Postblogging Technology, February 1956, II: Working Class Atoms

R_.C_.,
Shaughnessy,
Vancouver,
Canada


Dear Father:

A typically foggy winter here in San Francisco sees me with my magazines almost all sorted out just in time to celebrate the atomic age, held back in Britain by its obsolete industry and the stifling weight of atomic tradition. That's not how our distant forefathers gathered plutonium! Seriously, it's what the Americans are saying now that it is clear that Calder Hall will beat American commercial atomic power generation into service by a year or several. Unfortunately, the printer's dispute has kept The Engineer from going on and on about it, as it would surely love to do. I, on the other hand, will not go on and on, as I have documents to review. 

Your Loving Daughter,

Ronnie

Letters

St. Luke's Episcopalian in Smithfield, Virginia (1632 or 1682)
By Kallicrates at English Wikipedia, Public Domain,
 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26109415

Lincoln Yamato's defence of "Tokyo Rose" is that American Niseis feel that they are "really" citizens of Japan. OH, BOY! Joyce Stocking writes from Saint Petersburg, Florida to the effect that Americans are obsessed with the British monarchy because the British monarchy is so great. Joyce, you are going in the "Not Helping Corner" with Lincoln. Wright Carney Taylor and the editor have a learned disagreement about the proper nickname for the oldest surviving church in the U.S. John S. Graham, Truman Administration Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, writes to point out that the Truman Administration balanced the Federal budget last in 1951, not 1948, although it would be fair to point out that the $8 billion 1948 surplus was the largest surplus in U.S. history. Several people write in about the Olympics. Of five writers with opinions about the article about what's wrong with economists these days, three of them propose that economics doesn't take psychology seriously, one thinks economics has gone wrong scientifically, and the fifth is just a bit fatuous. For Your Information reports that Eldon Griffith is replacing Robert A. Haeger as Newsweek's chief foreign, or otherwise, London correspondent.

The Periscope reports that Trevor Gardner may have resigned as "Pentagon missile expert" because Charlie Wilson pushed him over suspicions that he was leaking to the Democrats, and that is why Ike complained that "others" were getting information he didn't have at his latest press conference. The fight in D.C. over the Upper Colorado River project is still dirty. Everyone agrees that Senator Douglas' plan to give $20 million in "foreign aid" to Soviet emigre groups is absolutely nuts. Secretary Dulles is complaining that he's had to deal with complaints from seven friendly nations over U.S. wheat dumping. Civil Defence Administrator Val Peterson thinks that we need the draft for civil defence. The Naval Research Office has heard that in the hear future a piloted rocket plane capable of reaching 75,000ft and 3300mph will be possible, and that, a little later, spaceships will travel "far from the Earth" powered by "energy from the Sun and stars." War over the Egyptian blockade of Eilat is expected by March unless the U.S. and Britain head it off. Reds are conspiring, etc., vis-a-vis Norwegian fishing grounds, Thailand, India, and the Formosa Straits. The Israeli Army is raising paratroopers. Mendes-France may be angling for a Popular Front. Where Are They Now reports that Frances Perkin is retired, but Mabel Walker Willebrandt is still practicing, the advantage of getting in the news when you are still young and cute. 

The Periscope Washington Trends reports that Republicans are going to go all in for the Northern Coloured vote in '56, that Democratic strategists think that Stevenson is hurting himself in California by being so moderate over segregation. They blame Kefauver, still the Democrat candidate favoured to come in second. 

National Affairs

The Democrat's unreasonable reaction to a perfectly normal bribe paid to Senator Francis Case by Superior Oil, which was looking for a fayourable vote on natural gas regulation, kicks the question of whether Ike will run in '56 out of the lead position in the section. You see, everyone does it, and anyway if there is an investigation, Ike might veto the "Democratic" bill. (Which is bad.) 

"Is the Worst True?" A full roundup of the "missile gap" that appeared between the U.S. and Russia this week. Do the Russians really have an Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) in service? Does the U.S. need a crash ICBM effort, as Trevor Gardner and Stuart Symington say? Or is it no big deal, as the President days? After that, we have column space to spare for the question of whether Ike will run in '56. I predict we'll know by November! Autherine Lucy's attempt to enroll at Alabama University led to four days of rioting in Tuscaloosa. At least everyone can agree that officials are under lots of stress and that our hearts should go out of them and meanwhile we should listen to wise and moderate Southerners telling us to keep our noses of their business. In L.A., Adlai Stevenson told the audience in the Watkins Hotel that he "would not advocate the use of federal troops to enforce integration," saying that that was what brought on the Civil War. He suggested 1 January 1963 as a target date for integration, and would not support a proposed amendment to deny Federal funds to states that refused to integrate. Rather, the best approach to integration was to steadily expand the school systems of all the states. The audience was not impressed, Newsweek reports. 

"Top Secret" You might have heard that the MacArthur controversy is back due to the publication of Truman's memoirs. Truman said that he was relieved for insubordination. Now MacArthur is claiming that he was canned for asking for an investigation into a spy ring that was purloining his secret plans, presumably those dastardly British spies. This has inspired Senator Eastland to call for an investigation into the lack of an investigation. Newsweek looks forward to the investigation getting even hotter. 

