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Navy “Polaris” Missile Is Awarded Top Priority for Needed Materials
The Wall Street Journal, February 12, 1958.—The Government disclosed development and production of the Navy’s submarine-launched Polaris ballistic missile has been given “top priority.”
The decision gives producers of the 1,500- mile missile a super-priority for any materials they need.
The action was taken by the National Security Council late in January, it was disclosed. It puts the Polaris on the same urgent basis as the Jupiter and Thor intermediate range ballistic missiles and the intercontinental Atlas ballistic weapon. The Jupiter, Thor and Atlas have been on a super-priority basis since January, 1957.
The NSC action was disclosed in closed- door testimony by Navy officials before the House Armed Services Committee, just made public. Rear Admiral John T. Hayward, Assistant Chief of Naval Operations for research and development, told the group the assignment of top national priority to Polaris “was accomplished by the National Security Council about a week” before he testified on February 5.
Admiral Hayward’s statement came just after Assistant Navy Secretary for Air Garrison Norton, declared: “My recollection of it is that we obtained this top national priority sometime last spring or early summer.” At that point, Committee Counsel Robert W. Smart said that only recently, Pentagon Missile Chief William M. Holaday said he “had under consideration” placing Polaris on a top national priority basis, “but it had not been accomplished.”
Lockheed Aircraft Corp. is prime contractor for the missile, which is the only one of the
five ballistic weapons now under development by the U.S. which uses a solid-fuel rocket engine. Aerojet-General Corp., a division of General Tire & Rubber Co., is developing the engine and the Navy recently received $295 million of supplemental funds to begin work on the first three special nuclear-powered submarines to launch this missile from beneath the ocean. Top Navy officials have indicated they now hope to have The Polaris ready for combat use before the end of 1960.
BDSA Confirms Assignment
Officials of the Business and Defense Services Administration, which administers the priority system for defense-needed materials, confirmed that contractors on the Polaris now will have the same D-X super-priority access to materials as contractors on the Atlas, Thor and Jupiter. The BDSA assigned the D-X rating for these three in January, 1957. Previously, contractors had received only the ordinary defense priority, or D-O rating.
The latest action doesn’t mean that work on the missile has been proceeding slowly until now, Navy officials said. On the contrary, they emphasized, development work on the weapon already has been accelerated and its combat readiness date moved up two years from the original 1962 target. The action indicates that the missile is moving fast from the drawing board to the hardware phase and that no bottlenecks must interfere with volume production. Defense Secretary McElroy already has said quantity orders for the missile will be placed sometime during the fiscal year that begins July 1.
Only one of the five U.S. ballistic missiles now under development, the Titan, ICBM now lacks the urgent priority label. The Air Force has requested, and the Defense Department has until now refused to order, a speedup in work on the Titan, which is about a year behind the Atlas in development. Martin Co. is prime contractor for the Titan.
The Army reported “successful tests on key components” of its Project Plato, an antimissile defense system designed to protect troops in the field from ballistic missile attack; the Plato system, under development by Sylvania Electric Products, Inc., Waltham, Mass., for the last four years, is a mobile detection and tracking system that would tie in with the Nike-^eus anti-missile missile already under development by the Army to defend U.S. cities from ballistic missile attacks.
President Eisenhower signed into law an emergency defense money measure, appropriating 11,260,000,000 in new funds for the current fiscal year and authorizing the transfer of $150 million in existing funds from project to project. The Administration is expected to use $10 million of the transfer funds to finance beginning operations of the new Advanced Research Projects Agency.
He referred specifically to such things as present restrictions on aircraft contractors’ profits and the more “damaging effects” of the present renegotiation policy for recovering excessive profits from companies after contracts have terminated.
In the testimony before the House panel, Mr. Norton said the Air Force last summer indicated to the Navy that it has a newly-developed requirement for a land-based version of the Polaris to succeed the Jupiter and Thor, “a requirement which the Navy can fulfill,” Mr. Norton said. Defense officials have strongly hinted recently that the Air Force will take over the Polaris for land use, but none of these statements have gone as far as Mr. Norton’s.
“Vanguard” Status
Dr. John P. Hagen, director of the Navy’s Vanguard earth satellite project, said the still unsuccessful rocket, specially designed for this program, could put in orbit a satellite weighing 70 pounds if the burned-out final rocket stage were included as part of the total weight. The Navy satellite proper, he noted, will weigh only 22 pounds, but he gave the bigger estimate to illustrate that the Navy vehicle theoretically could put up a bigger weight than the 30.8-pound weight of the Army’s Ex- blorer, which also includes the weight of a burned-out final rocket stage. Only 18 pounds of the Army “moon’s” total weight actually consists of a satellite in the strict sense.
The D-X super-priority rating for ballistic missile contractors is primarily designed to help these companies obtain important components, such as electronic equipment, and to help the subcontractors obtain needed raw materials at the mill or foundry level by using this rating. The system has no direct effect on the BDSA’s set-aside program for steel, aluminum, copper and nickel alloys, which are already allocated at mills and foundries in certain percentages for defense work.
The Ship’s Barometer
By Commander R. C. Benitez, USN
Every ship in the U.S. Navy has at least one barometer on board, but normally little attention is paid to this instrument in forecasting the weather. In this modern age of electronics, radio, and excellent weather reporting the need for barometer evaluation may not be acute, but, as a matter of professional interest every seaman should know some barometer lore. Certainly, his knowledge should extend beyond the well known cliche that “a rising glass indicates fair weather; a falling glass a storm.”
