Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Herald and news. (Klamath Falls, Or.) 1942-current | View Entire Issue (June 25, 1943)
HERALD AND NEWS, KLAMATH FALLS, OREGON PAGE NINE oTests at Sea Prove Value of Radar As "Eyes11 of Battlewagons During Attack or Navigating Through Fog PARADISE LOST WASHINGTON, Conn. (A') Moat has been pretty scarce for the dogs here lately. So when a little white pooch spied what he thought wai a big, Juicy bone, he hurried off to hide It before one of thoie big dogs came along. IT NEVER FAILS CHARLESTON, S. C. (If) Chief Accountant J. M. Ellwood He even figured the deduc tions of workers with ten do pendents. Then In walked a man who proudly announced he had 12 dependent children, all under 18. of the navy yard burned mid Ho buried the turtle seven : night oil setting up new income tlmps before he gave up. tax deduction tables. ' June 25, 1943 D I (Editor's Noto: Iludiir the radio "eyes" which enable our army and nnvy to spot enemy ships and planes In fog or darkness at great distances underwent a thorough test at sea early In lOIIO. Scientist Robert M. Page, who mainly developed the mod ern equipment, and u crow of assistants went along to operate the pioneer set. John M. Hlghtower takes up the story at that point In this fifth of six dally Installments). By JOHN M. HIOHTOWER (Copyright. 1943, by Tha Associated Press) WASHINGTON, June 25 (!) The tests begun aboard the battleship New York In 1038 wcro crucial in the history of U. S. naval radar. The reuctlon of practical, hard-headed line officers to the way the equipment performed appeared likely to determine 'Its fate for some years to come. If results were poor, the scientists knew, then the navy's fighting' men probuhly would not be Interested In radur for a long time to come. To win ac- ceptance, It had to be good. 1' a g e headed the operating crew which went out on the .Now York, taking with him I Hubert C. Guthrie. M. E. Rep port and A. A. Varela. They hardly hud cleared the Virginia capes out of Norfolk, when the fun started. Tough Tast A destroyer squudron had beon assigned to make a torpedo attack on the battleship under cover ot durknuss and I'ago re calls now tliul the ulglil wus very black Indeed. From about sunset on, he and his men stood by their radur waiting to pick up the destroyers. They did not know from whut direction the attuck wus coining. They to keep a at)u degree lookout. Several hours alter they went on the alert, the Atlantic squad ron commander, Vlco Admiral Alfred W. Johnson, showed up in the control room. Ho watch ed and watched the radar indl I aitor. For lima which to Page "seemed endless, nothing hap pened. Finally the admlrul lost patience. Ho knew tho lime of attack and he evidently decided tha destroyers wcro closing in through the darkness without being discovered. Ho turned to go, then decided to wall few minutes longer. First Signal Just about that time the first signal came in. ' Thcro it is." exclaimed the admiral, pointing to the indica tor. The destroyers still wcro eight miles away. The effect on tho admiral was electric. rrom lhat moment on he was a radar enthusiast. Captain (now Rear Admiral) Robert M. Griffin, skipper of the battlewagon, was similarly Impressed. "After that." Page says, any thing we wanted them to do on tho New York, they would do it it was possible." Tho ship never encountered fog but It often ran through rain. Radar picked up everything Important which was within range, includ ing on one occasion the moun tain peaks of a distant shore line. Report Favorable When the cruise ended, Ad miral Johnson made report: "The equipment is one of the most important radio develop ments since the advent of radio ilsolf." , . Back In the navy's bureau of engineering the scientists, Rear Admiral Harold G. Bowen and other navy authorities decided the tlma had come to develop 1 additional radar sots, but with 'the understanding that the branching out into quantity would not In any way interfere with further progress in tho im provement of quality. Two of the major electronics laboratories of the country those operated by Bell Tele phono and Radio Corporation of America had by then been Interested In radio dotectlon work, and this meant the way was clear for commercial manu facture. Contracts Let On bid basis, the first con tracts were let to RCA In Oc tober, 1030 a month after the outbroak of the war in Europe. "Wo sent the XAF up to their i,inwv" Dr. Tavlor says, "and wo told them that we wanted IhIx Chinese copies not a thing changed. They