"Pluto Demoted" Pluto was originally discovered by an astronomical search for a planet gravitationally influencing Neptune's orbit, but now Gerald Kuiper of Yerkes Observatory says that it is only an escaped moon of Neptune and doesn't qualify as a planet at all on various grounds including slow rotation. Clyde Tombaugh has replied that as long as Pluto orbits on its own, it qualifies as a planet. President Eisenhower's Committee on Weather Control thinks that cloud seeding can increase rainfall by 9 to 17%, may reduce hailstorms and lightening. Whether seeding can affect hurricanes remains to be seen. 

A box story looks at various GI criminals overseas and asks whether they should be turned over to foreign justice, as, by recent reports, 81 already are. The question is now agitating Congress, and Newsweek investigates. It turns out that this is happening under Status of Forces Treaties signed with various powers, and now that the treaties are leading to prosecutions, the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, various other patriotic organisations, and Representative Frank T. Bow, Republican of Ohio are raising a fuss. Ernest K. Lindley uses Washington Tides to speculate about whether Ike will run in '56, a badly needed bit of coverage considering the story's deplorable fall from the front page. 

International

"Algeria: More War Before Peace?" Yes. The answer is "yes." Newsweek covers Premier Mollet's rapid reversal over Algeria, the prospects of political catastrophe in France, and the certainty of war in Algeria, where more colon terrorism can be expected. There's also an outline of the problem. There are 221,000 French troops in Algeria, 350,000 Algerian emigres in France, a million French settlers in Algeria. Nearly a third of Algeria's arable is owned by 25,000 French farmers, 40% of Algerian Moslems are unemployed, only 25% of Algerian Moslem children attend school, and as far as can be told, the colon solution is to "exterminate" the fellaghra. Or Moslems. Or both, to be safe. Malaya is even closer to being independent, Guy Burgess and Kim Maclean made public appearances in Moscow this week. West Germany and its NATO allies are having a little tiff over the size of West Germany's federal budget surplus, which the allies think could be put to some of the expenses of NATO forces stationed there, whereas the Germans, says Newsweek, have "Juliusturm psychology," which turns out to be a bit of history of the kind that sticks in the memories of old men rather than becoming real history. By which I mean I'd never heard the anecdote about how millions in gold from the French reparation payments after the 1870/1 war were held as a contingency reserve in Spandau Fortress' Juliusturm, but maybe you have.  Russia is offering trade deals to Turkey, which is in economic trouble and isn't getting any more American help, and Pakistan, which would just like to trade. It's all quite sinister. 

"How Far Up is Home?" At a televised press conference in Moscow this week at Molotov's residence, Russian and foreign journalists were shown a recovered U.S. weather balloon that was pretty clearly anything but a weather balloon, with a 1400lb instrument cabinet the size of a refrigerator with numerous telescopic cameras and even some recovered film of a Turkish military establishment. These balloons, released from West Germany and Turkey, were, Soviet spokesmen said, capable of crossing Russia and China in 4 to 7 days, and splashing down in the Pacific, where they had RDF beacons and flotation devices to make recovery easier. The whole thing forced Dulles to make a statement to the effect that they were so weather balloons, the cameras were meant to take pictures of clouds and just accidentally sometimes shot the ground, but anyway, the Secretary admits that this does look embarrassing, and promises to stop taking upside-down pictures of the weather while coincidentally flying over Red atom tests. Just as a neighbourly thing to do. In Spain, students are rioting because they think that the government, church, and military are corrupt and in support of the exiled heir, and also against pro-Falange students who have been attacking their demonstrations. In South Africa, the Nationalists want us to know tht they really, really don't like Jan Smuts. 

Over there in Canada Ottawa has pointed out that, being that it exists, New York needs to check in with it before it fiddles with the Peace Bridge. The St. Laurent government continues to disintegrate, with C. D. Howe explaining that he misled the Commons on the lifting of the Canadian embargo on arms exports to the Near East because he is senile. (On the issue, it was explained that Canadian exports would be restricted to ones that don't cause "aggression.") Also, the Foreign Minister's "Not necessarily recognition, but recognition if necessary") position on Red China is very traditional, but also worth a blat from the Opposition benches. 

Business

The Periscope Business Trends reports that the very minor and painless recession that is going to happen is going to be even less painful than we thought, say many experts. Unless something bad happens, like all that inventory doesn't sell. The cotton textile industry wants tariffs on Japanese blouses (3 million imported last year) on the grounds of they're not making as much money as they'd like. Chrysler, which had earnings of $100 million in 1955, up five times on 1954, is trying out GM-style decentralisation, and some minor or already reported items like TWA's long-awaited jet order for 8 707s.

Lead article: "Antitrust: Age of Consent" A discussion of all the consent decrees that Justice has rung up in the last few weeks. It's because they're slaps on the wrist, the article suggests. Yet more pictures of that ridiculous Goodyear rubber airplane. Pamela Woolworth has bought quite the ranch in Paraguay, a bank in Salt Lake City gets a two page story, U.S. shippers want it on record that they like the St. Lawrence Seaway. Products: What's New reports Trio Chemical Works of Brooklyn's new germicidal floor wax, and U.S. Hoffman's turbine-powered runway sweeper. Henry Hazlitt discovers yet another way of not writing about actual business in Business Tides by publishing the obituary of H. L. Mencken (who died two weeks ago) that none of his friends would embarrass him by printing somewhere else. It's mostly somehow an incredibly misinformed rant about Thorstein Veblen. 

