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130 The Lazy Atom
by Raymond Sorel
134 The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy
by L. E. Zeni, Commander, U. S. Navy
136 Optical Masers for Space Navigation
by Gene M. Cunningham, Ensign, U. S. Navy
140 Progress in De-Salting Water
by E. John Long, Captain, U. S. Naval Reserve (Ret.)
We are dragging our feet in developing atomic power. Maybe it does not seem so by the look of our atomic submarines and the new atomic merchantman, Savannah. The fact is that we are exploiting the advantages of atomic power in a small way, and the way we have been using atomic power in marine applications is a good example.
One of the barriers to high speed ocean travel has always been wave-making resistance. Wave making is not troublesome at slow speeds—when a vessel travels slowly, most of the resistance is frictional and depends largely on how much wetted surface there is. For a given volume (displacement) a sphere would have the least wetted surface and a spherical ship would theoretically have the least resistance—if she were traveling slowly enough. But tank tests and many centuries of experience have shown us that wetted surface is not the only thing that keeps ships from moving through the water at high speed. The influence of the underwater shape of a ship on her resistance is still imperfectly understood, however.
Less than a century ago, William Froude noticed that waves made by models towed in a tank were quite similar to those made by the full-sized ship. He also discovered that there was a relationship in the resistance (after corrections for the differences in wetted surface) between a full-sized ship and the model, and that resistance is related to the square of waterline lengths. The Speed- Length ratio is a speed comparison formula based on Froude’s work. The Speed-Length ratio is merely the maximum speed of the ship divided by the square root of the waterline length. It is written V/\/WL. Here is the way in which it can be used to tell what a “fast” ship is and what a “slow” ship is:
Suppose we had a ship which was 225 feet long on the waterline and we wanted to compare her speed with a similar vessel (in shape) which was only 100 feet long. Let us say that the 225-footer had a maximum speed of 15 knots and the 100-footer’s was 12 knots, and we want to know which is the “faster” hull. It does not take much mathematics to see that the bigger ship is three knots faster than the smaller one, but we realize intuitively that it is not a fair comparison because of the difference in size. If we apply the Speed-Length ratio formula to each of these vessels, we get a ratio of 1.0 for the big ship and 1.2 for the smaller one. The smaller ship has the higher Speed-Length ratio, and so she is “faster” than the big one. The smaller ship would have the “same” comparable speed if she had been 10 knots, because the Speed-Length ratios would have been equal. This assumes, of course, that the propulsion power in each was comparable. (The propulsion power necessary to get the same Speed-Length ratio varies directly as the cube of the length—if the smaller ship had, say, half the displacement of the bigger one, it would need half the horsepower.)
You can make some interesting comparisons now. A 1,000-foot aircraft carrier that can make 45 knots is “slower” than a destroyer that can do 33 knots. The carrier’s Speed-Length ratio is about 1.4 while the destroyer’s is about 1.8. A 37-foot yacht which can do 12 knots is “faster” than either the carrier or the destroyer because it has.a Speed- Length ratio of 2.0.
Another interesting (and useful) bit of information that came out of Froude’s work was that the resistance of most ships (depending somewhat on their underwater shapes) began to rise very rapidly at Speed-Length ratios of 0.8 to 1.0. In some full-bodied ships it was impossible to get any noticeable increase in speed above a certain maximum no matter how much power was applied. The ship simply squatted and made larger waves.
This explains why naval architects have designed larger and larger tankers and other merchantmen. It was a way to get more speed and more carrying capacity at lower operating cost. The bigger a ship is (all other things being equal), the faster she will go on a horse- power-per-ton basis, and in addition to carrying more cargo per trip, the ship can make more trips per year. Big ships cost a lot of money and it would be better if cargocarrying capacity could be increased by increasing the speed of the ship so that her size (and cost) could be kept down. A ship twice as fast as another ship of the same cargo capacity can carry twice as much cargo in a year because she can make twice as many trips. The apparent speed barrier from wavemaking resistance that appears at a Speed- Length ratio of 1.0 makes it impractical to increase cargo-carrying ability by increasing speed alone. A deeply submerged submarine, however, would theoretically have no wavemaking resistance.
The absence of wave-making resistance in deeply submerged submarines has almost revolutionary implications. It means that the speed barrier that troubles surface ships is no longer present. It means that it would no longer be necessary to increase the size of the ship to increase cargo carrying capacity. It might actually be uneconomical to run a submarine at slow speed in comparison to a surface ship. The question that now arises is how much faster than a surface ship is a submarine comparable in size and horsepower.
This is not an easy question to answer. The speed of the nuclear submarines that have been built in the last few years has remained secret. We can get some idea, though, by looking up some resistance curves of ships in a text book. Some of these plot the wetted surface resistance separately from the total resistance.
Except for a small amount of eddy resistance and other miscellaneous resistances, nearly all of the resistance left over after subtracting the wetted surface resistance is wave-making resistance. This is the part which is absent in deeply submerged submarines. Therefore we should be able to estimate the maximum theoretical speed of a submarine by extrapolating the wetted surface (frictional) resistance curve out to the total drag that the power plant can overcome (represented by the total resistance at maximum speed). When this is done to the curves for a destroyer escort, the speed comes out to more than 70 knots—even after exercising the most conservative discrimination in extrapolating the curve. It is unlikely that any submarine comparable in size and power to a destroyer escort would actually reach this speed, because other resistance factors would probably become important and limiting. Also, we have been discussing merchantmen which are not designed in the same way as are DE’s. But because the destroyer escort is familiar to most of us, we will continue to use her as an example.
A destroyer escort has a flank speed of 23 knots or so, and it seems from this discussion that a comparable submarine could nearly triple this speed (theoretically). It does not seem unreasonable to estimate that a merchant submarine could travel at least twice as fast as a comparable merchant surface ship (considering the lower propulsion power). This would indicate that a typical merchant ship with a speed of 12 to 15 knots could travel at about 25 knots as a submarine. A
passenger ship like SS United States might be able to travel at 80 or 90 knots—and we see immediately some limitations on very large submarines traveling at such high speed. It would be entirely too dangerous to travel underwater at 80 or 90 knots until we had some way of looking ahead to avoid accidents.
The attraction of merchant submarines at this time seems to lie in small or medium sized vessels which could maintain a speed of 2530 knots. A cargo submarine would gain another speed advantage when bad weather forces surface ships to slow down. Passengers aboard a submarine are more likely to enjoy a long trip when they do not have to suffer through attacks of seasickness. A troop-carrying transport would deliver men to their destination in better condition and in much less time than a surface ship could. Military
supplies would arrive quickly and stay relatively safe from air attack.
