Author: Charlie

The Old Songs are the Best Songs

The world’s great music is on Victor Red Seal Records

Let us pause a moment, Gentlemen, and welcome the past. Let us lay aside our invoices and debentures, our politics and our coal-bills. . . . For tonight an old familiar company is with us. . . . Nelly Bly is here, and Old Black Joe . . . Uncle Ned, My Old Kentucky Home . . . Jeanie with the light brown hair . . . Old Folks at Home. . . . And with them their banjos and cotton bales, their slow brown rivers. . . .

Many of these old songs, written by Stephen Foster more than 75 years ago, are known all over the world. Our grandmothers sang them, and our fathers. We ourselves still love them. . . . And now here they are in their entirety, arranged by Nat Shilkret, beautifully played and sung, and collected in a convenient album.

This is the latest of a long series of Victor Red Seal recordings which are bringing to the musical public the world’s most beautiful and important music. Interpreted by the foremost artists and orchestras, recorded with incredible realism by the famous Orthophonic process, they bring within your home the whole horizon of the concert stage. . . . The nearest Victor dealer will gladly play you the Stephen Foster album (four double-faced records, list price $6). Hear it at your first opportunity! . . . Victor Talking Machine Co., Camden, New Jersey, U. S. A.

VICTOR Red Seal RECORDS

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BURIED ALIVE with the Tunnel Builders

Deep in the earth, men bore through mountains and under river beds to build our tunnels. Deadly peril constantly stalks them. Here is the thrilling story of their work— one of America’s most hazardous occupations.

by Alfred Albelli

GROPING along like so many human moles, the Montague street tunnel crew pushed its way beneath the East river, separating Brooklyn and New York City. One moment the big cutting shield was boring steadily forward—the next, disaster struck with the fury of a tornado. The shield had cut through to the riverbed above!

With terrific force the compressed air of the work chamber roared through the slit in the tunnel’s weakened ceiling. Three workmen, stationed near the spot, were scooped up by the force of the giant blast and hurled upward. Like shells from a gun they shot through the rift in the ceiling— up through the waters of the East river— to catapult fifty feet into the air with a force that killed two of them instantly.

Next to these “blows,” as they are called, the dread of the tunnel digger is the premature dynamite blast. During the construction of New York City Water Tunnel No. 2, driven in parts from 500 to 700 feet underground, over fifty workers and technicians were killed and hundreds were wounded. Yet despite the almost constant threat of death, the workers swear fiercely by their hazardous calling. The heritage of danger is handed down from father to son.

Take the Redwood brothers, for instance—Harry, Norman and Walter—three rugged, death – defying tunnel shooters whose sons are following in their footsteps even as they followed father, grandfather and great-grandfather before them.

The tunnel-building Redwoods are a famous clan. Expert workmen, they are practically without a peer when it comes to sinking a foundation shaft or driving tunnels through mountains or river beds. Building the Holland Tunnel It was Harry and Norman who jointly superintended the famous and extra-hazardous Holland Tunnel under the Hudson River. When the two huge cutting shields were finally joined—one forging its way from the Jersey side and the other from Manhattan—Harry and Norman reached across the submarine and underground boundary lines and shook hands, showing the exact precision with which these men work.

When a representative for Modern Mechanix and Inventions visited the Newark spot where the Passaic river bridge is being caissoned, he found eighteen members of the Redwood family working there. Walter, the youngest of the three veterans, finally revealed the history of his tunnel-digging family after considerable prompting had overcome his natural modesty.

“My great-grandfather, Robert Redwood, was first of the line of tunnel borers. We originated in England, you know. Then came my grandfather, also named Robert. He worked in the well-known and historic tunnel from England to Severn, under the water to Wales.

“My father, William, came by his tunnel-working inheritance quite naturally, and we have all followed suit. My mother’s father was also a tunneler, by the way, and so were her eleven brothers. Our sisters are married to sandhogs, and our sons are in the same business.

“As a matter of fact, there hasn’t been an outsider in our family for four generations. If you’re not a sandhog, with a sandhog’s blood in your veins, then you’re not a Redwood. At least, not our Redwoods.”

Walter Redwood, who is forty-one, started his tunnel career at the age of thirteen in Birmingham, England, on a railroad bore. He was a dynamiter’s helper and got five cents an hour for his services.’ “In 1910 I came to New York City,” he says. “There was a demand for tunnel experts in those days and in the following years I worked on practically every important tunnel job in New York City and the rivers which flank it.

Ninety Feet Under Water “This Newark contract is an air job, calling for work ninety feet under water. Because of the high air pressure under which we work, we put in one hour of actual work while we’re off duty the next five. We work just two hours of a twelve-hour day under a pressure of thirty-four pounds to the square inch.

“This is about as perilous a job as I have ever worked on. We are working in a steel and concrete caisson, eighty by thirty feet. This caisson sinks with my crew of workers. That is, as we dig down and make room, the caisson wedges downward. Every pound of air that we put on takes 250 tons off the weight of the caisson. That is, each pound of compressed air lifts the equivalent of 250 tons weight in pushing the ‘deck’ or ‘ceiling’ of the caisson upwards.