Science, Medicine, Education

"Science Special Report: The Atom At Work: How Soon?" Fifty years from now, we're told, atomic power will be a worldwide commonplace, it will "give most of the planet uniformly cheap (if not free) electrical power," and there will be atomic planes and rocket ships. Food and clothing, medicine and crops will be improved and transmuted. But "the way to this goal is slow, contrary to the claims of the new race of 'quickie' atomic prophets." The U.S. with its abundant resources, needs it least, but power-hungry Britain is eager to go ahead. The U.S. has fourteen demonstration plants proposed or under construction, the first seven of which have gone far enough that Newsweek reports their aggregate output of 850,000 kWh, enough to power Boston. These are meant to prove things like the life of uranium charges, of reactors (fifteen years, or more?), and likely liability insurance against the not-unlikely possibility that they will overheat and spew radioactivity around their neighbourhood. Admiral Rickover estimates that the Shippington reactor will be delivered at a cost of 5.2 cents per kWh compared with the 0.6 cents cost of oil and hydroelectric "in most of the country." New reactors will be cheaper, but are not likely to be competitive. The overseas aspect of the President's Atoms for Peace proposal have been "sputtering" since the Geneva talks, because the Russians and British are surprisingly far ahead, making it hard to position United States industry as an exporter of anything but enriched fuel uranium. Britain will open Calder Hall in October, delivering 90,000 kW/h, much of it admittedly going to produce plutonium at a nearby plant, but seventeen plants generating 20 MW/h will follow, generating up to 20% of Britain's electrical power by 1975, compared with an expected 10--15% of U.S. electrical power being generated atomically at the same date, albeit still more in absolute terms than in Britain. British plant is deemed to be cumbersome and old-fashioned (How can that even be?), and Britain lacks nuclear experts, but plant will be proven and available on export markets. The Russians propose to have 2--2.5 million kW/h installed power built by 1960 at a capital investment cost of $5 to $6 billion, and the very size of the investment seems to imply that the plant will be available for export.  The French are going ahead, but see themselves as eight years behind the Americans, but have the advantage of large domestic uranium deposits and new concentrations now being mapped in Madagascar. Germany, whee coal costs twice as much as in the U.S., is in a "frenzy" of development. Various other countries, including Canada, have  atomic plans, leading U.S. business to complain that AEC secrecy makes it hard for them to compete on the export market. 

Britain is having industrial decline in industries that don't even exist yet!

Finally, a caution: "A wise Martian" would find all of this questionable. There is no plan to deal with the vast radioactive waste that would accumulate in a world with thousands of reactors. Some kind of worldwide regulatory administration is necessary to deal with all of this. 

People tend to get sick in the winter, here's a warning with some statistics. The working theory is that it's because it gets cold. (To be fair, the theories get a bit more elaborate about what, precisely, the coldness does to cause the increase in everything from colds to heart attacks. They mostly turn on circulation.) A mother in New York is suing over the "forcible" polio vaccination of her son. 

Did you know that there was a National School Boards Association? And that it has an annual national conference, and that the conference happened last week, and Newsweek is going to cover it for some reason even though the reporter thought it was a bit ridiculous? The U.S. Merchant Marine Academy has been made an official service academy, and everyone down at King's Point  is out to celebrate. Periscoping Education reports that Jacobo Arbenz is going to give a lectures series at Moscow University in the fall, that the Calvert School of Business is working on a report card of foreign educational systems for American businessmen sent abroad, and that Cornelia Meigs and Margaret Farrand Smith are female educators with books coming out about female educators or education.  

Press, Newsmakers

If there is any lingering bitterness over the Detroit press strike, people are keeping it to themselves. The Bridey Murphy story hits new heights of silliness as reporter John Grover of the Mirror-News has his own hypnotic regression and recalls his life as a Seventeenth Century Hamburger leathermaker. The New York Post implies in print that the 112 out of 193 U.S. dailies that did not cover the Eastland Committee's investigation of communism are all communist. It's down at the bottom of the column and hopefully no-one is looking, so Press makes fun of some Eisenhower "Will he/Won't he" stories. 

Marilyn Monroe, Laurence Olivier, Terrence Ratigan, Sir Winston Churchill, Mimi Benzell, Robert Montgomery, Tallulah Bankhead, Tennessee Williams, Georgette the cat [not this one], Ernest Hemingway, and one royal are in the column, all for the usual reasons, and a schoolboy from Iowa who dialed Premier Bulganin at the Kremlin. Macdonald Carey has had a baby, Randolph E. Paul, Hugh Trenchard, Ann Cooper Hewitt Nicholson, Luis Maria Martinez, Henry Chretien, and Chauncey W. Reed have died. I don't normally comment on circumstances of death, but Paul was the greatest living American tax lawyer before he had a heart attack at the witness table during a Congressional hearing. And no, it wasn't because he was being grilled about something shady. He was usually up in Washington either defending the progressive income tax or attacking the Swiss for protecting Nazi assets. Still. What a way to go! (If you're wondering why I'm on about this so long, the senior partners knocked off early yesterday to go to some kind of memorial. That kind of thing makes an impression!)

Movies has The Ladykillers, fresh from killing it in England. At Gunpoint is an old-fashioned Western from Allied Artists in which the good guys kill everything. Newsweek approves, as it has had enough of "problem movies" masquerading as Westerns, and assumes that so have audiences.  Periscoping Movies hasn't done that thing where it repeats what it heard from the agents of people like Barbara Hutton, Alec Guinness, and Mitzi Gaynor in a while, so here you go. The Bottom of the Bottle, from Fox is not a problem movie despite a promising title.

