R_C_.,
Shaughnessy,
Vancouver,
Canada.
Dear Father:
You wanted to know at first word about Reggie's summer assignment. He will be attached to VP-M-1 at Barbers Point NAS in Hawaii, where he will be trying to wedge more radio receivers into Lockheed Neptunes than any airplane should have to carry. For "weather reconnaissance." "Weather reconnaissance" is in a bit of an ebb at the moment, but will probably come back in full force when the Russian famine is over and the 1948 election is a bit closer at hand. Who knows? Perhaps he will gather some "weather reconnaissance" that is useful to Mrs. C and her friends in Virginia.
"Miss V.C.'s" plans are in flux, but I expect that she will go east to be near "Mr. A." Perhaps she will try to pick up some hints in advance of her seniors' thesis research next year; she remains convinced that a sinister secret concerning the Oregon Scandal is hiding somewhere in the Junior College's archives.
Uncle George has telegraphed that his flight has arrived safely in Scotland. However, it looks like he will be detained by weather and will not be able to get to London in time for the World Shipping Conference, which is a pity. On the other hand, his friend's business partner is also detained, as he missed his berth on the Queen Mary. So it looks like not much advance business will be done before you arrive in England on the matter of, shall we say, securing industrially-necessary supplies of silver nitrate for any film or photography business we might involve ourselves in, over in England.
In the absence of Uncle George, James has stepped in to arrange to put the good old Swallow on the Atlantic run. It will make its first berth in Liverpool on 7 April, if all goes according to plan, and James estimates that it has room for six tons of metal in Great-Uncle's old statesroom. Just to give you an idea of what you have to work with.
In the mean time, I would be most grateful for any distractions you can find, as Dr. Rivers has put me on bed rest until the blessed event. I'm not completely isolated, as I have James and Fanny. Miss J has branched out in her work to assist Fanny, and has been very kind in bringing the twins to see me along with Vickie. I could wish that I saw the same spirit of care and solicitude from Miss M., but she is a fine physical therapist, and not devoid of human kindness. She has even taken to bringing me cookies in bed. Cookies that she baked herself --and I can say no more. At least they are not boring!
"GRACE."
The
Economist, 1 February 1947
Leaders
“The Stalin Gambit” Mr. Bevin says
that Britain isn’t tied to any foreign country, because the backbench says
that, actually, it’s tied to America. So then Mr. Stalin says, “According to
the 1942 Moscow agreement, actually you’re tied to us.” So then the paper says, England should totally cop to the
mistake (because Mr. Bevin is dumb), and talk to the Russians –mainly about
“You Russians stay on this side, and
we’ll maybe stay on this side mostly.”
“Second Thoughts on Planning” The
paper likes the Town and Country Planning Bill and hates the Government, so it
compromises by saying that the Government is doing the right thing, wrong. Once
all the wrong things are fixed, either by Dalton’s last minute speech in
support, or in committee, things might go wrong again later due to local
authorities not being fully technically efficient, but that’s for later, as we
won’t know exactly what is in the Bill until after it is passed. Which is a
strange way of doing things, but apparently typical with large parliamentary
bills. (Under Notes, it points out that the brewers have had to intervene to make
sure that some garden city planners make room for licensed establishments.)
“The Housing Programme” In 1946, the
programme focussed on getting as many housing starts as possible. Completions
stalled out, so the 1947 programme is to finish the starts and not add too more
starts than can be finished. Given the labour force, the new programme of
240,000 homes completed looks unlikely. It used to be that it took roughly one
man-year to build a house; the Bevan homes are nicer, so this has risen to
1.25. Only 320,000 will be employed building new homes at the end of 1947,
although there will be a million in total in the building business. This will only
be enough –but only if materials and components are adequate.
The irrelevant series on the Danube
basin continues with a discussion of “Danubian intellectuals.” Some are Marxists, but will probably turn to “Fascist, anti-Semitic, extreme Clerical
or nationalist movement[s]” at the first chance.
Notes
of the Week
“No New Treaty with Britain;” and
“Sudanese Opinion” The new Egyptian government wants no part of a treaty with
England until Sudan is settled; and English opinion holds that Sudanese opinion
holds that Sudan should be independent of Egypt. The paper hopes that England
will honour the three-year evacuation schedule
that was to be in the new treaty.
“The Talks on Burma” The paper
thinks that England should get out of Burma with no bloodshed and no political
ties to which Burmese nationalists might object, so that “special ties” can be
maintained, by which is meant BOC. The Burmese being apt to mistreat the hill states, a handwringing commission is envisioned.
“Agreement Over Agriculture”
Everyone agrees on the new policy (price supports; local communities
intervening to remove farmers in case of severe inefficiency; the Land
Commission only taking over land that cannot be farmed efficiently), so the
Tory counters were weak. The paper is therefore forced to denounce the
Government for being too weak, and not nationalising.
“The Need for Incentives” After
finishing a rousing performance of the “Red Flag,” the paper gets serious
for a moment, pointing out that price supports will probably just lead to
inefficiency, though it hopes that the right “structure” of incentives will
prevent this. (I thought that paying for crops –But what do I know?)
I'm not kidding. The Economist is criticising Labour for not nationalising land --although it also thinks that it's a bad idea, obviously.
“A New Food Plan” The Food and Agriculture Organisation has reported on John Orr’s plan. It recommends
scrapping it, and offers a “more modest and workable scheme.” It involves price
supports, which are likely to lead to permanent surpluses, or “over
production,” which will be alleviated by shipping the food to “needy nations”
at subsidised prices. It strikes me that Chinese farmers would have strong
opinions about competing with foreign food coming in at “subsidised prices,” so
it is a good thing that they’re not heard at the FAO! Somehow the paper turns this around into a concern about the
artificial inflation of food prices
of “the one important non-needy food importer. “Which is England."
“Back to Palestine” The English have
put forward a partition plan; Palestinian Arabs have rejected it. The English
have had enough of such nonsense, and will go ahead with it. Bloodshed must be
accepted. The remaining hope that it will be bloodshed along the lines of a
desultory civil war, as opposed to a full-blown international conflict. The idea is that unwilling neighbouring
(Arab) states are much more interested in their internal problems, while many
Palestinians (and Jews) are too eager for peace to fight very hard over the
details. Nevertheless, the English would really like to dump the matter in the
Uno’s lap. Unfortunately, that would mean waiting until the General Assembly meets in September.
“Liberating Austria” Germany is
prostrate, so there is no problem “liberating” Austria. The problem is that liberated
Austria is made wrong, as the country is too small, and Vienna is too large.
The “underfed,
over-controlled and apathetic Austrian people” will all just muddle along on
foreign aid. Notably the 2 million tons of Ruhr coal they haven’t paid for yet.
Hint, hint.
Original version 1952, so not completely anachronistic.
“Plots and Purges in Hungary”
“Fanatically nationalist and conservative” landowners, civil servants and army
officers have been arrested for plotting a coup, and parliamentarians of the
Small Farmers Party are now being purged from their place in the ruling
coalition. It remains to be seen whether this will be enough to bring the
Communists, Left or Centre to power in place of the current coalition.
“Road Hauliers’ Victory” The
committee of inquiry into the road haulage dispute has ruled for the hauliers.
They get a 44-hour week, some extra holiday time, and some details with regards
to weekly scheduling, in spite of the industry’s argument that 44 hour weeks
are impossible, so that it is really an agreement to pay enormous amounts of
overtime. The committee found that this is complete tosh.
“Safety in the Air” “The first
public enquiry into an air crash since the R 101 had barely started when there
was another at Croydon, and the next day the eldest son of the Swedish Crown
Prince was killed in a crash at Copenhagen.” The paper is willing to buy the idea that Dakotas are being overloaded, but points out that the brand new Viking fleet has been grounded over concerns over icing
equipment, so it's not just that. The paper ends by calling for an
internationally-agreed set of air navigation aids.
 |
| This seems to have just shown up at eBay. An accident caused by inaccurate fuel gauges, and not the last. |
“British and American Car Prices” In
the same week that Ford lowered prices, Austin raised its prices. English cars
are too expensive because full technical efficiency.
“Alexandra Palace” Why is English
television so backwards? Because Alexandra House is not paying technicians,
cameramen, engineers and script writers enough, and because not enough is being
spent on it, because the BBC is unaccountably backwards. That is the criticism,
anyway. The paper holds off agreeing long enough to point out that there are
not enough studios due to building shortages, or televisions due to
manufacturing shortages, and then comes around to agreeing with it. Americans
are ahead on television.
 |
| "The birthplace of television." |
“Tories Off the Air” The
Conservative Central Office has complained that the BBC doesn’t give them
enough air time. The paper points out that this would be irrelevant if there
were a proper, competitive market. It hopes that this will convert the
Conservatives to free-market broadcasting, “As the shades of the
Socialist prison-house begin to close,” and as FM comes in.