The barometer measures the weight of the atmosphere. Although standard barometers are mercurial, the type most commonly used in U.S. naval ships is the aneroid. This type is more compact, rugged, and easily handled.
The aneroid barometer consists of a short metal cylinder from which the air has been partially exhausted. The ends of the cylinder are made of thin metal which expands and contracts as the external pressure varies. Suitable linkages magnify and transmit this motion to a scale graduated in inches in the standard USN aneroid barometer. Some instruments are graduated in both inches and millibars which is the unit used in most weather maps. Conversion from one scale to the other may be effected by bearing in mind that 29.92 inches of mercury is equivalent to 1013.2 millibars. The graphic relationship between the two units is found in both KNIGHTS and BOWDITCH.
Distance from center
From 250-150 miles From 150-100 miles From 100- 80 miles From 80— 50 miles
| WIND-BAROMETER TABLE | |
Wind Direction | Barometer (Sea Level) | Character of Weather |
SW to NW | 30.10 to 30.20 and steady | Fair, with slight temp, changes for 1 or 2 days |
SW to NW | 30. JO to 30.20; rising rapidly | Fair, rain within two days |
SW to NW | 30.20 and above and stationary | Continued fair; no marked temperature change |
SW to NW | 30.20 and above; falling slowly | Fair for 2 days; slow rise in temperature |
S to SE | 30.10 to 30.20; falling slowly | Rain within 24 hrs. |
S to SE | 30.10 to 30.20; falling rapidly | Wind increase in force; rain within 12 to 24 hrs. |
SE to NE | 30.10 to 30.20; falling slowly | Rain in 12 to 18 hrs. |
SE to NE | 30.10 to 30.20; falling rapidly | Increasing wind and rain within 12 hrs. |
E to NE | 30.10 and above; falling slowly | In winter rain within 24 hrs. In summer—no rain in days |
E to NE | 30.10 and above; falling fast | In winter rain or snow. In summer— probable rain in 12 hrs. |
SE to NE | 30.00 or below; falling slowly | Rain will continue 1 or 2 days |
SE to NE | 30.00 or below; falling rapidly | Rain with high wind; followed w/n 36 hrs. by clearing wx. |
S to SW | 30.00 or below; rising slowly | Clearing in few hours; fair for several days |
S to E | 29.80 or below; falling rapidly | Storm imminent; clearing in 24 hrs.; colder in winter |
E to N | 29.80 or below and falling rapidly | Severe NE gale and heavy rain; in winter snow and cold wave |
Going to W | 29.80 or below and rising rapidly | Clearing and colder |
In forecasting weather by means of the barometer it is well to remember that the “possibility is always for a continuance of existing conditions unless some phenomenon presents itself which foretells a change.” Also, that a single observation is meaningless since it is not the actual reading which is important, but the direction and rate of change of pressure. It is, therefore, of maximum importance to note whether or not the change has been gradual or rapid, and, if stationary, the length of time the condition has existed. In evaluating barometric readings the diurnal change is often overlooked.
There is a normal rise and fall of the barometer every day. Maximum pressures occur about 1000 and 2200; minimum pressures at about 0400 and 1600. The average variation is .05 inch between the times indicated above (about .01 inch change hourly). An example will illustrate the importance of the diurnal change. Assume an actual observed drop of .06 inch between 0400 and 1000. During this time there should have been, in accordance with the rule of diurnal changes, a normal rise of .05 inch. In effect then, the barometer has dropped not .06 inch (the observed drop), but .11 inch between the hours indicated.
In evaluating barometer behaviour a set of standards will prove useful. For middle latitudes a reading of 29.50 inches is deemed low; 30.00 inches average; and, 30.50 inches high. A fall of .01 inch/hr is considered a low rate of fall; a fall of .03 inch/hr a high rate of fall. These averages are useful in forecasting since the violence and speed of approach of a storm are indicated by the rate and amount of fall of the barometer.
If the local weather remains unchanged while the barometer drops, we can assume that a distant storm is raging. The table that follows gives a rough approximation of the distance to its center.
Average fall per hour
From .02-.06 inch From .06-.08 inch From .08-. 12 inch From . 12-. 15 inch
Although the barometer, as shown above, is helpful in forecasting weather it reaches its maximum usefulness when its behaviour is associated with the behaviour of the wind. Wind is a vital factor in weather and its shifts have always been used in weather forecasting. The combination of the behaviour of the two—barometer and wind—has been combined in a table prepared by the US Weather Bureau.
Since it is unlikely that the above table will always be at hand, remembering the following general rules may enable us to give an on the spot forecast:
(1) Easterly winds and a falling barometer indicate bad weather; a shift of wind to the west quadrants accompanied by a rising barometer indicate clearing and fair weather.
(2) A rise in both the barometer and the thermometer heralds the coming of fine weather.
(3) Be alert for high winds if the barometer rises rapidly in clear weather. Prepare for a storm if there is a sudden drop.
It may be obvious, but it is nevertheless worth repeating that barometers are delicate instruments worthy of more than average care. Also that they should be periodically calibrated, and the necessary corrections properly applied.
Knowledge of the barometer is an interesting and useful phase of the business of going to sea. It should, therefore, be in the “bag of tricks” of every seaman.
X-15 History
Aviation Week, February 3, 1958.—X-15 is scheduled to fly early in 1959, seven years from the time that National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics began special studies of problems likely to be found in flight beyond the atmosphere, and the means for exploring them.
On July 9, 1954, NACA met with USAF and Navy Bureau of Aeronautics to propose the X-15 as an extension of the cooperative research aircraft program. In December of that year a memorandum of understanding was signed naming NACA technical director of the project, with advice from a joint Research Airplane Committee.