There is the question of cost and of crewing a merchant submarine. A submarine is hydrodynamically deeply submerged when she is three diameters below the surface. A mean depth of 150 feet would accommodate submarines up to 50 feet in diameter—a size typical of those we have been discussing. A submarine designed to operate at this depth might need no more strength than a surface ship since the buffeting from severe weather would be absent. Automatic pilots would maintain depth and course without attention from the crew. In fact, some of the guidance systems used in missiles could be adapted to guide an unmanned submarine several thousand miles across the ocean where, on surfacing within five miles of a pre-selected spot, a pilot operating from an airplane would guide the submarine into port by radio control.
All of this is possible because the Navy has developed the nuclear power plant that makes a true submarine practical.
Our military should be exploiting nuclear- powered submarine cargo carriers for military and civilian use so that we will be in a better position militarily and economically to resist an enemy. National security and our critical dependence on natural fuels should spur us on to build submerged atomic power plants. These two objectives are not the kind which lie on the edge of knowledge like rocketing a man to the moon—but are within grasp now at relatively small cost and little intellectual effort. The only intellectual effort necessary is for us to realize that we need this nuclear power capability.
Although the Navy has two troop carrier submarines, Perch (APSS-313) and Sealion (APSS-315), in commission, it has had no cargo carrier type in operation since USS Barhero (SSG- 317) was converted to a missile launcher in 1954. The author holds that we should exploit the advantages of the nuclear power plant for cargo and troop transport submarines, with the possible additional application of a remote control system to produce an unmanned type of submersible.
THE FLETCHER SCHOOL OF LAW AND DIPLOMACY
It is understandable that a naval officer concerned with bringing his ship alongside a tanker in a severe storm or skillfully positioning his destroyer for a kill on a submarine may very well ask what possible benefit courses in political science at the Fletcher School would be to his career.
The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy is a graduate school of Tufts University administered with the co-operation of Harvard University. Its Board of Visitors, composed of leading citizens, includes President John Kennedy and Admiral Arleigh Burke. Naval students are sponsored by the Politico- Military Policy Division of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. A review of the past several years indicates that, five officers are selected each year for political science courses, with three being assigned to the Fletcher School and two to Stanford University.
As with any selection board, it is difficult to pinpoint in advance the finite qualifications which will most likely lead to selection, and although the Fletcher School reserves the privilege to disqualify a prospective student for various reasons, the fact that no officer recommended by the Bureau of Personnel has ever been turned down speaks well for the selection boards. Again, based on an analysis of the past several years, in addition to the basic requirements outlined in the BuPers notice on postgraduate instruction, it would appear that an above average academic record, a proficiency in one or more foreign languages, and an interest in the politico- military field are added assets.
Naval officers are assigned to the school for two years. Successful completion of the first year, that is, four full-year courses passed with distinction, satisfactory evidence of proficiency in a foreign language, and the passing of an oral examination, leads to a Master of Arts degree. The second year he receives a degree of Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy, provided four additional full-year courses are passed with distinction and a substantial research paper is completed. Successful completion of the two-year curriculum fulfills residence requirements for a Ph.D. However, proficiency in a second foreign language, the passing of a general oral examination, and a thesis bearing evidence of extensive investigation and substantial contribution, to the subject would probably require additional time. Lack of space prevents a listing of all the courses available at Fletcher and Harvard University through the reciprocal cross-registration arrangement. Since it may be of interest to know what courses are available, by whom are they taught, and how much time is devoted to each, a possible course of study is presented.
During the first year, the naval officer will study two semesters of International Law under Professor Leo Gross, who has spent a
year at the Naval War College in the International Law Chair, and is also an editor of the American Journal of International Law. A semester on the theory and practice of World Politics under Professor Sigmund Neumann, visiting professor from Wesleyan University, director of Honors College at Wesleyan, and advisor to the Free University of Berlin, should be a must.
As a complement to the world politics course, the second Semester provides an opportunity to undertake New Factors in International Politics with Professor Marshall D. Shulman, who, in addition to teaching at Fletcher, is a member of the Russian Research Center at Harvard University, or Communist Ideologies under Professor William Griffith, recently closely associated with Radio Free Europe. In this first year, two semesters covering the Foreign Relations of the United States and the Formation of American Foreign Policy under Professor Ruhl J. Bartlett will prove especially stimulating. Professor Bartlett, who incidentally is also quite expert on the history of the U. S.
Naval officers not infrequently find themselves confronted with major politico-military assignments similar in portent to the one faced by these senior UN military representatives and their staffs at the Kaesong peace talks in Korea a decade ago.
United Nations
Navy, provides the optimum in patient investigation of the whys and wherefores of American foreign policy.
And finally, two semesters of International Economics—a course on the Theory of International Trade and one on Comparative Economic Systems with Professor George Halm, provide a naval officer his closest approach to a math course for the two years.
The summer provides an opportunity to attend Harvard Summer School and pursue political theory with such well-known personalities as Professor Hans J. Morgenthau of the University of Chicago, Professor Karl Deutsch of Yale University, and Professor Carl Friedrich of Harvard University, and brush up on a second foreign language.
The second year will involve two semesters of International Organization with Professor Gross and two semesters of U. S. Foreign Economic Policy with Professor John H. Williams. Professor Williams, also at present involved with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, has been called on for advice by our government for several decades. He was associated with the formulation of American economic policy after World War II.
During this year, special regional and topical studies are extremely interesting. Two semesters of Africa’s role in World Affairs under Professor John H. Spencer can quickly dispel the average American’s ignorance about that volatile continent. Professor Spencer spent nearly 20 years as political advisor to the Ethiopian Emperor and is named by John Gunther in Inside Africa as a most influential American in African politics.
One semester spent with the Soviet Union and the West, under Professor Shulman, and one on the Diplomatic History of the Soviet
Union, under Professor Griffith, can provide the naval officer with an excellent background for analysis of Soviet actions. Latin-American Problems and Inter-American Relations with Professor Bartlett may be followed in place of one of the courses involving the Soviet Union to provide some fundamental knowledge on yet another important area to United States foreign policy.
And, of course, as time will permit, students may audit a number of other important courses which would help a naval officer to better understand the relationship between naval policy and foreign policy.
The discussion of a possible two-year curriculum would be incomplete without pointing out that under area specialization during the second year, an excellent seminar with Professor Henry A. Kissinger of the Defense Studies Staff at Harvard University provides a detailed study of the relationship between foreign policy and national security policy. If scheduling does not permit attendance at this seminar, a similar course of study can be arranged under the personal guidance of Professor Bartlett. This can be an excellent arrangement for a naval officer who already has some knowledge of our Defense Department since it permits him to proceed at a faster rate and to read on a wider scope.
