Postblogging Technology, January 1956, I: Why Would You Risk All This Progress With Adlai?

R_.C_.,
Shaughnessy,
Vancouver,
Canada

Dear Father:

Where in some boring parts of the world the story is having to book a last minute flight into Vancouver because of catastrophic and avoidable flooding in northern California and Oregon, we needn't lose focus on the real news, which is that someone is talking Tony Eden down in London, and the President's latest appearance in Key West implies that the GOP might have to run Nixon against Adlia, eww. And while it might seem as though Fortune has gone political in an even more unhinged way this month, it is actually the fact that there has never been so much progress, and we'll lose it all the moment we vote for "groupocracy."

On the bright side, we're currently not invading Jordan or atom bombing Peking, and ElectroData has landed on my desk because I am known to have an interest in the College Boy. Sybil Rock is a delight! On the bright side, I'm not going to have any trouble making my hours. On the less bright side, I think I have children?

Your Loving Daughter,

Ronnie

The Economist, 7 January, 1956

Leaders

The Economist is very upset with Premier Faure. It even calls him by his full name! All this electoral manoeuvring to keep the left out of power on account of how it might go Communist is only having the effect of keeping Mendes-France out, and he's the only politician with a program. Which, we skip right over, is getting out of Algeria, which is the problem. 

"Without Conscription?" Getting rid of conscription would rake in the votes, and we can agree that it isn't working very well, but the alternative is essentially the hope that raising pay will bring in enough regulars to keep up an army of 300,000, a Navy of 125,000, and an RAF of 225,000. And that hope doesn't seem particularly realistic. 

"Rice and Rouble Diplomacy" North Vietnam, China, and North Korea are short of rice and meanwhile Burma has an unsold rice surplus. Now Russia is buying rice in Burma. This is obviously a Communist plot, since the Burmese might be tempted to spend their roubles on Russian goods. The one thing it is obviously not in any way, is a failure of capitalism.

"The New Party's Manifesto" The Economist makes hilarious jokes about politics these days.

Notes of the Week

"No Ordinary Sheep" Unions will want higher wages in the new year, leading to higher prices for the public, who will be the real victim, and not the business owners who take The Economist, who won't be affected at all and therefore do not care. At all. Stop saying that they care! 

Tank Museum

"Opposition by Interview" I should note that in the middle of the joke Leader about a New Party there was a particularly hilarious one about Egypt not being an obvious threat to the peace of the world, bringing us to a typical round-the-mulberry-bush Note to the effect that Hugh Gaitskell's recent intervention in the Egyptian "muddle," which is to say, the government's opaque response to some arms exports to Egypt, was bad. Fortunately there is a specific Note following about "Nasser's Tanks" to clarify for the proverbial visitor from Mars. It has recently been revealed that a large number of old Valentine tanks have been sold to Egypt, and the point is not that we are lumbering Egypt with archaic death traps, but that Britain is violating the 1950 Anglo-French agreement to keep arms exports to Israel and the Arab countries in equilibrium. The magazine suggests that it is time to bring the Russians into the agreement, since a new war in the Middle East is in no-one's interest. We then move on to Selwyn Lloyd trying to cool down the Middle East from the Foreign Office, or, contrariwise, inflame it, and incidentally learn that Ben Gurion has extended Israeli national service by a year. It seems to me that the following Note about the increasing number of vacant sees in the Church of England might be more worthy of being an aside in someone else's Note?

"A Suggestion for Mr. Thorneycroft" I can't even remember if The Economist is more anti-monopolist than it is pro-monopolist any more. It does agree with the minister that "industrial resale price maintenance" is wrong, though. Speaking of stories that go on and on, the Saar, where the pro-German vote has been winning all the votes it has been predicted to win, is looking at getting involved in the proposed sale of a steelworks to a non-German interest; the Cypriot situation is still unsettled; negotiations towards Malayan independence continue; some Communists are trying to win control of the Amalgamated Engineering Union, which they would add to the Electrical Trades Union in their revolutionary fifth column; meetings are taking place in London to put in place the final details of the Dominion of the West Indies (and Jamaica says that it can't afford higher federal taxes). 