USAF was assigned to administer design and construction. It also provides the bulk of the money for these and support phases. Navy assists in financing and provides test facilities, particularly the human centrifuge at the Air Materiel Center, Johnsonville, Pa.
Competition began in December, 1954, and in December of 1955, North American Aviation, Inc., was ordered to construct three aircraft. Reaction Motors, Inc., is powerplant contractor.
North American pilot Scott Crossfield, first man to fly at Mach 2 when he was still with
ARTIST’S CONCEPTION OF X-15.
NACA, is scheduled to make contractor flight tests to determine structural integrity and satisfactory performance of propulsion and control systems. Crossfield will go only to an altitude of about 60,000 ft.
Capt. Iven C. Kincheloe, Jr. of Air Force Flight Center, Edwards AFB, Calif., is first USAF pilot. He will determine maximum speed and altitude capabilities. Joseph A. Walker will be first NACA pilot. They will have two back-up pilots each.
NACA will have primary responsibility during all research flights. It will operate the range from Wendover AFB, Utah, to Edwards, and be responsible for data reduction and reporting.
Flight Test Coordinating Committee composed of USAF and NACA representatives and a Navy liaison officer will monitor the program. NACA will make results of flights and tests known through its usual channels and also through conferences with industry.
Foreign Language Teaching in the “Nakhimov”[1] School
By Commodore G. Grishchenko,[2] and Lt. Colonel
D. El’yanov
Translated from Sovietsky Flot, January 14, 1958.—A naval officer should know how to conduct a discourse in a foreign language on socio-political, naval, and everyday topics, and not only to translate special texts, but also discuss them. The habit of thinking in the foreign language is achieved by dint of constant oral practice, which in turn gives a reliable foundation for grammatical knowledge.
It should be noted in this connection that some graduates of the naval schools do not, experience indicates, possess these habits. Not only that: it not infrequently happens that their instructors themselves do not possess them to a satisfactory degree.
The majority of our instructors use the traditional, so-called passive method of teaching (reading, translation from the foreign language to Russian or from Russian to the foreign language, and questions on the text). In this process they frequently lose sight of the fact that knowledge of a foreign language is primarily the ability to speak, to conduct a conversation on a given subject.
Recently the “direct method” of foreign language teaching has been the subject of heated discussions. The method excludes the use of the native language. It is true that considerable difficulty will arise in the explanation of abstract concepts. But such concepts can be expressed when the learner has accumulated the necessary lexical “baggage.” If, however, certain abstract concepts are necessary in the initial stages of learning (and they are really few in number), one can make the exception and discuss them in Russian. Thus the difficulties of the proposed method can easily be surmounted.
This year we are teaching the new class of
Nakhimovtsi by the direct method. In the first two months of the first quarter, they mastered 230 words and expressions (160 more than were mastered in the previous year), know all transcription symbols, can tell about their family and various everyday subjects, ask and answer questions, and give military commands in English. During this time the Nakhimovtsi assimilated the texts of 2 phonograph recordings and a dialogue recorded on tape.
The reorganization of English language teaching in our school begun last year has required the setting up of a new program and method, providing incentive for extra-curricular pupil activities, a definite raising of instructor qualifications, and the creation of “artificial environments” which should force the learner to speak the foreign language as much as possible.
Here are a few examples, most useful in our opinion, which we employ to improve the teaching of English. In lessons of oral practice, the learners listen a few times to a tape- recorded selection (this takes from 8-10 minutes); then they reproduce it orally and discuss it. The effect of such a listening exercise is that the learner strives to catch and understand the essence of the selection. Moreover, the learner acquires a skill in understanding the speech not only of his instructor, but of other speakers of the language. The same teaching device for spoken language is used in showing diafilms, which are provided with tape-recorded descriptions in the foreign language. Finally, foreign films without subtitles are highly important. For instance, after screening and discussing the film “Jungles,” the pupils understood a good deal and remembered quite a few expressions.
Learning selections by heart plays a significant role in the mastery of conversational patterns. We regularly give our pupils texts and dialogues for weekly presentation, and these in turn become part of the conversational equipment.
Extra-class work is most effective. This includes excursions to architectural monuments, museums, etc., during which instructors chat with the Nakhimovtsi exclusively in the foreign language.
During the past year library aides and surgeons studied English. Now on their days of foreign language study, the Nakhimovtsi speak
English both in the library and in the medical department.
Experience has shown that instruction by the “direct method” has completely justified itself. This method teaches one to “think” in the foreign language, affords the possibility of remembering many times as many words, improves pronunciation, and establishes habits of the spoken language.
Our foreign language evening, to which Suvorovtsi and other pupils were invited, was a fine event. Every company has its own English language club and puts out a Stennaya Gazeta (bulletin board newspaper).
The question of creating an “artificial environment” is no less important than the method of classroom procedure. Two days a week are set up in the school when only English conversation is permitted. On these days an official order designates translators from among the outstanding pupils, who facilitate the discourse in the foreign tongue between Nakhimovtsi, officers, employees, and outside pupils visiting the respective companies. The Nakhimov-interpreters wear a special ribbon on their uniforms.
It seems to us that certain definitive experience in the teaching of foreign language acquired in the Nakhimov school could be used to advantage in the higher naval training schools. Instruction in foreign language must be organized in view of the practical needs of the future officers of the fleet.