Books  has Ping-chia Kuo on China, who is likely to offend the Koumintang by suggesting that the Reds are a bit of alright, but needs to be paid attention to for showing exactly why the Koumintang got chased off the mainland with their tails between their legs. (It's not because of inflation caused by flood tides of American church lady money. It was corruption and inequality. Well, I'm sure it was that, too!) Rehna Cloete, who I assume is Boer or something and so gets excused for her name, has The Nylon Safari, which is a "kidding" book about safaris, the only question being whether it is a parody or a comedy. Whichever, it's fun. The English translation of Proust's Jean Santeuil (Gerard Hopkins) is just developing the mature Proustianism for which Proust is best known. Anthony Powell's The Acceptance World is also silly, b ut not very good. Herbert Gold's the Man Who Was Not With It gets my award for best title of 1956, and is a challenging book about circus people. Raymond Moley's Perspectives runs long and gets inside cover space for an attack on the Upper Colorado project based on an interview with Robert LeRoy Cochran. 

Robert Hotz's Editorial deals with "Confusion on the Missile Program," which, in Aviation Week's mind, exists in the head of Senator Saltonstall, who thinks that the U.S. has a "growing stockpile" of ICBMs, instead of, as Hotz goes on to point out, none at all. Russia has demonstrated a missile with a 900 mile range, anti-missile defence has leaped to the forefront of concerns, Symington and Henry Jackson have both pointed out that the Russians have missiles of much greater range in testing, and Congress must probe this disgraceful state of affairs before our patriotic aviation industry has to face the shareholders. Also, it would be nice if the President gave Ned Curtis a do-nothing job investigating civil aviation, because he is a swell guy.

 

Industry Observer reports that Bell has a $12 million Army contract to look at anti-missile missiles, Hughes is working on the fire control for the Douglas "Ding Dong" atomic air-to-air missile, work continues on missile nose cones, Martin has a more compact packing system to deliver Matador missiles to the field, Radioplane's new supersonic missile is the MX-2013, which must be very advanced considering it has an "X" in it, like North American's X-15, also noted. Westinghouse is working away on the XJ54 and XJ74, which it figures it will sell to the Navy, because those guys spend so much time at sea they'll buy anything. Convair's got so many missile projects on the go it is going to set up separate departmens for Navy and Air Force projects. Pantobase is working on new landing gears for the C-130s, KLM will soon choose between the Electra and the Vanguard, the new gray paint finish on service planes is anti-corrosion to protect them from rocket exhaust, India is in final  negotiations to build a factory to make Folland Gnats, and the British are still fiddling with the Hunters' guns. Washington Roundup reports that Congress finally has something it can sink its teeth into besides making fun of Bill Knowland. Leverett Saltonstall is also ridiculous, and people are lining up to tell him so. Congress is also investigating why the Air Force budget is so small. EVeryone has agreed that the press should see some pictures of the Snark (I think all the inside jokes are being kept inside). No-one can agree on what Air Force generals should be allowed to say about the Red menace, and Congress is arguing about who gets airport funding. 

So, yes, Radioplane has a missile. You read that right.

Robert Hotz reports for Aviation Week about the Russian 900 mile missile and various American responses to the effect of "Look what we have under development." As you've heard, Stuart Symington is trying to fend off "Scoop" Jackson in his position at the head of the pack of Very Concerned Senators. Ramo-Woodbridge is getting as much work managing missile contracts as ARDC, a headline implies, and an inside story talks about the launcher that is taking the Regulus missile to sea. IBM has a new bombing radar for the B-52, the BRANE (GET IT!?!) or "Bombing Radar Navigational Equipment," which is a 1500lb analog system that does not use inertial navigation "at this time." Douglas has announced a larger version of the DC8, and General Thomas White's statement on the missile gap vis-a-vis the Russians gets a full page story. Russia also has swept-wing bombers and a thousand fighters better than the F-86, and one under development that is better than the F-100. In conclusion, Communism is awful and awesome. Not so fast, LeMay says in a separate story, SAC still scares the Reds! 

Scraping the bottom of the news barrel here as GE installs a new supersonic wind tunnel, and Cessna works on a boundary layer control system for helicopters. (Slots on the rotors.) Glenn Garrison reports that "First U.S. Bi-Directional System Will Begin Operations in November," meaning that you'll be able land at Idlewild 4-22 from either direction thanks to it getting two  ILS, one on each end. The main hurdle was a smokestack just off the property at one end. It is mainly these kinds of off-the runway obstacles (for example, a ship canal at La Guardia) that are keeping more airports from putting in "bi-directional" runway controls. Hiller is working on a collision avoidance system for its helicopters that turns out to be brighter headlights.  

Management has a story that I would ordinarily ignore except that it is so, well, anyway, Sperry has a new management tool called "feedback," like in cybernetics! Management tool. Like, making meetings run smoother. (And controlling inventory, to be fair.) With cybernetics! It's science! Or something. 

Dan Kurzman, who I hope got a trip to Japan out of it, gets a Production story about Japan assembling the T-33 and hence "Enter[ing] the Jet Age." Kawasaki will build 180 T-33s. Good for Japan, good for Kawasaki, good for Lockheed. And speaking of names from the past in need of some easy American aviation work, Roy Fedden goes on with a third installment of his latest on what's wrong with British aviation, explaining that "Equipment Dearth Slows British Research." Orenda has a method for forging titanium jet rotors that "eases the problem." 