"Protocol and a Future President"  The fact that Juscelino Kubitschek has not been invited to visit Britain during his European tour is not a calculated insult, but rather a bit of a protocol mixup. So don't go overthrowing the socialist troublemaker on our account! Also, Premier Khrushchev, and admit it, you always think about him when I say "Kubitschek," is still saying rude things, which makes him a worse freedom-hating global totalitarian revolutionary than most communists. The FAO is ten years old and still a very worthy organisation. Mexico is doing okay, and there are more books than ever.

From The Economist of 1856, "The Best Remedy" argues that the best way to check inflations is to raise the rate of interest, explaining that it is not the government's job to regulate the price of money, which should be left to free competition.  

Letters

Three correspondents are skeptical that American business schools are really providing American business with a plentitude of good managers. William Hildred, the Director-General of the International Air Transport Association, explains that airports aren't too expensive once all their wider benefits are taken into account. (Specifically, Britain is making bank off air tourists.) On the other hand, Monique Rendall of Island Air Services is upset that the Ministry is making sure that all those tourists can fly in by banning pleasure flying at London Airport. Ralph Turvey thinks about how traffic jams can be "priced." E. Decreus has some opinions about rail safety. 

Books

John Gunther, Oden Meeker, and C. Grove Haines have American books on Africa. and they're pretty okay. At least we can all agree that South Africa is bad, and perhaps fascist. Stefan Brant's The East German Rising explores "workers against Communism." but is very reticent about West German support in advance of the rising, which, since it failed to manifest in active support during the rising, has led to East Germans feeling betrayed, and chances are there will never be another such rising. Frances Steiegmuller's La Grande Madamoiselle is an excellent biography of Marie-Louise d'Orleans, Duchess de Montpensier based on her memoirs. She was actually quite an important person even if you haven't heard of her, because historians are usually men. Charles Neider has edited the collection Men Against Nature, which is full of cracking yarns. c. Martin's Foundations of Canadian Nationhood is a very worthy book. Michael Bialoguski's The Petrov Story is the untold story of the defection that swung an Australian election. Hopefully it will help Australians move further right. David Mathew's Scotland under Charles I is a bit tedious, although the place to go for a discussion of the reallocation of "teinds for the adequate support of the Kirk" which sounds like it might be one of those very important things in history where malefactors are concealed from judgement by the utterly boring nature of their crimes. F. J. Pedler's Economic Geography of West Africa is a good book, but would have been better with a stronger treatment of land. 

American Survey

"Missing President" Americans seem happy to vote for Eisenhower over Stevenson even though he is taking a rest cure in Key West as Congress opens. Is Eisenhower's candidacy a bluff? Maybe. Eisenhower doesn't seem to want to anoint Nixon as his successor, and polls suggest that Stevenson could beat Nixon, or any Republican other than Warren. But Warren doesn't want to step down from the Supreme Court, so people are talking about Christian Herter and Milton Eisenhower, it says here, to head off "the danger that the wild men of the right will gain control of American foreign policy." Perhaps Eisenhower will run, weak heart or not. Fortunately, Johnson and Rayburn seem to be planning on implementing Eisenhower's program, so he doesn't have to worry about being President. And also, considering that the "wild men of the right" are off in the wilderness, what are you to even make of Dulles and the Presidents' Christmas message to Eastern Europe? Well, you see, they were forced into it by the need to keep the wild men from winning in '56, or something like that. 

The Westinghouse strike is getting pretty serious, and Congress might get serious about remedial reclamation legislation after the Christmas floods followed up the summer floods back east. 

The Economist hopes Virginians will eventually just give up and give in to integration. I can't even begin to comment on the current fight between the Harriman and Kefauver campaigns. Americans are still fighting over "fair trade," or otherwise retail price maintenance. More people living in the Mojave Desert means more fights over water, which is very topical in Los Angeles right now.  