“Party Spoils in Japan” The recent purge decrees in Japan seem excessive, and it might also seem amazing that they were
carried through with a Right wing government in the Diet; but all is explained
once you realise what a patronage opportunity this opens up to the right wing
parties.
“Jugoslav Refugees” A Jugoslav
consul visited the Chetniks in camp in Naples last week, and was promptly
murdered. Belgrade is upset. The paper hopes that this spur the English to make
arrangements so that “good” Jugoslavs can make a home in exile, while “bad” ones are sent
home, especially since allowing them to coexist just leads to accusations of
“pro-Fascist activity” due to people like Pavelic being left free to wander
around being pro-Fascist, with, Belgrade says, British and American protection.
The paper says that this accusation, while obviously not true, is true, and
that something should be done about it. (“This is doubtless untrue, but if
formal and urgent orders were given from the highest quarter to all Allied
security services, it would surely be possible to find him.”
English doctors and amateur
renovators are excitable.
Letters
to the Editor
Someone named A. Shonfield “takes
the piss” in much-too-clever a way for me to actually understand it. (Yes, I
am keeping the wrong company. Specifically, a professor and a Jesuit father. Worse (from your perspective), he got drunk enough to talk that way in front of a lady in my condition on three glasses of a New York claret, and, from my perspective, that he then went off to lecture young people about old
books.) Philip Williams thinks that
nationalisation is going too slowly, and W. H. Higgenbotham thinks that it is all
wrong. G. R. Y. Radcliffe tries to be even more incomprehensible than Mr.
Schonfield. J. S. Williams thinks that England is
being horrible to Poland, where the Right is nice and the Left is horrible.
Geo. B. Fielding of the Cotton Spinners and Manufacturers’ Association assures
everyone that its opposition to the five-day week is based on the highest of
principles and soundest of financial concerns. Someone named Eugene Forsey
writes something boring, about Canada. R. G. Hawtrey writes to
correct the paper’s misreading of his book;.He’s not for higher interest rates
against American inflation; but, rather, for not fixing the pound to the dollar
in a way that would lead to high interest rates when American prices are
inflating.
Books
and Publications
The paper launches into a “back
matter” project (which is not at the back!) by reviewing D. C. Somervell’s 617
page “abridgement” of the first six volumes of Arnold Toynbee’s Study of History. The paper points out
that the people of Great-Uncle’s generation believed in progress, that some
German named Spengler believed the contrary, because of the World War, and said
so at great length; and that Professor Toynbee decided that it wasn’t nearly
enough length, and said it more, so it is very lucky for us that Mr. Somervell
spent his time saying it less, even though he is wrong. Well!
You can hardly have a book section with
only one book (or you’d have to give it more than two paragraphs of review), so
it is on to Maurice Dobbs’ Studies in theDevelopment of Capitalism, which is what Marxians think about economics
now. Which is nothing much worth explaining, apparently. I gather he spends too
much time on politics? T. S. Simey, writing on Welfare and Planning in the West Indies is just depressing.
Everything that ever happened in the West Indies is wrong, and, if I’m reading
the three paragraphs right, West Indians go hungry too much to care about other
things. But since the paper can’t actually say
that without sounding too critical, it instead goes in for a bit about how
West Indians have a “Freudian complex” about food, which leads to
“disintegrated and unstable” personalities.
From
The Economist of 1847
Education is good for a nation,
because its wealth comes from its labour, and educated labour is better;
however, so are “wholesome and just laws” and “equal and good laws” and no
“partial and excessive taxation” These thoughts are so radical that it needs to
quote someone named Edmund Burke. Next, the paper (of 1847) quotes a Dorsetshire Tenant-farmer who is
upset about how much damage game does to his crops. This is apparently a “trap”
routinely set for “new tenants . . . entering a game farm.” The past was so awful.
American
Survey
“The Chances of Freer Trade”
American industry representatives are meeting to hammer out the details of the
renewed Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act, which will guide American delegates in Geneva.
The general impression is that everything is too complicated for anything
to be done.
“California is not Depressed” A
correspondent in San Francisco writes to point out that employment in
California is holding at 3.55 million, just less than the wartime peak. The
largest industry in southern California is aircraft manufacture, at 75,000
employees; unemployment is very low, at 260,000, but demand for unskilled labour is low, particularly Coloureds. The ”big fact” is that
California has not lost its 2.35 million population gain of the war years
(although it is ridiculous that this number relies on traffic checks at the
state borders!). Population is estimated at 9.225 millions must be estimated, second,
behind New York, up from 21st in 1900. However, water supply might choke off the growth of Los Angeles, so the paper
repeats all those Southern complaints about the Rio Grande treaty.
American
Notes
American workers who aren't paid after arriving at work, are excitable.
Steelworkers and the UAW are much less excitable.
“Congress Settles In” The GOP has
its first victory, as the War Investigating Committee, ironically the old
Truman Committee, is extended under Owen Brewster. The hope is that a few more
heads can be added to the wall alongside Bilbo’s, and that the heads won’t include
the service chiefs, because that would be embarrassing, and might impact the
occupation of Germany. In shorter news, the fact that General Marshall is now
the successor to the Presidency in place of a nonexistent Vice-President means
that his name gets added to the 1948 lists, I'm not clear how, as President Truman will run again, no other Democrat wanting to take on such an obviously-losing
cause, and the Republican race is already shaking out as Taft against Dewey. the Governor being thought too
damaged by his refusal of the 1944 Vice-Presidential nomination. We shall see!
“Another Mission for Mr. Hoover” The
President hears my feelings about having the Engineer for a neighbour, and sends him off to Europe to find out why Germany and Austria need yet another $300
million. The paper deems this "highly desirable bi-partisanship” before
admitting that the Engineer is still terrible. And speaking of the Engineer’s
late small failure in public life, it goes on to discuss the possible renewal of the
Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which is due to expire this summer.
Under shorter notes, the paper cites
a Federal Reserve report showing that smaller businesses “which survived” fared
better under war conditions than large ones. Another report, from the Edison Electric Institute, claims to show that TVA rates are “heavily subsidised.”
The
World Overseas
“Italian Economy in the Balance”
Italy has nothing to buy, and too much money to buy it with. Forty percent of
the national income is “missing” for lack of production! Inflation is hurting the “salariat,” although landowners and peasants
are doing well. Prescription: Monetary reforms would help, more English coal, American export credits.
“French Manpower Problems” France is
short of workers. It needs 1.2 million more workers by 1950, 480,000 of them
before the end of 1947, plus a further 500,000 through the end of 1948 to cover
PoWs. Emigres, Algerians, and women are the potential sources of this new labour.
Improved family allowances, crèches and nurseries, and equal pay for equal work
are to be used to lure women into the workforce. Training schemes are to be
extended, with union support, and collective bargaining is to be reintroduced.
 |
The
Business World
 |
| So, just to highlight it, that's The Economist hinting that England should welch on its Indian debt. |
“The Debt to India” This seems like
a terrible time to be negotiating with India, but to the contrary, as you will shortly see! First, it is
thought that there is an informal deadline for unlocking India’s sterling
balance by the anniversary of the American loan. Second, after dithering for a bit about exports and
trade balances, asks: Why not just “write off the
debt”? After all, it was mostly incurred “saving” India from Japan! Also, the prices were probably inflated, so those darn Indians took advantage. Also, India
shouldn’t be allowed to import that much in the way of capital goods, anyway, because it will lead to inflation. Finally, after raising the idea, the paper moves on to the obvious point that “it will not be difficult to convince
Indian negotiators” that they have a “mutuality of interests.”
In what should be, but isn’t, shorter news, the paper discusses the new English “Development Councils” that unite business and industry.
Business Notes
Business Notes
After talking about “cheap and easy
money,” (which is bad), the paper moves on to “Spending the Dollars,” where the
various causes of the drain on the loan are discussed. The paper is particularlly upset that not enough is being spent on industrial re-equipment (11%) and ships (3%).
 |
| Crowther deprecates the huge "tobacco" figure, which is what everyone else fixates on. |
“Progress of French Deflation” It
turns out that it is going well, although its progress depends on delivering
one blow after another to “keep the hoarders on the run.” So far, the main
problem is that peasants are holding onto grain. This has been addressed by
threats of American imports, leading to a collapse in the price of gold coins,
which is thought to reflect hoarders disgorging their holdings in case farmers
begin selling for bank notes again.
 |
| Trier Hoard: The hoard seems to have been buried in 167, recovered in 193, and then buried again in 197. |
Also, the textiles industry is being
affected by coal shortages, the English railways aren’t earning as little as
expected, the World Bank is still without a president, rising wool prices are
putting pressure on the “worsted utility scheme” to provide clothing “of
reasonable quality at fixed prices,” there is as yet no relief from cheap money
for trustees and beneficiaries, and the new rules requiring banks to hold 8%
reserves are causing hardship to some banks. Associated British Picture and
Warner Brothers have entered into an arrangement to produce more
American-quality movies in England and distribute them in North America. Ceylon
is talking about leaving the international allocation scheme and bringing back
tea auctions, which will allow it to reduce the export tax on rubber and save
the industry from resurgent Malayan competition. The question of whether English
charters of American Liberties should lapse, is being argued in Washington. In Malaya, tin production has not come back
quickly enough to forestall growing competition from the Netherlands EastIndies, which is re-equipping with American dredgers, word to the wise, etc.