“As soon as the air is dropped two or three pounds, the caisson drops right down. That is the terrific force of its weight. On this job I am in charge of the air-lock. I operate the compressed air instruments and you can easily understand what a slip or a flaw in judgment might mean.

“Bends” Affect Workers “The most common ailment from which the sandhog suffers is the ‘bends.’ This malady also affects deep-sea divers. It comes from a too sudden change in pressures. Either going from normal to under-pressure or vice versa has been too fast, and you get air-bubbles in your blood, preventing the normal flow.

“When the sandhog reports for work, he goes down the shaft and enters the air-lock. He sits there as the lock-tender works the pressure up to a point equal to that in the tunnel.

“The highest pressure he can work under is fifty pounds to the square inch. Under these conditions, he works for just half an hour, resting for the next five. After his time is up in the tunnel, the worker enters the airlock again where the pressure is reduced gradually until it is the same as that above ground.

“Here is how we go about burrowing underground, and under a river at that. Deep shafts are sunk on either side of the river and elevators are built into them.

“A huge circular shield of steel about twenty feet in diameter is then lowered into each shaft. Working toward each other from their opposite terminals, the shields are started forward, pushing through rock, mud and gravel under the mighty force of compressed air. A meeting-place for the two shields has been designated at a point midway under the river.

“As the shield pushes its hood through the course of the proposed tunnel, the passage is filled with debris which the sandhogs tackle with pick and shovel and load onto cars which carry it back to the elevators where it is removed to the surface.

“When the tunnel is being driven, big steel rings, made up of radial plates, are bolted into place to form the strong ribs of the tunnel. When this set of rings is finished, the shield is then moved forward again, and then more rings are bolted into place. This process continues until the tunnel is holed through.”

The average sandhog gets $7.50 an hour, or $15 for a two-hour day. The eldest of the Redwoods, Harry, has often been paid $100 a day for his services. But although the rewards are high, the penalties are even higher. Death lurks in the underground caverns and no man knows, going down to the airlock in the morning, whether or not he will return safely again that night.

Finds Universe Built of Waves

ANOTHER proof that the whole universe is constructed out of some mysterious kind of wave or vibration, finer in structure than the supposed ultimate particles of matter such as atoms, has been obtained by a Japanese physicist, Dr. Y. Sugiura of the Tokyo Institute of Physical and Chemical Research.

The electric particles called protons, which combine with electrons to form all known kinds of atoms, have been proved to have the properties of waves, just as was proved several years ago for electrons.

Chicago Football Star Wears Glasses in Helmet

WHEN BENNY WATTENBERG, star half back of the University of Chicago football squad, discovered that he was hampered in executing forward passes because of near-sightedness, the coaches decided that Wattenberg was too good a man to lose and they devised a method of fastening special shatter-proof lenses to his football gear. The photograph shows the half back wearing his helmet with the spectacles that have corrected his defect of vision.

UNIQUE USES FOR AIRPLANES
THE ONLY commercial plane equipped with charcoal foot-warmers is said to be the ski-shod “Queen of the Yukon,” which makes a daily flight of 560 miles from Whitehorse to Dawson, Alaska. The plane is a passenger and mail carrier operated by a private company which issues its own air mail stamps. The “Queen of the Yukon” has flown 100,000 miles. One of the largest sheep raising firms in Australia uses an airplane for inspection work and for transporting company officials across the tremendous ranges. The plane used is a Mahoney ship, built by the makers of the “Spirit of St. Louis.” An airplane of the same type was recently delivered to two Italian noblemen who plan to conduct daily sightseeing trips from the banks of the Tiber River.

Guided Missile Engineers and Scientists

Build Your Future in a Prime Weapons System Project….

The SM-64 Navaho Intercontinental Guided Missile

North American Aviation has prime weapons system responsibility for the SM-64 NAVAHO. This missile program is one of our country’s largest, most important armament projects … a vital part of future defense planning . . . offering you long-term security, plus the opportunity to enrich your experience and capabilities in many advanced scientific and technical fields.

North American is actively engaged in all phases of research, design, development and manufacture of missile airframes and the operational testing of complete missile units. For instance, more than 100 separate projects make-up the NAVAHO effort. Your special training and abilities can be vital to the success of one or more of these intellectually-demanding projects. Your advancement depends only on your ability.

Military security prevents more adequate description of the NAVAHO and other missile studies and proposals in development at North American. For a fuller explanation of the opportunities open to you, please contact North American’s Missile Development Engineering.

IMMEDIATE OPENINGS FOR:

AERODYNAMICISTS
AEROTHERMODYNAMICISTS
FLIGHT TEST ENGINEERS
AIR FRAME DESIGNERS
MECHANICAL & ELECTRICAL DESIGNERS
INSTRUMENTATION ENGINEERS
ENGINE SYSTEMS ENGINEERS
STRESS & STRUCTURES ENGINEERS
RELIABILITY ENGINEERS
STANDARDS ENGINEERS
HYDRAULIC, PNEUMATIC & SERVO ENGINEERS

Contact: Mr. D. S. Grant
Engineering Personnel Office Dept. 91-20 SA,
12214 Lakewood Blvd., Downey,

California NORTH AMERICAN AVIATION, INC

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Crew Risked Lives to Repair Graf Zeppelin

by EUGENE GRANT who interviewed the Zeppelin crew.

