Evening star., 1924-10-05
ARMY.

ARMY.
Twelve OF the fourteen ordnance
chiefs of the procurement districts
assembled in Washington October l
and 2 for conference with Brig. Gen.
Golden LII. Ruggles, assistant chief
of ordnance and chief of manufac-
ture. under whose direction the va
rious district chiefs work. Gen Rug
giles presided at the meeting, which
was held Thursday in the ordnance
committee room. Munitions Building,
during which were discussed 10 i'm
portant subjects, as follows: Ord
nance contract forms, ammunition
production studies, factory plans,
new requirements, civilians qualified
in munitions production, war indus
tries board, relations of districts and
arsenals, machine tool requirements,
organization charts, and defense test
September 80 and October / a confer
ence was held between the executive
assistants with the chiefs of the sta
tistical and industrial war planning
section, military personnel section and
other sections not included in the
manufacturing service who have bus
mess with the districts.
Following are the district chiefs
and executive assistants who attend
ed the meetings; Baltimore, Howard
Bruce and Capt. II. S. wilkins; Bos-
ton, Col. c. II. Tenney, o. r. c., and
Capt. l.. =. Grim; birmingham, Col
John S. Sewell and Capt. c. II. Mon
ger; Bridgeport, Col. b. A. Franklin
o. r. c., and Lieut.. d. G. McGregor;
Buffalo, Col l.. Cogswell, jr., .. r. c.,
and Capt. r. f. Hardy; Chicago. f. A.
Russell and Lieut.. r. +. Melin; Gin
cinnati, Col. c. l.. Harrison, o. r. c.,
and Lieut.. G. f. Lex, jr.; Detroit. Col
II. A. ODell, o. r. G., and Capt. c.
Barnar rd; New York, Col. James L.
Walsh, .. II. c., and Capt. H. w
Churchill; Philadelphia, j. c. Jones
and Capt. w. 4. Ditmars; Pittsburgh,
X. NJ. bravo and Lieut.. J. A. Root; st.
Louis, NJ. L. Singleton and Maj. NJ. l..
Brott.
Plans have been completed for a
series of lectures which will be de-
liyered to the student officers now in
attendance at the Coast Artillery
School, Fort Monroe, Va, the first of
which will be given October II by
Mai Clifford Jones, c. a. c., chief of
the personnel section, office of the
chief of coast artillery. on personnel
matters. Maj. Joseph +. Cottrell, &.
4. c., on duty in the material sec
ton of this Office, will address the
school November 12. his subject being
Material" while November 20 Col. Al
red A. Mayback, {. A. c., who also is
on duty in this office, will speak on
mobilization matters. Col. James b.
Mitchell, c. \. c., who is assigned to
the training section, office of the chief
of coast artillery. will discuss train
ing matters on December 10.
Approximately 100 reserve and reg
ular officers attended a recent meet
ing held in the Munitions Building, at
which steps were taken for the or
ganiza ton Of the Washington Post of
the American Signal Corps Associa-
tion. Maj. Louis VI. Evans, S. O. r. c.,
was elected chairman and Lieut.. Col.
B. E. Grabo, 5. o. r. G., was elected
secretary-treasurer of the local post
The chairman was authorized to ap-
point committees as he saw fit IN or
der TO perfect the organization of the
Washington post. the suggested COM
mitteeS being on constitution and by
laws and membership.
The aim of the association is that
Of preparation of the personnel OF
the signal service and its allied in
terests in the development of an eff
cient military communication system,
and to develop a bond of co-opera-
tion between the members of the mill
tary signal service and those of the
allied commercial industries in the
furtherance of national defense.
Night flying by the Air Mail Service,
Post Office Department, is being made
much safer as a result OF pyrotechnlcs
which have recently been developed
by the Ordnance Department. The
great danger heretofore incurred by
the aviators in night flying was in
making forced landings, but by using
n 40 rel 8
pilot at will, much of the danger in
making forced landings in the dark
will be eliminated. AS the flare falls
from the plane, the flare candle with
its parachute is pulled out Of its case
and is at the same time automatically
ignited. This emits a light of 400
600 candlepower for a period of three
minutes. and as it descends slowly to
the ground it illuminates the sur
rounding country sufficiently for the
aviator to select a safe landing place.
The War Department also has in
course of development a ground light
which will be employed by landing
fields in warning air mail pilots that
they are flying into bad weather and
should descend. This position light,
red in color, will be of 100000 candle
power, and will burn for 10 minutes.
Colored signals of the type used by
the Army Air Service and the In
fantry in sending messages are being
considered by the post office authori-