R_. C_.
Vancouver,
Canada
Dearest Uncle:
You write to ask how I am settling in here in the Tall Trees, and to inquire after my fiance. I'm sure that you've heard that A. was in town to escort me at Homecoming, and make a show for my friends: the tall and handsome, red-headed Navy hero turned international man of mystery and all, but then the tipped punch bowl told the story of the same old A., however. I'm afraid that I stormed off in some anger and left poor B. to help him clean up.
B., if you were wondering, was in town because she and I went up to San Francisco for some shopping earlier in the day. The Lincoln is acting up, and so I was most grateful for the ride. We met Mrs. C. and had quite an enjoyable afternoon doing girl's stuff, before she had to dash home to relieve the babysitter. Queenie wasn't up for joining us, but we had lunch with her in Chinatown.
DIM SUM! How could I live to see "21," and not know about this? In my family! Who is responsible for this horrible neglect? Who? Then, as is my all-too common habit, I dashed into the "morgue" far too close to closing, so I can't be sure there is an obituary I didn't find, but "Puter" is not a common name. Now I wonder where else I should look. Oregon? Canada?
Yours Sincerely,
Ronnie.
P.S. Just heard about Reggie being invited to the course at London! So exciting! I've asked him not to fly over --New Years is just far too late in the year for Atlantic flying-- but it wouldn't hurt for him to hear it from his father, as well.
Flight, 2 October 1947
Leaders
“Tudor Committee” The Ministry of Civil Aviation has struck a
committee of four to look into how the Avro Tudor got to be such a mess, and
whether or not it is true that BOAC is going to run the Tudors exclusively as
freighters, because they are so terrible, or whether the BBC made that up,
because it is so terrible. The
possibility that BOAC is terrible, will also be considered.
“Automatic Piloting” Some people are upset that the recent crossing of
the Atlantic by a Skymaster under automatic control shows that robots will soon
take over human life and leave us to sit in the corner and twiddle our thumbs. Flight focusses on what is important:
the American technology of radio beams and corridor control is hideously
outmoded, and everyone should be yakking about the Smith’s Electric Pilot,
instead. (Grace is very good at finding translations of words like “yakking.”
Truly, her life will be wasted until she gets a job at the China News translations
desk.)
“Exercise Longstop” The British practiced dropping paratroopers the
other day, during the combined army-air-force manoeuvres. 2400 men and 170 tons
of supplies were dropped.
“SEP 1 in the Air: The First British Electric Automatic Pilot in Operation:
Convincing Demonstration of New Technique” This is mostly a discussion of the
demonstration, but I had some close questioning on the article, so I’ll just
tell you what I ended up telling . . . Anyway. The SEP 1 is remarkable in that
human control is through the
autopilot, not overriding it. Pilots are upset that it can’t be overridden, but
the rate/rate control eliminates the danger of toppling gyros; limit switches
and angular accelerometers are unnecessary, since safety circuits prevent
runaway servo-motors; the pilot automatically disengages if there are voltage
irregularities; gyro/servo alignment is automatic.
 |
| Let's look at this, on account of the "Smith's Electric Pilot" being all but unknown to the history of technology. (Apparently there's a chapter in Wealth from Knowledge: Studies in Innovation in Industry, J. Langrish, et al. Only $169 for the pdf! ) |
Maurice Smith, “Back on Monday” Wing Commander Smith visited as many
as possible of the RAF’s seventy home stations during Battle of Britain Week.
As it is, he flew a Chipmunk to as many as possible, saw various things, and
also something about Mr. Butlin, of Butlin’s Holiday Camps. Camp at Butlin’s
for your holidays! Now with small de Havilland Canada planes.
 |
| Oh, Flight, you naughty thing, you. |
Here and There
Australia is to have a school for training air traffic controllers,
India an Air Academy for teaching “the youth of India” “flying, aeronautical
engineering, and allied subjects,” and the Women’s Engineering Society is so
interested in aviation that it visited a Flight
lecture on gas turbines. It is the fiftieth anniversary of the electron
this week. (Before J. J. Thomson invented it, molecules were tied together with
binding twine, or so Uncle George tells me. He is so attentive of my
education!)
There is to be a symposium on internal stresses in metal on October
15th and 16th. Yellow Cab is starting a helicopter taxi
service in Washington, DC. The Royal Australian Air Force is going to do some
map survey work, which is important news that must go in the paper, because
they will have to fight their way through ravening hordes of flying koala bears
to map 45,000 square miles at 25,000ft at a standard scale of 1:50,00. South
Australia, West Australia, and South by Southwest Australia are “to be included
in the operation.” Flight points out
that it is “interesting” that the Bristol Mercury is being used in the Boulton
Paul P. 108 prototype, because it is very, very old. Flight points out that it was first designed as the special engine
for the Short Crusader, a racing plane being prepared for the “1937
Schneider-Trophy Race,” which goes to show that editors sleep through even very
interesting shorts. Hunting Aerosurveys
has completed its survey of Arabia and Persia, commissioned to investigate the
possibility of a flood reservoir on the rivers Tigris and Euphrates. David
Brown, owner of David Brown Tractors, bought Aston Martin last year, and has
now bought the goodwill, designs and work-in-progress of Lagonda. Vickers is
issuing a 4% dividend on 28 October 28.
 |
| Source |
“Interim Transports: Yorks and Haltons Give Good Passenger and Freight
Carrying Service” They do!
“Prestwick Pioneer: Appraisal of the Scottish Light Communications
Aircraft for Specialised Duty” The Pioneer was ordered to A4/45, which calls
for a simple, strong, single-engined aircraft capable of operating from very
restricted spaces and fulfill the “maid of all work” duties of a “military
light communications type.” In other words, the only thing that makes it
different from every other four-seat cabin plane is that it has Fowler flaps
that allow it to fly as slow as 33mph.
Civil Aviation News
“Developments in the Tudor Situation” Just so that everyone is singing
from the same hymnal, several weeks ago, the BBC broadcast a report that BOAC
would only use the Tudor I as a freighter. BOAC did not deny the report. Roy
Dobson, of Avro, made a statement, then visited the Ministry of Supply, and
then made another statement, calling on BOAC to put the Tudor I in service
immediately. The Ministry has now struck a committee led by Air Chief Marshal
Sir Christopher Courtney, with James Mould, a patent lawyer, Joseph Taylor, a
company director and intendent member of the Air Registration Board, and
assistant general manager of the Workers’ Travel Association Board, and George
Wansborough, a director of the Bank of England and “chairman of a number of
important companies.” Dobson points out that the original Tudor specification
of 1943 called for an aircraft with a still air range of 4000 statute miles operating
at 25,000ft, and that using the power plants then available, this reduced the
cabin to the smallest possible commensurate with the agreed payload of
approximately 4000lbs. The proposal was submitted to MAP in June 1944, accepted
by BOAC, and became the Tudor I. The full-size mock-up was inspected by BOAC
and MAP in August 1944, when the Corporation “accepted the flight deck in
principle but rejected the cabin arrangements as being inadequate to give the
required standard of luxury for 12 passengers. An increased cabin size was
called for, another mock-up built, four months delay resulting. It was modified
under construction to add another 2ft. The result was a plane that still
achieved the 4000 mile still air range, but had its operating height reduced to
20,000ft.