did a fine Job." From that time on, the bu- TABU of enalneering under Ad miral Robinson, who was aided hv Canta n A. J. Spriggs ana such enthusiasts as Commander sum Tucker, devoted consider able effort toward Increasing production. .Tho bureau of ships, formed in 1040 by consolidation of bu reau ot engineering and bureau of construction and repair, and headed by Admirals S. M. Rob inson and A. H. Van Keuren, continued this work, as did Cap tain J. B. Dow when ho succeed, rd Spriggs In charge of tha bu reau's radio unit. Later the radar business of the navy as well as that of the LET. Stat Farm Ins. Co. Proliol Your PrlvlUfi ts Drlys J. I, Beard, Agent - 1010 Main army became so great that first the navy's own office of produc tion and material, and lotor the war production board, took over coordination of orders and out put. It was about this time, too, tliut another government agency got Into unother phasa of radar work. The nutlonal defense re search committee through Its laboratories was asked to make and did deliver to thu navy cer tain loiportant contributions to radio detection. More Ordered Shortly after the first RCA contract for the original six commcrcially-madi) radur sots. 14 moro were ordered. These first 20 went on battleships, air craft carriers and cruisers as rapidly as they were produced. Bowen, who had most to do with interesting tho privulo compan ies In radar research and pro duction, is especially proud of their work. "That's tho best way to do It," he said recently. "Develop the idea and produce a proto type in the laboratory and then let the other fellows make It. The private companies could, not have done the radar re search through all thoso years. Some ot their men told me their directors Just wouldn't stand for the expense on a project which Initially held so little chance of commercial develop ment." Not Ideal Sets Both Bowen and Taylor say that the first radar seta sent out to the fleet were short of ideal, but they agreed that with the increasing possibility of American Involvement In the war, they had to do the best they could with what they had. "We knew that some of the stuff would have to be junked as soon as it could be replaced," Bowen says. "But we wanted to get it installed before It might be needed, The longest chance we took was with the navy men. If a new gadget doesn't work well, they may lose confi dence in it and not use it. Nat urally we did not want that to happen with radar." One of those who made many of the Installations was Guthrie. He started the work In Decem ber, 1940 a year before Pearl Harbor and spent the next six months with the Pacific fleet, equipping ships and showing of ficers and men how to operate the sets at sea. "The response we got at first was rather interesting," Guthrie recalls. "Some ship's companies were very enthusiastic about radar, and some were rather cool toward It." Works in Fog One of the vessels Guthrie served on was the battleship California. He boarded her at Puget sound to do down to Mare island, where she was to Join the fleet. Just out ot the sound she ran into a thick fog. It seemed that the arrival at Mare island would be greatly delayed, since the captain was not dis posed to risk harming his ship or running down somebody else. He would have to proceed at greatly reduced speed. However, the radar was work ing and the captain was greatly Interested in it. Soon he noticed that every little fishing boat for miles around showed up on the indicator. That convinced him of what radar could do for navigation in a fog. He ordered "full steam ahead" and arrived at Mare island on time. Another ship on which radar DANCE Go Whin the Crowd Goes Every Saturday Night 9:00 (a liOO At K.C.Hall Sponsored by Eagles Auxil iary and Drum Corps. Estln Klger's Orchestra Public Invited Men 50c Women 25c Servioe Men 25c Tax Included was Installed early was tho air craft carrier Yorktown. A RCA man handled that Job and re turned on tho currier to Long Beach. While they still were several hundred miles at sea, all sorts of weird wavo-putlcrn disturbances began to show on the indicator. Neither the RCA man nor the Yorktown officers could explain until finally they realized that radar was "show ing" them tho California coastal mountains. "Mr. Guthrie did an especial ly splendid Job in getting these curly Installations In the fleet and seeing that somebody knew how to operate them," Taylor said one day in Guthrie's pres ence. ' Guthrie looked thoughtful for a moment, then grinned. Cloud Trouble "I had trouble on