The World Overseas

More on the French elections; more on David Marshall's campaign for "dominion status" for Singapore, which he is now carrying out in the press in London; Germany is offering export credit insurance while the European Coal and Steel Community is grasping the nettle of labour rights, including the Belgian five day week. Indonesia's new government is trying to shift the deadlock in negotiations with the Dutch over New Guinea. Very important things are going on in Roumania relating to a long speech the chairman of the central committee gave at Christmas, to judge from the also very long article that I refuse to read. Something about Tito and Mao and petrochemicals and collectivisation. 

Economics of 1956 is a special report on expecting more of the same. 

The Business World

"Essentials of Steel" British steel production rose more than expected last year, and the British economy absorbed all of it, surprising even the British Iron and Steel Federation, because Britain had to import 1.25 million tons. Hopefully the credit squeeze reduces consumer demand so that an anticipated increase of 1.25 million tons in British production will crowd out the imports and improve the balance of trade. If not, there will be more demand for capital for steel investment, and pressure on coal, another industry which is struggling to meet increasing demand. And something about rates and inflation.

Business Notes

Money money money, industrial output expansion may have levelled off, but car production is definitely up, the Comet III and Britannia are pretty good planes, the latter in particular will make a mint for BOAC at its 11.4 pence/ton-mile projected Atlantic rate. British shipbuilding will hit another 1.5 million ton year, commodity prices are, in general, up, world oil production is up 11% and consumption is rising equally quickly. 

A new year brings long overdue editorial changes, as Robert Hotz's Editorial moves to the front page. It's still January, though, and there's still nothing to say in "The Critical Race in Research." Free World researchers need to run harder, faster, further. "Without speedier progress, we will actually lose ground by falling behind the pace set by natural growth." What does that MEAN???As far as I can tell, it means that we shouldn't ever cut the defence budget, because if there's a war, we'll just have to raise it, even though it will be too late. 

Industry Observer reports that Northrop expects large Snark orders, that Lockheed and North American are working on all-weather versions of the F-102 and F-107 as "backups" for the F-102, which is separately reported to be making its first J75-powered flight next Fall. The Air Force is working on chaff-deploying rockets, and Republic has hired the missile scientists who quite at Lockheed. Rand has developed a method of plating titanium on nickel or chromium that alleviates the galling problem and has signed it over to Cleveland Pneumatic. Electronics manufacturers are testing Russian specification standards in experimental equipment. Remote transmission of radar data from military air defence radars to civilian air control towers might be accommodated with equipment costing less than a half-million per tower according to a Radio Technical Commission report. The army will send six artillery battalions armed with the Corporal missile to Europe this winter. The latest Sabre grounding was due to a faulty pin in the GE J71 engine. Washington Roundup reports on various administrative decisions at the CAA and CAB, that the CAA administrator, Charles Lowen, has halted the sale of the CAA's telecommunications system to private interests because the whole thing stinks and Congress has caught wind. Army civil servants are upset at the latest ham handed changes in communications policy.

Claude Witz reports for Aviation News that "USAF Aligns Industry for Atomic War." Everything has to be ready to go on the day, instead of being in "reserve." Also, Lockheed is building an atomic research facility for its work on an atom plane, and, because it is January, Aviation Week runs that classic article about chickens in the overhead racks in the guise of a special report on Aeroflot. (Harry Schwartz gets to fly around Russia to report on this, while Katherine Johnsen, being a woman, is stuck in Washington churning out "Democrats Ready Aviation Investigations." (The big item is the firing of Fred Lee, since there is blood in the water and everyone assumes that he was ousted as CAA administrator for refusing to sell CAA telecoms. But there's plenty of other "big business get rich selling overpriced jet planes" stories to follow up on.) Various companies are working on jet trainers, the Air Force is studying the effects of radiation on lubricants, there's a new aviation working group in Europe, Aviation Week correspondents visited an ARDC-Industry conference, and, because it's January, here's pictures of the Navy's latest research submarine. (submarines are like planes, only the opposite.) The Navy and Grumman are working on changes to the F11F to make it less of a dog. 