The Burnley Business Society says that mortgages for house purchases are at an
all time high.
 |
| Utility wool outfit, 1942. The "worsted utility scheme" seems to be a new one on modern scholarship. |
Flight, 6 February 1947
“Tribute to Transport Command” The
paper summarises its summary of Ralph Cochrane’s lecture to the Royal
Aeronautical Society. Did you know that while Transport Command was moving
10,000 troops a month from India to the United Kingdom by air, the United
States was moving 50,000 troops across the Atlantic? Much of this was done with
Dakotas, which are now the most dangerous planes ever, but didn’t used to be, despite
some new equipment from the Telecommunications Research Establishment, which warns about bad weather. (I hope this is explained in an
article. I can warn about bad
weather. In fact, I think I will do it. It is going to rain in Vancouver, soon.
There, told you so.)
 |
| Neon signs; streetcar tracks, rain: Vancouver in the 50s |
“Locked Controls” The question that
has come up with the Copenhagen accident is how Geyssendorffer failed to test
his controls before takeoff. The answer is that the Dakota’s control column
will still move “a certain amount” with the elevator locks on. Elevator and
flap locks save constant work in the control cables, which leads to stretching.
Although cable runs are not that long, nowadays, the ideal solution would
be a lock in the control column; which,
in the new Handley Page Hermes, also locks the throttles. The paper thinks that
at least the control column locks should be mandatory.
“Royal Escort: Over HMS Vanguard in a Coastal Beaufighter” Fighter Command was grounded by bad weather, but Coastal Command came through with a four Beaufighter escort, thanks to all night snow
clearing and salting efforts at Thorney Island, and ASV to detect the
battleship in the mist. The Beaufighters circled for an hour at 190 knots,
coming no closer than the mile-and-a-half exclusion zone, which meant that they
couldn’t shoot down the press Dragon Rapides that buzzed the
battleship until the captain “opened the gates” and sped off at 30 knots.
 |
| Vanguard: Could totally take Iowa. |
“Science is Measurement: Sensitive
Altimeters Ranged to 70,000ft: True Air Speed Indicators for Cabins” Lord
Kelvin said that about measurement once. Now, Kelvin, Bottomley and Baird’smodel factory at Basingstoke is making altimeters ranged up to 70,000ft, within a tolerance error of one percent at -40 to +50 degrees C. They also do engine
speed indicators (capable of registering up to 20,000 rpm) and airspeed
indicators calibrated up to 700mph, accurate to within 3 to 5%, Air Mileage Units and radiosondes.
“Britain’s Test Pilots, No. 19:
Arthur John Pegg, MBE” “Bill” Pegg had a distinguished RAF career (he was one
of only two men given a permanent commission from the ranks in 1931, that is,
from being a sergeant pilot to a P/O. He joined Bristol in 1934, and has been
Cyril Uwin’s second ever since.
Here
and There
Artif-Ice, Inc., has a nice, compact cabin
cooler. Air Marshal Sir Milne Robb thinks that we have reached our limit for
speed in the air. The paper can’t believe he said anything so silly, but he
did. The Brabazon’s interior is to be designed by Richard Lonsdale-Hands.
De
Havilland has converted two boilers at Hatfield over to oil operation. The
first one saved 23 tons of “black diamonds” in the first ten days of operation.
The paper is upset that a major industrial company has to use imported fuel in
a “land which is almost built on coal.” Titanine has adopted the five-day work week. A lumber company
in central Louisiana has bought a Piper Cub, because its base of operations is
two days from civilisation by boat. (I’m amazed that this counts as even
end-of-column news; but also by the fact that any location in Louisiana is that isolated.)
 |
| Lonsdale-Hands: painter and designer. |
“The De Havilland Ghost (DGT/50)” a
detailed technical account of the successor to the Goblin, which delivers
5000lb thrust at 10,000rpm. A centrifugal compressor design like the Goblin, it
has cascade vanes to “turn the air in a substantially axial direction,” so
that, at 53”, it is only 3” wider than the Goblin, although substantially
heavier. The number of combustion chambers was reduced from 14 to ten,
increasing their volume, and the outlets were rearranged to reduce the number
of diffusor vanes. The design was also improved by a better distribution of the
chambers, which allowed the engine to be truly circular, reducing stress on the
casing. The fuel system is by Lucas, and the impeller disc is made of an
unspecified “light, silicon-free alloy.” The Ghost combustion chambers are so
well designed that there is only a 2.8lb/sq. inch pressure drop across the
chamber (some turbulence is needed to induce rapid consumption, but impedance
of mass flow reduces total combustion, so this is supposed to impress us as a
good compromise.) A ferritic, rather than austenitic, steel was chosen for the
turbine disc, “giving adequate mechanical strength, relatively good creep
characteristics and is easier to forge.” The turbine blades are forged of the
“now famous” Wiggins Nimonic 80 alloy, precision machined to fine limits in
dimension and profile. Maximum oil consumption is 1.5 pints per hour, but jet
fuel consumption remains high. (There is also a jettisoning pipe to get
unburnt fuel out, since otherwise it tends to pool in the bottom of the engine
–which I did not know.
RAFVR Developments” The Air Force has resumed
recruiting for same.
“Air Transport During the War:
AOC-in-C Transport Command Discusses Problems and Lessons: Precise of a Lecture
Given to the RAeS” In the last 21 months of the war, Transport Command flew
more passenger miles than all of British civil aviation in the 21 years before.
A half-million troops and 200,000 tons of cargo were carried. 3000 pilots, more
than three times the number of pre-war “B” licenses, were inducted into
Transport Command. This required simplifying training, especially of flying and
navigating in bad weather. Not just radars, but special maps were needed, and
were provided by the Navigation Staff of Transport Command. Six aircraft were
lost to turbulence, none to collision, and special CRTs were installed to warn
of dangerous cumulo-nimbus clouds. Communication duties in support of Transport
Command absorbed 21,000 men around the world(!) The all-weather service, set up
as an experiment on 15 September 1945 between Blackbushe and Prestwick, managed
to fly 666 of 668 services thanks to this highly regular communication system.
FIDO was used at Blackbushe on five occasions. Experiments with parachute drops
from 500ft showed that they were, on average, within 308 yards of a Eureka
beacon and 250 yards out under visual conditions. Maintenance concerns focus on
engines, and an engine with an effective life of 1000hrs is much wanted; as is
a tyre that can stand 200 landings, vice 70, currently. The main problem with electrics and instruments was poor
maintenance. The economic inefficiency of the low speed and short range of the
Dakota could be shown by a comparison with the York: Yorks carried 65% more
crew per head of personnel, and 35% more considering crew only.
 |
| This is the Dakota that crashed on the Swiss glacier, already covered. Still 16 more Dakota and Li-2 crashes to go in 1947! |
Civil
Aviation News
“Jet Transports” Various people have
longed to see the Republic Rainbow equipped with Rolls Royce Nenes, because
both are very advanced. Mr. C. R. Smith, chairman of American Airlines, has
pointed out that this may take awhile, on account of it being impossible. (He doesn't mention that it would also be stupid on a transcontinental run.) The paper points out that there must be a reason forgoing to the trouble, and really hopes that someone discovers that reason. In
the mean time, American will be experimenting with British jet turbines, says
Smith. This leads the paper to conclude that an “all new jet transport” will
appear in America in the next few years, and not just a “prop jet,” such as is
proposed for the Martin 303. However, Mr. Hobbes of United Aircraft Corporation
thinks it will take about ten years, and the paper runs to its bedroom, slams
the door, and flings itself on its bed, sobbing.
In shorter, but actual news, Lord
Nathan’s National Civil Aviation Constitutive Council has met for the first
time. It talked about safety, and the need to constrain runway growth, lest
England be completely paved. Mr. F. G. Milnes is
showing a model of a Thames airport for flying boats. Others, slightly more realistically, it
looks as though the flying boat base will be at Cliffe, not Langston Harbour. Bristol is sending
the Freighter/Wayfarer off on another tour of Latin America, because rationing
just won’t ever end sales. It is news again that BOAC will shortly replace
the Boeing 314s it operates on the New York-Bermuda run, with Short Sunderlands unders some alias. The Short Sandringham is in the lead, but I still
have hopes for the Solent, or perhaps the Ambleside-Upon-Tiddley Cove. The Montreal Gazette is quoted as showing
that only 75 persons were killed in air accidents in America in 1943, compared
with thousands in this or that other kind of accident, proving that flying is
safe as houses.
 |
| Ruslip crash, December 1946. (From Hewitt's Pinterest) |
Correspondence
“Aircrew” thinks that “Notices to
Airmen” and other Air Ministry publications could be much more useful if they
would just follow a standard format, give the same information, call things by
their right names and come out regularly. Graeme Percival, a Link radio
navigation trainer, thinks that radio beam flying could be much safer if there
were more Link radio navigation training.
