The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-12-18

Lima. Ohio. December IT. A weather chef" that serves up any type of climate from the frigid stratophere to the sultry tropics is helping scientists to anticipate the equipment needs of American super planes which will climb far into the stratosphere and fly to every part of the world.
 Built for the Lima Works labora- tories of the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, the weather chef" is a test chamber in which electrical apparatus for bombing planes is subjected to the atmospheric conditions 1t will meet in actual flight.
 Duplicates Any Kind of Weather
 The dry, sub-zero cold of strato- sphere 13 miles above earth or the baking blasts of the North African desert can oe reproduced i'll the chamber, a thick-walled box just large enough to hold a crouching man but requiring whole roomful of pipes, coils tanks, meters and other apparatus for its operation.
 With this climate factory West- inghouse engineers are developing new types of electrical equipment for warplanes aircraft generators producing more power per pound than was believed possible a few years ago; dynolnotors that step up the pressure" of electricity so it can be used in plane radios and other electronic devices, and power full but lightweight electric motors that handle vital tasks aboard a big plane, lowering the landing gear, aiming guns and even piloting the plane with the aid of a gyrocompass.
 JAS airplaneS and engines are improved and present ceilings push ed up and up, we are able to anti cipate coming altitude requirements and make sure that our equipment will function as expected long be- fore it is put to the test of actual flight" said J. D. Miner, engineer ing manager at the Lima Works.
 "py starting 40 horsepower vacuum pump and manipulating few simple controls, the test engi- neer can take the chamber to 10000 feet. where the temperature Is far below the point where mer- cury freezes solid, where the at mosphere is almost utterly devoid of moisture and where the air is so rarified that a man i.lSide of the chamber would literally explode from his own internal pressure.
 "Stratosphere tests demonstrate whether or not generators or motors will cverheat because the thin air cannot carry away fast enough in spite of the fact that it's tempera- ture is 60 or 70 degrees below zero. They show whether & docile, we'll behaved generator at sea level are over with disastrous burning and flashing when 1t is operated in the thin, easily io1ized air at 40,0OO or 5OOOO feet. They show whether brushes, good for hundreds of hours of operation under conditions as we know them will last in the dry air found at high attitudes"
 Also Stimulates The Tropics
 "Instead of cold, dry air we may wish to duplicate the hot, humid green hell' of New Guinea said MT. Miner. "The cooling system is switched off the electric heaters switched on. Instead of being dried, the air is deliberately loaded with moisture. In a short time the tem- perature may be increased to 120 degrees and the air will be wringing wet. Or, if we prefer, a combination of heated, dried air will initiate the hot blasts that sweep across the desert of Mort Africa"
 When 1t is remembered he con- tinued, "that a plane on single flight may start frcm the cold, damp, fog -sll1ouded Aleutians. fly through the cold, dry air Of the stratosphere and land in the hot, wet tropics, the importance of all- weather tests become obvious.
 A few hours in the test chamber will check conditions that might not be encountered in Q dozen actual flights. And if the equipment does not meet the test of actual flight. it may be too late
 Gobbles Half Ton Of Dry Ice
 For a single stratosphere test, the weather maker must be fed half ton of carbon dioXide "dry ice'' which is crushed and dropped into a tank of varsol, tow freezing point fluid ordinarily used in dry cleaning.
 The varsol, cooled to 100 degrees below zero, Is pumped through coils over which the air going into the chamber must pass. This air has already been chilled to waters freezing point by conventional refrigerating system and abordent chemicals have removed a large port of the water vapor. Most of the remaining moisture condenses on the frigid varsol coils so that the air entering the chamber at 40, GOO feet altitude viii taFe only five ten-millionths of a pound of water in each cubic foot. Air at ground level on an ordinary sum mer day contains 1900 times that much moisture.