BUFFETED by the wind, with a torn fin, the Graf Zeppelin faced destruction unless the damage could be repaired. Here is the inside story of how the daring crew climbed onto the fin and saved this giant from destruction.

LITTLE has been told of that remarkable feat performed by the crew of the Graf Zeppelin in repairing the port horizontal fin damaged by the storms and threatening the destruction of the great air liner on the first passenger trip by air to the United States.

I learned what happened at Lakehurst, when the tired crew was landed. As a mechanical achievement, the repair of the fin is outstanding, for the men worked high over the ocean, at the risk of their lives, to cover the bare metal and prevent further damage to the fin, without which the Zep would have been driven helplessly before the wind.

This is what happened: Passengers were eating breakfast, happily chatting, when suddenly a vicious squall struck the ship. The nose of the liner dove, and as suddenly raised again.

When order was restored, it was found that the stabilizing fin on the left side had been ripped open, and the silver covered fabric hung in shreds.

Instantly Commander Eckener ordered the engines stopped. If the wind ripped more of the covering off, the stabilizer was useless.

Up through the dark interior of the great liner went three of the crew. A ladder led the way to the point where the fin girders were attached to the hull.

With ropes around their waists to prevent their plunging into the ocean, Navigator Marx, Chief Engineer Ziegle, and Showing the general construction of the Graf Zeppelin (not in proportion) and the fin where the crew risked death to make repairs in mid air. The stabilizer, vital to the control of the liner, was almost stripped of its fabric during a storm.

Knute Eckener, the son of the Commodore of the ship, began their hazardous work. Cords were passed to them, and they first bound the flapping fabric to the girders.

The job seemed hopeless. At a word from the Commodore, the radio operator began sending the distress signals. If the fin gave way all might soon be plunged into the sea.

It was a trying moment.

Another squall was coming up. They must start the engines again and get out of its path or suffer certain destruction.

Commodore Eckener’s son was out there on the fin—would the speed of the ship and the force of the wind blow him off—and his fellows? The Commodore could not hesitate. He gave the order to go forward with two of the motors. No warning could he given the crew on the fin.

The ship surged out of the storm, and the men worked on, wet, cold, clinging to their ropes, but making headway with the job. For three hours they wove the fabric together, patched on new pieces, and fought to keep the fin together. The call for help was cancelled.

All night they stood by, ready to go out onto the stabilizer again if the wind should again tear off the fabric. When morning came the goal was in sight—they had won! The most epochal voyage in history had been made.

High above the stormy waters of the ocean the greatest airship ever built rode magnificently forward to — America, at seventy miles an hour.

The accident was not as bad as it might have been. The squall which struck the Graf Zeppelin is the same type of quickly rising gust which wrecked the dirigible Shenandoah one dark night in 1924 as that daughter of the stars was over Ohio enroute to the Northwest. The squall which foundered the Shenandoah broke the airship in two and killed several members of the crew when the ship crashed in an Ohio cornfield.

The Graf proved that her hull was strong enough to survive such “twisters.” The worst that happened was the ripping off of the cover on the fin, which, serious as it was, could easily have imposed strains which would have buckled a main longeron.

Here again Eckener’s genius manifests itself. Had a girder buckled, it was so designed that the distorted members could have been removed. The new straight pieces would have been bolted into place, and the damage repaired right in the air as was the repair to the fin! What a marvel of forethought the Graf’s design is!

The king of the sky followed a path over the seas traversed by that earlier group of adventurers under Christopher Columbus. The air journey is equally hazardous and daring. It also became an epochal Transatlantic Crossing. But this modern Columbus, the Graf Zeppelin, is not manned by a crew afraid of dragons, of sailing to the end of the world—to the unknown.

Men of courage who had braved the black North Sea to risk their lives in dropping bombs on an enemy, men who had given years of their lives to the fight for victory of science over nature, virtually men of steel, controlled and directed the first commercial airship. Chief among them is their Commodore, Eckener. Eckener, genius of scores of Zeppelins, and pilot of the Los Angeles on its flight to the United States, not only brought his ship through storm and danger to America, but in a fortnight added to his achievement by making the return trip to Germany,

I love that the type in the box below is crooked.

According to this inflation calculator, $65 is about $1590 in 2009. So basically it’s an iMac.

The Light of Typewriting – Hartford Typewriters

The Acme of Perfection

Hartford Typewriters made with either single or double keyboard. Price $65.00. Catalogue on application.

HARTFORD TYPEWRITER CO., 478 Capitol Ave.. Hartford, Conn., U.S.A

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Money Rides in Model Cars

For young people with imagination, here is an opportunity to design and build model autos. Awards wait for the best.

EACH year, $65,000 in cash and scholarships is awarded to youthful builders of model automobiles, by the Fisher Body Craftsman’s Guild.