A. Cooke-Smith suggests investigating air
accidents and publishing details of their causes. R. G. Preston, of the Employment
Advice Bureau of the GAPAN, writes with advice to pilots who hold “B” licenses,
since the Guild has only been able to place about half the 300 who have
registered with it.
The
Economist, 8 February 1947
Leaders
“A Profits Policy?” People have been
saying that the Government needs to have a policy for reducing corporate
profits, which have become very large during the war years. The paper say that
this isn’t true; and, anyway, profits are only up if you don’t take everything
into account; and, anyway, high profits aren’t necessarily bad; and, anyway, other
people (like unions) do horrible things, too. On the other hand, if it meant
achieving full technical efficiency, a profits policy would be a good thing,
because the current high level of profits is from monopolies and regulation,
which are horrible.
--The paper apologises for a huge
printing error right in the middle of last week's leading leader of last
week, and puts the blame where it firmly belongs: the printers, who fell asleep for some reason.
“Defence in Two Worlds” The paper fixes the printing error problem by writing something no-one can read. First, it spends 37 lines talking about what Nazis and Soviet Communists
might think of England’s relationship with Australia. Then, it recalls a wartime discussion of dispersing “essential war industries, skilled white manpower, research
organisations, and raw material stocks throughout the Commonwealth in the last
three lines of the second paragraph. This allows it to pivot to skilled labour emigration, and it points out that it is still a good idea, because while atom bombs might blow up valuable operatives and and boffins in England, because it is too small for atom bombs to miss, Australia is quite large, and so are atom bombs. After another few paragraphs, the leader says a reluctant good-bye to Australia, and previous stabs at a point, and arrives at the question of Africa supplying troops to the English army. If I were to summarise, I would probably go backwards, and say, African troops, because Africa owes it to England in return for all those white emigres it sends, just like it sends them to Australia, which Moscow doesn't understand.
 |
| In conclusion, Geoff Crowther is terrible, just like this cartoon. |
“The Smaller Powers and Germany” The
German peace treaty will have to take the Poles, Jugoslavs and Czechs into
account. Also, the Australians (again!) are in the mix, since they don’t want
any border changes in Europe that might lead to future wars, and are against
self-determination. The Poles want their border finalised, the Jugoslavs have
some small demands, and the Czechs want it settled that the expelled Sudeten
Germans can’t come back. Everyone except South Africa wants some machine tools;
the Greeks want guaranteed tobacco exports to Germany for twenty years; the
Jugoslavs want Danube barges; the Belgians want 6 million tons of coal, 750
million kwh, phosphates and salt for forty
years; the Dutch and Belgians want to control Rhine traffic to prevent
German canal building to divert traffic from Belgian ports; the Dutch want to
prevent German agricultural self-sufficiency; the Norwegians want control of
German fishing fleets. The paper, concludes that the small powers have no say in the German peace, because
that would make things too complicated.
“Whose Victory in Asia?” It was very
embarrassing for the white powers to be beaten by the Japanese.
Notes
of the Week
“No Respite for MPs” The House of
Commons is upset at all the work it has to do these days to pass the
government’s agenda. The paper thinks that all of this productivity is
horrible. Also, maybe something terrible will happen on the electricity side
due to all the time Mr. Shinwell must spend in Parliament, instead of running
his department, and likewise other ministers. If only Mr. Shinwell was in his
office, voters will say in 1950, we’d be done with austerity already!
“State of Emergency in Palestine”
Protesting wives and families of English officials in Palestine were flown home
this week in an evacuation that came ahead of an “ultimatum” to the Jewish
National Council and Jewish Agency to cooperate against Jewish terrorists.
Martial law is expected, but a political solution is needed. Which will be
partition, followed by English evacuation, as presaged by the withdrawal of
half of the 16000 English troops in Greece this week.
“Mr. Dalton and the Landowners” Mr.
Dalton spoke last for the Government in debate, and offered a defence for
extending the use of the 1939 prices for (some) land acquisition or use
regulation under the bill through 1949. The paper thinks that is horrible.
“Incentives to Enterprise” The Bill
will also reduce local assessments for blitzed or blighted areas by 60% as an
incentive, etc.
Two notes on Germany mention, first,
that strikes are spreading in the British Zone even as coal production is up,
thanks to increased rations and points for consumer goods. The English hope for
self-sufficiency within three years. A return of German prisoners of war might
help, and the Americans are pressing this case ahead of the Moscow Conference.
They intend to release all of their hundreds of thousands of prisoners by
October; Britain will release its over two years; the Belgians begin their plan
next May; the French will begin releasing 470,000 of 620,000 prisoners next
October. Russia which seems to hold two to three millions, and Italy and the
Balkans, where there are 300,000 to 400,00, have made no commitments. The paper thinks that English commitments are
fine, but that the current rate of release, 1500/month from England and
2500/month from the Middle East, is too low. Germany needs young men for
“social stability as well as economic reconstruction.” I’m not sure what it
means by that, but it goes on to mention that there are two German women for
every man in the “middle aged group,” and that “there is too much dependency,” whatever that means. The main villains, surprisingly enough,
are not the Russians, but the French.
Indians, Latins and Japanese are
excitable. The Spanish
Republican government (which still exists!) has had a reshuffle, in case
General Franco spontaneously combusts from all the hostile glances hurled at him by
the Uno.
“American Withdrawal from China”
General Marshal has pushed this through, presumably because he thinks that the
American troops were doing more harm than good, by painting the Koumintang as
colonial collaborators.
Mrs. Snyder and Dalton are having a
trans-Atlantic snit over the arrangement between England and Argentina, which
is thought to violate the Anglo-American Agreement.
“Concerning Honesty” Lord Templewood
made a new plea for the reformed penal system he nearly got through the last
parliament, last weekend to the Department of Criminal Science of Cambridge
University. Which is all very well, but he is not taking into account the fact
that England’s juvenile delinquency problem is just a symptom of moral decline.
“The plain truth is that from being the honestest people in the world, the
English people are becoming completely dishonest.” It is not that they are
committing more crimes, it is that they are evading all sorts of
“ill-understood regulations,” and as soon as the Government stops trying to enforce
them with undercover agents making examples . . . I have a feeling that someone
with a name not unlike Geoffrey Crowther was caught making private arrangements
with a tradesman the other day. . .
 |
| I seriously do not understand how the leader writer (who may not be Crowther) still has a job. |
In shorter notes, Polish coal
production (which used to be German coal production) is estimated at a little
over half pre-war total, although exports are up.
Letters
to the Editor
H. W. Singer [pdf], of the University of
Glasgow, thinks that the leader on the Town and Country Bill was rubbish. “Your
Former Polish Correspondent” points out that the paper is repeating scandalous
misinformation from Polish emigres in regards to the new Polish President, [Boleslaw] Bierut. Jean Lequiller, of 26, Montpelier Way, London, thinks that the paper is
much too kind to the Viet Minh, who are not nationalists, collaborated with the
Japanese, and are very unpatriotic. S. C. Leslie, of the Council of Industrial Design, writes to point out that well-designed consumer goods are not some kind
of frivolous luxury, since good design will help with exports.
Books
Professor E. H. Carr has a book
about The Soviet Impact on the WesternWorld out. This book is much more important than the abridgement of
Professor Toynbee, so it gets two half-columns, which I have read, without
getting the faintest idea about what the book might be about beyond that the paper disagrees with Professor Carr.
Harold Innes, Political Economy in the Modern State,” is a “ramble among the
social sciences.” He is very erudite, brilliant, but also a bad writer and very
disorganised, so this book has no point –unlike, I suppose, Professor Carr’s,
where there is a point, but the paper can’t explain it. So it is a relief to
turn to Frederick Muller, C. P. Scott,
1846—1932: The Making of the Manchester Guardian, since biographies have a point, by definition.
 |
| No-one knows what he was on about, but he taught at the U of T, so he must have been smart, for a Canadian |
From
The Economist of 1847
The man who started the Arrow War is wonderful, and everyone who
says differently, is wrong. Also wrong, Charles Dickens, for the plot twist in his current serial.
American
Survey
“Coming Labour Laws” All sorts of
proposed new labour laws have been introduced in the Senate and House.