Sun-Hot Gas Melts Barrier to H-Fusion for Peace
By Robert C. Cowen
The Christian Science Monitor, January 24, 1958.—British and American physicists have figuratively produced a star in a test tube and with it the bright promise of controlling the mighty fusion reaction of the hydrogen bomb for peaceful purposes.
This is the essence of the joint British-Amer- ican announcement Jan. 24 of progress in the hitherto secret joint effort to harness the energies of fusion for production of useful power.
If this goal, still many years away, can be achieved, mankind will have a practically limitless source of energy. The fuel for fusion power could be extracted fairly easily in almost unlimited quantities from the seas.
Fusion is the process that powers the hydrogen bomb and from which the sun and stars derive their light and heat. It requires the millions-of-degrees temperatures associated with the stars to take place.
Hotter than Stars
The joint announcement states that British and American physicists have built laboratory devices in which temperatures of five to six million degrees have been achieved. This is hotter than the measured surface temperatures of any star.
They have learned to control the tremendously hot electrified gas in these devices in stable configurations for what is considered a significant period of time—several thousandths of a second.
There is strong likelihood that thermal-induced fusion itself has been realized for the first time in the laboratory. However, the announcements say that more tests have to be made before this can be claimed beyond doubt.
To the layman, these may seem spectacular achievements with little comprehensible significance. But to the expert, they are significant laboratory breakthroughs.
New Hopes Dawn
They have turned the technological pessimism that tended to prevail less than a year ago to a cautious optimism. For the first time, researchers have laboratory devices with which they can work to understand and overcome the obstacles that stand between them and the still-distant goal of practical fusion power plants.
At a joint British-American conference held last April, Dr. Edward Teller reaffirmed a forecast he had made two years earlier that an operating laboratory fusion device would be realized within five years.
Dr. Teller has played a leading role in fusion research and development of the hydrogen bomb. He told the conference that after two years of difficult research he saw no reason to lengthen his forecast.
Difficulties Outlined
Other members of the conference were believed to have concurred. But at that time ex-
perimenters were not optimistic over their then current results.
They were very doubtful that experiments were close to producing fusion. The difficulties of holding the superhot gases in their devices in stable configurations long enough for fusion to take place loomed large.
This latter means holding the hot electrified gas, called a plasma, away from the walls of its container for periods of thousandths or even hundredths of a second. In April, this could be done only for millionths of a second.
Surprise Indicated
Discussing the results now reported, a natural scientist who attended the April conference said, “We did not expect this much progress to be attained so quickly. Dr. Teller’s forecast may be realized sooner than even he anticipated.”
The difference between a near certainty that heat-induced fusion had not yet been realized in the laboratory and a good likelihood that it has, the difference between stabilities of millionths of a second and of thousandths of a second, is a major laboratory breakthrough. It is enough to change the climate of thinking.
As explained by Arthur E. Ruark, chief of the Atomic Energy Commission Controlled Thermonuclear Branch, “Now the experimenters have something to build on, something worth-while to study.”
New Roadblocks Loom
But this does not mean that fusion power is just around the corner. Statements issued by the United States Atomic Energy Commission and the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority emphasize that the project is likely to remain in the research stage for many years.
One indication of the difficulties confronting the researchers is the fact that the very laboratory breakthroughs reported have themselves uncovered a mystery.
Analyzing results from the British machine £eta, in which temperatures of two to five million degrees have been attained, plus comparable American data, Prof. L. Spitzer of Princeton University has said that an unknown process must be at work.
To reach such high temperatures in so short a time, he said that elements of the plasma (deuterons) in %eta “must be accelerated ... by some unknown process.”
Lead Debated
News of research progress in fusion has been leaking out for several months. It has been clouded by rumors that British physicists were the first to achieve the breakthroughs reported here last fall but that they were held back from making any announcement by Anglo-American secrecy agreements.
Any such censorship has been vigorously denied officially in both countries. One can only report that some British natural scientists expressed sentiments supporting the rumors last fall.
However, from the information given out now, it would be difficult to say that either partner of this joint research effort is “ahead” in any meaningful sense of the word.
Americans See Soviet Polar Base
By Bill Becker
The New York Times, February 3, 1958.— The first American visit to the main Russian base in Antarctica was a social success.
The consensus was reached early by some 200 Americans and a like number of Russians after a sixteen-hour visit by the USS Burton Island, a Navy icebreaker.
The hospitable Russians, with Eugene Tol- stikov, Antarctic program leader, setting the pace, let American scientists and newsmen see everything they asked to see.
Georgi Matveychuk, Mirny operations chief, conducted a tour of the station’s main facilities after the American advance party, headed by Navy Captain Gerald L. Ketchum, had been guests at a vodka brunch.
The Americans also stayed for dinner and a Russian movie. Afterward at least half the Russians came aboard the Burton Island for ship inspection and an American movie.
American scientists made no sensational discoveries at Mirny—no indications of rocket-launching plans or the like. But the visiting Americans found that in oceanography, meteorology and glaciology the Russians were well advanced. In some fields, however, they appeared to be lagging behind United States’ programs.
AMERICANS VISITED THE RUSSIAN BASE AT MIRNY (CROSS). OTHER SOVIET STATIONS IN ANTARCTIC ARE SHOWN BY TRIANGLES.
Mirny appears as well organized as Little America, the largest United States scientific station in the Antarctic.
Its eighteen prefabricated buildings are as sturdy and more homey than those at any United States polar base. However, Mirny has the exterior sloppiness of McMurdo Sound, the United States Antarctic supply base. Like McMurdo, Mirny is a funnel for articles moving to inland stations.