Philip Klein reports for Avionics that "Inertial Navigation: Out of the Laboratory and Into Missile Systems" Wait, you say, haven't they been putting gyroscopes into drones and missiles since they invented gyroscopes? "Shut up," answers Aviation Weeks. "Don't upset the advertisers, in this case, North American." Anyway, there's lots of improved gadgets to report on. 

Filter Centre reports that the electronics industry is set to grow over the next decade, say most experts. ("Four out of five dentists recommend brushing your teeth. The fifth dentist recommends pulling your teeth out with pliers and living on Jello and cottage cheese.") Silicon transistors will be big, with Texas Instruments soon to be joined in the market by Raytheon. IBM promises bigger magnetic memories. New Avionics Products reports MINIATURE also clamps, silicon coatings, transducers,  a variety of test equipment an "analog to digital encoder" from Baldwin Piano gets a new header, "Data Processing," and Applied Science Corporation of Princeton has something called a "pulse-width key amplifier."

Norton Corporation and the Watertown Arsenal combine to give us "New Materials for Metal Cutting Hold Promise of Production Gains" for Production. Specifically, they're looking at ceramic tooltips made of alum and possibly titanium diboride. Ceramic coatings are pretty good, too. 

What's that about we're listening to Roy Fedden, again?

Safety reports on the 26 March 1953 PAA Stratocruiser ditching that killed four. The proximate cause was that a propeller flew off, and the actual cause is that turbocompounds are just too complicated, although we're going to pretend they're not because otherwise we'd have to ground too many planes, including some that aren't even flying yet. 

R. C. Robson gets a main editorial report (in Air Transport) with "Inadequate Aids Bog Transocean Traffic," which is actually a pretty tedious recital of the problems with long-distance radio communication (not enough channels!) until he gets to the tenuously related question of air operations, where  he has some fascinating comments relevant to the old days of nonpressurised Atlantic flying. Older planes climb slowly to operating ceilings "stepwise," but often find themselves crowded out by overflying modern planes, resulting in their profit margins disappearing. This is sort of a navigation/communication problem in that the sky isn't actually filled with ships, but it is mainly interesting for what Robson does best, which is report on the everyday problems of air transport
. 

Letters has J. S. Haney, Illumination Manager of Crouse-Hinds Company, writing at length about end-of-runway instruments for reporting approach visibility. Crouse-Hinds transmissometer is pretty good, but Crouse-Hinds can't afford advertising, apparently. M. V. Burggraaf, who flies frequently on business, thinks that while industry has a point with its "No show" penalties, it has to work on "no go," because he is sick and tired of waiting in airports instead of relaxing in hotels. Herb Singer is upset about advertising on display in airports because he pays enough already. 

. 

The Economist, 14 January 1956

Leaders

"The Bird Too Early" "The campaign launched against Sir Anthony Eden during the past three weeks has been bewildering in its origin," The Economist opens, and, to be fair to the magazine, I now have to quote the oh-so typical end of the sentence, "and could be unexpected in its effects." Because if there's one thing The Economist knows, things that people do almost always have contrary, unexpected, and adverse consequences. For me, and, I cannot help but believe, anyone who knows the signs and has also met Tony, it should be obvious that he has a speed problem, and should not be Prime Minister. But apparently you just ignore this sort of thing, like you ignore Rab's drinking and used to  ignore Ike's "flus," and only the worst sort of person would try to get Eden out of office before he ordered the invasion of Jordan at two in the morning. And perhaps The Economist has talked to someone who knows what constant sniffles means, because it goes on to explain that campaigning for his removal might mean prolonging his stay in office! There you go, unexpected and contrary results!