Philip J. Klass reports at length for Aviation on a heat shield insert for vacuum tubes from the Navy Electronics Laboratory. Filter Centre reports tests for TACAN, Canadian VOR, airborne transistors, a (British --Pye) television camera that can be installed in a helicopter, and growing airline interest in radio altimeters, the coming thing of twenty years and counting. New Avionics Products reports high frequency silicon diodes in sub-miniature glass coats, perfect as "video detectors," and high power silicon rectifiers, from Transitron Electronics of Massachusetts. Bogue has germanium rectifiers and silicon NP transistors. Western Electric has "electronic devices" to Signal Corps specifications. Also thermal detectors, a tantalum capacitor (Fansteel Metallurgical), a "linear pot," film resistor, the smallest TACAN duplexer yet, and a transducer from Fairchild. Showing that old-time Aviation Week style guides are not dead, some hack writes "Plastic Fairing Ups Prop Performance" to describe a foam-plastic propeller from Curtiss-Wright. Walter Kidde has a new fire crash proofing system. 

Safety covers the 15 July Northwest Airlines landing accident at Yakima, in which there were  no  injuries. (Co-)Pilot error is the conclusion. Air Transport reports that Allegheny is having no trouble with its Martin 2-0-2s, "death plane" reputation notwithstanding. (That's my paraphrase, nothing they said.) Except that they've already lost one to an engine fire. On the ground, to be sure. Canadair's naval version of the Britannia gets some press, Slick has cancelled its Super Constellation order after getting some DC6As following Airwork's "retirement" from the Atlantic cargo run. Captain Robson's Cockpit Viewpoint takes another look at the air traffic control problem. Letters has a long one from Willis Nye of California on the "Airpower Fraud." The U.S. spends on planes, but not on training ground crews or spare part stockpiles.  

I can't even begin to explain. Check the Wiki on Lucius Beebe.

Letters has Laura Pierce of Jefferson, Maine, complaining about those new fashions, George Romney, better known as the President of AMC. is worried about the Soviets' ability to "mobilise the envy of others" against the U.S., while on the other hand Rear Admiral John Hayes thinks that the Red threat is greatly overstated because they just don't have the transportation infrastructure. David Sarnoff and two other fairly prominent men are worried about the Reds and the threat to capitalism. Lucius Beebe telegraphs a complaint about Newsweek coverage of his ostentatious lifestyle, which was presented as a bad look for American propaganda. Several academics who are working off their draft at a lab at Edwards write to say that this is a good thing. I'm not sure how well long term research programs will get along with Selective Service, but what do I know? For Your Information reports on the fundraiser for the American Heart Association that it is doing, and the favourable notice its special report on the Russian economy got from Pravda. It wants to remind everyone that the Pravda review left out the criticism, just in case you thought that Newsweek was getting soft on Communism. 

NAA/Rocketdyne did Saturn, the first sketches of which date to 1956 as
a 1.5m lb satellite launch first stage. Image credit: NASA via Wiki

The Periscope reports that the U.S. has captured "at least 50 short range Russian weather balloons," but is keeping mum about it because the U.S. doesn't like to make a fuss, not like those Commies. Senator Case, we can now report, is a bit of a prima donna, but Governor Joe Foss won't run against him, after all. Yes, the Marine Corps ace  is now the Governor of South Dakota. Bill Knowland's campaign is flailing. Will Ike run, or not, etc. Bendix is working on a fountain-pen sized Geiger counter, perfect for dealing with atomic attacks conveniently! North American, which will provide the first stage rocket engines for the Convair and Martin ICBMs, has a million-pound engine in the works. A German Foreign Ministry official has been suspended for three weeks now because someone noticed that he used to be a Nazi. Also, it is reported that MVD counter-intelligence arrested some people in East Berlin last week, and that, after ten years of occupation, the Reds just noticed all the tunnels under Berlin being used to move spies, smuggle goods, and so on, and are acting to shut them down. British and Malayan police expect the biggest and bloodiest Communist street riots yet in the coming weeks, all orchestrated from Peking, of course. Russia is selling the Arabs rocket launchers. The volume of East-West trade is increasing, observers in Vienna spotted an attempted Hungarian defector plane being turned back by MiGs, and West Berliners are buying televisions that can pick up East Berlin television stations, when they start broadcasting, which is bad news, of course. Where Are They Now catches up with Joe Cook, who is living in a spooky house at the top of a secluded hill, while Phil Cook lives in a giant mansion. I guess one of them spent his big-time old-time radio money better than the other. 

The Periscope Washington Trends reports expected Congressional bun fights over farm aid (something will happen), school funding (won't, all tangled up in desegregation) and missiles. Look to Congress calling for another missile effort reorganisation,

National Affairs

The question of whether or not Ike will run is back as lead story, Thank All-Benevolent Heaven! As heavily foreshadowed, the President is vetoing the latest national gas regulation reform bill on the back of the Case scandal. The U.S. is the latest to have a scandal over arms exports to the Near East. Delta Kappa Epislon's MIT chapter is in trouble for getting a boy killed in a hazing episode. The second major lead story asks whether the Kefauver campaign can stop Stevenson. No, it can't If the Republicans can run a bald guy, the Democrats can run a bald guy. It's the last chance a bald guy is going to have to be President this century. Heck, a woman will probably be President before the next bald guy! So it's Stevenson's turn, it's just math! 