The Russians reported that a team had drilled the deepest hole yet reported in the Antarctic. They said that they had extracted ice core samples from a depth of 1,200 feet at Pionerskaya, a station 250 miles inland from Mirny.
At last reports a United States team was nearing the 900-foot mark at Byrd Station, on the opposite side of the continent.
The Russians disclosed that a tractor-train team of thirty-two men was expected to reach the site of the proposed Sovietskaya station in two weeks.
This site is hundreds of miles short of the original planned location at the Pole of Inaccessibility, the point in Antarctica farthest from the sea.
In addition to Sovietskaya, the Russians hope to have all these other inland stations in operation: Bunger Oasis, Vostok, Pionerskaya and Komsomolskaya.
Vehicles Are Impressive
The Russians also reported ascension of a balloon to thirty-eight kilometers during the last year. This would be 125,000 feet, well above the present American south pole record of about 10,700.
Their radiosonde transmitter was comparable to but not so compact as American equipment. Reports were taken manually rather than by automatic instruments at the station. Otherwise, Russian meteorological equipment seemed on a par with that at the United States bases.
Visiting American scientists also were struck by the apparent efficiency of two tracked snow vehicles—the Penguin and the Vezdekhod. The latter, which was translated as “The Goes Everywhere,” is slightly larger than the Army Weasel used by American stations and will hold up to ten passengers. It seemed to have more climbing power and maneuverability.
The Penguin is a large towing vehical used mainly on inland traverses and was reported capable of hauling loads up to fifty tons.
Equipment Is Modern
At Mirny emphasis has been placed on ice crevasse studies. The Russians were using stress and deformation gauges that Richard L. Cameron, glaciologist of Laconia, N. H., described as “topnotch.”
Mirny has two oceanographers, Michael Isverkov and Vladimir Lebedev, and a program that far outstrips anything the United States has ashore in Antarctica, according to Robert B. Starr, Navy hydrographer from Washington.
Mr. Starr, who has been sounding and sampling Antarctic waters from aboard the Burton Island, found the Russian hydro equipment extremely modern and complete, especially that for making chemical analysis.
The Russians also gave Mr. Starr some hydrographic manuals that indicated that their thorough study of these waters began with the
voyage of the Spava in 1947 and 1948. Their data on icebergs and ice fields appeared exhaustive.
The Mirny radio station was equipped with a five-kilowatt transmitter. The most powerful United States transmitter down here is eight kilowatts. Ionospheric sounding machines struck Carl R. Eklund as antiquated. He said equipment was much inferior to that used at Wilkes Station, where he was scientific leader last year.
Visitors also were surprised to find no aurora-observations tower. The Russians had an all-sky camera implanted on a promontory to film the southern lights during the winter nights. But they did not appear to have a coordinated spectrometer installation.
Ships on Wheels
By Lieuterwnt(J.g.) Joel W. Carter, USNR[3]
At the turn of the century Congress rejected a proposal to build a huge marine railway across Mexico. The builder proposed to tow ships from ocean to ocean on a six-track, three locomotive road. The idea seemed almost as preposterous then as it does now, yet the Panama Canal has recently begun actually rolling ships part way from Atlantic to Pacific.
The wheels are part of the new towing locomotives being used to take ships through the huge locks. The new “mules” are the first change in the Canal’s towing procedure since the SS Ancon made the first transit in 1914. Formerly a rowboat met each ship at the lock entrance with messenger lines. Next, wires were hauled aboard by which the vessel was towed with a line of electric locomotives on each lock wall. An equal strain from each side kept the ship in the center of the chamber as some mules towed and others braked. This smooth system, which has been admired by thousands of world travelers and Navy men, is being replaced with a revolutionary new method that promises to be even more amazing.
When the ship approaches, the new mule simply swings out a long boom from which deck hands take the messenger lines and pull across the cables. When these are fast the ship is pulled ahead by the new mules, operating on only one side of the lock. With no counter pull from the other side, a steel-on- concrete collision is averted by utilization of a rubber-tire fender car. The new mule places an assembly of ordinary looking tires between the ship’s hull and the wall so the vessel moves smoothly through the mile-long locks, rolling along just like the family automobile.
Two of the new mules are now being used at the Atlantic side Gatun Locks to see if they are actually as good as they seem to be. If they prove completely satisfactory the Panama Canal Company has an option to buy 27 similar locomotives to replace 67 of the conventional type now in use. Replacement of the mules was necessitated by the now- under-way conversion of the Canal Zone’s electric power from the 25 cycle current installed during construction days to modern
The “mule” has to climb about 30 feet on a steep incline between each lock chamber.
60 cycle. Many of the durable locomotives have been in use since 1914 and have reached such a state of obsolescence and wear that they would require complete rebuilding in addition to the cost of converting them to the 60 cycle current. So when the Canal Company asked for bids on a complete set of new mules they gave the manufacturers the alternative of bidding on 57 standard mules or of offering modified or even completely redesigned towing devices in whatever number would be needed to do the job. R. G. Le-Tourneau, Inc. of Longview, Texas was the only firm to submit a new design but their bid, $4,982,400 was only a little over half the price of the lowest bidder for the standard mules. The much lower price is possible because fewer machines are needed. Only four LeTourneau locomotives are required to tow even the largest ships, which take ten of the standard type. The average ship needs only two instead of six of the old mules.