The first prototype, tested in Jun 1945, revealed numerous aerodynamic problems which had never been encountered, and meanwhile the cabin design was changed again, while pressurisation proved to be very hard to do. Official testing began in April 1946, and a provisional certificate of airworthiness was issued in November, and Avro was under the impression that route trials would then begin, but, unexpectedly, BOAC took a random plane down to Nairobi for testing, which Dobson regards because of a secret decision not to operate it over the Atlantic. Because of the Nairobi route testing, BOAC issued a report alleging three major defects and declaring the aircraft unsuitable for any of its routes. On 17 July 1947, Whitney Straight visited Avro and told the company that the Tudor would not be flown over the Atlantic, notwithstanding ongoing efforts to correct the defects identified by BOAC, as the 4000 miles still air range was now deemed inadequate. Avro came back with a new, proposed cabin layout allowing for 24 passengers, and BOAC promised to get back to it Sir Roy Dobson concludes by asserting that it is all BOAC’s fault for being so indecisive, and pointing out that it took the Constellation six years to be approved for civil flying, and another year for overseas routes.
 |
| Bear in mind that this is the central structural element of the Lancaster and the reason for its superb weight lifting capabilities. |
The first prototype, tested in Jun 1945, revealed numerous aerodynamic problems which had never been encountered, and meanwhile the cabin design was changed again, while pressurisation proved to be very hard to do. Official testing began in April 1946, and a provisional certificate of airworthiness was issued in November, and Avro was under the impression that route trials would then begin, but, unexpectedly, BOAC took a random plane down to Nairobi for testing, which Dobson regards because of a secret decision not to operate it over the Atlantic. Because of the Nairobi route testing, BOAC issued a report alleging three major defects and declaring the aircraft unsuitable for any of its routes. On 17 July 1947, Whitney Straight visited Avro and told the company that the Tudor would not be flown over the Atlantic, notwithstanding ongoing efforts to correct the defects identified by BOAC, as the 4000 miles still air range was now deemed inadequate. Avro came back with a new, proposed cabin layout allowing for 24 passengers, and BOAC promised to get back to it Sir Roy Dobson concludes by asserting that it is all BOAC’s fault for being so indecisive, and pointing out that it took the Constellation six years to be approved for civil flying, and another year for overseas routes.
BOAC’s statement says that Dobson is full of it, and that, anyway,
Avro has been doing all sorts of modifications (shorter undercarriages, leading
edge de-icers, a longer cabin, again) that would void its tentative
airworthiness certificate and further delay its entry into service.
In shorter news, BEA has amalgamated its English and Scottish
divisions. BOAC and Scottish Airlines, Silver City Airlines and Westminster
Airways recently combined to evacuate 7000 people from Delhi to Karachi. The
fifteenth annual British Radio Exhibition, Radiolympia, opened on 1 October.
I’ve been asked to specially note that British Thomson Houston is offering an
electronic-amplidyne remote position control mechanism like the controls used
on guns and searchlights during the war. It also has a microwave detector based
on the proximity fuze. IATA is having a meeting.
The International Meteorological Conference in Toronto was shown electrically operated machines that record and tabulate meteorological data with punch cards. Now to punch-card the billion observations made by the International Weather Bureau over the last sixty years! They also ease the task of collecting observations from automatic weather stations, which can be directly recorded on punch cards. A direct California-Hong Kong air service will be resumed next week. BEA carried 69,600 passengers in July, up 14,000 over June. British South American Airways will be showing films during flight with a 16mm projector.
 |
| Just super-top secret avionics from four years ago. No big deal. |
The International Meteorological Conference in Toronto was shown electrically operated machines that record and tabulate meteorological data with punch cards. Now to punch-card the billion observations made by the International Weather Bureau over the last sixty years! They also ease the task of collecting observations from automatic weather stations, which can be directly recorded on punch cards. A direct California-Hong Kong air service will be resumed next week. BEA carried 69,600 passengers in July, up 14,000 over June. British South American Airways will be showing films during flight with a 16mm projector.
Correspondence
Hugh Ryan points out that the final drive shown in Mr. H. R. Bernard’s
letter is not, in fact, differential, and is a bad idea. C. J. Bell points out
that Airworks should have checked with the Meteorological Office before it
tried seeding clouds to produce rain. Also, he thinks that taxes are too high,
and doesn’t seem to like socialism. “Spanner Puller” points out that while
“high boost and low revs” is a great way to maximise fuel economy in war
conditions, it greatly reduces engine longevity, and should not be the basis
for economical cruising, as it is with civil Merlins and Hercules, as Reggie
keeps saying. Ian H. C. Fraser is upset at H. F. King for criticising a book
that claimed that the He 113 fighter existed, when it surely did; and for
doubting someone for saying that there were eight German aircraft wrecks within
a mile of her house, when in fact, 374 enemy aircraft crashed in the southeast
region of Kent. (Kent is 1442 square miles. I just checked!)
The Economist, 4 October 1947
Leaders
“Withdrawal from Palestine” Although The Economist doesn’t say so in this article, oddly enough given
that it says it everywhere else, the British can’t afford to be in Palestine
any more, so they are gong to cut and run. That probably means that there will
be a partition, which will please the Jews and not the Arabs, and then a war,
which will probably please the Arabs and not the Jews. It is hard to see the
Jews winning in the long term, and perhaps the prospect of the Jews being
submerged in an Arab sea will finally
(thinks The Economist) inspire the
Americans to do something about it, as they are the main stumbling block to a
final settlement due to the activities of “criminal” and “fanatical” Jews in
America. If I hear one more mention of Jews, I will think that I am tip-toeing
through the History Department faculty lounge again!
“Equality and the Budget” “Equality” is about the prospect of a
balanced budget, and applies to the idea that the pain of balancing the budget.
The Economist takes it time to
getting around to even implying that the problem is inflation, but knowing what
the problem is supposed to be is a real help in understanding why it launches
into a discussion of the composition of the national income (total of private
incomes). This has risen from £4,591 millions in 1938 to £7,305 millions in 1946, of
which total wages have risen from £1735 millions to £3,020, salaries from
£1,110 millions to 1,675; and rents, profits and interest from £1,914 to £3,226
millions. Once taxes are considered, wages account for 44% of total national
income, not counting wages incorrectly included as rents, profits and interest.
The point, although it would be far too crass to say so, is that wages take far
too high a share of the total. Since it is
crass to say so (I imagine), what is said instead is that inflationary
pressures from increasing national income is mainly from wages, because wages
have risen most. The only way to fight inflation (and so, if I am reading this
right, and if the Leader-writer still cares about what he started out writing
about) is by cutting wage rates, which is impossible. On the other hand, wages
are kept too high by artificial subsidies on necessities, currently at a
“fantastic” £428 millions per year, so if subsidies were cut, pressure on wages
would ease, and so would inflation, after some initial “painful adjustments.” (The Economist loves painful adjustments
so much that it should be a chiropractor!) So even though the Government is
theoretically committed to equality of incomes, it should embrace policies that
hit at wage increases, to fight inflation and, I guess, get the budget
balanced, eventually. In summary, Labour should fight the TUC on capitalists’
behalf. Wow. I wonder if my theory that
Mr. Crowther was on vacation last month was accidentally, true?
 |
| And now a message from our sponsors. |
 |
Maybe a White man will come along and suggest doing this in India.
We could call him a "white saviour!"
|
“Balance of Payments, V: Fewer Imports and Cheaper Exports” The Economist accepts that the only way of reducing imports to 85% of 1938 levels is through increasing food production, and hopes that it will get a cookie for saying so. However, the Government is doing it wrong, so there’s that. As for cheaper exports, that will be hard, and will require “unorthodox methods” for a long time to come, as the balance of payments problem will be with us for a generation to come.
Notes of the Week
Blah blah Cabinet changes. Blah blah Marshall Plan, Blah-Blah
Americans upset that there isn’t a United Sates of Europe yet. The French and
Italians are in Washington asking for $580 million as the minimum required to
prevent “total disruption,” including presumably either a Communist or a
Gaullist victory at the polls. Speaking of the polls, The Economist looks at the byelection results so far and draws
conclusions. I would tell you what those conclusions were, if my eyes didn’t
blur over whilst trying to read them. This protective blurring proved essential
in the very next note, which was about scientific consultation in industry,
which is very important, but might be being done wrong.