“Learned Society” American
economists have just held all of their annual meetings. That is when old
friends get together, papers are given and sometimes heard; and where new PhDs go on the “slave market” for jobs. Many papers were on teaching methods; almost as many on business
prospects (1947 will be a good year, but
it can’t go on forever); somewhat fewer on the new field of using psychological
surveys to find out what people were going to do, very few on foreign affairs. Sir Henry Clay dropped in to remind everyone that England was in sad
shape, and that America really had to step up and be the world’s market of last
resort. Finally, Drs. Nourse and Goldenweiser, gave Presidential addresses that told economists to “either
put up or shut up.”
American
Notes
 |
| As long as they carry through with their promise to repeal the New Deal. |
“Airways on the Spot” Due to low
fares, in spite of the immense increase in traffic, average payload is said to
be below the break even point, and net industry operating revenues have fallen
from $43 million in 1945 to below $5 million(!) in 1946. TWA’s Constellation
problems and strike troubles has led to a heavy loss; Pan American has had to
borrow $40 million, TWA has been refinanced by the RFA, and other carriers are
looking for temporary loans. A rise in rates from the current 4.5 cents per
mile would also ease suspicions that management has been sacrificing safety to
rates and traffic records.
 |
| The TWA Moonliner: By HarshLight from San Jose, CA, USA - Moonliner, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47457587 |
“Crisis in the Schools” There are terrible disparities in the way students and
teachers are treated. New York for example, spends $157 a year per pupil, while
Mississippi spends $31. New York City teachers receive $4100, twice the national average, while Coloured teachers in the South may
receive as little as $300/year. Since it would bankrupt Mississippi to spend as
much per student as New York, the only solution is federal
support. A long-pending Bill that would allocate $300 million for the task might now pass, because Taft backs it. Unfortunately, the states have resisted, because the Feds might go on about white supremacy and
Darwinism. Senator Taft's solution is to just give the money to the states. In other news, the Republicans have
managed to set up another investigatory committee over Democratic objections.
The Small Business Committee will investigate now the New Deal brought
communism to America by hampering small business. Rail rate “monopolies”
are up before the ICC again. Unlike, say, trust busting or the RFA, this is the
kind of monopoly-fighting that (some) Taftites can get behind, especially seeing how our new Secretary of Commerce is embarrassed.
The
World Overseas
“Famine in Russia” Gosplan has now officially admitted that Russia is experiencing a famine. There is also a fat and sugar shortage due to failure of oil and beet crops and the shortage of livestock.
The paper points out that this is a terrible time for Unrra relief to be wound
down in Ukraine and Byelorussia, and that talk of “hard bargaining” with Russia
over Western relief measures is terrifically wrong-headed. It also points out that private
relief stepped in to the breach in 1921, in stark contrast to the sight of the
Unrra packing up to leave as the famine hits its peak. And the Engineer led the way, as he reminds me when I tax him about "communists." (I fed them, he thinks, so I deserve not to be made fun of when I check for them under my bed. I'm not sure that he actually thinks that, but I've long since given up trying to get him to take me seriously.)
“North of India” India’s frontiers
are closed by irregular conquests, tribal and treaty states.. For example, the Afghans “see no reason why
conquests made by the British or even by the Sikhs, should be inherited by Mr.
Nehru,” and want Peshawar back at the minimum. Kashmir is ruled by a Hindu who
wants to join it to India, but has a Moslem population that presumably wants to
join Pakistan. The Afghans want Kashmir’s western dependences of Swat and
Kunar, and Nehru has recently made a fuss over getting the whole for India.
East from Kashmir there are Nepal, home of the Gurkhas, and Tibet. The paper
expects China to reoccupy Tibet shortly, after which China may resume its
claims to territory in the corner between Tibet, Yunnan, India and Burma. The
paper is very sad that Indian nationalists are “blind” to all these issues.
 |
| Either The Economist doesn't have any insert maps that show where Swat is, or it can't be bothered to find it. |
“Problems of Italian Reconstruction,
IV: Crisis in Foreign Trade” Italy traditionally supported its population on a
“meagre agriculture” and the re-export of imported raw materials as finished
goods. This means that it needs to pay for coal, iron ore, pig iron, petrol,
cotton and wool, and then sell the finished manufactured products abroad. The war having cut Italian productivity to
665% of 1938, sunk five-sixths of its merchant marine of 3.7 million tons, it is in difficulties. It can sell anything it can export, but
it mostly needs to pay for its imports with American dollars and other hard
currencies, while its export markets are “soft.”
The
Business World
“The Electricity Question” Mr.
Shinwell is setting up a Central Authority and local Boards to manage England’s
electricity supply, which the paper suspects is going to lead tonationalisation soon. At least the paper can agree with the minister that the
industry is moribund and might need nationalisation to get to full technical efficiency!
Also requiring an in depth
treatment, the question of properly taxing life assurance annuities.
Business
Notes
“A Most Serious Situation” You
wouldn’t think that a most serious situation would arise down in Business Notes, especially in an issue with the single worst Leader I've ever read. But, no, down here, at last, we get to the Ministry of Fuel and
Power’s Wednesday announcement that “a most serious situation” has arisen in
coal supplies. The winter has closed down transportation, and the Cripps plan
already depended on hand-to-mouth delivery of currently produced stock. A
crisis period lasting until spring is expected, and more factories are stopping
or going part-time. The
paper now expects coal rationing, and warns that next year may be even worse.
 |
| From the Daily Mail. |
“The Chancellor’s Weekend” The paper
now officially hates the Chancellor for saying that there will be no financial
crisis, that the coal owners are responsible for the low coal stocks, and for
not paying enough compensation for nationalised transportation industry stocks.
“Argentine Wheat Deals” Lower than
expected American deliveries last winter raised doubts about whether the
English bread ration could be maintained; while it was maintained, it was at
the expense of stocks, which had fallen to 800,000 tons by the time a half-million-ton
wheat deal was reached with Argentina. It is said that the deal was sweetened
by a preferential export of caustic soda and sodium carbonates, but the paper
manfully maintains that that didn’t happen, because it would be wrong. The
moral is that the country needs to produce more coal, so that it can export it or make heavy chemicals.
In shorter news, South Wales is
getting three new cold reduction mills under the Government’s iron and steel
plan and thanks to investments by Richard Thomas and Baldwins, with the
takeover of several smaller concerns by the new Steel Company of Wales. The new
plant will be oil-fired, and will require some new equipment from America,
which the paper believes must be ordered as soon as possible. The silver market
in London has been made “freer” –I have a note on this below, for obvious
reasons. The London price is still moving with the Bombay price, since silver
movement is allowed within the sterling area –for now. The International
Shipping Conference is next week. Also, the Anglo-Danish food talks have gone
well, and efforts to improve amenities in brickworks continue,full technical efficiency to follow.
“Polish Labour for Wool” The
National Association of textile trade unions have agreed to the employment of
Polish labour in the industry, as it will be paid union rates. The paper is
pleased, but upset that the arrangement has finally been settled at just the
moment when it looks like the industry might be shut down by coal shortages.
“Linseed Oil and Substitutes” With
the sudden increase in linseed oil prices, it is interesting to hear Lewis
Berger and Sons announcing that they have evolved a styrene co-polymer that can
reduce the consumption of linseed oil by 40% or more. Unfortunately, styrenes
are imported from the United States, so this would not be a solution even if it
completely replaced linseed oil, which is produced in only a few countries, and
mainly Argentina. The recent English purchase of 100,000 tons on behalf of the
Emergency Food Council was probably at Argentina’s price, “Which bears little
or no relation to the return allowed to flax producers in that country.”
Production of linseed in 1946 is estimated at 132.3 million bushels compared
with 136.8 million in 1946. The decline in Argentinian production, coincident
with a reduction in the price paid to growers from 40 to 35 pesos/bushel (and
in American and Indian production), has been partly made up for increased
production in Canada and South America. The paper points out that Argentina’s policy
of charging what the market will bear, is just going to accelerate research
into substitutes.
Flight,
13 February 1947
Leaders
“Justifying the American Purchases?”
An Avro Tudor I returning from a development flight in Africa with a defect not
mentioned here, has provoked a reaction in the press. Is it Avro’s fault? Is it
the British airminded world, for overrating the Tudor? Is it England’s fault
for being England? Anything is possible, although the key point is that the Tudor
has disappointed the BOAC. The real thing to be upset about is that the
Ministry has publicised these results, instead of keeping them top secret while
Avro fixed the problem (which, anyway, should have been found out long ago), as
this seems to justify the American purchases.
 |
| Stratocruiser over Alcatrez |
“More Delay” Just to further, if
only indirectly, clarify what the heck the paper is talking about, the Boscombe
Down trials showed that the Tudor is unexpectedly unstable in flight, which
will mean running the engine at higher power to maintain lateral stability,
which will reduce its Air Miles Per Gallon, which means that it cannot be used
in the Atlantic service.