The LeTourneau mules operate on the regular tracks on the double locks’ center wall. With only two locomotives in use, each has lines both fore and aft to the vessel in tow. Thus, each locomotive provides both towing and braking power. The pneumatic tire fender car which holds the vessel off the lock wall is suspended from each locomotive on a rectangular, 43 foot derrick. The fender car, controlled by the mule operator, is equipped with twelve rim-mounted, 24 ply pneumatic tires, 18X25, with three on an axle. Six of the five foot wheels bear against the ship’s hull and six ride the lock wall. The tires are mounted horizontally allowing them to roll forward as the ship is moved—like great, rubber roller bearings!
An electric motor in the mules raises and lowers the fender cars. They can go as far as 43 feet down into the lock to accommodate all size ships at all water levels. When ships with portholes or other hull irregularities are towed, the fender car is kept below the porthole level. They will operate just as well under water if necessary.
There were many doubts among canal pilots, locksmen, and mule operators when the purchase of the new mules was announced. All sorts of catastrophes were prophesied for the Rube Goldbergish contraptions. The most common puzzlement was the matter of vertical movement. It was easy to see that the tires would roll forward but many people wondered how they would get up and down without a lot of destructive stress and strain. The lines are slacked off when the ship is in place for raising or lowering but the wind often holds the heavy hull tight against the tires. This problem has been neatly solved by making the rough lock wall so slick that the fender car can be moved vertically in spite of the pressure.
This twenty acre grease job was done by coating the wall with a fabulous new plastic called Plasite. After the various grooves and indentations in the lock walls were filled, the coarse, rocky concrete was covered with a finer coat that was rubbed smooth. Above this was sprayed three coats of Plasite which dried in a few minutes into a hard, gray sheath. This material, made by the Wisconsin Protective Coating Company, although only .008 inch thick, makes the wall slicker than glass.
The LeTourneau mules operate on the same track as the old ones but here the similarity ends. They outweigh the old machines 55 to 47 tons and outpower them 200 to 150 hp. The standard locomotives make five knots but the new model can move along at nine. Thirty-six feet long, 14 feet wide, and 13 feet tall, not counting the derrick, the LeTourneau mules have a glass enclosed cab where a lever operated control mechanism enables the operator to stop, start, or reverse direction instantly.
The operator can pass the messenger line directly to the incoming ship with a 75 foot whip boom of light steel tubing. A stronger harness is given the more powerful new mules by making the core of the one inch cable steel rather than the old type manila center.
At present the mules are equipped with diesel engines to drive their power generators. These will be removed when the 60 cycle conversion is finished.
The two new locomotives, which cost $656,000 will be used for up to 12 months before the others are ordered. Unless they develop some hidden bugs, the LeTourneau mules will not only speed up transits in the increasingly crowded waterway but will reduce costs by cutting in half the number of towing locomotives needed.
Propulsion
By Dr. J. V. Dun worth*
Engineering, January 3, 1958.—The outstanding achievement of nuclear power in the field of transport in the last ten years has been the construction of the American nuclear powered submarine Nautilus, which, in theory, can travel submerged at speeds of the order of 20 knots for several months. The crucial factor in nuclear power which makes this possible is that the weight of fuel required for such an operation is negligible. In fact only a few pounds will be consumed in giving the performance just described. The second factor is that although the weight of shielding in a nuclear reactor is considerable, this weight can be reduced significantly if a reactor can be designed without paying special attention to securing financial economy of operation. A submarine is sufficiently large to accommodate an adequate weight of shielding under these conditions. Finally, a nuclear powered submarine does not involve any very serious hazard from the highly radioactive waste products generated in a nuclear reactor since the vessel is likely to sink if it is damaged and
* Dr. Dunwcrth, CBE, MA, is head of Reactor Division, Research Group, United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority.
the resulting contamination of the water would in most cases be quite tolerable.
To secure greater economy of operation, it is likely that a commercial reactor would have to be somewhat larger and more extensively shielded. Such a procedure is practicable in ships of the order of ten thousand tons and upwards and consideration is being given in many countries to the possible design of oil tankers, ore carriers and large passenger liners. The passenger cargo liner Savannah is being constructed in the United States and will use a pressurized-water reactor which is based on the same technology as the reactor used in the Nautilus. A variant of this reactor system is obtained by using an organic liquid as the coolant and moderator and this has considerable advantages in that the coolant is at much lower pressure. Studies have been proceeding in the United Kingdom for some time on this reactor system while a small land- based experimental system has been built in the United States.
For the large ship it may be possible to scale down a Calder Hall type reactor while consideration has been given in several countries to a gas-cooled heavy-water moderated system. No other reactor system at present appears likely to be the basis of power in commercial shipping on an appreciable scale in the next fifteen to twenty years.
Schemes have been suggested to make use of nuclear power in a gas-turbine but the first commercial prototype reactor is likely to be at least ten years off and on safety grounds there may be considerable objections to ship use.
The USSR has launched a 16,000 ton, 44,000 shp ice-breaker which should have virtually unlimited range. This appears to be a peculiarly suitable use of nuclear power for ship propulsion. It is expected that the ship will be able to navigate through 6 ft. of ice.
The use of nuclear power for land or air transport does not appear to hold out much promise. It is technically possible but the large weight of shielding would result in a heavy unit. The minimum capital cost for a power reactor of roughly one million pounds rules out small-scale applications. The unlimited range which nuclear power affords does not appear to offer any significant advantage except perhaps for a military aircraft, a very small number of the world’s commercial aircraft, and land tractors for use in extremely remote areas.