It is, of course, logical to wonder to what kind of billets graduates of Fletcher are assigned. As far as can be determined, normal career assignments continue uninterrupted. However, when an officer is scheduled for shore duty, and provided there is a billet available, in all likelihood he will show up in the Politico-Military Policy Division of the Navy, in the International Security Affairs Section in the Office of the Secretary of Defense or on Naval Attache staffs.
It should be noted that the value of the course goes beyond formal academics. For example, the student body is made up of 30 per cent foreign students from Europe, Asia, and Africa, including diplomatic officers from various countries. The inevitable discussions after class attacking some academic theories and their practical application provide the naval officer with an opportunity to experience at first-hand America’s prestige and image abroad and to understand the problems of many areas of the world.
OPTICAL MASERS FOR SPACE NAVIGATION
By Gene M. Cunningham, Ensign,
U. S. Navy
Within the last year a radically new kind of radiation device has been developed which holds great promise for use in space navigation. It is called the optical maser, or more simply, the laser. The laser has made it possible for the first time to generate electromagnetic waves in the visible region of the spectrum even more efficiently and precisely than existing electronic oscillators can generate in the radar region. The optical maser has already produced extremely intense and sharply directed light beams, much more monochromatic than those from any other light source. After reasonable development it is expected to surpass microwave radar in space navigation for at least three reasons: It can operate over extreme ranges with much lower power consumption.
Velocity measurements by the Doppler technique will be more accurate.
The system will be highly compact and use a much smaller reflector.
Development of the optical maser resulted from the search to produce sources of higher and higher frequency radiation. Since ordinary light sources, including gas-discharge lamps, cannot compare with electronic oscillators in generating power at a single frequency, there has naturally been a great effort to extend these oscillators to shorter wave lengths. But any attempt to go below wave lengths of about one millimeter meets with serious design problems in accurately building the resonant structures or cavities that tune the oscillator.
A convenient solution to the problem is to replace these tiny resonators with atomic or molecular resonators. This approach was made possible by the optical maser principle, suggested by Charles H. Townes at Columbia University. Maser is an acronym for “micro-
wave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation.” Laser similarly refers to light amplification. The first maser used the vibrations of ammonia molecules as the source of the microwave oscillations, and was completed in 1954 by Townes, James P. Gordon, and H. J. Zeiger. A solid-state maser was proposed a short time later by Nicolas Bloember- gen at Harvard University, and was built at the Bell Telephone Laboratories by George Feher, H. E. D. Scovil, and H. Seidel.
Before outlining the basic principles of maser operation, three fundamental processes in the physics of atoms—absorption, spontaneous emission, and stimulated emission—should be described.
Atoms are known to exist in several distinct energy states. One which happens to be in its lowest energy state may absorb a photon and change to a higher energy state. This photon may be thought of as a tiny bundle of energy. The energy of the absorbed photon is converted into internal energy of the atom. The excited atom may later emit a bundle of energy spontaneously and change to some lower energy state, or it may be stimulated by another incoming photon to discharge this energy. The stimulated emission is a resonance process, that is, the incoming photon causes the excited atom to emit only if it is precisely of the same energy as the photon which the atom could have emitted spontaneously.
In designing a maser, one important problem is to prepare some sort of “active medium” in which most of the atoms can be placed in an excited state, so that stimulated emission will predominate over absorption. In one type of maser the atoms of this medium are first excited by injecting light into the system at a wave length different from the stimulating wave length. The activating is generally called “pumping.”
Then the active medium must be enclosed in some sort of box or resonator. Maser action may begin when one of the excited atoms emits a photon spontaneously. This wave of energy will grow until it reaches another wall, where part of it will be reflected back into the mass of excited atoms. If amplification by stimulated emission makes up for reflection losses at the walls, a steady wave builds up.
But difficulties crop up again in trying to build a single wave length cavity in the optical region; the dimensions would be impossibly small. To eliminate this problem, Arthur L. Schawlow and Townes proposed in 1958 that an optical maser could be built by making a resonator with dimensions thousands of times greater than the emission wave length. The reflecting box would be replaced by a device with two small mirrors facing each other, a few centimeters apart. It could still be constructed in such a way as to favor a particular mode of oscillation, or a particular frequency, by careful adjustment of the mirror spacing and selection of the active medium. One of the mirrors could be semi-transparent, so that a fraction of the standing wave built up on repeated reflections from the mirrors could escape. This would constitute the output beam of the laser “transmitter.”
The first successful laser of this configuration was announced in July 1960 by T. H. Maiman of the Hughes Aircraft Company. This device used a synthetic pink ruby crystal for the active medium. The ruby was machined into a cylinder about four centimeters long and one-half centimeter in diameter. The ends were polished optically flat and closely parallel and were partially silvered. The mirror spacing was an integral multiple of the characteristic wave length which the atoms in the crystal were capable of radiating upon stimulation. An electronic flash tube wound around the ruby rod was used to provide the pumping light. Maiman discovered that below a certain critical flash intensity, the ruby exhibited only its typical red fluorescence as the atoms spontaneously emitted a photon and returned to their lowest energy state. But above this critical level, maser action began, and an intense red beam lasting for about 0.0005 second flashed out of the partially silvered ends of the rod.
By the end of 1960, four other crystal substances had been successfully tested, each of which seem potentially capable of continuous operation, though first operated only in short bursts. A gas laser was proposed in 1959 by Ali Javan of the Bell Telephone Laboratories, and a successful model designed by W. R. Bennett, Jr., D. R. Herriott, and Javan was demonstrated early last year. It was the first laser to operate continuously, and had a very low energy input of around 50 watts. The active medium was a mixture of helium and
GASEOUS OPTICAL MASER
neon. Electron bombardment was the pumping mechanism, and a radio frequency exciter supplied the energy.
The intensity of some of these laser beams, the pink ruby for example, is almost phenomenal. Its power output reaches 10,000 watts for short periods. Yet the beam area near the transmitter is less than a square centimeter. And this high intensity comes with a comparatively low power input to the pumping light. This is one reason that lasers will have a greater range capability than microwave radar, and hence be more practical for space applications. Another is the narrowness or high directionality of the output beam even with small reflectors—which means less weight to send up. The reason for the directionality of the beam is linked to the close parallelism of the mirrors at each end of the active medium. Any wave which is emitted by one of the excited atoms, and travels in a direction which is not perpendicular to the mirror faces, will leave the system in just a few reflections, or perhaps even before it reaches one of the ends, and before much amplification by stimulated emission takes place. Hence, only waves which start out closely parallel to the optical axis of the system are amplified and augment the output beam.