“Pulsating Jet for Helicopters?” The
idea is to use pulsating jets, like the ones that propelled the V-1, in the
little pods at the trip of helicopter rotor blades that some designers are
thinking of as a better propellant system than an engine running them
mechanically.
Publishers’
Announcement: “In consequence of the serious position with regard to coal,
and in common with all weekly periodicals, it is unlikely that it will be
possible to publish the next two issues of Flight.
When power becomes available, publication will be resumed. The Editorial Office
will remain open in order to deal with all enquiries and correspondence.”
I'll ad here that I have the 15 February number of The Economist in front of me. I won’t
inflict it on you at any length, but it does cover the shut down at greater
length. The news broke the day after The
Economist appeared on the newsstands, and the paper is very upset at being
included, although it has arranged for some Leaders and Notes to be published as an insert in
the Financial Times.) It also thinks that it is all Mr. Shinwell’s fault for not
introducing coal rationing. It is worried about the American loan, as perhaps
half the labour force will be off work for two weeks, and about the budget, although it notes that the enormous Unemployment Fund surplus will carry the country, and thinks that it is nonsense to talk about the
40-hour week when everyone has to work as hard as possible and etc. Also, there
must be more “efficiency” and less “social equity.” It also wants Shinwell and
Dalton out. I hope that it’s not taxing your patience to notice that there are
coal supply problems in Canada now, and that the
Americans are getting more enthusiastic about atomic power.
“Universal Power Plants: Interchangeability
of Engine Type and Position: Wartime Measure Applied to Civil Transports:
Provision Against Climactic Extremes” People have talked about this for years, but it is not clear when it happens, or started happening, probably because the
definitions are loose, so it is always just starting. Anyway, this
article says that the first “UPP” was installed in an Avro Lincoln, and now
they have gone into Tudors and DC-4Ms. I think the real point is that the DC-4M installation has just passed the more stringent American testing.There’s a
somewhat backhanded discussion of the use of an aluminum radiator instead of
the traditional honeycomb steel radiator, to save weight, which might seem like
it was not a provision against
“climactic extremes,” but everything is actually fine.
American
Newsletter
“Kibitizer” notes that January saw
some of the worst flying weather ever, and as a result there were many
accidents, overshoots and forced landings. “Fortunately, . . . not all of them
were fatal.” Various prophets who predicted this last summer having been
ignored, the public is now demanding that GCA be installed at all major
airports, and operated by the Army until new personnel become available.
Meanwhile, the Army and Navy have been using GCA, and getting good results. “At
the time of the fatal crash at Shanghai on Christmas Eve, the Navy is said to
have talked-down two of their own transports and a commercial machine as well,
under weather conditions identical to the ones that cause the other accidents.”
“Kibitzer” notes the Douglas Cloudster, which is not news, and word of a Douglas supersonic design, the D. 558, to be powered by a T. C. 180 axial-jet designed to give 4000lb static thrust, which is also not news. Word of Boeing abandoning its 417 was “sandwiched” between announcements that Lockheed had not abandoned the Saturn, and then, that they had. This leaves a gap in the American market, the Beechcraft D. 18 and potential 34, aside. “Kibitizer” hopes that a British machine might fill it. Continental is restarting its engine plant, mainly to remanufacture aging engines.
 |
| This crash in New York City has nothing to do with "China's Black Christmas;" but I haven't the stomach to sort through the Pinterest page it comes from. Anyway, I just wanted to point out that China National Airway Corporation had five crashes between 16 December 1946 and 28 January 1947. |
“Kibitzer” notes the Douglas Cloudster, which is not news, and word of a Douglas supersonic design, the D. 558, to be powered by a T. C. 180 axial-jet designed to give 4000lb static thrust, which is also not news. Word of Boeing abandoning its 417 was “sandwiched” between announcements that Lockheed had not abandoned the Saturn, and then, that they had. This leaves a gap in the American market, the Beechcraft D. 18 and potential 34, aside. “Kibitizer” hopes that a British machine might fill it. Continental is restarting its engine plant, mainly to remanufacture aging engines.
“A Profitable Discussion: Air
Marshal Sir Ralph Cochrane’s Paper Evokes Pointed Comment: A Precis of Comments
on a Lecture by Air Marshal Cochrane” Attendees asked about load limits, icing,
and cockpit drill and instruments. One old airman suggested that there were too
many instruments in the cockpits, and that as many as possible should be
eliminated to reduce crew fatigue. Replying to a question about load limits as
directed specifically at the Dakota, Cochrane said that, in service, the C/47
had been loaded to 30,000lbs or so, and that no accidents were attributable to
overloading, while engine failures were rare.
Here
and There
Sir Malcolm Campbell is to put a
Goblin in the latest Bluebird in
pursuit of a new speed record. The Goblin II has 4000lb static thrust, compared
with the 2200lb thrust developed by the engine in the latest record holder
(141mph). RAF transport aircraft have been dropping provisions on towns and
villages cut off by snowdrifts(!) Sir Ben Lockspeiser points out that
helicopters are far too dangerous for the man-in-the-street, and the Air Force
has created an enormous imitation Hornet by doubling up the Mustang to form the
P-82 Double Mustang, which will soon (hopefully) fly non-stop from Honolulu to
New York, 5000 miles, with the aid of 4 250 gallon drop-tanks.
“Emergency Equipment” The paper provides a full-page spread of the emergency equipment carried in RAF bombers against the possibility of a water ditching. I can’t help looking at the storm-protector covered dinghy and think that it looks very cozy. Other pictures show the dinghy flying its radio aerial on a box kite (or balloon, with a “hydrogen generator” included). This is what you get for putting boys on a problem with an unlimited budget.
Captain David Brice, A. R. Ae. S.,
“Airport Planning: Some Thoughts on Present-day Difficulties and Problems:
Suggestions for To-morrow: ‘Square’ Plan Recommended” All existing airports are
terrible. LaGuardia is sinking into the sea, Idlewild is a wilderness, London
Airport at Heathrow is next to a highway (which is bad), all that talk of blind
landing is so much bunk. Captain Brice has many suggestions for fixing these
problems, and many criticisms of everyone else’s solutions. His own looks
ridiculously impractical, but what do I know?
“Anticipation of Overspeeding: New
De Havilland Pre-Setting Airscrew Governor”
A centrifugal governor finds it hard
to cope with sudden increases in engine rpm, for example due to speeding up to
make up for a missed landing. In an overshoot correction, there will be a
period of overspeeding until the governor is fully charged with hydraulic
fluid. The new preset equipment has an auxiliary oil accumulator, and a piston
responsive to the airscrew pitch control mechanism, which plunges, pushing the
contents of the accumulator into the governor.
“Polarised Screens: What They Are
and How They Work: An 1818 Discovery in 20th Century Use” I guess
some readers need an explanation for how light polarisation works, but the
point of this article is that Vickers has put polarised screens, designed by
Edwin H. Land, in the Vikings to be used in the Royal tour. The Polaroid layer
has been put into a normal Vickers dry-air-sandwich window as an interlayer,
with an additional layer that can be put on the windows at need. If put at a
ninety degree angle, all light is excluded, for blissful cabin darkness in the
glare of a South African day.
“London Airport: Official Report of
the Advisory Layout Panel: Reasons for Selecting Staggered Parallel Runway
Pattern” In answer to Captain Brice, an explanation for the layout of London
Airport. Al runways will be usable on an instrument-only basis, will be able to
take aircraft at an all-up weight of 360,000lbs (!!!) and will be able to
handle 240 movements an hour, or 60 landings an hour on three runways, if every
approaching aircraft could control its speed within 15mph of an agreed datum of
125mph. In the final stage of development, the terminal will pass 4000
passengers an hour (! More!) As Captain Brice rather critically intimated, this
will only be possible if the terminal is surrounded by runways, which means
some kind of tunnel, or some such.
 |
| Heathrow from the air, 1955 |
Civil
Aviation News
“The Tudor Position” BOAC will not
be operating the Tudor for the foreseeable future due to the results of the
African development flight, which revealed an excessive tail swing at an
80,000lb all up weight in hot climates, which takes it “beyond the limits of
safety.” Avro thinks that this is due to air flow blanking the rudder; BOAC
blames the tail wheel configuration.
“PICAO Progress Report” Iceland
needs a loan to operate a LORAN station, and Afghanistan and Ethiopia are
interested in the same arrangement. “Q code” is accepted as an international
standard of radiocommunication.
In shorter news, Trans-Canada’s
DC-4Ms will be in Atlantic service soon. Air France and United have agreed on
coordinating flights. Australia’s Department of Civil Aviation has made an
appropriation of 5 ½ million pounds to cover airport construction this year.
PICAO will have a special session to discuss air accidents. Father will be pleased
to hear that the Straits Steamship Company is creating Malayan Airways, Ltd.
