The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-12-17
New Technique In
 X-Ray Examinations
United States Navy in Position to Examine Hundreds
 in Brief Time; Mobile Units Planned

Baltimore, Md, Dec. 16-United States Navy personnel, returning from sea duty. can now be given chest X-ray examinations by the fastest technique yet devised as they step ashore, Westinghouse engineers reported today in announcing the conversion of two passenger buses into mobile X-ray laboratories.
 These new units, which will be used on both Coasts wherever per- manent X-ray facilities are not available, can each photograph 1,60O sailors a day--or the entire complement of our largest aircraft carrier in 30 hours" said A. P. Craig, manage of the Westing- house X-ray Division here, which supplied the X-ray equipment. Use Movie-Size Film
 The installations are photofluoro- graph units, which make 35 milli- meter pictures of the chest image as cast on microscopic screen by the X-rays. The units use profes- sional movie-Size film, on which each exposure is only little over an inch square, instead of the IA" by r" size film traditionally used in chest surveys. This reduces film cost per capita from about one dol lar to less than cent. Each labora- tory on wheels has its own dark room, in which 425 exposures on 5O-foot strip of film can be develop ed simultaneously. The larger films generally employed must be devel- oped Individually.
 'The developed film are for view ing and study purposes" MT. Craig explained. Trained X-ray technl- clans then can determine whether or not a sailor has a lung condition requiring medical treatment. By ] bringing X-ray equipment to the waters edge, the risk of returning unfit men to sea is eliminated with minimum loss of time"
 More than 1,500,00O Navy recruits have been examined by means ot permanently installed 35 mlulmeter photofluorographs at various ln- duction centers and at stations where the recruits begin their train ing, according to a recent Navy announcement. Since the begln- ming of the Navy's survey, ony SIX cases of tuberculosis have been found in men whose photofluoro- graphic examination had disclosed no sign of the disease. It IS not known whether these cases de- veloped after the examination was made, or whether the disease es- capped detection.
 Pointing to decline of tuber- culosis in the service from 67l.83 per 100000 men in 1903 to 53.17 per 100000 in 1942,, the Navy De- partment states that This system is inexpensive, reliable and accur- ate for the purpose of mass tuber- culosis checks"
 The power plant for the mobile photoflurograph unit is a unique development by Westinghouse en- gineers. A transformer, work ing on ordinary 110-volt house cur rent, ''pours' electricity into series of condenSers. Electricity thus accumulated in the condens- CTS is released in burst of power which might be likened to a bolt of lightning. By this four-second storage" technique the power plant can produce up to 400 millimeperes at 100000 volts sufficient pow CT to make a clear chest image on the microscopic screen in one twelfth of second.
 Using the transformer alone, without the storage" technique, a power output of up to 30 miliamp- eres at up to 100000 volts can be obtained - sufficient for conven- tional microscopic examinations and X-ray pictures.