Charlie Wilson's latest headache (I'm actually beginning to feel sorry for him) is that the Defence Department can't keep anyone, David Quarle, on his way out, takes a moment, along with Arleigh Burke, to tell everyone to quiet down about the "missile gap." It doesn't exist, it's not that bad, and it's fine. No-one's crashed a transport plane loaded with Selective Service boys in a while, so the Marines have stepped in. (Not mentioned in the story, which focused on Marine Corps bungling of the death notifications) is that this was the third crash in Niles Canyon in five years. Thirty-seven percent of Americans in a recent poll said that the country would go to a thirty hour week at some point. Ernest K. Lindley uses Washington Tides to point out that the RNC better give serious thought to Eisenhower's running mate considering the odds that  he'll drop dead in office. The problem is that everyone likes Nixon except the majority of the voters, and they do get a say! 

Business

The Periscope Business Trends reports that if Ike runs again it will be good for the economy, but if doesn't run it won't be bad for the economy. GE will test the rocket that is scheduled to carry the first U.S. satellite into space next fall. Chrysler has three contracts for ship-launched surface-to-surface missiles, Revlon has two $64,000 Question follow-up shows in the works for the fall, and Lockheed has a $60 million contract for long range radar warning planes. 

The lead story looks at how the stock market has been reacting to breaking Presidential health news. Follows the latest vicissitudes of Pat McGinnis' reign at the New Haven & Hartford. And, you are reading it here first, Harold Macmillan is raising the Bank of England rate to deal with inflation, because in Britain, prosperity is bad. Big expansions in the Midwest natural gas pipeline system are under way, to be paid for by rate increases explained in terms of a $7.50/year increase in the price to heat a six-room Chicago house, or, in other words, several billion(!) dollars. Newsweek notices Paris' SVP telephone answer service, and plans for new copper mines. "American Women at Work" get a box story, and Henry Hazlitt tries to do some business journalism with "The War on Big Business," as he determines that anti-trust is anti-capitalism.

Science, Medicine, Education

"Pictures in the Dark" People really seem to find night cameras fascinating. Baird Associates have an infrared camera that does not require an infrared floodlight.

 "President's Case" When news of the President's heart attack broke, doctors reminded us that up to two-thirds of victims can keep on working, and it seems that the President is one of them! Pretty much everyone will be able to get a polio vaccine this year. Sparine is the latest treatment for schizophrenia. Periscoping Medicine reports a treatment in vitro for children threatened by Rh blood factor, while a liver enzyme seems to explain why addicts need ever larger doses to maintain their highs, a quick blood test may detect blood damage, glutamic acid shortages have been proven in epileptic brains, and amniotic fluid samples can be used to predict baby sex. 

The University of Alabama is going to stay segregated, its president says, because campus is too dangerous for Coloured students. South Carolina's State Library Board is in trouble for getting rid of the Bobbsey Twins. The Board explains itself: It's not book banning, it's that the Twins are stupefying! Princeton gets a page and a bit because Woodrow Wilson is retrospectively in the news for some reason that I could not discover without actually reading an entire article about Princeton in Days Gone By, so take it from me that it's the anniversary of his best golf score. 

International has broken a story for the ages: "Master Plan for Red Conquest" See, a Newsweek correspondent was hiding in a Jewish cemetery in Zurich one night when the Elders of Communism gathered to lay out their plan to each other, as master villains are wont to do. Or maybe it was Khrushchev's speech to the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party, where he laid out his sinister plan to achieve a prosperous country and a buoyant economy, thereby proving that Communism isn't so bad after all. Communism truly is awful. Leon Volkov confirms that the speech was indeed part of a sinister plan to promote Communism. Meanwhile the European communist parties have implemented the even more sinister plan of being cooperative and constructive and thereby lulling suspicions for when Mollet's government collapses next Tuesday. It is snowing in Rome, the French Communists have excommunicated Pierre Herve, Premier Karamanlis  has discovered the advantages of running for election against Great Britain, some Indian royals are misbehaving, the British have abolished capital punishment in a free vote in the Commons, there is an incredibly boring fight going on in the German Bundestag between the Christian Democrats (conservatives) Free Democrats (conservatives, but in Bavaria) over how much to be not anti-communist. Finnish voters have rewarded the left there for the Soviet withdrawal from Porkkala naval base by electing a left wing President, Franco is reacting to the riots by purging the right wingers in his cabinet, and U.S. exercises involving a parachute assault are taking place in Thailand. Newsweek still hates Nehru, and Giovanni Gonchi, specifically, is the bad man who is being too nice to the Italian communists. 

On this continent, Peru is having a bit of a revolt in its far-flung Amazonian territory, and we get a brief overview of the West Indies Federation.

The anti-communist banalities are just dressing on a four page survey of the Soviet art world. I just don't
have much to say about it because it is mostly music and dance, though there's a bit about novelists. 

Press, TV-Radio, Newsmakers

Now that the Detroit press strike is over, it's time for a circulation war, so let's get out there and find some sensational crimes in the ethnic communities! Princess Margaret escapes Newsmakers for Press as rumours of her imminent conversion to Catholicism circulate. 

Art, yes, Art! has a story about Communism being awful. Specifically, the "thaw" in the Soviet art world is in danger of "freezing over" because if this and that. 