The awards are made on the basis of two categories, design and craftsmanship. The contestant must design his own model, although he is supplied with instructions and worksheets in a kit supplied by the Guild to all interested persons.

If the contestant can’t draw, the design may be worked up. from clay. Since clay doesn’t stand up under shipping, however, the final model must be rendered in wood or plaster from the clay mock-up.

Models can be made from a variety of available woods such as balsa, cypress, white pine, basswood or soft mahogany, either in solid or laminated blocks. For those with experience in constructing model airplanes, automobiles can be built by making a framework and covering it with balsa sheets.

One of the most important aspects is that of finishing. The surface of the model must be perfectly prepared, as imperfections can’t be hidden by painting. First, wood and plaster models must have several coats of sealer, allowing a few days between applications. Final finish is applied, again sanding between coats. The last coat of finish is buffed, waxed and polished to a high gloss. All model cars are judged by an established point system based on a breakdown of craftsmanship and design. Designs are • evaluated on the basis of originality, artistic merit and practicability. Craftsmanship is judged on fidelity to scale, workmanship, painting and finishing. ?

According to Wolfram Alpha U.S. sugar consumption is currently about 152.8 lbs a year.

Everybody has a Sweet Tooth!

AND a GOOD THING it is, too. For sugar is an energy food, essential in every good daily diet. Normally, we Americans consume from fourteen to fifteen billion pound- of sugar yearly—about a hundred pounds per person—a fact that helps to make US an energetic and healthy people.

Heretofore, most sugar was produced and sold in crystalline form. This is the most convenient form for household use, but large industrial users, such as soft drink hot tiers, ice cream manufacturers, confectioners, canners, bakers and others must use it in liquid form. And the job of converting large quantities of crystalline sugar back into a liquid has always been expensive and troublesome.

Now, however, a new refining technique developed by American Cyanamid Company promises to make clean, ready-to-use liquid sugar available to all who need it. This new process, based on the use of Cyanamid’s IONAC* Ion Exchange Resins, enable- small refineries and large users to produce liquid sugar economically, for the first time in history. Already small plants of this type have been set up in the Midwest, and more are under construction. Eventually the U. S. may have a whole network of these local liquid sugar plants! Here is one of the most important advances in hundreds of years of sugar refining —a development that will help to cut the cost and improve the production of many products containing sugar.

Here is another Cyanamid development that is contributing to “molding the future through chemistry.”

American Cyanamid company 30 ROCKEFELLER PLAZA, NEW YORK 20, N. Y.

MOLDING THE FUTURE THROUGH CHEMISTRY

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Something New under the Sun in Oddities of Science

by Nick Sprank

On the surface many odd facts that seem to defy natural law are easily understandable when the physical conditions back of the phenomena are known. Here are two pages illustrating facts that appear fallacious at a casual glance, but which are quite natural when all conditions surrounding them are considered. Remember Nic Sprank pays One Dollar for all scientific oddities acceptable to Modern Mechanix editors. What have you to offer for Nic Sprank’s pages of oddities?

These strange (acts of science may bring to mind some of the things which on every hand refute some of the accepted notions about nature. ONE DOLLAR will be paid you by Nic Sprank for every Oddity he considers good enough for these pages. Try your luck! Send in something new—don’t re-hash the obvious, and your chances of getting a dollar bill are as good as the next man’s. Address Nic Sprank, care Modern Mechanix, 529 South 7th Street, Minneapolis, Minn.

Everybody a Builder!

ONE OF THE fundamental urges in the soul of every man is the urge for self expression.

In some men it is music which touches a responsive chord, and these men find satisfaction in playing a musical instrument. In others, sports afford an outlet for self expression. Still others turn to mechanics and science as a means for satisfying the urge to create.

In this latter group of creative men are scientists, mechanics, machinists, and mechanically minded men and boys of all ages. It is a noticeable fact that in men with mechanical trends of mind creative ability exists to a marked degree.

Men who possess this faculty of being able to turn the “stuff that dreams are made of” into tangible realities are the men who will be the leaders of the nation tomorrow. History is replete with instances of young men, who, puttering in an attic, discovered a mechanical means for making life easier for untold millions.

Take the classical case of Thomas Edison, whose name is a synonym for invention. When a youth, working on railroad trains, Edison became engrossed with the mysteries of electricity. He rigged up a workshop and by training his mind in the study of electricity, found that in later years he had stored up a wealth of data on experimenting which enabled him to put his finger on exactly the hook-ups he needed to prove the theories his shop-trained mind had evolved. As a result of his experimenting and building, think of the untold millions of human beings who are able to enjoy operatic music because of the phonograph! Think of the benefit mankind has received because of the fireless instantaneous light shed by Dame Mazda! Behind these achievements is the training of mind and hand which was given Edison by his early workshop “puttering.”

Napoleon was considered queer in his cadet days because he preferred to play with toy soldiers, marshalling them in different formations to work out theories in military tactics. Ostracized, believed even to be feeble-minded by his military school confreres, he was in later years able to so effectively place a single gun at the mouth of a besieged harbor that he kept the entire British Navy at bay. This stratagem baffled and chagrined Lord Nelson to his dying day, and restored French confidence in Napoleon’s brilliance at a crucial time. Behind this incident was the training given Napoleon by his “puttering” of early years.

