Evening star., 1948-09-13
Stars, Men and Atoms
Underwater Sub Fights
May Feuture New War
Admiral Radford Sees Possibility
Due to Improved Designs
By Thomas r. Henry

BY Thomas X. HeNry
In another war there probably will be battles
Of blind man-carrying steel fish hundreds Of
feet under the sea.
The possibility Of submarines battling sub.
marines below the surface is seen by Admiral
Arthur w. Radford. vice chief Of naval opera.
tons because 1t appears from recent Develop
ments that traditional methods Of fighting
undersea craft will be Of little value.
=. Intensive research In this direction now Is
underway. Arms and methods of underwater
fighting. however, are among the Nays most
closely guarded secrets according to submarine
experts. A high probability is. however, that
they Will fight blind. There will be no visi-
bility. Radar. improvements In which gave
American subs the advantage over japanese
in the Pacific. does not work under water
Reliance In this three e-dimensional warfare win
be largely on sound devices, such as SONAR"
on which there has been much recent research
work.
Detection Methods Improve.
Said Admiral Radford in q recent address:
Towards the end of the war the Germans
evolved An incredibly fast submarine powered
by hydrogen peroxide engines Further de.
velopmerts have improved the best German
models but like every weapon in the history
OF warfare, they can be countered. Our re-
search Is producing results in detection
methods and weapons of attack. .
Experiments with submarines indicate that
the best defense against a submarine attacker
may oe another submarine, and in such casa
men Will battle under water like giant fish.
BESIDES this, we have concentrated upon Inn
proving the familiar killer-hunter groups OF
srnai! carriers and destroyers"
In both world wars, submarine experts ex-
plain, underwater craft have battled other
underwater craft, but almost always with one
submerged ana the other on the surface, In
the Mediterranean there was one record OF
British sub trying to ram an Italian sub under
the sea but just missing its target.
The Americana tanning industry is free OF
foreign shackles for the first time since this
countrys chestnut forests were DESTROYED by
the blight.
A synthetic tanning agent, according to an
announcement by the American Chemical So.
ciety, has just been developed by Dr. A. H.
Wlnheim, president Of the American Leather
Chemists Association, which competes success
fully with the best natural tanning materials
at no greater cost.
The art of tanning is older than history. But
despite intensive research for years man has
been unable to compete successfully with ma
ture and most leather still is made with natural
tanning agents.
Natural Tanning Preferred.
Fine leathers" it is explained, "can be
made with synthetic agents. called syntans.
but the natural agents have continued to hold
the economic advantage in the production of
heavy feathers. These include about 900 900 600
square feet of shoe upper leather and 6o0,-
o00,0oO pounds Of sole leather produced an.
nually in the United States This use con-
sumes more than 3O00oo,Oo0 pounds of vege-
table tannins, 65 to 10 per cent of which is
imported"
The most important of the imported tannins
is obtained from the bark of q South American
tree, the quebracho, which grows chiefly In the
forests Of northern Argentina and Paraguay.
The price of this bark has risen sharply In
recent months and soon the cost Of shoes
will reflect the change
The new process uses much the same ma
terials as those employed in many plastics.
Among these are urea and formaIdehyde which
are used in making dishes, radio cabinets and
the like. The final leather product might
be termed a simple type of this form of plastic
whose development has been arrested The
leather, of course, is not hard or brittle, like
the plastics in their finished form. It has .
light somewhat creamy color and shows itself
somewhat superior in resistance to perspiraton
and fungi