one occa sion," he said. "We hud put rudur on u cruiser, and the ex ecutive officer dldn'l think much of it. About tiic first day out he came to the control roam to sec whut it could do. We picked up a flight of plunes all right and then we got something else. He went outside to look off in the direction from which the signal came and there wasn't anything but a cloud. " 'You must have picked up the cloud,' thu exec said. " 'No,' I said, 'this thing looks right through clouds.' "So he wuitcd und waited for something to come out of the cloud but nothing did. Then he a.ikcd me to try to pick up sev eral other clouds on the horizon. I tried, but got no signals, and I couldn't explain then what hud happened. I'm afraid he had little faith in radar for a while after that. "Now, of course, we know that the cloud was Ionized (sur charged with electricity). We were gutting reflections like those from the ionosphere in the old days." Increase in Pig Crop Expected WASHINGTON, Juno 25 (T The agriculture department es timated today the 1043 spring pig crop totalled 74,030,000 head, or 15 per cent more than the record crop of 1931 and 22 per cent more than last year. The department said also that reports from farmers on farrow ing plans Indicated a 1943 fall pig crop of about 53,000,000 head, or an Increase of about 9,000,000 or 21 per cent over the 1042 fall crop. ft;,. I 'wv--- - ,i'i!..u1'J) Example of Cost of " Motor Overhaul of Popular 6-Cyl. Car Item Leber Install Rln. ...118.70 Grind Valves 4.05 Replace Piston Pins 2.70 Adjust Main Bearings 3.60 Remove Ring Ridges 2.05 Expand Pistons 3.60 Gaskets Wash and Vacuum .'. $34.70 $17.05 Total - $51.75 Ask Us for an Estimate on Your Car TV Genuine Parts Work Guaranteed 100 ir Payable On Easy Monthly Installments County Judge U. E. Rcedcr will leave Monday night for Salem to attend his first meet ing as a member of the Oregon state board of forestry to which ho was appointed last week by Governor Earl Sncll. , This is the annual meeting of the board and at this time mem bers will consider fire patrol assessments for the next fiscal year. Other matters to come up will have to do with the policy pertaining to acquisition and slash disposal. Judge Recder will return Wednesday morning. "Cure" Patients Held on Narcotic Law Violations SEATTLE, June 25 (IP) Four patients were arrested by fed eral narcotics agents yesterday in a raid on a convalescent home here. The agents seized the in stitution's records, 100 quarter grain morphine tablets, and ar rested a fifth patient downtown. More morphine and three hy podermic needles found among patients' personal effects were also taken, A. M. Bangs, district narcotics bureau agent, said. Bangs said that men sent to tho institution for "cures" were allowed to leave the place at will and to have all the "street contacts" they desired. They were being given reduced quotas of narcotics, according to stand ard practice, he said. Western Pine Up During Last Week PORTLAND, Ore., June 25 (IP) Production and shipments show ed gains during the week ending June 19 over the previous week, the Western Pine association re ported today.. Orders: 8395,000 board feet: B5. 287,000 previous week, 100, 992.000 same week last year. Shipments: 80,141,000 board feet, 77.875,000 and 103,145,000. Pro duction 92,703,000. board feet, 88,013,000 and 102,163,000. According to census figures, about 22 per cent of all deaths in the United States are due to communicable diseases. Parts 18.65 8.80 1.75 2.55 Dick B. Miller Co. The Big Olds Tower at 7th end Klamath Phone 4103 i BUY (2? All BUY A BOND! H we don't win e war your ration books even won't do you any good- Tack this up In your kitchen and the - L time food proh.en,s -nnoyyo buy an EXTRA BOND! The "Klamaih Pelican" must have a Klamath Fighter Plane Escort! Your Bond Counts! HOW TO BUY the Food You Want at Pre-Var Prices! 1. Share your food with our fighting men. 2. Shop earlier in the day. early in the week, and only onee a week If possible. 3. Make up a shopping list and add up the points BEFORE you shop. 4. Plan your family's diet carefully see that every one gets enough nourishment. Make up menus for the week. "Pay" with 8 and 8 point stamps first when you can. Save 2 and 1 point stamps to make the count come out even. Include fresh fruits and vegetables, cereals, fresh fish, poultry, and other ' unrationed foods where you can. 7. Plant Victory Garden, Do all the home canning possible. I ' 8. Don't blame your grocer or butcher for wartime inconveniences. . ICO NIT' 1 I I J ( (