A two page story about the relationship between TV and Broadway that is mostly about what a swell career Noel Coward is having. Ratings of The Honeymooners are falling, either because Perry Cuomo is taking viewers or because it's just not as funny as it used to be in its live days. 

1956 was a different time.

Wallis Simpson, Albert Blaser, King Hussein, Robert Schlesinger and Linda Christian, Ham Fisher, and Joseph Welch are in the column for the usual reasons. So is H. L. Mencken, even though he's dead. An un-named high school girl correspondent of Senator Norris Cotton of New Hampshire writes for twelve pin-up pictures of Senators, carefully selected, because so many are "funny looking." Girl, eventually you will appreciate the ones who make you laugh. 

 Movies

The Return of Don Camillo is a sequel to the successful Italian movie. The Last Hunt is the movie of the Milton Lott novel about the last of the buffalo hunts. It is well intended and well shot, at least. the Man Who Never Was is about clever Allied skullduggery leading up to the invasion of Sicily. From Fox.

Books has David Ewen's life of George Gershwin, David Karp's novel, All Honorable Men, Samuel Flagg Blemis' monograph on John Quincy Adams and the Union, and J. M. Scott's Sea-Wyf. The Ewen review is really just an excuse to give us Gershwin's biography with a bit of Ewen's interpretation. Karp's book is awful and anti-anti-communist, the Adams biography is one of the admiring kind of biography, and the Scott novel is a book about some people in a lifeboat that collapses at the end. Periscoping Books makes a brief appearance, but aside from beating up Margaret Truman, hasn't much to say.  

Raymond Moley uses Perspectives to explain that the President's job is presidenting, and gets easier as you get more practice. 

Robert Hotz's Editorial is "Twining, Quarles Confirm Airpower Budget Fraud" If you haven't been following closely, and I can't blame you considering how these stories blend together, the Administration says that it is proceeding towards the 137 wing target with all due speed, but it can be shown from the budget that they are actually putting on the brakes by not spending more money. Industry Observer reports that the Ding Dong will use a Rocketdyne liquid-fuel rocket motor, that Boeing is working on a new chemical fuel for its supersonic bomber, which will require something more than bigger versions of the J75. The Pentagon is taking another look at the B-58 now that its new tactical bomber is almost sure to be cancelled. Egypt is getting 28 Il-28s, the first production J79 made  its first service flight on an F-104A last week, the Air Force has demonstrated the data link for the SAGE system, MIT and AC Sparks want us to know that their inertial bombing system is under development, Cessna has  a pressurised business machine under development, the ARDC has given technical planning documents to six manufacturers for a long-ranged rescue vehicle that's sort of like a helicopter and sort of like a plane. The Air Force is inspecting the Phase One proposals for the next interceptor, and the Saunders-Roe supersonic interceptor will use two de Havilland Gyrons and one de Havilland Spectre rocket engine. Washington Roundup looks at decisions to increase Air Force R&D funding after all, Louis Rothschild taking the blame in hearings, also funding, missile gap, more classified photos being released to the press, the Army pressing for a posthumous promotion for Billy Mitchell, and some appointments at the CAA.

Aviation Week is on about awful Communists being awesome,  this week per General Twining's testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee. There is some fairly extensive reporting on how many planes the Red Air Force has in service considering how Top Secret the Communists are. Also, "Quarles Reports to Congress: Only Two USAF Missiles in Production" That is, and specifically, they're just air-to-air missiles, no ICBMs or IRBMs. Gardner's comments on national TV about the budget guaranteeing "The Second Best Air Force" also gets a full page story. On the flip side, Congres continues to investigate profits and industry complains about all the inspection board visits. 

Eugene Littore, the "Assistant Director of Engineering, Flettner Aircraft Corporation," reports for Aeronautical Engineering on "Russia's Rapid Helicopter-Design Process," by giving us a potted history of two centuries of Russian aviation enthusiasm, which apparently gives them the experience to design all those helicopters that Eugene saw in a newspaper story about a helicopter show in Russia. AiResearch has a test facility in  Arizona working on ancillaries for the atomic plane. So at least they'll be ready when we discover new laws of physics that make atom planes practical! Then it is off to a symposium in Iowa to hear that "Titanium Knowledge Lags Benind Need," and an insert pictorial of Stroukoff's work on a "Pantobase" for the C-130, or, in other words, ski gear, presumably for Antarctica. 

Like a toddler on the loose, Roy Fedden just keeps on going with the fourth part of his semi stream-of-conscious diatribe about everything that's wrong with the British aviation industry, this week turning in the one about "British Leaders Swamped by Tradition" "We'll build the supersonic rocket plane as soon as we're done our fox hunt, Tally-ho! Where's my wig?" Oh,well, it's February. What else are you going to put in your magazine?