“Fewer Houses Than Ever” The Economist thinks that this is bad, and hopes that the revised
programme for next year will call for even fewer houses (which is good), to
save resources for the export drive.
The Economist is upset that the
Russians and Eastern Europeans are being “rude” about this and that, and is
quite taken with the fact that the two Dominions of India and Pakistan will
likely soon be at war with each other, which is not what Dominions are supposed
to do, but is certainly something they
can do. Pakistan has appealed to the Commonwealth for help, which is all very
embarrassing, since the Commonwealth has no intention of getting involved
between India and Pakistan. And what about the United Nations? What will it do
when two members go to war with each other? Send troops to stand between India and Pakistan. They won't, of course, but now there has been an article that very serious people have had to read, no matter how boring it is, so score one for The Economist!
“The Tudor Controversy” The
Economist points out that it is very hard for an outside observer to form
an opinion, and then does so: It is the Government’s fault for trying to run
aviation in the wrong way. Also, the universities are bungling their chance to
enormously increase their budgets and take the lead on scientific progress by
asking for too much, and there is some thought that British schools should
abolish their examination system because everyone hates examinations. It is
upset about that, and about the fact that the Government is going to pay higher
wages to nurses and teachers. It is not that the wages aren’t deserved, but
that the increases for teachers aren’t high enough to retain teachers with
university educations, because the education system cannot afford to pay
industry salaries. Does this mean that Britain must accept that the standard of
teaching in state schools must decline? In
Germany, the communists in the western areas of occupation aren’t keen on being
included in the Russian zone.
Letters
Douglas Jay, who has a House of Commons address, writes to point out
that The Economist’s article on the
Developments Area policy is hopelessly biased against the government. Til
Douglas, the EAM Press Correspondent in London, writes to point out, to those
enraged by the execution of Mr. Petkov, the Bulgarian opposition leader, that
they should also be outraged by the execution of 500 Resistance fighters in
Greece, and proposes that the difference is that the Bulgarian execution was
carried out by a Government of the Left. I. Coffee writes to point out that the
British export drive is being bungled in Switzerland. Edward Hughes writes to
point out that The Economist has
published two sets of figures for world petroleum reserves. Proved oil reserves
are 4400 billion tons in the Western Hemisphere, 1000 in the USSR, 4000 in the
Middle East, and 300 in the rest of the world. “Actual reserves” are said to be
17 billion barrels in the Middle East, 22.5 in the United States, and 20 in the
Soviet Union. On this basis, it is hard to see that the Russians have any need
for Middle Eastern oil at all, as The
Economist suggests. The Economist explains that it all makes sense if you look at it in the right way. William Melbye writes from Copenhagen
that the Danes are right, the British wrong in the trade negotiations. I think
I saw that one coming . . . K. M. G. Anderson writes to defend paying Chinese more
than Indians on rubber plantations.
From The Economist of 1847
American Survey
“Station on the Tough Line” Greece . . . Security Council . . . Vishinsky
. . . Marshall . . . Chicago Tribune . .
. Veto . . . Article!
“Changing Monetary Policy” This, on the other hand, is important, I
guess. To the extent that I understand it, various things were done during the war to make sure that interest rates didn’t rise too high, so that the
Government would have access to private savings to fund the war effort. Now, it
is proving hard to reverse those changes, so interest rates cannot rise to stop
inflation, which is inflating away. If interest rates would only go up, all the
money that is chasing too few goods will go into bonds (“long term debt”) and
the problem will be solved. I think . . . It does seem a little unlike The Economist for an article to end with
the prospect of a problem being fixed, but the American section does like to
kick in the traces.
American Notes
“Battle of the Winter” The
Administration is “battling” to win Congressional approval for appropriations
to fund European aid before it is too late. In related news, The Economist spins out some numbers
that boil down to the world being 15% short of the grain it needs for this
winter. The President has struck another of his citizens’ councils, this one to
look into food conservation. In not at all related news (I’d put it down with a
bit about the National Gas Research Institute, I’m sorry, National Gas Turbine, but. . .) Taft gave a speech
about foreign policy in Tacoma, which I propose to care about if he wins the nomination in an election that
is still a year away. Secretary Benton has resigned.
The World Overseas
Italy is obviously going to fall apart soon, being full of excitable
Latins, but, surprisingly enough, didn’t this week, even though its
inflation is out of control. Eire, despite not being in the war at all, is
having its own dollar crisis, and is going so far as to talk to London about
how to conserve sterling zone dollar imports. Naturally, the Irish will have to
undergo the usual “painful adjustments.” India, The Economist thinks (again) may well be facing famine due to only
being able to import 2 million tons of food this year, as opposed to 2.2
million last year. The fact that this is far above wartime imports doesn’t
matter, because domestic supply has “collapsed,” although Pakistan is
self-sufficient, so that is good. Finally, The
Economist notices that people are always crying “Wolf” about food, but this
time it is serious. Also very serious are the Mexicans, who are continuing to
hold to their programme of not letting the gringos take over everything,
notwithstanding being short of dollars, just like everyone else. A separate
item asks whether the peso will be devalued. Because it is Mexico, you can put
that in a headline, and not sneak into the middle of a story, as when The Economist talks about devaluing the
pound.
The Business World
“Industry’s New Tasks” European reconstruction will require raisingBritish steel output from this year’s 12.7 million tons to 15 million tons intwo years, which will require more coal and new equipment, hopefully as little
as possible of it from the United States. Britain will also have to help
re-equip Europe, which will mean diverting exports from hard-currency to
soft-currency markets, which is bad news. Then it says the same things it has
said before: more output isn’t needed so much as better, the capital investment
programme must be reduced, with only essential industries getting more than
“make or mend” for the next few years. A bit about patent law reform follows.
Worthy cause, I suppose, and probably important to the progress of science and
technology. (It is quite interesting, at
least to me, and I am going to chew it over a bit before I say anything too
hasty.)
Business Notes
The first two items are about steel. Non-export industries won’t get
any, and the price is too high. There are short notes about the cost of living
and the wages spiral, and the rising price of Canadian wheat, and then some
financial bits. The half-year report from the Exchequer is discouraging, as are
the latest returns on small savings, but something called “switching,” which
has to do with trading in foreign, mainly dollar securities, is good. In
shorter notes, the old Economist that
loves bad news is back, in the form of a note that seems sad that the news
about world copper supplies is pretty good.
Flight, 9 October 1947
“Discriminatory Restrictions” Flight
thinks that getting rid of (most of) the “basic petrol ration” for private
pilots is the worst thing that has ever happened.
“An Expensive Experiment” It is also upset about the recent report on
the civil estimates, because it shows that so much public money has been spent
on civil aviation. It’s not that it’s against that so much as that it gets a
horrid feeling when it thinks about government.
“Decision Wanted” BOAC (which is a government-run corporation) should
immediately spend its (the taxpayer’s) money on the Airspeed Ambassador,
because it is a nice plane.
 |
| It is a nice little plane. The British are very good at making nice little planes. It's the big planes that they fall down on. It's almost as though some large, nay, leviathan-sized entity, is needed to get big planes into service. I called James Scott to ask about this, but he told me that people don't need to fly across the Atlantic when they can have potato pancakes for breakfast. |
H. F. King, “A View of France: Part I: A Diary of a Ten-day Tour of
Industrial, Scientific and Military Centres” I want H. F. King, MBE’s, job!
Although he did have to fly in a York, so there’s that. (Have I mentioned that
I saw some Lincolns in Hawaii this summer? Oops. Have I mentioned that I was in
Hawaii this summer? Anyway, they
really are as loud as some people say. I think, as I couldn’t hear them over
all that noise. That’s a joke, sir.)