Such a small divergence of the transmitted beam means that in many circumstances the entire beam will fall on a distant target and produce a strong return signal. Considering the probable ability of a receiver laser to detect very weak signals and to discriminate against noise, the system is expected to permit measurement of distances up to 100,000 miles with an average beam power of about 66 watts, and with an accuracy of one mile.
It is the narrow frequency bandwidth and coherence .of the laser beam which make the instrument so applicable to velocity measurements by means of the Doppler effect, its second major advantage over microwave radar. The pink ruby produces a wave whose bandwidth is about 1,000 megacycles, but is greatly outperformed in this respect by the gas laser which can produce spectral lines less than one kilocycle wide at a frequency of
100,0 megacycles. Assuming a relative radial velocity of 1,000 knots between laser and target, the Doppler shift at this carrier frequency would be about 170 times the band-
width, a large and readily measurable effect. For example, in a planetary landing, a laser using a two-foot mirror will have a potential accuracy in velocity measurement about 2,000 times that of a microwave radar system using a 60-foot antenna.
The general design of what has been dubbed the laser transmitter has been described, but the so-called laser receiver has only been mentioned briefly. To date no such receiver has been publicly announced. A thorough discussion of how a companion receiver to an optical maser might be constructed, however, Was contained in a paper presented before the annual meeting of the Institute of Navigation by Cecil B. Ellis and Ivan A. Greenwood of General Precision Laboratory in June 1961. The basic design of this receiver is the same as the transmitter, except that both end mirrors would be partially silvered and the pumping light would be less powerful.
If the light were adjusted just below the intensity at which the active medium ‘mases,” then an incoming signal originating from a companion transmitter—whose optical axis was accurately aligned with that of the receiver—would trigger stimulated emission, and the signal beam would emerge from the second mirror greatly amplified. It could then be detected by the electronic circuitry by means of a photoelectric cell or a photomultiplier. It is essential that the received signal be exactly the wave length of which the
receiver mirror spacing is an integral multiple, and which its atoms are ready to emit.
Unless these alignment and resonance conditions are met, amplification will not occur.
But these are exactly the reasons for the probable high discrimination of the receiver against extraneous background light. According to Ellis and Greenwood, a laser receiver can operate in bright sunlight anywhere, and can amplify a very weak signal from a companion transmitter laser which comes in along the receiver axis, while practically ignoring the ambient radiation. Even if the receiver is pointed directly at the sun, it should not receive much amplifiable energy, when it can only accept a bandwidth which is about a million-millionth of the visible spectrum, and a solid angle which is a hundred-millionth of the sun’s disk as seen from the earth.
It should be pointed out that today the optical maser is still a research device in industrial and university laboratories, though the active materials are available commercially, already machined and silvered. Some preliminary distance measuring tests have been made using a photo cell as a receiver. It is anticipated that an optical maser receiver, similar to the one described here, will be announced in the near future since a number of research laboratories are actively pursuing this goal. It seems reasonable to expect that optical maser systems will be ready for space vehicles by the time they are actually needed.
PROGRESS IN DE-SALTING WATER
By E. John Long, Captain,
U. S. Naval Reserve (Retired),
Contributing Editor,
International Oceanographic Foundation
Once the only practical way to get fresh water from the sea was to boil sea-water and condense the vapor. This process is not only fuel-costly, but as every mariner knows, it entails expensive disposal of scale and corrosion. Engineers agree that it definitely is not the answer to the fresh-water needs of a big community or even of a sizeable corporation which must augment supplies from natural sources.
With fresh water consumption rising sharply all over the world, it has long been apparent that some more efficient means must be found to meet the future need for this commonest and most essential of all minerals. In the United States alone, fresh water use jumped from 40 billion gallons daily in 1900 to about 312 billion gallons in 1960. Government experts predict that the 1975 population of the United States will require at least 435 billion gallons.
Although this enormous total represents only a third of the present runoff from streams in the United States, the solution, experts contend, will not be found in more dams, reservoirs, wells, forested watersheds, etc.,— that is, not finally.
What is being done about this potentially critical situation? Actually one can cite considerable progress since Congress, in 1952, passed the Saline Water Demonstration Plant Act, to provide for the research and development of practical methods of producing fresh water from saline (this includes brackish as well as sea) sources. An Office of Saline Water has been set up in the U. S. Department of of the Interior with a two million dollar authorization for a five-year program. Experiments soon established beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was feasible to reclaim sea water in large quantities by several different processes. The big question was one of economics: how far down could the cost of production be driven? When research indicated that new methods could reduce the cost of converting
1,0 gallons of sea water to fresh from $4.00 to $1.00, Congress granted additional funds.
In 1958, Congress authorized the Office of Saline Water to construct and operate full- scale saline water conversion plants at five widely-separated sites, employing the most promising of five different processes. They are: (1) Long-tube vertical multiple effect distillation, at Freeport, Texas; (2) Multistage flash distillation, at San Diego, California; (3) Electrodialysis, or membrane, at Webster, South Dakota; (4) Forced circulation vapor compression, at Roswell, New Mexico; and (5) Freezing, at Wrightsville Beach, N. C.
One plant has been in operation at Freeport, Texas, since June 1961. Briefly, in its LTV process, sea water falls through bundles of 2-inch tubes in a series of evaporators under progressively reduced pressure. In the first evaporator, steam around the outside of the tube bundle causes part of the sea water to boil as it falls through the tubes. Emerging at the bottom of the evaporator, then, is a mixture of vapor and hot brine. The hot brine is pumped again to the top of the second evaporator where, under slightly reduced pressure, it again falls through the inside of the tubes in the bundle.
The vapor produced in the first effect flows to the outside of the tube bundle in the second effect. Here the vapor is condensed to fresh water by giving up its latent heat. In a kind of chain reaction, new sea water falling through the tubes picks up heat, and again part of it boils, a process repeated through all 12 effects of the plant.
The Freeport plant has been temporarily closed twice, once due to mechanical difficulties and once during Hurricane Carla, but it is considered a going concern. Half of its fresh-water production goes to the city of Freeport, and half to the nearby Dow Chemical Company plant, a prime producer of magnesium, another sea mineral.
At San Diego, the Westinghouse Electric Corporation was awarded a contract to build a one-million-gallons-per-day plant utilizing the multistage flash distillation process. Here sea water will be heated and introduced into a large chamber where reduced pressure lowers the boiling point of the hot brine. When the brine enters this chamber, the reduced pressure causes part of the liquid to boil—or flash—into steam immediately, leaving a slightly concentrated brine. This brine is passed through a series of similar chambers (multistage) at successively higher vacuums where the flash process is repeated. The steam is condensed into fresh water.
The San Diego plant, dedicated on 10 March, 1962, was constructed with 36 flashing stages.
