Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1953-03-02
Navy Does Something
About Itchy indies
Cotton Substitute Called
Warmer Than WooIens
By THONGS R. Henry

Warmer Ihun Woolens
By Thomas R. Henry
"Those old red flannel drawers that
sister used to wear" in the words of q
fraternity house ditty Of the last gener-
alton, had their drawbacks and 1t has
something about it.
Sister used to do lot Of squirming
and scratching in school the day after
she first donned her warm underwear
at the start of winter.
SO did Uncle Sans sailors and his
soldiers on parade. Winter was itching
time.
Now, the research division of the
Nays clothing supply Office. announces
it finally has achieved itchless winter
underwear. It Is made of cotton, is
warmer than the old wooden garments,
and costs only half as much.
Part Of the secret lies in the socalled
waffle weave" fairly old technique
which required special machinery for
mass production. 1t produces cloth
that looks like q waffle, or a honey
comb. It is, says the fabrics division
Of the United States Bureau Of Stand
ards, "a type Of weaving which pro-
duceS design OF rectangular blocks
with the centers depressed" It pro-
duceS cloth warmer than that produced
by ordinary weaving because of the
greater air space between the UNDER
garment and the body. Only the de.
pressed centers Of the rectangleS actu-
ally touch the skin. That Is the way
the Navy researchers have succeeded
in making cotton warmer than wool.
On the last Navy Antarctic expedi-
ton, experiments were in progress to
increase the warmth Of underwear
this time the old fashioned wooden
underwear-by wearing a fishnet shirt
under it. The idea was to provide
plenty Of air space between fabric and
skin.
Why Wool Itches.
There is no question but that wooden
underwear produces itching, especially
for the first few days after 1t Is put
on. This is due to the fact that wooden
fibers, unlike those Of cotton or rayon.
are resilient and elastic. When distorted
they keep springing back into their
original shape. The result is that they
are like hairs constantly tickling the
skin. For the same reason, wool doesn't
wrinkle as easily as cotton. Cotton
fibers have very little resiliency, es-
pecially when dampened. Underwear
worn next to the skin Is bound to be
somewhat dampened by perspiration.
The itching reaction say the Bureau
OF Standards experts, is practically
absent with wooden fabrics closely wo-
ven OF very fine fibers. These, however,
are difficult to weave and very ex-
pensive.
Improved TurbO- Jets:
The turbo-jet airplane engine is be-
ing steadily improved. and the force
Of its thrusts now ARE fantastic by
comparison with the most optimistic
expectations Of 10 years ago."
This is stated by the Westinghouse
Electric Corp. whose new turbo-jet,
now qualified for quantity production
and selected for some of the Nays
fast new fighter planes. is described
as the most powerful in the world.
Details as to the types of new engines
and their performance remain re-
stricted. says the announcement.
A good deal of the improvement has
been due to use Of the new magic
metal titanium. stronger than steel but
light as aluminium, in the face of enor.
nous difficulties which have been over.
come by the engineers.
"Titanium has three qualities that
grip, the attention." according to the
announcement. 'It weighs but two.
thirds as much as Terrific materials
dron and steeD and Is equally strong.
It retains its strength up to about 500
fahrenheit. which is far above the lin
1ting temperatures for aluminium. It
Is almost completely unaffected by salt
air and water.
Cold Machining.
But even after the knotty problems
Of winning the metal from its ores at
a cost within bounds had been solved,
problems of how to machine titanium
threatened to wreck the program Ii
tanium cannot be cut by ordinary
techniques. 1t smears on the tool. Jet
engine rnetallurgists found the answer
partially in machining the material at
low temperature, created by bathing
the tool and the work In q stream Of
evaporating carbon dioxide. III below
zero fahrenheit.
AAAC PAONACA1AO Va OS1UB t1t0I1uku 6kS
10y for jet compressor disks have been
solved. Engineers now are working to
reduce the cost, which still is high.
Developmental work to use titanium for
compressor blades is well underway.
Titanium for blades. in addition to its
salt-air corrosion resistance, has q
two-fold advantage because of its light
weight for given strength. The blades
themselves are lighter, and because
they are lighter they introduce much
lower centrifugal stresses.
Zone Of the most important criteria
Of turbo-jet design Is the ratio Of thrust
to engine weight. The lighter the en-
CINE for given thrust. the lighter tho
empty airplane and the greater its pay
load Of fuel or armament. One of the
important developments, not yet scom-
plete. is the use Of hollow blades fab
ricated Of sheet metal instead Of forged
or cast solid metal"