American airlines are increasing fares. United blames it on carrying costs for
operating the DC-6, but the paper is not convinced, and thinks that is because
fare discounting has gone too far.
Correspondence
“An Instructor” points out that the
reason that Training Command is short of instructors is that it has a
reputation of being slow on promotions. R. H. Turlington thinks that
single-seat fighter pilots have a pilot sense that is better than all the
new-fangled “training” that multi-engine instructors have. S/L F. C. A. Cander
and F/L R. A. Jeffrey cosign a letter saying that Dakotas are not dangerous. F.
S. Symondson is worried that the recent spate of accidents is the result of
airline administrations putting pressure on pilots to make their schedules.
Aviation, February 1947
Aviation Editorial
Leslie Neville demands that the
industry “curb crashes now,” and delivers an Economist-worthy cloud of words about the Army-Navy- (Air Force)
merger. At least he is not mealy-mouthed about what must be done about crashes.
Instead of waiting on new experimental GCA installations, existing facilities
must be used where available, and that means bringing pilots up to speed on GCA
technique immediately, and “instructing them to use it when necessary.” “These
steps must be taken regardless of who is hurt. Human lives and the future of an
industry are at stake.”
The What’s New section is as
frivolous as ever, although I was struck by a “one-sided thickness gauge” that
uses a piezoelectric oscillator to measure the thickness of a section simply by
being placed against it.
Line
Editorial
James E. McGraw, Jr., “Industry-Wide
Bargaining: Death Trap for Business, Suicide for Free Labour” The title seems to
succinctly get across the point, which is that the sky is falling, and that we
are all doomed. I miss the old Mr. McGraw, the one who wasn’t crazy. If I were
pressed to come up with a theory to explain it, I would suggest that it is
easier to be not-crazy when government cost-plus production contracts have a
set-aside for advertising costs then when you are fighting for advertising and
cheap editorial content.
Aviation
News
The paper covers the merger
agreement, notes that the Army Air Force budget for fiscal ’48 is up to $720
million, although naval BuAer is down from $308 to $261. NACA gets $36.4, up from $29.7 million last year, with emphasis on
the Cleveland engine lab. Industry gross was $1 billion last year, four times
that of 1939. 35,000 light planes, 36,000 transports, and 1400 military
aircraft were sold last year. Sales are expected to go up by 2500 next year.
The Navy has offered the CAA 30 surplus GCA sets, while the AAF has offered
130.
In shorter news, McCarren has
reintroduced all of his pet bills, and also a new one, calling for anindependent civil aeronautics authority and safety board; CAA now plans to
spend $33 million on new airfields: A. V. Roe has taken over Canada’s Turbo
Engines, Ltd; the battle between public and private airlines in Australia is
continuing; as is progress on the agreement to allow Chinese airlines to
service Honolulu, San Francisco and New York; the all-India air communications
network; and the expansion of SAS.
Carlos C. Wood, Chief, Preliminary Design
Section, Douglas Aircraft Corporation, “Design Development of the Douglas XB-42” You may remember the XB-42, the plane with its engines in the middle of
the fuselage, driving a contra-rotating pusher sticking out of the tail, which
everyone agreed to pretend was viable despite the usual problems with landing,
shaft weight, and engine cooling, last year? Well, here’s a discussion of how
it came to be. As you might expect, it arose from an impossible specification,
to which Douglas responded with a wildly unconventional design, because who can
credibly judge pure science fiction? (Except Miss K., who has a surprisingly acerbic
tone, although more about the symbolism of rocket ships than mass air flow!) In
practice, they had intractable control and aft stability problems because of
the novel installation of the airscrews until the prototype fell out of the sky
with engine failure due to overheating. Although the Mr. Wood blames the
cancellation of the programme on the end of the war in Europe, and hopes that
the air force will let them put a jet engine in it.
John Stack, Chief Compressibility
Research Division, National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, Langley Field,
Virginia, “Transonic Hazards Reduced” Langley’s work on models in their new
transonic wind tunnels has produced a few results, although they remain
predictably mystified by all the things they can’t explain.
K. E. Stoeckly, Aircraft Gas Turbine
Engineering Division, General Electric Co., “These Test Procedures Keyed Jet
Engine Advance” GE’s destruct, loading and other tests on prototype jet turbine
engines are discussed.
M. J. Wood, Project Engineer, AiResearch “Air Conditioning
Turbine-Propelled Aircraft, Part I” This is the company that Uncle George is
eager to buy into as fast as he can. The basic issue is that the faster that
aircraft go, the more friction heating they experience at the skin. Above about
500mph, cabin air conditioning is necessary. However, existing air conditioning
plant is designed for piston engines. These have all had auxiliary power shafts
driving reduction spurs suitable for powering auxiliary equipment for a while
now, and that includes refrigeration plant. Turbines aren’t obviously adaptable
to the same use, because they rotate their rotation speed is so much higher.
AiResearch has a better idea, based off bleeding off hot air through expansion
turbines, heat exchangers, and compressors. As with the earlier generation of
auxiliaries, this will require getting right into the guts of the engine, allowing
them to tap the revenue stream at the high-flow source. This is why companies
like Rolls-Royce sometimes tried to take auxiliaries “in house,” but it didn’t
work then, and hopefully won’t work now.
Ernest G. Stout’s static stability
analysis of flying boats and seaplanes, and John E. Macdonald’s “Practical
Engineering of Rotary Wing Aircraft” continues this week. The latter covers
unstable speed ranges and damping requirements at greater length, and has some
nice diagrams showing the limits of stable and unstable states a great deal
like the ones that James poured over trying to get his antiaircraft directors
to work. Fascinating that the same approaches pop up in so many fields.
 |
| I'm fascinated by the way that stability diagrams migrated from mechanics to electronics (and statistics? They should be in statistics, but what do I know). It'd take a smarter person than me to explain what's so fascinating about it, though. |
“Home-Made Roadable Readied by L. A.
Inventors” Persons named Stanley D. Whitaker and Daniel D. Zuck have a planethat turns into a car! It is called the Plane-Mobile, and is just around the
corner.
“Fiat Transport Marks Italian
Comeback” Just as soon as someone wants to buy one, there will be a new FiatTrimotor on the market!
 |
| Another soccer team-killer, it turns out. |
“Global Avigation System Projected
by PICAO”
PICAO wants international standardisation
on an Instrument Landing System and VHF omnidirectional radio ranges, with GEE
as a European alternative and low-frequency LORAN for long-range avigation. As
the Afghan and Ethiopian appeals show, however, international standardisation isn’t
possible unless someone pays for the expensive equipment. Given what PICAO
wants of the equipment, in particular that it not “saturate,” the price might
be pretty steep, too. It should also be developable towards automatic
operation, and provide output that automatic pilots can use. ILS, PICAO thinks,
should operate on UHF frequencies, not VHF. It is not yet certain what kind of
VHF sets will be carried on aircraft, but the loran specifications are set, and
construction of the chains will begin in 1949. Surveillance radar is also
coming along.
Articles follow on civil air
reorganisation in Bolivia and Uruguay, and on how United plans for maintenance
of new aircraft.
Fortune,
February 1947
Editorial
“Freer Trade vs. Control” The paper
comes out, daringly, for free trade. It is very pleased that John Orr’s plan for a global
food reserve has been defeated, as it would have led to too much “control.”
Management
Poll
Business expects 1947 to be a good
year, isn’t worried about the stock market, and plans further investments,
probably fewer price increases.
 |
| Future's so bright, I've got to wear shades! |
“Pittsburgh’s New Powers: Tired of
its Dirt and Congestion, Pittsburgh has a New Generation in Power, Bent Upon
Rebuilding the City” The paper wants to go to parties in Pittsburgh, now. Despite strikes and blackouts, Pittsburgh’s
future has never been brighter because of etc.
 |
| Going for a past-present-future thing, here. This is the University of Pittsburgh Cathedral of Learning, by the way. |
“In Russia’s Europe”
The Russians have occupied eastern
Europe. (It’s where the Iron Curtain is.) What will happen next? Probably
something awful.