The Brits are giving France 1300 planes or so, from Spitfire IXs down
to Ansons, to get their air force and their naval air force off the ground,
plus some technicians. The French showed off some stuff that is supposed to be
very interesting, although I haven’t the slightest idea why. They are working
on a jet turbine engine, for example, but the actual jet plane they showed
(actually, and originally, a twin-engined, deck-landing torpedo bomber, but
don’t get excited, you navy boys, because it doesn’t even exist as a prototype)
was a prop plane that was being modified to take a Nene in the fuselage.
American
Newsletter, by Kibbitzer
“Aviation a Political Football: Sales Value of World’s Records:
Preparing the Way for the DC-9” Americans say bad things about British
airliners, which is bad. Sometimes, they say good things about British
airliners, which is . . . good? More good things should be said than bad
things, because when you say bad things, it makes bad things happen more. I thought we didn’t say bad things
because we were polite and well-brought up! The American speed record, set by
the D-558, could pretty much only be achieved by a research aircraft, and this
will continue to be he case for awhile, and that means the British won’t win it
back, which, Kibbitzer thinks, is bad for sales. So the British should try to win the distance record
back, so that they can impress those silly Latin Americans and sell them
planes. Douglas has now delivered its 1,242nd and last DC-4, and are
getting ready to promote the proposed DC-9. Aircraft of more than 25,000lb are
enormously expensive to prototype, test-fly and manufacture, so there
absolutely must be orders before a manufacturer can proceed, and so everything
depends on having a good specification to win advanced interest. The DC-9 will
be a tricycle-undercarriage type with two Wright Cyclone 1820 engines, with an
all-up weight of 30,000lbs, a landing weight of 29,000lbs, a disposable load of
10,406lbs (I guess “landing weight” means the maximum load for a safe landing
if it has to abort at takeoff?). It will have a capacity of 28 passengers and a
range of 1000 miles at 10,000ft at a cruising speed of 264mph at 17,800ft and
257mph at 11,600ft, a takeoff run of 3,640ft, and a stalling speed of 73mph. It
will have reversible-pitch airscrews, wager injection if necessary, and
probably cost $285,000. “Kibbitzer” thinks that it will be a good replacement
for the DC-3.
 |
| "The Seven Seas." The DC-7, when it finally came along, was in production from 1953 to 1958 |
Captain David Brice, “The Flying Boat: Some Problems in Fitting it
into the Transport Picture: The Question of Bases” Flying boats can only land
and takeoff from tranquil bits of sheltered water, which, if they are anywhere
near a city, are, well, near a city, which means that there are freighters and
such about, unless they are not allowed to be about, which is a silly way of
running a harbour, which is only one reason why flying boats are silly; But
since Flight won’t see that, here we
are, on about flying boats again. Because Flight
loves flying boats so much, it will even run articles about how silly they
are.
“Televised Testing” Electronics magazine
reports that the US Navy sent a “reasonably roomy” plane aloft with a 23-valve
television camera-transmitter to record the instrument panel. The antenna had
four half-wave radiators phases to give a spherical field, and projecting
directly back from the tail of the fuselage, and the receiving truck was a
30-cwt truck, which the ground crew liked to pretend to think was the lunch
wagon, on the eleven trials it took before the camera could be convinced to not catch fire.
Here and There
Ted Thompson and Ned Brown are going to fly around the world non-stop
in a Piper Cub, picking up fuel and food at pre-arranged points.
The Russians are coming to next year’s Paris Aero Show. Yet another story about
large parts for stranded ships being flown to ports abroad, and a bit about how
the cut to the basic petrol ration has led to Britain losing literally tens of
tourists who might have otherwise come over for the British Gliding
Association’s International Gliding Championship. Wireless World (an Illife publication!) has a special issue out
giving the frequencies and call-signs of all the radio stations everywhere. The
Ministry of Civil Aviation booklet with the money figures that shocked Flight is called “Britain’s Civil
Aviation.” US Occupation authorities are destroying German underground
factories and scrapping their equipment. The new town of Hermel Hempstead,
Herts, will be a “helicopter town,” as the plan incudes two helicopter parks.
Hispano’s license-built Nenes have passed their type test. A Frenchman has
built an improved “Flying Flea” with a Volkswagen engine. Uncle George
pronounces this a “world historical progress in the field of suicide.” I'm so glad that he has reached the point of being able to joke about it. Walter
of Czechoslovakia is continuing to work on engines for gliders, which doesn’t
make sense to me. Saskatchewan Province has “probably the only
flying educationist in all the North American continent,” Mr. Chesney H.
Piercey, who flies about the province in a Moth, Waco or Norseman, depending.
“Aviation Equipment at Radiolympia” Despite being a Radio-Olympia, this display was a “little
disappointing,” compared with the Radlett display. I sought expert guidance,
which said authority was quite excited when I told him that the Ministry showed
off a “simulated” H2S and EMI an actual Rebecca Mark IV, both for civil
aviation homing and blind approach use, while GEC showed off its complete
instrument landing system, including a fully-worked out localiser receiver, and
Cossor, a GEE Mk III, smaller and lighter than the RAF equipment currently used
by British European, and with a speedometer-style dial, so that the instrument
can be “read off directly.” Further developments will include a “fully
automatic computer,” which in this context doesn’t mean a Comptometer operator aboard, ooh-la-la, but a Ferranti-made device that converts the GEE result
into a bearing without any calculations needed.
The rest of it is mostly ground equipment, and while Marconi is doing a
good job of fitting ever-larger radios into ever neater boxes, I do agree that
this stuff is boring. Leave it to Radio
Digest!
 |
| The first all-electronic comptometer, produced by "Sumlock Comptometer, Ltd," from 1961. I did not know that. By MaltaGC at the English language Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2542911 |
“Offensive Air Support” While I thought
that the Army was mainly offended by
lack of air support it turns out that it also likes offending enemies with air support
while attacking themselves. Which is what they practiced in Scotland last week.
Also, if you haven’t heard enough about displays or Tudors, the Woodford
Display in Manchester involved showing off a Tudor VII.
“Automatic Control” Again I must apologise for being brought up to
speed in these things in very brief snatches of conversation at second hand
over the last years, but I thought that
this “automatic control” thing was the last year’s rage. That’s also Flight’s impression of the recent DC-4
flight across the Atlantic, although, being Flight,
it had to grouse that the British automatic-approach experiments were much more
advanced, and that the Americans could use something as wonderful as the Smith
Electric Pilot. The thing is, there’s lots of very nice pictures of all the
equipment used, and not a bit of it is on fire, which is contrary to the
experience of my informants. I’m at risk of repeating myself, but I really do not fancy experimental
electronics catching fire in the air when friends of mine are in charge.
“Instructing in India” Several RAF OTU instructors instructed in India
during the war and had “hot work and humorous incidents.” The author is not the
best humour writer at Flight, but
there is a slightly funny drawing.
Civil Aviation News
The Civil Air Estimates were presented to Parliament. Too much money
is being spent on uneconomical British aircraft, is one conclusion out of many
less interesting ones. (I assume that you do not care about much fuel tax BOAC
pays.) De Havilland is building a 6—9 seat feeder aircraft for Australian
conditions, in Australia, the Drover. BOAC is investigating whether maintenance
would be cheaper done in this country in expensive hangarage space, instead of
in Canada at Dorval in cheap hangars paid for in scarce dollars. BEA is cutting
services and “economising on staff” due to the recent ban on overseas travel
for pleasure purposes. A Ministry Notice reminds airliner pilots about bad
visibility and weather at London airports. This seems particularly important
this month, because during the summer, the only blind-landing training
opportunities are in synthetic trainers, and everyone is out of practice. Flight reminds everyone who may have
forgotten since the beginning of the issue, that Butlin’s has planes.