Avionics has some fine reporting from Douglas and WADC about the new "Device [that] Boost Computer Flexibility" from Douglas and WADC. It "generates an independent variable signal as a function of independent variables," making it "extremely useful for analog computers," and it  has a very euphonious name, PHOSIAC, and I will not sound out the acronym! Filter Centre reports that orders for DME equipment are surging, so I guess industry is confident that it has beaten TACAN back. Tests of the Air Force's Volscan "return to base" system will begin in the fall, at the same time that there will be a great conference in Arizona on "Electrics in Airplanes," perhaps including the interception-proof radio the Air Force wants. New Avionics Products has the usual even smaller electronic components that function at higher altitudes, a big section on power supplies this week, and just one entry under Computers and Data Process, a Geida analog computer. Cockpit Viewpoint is back to talk, again, about air traffic control problems. Letters is a full page this week, with E. J. White writing from his country house in Surrey to explain that aircraft fire suppression systems aren't as senstive and fallible as all that, most of the diagnosed faults being faulty wiring, R. F. Adickes of TWA explaining why industry was right to put pressure on the CAA to revise the Sandspits accident report, Peter King of Bristol explaining why the future of Bristol helicopters is bright notwithstanding the Type 91 cuts. R. M. Dodler, who proudly signs himself "attorney at law," says that we won't solve air traffic control problems until we talk to the controllers. Omar Midyett is worried about radios and private flyers, W. E. W. Petter writes to say that he believes in the Gnat and is not going anywhere. Thomas Bissell writes to explain why patent law is hard. Except, just very occasionally, when you get to fly off to L.A or have quite meetings in Palo Alto, which are a very small share of the young patent lawyer's business life, which is mainly spent looking at patents and court cases. 

The Engineer, 17 and 24 February 1956

Leaders 

On the 17th, the story of the day is "British Agricultural Engineering," as the sixth National Power Farming conference kicked off in Bournemouth with a paper on "Machinery Design" by Eric Alley showing that British agricultural engineering is absolutely top notch, but farmers aren't using enough of it. The Engineer then takes a worldwide tour d'horizon to look at resistance to waterworks, from Scottish hydroelectric schemes to Sudan vs. Egypt over the Aswan Dam. Also, we apologise to the reader(!!!) that printing troubles have made the paper thinner than usual. 

On the 24th, Leaders and the Seven-Day Journal are combined as The Engineer reminds us of the continuing trouble with the printers, observes that it cannot deal with th e Restrictive Practices Act in the space allotted, looks at international atomic collaboration between British and American firms, and regrets the latest hike in the discount rate to 5.5%, accompanied by a suspension of the investment allowance, reductions in the bead and milk subsidies, a reduced capital program for nationalised industries, and further restrictions on hire purchase. There has been a settlement in the engineers' wage dispute. 

Letters and Literature

On the 17th, three co-signers from two Birmingham labs are very impressed with the advanced courses for engineers in industry that they recently took. George France thinks what is needed now is even more engineer qualifying exams. M. H. Lajoy's Industrial Automatic Controls gets a review. It is a good introduction. 

On the 24th, R. N. Newton, Practical Construction of Warships, 2nd Edition, P. F. R. Venable, Technnical Education, and A. C. Twort (which is a real name), The Supervision of Civil Engineering Construction are reviewed. The reviewer likes Newton, but can't resist showing off by picking off mistakes. Venable gets a positive notice, although reading between the lines, the book might be a bit tedious, while Twort is dinged for being incomplete, although fascinating on the question of claims for extra payments. 

A Union Pacific GTEL, actually running on bunker fuel 
By User:JeremyA - Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.
wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=601906

On the 17th, Langley Morris' "Thermal Rating of Fluid-Cooled Transformer Cores" is the lead article. It's about how more cooling is better. That's right in the abstract! Follows L. Fine and F. Menelaus, "Face Milling Titanium 150A" Good to see a group working on a titanium problem instead of complaining that not enough is being done, or blandly announcing that you have a solution. It is a detailed account of the miller developed by William Jessops and Sons and Short and Harland. Advertorials for a residential building assembled from precast concrete framing beams, and a germanium rectifier suited for the extreme loads on a cinema projector follow, then BSI standards for steel plate, sheets and strip; impulse magnetos; and hard drawn steel wire for prestress concrete, then N. H. Mackworth, introducing a multipart article on "Work Design and Training for Future Industrial Skills, which seems to be about fatigue-induced errors on the 17th, and errors induced by complex control systems on the 24th.

Advertorials for a detergent/oxidation prevention lubricant additive, a closed circuit for dry clean air supply from Hymatic, a flameproof limit switch, a self-priming lubricant pump, and a dust collector for a very esoteric-sounding tool, a "fettling chisel." The Engineer then uses its precious space to reproduce some engravings that ran in the 1860 number, just so that it can say that it made some effort to celebrate the centenary. Since they consist of a locomotive, a steam carriage, and a single-beam engine of no great novelty, you can get your own issue! 

Silverdene, as El Kanimi. 

On the 17th, American Section looks at "American Gas Turbines in 1955," specifically an extended look at the GE coal-burning locomotive turbines. The Section visits the UNIVAC Computing Centre at the Franklin Institute, notes the way that Bureau of Reclamation dams reduced the impact of the western floods, and covers the NBS' decision to abandon the master Saybolt viscometers, which it has used to calibrate industry's viscometers, which maintain the standards of the nation's lubricating oils. From now on, calibration charts will be used, instead. Two Launches and Trial Trips, a steam oil tanker and a cargo MV. 

On the 24th, an even more abbreviated Continental Engineering News visits the usual asortmernt of French hydroelectric stations and German shipyards (to look at a jib crane), then reviews the current state of Austro-Soviet trade and visits a German fair celebrating German handicrafts. Miscellanea celebrates the Napier Oryx passing its type test, and the announcement of a new power station at Northfleet. 

(The Engineer's version has two passengers seated abreast.)