“Micromatic Hone: A Company and a
Machine Tool is Uniquely Chipping Into the Productivity Problem” Kirke Connor
is a Detroit “salesman, engineer, administrator and inventor.” His Micromatic
Hone Corporation consists of “a group of fast-moving engineers,” a few hundred
workers, a “reconverted streamlined chop-suey plant, 178 patents” and regular
orders from every internal combustion engine company in America. The micromatic
is a grinder, used to achieve acceptable tolerances in modern, high speed
engines. Traditional grinding methods used “lapping,” in which an oiled
abrasive is spread over the contact area; “honing” embeds the abrasive in a
solid surface, and was introduced in the war for finishing gun bores. It is not
really “honing,” but they had to have some word for it. As with most automatic processes, control
mechanisms are elaborate. Also, we learn a few paragraphs in that the history
is gibberish, that the first person to build a honing machine in America was
Frank Jeschke, who designed one for Hutto Engineering in 1923, that it built
and sold honing machines all over the world, and that every auto company in
America and England has a Hutto bore-honing machine except Austin, that it was
Jeschke who founded Micromatic, back in 1929. The real problem was finding a
way to measure success, which arrived
with engineering research at the University of Michigan, funded by Timken, in
1932. Hutto went into receivership in 1937, and was taken over by Carborundum,
which was paralysed by strikes, leaving Micromatic with a monopoly, which is
nice. This is unusual in the automobile sector, since the car companies don’t
like it, but Micromatic has been careful not to get too big for its britches. Besides,
it has many other markets. Forty percent of its 1945 business went to
refrigeration. Now Connor is hoping to make bigger inroads into the machine
tool trade, so that when it comes time to sell his 38,000 shares, he recoups
even more of his original $40,000 investment than the $34,000 annual salary he
allows himself.  |
| Connor sold out to Ex-Cell-O, in 1963. That firm closed the Detroit plant in 1971, and that was the end of "Micromatic." Honing still exists, but it has lost its history. |
“What Happened to the Dreamworld?”
Remember how, back two years ago or
so, the postwar meant living in a plastic-and-aluminum home, bought in a
department store, delivered in a van, radiant-heated, air-conditioned, fluorescent-lighted,
soundproofed and germ-proofed by ultraviolet light, entirely cleanable with a
damp cloth, with a bathroom sunlamp, an ultra-shortwave diathermic oven in the
kitchen, automatic laundry, home television and refrigerator? When the man of
the house was going to commute to work in a helicopter that any fool could fly,
or in an ultralight plastic car whose transparent plastic nose excluded
bothersome infrared rays and allowed in health-giving ultraviolet, with air-conditioning
and headlights and windshields that killed bothersome glare, movable seats,
automatic transmission, independent wheel suspension, rubber springs and
high-octane, no-knock aviation gasoline? Stockings would never run, fabrics
would never need to be washed, pants would never get soaked in the rain or
shine, and, anyway, everyone would own several dozen synthetic suits that could
be disposed of in an automatic garbage disposer; you would talk to the
babysitter and work by radio.
“The unvarnished truth is that there
is practically no consumer product on the market” that is really postwar, the
ballpoint pen being the only obvious exception. Promoters looking for products
like it have not found anything except “gewgaws.” Defenders of the “dreamworld”
say that they are coming, just as soon as the production lines get going.
Realists think that it was all a dream to distract us from Anzio. Practically, only automatic transmissions, cheap plastics, any maybe black and white television (for those living within 40 miles of a major centre) are coming any time soon. As for air crashes, RCA thinks that its "Teleran" is five years away.
What was it about? Publicity and
self-promotion. A designer who sketched a nice Martian supersonic sleeper
rocket might get a job designing an interurban bus on the strength of the work,
and who cared that the public believed in the rocket ship? Artists “capitalised
. . . shamelessly on the public appetite for incredible new goods.”
What was the miscalculation? We confused what could be done with what would be done. Uncle Sam can say, “never mind the price,” and pay for the
computer that synchronised more than a dozen complicated processes employed to fire all five gun turrets of a B-29 at the same fleeting target, and there is no doubt that the same engineers can build an automatic laundry that can
whip a soiled shirt off a man’s back, wash it, dry it, iron it and hand it
back, with no pins; but people won't pay the $12,000 that computer cost for an automatic laundry! and it will be very
expensive when it arrives. Etc, etc. Past generations had big inventions, like the telephone, automobile and electricity. Our modern dreamworld peaked with the atomic bomb, which is no help at all around the kitchen. “There is a decreasing tendency to gawk at
the minor miracles of science as they come along.”
“Perhaps the postwar dreamworld was
a helpful wartime opiate. Perhaps it is by way of being a permanent American institution.
At any rate, nobody appeasers incensed over its failure to materialise, and a
few, indeed, many even be pleased at the indefinite postponement of the day
when the skies are black with helicopters and no birds sing.”
 |
| Picture for educational use only. |
“Mr. Hancock and the Bomb” John
Hancock, who, we are repeatedly told, is a friend of Bernard Baruch, is the
general manager of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations International
Atomic Energy Commission. He has had a long and successful career in business,
and the paper would really like to go to one of his parties, perhaps with a
portfolio of photographs from the bodybuilding article, just in case.
“The Ingenious Taxpayer” Ahead of
tax season, a long article on tax payment-mitigation, which I am not going to
read, because I’ve had to sit through far too many sessions with our
accountants.
“Chicago: A Camera Exploration of
the Huge, Energetic Urban Sprawl of the Midlands” The paper’s photographers do
up Chicago a treat. There’s some prose later on, but I’ll spare you the
extended quotes of an overexcited fellow named Charles Adams.
 |
| It's a nice pictorial, but I think I've already done Pittsburgh. |
“Experiment at Republic: Two Big
Bets on Commercial Aircraft Run Into Trouble: But Military Planes Still Pay Off”
Republic has invested heavily in the
very expensive, high-speed Rainbow airliner based on its Seabee and proposed
photo-reconnaissance aircraft. (The ridiculous one that was as big as a B-29 but
which couldn’t carry a bomb.) The Seabee was supposed to be the low-cost
consumer airplane, based on the company’s wartime experience with rapid
declines in unit production costs in long production runs of the P-47, while
the Rainbow built on the P-47 experience in a different way, because whatever
you think of that monster as a fighter, it was a marvel of thermodynamics!
Peacetime drastically curtailed Republic’s revenues, but instead of
contracting, it went in for new markets. (The article is a bit premature, since
just before the paper went to press, Republic underwent a complete
reorganisation. I know this because
they sent me a separate facsimile, which I found bound into the newsstand copy
as an insert.)
“Miss O’Reilly of Slocum” Winnifred
O’Reilly teaches at the Slocum High School in the North end of
Waterbury, Connecticut, which makes her one of Mr. Luce’s neighbours, which
might be why this inspirational story about her appears in Fortune, of all places. Or it might be that it puts a face on the question of teacher’s pay. Mrs. Slocum earns $2000/year,
lives a very spare lifestyle (in part because her money has all gone
to her nephews and nieces), is 17 years away from retirement at 53, and will
draw only $500 from the city pension system, as social security does not cover
teachers, and she was advised not to join the state pension system when she
came on with the school in 1917. The fact that it would pay $1800/year, making
her retirement pay higher than her
school income boggles me a bit. As does the fact that it would only take her
$4000 to buy into it. I guess the calculation is that at 70, she is about ready
to drop dead, anyway?
Shorts
and Faces
The first profile is of Tom Jordan,
the New Orleans cotton speculator who ran up $4000 into a $117 million holding
in cotton on the commodities exchanges before losing it all; although he
probably took some profits along the way and is ready to do it again. BobBender, President of leading US greeting card maker, Gartner and Bender,explains how he uses “Freudian psychology” to design his inventory. C. G. Suits
is an atomic physicist and GE’s youngest V.P. His Schenectady lab has its own uranium pile, and he is eager to explore the business potential of both piles for
power, and for making radioactive “tracers” for medical and industrial use. He
is also interested in cloud-seeding. He points out that the energy involved in
precipitating just 4 inches of snow over New York state is ten billion
kilowatt-hours, and it is amazing that a few hundred pounds of dry ice pellets can
unleash such events. “‘Some say,’ Dr. Suits points out, ‘That artificial
snowfall may eventually be more important than atomic fission.’”
“Flashed Out?” “Like the Supreme Court,
patent law has been accused of following election returns.” In the 1800s, the
paper points out, the courts were very liberal with patents. Then, in the
1900s, came agitation about how patents were being used as a device to choke
off competition. During the 1930s, the reaction was so strong that the Supreme
Court upheld only two patents in twelve New Deal years. Lately, the Supreme
Court has relaxed on this. Justice
Douglas had the most famously rigorous New Deal skepticism about patents. He
ruled against a patent application for a cigarette lighter because it lacked “a
flash of genius,” which has brought out scientists, engineers, the Patent
Office, Evan A., Evans of the Seventh Circuit and Felix Frankfurter in
response. Pressure to change the way patents were awarded and adjudicated grew,
and in a 1945 case, Justice Jackson ruled against Interchemical Corporation’squick-drying ink patent, but, in his opinion, set aside the “flash of genius.”
Patents for everyone!
 |
| It's interesting that I never got this treatment of the history of American patent law in school. In the spirit of kicking back against hegemony, this ad that perhaps reveals too much about the way some managers do their business. |
“1945 And After” The paper dissects
the recent history of industrial profits, showing that it is really all in how
you look at things. (Profits aren’t as high as they seem! Go away, taxman and
union!)
“Letter from Brazil” The paper goes
to Brazil, discovers that Latins are excitable.
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