explains in Washington Tides that Oppenheimer argued for tactical atomic weapons in a wide range of uses, but acknowledged that the difference between strategic and tactical atom bombs was not always obvious and not accepted by all of our European allies, and that anyway using tactical atomic bombs against "Asiatics" might blow up in our face diplomatically. He supported continental air defence and, it seems, a strategic air force, but suggests that we are unbalanced towards the latter, and he was skeptical that massive retaliation would be useful except as a counter to thermonuclear attack in the long run.
International
Business
The Periscope Business Trends reports the exact same thing as last week. The lead story is exactly the same as last week; it is really, really important that everyone know that the recession is almost over!
Medicine, Education
"Smoker's Hypothesis" The results of a massive survey, done for the American Cancer Society, and released at the annual meeting of the AMA in San Francisco this week, finds that the leading cause of premature death in heavy smokers is not lung cancer, but heart disease, and one of the reasons for that is that heart disease kills them in the 50--54 group before they can age into the lung cancer-heavy 65--69 group. The AMA cautions that the correlation is not yet proven, but the hypothesis that cigarettes cause lung cancer is increasingly likely. Speaking at the American Geriatric Society meeting at the AMA, Dr. E. Kost points out that with average female life expectancy rising from 48.7 to 72.4 over the last fifty years, grandmothers have practically a whole new lease on life, and since estrogen treatment can greatly improve its quality, doctors should go ahead and prescribe and not worry about scares over feminine cancers. New York psychiatrist Gregory Zilboorg has argued in his Isaac Ray Lectures last Fall that the insanity defence is much underused, that far more criminals are mentally ill than is realised, and he went on to propose trial review boards with a sitting psychiatrist.
John Venn has published the tenth and last volume of Alumni Cambrigieneses, all 140,000 entries of it. (It is the sixth volume of the 1752 to 1900, covering Square to Zupiata.) Donald Vann is this year's Princeton Salutarian, while Andrew Thomas Cole was Cambridge's valedictorian and gave his address entirely in Latin.
Arts, TV-Radio, Press, Newsmakers
The Arts feature covers the third annual Boston Arts Festival and gives Roberto Rossellini a box, no graphics at all. Newsweek really is a terrible newspaper. If I didn't already do Fortune I'd be back with Time in a heartbeat.
The American Press Institute's survey of the Asian press finds it a lot more interested in economics than the advance of Communism, and really dislike foreign bases, American or Russian. Lord Camrose has died, and GM is fighting with The Wall Street Journal over an alleged scoop about next year's models.
The Pope was on TV this week. That is all. Periscoping Radio-Television, back this week, reports that Ransom Sherman will get the lead in the TV version of Fibber McGee and Molly, and that Vanessa Brown will be filming a situation comedy next month.
0/2. Hopefully no-one will notice because it's on p. 59. Fear is a real movie, though.
Jackie Gleason, Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontaine, Viscount Montgomery, Harry Truman, Billy Graham, and Susan Hayward are in the column for the usual reason. The only news to wander in this week is an Australian fisherman catching a 20ft oarfish in Sydney harbour. Governor Goodwin Knight is eloping with a showgirl, Edward Chodorov and James McClain are married, Irene Hervey is divorced, Vice Admiral Guy Burrage and Robert B. Denham have died.
New Films
Caine Mutiny is based on the Herman Wouk novel that I've actually read, on your recommendation, so I'm not going to talk about the details of a movie that is already being talked about as an Academy Award winner except to say that it is from Columbia and stars Humphrey Bogart. The Student Prince, a Cinemascope production from MGM, was Mario Lanza's failure in his last chance to prove that he can be a movie star. Edward Purdom does an okay job of synching along to Lanza's voice. Periscoping Movies reports that Ingrid Bergman's next will be filmed in Germany, directed by Roberto Rossellini, and entitled Fear, Columbia is trying to get San Quentin to allow it to film a prologue to Cell 2455, Death Row at the prison, and exhibitors are pushing Fox to put an intermission into the 2.5 hour run of The Egyptian.
Books
A special issue on military biographies features the memoirs of Marshal Mannerheim of Finland, Laurence and Elisabeth Hanson's life of General Gordon, Charles Drage's picturesque Life and Times of General Two-Gun Cohen, and the diaries of celebrated Victorian war correspondent William Howard Russell, edited by Fletcher Pratt.