"Mission from Malaya" Something something Malaya is going to be independent soon, though as usual The Economist finds reasons why something that is desirable in the abstract might have to be put off forever, and as usual "reasons" means "communism." An entire Leader about how the Agriculture Ministry has pigs wrong. Or right. I DON'T CARE! I mean, I'd care if there were some deep issues about British farming, but it's just the usual "subsidies too high" nonsense. 

"Japan Under Stress" "This is a good time for the free world to make an inspection of the bonds that link it with Japan." We should maybe trade with Japan more so it won't go Communist? Or help it trade with China so it won't go communist? 

Notes of the Week

"On Deploring Deterrents" John Foster Dulles has given an interview to Life that makes it even more clear that he is completely out of his depth. He tells the magazine that three times in the last two years, only American threats of war have deterred Communist aggression. The Economist is fine with threatening war to prevent aggression, but thinks that Dulles' specific examples (Indo-China, Korea, and Quemoy) are "a sham." Jordan has promised not to get involved in a Middle Eastern war, and it very definitely won't join the Baghdad Pact, no matter what goodies General Templer brings along on his visit. Britain may be threatening to withhold money, but Syria, Egypt and Saudi Arabia may offer it; but isn't this a "pact," too? 

"Parachutists for the Levant" Just to remind ourselves, the excitement over Jordan began with the 1956 general elections, and ever since, the King and the new premier have been squabbling, and the squabbling hit a peak recently, but has now subsided. So now the question is exactly what the British government meant to be doing with the parachute units it sent to Cyprus this week. Is this a reasonable reaction to some riots, even if the rioters are upset about the Arab Legion and stores of British munitions in Jordan? Or does this have to do with the Anglo-French-United States guarantee of Middle Eastern borders in the event of an Arab-Israeli conflict? 

"Honest Disinflation" The Economist hopes to see some good old-fashioned unemployment soon, to fight inflation, you see. Also, a spring cleaning at the Soviet foreign office is probably a sign of communist plots in places like Germany and Libya. An Australian cabinet shuffle is definitely very important and interesting. Kenya is getting a new electoral franchise that will hopefully be more acceptable to Africans.  A threatened railway strike and the LCC selling some land that it expropriated, at a profit, are definitely worth Notes. Greece is to have elections this winter that will hopefully give Karamanlis a proper mandate, more on the new Indonesian foreign ministers' efforts to push New Guinea forward.

The Economist is not impressed by the British government's evident hostility to Euratom. On the  other hand, it is not impressed by an implied willingness to surrender on the Iceland cod front. Iceland has no right to stop British trawlers from fishing for cod three miles off the beach! Britain's proposed ban on heroin was bad because foreigners would have just kept on making illicit heroin and selling it to addicts. 

From The Economist of 1856, "Mr. Cobden's Pamphlet," is a pusillanimous, irrational, feeble, and flagitious attempt to argue that peace with Russia would be a good thing. They're a tyranny, you see.

Letters

Several correspondents write to explain that E. Decreus is living in his own little world. John Boyd of the union at Rolls Royce in Crewe explains that the article about how silly the strike there was, was itself silly. R. G. Opie points out that the fact that the Australian pound is worth 75% of a British pound isn't some kind of hidden subsidy, it's just how money works. A. G. Stark objects to the idea that busses carry sixty people while taking up as much room as three cars on the grounds that buses are slow, so there. 

