Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1943-02-07
Army Turns to Girls for Radio
Talent of Group in Special Course Anazes Faculty

Nancy Elan looks like sChool2lrl
edition of Bette DAVIS SO picked her
out to query among the 10 girls vors: ne
in 4 laboratory at Clevelands Case
School of Applied Science.
She was busy as a beaver over a set
of boxes and wires. "That?" she re-
peated We're measuring voltage
Here, I've hooked up a watJmctc.. IN
ammeter and a voltmoter. This is a
condenser. Sec?"
She looked as though ii were as simple
as putting the latest Benny Goodman
record on the phonograph-and as much
fun She twisted a button, and meter
needles Jumped
Nov, there's ammeter voltage on my
circuit Here's how you cut it out Her
golden curls fell about her face. The
blue ribbon in her hair looked crafty
juvenile for the job she was doing
Nancy Elan is one of 50 such women
and girls studying the mysteries Of cleo
tricity and the radio at Case. They rep
resent the latest and most spectacular
draft of womanpoNer They are t. II
ing to Go complicated radio work at
Wright Field, Dayton. Ohio, brain hill'
Of the air force.
To Study for "a Weeks.
They'll be graduated after "a weeks
study to jobs with the Army Signal Corps
in the aircraft radio laboratory at
Wright Field. They'll test, supervise, put
together and install radio equipment for
airpanes. They'll even work on mill
tary secrets.
These woman students represent a
remarkable advance in the Armv's esti-
mate Of Womans ability. At first, man.
power experts conceded that women
might be trained for production lines;
learn to hook one gadget to another, and
Go it over and over.
The production women turned out
well. so next, the manpower experts de-
cdled women might De trained as in
spectors, learn just how parts should look
when they're perfect. Woman inspectors
went to work. 4
But these women at Case must learn
not only to put together a highfre-
quency radio, but how to do original
thinking in radio and electricity They'll
test new radio inventions submitted to
Wright Field. They'll work out compli-
Gated performance sheets for ideas for
things that haven't even been built
They'll actually pick electricity out Of
the air and handle it like an Italian
wraps spaghetti around his fork.
Other Groups in Colleges.
Wright Field has assigned several such
student groups to colleges Michigan,
Purdue, Kansas, Illinois, among others
and to Case Perhaps the group At Case
is a little the most interesting. First
it's the largest group of women studying
in any engineering school. There are so.
And second, Case has never had a woman
undergraduate in its 62 years Of bril-
liant research. Case claims the original
experiment with which Einstein worked
when he was evolving his theory. Case
men did the original thinking which is
now turning sea water into magnesium.
It's quite a school. Industry snaps up
its graduates.
But from now on Cases president, w.
E Wickenden, fOresees that he can t
meet industries needs for metallurgists,
electrical engineers, physicists, chemists.
And at Wright Field military men are
worried over the dwinding supply Of
man technicians. So they're training
women and anxiously seeking any
women with either mathematics or
physics training to take Signal Corps
jobs
The students are paid $50 week for
living expenses while they study. That
will be upped when they get on the job