Aviation Week, 28 June 1954
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| By Mike1979 Russia - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons. wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15509813 |
Allison Motors reports, "Turboprop 'Bugs' Licked:' Engine Builder Says High-rated Turbine Could be put on Market by 1956 to Meet British Competition" The problems that the Allison T-40 actually turned out to have had have now been licked by some simple modifications including a new transmission, new engine control system, new clutch, automatic decoupler, and new lubrication system. Nlw that Capital has bought 3 Viscounts, Allison promises to actually try to compete on a level playing field, and T-40 deliveries are just around the corner. US officials have taken delivery of the first Mystere 4Bs of the 215 being produced by Dassault under the Mutual Aid offshore procurement contract. They will replace American equipment in the French Air Force. USAF plans to launch some Matadors for tests in Europe right up next to the Iron Curtain just in the way of testing its new equipment. The Air Force guarantees that the Matador probably won't stray off course, and will definitely be destroyed remotely if it does. Next up, a way of making it bomb the target if the remote operator is jammed! Beech has won the Navy's primary trainer contract with the T-33.
The Air Force explains why it is "Slashing Obligations:" It turns out that the Republic F-84 was flying garbage, and why should we pay for more? Well, we could commission a bunch of upgrades, but, as usual, American manufacturers had trouble following the British production drawings for the Sapphire, and, really, who knows when they will show up in quantity for the F-84F? Plus, the (German-designed) forging press that was supposed to produce the swept wings of the later variants broke down. And it turns out that we were never serious about the 143 wing programme, so who needs them in the first place? . The USAF plans to launch some Matadors for tests in Europe right up next to the Iron Curtain just in the way of testing its new equipment. The Air Force guarantees that the Matador probably won't stray off course, and will definitely be destroyed remotely if it does. Next up, a way of making it bomb the target if the remote operator is jammed! Beech has won the Navy's primary trainer contract with the T-33. The Air Force explains why it is "Slashing Obligations:" It turns out that the Republic F-84 was flying garbage, and why should we pay for more? Well, we could commission a bunch of upgrades, but, as usual, American manufacturers had trouble following the British production drawings for the Sapphire, and, really, who knows when they will show up in quantity for the F-84F? Plus, the (German-designed) forging press that was supposed to produce the swept wings of the later variants broke down. And it turns out that we were never serious about the 143 wing programme, so who needs them in the first place?
Thrust and Drag is impressed with an article by R. N. Lindley at Avro Canada, who points out that sometimes machinery that replaces manpower replaces too little manpower at too much cost, and that's bad, too. Because after all, when you think Canada, you think, "Too many workers tripping over each other!"
Production saw a dangerous shortage of articles about the Matador, and asked Martin for one about ow it is packed for delivery. Also, Alcoa's giant taper mill in Davenport, Iowa, has entered operations.
Equipment devotes its lead article to a Bendix advertorial about a new fuel test stand, leading to an article about the Greer fuel test stand that checks the performance of the J73. New Aviation Products devotes two inches in a big typeset to a G. F. Kelk instrument test stand, similar space to a Clark small turbojet de-icer and a Douglas washer preset to only be firm when it hits a predesigned tightening.
Letters
M. R. Seldon of Chance-Vought gets grumpy about ill-informed opinons about oscillation dampers. Kingdon Kerr makes an extended joke about pilots as servo systems. Jon Carsey wishes the magazine had more articles about gliding. Lewis Clement of Crosley wants reprints of the article about missiles and tubes. Several correspondents really liked the George L. Christian articles about them. (You can tell that Aviation Week is serious journalism because it prints this kind of thing. Our advertisers really like the articles we write about them!)
The Engineer for 18 and 25 June 1954
The Engineer for 18 and 25 June 1954
(Not the Seven-Day) Journal reports on the 18th that the Parsons Centennary Exhibit in the Stephenson Building at the University of Durham in Newcastle is very interesting and spends some time on how each exhibited item (for example, Parson's personal torsionmeter) is related to various stages of the master's career. The Engineering Centre in Birmingham is now open and ready to helpe with engineering-related activities. The report on the Bethnal Green derailment mainly blames the lineman but notes some equipment problems. The Institute of Materials Handling and the Association of Mining, Electrical, and Mechanical Engineers throw parties. The week of the 25th sees the annual report of the Chief Inspector of Factories, the Fire Research Report, the Survey of Steam and Power Usage, and the Tin Report, and reports that the Southern Region of British Railways is bringing in 10 car trains. The Chief Inspector is impressed with continuing mechanisation and falling accident rates. Fire Research reports resolution of the problem of fighting fires in petrol tanks and continuing research into reinforced concrete. The steam survey seems comprehensive, and the Tin Council is mainly interested in new tin alloys.