Correspondence
“Air-Minded Ex-Army” thinks that airfields should have bells for
colour-blind pilots. Are colour-blind people allowed pilots’ licenses?
W. E. P. Johnstons, director of Power Jets, writes to remind Flight that Power Jets is different from
the National Gas Establishment. I’m sorry, the National Gas Turbine Establishment. Dennis Powell
points out that if flying boats are going to fly to Australia, they will need
air conditioning, which current British flying boats do not have. American
writer, M. T. Hockman, thinks that Roy Fedden’s article about executive
aircraft was silly, since it describes a future design that isn’t even as good
as the current Spartan Executive.
 |
| By Nigel Ish - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28897451 |
The Economist, 11 October 1947
Leaders
Blah Marshall Blah! I’m sorry. I’m supposed to treat these seriously,
so imagine I put the title first. “Crisis of Leadership” it is! Blah!
“Cabinet and Government” I’m pretty sure that this is the same article
as the first one, only with all the words changed.
The next leader is about county and county borough governments. If
you’ve been following it (for God’s sake, why?)
you will know that the British are reforming local government, and that it is
at least vaguely important because of Labour having quite radical ideas about
land use planning. Everything is going in slow motion, and this is the latest
milestone passed towards success or failure, but it is not a very important
milestone. The next bit is about “European Socialists,” who are ---I don’t
know, not Communists? And so not as bad as Communists?
 |
| Spoilers: The Marshall Plan is going to be carried out, Clement Atlee will remain prime minister until 1950, and Europe will not fall to communism. |
Notes of the Week
Communism and socialism leak over from the leaders to the notes,
before Notes finally stands up for
itself and says, “I will talk about my own boring stuff!” Specifically, first,
growing extremism in France, where the Communists are the largest party, and
the Gaullists are a dangerous, new kind of Rightist. Because de Gaulle is
splitting the Right, it may not be possible to avoid bringing the Communists
into the government, and then we are doomed. At Brighton, the Conservative
party convention heard a disturbing amount of anti-communism and anti-Semitism
before Quentin Hogg and Sir Ian Fraser saved the day. The Economist hopes that they will get more serious about free
enterprise, soon. Sir Stafford Cripps is out and about, lecturing trade
unionists on the need for improved productivity before wages can increase. The
Minister of Agriculture, for his part, warned British farmers that the day of
gang labour of German prisoners was rapidly coming to an end, and that there
would not be replacements. He then went on about how increasing the price of
agricultural goods would improve the efficiency of British agriculture, which
apparently isn’t a statement about how farmers could then afford new tractors,
but rather rank economic heresy. Burn him! Burn the warlock!
“Wooing the Indian States” India and Pakistan are competing for
influence over Indian princely states such as Hyderabad, Junagadh, and Kashmir.
Junagadh is the smallest, which might be why India has sent troops there to
make sure that it joins India, and not Pakistan. Hyderabad is large, so perhaps
that is out, while Kashmir lies on the border, and is a “severe strain.”
In Germany, there are more talks about this and that –very bloodless. And then there is the “Holmag Affair.” Holmag is a factory in Hamburg that was listed as reparations at the end of the war. But that was then. The factory was soon put back to work producing various goods for German consumers, while the reparations situation slowly ripened. Finally, last week, rumour says in Kiel, it was to be closed and shipped to India. German workers occupied it in protest, and were expelled by the German police, on order from the Occupation authorities, which upset German administrators, who thought that they ran the police. Also upset, the workers, who returned in the morning to find the factory shuttered, presumably because the rumours were true. Or so people think. No-one is saying different, and The Economist says that someone should, before everything goes to pot at all the factories still listed as reparations. [pdf] In Britain, the coming-into-effect of the Control of Engagement Order hasn’t caused the end of the world, yet, perhaps because nothing has actually been done, although the Government is talking very tough about rounding up the “spivs and drones” and putting them to useful work. The Economist is actually quite sympathetic to the “novelists, artists and students” who make up the “spivs.”
I don’t know about the drones, but the next note is about “Controlling the BBC,” although the “control” is only over finances. Well now there’s a slip for you, as I find that in my English notes, I misspelled “finance,” “fiancé.” By which I of course mean that A. is making fine progress mastering the bagpipes. There are elections in the Saar (where the French hope the Saarlanders will vote to be more French), and in Denmark, where the Social Democrats will probably gain seats at the expense of the Communists and head a coalition government. Fruit and vegetable prices are too high, perhaps because retailers’ margins are excessive. There is supposed to be a commission report soon to show whether there has been price gouging on gooseberries and parsnips. British people eat those, right? The Ministry of Health is vetoing public housing projects, for some reason, and there may not be any more new towns soon, because they are not a good use of resources in austerity, etc. Bulgaria is upset that the British are upset about the execution of Nikola Potkov, while in Romania, “Mr. Jovanovich”now faces capital charges. The Russians have proposed that the Americans and Russians both withdraw their occupation forces from Korea at the beginning of the next year, even if no Korean central government has been agreed. The Russians are withdrawing from most of their occupation zones in Asia, so this might happen. The latest road accident report is long and boring. I guess that means that accidents aren’t up? “If it bleeds, it leads”!
 |
| The Ashoka Rock Edict at Junagadh. |
In Germany, there are more talks about this and that –very bloodless. And then there is the “Holmag Affair.” Holmag is a factory in Hamburg that was listed as reparations at the end of the war. But that was then. The factory was soon put back to work producing various goods for German consumers, while the reparations situation slowly ripened. Finally, last week, rumour says in Kiel, it was to be closed and shipped to India. German workers occupied it in protest, and were expelled by the German police, on order from the Occupation authorities, which upset German administrators, who thought that they ran the police. Also upset, the workers, who returned in the morning to find the factory shuttered, presumably because the rumours were true. Or so people think. No-one is saying different, and The Economist says that someone should, before everything goes to pot at all the factories still listed as reparations. [pdf] In Britain, the coming-into-effect of the Control of Engagement Order hasn’t caused the end of the world, yet, perhaps because nothing has actually been done, although the Government is talking very tough about rounding up the “spivs and drones” and putting them to useful work. The Economist is actually quite sympathetic to the “novelists, artists and students” who make up the “spivs.”
I don’t know about the drones, but the next note is about “Controlling the BBC,” although the “control” is only over finances. Well now there’s a slip for you, as I find that in my English notes, I misspelled “finance,” “fiancé.” By which I of course mean that A. is making fine progress mastering the bagpipes. There are elections in the Saar (where the French hope the Saarlanders will vote to be more French), and in Denmark, where the Social Democrats will probably gain seats at the expense of the Communists and head a coalition government. Fruit and vegetable prices are too high, perhaps because retailers’ margins are excessive. There is supposed to be a commission report soon to show whether there has been price gouging on gooseberries and parsnips. British people eat those, right? The Ministry of Health is vetoing public housing projects, for some reason, and there may not be any more new towns soon, because they are not a good use of resources in austerity, etc. Bulgaria is upset that the British are upset about the execution of Nikola Potkov, while in Romania, “Mr. Jovanovich”now faces capital charges. The Russians have proposed that the Americans and Russians both withdraw their occupation forces from Korea at the beginning of the next year, even if no Korean central government has been agreed. The Russians are withdrawing from most of their occupation zones in Asia, so this might happen. The latest road accident report is long and boring. I guess that means that accidents aren’t up? “If it bleeds, it leads”!
Letters
Douglas Johnson, who doesn’t have an address, writes on patent law
reform. He has some suggestions on the way that patent fees are assessed, pointing
out that the current arrangements tends to encourage people not to exploit patents, and that better
advice on the commercial viability of patents would help immensely. That is the
traditional job of the patent agent and lawyer, but they bear the costs of the
fees, so perhaps the Government could take a more active role, he thinks. A. A.