It is the aim of the Editors to present the kind of amateur building projects which not only delight the spirit of play which is in every mother’s son of us, but which are at the same time mature enough projects to teach us things which will mold our abilities to analyze, to plan, and to execute.

Get a workshop! Build that idea for a motor you’ve had in mind! The dividends resulting from self expression in the building of things mechanical are incalculable! You will find you are a part of a vast army of “putterers,” the excellence of whose output is astonishing; an army which will graduate men from the school of hard knocks who will tomorrow be reaping the rewards that come to men who guide the destinies of the nation!

Everybody a Builder!

Magic Vapor

Called

Moonlight Fragrance

Earns $60 Weekly for Agents

Women buy this new and beautiful product on sight—nothing like it— brings the breath of spring flowers Into every room—freshens and rejuvenates. Moonlight fragrance is not a perfume but the magical product of modern science. Sells wherever electric lights are used—repeats automatically. Retails at only $1—sells as fast as a ten-cent item. Extra profits to high-grade agents who write NOW.

Illidela Corporation, Dept. 20, 2407 N. Crawford Ave., Chicago, III.

Hair Drier Blast from Vacuum Cleaner

FOR a cost of less than $1.00, a very satisfactory hair-drying attachment may be constructed for use in the home. Results obtained from the device are very commendable and entirely worth he cost and effort of construction.

The following materials are needed: a tin can (put together with seams) at least 5 in. high and 3 in. in diameter with a press-in cover; two small tin pie plates 6 in. in diameter; a porcelain bushing with 3/8″ hole; a porcelain screw ring sign receptacle; separable cord plug cap; C feet of No. 16 heater cord; 660-watt cone type heater element; one piece of iron tubing 1-1/4″ in diameter and 10″ long; eight No. 4-40 R. H. machine screws 5/16″ long and three No. 4-40 R. H. machine screws 3/8″ long. Proceed with construction details as shown in diagrams above. A coat of gilt or aluminum radiator paint will give the completed article a nice appearance.

To use the device, disconnect the dust bag from the sweeper and in its stead connect the flexible attachment hose furnished with the cleaner to the blower. Attach the drier to the other end of the hose by pushing the tube into the hose. Connect drier and sweeper to the circuit. The cold air from the sweeper blower will pass along the hot coils of the heating element where it is heated, resulting in a hot blast excellent for drying purposes. To cut down on the noise and to control the blast, the sweeper is set on a cushion with one end of the intake projecting over the edge of the cushion in such a position as to obtain the desired strength of blast.

The Transistor that smashed a frequency barrier

A new transistor invented at Bell Telephone Laboratories can provide broadband, high-frequency amplification never before possible with transistors. The big leap in frequency is made possible by a diffusion process that earlier enabled Laboratories scientists to create the Bell Solar Battery.

This transistor is a 3-laver semi-conductor “sandwich.” High-frequency operation is obtained by making the central layer exceedingly thin. This was difficult to do economically by any known method.

The new diffusion process, however, easily produces microscopic layers of controllable thickness. Thus it opens the way to the broad application of high-frequency transistors for use in telephony, FM, TV, guided missiles, electronic brains and computers.

The new transistor shows once again how Bell Laboratories creates significant advances and then develops them into ever more useful tools for telephony and the nation.

BELL TELEPHONE LABORATORIES

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Secrets of the Mail Order Experts

By Edmund Cordon

IF you thought the legendary salesman who sold ice boxes to Eskimos was a sharp character, step up and meet his master. This fellow actually sold imitation shrunken heads to the countries where the real things are made!

He’s E. Joseph Cossman of Hollywood, Calif., who conceived the idea of packaging imitation Sanforized noggins, the kind made for real by South American Jivaro head-hunters, and selling them via mail order as souvenirs.

Joe also threw in a straight-faced set of instructions on how to shrink a head, including such pertinent information as: “The refrigerator is the best place to keep a fresh head.” He printed this gay warning on the cartons: “Fragile. Handle with care. Shrunken head.”

Joe’s gagging ingenuity brought more than half a million orders—including a huge demand from Jivaro country, Ecuador, Peru and Guatemala!

The fabulous mail order business erupted after World War II and is still giving off golden sparks. There are many others beside Joe Cossman proving that money can be made in one of the few remaining major businesses in which a fellow can make a strike with limited capital.

What’s new in this intriguing business? What are the red-hot items these days? Who goes broke and who hits the jackpot? And why?

I put these and many other questions to leading mail order experts in many parts of the country. Here are some of the know-how secrets revealed by these top mail order experts.

What are the most popular mail order items being sold today?

The best-selling items today are unusual automobile accessories, industrial equipment, giftware and novelty items, reports Irvin Graham, one of the top mail order specialists.

Which of these items is the best?

Nobody can definitely predict a hit but the best sellers today are the offbeats, the novelties.