In the third new plant, being tested on brackish well water at Webster, South Dakota, electric currents and membranes are employed. An electrodialysis cell, as utilized here, consists of a sandwich of alternating cation and anion penetrable membranes. When it is filled with water, an electric current is turned on, and the positively charged ions (such as sodium) pass through the cation membranes. The negatively charged ions (such as chloride) move in the opposite direction and pass through the anion membranes. The water in the center chamber of each membrane sandwich is thus depleted of salt, and is pumped off for use.
This South Dakota demonstration plant has Completed its test operations, and soon will be producing 250,000 gallons per day. The wells at Webster are part of a vast underground salty pool, extending from Nebraska into Canada.
Also far from the ocean, but plagued with saline water is Roswell, New Mexico, where still another distillation process is to be tried, with an objective of one million gallons of fresh water a day. A forced circulation vapor- compression plant .will push saline water up through a tube bundle, with vapor and hot brine emerging from the top of the tubes. The vapor will then be pumped off, and compressed, thus raising its temperature, and returning it to the heating side of the evaporator tubes as the primary heat source.
As it gives up its latent heat, the vapor condenses into pure water and is drawn off. A contract for the construction of this facility was awarded late in 1961.
The fifth demonstration plant, at Wrights- ville, near Wilmington, N. C., will be quite different from all of the others, utilizing a freezing process. A fresh-water ice crystal is pure water, but when sea water freezes, the salt crystals are trapped between the fresh water ice crystals. The problem is to isolate, economically of course, the pure water ice crystals from the salt.
Experiments with this relatively new process show several inherent advantages over conventional distillation. For example, there is a lesser tendency toward sealing and corrosion because of the low operating temperatures involved, and most important, perhaps, the lower energy requirement to freeze sea water as compared to the energy and fuel required for heat evaporation.
In the course of the research work being done on these and other saline water conversion processes, the Office of Saline Water has found strange gaps in the knowledge and understanding of many well-known natural phenomena. Incredible as it may seem, science knows that salt dissolves in water and that the process requires very little energy, but no one has yet discovered exactly how this occurs nor how to reverse it.
The Federal government is not, of course, the only agency involved in the water conversion program. The Office of Saline Water has developed a co-operative arrangement with states, municipalities, universities, and private research and industrial firms. Seven states have entered into agreements to provide general assistance and exchange of information on the development and application of saline water conversion processes.
Not all of the processes now under study, it is important to note, are aimed at big city or large corporation usage. Experiments are being conducted with units adaptable to much smaller installations, such as individual farms or households, or even in ships.
That Congress has faith in the program is indicated by the passage, in September 1961, of a bill to extend the research, experimental and demonstration plant activities of the Office of Saline Water for six years. The new authorization, of $75,000,000, is a considerable increase over the previous allotment of $10,000,000, which covered 10 years.
If the program continues to make the same rate of progress that it has in the past, the nation’s future supply of fresh water seems to be assured. The most important need now is to make it available.
Notebook
U. S. Navy
Navy Organizes New Cruiser-Destroyer Unit: The organization of a newly established Cruiser-Destroyer Force, Atlantic Fleet, has been approved by the Chief of Naval Operations.
Effective 1 July 1962, the organization establishes six cruiser-destroyer flotillas containing approximately three squadrons of destroyer-type ships each.
Four of these flotillas will be comprised of cruisers in addition to the destroyer squadrons. The remaining two flotillas will contain only destroyer or cruisers resulting from the organization establishment. (AFPR, June 1962.)
Contract for Nuclear-Powered Guided Missile Frigate: A contract for construction of the nuclear-powered guided missile frigate DLG(N)-35 is being awarded to the New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Camden, New Jersey, the Navy announced. The contract provides for a fixed price of $53,987,001, subject to labor and material escalation.
The award of this contract completes the allocation of new construction authorized by the Fiscal 1962 shipbuilding program.
All three of the proposals for construction of this ship were carefully and objectively reviewed by the Bureau of Ships. The New York Shipbuilding Corporation made the lowest responsive and responsible offer. The other two shipyards whose proposals were considered are the Ingalls Shipbuilding Corporation, Pascagoula, Mississippi, and the Quincy, Massachusetts Shipyard of the Bethlehem Steel Company. (Department of Defense, Office of Public Affairs, 5 July 1962.)
Nuclear Submarine Contracts: Secretary of the Navy Fred Korth has announced the Navy’s intent to award one nuclear submarine contract to each of the five commercial shipyards now engaged in similar work as soon as Congressional action authorizing the fiscal 1963 shipbuilding program is completed, or with funds made available by the joint resolution recently approved by the Congress to provide temporary appropriations.
Ingalls Shipbuilding Company, Pascagoula, Mississippi; New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Camden, New Jersey, and Bethlehem Steel Company (Shipbuilding Division) Quincy, Massachusetts, will each be awarded a Nuclear Attack Submarine; Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics Corporation, Groton, Connecticut, and Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company, Newport News, Virginia, will each build one Polaris submarine.
This announcement of intention is being made to assist these companies in their long range planning in order to insure the preservation of continuity of effort on these high priority programs. (Department of Defense, Office of Public Affairs, 3 July 1962.)
Atlantic Division Budocks Moves to Norfolk: The office of the Director of the Atlantic Division of the Bureau of Yards and Docks will be moved from its present headquarters, New York City, to Norfolk, Virginia, effective 1 September 1962, the Navy has just announced.
The Atlantic Division is responsible for the planning, design and construction of public works, public utilities and special facilities for the Navy and other federal agencies and offices in the Atlantic area. It also acquires and disposes of real estate, administers family housing, and assists activities in accomplishing programs assigned for technical direction to the Bureau of Yards and Docks.
The move is being made to locate the Director’s office closer to the fleet elements it serves. Thus it will assure immediate responsiveness to the requirements of the Commander in Chief, Atlantic Fleet, whose headquarters is at Norfolk.
Concurrent, with the relocation of the Atlantic Division, the District Public Works Office, Fifth Naval District, with headquarters in Norfolk, will be merged into the combined office of the Director of the Atlantic Division. This office, now headed by Rear Admiral William C. G. Church, CEC, USN, will function for both the District and the Atlantic Area. No reduction in personnel now employed by the Fifth District office will result. (Department of Defense, Office of Public Affairs, 3 July 1962.)
USS Enterprise Joins Second Fleet: The nuclear-powered attack aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVAN-65) joined the U. S. Second Fleet on Monday, 25 June 1962. It is the first regular assignment of the world’s largest warship to one of the Navy’s four striking fleets.