Pallis writes for the Greek government to the effect that the execution of Mr.
Petkov is completely different from the charges against Mr. Partsalides. James
Turner, President of the National Farmers’ Union, writes to defend “high
farming” as being more productive (in cost
terms). The Economist is very
bitchy in reply, pardon me! H. R. Watling, of the British Cycle Manufacturers and Traders Union writes to say that the late letter about how British cycles don’t
sell in Denmark, is wrong. “A Hungarian Democrat” has strong opinions about The Economist’s opinions about Hungary.
From The Economist of 1847
Last week, the banks that failed were splendid banks, full of fine
people. This week, the boiler explosion on The Cricket is a rare and unknown thing, for British high-pressure steamengines are fine and splendid things, being used in the best possible place,and the unfortunate fact that “five human beings have unfortunately perished”is no reason to suddenly have the Government taking a supervisory hand. Far
fewer people have died in steam navigation of internal waterways than in some
other way, and this proves that it is, in fact, “infinitely safe,” although it is finitely possible that you will die
of being flayed alive by live steam.
 |
| The Illustrated London News, which apparently believed in "reporting," says that there were over 100 passengers on board, that 30 were killed in the explosion, which happened at the dock, in the middle of the West End, and that "estimates range from five to 30 fatalities." Source, while it still exists. |
G. D. H. Cole’s IntelligentMan’s Guide to the Post-war World is a very smart and clear book, so
well-put, that it is a shame that he is a Socialist. Max Beloff’s Foreign Policy of Soviet Russia is
generous, but since it is generous in being selective in the documents it
publishes, which is far, far better than not publishing any documents, so this
can be forgiven. What cannot be forgiven is the old-fashioned use of “she” to
refer to the Great Powers. We don’t do that, any more. A. J. Sylvester’s memoir
of David Lloyd George will have to do until a real biography comes along, which
“will be the most difficult literary task of this century.” The Economist is pleased that Hawtrey on
the gold standard and Withers on “the meaning of money” have been reprinted. It
also liked Blue-Pencil Admiral, about
which we’ve heard.
American Survey
“The Problems of Eating” Americans eat too much, and Government
control has led to a distorted market, and now everybody may starve.
 |
| This is how you feed a baby boom. |
American Notes
Americans think that Europe could use an RFC. American industry thinks
that it could satisfy all domestic and foreign
demand if the dollar shortage were only cured, and The Economist suggests that American domestic demand might well be
almost satisfied.
Marriner Eccles warns that unless the Federal Reserve gets additional
powers to control credit, the current price movement will soon cause “economic
collapse,” as a further increase in bank loans threatens more inflation, etc.
Also inflating is the Eisenhower boom for Eisenhower as President in the election
that is now “only” a year away. Employment numbers tested the limits of the
seasonal peak of employment in August by remaining above 60 million for the
summer. The unemployment rate admittedly hit 2 million in August, but employers
are reporting tight labour conditions, to the point of having to curtail
output. Mr. Beardsley Ruml is floating a plan to finance the Marshall Plan with
savings bonds, which will draw off purchasing power and allow tax cuts. The new
head of the Democratic National Committee is Senator McGrath, whom Democrats
hope will lead them to victory in 1948. I don’t know why they’d want a man who
would lead them to defeat!
The World Overseas
“Cominterm to Chloroform” Oh, wait, I’ve translated another Spoonerism
wrong. That should be “Cominform.” The Cominterm has been renamed to make
communism seem less drastic, or something like that.
“The Politics of Western Germany” When Allied control is withdrawn,
and a German “rump state” is governed by a popular parliament in Frankfurt,
then the Germans will have the choice of a left-wing party and a right wing
party. But the Occupying Powers will get upset if they are too far left, or too
far right, but they will probably not get as upset if they tend towards being a
bit too right. I also saw this coming.
“Mexico’s Programme, II” Latins are excitable! The Economist is very excited by the idea of a “Mexican TVA.” They
should talk to my father, who will explain to them in great detail exactly why
it will never happen, although I hope when The
Economist comes around to Dad’s essentially quite reasonable position, they
manage not to say anything quite so horridly racist about los Indios. Considering
his wife and his paternal ancestors . . But you probably do not want to hear
about my Thanksgiving dreads.
The Business World
“Europe’s Dollar Needs” Europe needs dollars in the short term to pay
for what it needs for reconstruction, and also has a longer-term gap to pay for
what it will need to import from America then. In 1938, the trade deficit was $1450
millions, paid for out of the invisible account which is by now all but
drained. Providing enough US dollars are available to the world at large,
however, Europe’s positive trade balance with the rest of the world might cover
its US imports by 1951. But only if international trade is truly two-way, that
is, if the United States can be persuaded not to choke it off with tariffs,
which will prevent the world from earning the dollars it needs to pay for
American exports. And speaking of the rest of the world’s contributions, what
can Britain hope for in terms of making up its food import needs from the
Dominions? Quite a bit, it seems, but likely less than the British are counting
on, based on the decline in, for example, New Zealand butter production or Canadian
bacon during the war. To make it up, the Dominions need more labour, hence more
British emigration, although even then the supply of land and transportation is
limited.
Business Notes
After some finance blather, The
Economist gets around to noticing that steel production is going up. (A
circular last week suggesting that there might be a shortage of plate steel for
shipbuilding turns out to be an “administrative misunderstanding.”) Coal
production is also up, notwithstanding labour being down. T
Since too much good news would be a shock to the system, it then moves
on to Sir Stafford Cripps’ latest accounting of the slow drain on the dollar
reserve, the latest failure of the Anglo-Dutch talks.
In international commodity news, the rubber market has firmed up,
while the world oil shortage worsens due to shortages of refinery capacity and
tanker tonnage and the voracious appetite of the United States. South America
could produce more with more refinery capacity, while Persia and Iraq need the
tanker space. Saudi Arabia’s production, currently going to the US Navy, is
rising rapidly. There might soon be a free market in tin.
In shady business news, the chickens might finally be coming home, as
they say, for Miles Aircraft. At least Uncle George will now be able to say
that the rumours that he has been peddling for two years are actually based on
something! And it turns out that a gold “play” in the Gold Coast was “salted.”
Hold me, I feel faint!
Fortune, October 1947
Leaders
“The State of the Novel” Has Fortune
been reading T. S. Elliott and I. A. Richards? Has it discovered the New Criticism? We should be so lucky! Several of the big new novels of the season
are about businessmen, and Fortune is
a magazine for the smarter sort of businessman who reads the big new novels. If
they’re not very good novels, maybe it’s because America is too rich, has a
“plenitude of development,” which makes it too boring for novels. Good theory,
I guess.
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| Seriously? By © Richards family archive - Richards Archive, Magdalene College Cambridge, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=62038546 |
“You Can’t Eat Steel” For all the talk of America exporting
turbogenerators machine tools and steel, Fortune
points out that only 3% of British loan withdrawals went on much-publicised
films, and over 20% on foodstuffs. With the European crop down this year, and
the American one up, Europe needs to buy $5 billion in wheat alone this year.
