New-York tribune., 1918-05-14
Committee Advised to Re-
mort at Once Resolution
Providing Funds
Exnert Denounces
Liberty Motor est
Methods Permitted Would
Not Be Tolerated in Max
;na Milk Bottles, He Says
lsnecirl Dispatch 70 The Tribunel

is,ee;cl Dispatch TO The Tribune)
WASHINGTON, May 13.-The Senate
.o.Asv manifested irritation at the de-
Law in beginning the aircraft investiga-
.;or when Senator Thompson, of Kan
s.s chairman of the Audit and Con-
,,ol Of Contingent Expense Committee
!; .he Senate, was informally advised
.,.t If his committee did not report
.nt the Chamberlain resolution author
;,;oc the expenditure of contingent
sr,ds for the aircraft and other inves-
stations. a move would be made in the
s.,.,. Tomorrow to take the resolu-
,on away from his committee.
The general irritation in the Senate
,.sard;ng the present status Of the air.
MT programme was further reflected
!, the remarks of Senators during the
debate on the postoffice appropriation
saI. Senator Smith, of Georgia, a
{ member of the Military Affairs Com
n;ttee. expressed the opinion that there
,horld be no public expenditures for
scrisl mail service until the army air
\ plane situation had been materially
improved.
Senator King, of Utah, chairman of
the Committee on Expenditures in the
lostofhce Department. supported Sem
xtor Smith. urging that there be no
rresent distraction from the all-im-
nortant task of building battle planes.
Engineering Methods Attacked
Senator Brandegee, of Connecticut,
made public a letter from Leon Cam
smen, of New York, member of the
Aeronautical Society and the Society
.of Automotive Engineers, in which he
] declared engineering methods had been
spermtted in the development of the
iljberty motor which would not be toll
Grated in the manufacture of milk
bottles
The Cammen letter read. in part:
There has appeared to-day in all
newspapers a statement made before
sthe Senate with respect to the lib
,erty motor in the Bristol plane, of
great significance. as throwing vivid
hight on the entire subject of this
suafortunate adventure in engineering
ldesign
sss 1T is stated that the motor over
heats. To layman this means next
~ nothing; to an engineer, it tells a
splg story, and raises questions preg-
Hsnt with Importance.
These questions are:
I. Does this overheating indicate a
msic effectiveness of design or can it
" corrected by some expedient?
Why was it not discovered on the
tsting stand long before the motor
was put into the Bristol machine, and
vas 1t not due to improper methods
A testing the motor?
You may ask in non-technical Ian
giage, is it such serious thing? Why
not put on the plane & bigger radi-
ltor? 1t can. and may be done, but
WITH very disastrous results from a
military point of view.
Would Require Change in Design
In the first place employment of a
solgger radiator, in this case about SO
per cent, changes the distribution of
weight IN the plane. and hence re-
quires an entire change in the design
~ tne plane, and it is very likely that
y this were done it would be found
gnat the power delivered by the engine
as insufficient. Besides, such a basic
snange OF the Bristol plane would re-
Qaire many months of work and expert
Eentation and, in the meantime, what ?
Next, radiator so per cent bigger
Nan the present one would at a speed
4 g ninety miles an hour increase the
3ower consumption roughly by more
Man rs per cent.
second question: Why was not the
!as. mat the Liberty motor needs more
tsdiatlon than the Bristol plane can
i've discovered long before the engine
Yas put into the plane?
ms is fact which could have
9een very easily established in any de-
whs laboratory with such equipment
any gas engineer ought to know
aOw TO use. In fact, tests Of this ma
Wre are being carried out as days
sofk by automobile and especially
Nactor engineers all over the country.
Inc s.. A. +. standard test for air.
s'ane engines permits to make cooling
& r@se' auJustmentS IN the course of the
Mst; that is, TO test the engine under
Sonoi'ions very materially different
4 tlom those in actual fight, when, of
SgIfse, no such adjustments are pos
That test in which adjustments
tnis KIND are permitted will lead to
s.iei IN actual fights ought to be clear
any unprejudiced person. 1t is un-
e.tsSs.unate ~. for our fighting prospects
s.nat IN the production Of aircraft en-
3 xanesfing g methods are permitted which
axoaid not be tolerated in the manu-
s4seiarc OF milk bottles. (This compari-
,ssa with milk bottles is used advisedly
cold fact, and not as rhetorical
zsiasm of speech.)
nay add that as an engineer am
sp,y sorry that the entire matter of
d. Liberty motor and plane produc-
ssa sa Is being handled as "a political
ssssion OF veracity among various
aeuaiyiduals, ~ instead of as matter of
sanical records apd tests? This can
sss aose very easily, and the whole mat
a. disposed of in not more than three
Special Investigator to
AL A. r.r