Books

E. S. Beer has edited The Diary of John Evelyn so that we finally have it in print. Who was John Evelyn, you ask? Some Seventeenth century fellow like Pepys, but not as interesting. Who was Pepys, you ask? Philistine! Muriel Grindrod, which is a real name, has The Rebuilding of Italy: Politics and Economics, 1943--55. It's good, but doesn't have enough about the communist menace constantly threatening to overthrow democracy. R. B. Nye and J. E. Morpurgo's A History of the United States has hit volumes I and II, which is pretty good until the part where the actual United States starts. Glanville Williams' The Proof of Guilt is "four lectures delivered under the auspices of the Hamlyn Trust, which was born in 1948 of a defective will." What a peculiar first sentence! The Trust was created by the High Court, since no-one could agree on who got the money, to fund lectures to educate the public on legal matters. It's pretty good, and goes into the problems of eyewitness identification, which are pretty basic.  Michael Rosenaur's The Modern Office Building is terrible and a waste of an opportunity for a proper reference work. Donald Ford's The Deprived Child and the Community is like the culminations of most social workers' complaints. It turns out that the problem is before the case worker even starts. That is, the deprived child is to be fixed by preventing broken families. It's easy when you put it like that! J. A. Cole's My Host Michel explains Germans from his personal experience with actual Germans. 

American Survey 

By Roger Puta - CRI&P 2 at Englewood Union Station, Chicago, April 21, 1965,
 Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44918932

  "Congress in Two Minds" Maybe Ike won't run! Also, here's a summary of the President's State of the Union address, which was given for him while he was resting. There is also a discussion of farm aid, and the Senate Judiciary Committee's ongoing investigation into Communist infiltration of the U.S. news media, which has recently led to a public fight between The New York Times and committee chairman John Eastland, in which The Times accused Eastland of trying to use a witch hunt to influence the paper's editorial policy on subjects like segregation. The Economist is upset that, in spite of ringing denunciations in the press, two reporters have recently been fired by their papers (Times and Daily News) for taking the Fifth. 

"Lightweights on the Rails" The Pennsy and the New York Central have recently demonstrated GM's "Aerotrains," their entry into the field of light diesel-electrics. There are Spanish, Pullman, and Baldwin rivals, all striking but with very similar weight reductions.

"Rebel Yells" The upshot of the Virginia referendum is that voters have authorised a constitutional amendment allowing public funds to be spent on private, segregated, schools. In spite of all the segregationist effort, The Economist points to various signs of progress, such as desegregation on the rails and in professional sports. New Englanders are  hoping for several atomic power stations to reduce electricity costs in the Northeast. 

The World Overseas

"Bringing Canadian Gas to the Market" It's a long way from Alberta to Ontario, but maybe a pipeline could be built? People are talking about it, anyway. The Soviets are talking about the next Five Year Plan, which is to bring consumer goods to the public ("a million television sets") even though it is not clear where the resources will come from. Something is up in Paraguay, Finland is  having a Presidential election, and South Africa seems set on getting just a bit more fascist. 

France in the Economic Race: Ten Years On A special insert, I'm calling it, not an article. If I had to summarise it, France is doing well, but there are dangerous signs and the future is uncertain.

   

The Business World

"Fuel for 1956" How much coal will Britain import in 1956? The twelve million tons it currently imports requires £78--80 million, mostly in dollars and gold. Oil imports are currently cheaper in sevral ways being more energy efficient and re-exportable through refineries, which is why fuel imports and energy use are shifting to oil. Coal production will likely fall again next year, and thereafter, the only question being by how much, and the impact of full employment on the mine labour force is dire. Only a good old-fashioned disinflation will save the day! A second Leader talks about the business, marketing, and politics of the British service station. 

Business Notes

British trade is fine this year. Exports aren't exactly buoyant over imports, but the balance of trade is positive. Check back in a few weeks for the next crisis. 

"How Not to Build Aircraft" Whose fault is the "disappointing record of the aircraft  industry in recent years?" Why, the government's, of course! Says Sir Roy Fedden, who has been in the wilderness long enough for his credentials as a wise man of aviation to be restored, points out that Britain only has one successful airliner right now. The failure of the VC7 was on the government's head! As for the Comet? Silence. The airlines will operate without subsidies starting next year, The Economist goes on to point out without embarrassment. Commodities, money, the first French atomic power station came into operation this weekend,. 