Joe Cossman’s imitation shrunken head is a good example of an offbeat item. A Long Island manufacturer offers left-handed scissors! A New Yorker is marketing a gold toothpick. For sunbathing girls, a Chicago outfit has come up with a beautifully jewelled nose guard.

Are there any “sleeper” fields for mail order selling?

Yes. It’s food. The secret lies in providing deluxe items, gourmet foods and specialties that folks cannot get in local food markets.

What’s being sold? Specialties ranging from Grandma’s gefulte fish to escargots a la francaise (snails). Customers clamor for such tidbits as pickled artichoke nubs, cucumber marmalade, wild pheasant, curried walnuts, almond paste pretzels, a hundred exotic cheeses, canned fried grasshoppers and caviar.

How big is the mail order business and how much has it grown in the last few years?

It’s a fantastically large enterprise. Economic reports reveal that the sell-by-mail business is rapidly creeping up on de- partment stores sales. Total mail order sales for the last recorded year was $1,407,000,000, one-eighth of all department store sales throughout the country.

What have successful mail order men discovered about the price of items?

Although cheaper items (between $1 and $5) are the safest bet, higher priced goods are finding excellent markets.

Four years ago, for example, Charles Schonbrun of New York decided to try selling by mail. Charles was a beginner, so he didn’t know the rules. He didn’t know, for instance, that you weren’t supposed to sell anything costing more than a few dollars. He struck it rich when he decided to sell fine cutlery, ranging up to $26 a set.

Charles’ experience is by no means unique. Mail order businessmen are selling boat kits costing hundreds of dollars, tractors, costly telescopes and binoculars, floor saws, entire electrical plants, lawn-mower sharpeners, plows, even put-it-together-yourself houses costing many thousands!

Are there any new markets to tap in mail order today?

Yes. The GI market. Many experts in the field are convinced that this is a potential billion-dollar market. A few smart chaps have already discovered that they can actually sell new model cars to American soldiers stationed overseas, and deliver the cars when the men are shipped back to this country!

Where can beginners get sound advice on how to start, do’s and don’ts, etc., of the mail order business?

Highly recommended is How To Sell Through Mail Order, published by McGraw-Hill of New York. Other good books are: Help Yourself To Better Mail Order, Printers’ Ink, N. Y.; How To Start Your Own Mail Order Business, Stravon, N. Y.; How To Win Success In The Mail Business, Arco, N. Y.

Are there any final words of advice?

The Department of Commerce points out that experience has shown it’s advisable for beginners to start a part-time business and to operate from their homes. Bear in mind that casualties run high in this line but the jackpot is there. It has been claimed time and again by the quick and alert. It can be claimed by you, too! •

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Will the desperate men in the Kremlin attack?

By 1954 Russia will be strong enough to do so.

That is why our former Air Force chief states:

We Are in Peril!

GEN. HOYT S. VANDENBERG

ON MARCH 6, 1953, I appeared before the Armed Forces Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee of the House of Representatives. The purpose of my appearance there was to introduce the Air Force budget for the fiscal year 1954. The budget introduced at that time was designed to continue the buildup toward the 143-wing air force goal which had been fixed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, approved by the Department of Defense, and sanctioned by-congressional action.

The statement I made before the House committee included a detailed review of enemy and friendly air strength. It provided a background of information which served to explain why an air force of at least 143 wings is an essential component of our worldwide resistance to Communist power. It stated that an air force of no less than 143 wings is the minimum force which can assure the ability of this Nation to resist successfully an all-out Communist attack.

In that statement I also expressed the hope that continued and uninterrupted progress toward an air force of this size and strength would deter the Soviet rulers from launching such an all-out attack against us.

There was a detailed analysis of the tasks and missions charged to the Air Force and a careful evaluation of the forces which would oppose us in the event of a general war in 1954 or thereafter.

The year 1954, I repeat, is considered critical principally because of the estimate that the Soviet Union will, by that time, have a stockpile of atomic weapons sufficient to mount a devastating attack on United States military installations, industry, and population centers.

The size and composition of the proposed force was based on an examination of all factors such as the buildup of our own atomic stockpile, the improvements to be expected in our own weapons and in the enemy’s weapons, and the expected size, nature, and disposition of Communist military forces. There have been no significant or unexpected changes in weapons development or in forces since the decision was made.

An Air Force consists of three principal elements—people, planes, and bases. The people include many kinds of specialists and most of these require extensive training. The planes are of many types and they all require extensive support in the form of spares, repairs, and auxiliary equipment. Bases also are of several types in a variety of locations, and most of them require a long time to build.

A shortage in any one of these many elements which go to make up a modern Air Force may render the remainder of that force ineffective. To keep everything in gear and to enable the entire program to move forward on schedule and with economy requires a consistent and orderly progression to established goals.

Because of reductions in the manpower of supporting units and reductions in funds for maintenance and operations, the Air Force will fly fewer hours next year, with a greater number of wings, than it is flying this year. This inevitably means a reduction in maintenance standards and in standards of aircrew skill and experience.

In addition, there will be a heavy reduction in the total airlift which was planned to be available to all the Armed Forces of the United States.

