The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-04-29
SCIENTISTS WORK IS GREAT FACTOR
 IN WINNING WAR
Bureau of Standards Doing Wonderful Feats of Ex-
 perimental Research
USE OF COTTON IS
 GIVEN BIG IMPETUS
Cotton Blankets Found Warmer Than Wool and Cotton Airplane Cloth
 Is Better Than Linen
By JAMES H. COLLINS

By JAMES H. COLLINS
 When men first began to build air planes they covered the framework with beeswax, just about as a boy takes al- most any old newspaper that is handy for making a kite
 When men turned their attention se- riously to the selection of the best cloth for airplanes they settled upon linen. This was strong and gave good fabric without much trouble in weaving. More overi airplanes were developing abroad, where linen is much more widely used than with us.
 Then came war. with it's need for thou sands of airplanes, and certain new de- mands upon airplane fabric, such as the greatly increased strength required in the acrobatic maneuvering with fight ing planes, and the factor known as tear resistance" made necessary by the contingency of bullet and shell splinter holes.
 Then we got into the war
 The finest linen is grown in Ireland, but there is only about 100000 pounds of it yearly. The next best flax fbers were grown in Belgium, where the in dustry has been practically wiped out by war. For airplane purposes Great Britain alone requires double the linen production of Ireland
 Query-With Uncle Sam proposing to make airplanes by the thousands and perhaps tens of thousands, where are We to get airplane cloth?
 FRAMEWORK PROBLEM
 Another airplane problem is that of wood for the framework, for which spruce has thus far been found the best material But demands for straight grain spruce are so great in view of our air plane programme, and so little of it passes the rigid requirements, that Se- curing a sufficient supply is very diff fcult. Only about 200 feet of wood are used in an average airplane; but to get this 2O0 feet you must start by culling the spruce trees as they stand in the for est, and then cuiling the rough lumber after it has been cut, and culling the kiln dried product, until finally after work ing over 5000 feet of rough lumber you are lucky to have sufficient for single airplane.
 ouery-How can this part of the aircraft programme be speeded up?
 Again, war requires that We build, eouip, and man hundreds of ships. Ships are sailed by means of chronom- eters which are clocks with mecha- nism built to watch finenesS, highly accurate Chronometers are not made in this country. In a limited way we have imported the parts from France, England and Belgium, and assembled few bearing American names. But most of our chronometers were bought abroad and war has made it practi cally impossible to get a sufficient sup ply.
 ouery-How are we going to sail our new ships?
 These are a few of the problems connected with fighting tools of which the public has heard less than about the major details of war such as can tonments, uniforms, rifles, machine guns and heavy artillery Each is a vital essential however, and in every case Uncle Sam has taken steps to sec that his fighters have the best tools which can be upplied-something for it's particular purpose, which, starting with the best that the allies have de- vcloped in three years of war, Will carry that art a step further. giving improvements characteristic of Amerj- can invention and research.
 BUREAU OF STANDARDS
 On the outskirts of Washington Uncle Sam maintains the nationas bureau of standards. which in peace times carries on a wide range of scientific investigation and testing. 1lie national bureau of standards keeps the international standard meter and kilogram. It has scales capable of weighing the -millonth part of gram and a gram is about rt ,,f a1r al t.4 It also has testing machines capable Of 1o,0o0,00o pounds pressure. So that. in this institution, Uncle Sam is equipped to measure the accuracy of watches, detecting variations of d fraction of second in the minute or crush large steel bridge truss and accurately report upon it's strength.
 In peace times this institution serves our industries in countless ways Today however. most of it's work has been cen tered on war problems. Not all of these problems can be spoken of. For many of them rc!ate to the delicate scientific work necessary to secure results on the battle front. Fortunately, enough ot them can be discussed to give people ar idea of how thoroughly and skilfulIy Uncle Sam is looking after war details in this special direction
 The problem of airplane cloth was turned over To the bureau of standards and it's textile experts went to work What makes a good airplane cloth? Most people would think of strength first o all but this is not the chief factor-a fabric testing up to so pounds per square inch is quite satisfactory Tautness ls much more mportant-the fabric on ar airplane must be stretched as tightly as the head of drum and stay that way This property is secured partly by weav ing and partly by doping" After the fabric has been stretched on aircraf wings. it is doped up with preparations somewhat like collodion. which you hay, probably used for treating cuts. Then for battle work. airplane wings must holo their tautness to the highest degree ever though punctured by bullets or othel missiles. and this is where tear resist ance comes in-despite the pressure O air upon the fabric it must be of sucf mechanical structure that hole vii not spread by tearing while in flight.
 COTTON AIRPLANE CLOTH
 The bureau of standards men set ou to develop satisfactory cotton air plane cloth. Cotton is more difficult t' weave than linen. especially in thu very fine counts needed for aircraf and not so widely made in this coun try as abroad They changed th' structure of the yearn, mercerized it developed finer weaves and by clos, teamwork between textile manufac turers. checking results by aceurat, tests and original specifications. have developed cotton airplane clotl which is declared to be better thar Ijpen-apd wheu the hlIraau of stand