Commissioned 25 November 1961, the 86,000-ton Enterprise has been training in preparation for deployment with the Second Fleet. She completed her shakedown training at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in April 1962, achieving a grade of “Excellent.” She is commanded by Captain Vincent P. de Poix, USN, of New York City.
Enterprise will operate with the Second Fleet in the western Atlantic until she begins her first cruise with the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean. The Second and Sixth Fleets exchange units periodically, and the carrier is scheduled to operate alternately with each fleet. Enterprise operated briefly with the Second Fleet in April of this year when it joined a task force which was visited by the President of the United States. President Kennedy observed fleet operations from Enterprise on 14 April off the coast of Virginia.
The Second Fleet was the nation’s first striking fleet to operate a nuclear-powered surface ship when the nuclear-powered guided missile cruiser USS Long Beach (CGN-9) joined the fleet earlier this year.
The planes aboard Enterprise are from Carrier Air Group Six. They include F8U Crusaders in Fighter Squadron 33; A4D Skyhawks in Attack Squadrons 64, 66 and 76; and AD-6 Skyraiders in Attack Squadron 65. Fighter Squadron 102 is equipped with the F4H Phantom II, while Heavy Attack Squadron 7 flies the A3J Vigilante. Other planes in the detachments are the WF-2 Tracer and photo- equipped Crusaders. (Department of Defense, Office of Public Affairs, 26 June 1962.)
Three New Subs to Be Named for Generals: Names for three fleet ballistic missile submarines now under construction have been announced by the Navy. They will bring to 25 the number of atomic-powered submarines in the Navy’s Polaris-firing fleet.
Two are named after Civil War generals— for the Union, Ulysses S. Grant and for the Confederacy, Stonewall Jackson. The third has Nathanael Greene, the Revolutionary
War general, as its namesake. All are in the Lafayette-class, a 7,000-ton, 425-foot submarine launched 8 May. They are due for launching in 1964.
The Navy now has nine fleet ballistic missile subs in commission. Two others are launched and under outfit prior to commissioning. Of the Navy’s 18 SSBN’s either under construction or authorized, all but three are named.
Grant is being built in Groton, Connecticut; Jackson and Greene at the Naval Shipyards at Mare Island, California, and Portsmouth, N. H., respectively. (AFPR, July 1962.)
Helicopter "Carrier” Arrives: One of the
Navy’s newest, most modern warships has joined the Atlantic Fleet Amphibious Force.
She is the amphibious assault ship Okinawa.
She looks like an aircraft carrier but is not called a carrier. Her function is to transport a battalion of 2,000 Marines and 24 large helicopters for beachhead operations.
Okinawa, first ship to bear the name, was constructed at Philadelphia Navy Shipyard and commissioned 14 April.
She is the second vessel, and the first in the Atlantic, constructed as an amphibious assault ship. The first was Iwo Jima, commissioned on the West Coast earlier this year.
The Atlantic Amphibious Force already has two amphibious assault ships, Boxer and Thetis Bay, which are converted aircraft carriers of World War II vintage.
Ships like Okinawa and Iwo Jima are manned by about 500 officers and enlisted men. The ex-carriers have crews of from 1,000 to 1,200.
The amphibious assault ship’s function is to transport troops to an assault area. Using a technique called “vertical envelopment,” the helicopters fly the troops and their equipment inland behind enemy lines.
When fully loaded, the ship will displace
18,0 tons. She is 592 feet long and 84 feet wide. Her armament consists of four twin 3-inch, 50 caliber rapid-fire antiaircraft guns.
Okinawa will operate out of Norfolk about two weeks then will go to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for her shakedown cruise.
After “shakedown,” she will return to Philadelphia for additional work. She has been assigned to Amphibious Squadron 8. (The Norfolk-Portsmouth Virginian-Pilot, 22 June 1962.)
Foreign
Biggest Tanker Ready: The world’s largest tanker is scheduled to be launched at the Sasebo Heavy Industries Company shipyard at Sasebo, Japan, on 10 July.
The tanker, of 131,000 deadweight tons, is being built for the Idemitsu Kosan Company, a crude-oil importer. She will be named Miss ho Maru. Delivery of the vessel is set for late September.
The biggest tankers on the high seas are Universe Apollo and Universe Daphne, which measure 114,300 deadweight tons and 115,300 deadweight tons, respectively. Both vessels were constructed in Japan and are owned by National Bulk Carriers.
Missho Maru will carry crude oil from the Persian Gulf to Japan (New York Times, 24 June 1962.)
Foreign Atomic-Powered Freighters: The
major maritime powers are engaged in research and design studies for nuclear-powered merchant ships, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has just reported.
A review of the world shipping situation pointed out that only two nuclear-powered surface vessels had been built: the American ship Savannah and the Soviet icebreaker Lenin. But studies of nuclear-propelled ships are under way in Sweden, France, the Netherlands, West Germany and Britain.
Three of the study projects are under O.E.C.D. auspices. They are:
A 18,000-deadweight-ton nuclear-powered bulk carrier with a boiling-water reactor, by an international group in Malmo, Sweden.
A 360-foot oceanographic research ship with a pressurized water reactor at Chantiers Augustin-Normand in Le Havre, France.
A 65,000-deadweight-ton tanker with either a pressurized water or direct-cycle boiling- water reactor by an international team under Dutch Government sponsorship.
The plans for these programs are to be completed by next spring and will then go to a study group.
Five projects are current in West Germany and all have received “some state support.”
“A small working group has been set up in the United Kingdom to consider what the new program of resarch in marine nuclear propulsion should contain and to keep progress under review,” the O.E.C.D. said. (New York Times, 1 July 1962.)
Two Maritime Museums: Bergen Maritime Museum, located in Norway’s second largest city, recently moved into a new building. The spacious, Kr. 4.1 million fieldstone structure is a gift from Westfal-Larsen & Company. The Bergen shipping firm has also donated Kr. 1 million to meet operating costs.
Ship models at the Bergen Maritime Museum trace the history of Norwegian shipping and shipbuilding through the ages, with special emphasis on Bergen’s own contributions. The sailing ship section, featuring numerous figureheads, occupies the entire first floor, while the second floor is devoted to the development of steam and motor shipping.
A smaller, but very handsome maritime museum was recently dedicated in the port of Larvik, on the Oslofjord. Situated by the harbor, the stately museum building was formerly used as Customs House. The idea of establishing Larvik Maritime Museum was originally suggested 36 years ago by Consul Ths. Arbo H0eg. So far, the museum has collected some 2,000 exhibition items. The emphasis is largely on the period of sailing ships A special section features the work of Colin Archer, a noted naval architect who was born in Larvik. Another native, explorer Thor Heyerdahl, has contributed items from his expeditions. (Mews of Norway, 24 May 1962.)