The 120-wing force, under the new program, will not be as well supported as the 143-wing force under the old program.

In general, however, the construction, fiscal, and manpower controls now being imposed will have their greatest effect in future years. In the discussion of the shorter lead times that can now be achieved as production advances, the necessary lead time for the production of trained people is too often overlooked.

For instance, if it should be decided next year that the Air Force will, after all, have 143 wings, it will then be impossible to recruit and train the personnel for such a force earlier than 1957.

The problem of providing trained personnel in sufficient numbers is particularly acute in the Air Force because next year we will begin losing large numbers of men, now skilled and experienced, who have joined us since the beginning of the Korean war.

When a force is reduced in size the quality becomes more important than ever, yet reductions in training facilities, units, equipment and personnel will damage the quality of our force as well as reduce its size.

There has even been a heavy reduction in funds that can be used for research, and for the development of planes and weapons of the future.

Since 1948 the situation has not been a happy one. Not only has the Soviet Union —and the Communist world dominated by the U. S. S. R.—become more and more! belligerent, but also more and more capable of damaging us and our allies.

We Americans are traditionally an optimistic people. There is always the half-believed rumor that perhaps our enemies are much weaker than all the evidence indicates. “This tendency to optimism is a fortunate| characteristic because it makes life among us happier in many ways. But it can lead to wishful thinking and to disaster if those of us who know the facts fail to state them repeatedly—even when we ourselves would like to forget them.

The Communist air threat in the Far East is a most serious one. This is true despite the brilliant success of a few Air Force fighter pilots against a very small percentage of the total number of Soviet-built MIG-15’s.

They have made no effort whatever against our bases in Korea and Japan, despite their superior strength in aircraft. Their ability to damage us grows every day as they introduce more and more jet light bombers into the Chinese air force. While they have not yet used these jet bombers against us, there is no justification for assuming they will not do so at a time of their choosing.

In addition to the Chinese Air Force of more than 2,000 aircraft, the Russians have in the Far East a total of more than 5,000 tactical aircraft. At the other end of Russia-there is a much larger number of Soviet tactical aircraft, most of which are near the NATO area. The significance of the large numbers of Soviet tactical aircraft facing Western Europe is apparent when we consider operating radii of many of these aircraft will permit them to cover most of that area. Communist MIG’s, for instance, can reach Denmark and the low countries as well as northern Italy, Yugoslavia, Greece, and western Turkey. Their jet light bombers can cover England. France, Italy, Turkey, and most of the Mediterranean. The large numbers of these aircraft, together with high performance capabilities and the excellent base system already prepared for them, constitute as great a menace to the NATO nations as the Russian ground forces, and one which can be far more rapidly applied.

The flying time of a jet bomber from inside the Iron Curtain across most of Western Europe and the Mediterranean is just a little more than 1 hour.

As a matter of passing interest, this is one of the reasons why the Air Force was so anxious to get strategic bases in North Africa, near the Atlantic and beyond the range of most of the Soviet Air Force.

Another important element of the Soviet Air Force is the medium bomber force. It has the capability of carrying atomic bombs for a distance of 2,000 miles and returning to its bases. It can also deliver the atomic bomb through staging bases already prepared in Siberia and northern Russia to an> target in the United States on a one-way mission.

Whether the Soviets are yet completely prepared to commit this force in a full-scale attack against the United States we do not know. But we do know that these planes can reach us.

The Soviets are moving rapidly toward a jet-powered air force and they are neglecting none of their basic elements of combat air power—air defense, long-range bombardment, and offensive tactical power. In the last—offensive tactical powers—the Soviets, with their new twin-jet bombers, are achieving a performance which is as great an advance over the old piston types as the MIG-15 was an advance over their old piston fighters.

The MIG-15, despite warnings, was a great surprise to most Americans. But the MIG-15 was a defensive airplane and has never been used against us offensively. The jet light bomber, on the other hand, represents as great a technical advance as the MIG-15 and it is far more dangerous to us since it is designed for offensive use against our planes on the ground, our bases, our troops, our support, and supply systems.

The Soviets were extremely reluctant to reveal new models last year. They abandoned their former practice of parading test models in flights over Moscow. We have to admit the possibility that their latest developments are being tested in greater secrecy than ever before.

Our own program of expansion was based on the target set for us last year—to build and maintain a modern force of 143 wings.

It was hoped originally that we could have 143 modern wings by 1954, but decisions based on other than military factors caused a postponement of the readiness date.

Much official and public attention has been devoted to management problems in recent years, and the Air Force is attempting to capitalize on all of it. Not content with the employment of many recognized experts in management from business and industry to advise us, we have systematically trained our commanders and staff officers in the principles and practices of economy.

In discussing economy, I should like to register an objection—a very serious objection —against a false and dangerous standard that has been widely advocated in recent months. It seems incredible to me that anyone could propose to judge the efficiency and the effectiveness of a military organization by calculating the percentage of its men intended to manipulate weapons and to be subjected to enemy fire.

This kind of analysis entirely overlooks the fact that what counts in warfare is fire power, and that fire power is not necessarily proportionate to the number of men handling weapons.