Robert Hotz's Editorial asks, "Are We Losing the Missile Race?" It is said that the Russians are about to test fire an ICBM while we are five years out. But that's Charles Wilson, and he is always underestimating the rate of progress. Anyway, the Russians shot off lots of rockets in the war and then they kidnapped all those German scientists, and also Wilson tried to cut all the "visionary" projects like Atlas and atomic aircraft when he came in, in 1953. So it's his fault, really. 

Industry Observer reports that "a Pentagon observer" thinks that the Soviets may have perfected a droppable H-bomb considering that the one they tested was exploded at a high altitude, whereas so far American H-bombs have been detonated on the ground because they are too big to drop. TAA won't be allowed to buy DC-6Bs, and will have to buy Vanguards instead. TWA is still looking for an economical turboprop to put on its Super-Constellations. Bristol hopes that its Orpheus will save the troubled British twin-engine helicopter program, as it is running fine right now. The ANDB is going to standardise its airborne transponder beacon so that the current three manufacturers can continue to compete. Bell's new inertial guidance system may be a "minor technological breakthrough." The Army continues to work on STOL, and the latest field tests of TACAN show that it is even better than people said. Washington Roundup reports that reports that an atomic aircraft engine has been tested can be discounted, thanks to the heroic honesty of Air Force Secretary Dan Quarles, say sources close to Dan Quarles. He vetoed a press release making that claim because it wasn't true, you see. Various personnel changes are noted, and the latest Defence Department spokesman won't be replaced because  no-one can work in those conditions. 

Charles Witze reports for Aviation Week on the latest industrial dispersion scheme. 

"Aircraft, Missile Programs Key Defence Aspects, President Says" Aviation Week reports the State of the Union dictation from its own special angle. Democrats answer, "Well, fine, but you're still cutting the budget." 

"MiG-17s: New Power for Soviet Navy" is a pictorial spread that Aviation Week stole from the Red Navy magazine, because that's how capitalism works. One picture shows tail and speed brake changes from the MiG-15. 

At least they're wearing helmets.

Other lead news items feature Fred Lee ripping the  Administration apart in Congressional hearings, and another picture of that army pilot on an Aerocycle platform, as the Army gets ready for infantry testing of the dumbest  idea ever, and what a competition that is. 

Craig Lewis reports for Fairchild Aviation that ""Fokker F-27 Leads as DC3 Replacement," because Fairchild has the American license. 

Philip J. Klein reports for Avionics that "Old Idea Opens Door to Inertial Guidance" The "84-minute pendulum," or "Schuler pendulum," or "Earth pendulum," would have an 84 minute period if it actually measured position with respect to the Earth, because it would have a length equal to the radius of the Earth, or in other words is a satellite orbiting at the same height as the Earth's surface. This is impossible, so instead we try to fake it in various ways, here's some math, apparently Bells' approach is pretty good, but other companies do this stuff too, here's a list of our advertisers. 

New Aviation Products reports that "New Optical System Speeds Radar Plotting" Northrop's "Sky Screen" seems to be an upgrade of those plotting maps with models and croup sticks they used in the Battle of Britain. The key innovation is that instead of croup sticks, they use flashlights. New Avionics Products leads with a heater element before getting on with crystal filters, servo amplifiers, synchro torque transmitters, an analog flight control computer, a bunch of power supplies, and a separate section, this week Computers and Data Processing, to describe low-cost analog and digital computers respectively from Weber and Librascope. 

George L. Christian reports for Equipment that "Unitised Actuators Simplify Equipment" Specifically, National Water Lift's Unicon does four jobs in one with minimal misadjustment and backlash. This is evidently too much even by the standards of an Aviation Week advertorial, and it goes on to grouse that at least three other advertisers are working on presumably better unitised actuators. 

No-one ever puts Blacks in ads in the Fifties. It's a whole thing. So what the heck?