Although Western Europe was a great grain producer before the war, even then it
depended on imports from Eastern Europe and America. Now that Germany cannot
even draw on its eastern part, never mind eastern Europe proper due to Russian
intransigence and the breakup of the great estates, Europe must depend on America, even as Asia needs its food, too. In 1938, America
exported 1.5 million tons of grain. In 1946—7, it was ten times that, of which
over three million went to Asia, nine million to western Europe, a year in
which the continent produced 26 million tons of grain. This year, the harvest
will come in at 21.5 million, and it is estimated that America needs to export
20 million tons, 33% over the all time high of 1946. Since it seems unlikely
that America can make that target, it follows that America should go back on
conservation measures like brown bread and beer rationing, and that the price
of wheat should be allowed to go high enough to divert it from pork and poultry
production to human users. Also, Americans should embrace voluntary measures,
the “Hoover touch.” Also, Europeans should stop diverting labour and resources
to long-term capital investment programmes while they are short of fuel and
food, as these have an inflationary effect, which will, has, led to farmers
withholding their food, something that more inspectors and even troops won’t
fix. Farmers will only turn over food for money –real money, not “phony bank
notes.” Five-Year Plans won’t help, because the problem isn’t in five years,
but now. Only stern American moralising can help!
“The Issue in Britain” Speaking of which, Britain also needs America’s
help, and, especially, American lectures about the importance of free
enterprise and free markets, instead of all of this planning. “Order,
counter-order, confusion!”
“The Farmer Goes to Town: And Brings Home Most of its Amenities” Santa
Clara orchardists and Northwest sheep ranchers might want to hear that Farmers
“as a whole” are not getting rich. (I don’t know if that also applies to
western Canadian woodlot owners, though.)
The 27,500 farmers who comprise
nearly 20% of the richest Americans receive only 10% of the national income.
About 80% of national farm income is earned by one-third of 5.8 million farms.
The least prosperous third receive only 4% of national income, on average less
than $500 each. The farm boom has not brought all amenities to all farm
families.
What it has done is encouraged millions to leave marginal farms for
town life, in spite of which Americans are harvesting 20 million more acres
than in 1940 with three million fewer hands on 20,000 fewer farms. Seven years of
prosperity since 1940 have brought new methods of conservation, production and
management, added automobiles and hard roads, brought electric power, and, in
spite of continuing bad weather, raised farm income year by year.
Farmers remain frightened by the aftermath of the prosperity of WWI,
when a bubble in farmland values collapsed, and the liquidation of many farms
eliminated the lifetime savings of many farm operators, often after a long
struggle that led to the deterioration of farm buildings and equipment. Foreclosures,
followed by drought across vast western acres unwisely broken during the WWI
boom led to misery only partially alleviated by the New Deal. The beginning of
WWII still saw the farmer as a “national stepchild,” a “problem,” requiring government
props and handouts. Then, overnight, the American farmer became a world and
national hero. A prosperous, expanding nation (up 11 million since 1940),
demanded not only more food, but better, while the rest of the world looked for
food aid.
Now it’s time for some clichés about the modern farmer as a
businessman.
As we also heard back in ’43, farmers have used the boom to pay off
their debts and mortgages, and although they have bought more land, they have
invested more in buildings. The current wheat boom will probably lead to more
farmers retiring to town early, than anything else. Farmers may be dressing in
new clothes, Coloureds as well as Whites, but they say that they are just using
the boom to put themselves back on their feet and live like Americans should.
All that I can say is that it is a pity that when they think of
climates where the palm and the orange trees sway and the sweet, warm air is
good to their bones, they think of Los Angeles and not Santa Clara County.
(That was then; this is now.)
“General Cable: The Wiremaker is Recharged with
Novel Ideas: It Cuts Prices, Raises Wages, Holds Profits, and Tops the
Industry: It’s That Man Palmer” General Cable is the largest independent
manufacturer of electrical cable in the United States, producing more than the copper
giant cable divisions at Anaconda, Phelps and Kenecott, and more than GE and
Westinghouse, as well as 25% of all wire sold in the United States, plus screen,
beads, screws and nails, although that is less than 1% of its business. Last
year it had $3 million in earnings after taxes, and it is on track to double
that this year, with half year earnings of $3 million on $45 million in sales.
The company, which was assembled from ten smaller companies between 1925 and 1927,
had 22 ancient plants in fourteen different locations. On the basis of these
supposed assets, General Cable began life with a 5 ½ % bond issue of $17
million, a 7% preferred stock issue of $15 million, and a class A common stock
issue of $17 million, for a capitalisation of $50 million and a charge on bonds
and preferred stock alone running to $2 million.
There were supposed to be economies of scale and efficiencies from all
of these mergers, but at first, they scarcely materialised. Management was top
heavy,
 |
| This is apparently not what top-heavy, entitled management looks like. (Oyster Bar.) |
There was fighting between the various divisions, many of the plants
were unsound, and the Crash of ’29 nearly killed the company. “That man,
Palmer,” then rose to the top and fixed everything with his business genius
(or, say the critics, with a restraint-of-trade arrangement for preferred
copper supplies through American Smelting and Refining during the global
shortage.) Fortunately, in the face of rising copper prices, General Cable has
made increasing use of aluminum cable, which may be able to save the industry
from its dependence on copper and vulnerability to price fluctuations.
General Cable began to go in for military contracts in 1938,
notwithstanding accusations of being a bunch of war profiteers. During the war,
the company produced “astronomical lengths” of communication wire, field wire,
radio and radar wire, aircraft and automobile wire, and its payroll rose from
3500 to 20,000.
It took a large share of the work in Operation Pluto, and when the war
came and the contracts were cancelled, notwithstanding excess profits tax and a
reduction in workforce to 8000, the company was fully recapitalised, able to
divest of unwanted plants, built its own research labs, and an ultramodern rod
mill in Rome, New York. He has been generous with wage increases, which is
probably why he has had no strikes, and think that American businessmen have
far too much class consciousness, and class identity, for all their talk of “rugged
individualism.”
 |
| Operation Pluto pipeline, stripped to show built-up layers. Cool, if you don't have the time to click through to the Wiki link. By Geni at the English language Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6790716 |
“Turkey: Aid for What?” What is Turkey getting all this money for, Fortune asks. I don’t know, but I’m
guessing that the answer is going to turn out to be “communism.”
 |
| Add caption |
“Mr. O’Hara’s Nickel Drink” Dr. Pepper is a southern soft drink that
is aiming to go country wide.
“Northrop Wing” A big feature article on the Northrop flying wing
bomber, recently reborn as an all-jet type. Reggie humbugs it so much that I am
going to skip the article to save time. Even the article at least nods in the
direction of suggesting that Northrop’s directors stepped into remove Jack
Northrop because of his excessive ambitions.
 |
| It's the Fortune version of the Person-of-the-Year curse. |
“Hong Kong: Britain’s Commercial Crown Jewel” As the only person reading or writing these
letters who hasn’t spent time in Hong Kong (not even the few days that Reggie
has spent there), I would feel like an awful fraud reporting the details of
this article, but, gosh it’s got nice pictures. Hong Kong is the major entrepot
and port of south China, and the bad old days when it was losing business to Shanghai
are now over, as instead it is flocking there from the mainland. It is still a
financial centre, but its manufacturing and ship repair businesses are under
siege from high labour costs, while inflation was a problem in 1946  |
| This is two years after the end of Japanese occupation |
“World Shortage of Pulp” “One of the most disturbing recent economic
discoveries is the fact that the world shortage of wood pulp threatens to
continue for years to come.” The basis for rayon, explosives and plastic as
well as paper, the shortage threatens civilisation itself, since there won’t be
enough books and pictures, and Fortune will
have to charge too much at the masthead, and won’t make as much from
advertising. US pulp users thought that prices would swing down at the end of
the war, but the decline in European imports, rising world demand, and the fact
that a 52% increase in US production is not nearly enough, is bad news. Since
OPA ceilings went off in November, the price of wood pulps began to rise, in
the case of newsprint grade, up more than $80/ton, a 250% increase over 1939.
High grade foreign pulp can cost twice that much, and spot price high grade has
more than quadrupled in price, reaching $250/ton. Since the post-WWI price hit
$280/ton, it is thought that prices have about hit their peak, but there will
not be a big decline for years to come.