The evolution of modern warfare has led from many men with simple weapons requiring little support to a few men with powerful weapons requiring a tremendous amount of support. Obviously, the more ammunition a man can deliver the more help he needs to keep him supplied with that ammunition—and to service his powerful but complex weapons. Judged by such a standard as the one to which I am objecting, Caesar’s legions equipped with simple broadswords were far more efficient than any military force of modern times.

In every combat air squadron the men who remain on the ground are several times as numerous as those who take to the air in combat crews. But the men on the ground make possible the delivery of explosives that are far more effective than all the broadswords or muzzle loaders ever made. If we use any such misleading standard of measurement as the ratio of men firing weapons to those servicing weapons, we would find air forces, like all other military forces, getting less efficient every day.

The simpler the airplane, the more limited its range and the lighter its load of weapons. The primitive airplanes of World War I and the obsolete planes of World War II required fewer men on the ground, and they required many more men in combat crews to deliver the same load. They also had far less effect on the enemy.

It is necessary and desirable that we search continuously for new savings through better management and administration. But these efforts should not blind us to the fact that the greatest waste, by far, can result from mistakes in the composition or the employment of a military force.

Because of the nature of the equipment needed by a modern air force, there is no way to escape the necessity of implementing our program through decisions that have to be made years before their results materialize. In the case of planes that take 2 years to produce, a failure to place orders in 1954 means a failure of deliveries in 1956.

Fortunately, the same is true of enemy forces. What we have to do is watch the trend of developments in the Communist world and plan ahead to make sure that at no future point in time will our own strength be so low that Communist strength can overwhelm us.

Our greatest hope for peace or for victory is to invest our military resources exclusively in those programs and projects which will have the greatest influence on our enemy in restraining him from all-out war—and the greatest effect upon him if the restraint proves insufficient.

One of the consequences of the air-atomic revolution in warfare is that the initial blows in any struggle are likely to be the decisive ones. We can no longer count on having time, as we did in the last two wars, to mobilize our military resources after the fighting has begun. If Soviet industries, and airfields, and transport facilities were left intact while they struck with atomic weapons at those of the West, we would have no chance of ever meeting them again on anything like equal terms.

No matter how strong our air defense, we could not prevent them from getting through with enough bombs to do us enormous damage. That is why we need to have, also in instant readiness at all times, a strategic force of our own capable of doing more than equal damage to the warmaking capacity of our potential enemies. This is the assignment of our Strategic Air Command.

An attack by Soviet Russia on the United States or on any of our NATO allies would bring this ready force into action. Its job would be to deliver atomic bombs against those targets in enemy territory which are most vital to his military operations. I cannot begin to explain the amount of planning and organization that has been required to put us in a position to carry out this mission. Nor can any of us fully comprehend the power of destruction that new developments have created. The idea of our ever having to use it is horrifying to all of us. But if we did not have it as part of our Defense Establishment, we would be inviting the global war which we hope to prevent.

Should a war against the West be started by the Soviets, one of their first moves might be a large-scale sneak attack on our air bases, ports, industrial centers, and on other strategic targets in this country. Therefore, the Air Defense Command must be ready on a moment’s notice to send up our interceptors to engage the attacking planes. We have been setting up radar installations to pick up enemy planes while they are still many miles away from our most vital targets. If the attack were made at night, as it probably would be, our interceptors would have to be able to locate the invaders in the dark. I need not stress how much would depend on the effectiveness of this operation, nor the importance of our having the best equipment to carry it out.

By readiness to counter an attack we do not mean that we should have in being all the forces needed to fight a war. We mean only those that are required to give us a clear advantage in the first round of such a war if it were forced upon us. The maintenance of forces for any other purpose is of lesser importance. If we could not protect ourselves against the first onslaught of an enemy equipped with atomic weapons, and deal him harder blows in return, there would be no second round in the conflict.

Since the performance and range in aircraft is steadily increasing, we can expect that, after a few more years, direct, two-way atomic warfare between the United States and Soviet Russia would become possible on a decisive scale. In such an event the victory would go to the nation possessing the strongest and most effective weapons and the strongest and most effective air force to deliver those weapons at long range.

In case of all-out war, as these units move out from the United States for the air campaign against the heart of the Soviet Union, the first strike of that campaign would already be under way. These strikes, if they must be made, would overshadow all the campaigns that ever have been fought on the face of the globe. The greatest land mass on earth would become one battlefield, with carefully spaced and carefully timed air units moving across it from many directions at once. This method of attack would require a worldwide control of men and planes far more complete than General Lee or General Meade could exercise over their 5 miles of battleline at Gettysburg.

Only an attack such as this, resulting from years of planning and preparing, could be carried out without staggering losses. At the same time it is difficult to conceive how such an attack, if carried out successfully, could leave any nation with the ability or the will to continue fighting a modern war.

This is the possibility that the Kremlin has to contemplate when it ponders the problem of when to begin World War III. In my opinion, no other consequence could possibly disturb them one-tenth as much or be one-tenth as effective an influence for peace. ?

Complete Angler 1958?

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