A Case for “District Fire Stations”
By Lieutenant Commander James F. Conlan, USNR[4]
In the light of Soviet Russia’s scientific achievements clearly indicating capabilities to rain destruction down upon continental United States’ targets of her choice, a great deal of attention is currently being paid to defensive measures. And while the headlines emphasize projected developments of methods of missile detection, missile interception and anti-missile missiles, many defensive measures far more elementary in scope and some within the economics of fiscal operating budgets could be considered by the armed services. In considering the advantages this nation must look to for security purposes, each naval vessel, combatant or non-combatant, is of great and intrinsic value provided that these vital hulls are widely dispersed at all times both at sea and in port.
The doctrine of widely dispersed naval formations at sea has been promulgated by naval authorities for many years. The practice of keeping combatant ships, those of the amphibious forces and of the train at sea for extended periods has been diligently pursued for purposes of exhaustive training and at the same time preserving the most inherent offensive and defensive characteristic of forces afloat—mobility.
There remains, however, one area of development of this policy of optimum dispersion and mobility that justifies the greatest possible attention and understanding by both naval and governmental authorities—that of converting from the admittedly more efficient, centralized operating base to a system of widely dispersed small bases utilizing every deep-water port throughout our coastal areas and predicated upon the remarkable accomplishments of the floating Pacific bases of World War Two. True, bases such as Norfolk, Bremerton and San Diego would continue to serve the fleet for necessary overhauls and stores. But instead of exposing themselves as targets incorporating a million tons of vital shipping, they would be reduced to those of facilities ONLY plus, of course, those vessels being serviced at any given time. In their stead would be perhaps as many as twenty- five or more ports from which small groups of vessels would operate—a destroyer tender nesting 3 or 4 DD’s and/or DE’s here, an LSD nesting 2 LST’s there and, in small ports, perhaps only 2 or 3 patrol craft or minesweepers, etc.
The drawbacks to such a complete reorganization would indeed be great. Pier facilities would be absent in many instances and protected anchorages would have to suffice. Type-organizations would have to be modified extensively and new security measures undertaken for each home port. Supplies would have to be shuttled over many miles of coastline or ships would have to make scheduled trips to the present major supply bases.
But the benefits that would accrue from such port-dispersion would outweigh these obvious disadvantages which could be easily overcome by the flexibility and resourcefulness of the naval establishment. The constant threat of a “Pearl Harbor” would be greatly reduced and each port harboring one of these small nests of vessels would constitute a sort of “District Fire Station”—the “apparatus” of which could proceed to the aid of any devastated coastal or near-coastal area. And what is better equipped than a naval vessel to render such aid? The versatility of a naval vessel in meeting the needs of urgent situations has been proven in scores of instances. Food, clothing, medical supplies, various types of fire-fighting and emergency equipment, electric power and steam, evaporators, radio communications and trained men are what make a ship of the US Navy so vital to the welfare of this nation and to any friendly nation when disaster strikes. The “Central Fire Station” concept represented in bases such as NOB, Norfolk, exposes altogether too many ships to a single, nuclear holocaust.
The Strategic Air Command of the US Air Force strives to achieve the greatest possible mobility and dispersion of forces during periods of international tension by keeping certain aircraft air-borne at all times thus paralleling the “at sea” doctrine of the Navy. However, we read in newspaper columns that the Air Force recognizes the jeopardy manifested in too few bases and seeks additional facilities to disperse their retaliatory threat when not air-borne. But whereas the arms of a strategic air force are essentially offensive by their very nature, those of the Navy serve a multitude of purposes and are, in fact, our first line of defense. Every provision must be made to reduce to an absolute minimum the mass- target exposure of the vessels comprising this “First Line of Defense.”
Bold Missile Predictions Made for U.S.
By Mark S. Watson
The Baltimore Evening Sun, February 9, 1958.—In an unprecedented discussion of the armed services’ existing missiles and many of those still in development (even announcing four entirely new weapons of moderate importance), the Defense Department has revealed a high degree of confidence in the nation’s prospective weaponry.
This applies to the missiles now approaching readiness. It also applies to those much further away. For the latter no precise delivery dates are suggested, but the confidence of the military establishment is suggested by such bold predictions as these:
1. The newly developed radar, with range of over 3,000 miles, constitutes a “real technical breakthrough” which permits a start on a major early-warning system.
Supplements Others
This is the key to the defense against enemy ballistic missiles. The new radar does not replace the existing and costly DEW Line, Mid- Canada, and Pinetree systems this side of the Arctic, but it supplements them in an indispensable manner.
2. Manned space flight can be demonstrated in the near future by several vehicles now under development or considered for development. The revolutionary experimental rocket plane X-15, for example, is to fly early in 1959 at 4,000 miles per hour.
A professional estimate is that “as it presently stands, it is only one short step away from a true space vehicle.”
Glider Studied
There is under study a “boost-glider,” to be launched high aloft, sliding down to atmosphere at supersonic speed, and then employing its rockets to regain height at will, and under pilot guidance descending safely to a chosen landing point on earth.
3. An airborne ballistic missile is under study. By taking off from a high-flying plane, the missile could dispense with most of the enormous fuel load now required by an earth- launched IRBM, and hence, needing only moderate power thereafter, could carry a much larger payload in a much smaller missile.
The major requirement is an air-navigational system wholly independent of earth- stations, and this has long been under study.
4. The Polaris, the Navy’s creation, first of the long-range solid-fuel ballistic missiles, will be ready in 1960. This applies not only to the missile, but to the first fully ready missilelaunching submarine itself.
Eight other such subs are already planned. Many more are likely. Included in the combination will be the new and revolutionary navigational system (enabling the commander to know his exact location and thus calculate precisely his firing data); the nuclear propulsion of the submarine, the device for launching the 1,500-mile missiles from under water and further refinements to be built into the first submarine of this type.