Soviet Oceanographers Chart Mediterranean Bottom: The Soviet scientific-research ship Akademik S. Vavilov, continuing its study of the bottom relief of the Mediterranean Sea, recently discovered the deepest spot yet reported. During the night of 30 April 1962, at a point approximately 65 miles to the west of Cape Matapan, the fathometer readings began to indicate deeper and deeper soundings; deeper than those previously charted. After reading the tape it was determined that the deepest sounding was at 5,120 meters, a new maximum depth for the Mediterranean Sea. Previous to this time the deepest point was that recorded by the Calypso expedition in 1955 when a reading of 5,015 meters was obtained to the south of the Peloponnesus. (Vodnyiy Transport, 12 May 1962.)
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Research & Development
Navy Launches Seagoing, Flip-Over Laboratory Craft: The Navy today launched a unique seagoing laboratory that flips over from a horizontal to a vertical position to study the ocean depths.
The 355-foot vessel is, in fact, called FLIP, for Floating Instrument Platform. It was launched at Portland, Oregon.
When in a vertical position, the 600-ton craft will become an unusually stable platform from which to make necessarily precise measurements of sub-surface water temperatures, the flow of currents, the propagation of sound waves, and other phenomena associated with the science of oceanography.
FLIP will be used initially for studying sound beneath the ocean’s surface, an investigation obviously related to the detection of enemy undersea craft in the nation’s antisubmarine warfare program.
The Navy said FLIP will be towed to sea in a horizontal position by a large tug. After arrival at a particular destination, FLIP’S after end will be flooded with sea water.
As a result, all but the bow of the craft will be submerged and in a vertical position. The submersion operation takes three to five minutes to complete.
In this upright position, the exposed bow will become a four-story island in the ocean, as it were, and will contain living quarters and laboratories for a scientific crew making the oceanographic studies. There will be accommodations for four men and supplies for two weeks.
The scientists will not board the vessel until it has been put in its vertical position, it was announced.
Two water-tight cylindrical tubes will permit the crew to descend to a depth of about 150 feet below the ocean’s surface to carry out their work.
Diesel generators will supply electrical power for air conditioners and other equipment.
Hydrophones will be mounted at several points on the craft for listening to sound transmissions which will emanate from a source lowered beneath the water from the tug.
The Navy said scientists in the laboratory will be able to maintain visual, radio and radar contact with surface ships at the same time they are measuring sound waves in the ocean.
A Navy spokesman emphasized that the big advantage of FLIP is the stability achieved by the vessel when most of its length is beneath the water. This situation is somewhat analogous to an iceberg, also a stable floating body with most of its bulk beneath the surface.
Such stability cannot be obtained through the use of submarines or scientific devices lowered beneath the sea, it was explained.
FLIP is part of a basic oceanographic research program sponsored by the Office of Naval Research and the Bureau of Naval Weapons.
Plans have been made to test the vessel in Dabob Bay near Seattle before it is towed to San Diego to begin sea voyages, the Navy said.
The craft will be used in the Pacific which, a Navy representative said, is a very different ocean from the Atlantic. The Pacific differs not only in size, but in temperature, wave motions, currents and many other respects.
People responsible for the design of FLIP include Dr. Fred N. Spiess, director of the marine physical laboratory of the University of California; Dr. Frederick H. Fisher, scientific officer for the vessel and scientists of the Naval Ordnance Laboratory.
FLIP was built by Gunderson Brothers Engineering Company of Portland. It cost between 1600,000 and $700,000, the Navy said. (Albert Sehlstedt, Jr., in The Baltimore Sun, 23 June 1962.)
Defense R&D Management Too Complex:
One reason the Defense Department has been assuming major decision-making power in the R&D area is that the Services have been “abdicating” their responsibility in this area.
So the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association meeting in Washington, D. C. was told by Defense Director of Research and Engineering, Dr. Harold, Brown.
“Whenever a choice is not made at a lower level between two projects aimed at doing the same thing, and between which comparison can be made which shows one that one or the other is better, the choice will be made at a higher level,” Dr. Brown said.
As a result, Dr. Brown said, “the chain of decision making is an extremely long one in the Defense Department, much too long.
“As long as the layering is so profuse, and the ability to distinguish good from bad so spotty in Government, it takes a certain degree of faith, perhaps misplaced faith, for industrial management to exercise judgment, restraint, and responsibility. However, we in the Department of Defense intend to shorten the chain. We intend to telescope the top layers and eliminate the unnecessary layers.”
Dr. Brown explained that in order to manage the complex RDT&E problems with which DoD is confronted the Department has structured the program into R&D categories.
As explained by Dr. Brown, they are:
“First, is research. This includes all effort directed toward increased knowledge of natural phenomena and solution of problems in the various sciences, but excludes efforts directed to prove the feasibility of solutions of problems of immediate military importance or time-oriented investigations and developments. Next year research will account for some $295 millions or just over four per cent of the RDT&E budget. We propose to use level of effort as the principal program control in this area.
“Second, exploratory development, which includes effort directed toward the solution of specific military problems short of major development projects. This may vary from time-oriented applied research to advanced breadboard hardware, study, programming, and planning efforts. It is pointed towards specific military problem areas with a view toward developing possible solutions and determining their characteristics. It covers some $1.1 billions or over 15 per cent of the FY 63 budget. To list some examples, we have exploratory development in communications, surveillance and target acquisition, and air mobility in the Army; surveillance, aircraft, and ordnance and missiles in the Navy; and aerospace propulsion, materials, and nonnuclear weapons in the Air Force. The large programs in the Advanced Research Projects Agency such as Defender (advanced antiballistic missiles studies) and VELA (detection of nuclear explosions) are also in this category.
“Third, we would have a class called advanced developments, which include all projects which have moved into the development of hardware for experimental or engineering test. Just under $1.0 billion or close to 14 per cent of the next year’s budget are here. Examples are VTOL aircraft, the X-15, experimental hydrofoils, et cetera.
“The fourth category is that of engineering development. There are development programs being engineered for service use but not yet approved for procurement or operation. Examples are Mauler, Typhoon, B-70, Nike- Zeus, Dyna Soar, et cetera. This area of course is one of large programs and major line items, and totals about $1.5 billion or some 21 per cent. Program control will be exercised by review of individual projects.
“Fifth there is a corresponding category, which we call operational systems developments, which is the R&D effort directed toward development, engineering, and test of systems which have been approved for production and service employment, but otherwise have the same characteristics as engineering development programs. We will exercise program control in conjunction with the reviews that take place of the entire weapons systems, which in this category include such things as Polaris, Minuteman, M-60 tank, et cetera.