The Engineer visits "Orient Liner Orsova" on the 25th. It is a steamship developing 34,000shp from geared turbines operating at 500lb, 850 degrees. This week's discussion covers the passenger accommodation, hotelling, navigation and safety equipment, deck and auxiliary machinery, including the Denys Brown stabiliser, and the new construction standards employed in the hull structure.
The British Electric Power Convention opened the week of the 18th, which issue has the Presidential address from J. R. Beard, which is mainly a commercial for British consulting engineers. Given the recent scandal in Idaho over the procurement of more expensive American equipment instead of British and Austrian competitors, Beard dwells on how British consultants are completely free of nationalistic prejudice. The annual meeting of the Association Technique Maritime et Aeronautique opened two weeks ago, here's our report. The SE 5000 Baroudeur and the new Bathyscape both got papers, along with many on aspects of naval architecture and the manufacture and corrosion treatment of plates, and a look at the ultimate possibilities of steam.
On the 18th, The Engineer was impressed by a railway ditching machine from Jack Olding, a hand-operated oil switch from GEC, rotary plug valves from Harland, a flour delivery wagon, a cable-stringing trailer, new radiotelephony and direction-finding equipment for small ships from Marconi. On the 25th, by an automatic radio alarm receiver from Marconi that keeps a watch on the international alarm frequency for SOS signals, a vertical continuous miller from Adcock, a whole range of improved air compressors from Belliss and Morcom, a lorry loader, the University of Manchester's new radio telescope at Jodrell Bank, a small, self-priming centrifugal pump from Pegson, and a horizontal drilling, boring, and milling machine from Kitchen and Wade
Metallurgical Topics appears on the 25th, as usual. The Carnegie Institute has been looking at quenching cracks in steel tubes, finding a range of causes. F. W. Boulger and R. H. Frazier have caught up with attempts to improve fracture resistance in hot-rolled, semi-killed mild structural steels, which are not heat treated or oxidised because of production costs, so that instead control of composition and rolling is looked to for improvements. This paper looks specifically at carbon-manganese steels and finds a predictable relationship between alloy content and fracture risk. H. R. Wetenkamp looks at "Surface Cracking of Railway Wheels" in Trans. ASME, recommends lower carbon content if possible, and operational changes to reduce "thermal checks" that heat the steel past its transition point. Various authors are checked in with along the way to Richards and Bricks establishing the low temperature properties of beryllium-copper alloys.
Leaders
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| HMS Centaur: By Ministry of Defence Stock Images - http://www.defenceimagery.mod.uk/fotoweb/archives /5036-Stock%20Images/Archive/Royal%20Navy /45140/45140249.jpg, OGL 3, https://commons. wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47301291 |
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| Old and new Ikom Bridge, Cross River State, Nigeria, from the Beautiful Nigeria Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=472969295361848&id=100079463450446&set =a.155946753730772&locale=fr_CA |
"Western Automatic Computer of the National Bureau of Standards" describes the Bureau's high speed digital computer in Los Angeles, which is being used to solve problems for the aviation industry. Developed from the SEAC design, it uses Williams tubes and parallel processing, has a magnetic drum memory, uses punch cards for input. It has 2600 vacuum tubes, 3700 crystal diodes.
Industrial and Labour Notes for the 18th follows the failure of a general rail strike to eventuate so far, finds cablemakers in trouble with the Monopolies Commission, notes that exports continue strong, and two Launches and Trial Trips, both motorships, one cargo liner, one tanker. For the 25th, we have Board of Trade figures showing exports up, especially of engineering goods. The exporting situation to Canada is not ideal, and more British companies should set up Canadian subsidiaries for sales and repair services. Coal consumption is rising faster (3 million tons) than production (1 million), exports are up, but winter imports have been authorised. Foreign exchange will also be more available for American machinery imports this year. U.S. explosives consumption hit a new record this year. No Launches and Trial Trips on the 24th, so I will use the space to note that the two BSI specifications released this week both pertain to aircraft bolts and nuts.
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