5. The under-water launching system referred to has already been test-fired. While details are withheld, it is usable at any required submersion depth.
The missile is presumably ejected straight upward by compressed air; on emerging from the water the rocket power is automatically ignited and, with guidance system functioning, the 1,500-mile missile with nuclear warhead starts its flight toward the target.
More than ten such missiles can be carried in each Triton-type submarine now building— a tribute to naval researchers’ skill in miniaturizing the Polaris's parts. (The liquid- fueled Thor and Jupiter of the Army, also 1,500-mile missiles, in contrast are approximately 70 feet long.)
Deterrent Capability
6. The new protective devices—notably the greatly improved detector-radar providing a warning time of 15 minutes, and thus allowing time for the take-off of our own retaliatory forces—are such that, contrary to widely expressed fears, “our deterrent capability can continue to be maintained.”
7. The Rascal, launched from a plane against enemy targets 75 miles away, is a “harbinger of things to come,” notably a Hound-Dog supersonic missile with atomic warhead and “pin-point accuracy for many hundreds of miles.”
8. While the long-range ballistic missiles are on the way (the Thor and Jupiter IRBMs, with their fully trained launching crews, are promised for overseas by December) there is to be a speed-up of interim missiles, notably the Snark.
This is a 5,000-mile weapon with full guidance (that is, not a ballistic missile) and of subsonic speed.
Guidance Is Precise
One of its merits compensating for lack of speed is the precision afforded by guidance, much greater than any of the long-range ballistic types can attain, and by an expert judgment “an accuracy that probably will not be duplicated by any other unmanned system for some years to come.”
Another merit is Snark's ability to make its run from any direction and at low level, making both detection and interception difficult.
The weapons identified for the first time are the Air Force’s Hound-Dog, Bull Goose and Green Quail, and the Navy’s Corvus. The last named will be used by carrier-based planes against distant surface targets in a heavily defended area.
It is a “stand-off” type, capable of hurting the enemy from a distance so great that the plane itself engages in minimum risk of counterattack.
Both the oddly named Air Force missiles are of the diversionary type—that is, they are intended to help our Strategic Air Command elements by being fired at some target remote from the main objective, so as to divert the enemy defenses from too close attention to the real attack point.
One is an air-to-surface type, the other surface-to-surface and presumably of much longer range.
Revised Matador
In addition there was identification of a missile named Mace. This proves to be the revised form of Matador, the Air Force’s potent surface-to-surface guided missile (really an unmanned plane) which already is deployed overseas. Mace has appreciably greater range, heavier payload and much improved guidance.
Altogether the new fact sheet on missiles', now fully publishable, lists ten Army missiles, thirteen for the Navy and thirteen for the Air Force.
Jetstreams that Ground Rockets
By Earl Ubell
The New York Herald Tribune, February 6, 1958.—Eight miles above the earth a river of air whips along at speeds of 350 miles an hour from west to east. This week and last this high-speed jet kept the Vanguard and Jupiter C on the ground for a couple of days.
Where does it come from? Where does it go? How does it affect the weather? Can it be predicted? All these questions need answers, and weather scientists have been studying the jetstreams intensively for a decade.
Strangely enough, the presence of high- velocity winds aloft has been known since 1880. The greatest explosion in history gave the clew. It was the obliteration of the island of Krakatoa in the Dutch East Indies.
When this volcano blew its head off, immense clouds of dust mushroomed up to high altitudes and in a few days they were detected around the world. This meant that winds flowing at more than 100 miles an hour were up there.
Streams Plotted by British in World War II
But then nobody followed up this lead until World War II, when British meteorologists plotted the streams in secrecy. Airplanes, they found, could float down the swift flowing river to Germany in record time, get off and fly back in ordinary air.
They could do this because the jetstreams are only a few miles wide and less than a thousand feet deep. That is what makes them treacherous for rockets. A rocket flying through such a blast can easily be toppled over.
In 1946, and 1947, two University of Chicago scientists began to plot the courses of the jetstreams systematically. Dr. Herbert Riehl and Dr. Erik Palmen (now in Finland) found that there were several streams flowing over the Northern Hemisphere at one time.
Since then more information has been gathered. It is now known that jetstreams always flow from west to east except for small kinks in this river of meandering air. The jetstreams move northward in summer and south in the winter, just like birds and tourists. They can catch a small storm or even a hurricane by its hair and pull it along out of its destined course
What causes jetstreams? There are several theories, each more complicated than the next. The turning of the earth has something to do with it. As the planet spins, it drags its ocean of air with it, but not at all smoothly. This makes the winds uneven, some rapid and some slow.
Even more important is the large mass of hot air at the equator lying alongside the cold air of the temperate latitudes.
* * *
[1] Naval preparatory schools, chiefly for the sons of deceased or living naval officers. The Suvorov schools are the corresponding army preparatory schools.
[2] Superintendent of the Leningrad Nakhimov School and Director of the Foreign Language Committee respectively.
[3] Lt.(j.g.) Carter, now serving in the Chesapeake Bay annex of the Naval Research Laboratory, received his MS degree from the University of Tennessee. His duty in Balboa, C.Z., was on the staff of 15th Naval District Headquarters.
[4] Lieutenant Commander Conlan has commanded the PC-569 and LST-120. In the latter he participated in the Marianas and Palau campaigns. He now lives in Abilene, Texas, and maintains his naval interests through the U. S. Naval Reserve Officer’s School there.