“The total RDT&E involved is just over $2.0 billion or about 29 per cent. We also have a sixth category called management and support which will include R&D effort directed toward support of installations or operations required for general R&D use such as test ranges, maintenance support of laboratories, et cetera; this has almost $1 j billion or 17 per cent.” (Army-Navy-Air Force Journal and Register, 23 June 1962.)
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Maritime General
Maine Academy Acquires Liner: The Maine Maritime Academy took possession last week of a better and larger training ship.
Midshipmen of the school at Castine, Maine, under the leadership of Captain A. F. Coffin, the school’s executive officer, became the “owners” of the 9,978-ton Ancon at New Orleans.
Title to the 493-foot, 17-knot steamship— one of the country’s best known medium-size liners—was passed from the Panama Canal Company to the Maritime Administration. The latter then “loaned” the vessel to the officer-training school.
Ancon replaces State of Maine—the former hospital ship Comfort—which was too small to provide adequate training facilities. The student body is being expanded to 500 in a change-over from a three-year to a four-year curriculum.
Ancon was one of three liners built shortly before World War II for the Panama Line. She became surplus last year after the Panama Canal Company’s operations were ordered curtailed by the White House.
After lay-up at New Orleans since last June, the liner was brought out of semi-retirement in January and served as a floating classroom for 2,000 Army Transportation Corps troops.
Before the ship could be lent to the Maine school, a legal requirement had to be satisfied —she had to be offered for sale for operation as a merchant vessel. Ancon was put up for sale in February for $550,000, but no bids were received. (New York Times, 1 July 1962.)
Ship’s Cargo Lift 285 Times Greater Than New Cargo Plane: Despite the strides made by aviation, the high fuel consumption and the limited cargo capacity of aircraft leave ships unchallenged in their ability to move masses of people or material across the surface of the earth, William B. Rand, president of the United States Lines, said today. He made the contention at the launching of the fast 13,100- ton freighter American Challenger.
Mr. Rand said Challenger could steam 1,000 miles without refueling, carrying 10,000 tons of cargo. While Challenger's speed is about a twentieth of the speed of the C-141 Navy jet cargo plane planned for production in 1964, nearly 30 airplanes, shuttling back and forth 11 times, would be needed to deliver the same cargo in the same time, he said.
The C-141 presumed by the Navy to be the plane on which the Defense Department is projecting a trebling of airlift capacity.
Mr. Rand said that the cubic capacity of Challenger was 106 times that of the C-141, the ship’s range was three times that of the plane’s and the cargo lift was 285 times that of the jet craft. (New York Times, 16 June 1962.)
Study of Abandonment of Ships at Sea Ordered by MA: The Maritime Administration, U. S. Department of Commerce, has recently announced that a $15,000 contract is being negotiated with Dunlap and Associates of Stamford, Connecticut, to study the various problems involved in abandoning ships at sea.
Dunlap has already completed two studies for the Maritime Administration on the subjects of marine collisions and navigation
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safety. These studies have indicated that sea rescues are more hazardous than the actual wreck. The entire operation from the decision to abandon to the recovery of lifeboat occupants needs thorough study, it was found. Much has been done to avoid ship disasters but little has been done to help those who must abandon ship when disasters do occur.
The proposed operation analysis of human factors and equipment involved in abandonment of ship will be carried out in close cooperation with the U. S. Coast Guard to take applicable regulations into account.
The study will cover the decision to abandon ship, launching of lifeboats, survival at sea, rescue operations and operations analysis with immediate and long-range recommendations. The study is to be completed in eight months. (Maritime Reporter, 1 May 1962.)
Device Controls Ship Engine Room: A ship’s engine room where buttons replace men was unveiled here yesterday.
The Westinghouse Electric Corporation showed a centralized engine-room control console where one man can watch lights and gauges that indicate which switch has to be turned on or off for the operation of the ship. The operation is triggered by signals from the bridge of the vessel where remote-control installations tie in with the engine-room console.
The three-part unit, occupying a space 15 feet long, seven feet wide and nine feet high, was displayed in the Biltmore Hotel before 50- odd steamship operators.
The unit was designed for a steam-fired C-3 type of cargo ship, after Westinghouse engineers made extensive studies. They included the engine room and all related installations of such a freighter, including the functions of more than 2,000 valves. (New York Times, 20 June 1962.)
Other U. S. Services
Coast Guard Testing Atomic Buoy: Evaluation by the Coast Guard is being continued on the world’s first atomic buoy launched last December in Curtis Bay, Md., southeast of Baltimore. The test buoy’s light is powered by a SNAP-7A strontium-90 fueled thermoelectric system. SNAP-7A was built by the Martin Company under contract from the Atomic Energy Commission. The letters SNAP stand for “Systems for Nuclear Auxiliary Power,” a series of devices under development by the AEC for land, sea, and space.
Successful testing and eventual adoption of isotope-powered generators will greatly simplify the maintenance of the many remote lights, lighthouses, buoys, and beacons operated by the Coast Guard. The estimated ten- year life of the 10-watt SNAP-7A power system will permit remote aids to navigation to operate for long periods of time without recharging. Major maintenance problems caused by rust and marine growth are under intensive study by the Testing and Development Division of the USCG.
The buoy contains a thermoelectric generator, a voltage converter, and a small battery. The heart of the system is the thermoelectric generator capable of directly converting the heat energy of a radioisotope fuel to electrical energy. (The Ensign, June 1962.)
Progress
Edited by H. A. Seymour Captain, U. S. Navy
V/STOL Transport Mockup—The tri-service Vought-Hiller-Ryan V/ STOL is designed to take off and land vertically like a helicopter, yet achieve speeds of more than 300 m.p.h. in level flight while combat-loaded with 32 troops.
The "Flexible Wing”—This unique invention will allow a combat-loaded "Flexitrooper” to control his direction and rate of descent far beyond the restricted limits ot control in parachute jumping.
Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal—This is a drawing of the new medal authorized for three categories of Operations: certain U. S. military operations since 1958, U. S. operations in direct support of the U. N. in the Congo since July I960, and the U. S. operations of assistance for friendly foreign nations (Laos-Vietnam).
Obverse
Inflatable Space Station Model—The proposed space station, looking much like a huge doughnut with a metal canister inserted in the hole, would be inflated while orbiting, and artificial gravity attained by rotation.
The P3V-1 Orion—The first new Navy land-based ASW plane in 17 years, the 450 m.p.h. prop-jet Orions are now replacing their slower, "world standard” ASW predecessors, the familiar P2V Neptunes.
The Maritime Hydrofoil Denison—In initial tests in late June, HS Denison, sponsored by a $1.5 million grant from the Maritime Administration, "flew” at 50 knots in Long Island Sound. This represents America’s bid for leadership in hydrofoil development.