"Atomic Nucleus Yields Secrets to New Research 'Microscope'" Stanford shoots nuclei, undergraduates, and prominent California Democrats with high power electron beams to find out what's in them. Subatomic particles, beer, and bleeding hearts, at a guess. SNECMA has a variable-area nozzle for turbojet control, Coleman has a shiny smooth surface coating for boundary layer drag, the Army  has a new strain gauge at White Sands, while the Navy has a thrust gauge at Edwards. Northrop wants us to know that it is planning a new engineering centre, too. Off the Line reports a new navigation periscope sextant from Hughes for SAA's Viscounts, an extension of de Havilland propeller service lives, and a new method of testing gasoline colour to determine if it falls in specification limits. Linde Air Products reports for Production that "Heliarc Cutting Process Speeds, Simplifies Aluminum Fabrication," which is an elaborate way of saying that they have a new version of the inert gas welding technique that was patented back in 1941.

New Aviation Products reports mostly MINIATURE but there's a new trailer-mounted fallout detector, some test equipment, and an oscillograph. Also on the Market goes on for two pages because presumably there's not enough paid advertising to hold the covers apart. 

Safety reports on the 4 August 1955 American Convair 240 crash at Fort Leonard Wood in Missourithat killed all 30 aboard. An engine caught fire after a cylinder failure. 

This month America's number one business magazine keeps its focus on what matters to business: God's perfect angel, Ike Eisenhower. 

Letters

Seven very famous people write in to say that charitable foundations do good work and also what is going on with them? Among them, Roger Milliken.) Ralph McGill of the Atlanta Constitution and W. Boyd Smith of Temple really liked Henry Luce's meditation on 1980. Benedetto Acquaroni was upset that Fortune didn't print his letter didn't run in "The Future of Italy" feature. Fixed! Also, an apology for calling an investment firm "small." It's only "small" compared with "big" firms!

Business Roundup takes a long time explaining how tight money is going to cause a slowdown in '56, and that it's a good thing! But when that ends and the money supply loosens, there will be another boom!
(In other late-breaking news, higher interest rates have caused an uptick in saving.)  The Business Globe reports that the United States of Europe, what's keeping it? Also, everyone trades with the Soviet Union, but not as much as they could, which is good, but also bad. Antitrust is good, but more importantly, bad, gets a foreign trade division. U.S. firms need to form cartels or they won't be able to compete with all those foreign export cartels! 

And with the New Year, unlabeled leaders turn into Editorial, which denounced "groupocracy" versus "business." If you're wondering what that means, it's that Stevenson and the Democrats are anti-business. Why? Because of progress, that's why. Another Republican who is right, whereas a Democrat is wrong, is the Senator Hickenlooper, who is fighting with Henry Wallace over a plan to raise pork prices by buying and slaughtering sows. You can tell that Ezra Taft Benson is in trouble, because Fortune points out that (GASP) he agrees with Wallace. Well, any argument that pits Wallace and Benson against Hickenlooper has a right side and a wrong side, I say! The fight over natural gas price regulation continues. 

"The Transformation of U.S. Steel" is from a remarkable company into an incredible company. 

"Industrial Research: Geniuses Now Welcome" Corporate labs are hiring more theorists and the like. Hence, the "longhairification" of industrial research. But "Mack Truck's Peterson" and Billy Price of the Chicago Stockyards are no longhairs," and there's probably no longhairs at all in "The Maddening, Promising Mexican Market." 

"Mr. Fogg's Remarkable Electronics Factory" Because Los Angeles has lots of smog, you see, and Philip S. Fogg has founded a company with a fancy name,  Consolidated Electrodynamics,  which has bought out Herbert Hoover, Jr, so he is owed a favour, if you know what I mean. "Twelve Thousand Planes" is about business planes. Does your company need a plane? Maybe! Does it have one? Maybe! Here's some planes it could have. Some companies have Piper Cubs and some have Convairliners! Notwithstanding all the favours granted, Henry is bored by now, so here's "The International Art Market, Part II." 

I am guessing that the Labour section's move to the back of the paper is preparation for moving it out past the back cover in '57.