Moreover, the shortage is far more serious in Europe than in North
America, as demand is up there, while supply has fallen most. War damage to
mills has not been as great as expected, but they are paralysed by a lack of
coal, chemicals and pulpwood, and the chaotic state of Europe’s transport
system is hamstringing the entire European economy. The Scandinavian countries,
having overcut their pulpwood forests, have had to reduce their cut to put the
industry back on a self-sustaining basis,
 |
| Forty good years for the pulp mill towns of the coast, coming up! |
And they have cut so much wood as fuel that pulpwood output, at 4.8
million tons last year, is only 64% of prewar.
In North America, if Canada produces more paper from its own pulp, or
exports more to Britain, the American market might be caught short. American
pulp producers are making money, in spite of labour and wood costs doubling
from the 1930s, and profits have been tremendous. Puget Sound Pulp and Timber,
for example, netted close to $1 million on $3 million in sales last year. Some
are waiting for the crash to cripple the industry, others are thinking about
investing in new productive capacity, but lumber shortages restrict expansion.
Pulp mills should be reasonably close to forests to reduce transport costs. So
while there are vast quantities of timber in Alaska, it would be an expensive
source of pulpwood, while there are few good pulp mill sites left in western
Canada. The new Celanese plant at prince Rupert being an exception. The price
of pulp has also led to interest in bottom-of-barrel pulp sources such as Mexican
bamboo and banana stalks, or Hawaii’s annual crop of sugar cane stalks. Another
potential untapped source is the world’s hardwood forests, which include
approximately two thirds of the tress on Earth, but only 13% of US pulp
production. Their short-fibred pulp makes weak paper compared with long-fibred
softwood pulps made in the northern zones. The greatest potential source may be
Russia, but the actual extent of its forest resources remains shrouded in
mystery.
“Lock, Stock and Barrel” It’s hunting season, so here is an article on
hunting rifle manufacturers. “Shooting men” are very choosy, so the industry
has nothing to fear from war surplus.
Herrymon Maurer, “The Right to Move: Migration, Once Free, Has Been
Planned to a Standstill” It used to be that there was mass migration, mainly to
America. Nowadays, those who are wanted to move, will not, and those who want
to, are not allowed. Free movement has been replaced by “autarkic control,” and
most of the migrants of the last ten years have not moved, but been moved.
 |
| The link above goes to Commentary's archives, as Maurer published three articles (about China and India) there in 1951/2. He's also turned up in these pages as a translater of the Dao De Jing. Notice the hopeful arrows in the direction of the Virgin Lands and the Mid-Canada Corridor. Oh, you mid-century dreamers! |
Thirty million are displaced in China; 10
to 15 million in Russia, 8 million were moved to Germany as slave labour and
are now finding their way to wherever will take them. There are 2 million
recent repatriates in Korea, a million in Japan, eleven million in Europe,
although all but a million have been
resettled. A million Britons want to leave England, with men and women
resorting to the 8000-mile trek across Africa to reach South Africa by land.
One in five French wants to leave a country that needs three million more
people and is taking in 200,000 Italians a year, while 22% of Dutch want to
leave, and 15 million(!) Italians are deemed surplus to requirements. So many
Germans want to leave that the country would be deserted if there were free
movement, yet if 5 million a year left India, it would still be overpopulated.
And where would they go? There is plenty of quality space for resettlement in
Alaska, Canada, Australia, the Guianas, Brazil, Argentina, other parts of Latin
America, Madagascar, large sections of Africa, certain areas of New Guinea, and
parts of Soviet Asia, while the underpopulated United States could take many more, but none of these spaces is likely
to be filled for a long time to come, for if immigrants are wanted there at
all, it is only a special and select few, and mainly for the purposes of
national defence.
Why are migrants no longer wanted, as they were in the Nineteenth
Century? Who can say? Why has it stopped in places where it used to be common?
(That is, until recently?) It is because of industrialisation, which has cut
birth rates. New waves of migrants, beginning with Italians, Greeks, Yugoslavs
and Poles, began to migrate, first to Europe, then to America, at the turn of
the century. Now, if they were allowed, would come the turn of Asians, but the
gates closed, and the “third wave” of migration never materialised. Why? Well,
everyone always fears that immigrants will bring crime, disease and idleness;
and they are always proven wrong (says Fortune),
although the children of immigrants, who face “the real growing pains of adjustment,”
are a problem. Migration is mainly economic; it used to track pig iron
production in the United States so closely that you would think that immigrants
were following the business news, and not letters from relatives. However, it
has spread ideas since the dawn of time; “the Bronze Age followed the Stone Age:
migrations. Christianity followed paganism: migrations. Chinese culture moved
to Japan: migrations. Buddhism was in traduced into China: migrations. Greek
culture came to Rome: migrations.”
And the United States, of course, is a country of immigrants. Or used
to be. Now, Americans move to California, but President Truman raised a stir by
announcing that a mere 39,000 refugees would be encouraged to come to America
each year under the immigration quota, which is set at 153,929, but which is
rarely met, in part because it favours the “old” migrants from northwestern
Europe who don’t really want to
migrate. The same think applies in Canada and Alaska, and the Philippine
Commonwealth restricted a proposed immigration[?] to a special
agricultural district in the centre of the islands to a mere 10,000. South Africa wants only whites, while Australia has no prejudices, but wants a “homogenous
population” of Europeans, allowed to migrate in slow rates.
The impulse to control population movements can take many forms.
French Guiana wanted to take in 50,000 Americans, but the metropole would not
allow it, because American immigrants would bring American capital, making nationalisation
impossible.
So there you go. The people who want to move, can’t, the ones who can
move, won’t; entrepreneurs have left the business of directing migration, and
governments aren’t good at it. Xenophobia resists migration, and even though it
is good for capitalism, capitalists don’t seem enamoured of it. “It is possible
that the depression of the thirties was aggravated in the US and other
supposedly advanced countries by the decline in the rate of population
increase,” but who cares. Yes, they could DDT the highlands of Africa or put a
railway across New Guinea, but the world has become too tired for that kind of
thing. There is capital to spare for investment, but no-one to work it, and the
US, “long-time chief offender in regards to immigration, will have to rethink
its policy altogether. Otherwise, all hopes of a world settlement, a functioning
UN and a measure of world prosperity must fall to pieces.”
 |
| So, according to official statements, the White Australia policy isn't racist, because it isn't racist to only want white immigrants, because they're "homogenous." I guess if there were any non-White Australians, this policy would be different! |
Shorts and Faces
A Supreme Court ruling will probably lead to the closing of the “film
exchanges” mandated by a 1940 consent decree against the Big Five for restraint
of trade, and they will not be missed, as no-one goes to them. Fred Ingalls
Raymond [pdf hit], a middle-aged inventor and manufacturer, has published a book called The Limitist, which is about how
corporations should be limited in size for the good of all.
 |
| If the thumbnail of the pdf hit is to be believed, Ingalls Raymond is related to Ingalls Wilder; otherwise, Google knows nothing. But here's an ad from another eccentric American inventor! |
Samuel A. Markel, of Richmond, Virginia, owns Fidelity and Casualty Co.,
insurance, and Markel Service, Inc., which aims to help industries keep their
insurance claims down by reducing accidents. Detergents are taking a bite out
of the soap market, especially as they work equally as well in hard water as in
soft. The American tung oil crop will be good this year, because there were no
killing frosts. This is especially good
news for growers who have bought marginal land on the Gulf Coast and put it
into tung trees in the hopes that, well, business would be good, and now the
Chinese are threatening to come back into the market.
Oil well royalty brokers are going out of business because people have
realised that their business is a scam.
It's a thing they had back then. Beverly Hillbillies was probably the trailing edge.
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