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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 0941.PDF
FLIGHT, 17 July 1953 95 THE INDUSTRY English Electric's £6im Issue ANOTHER big share issue in the aircraft industry was * * announced last week. The English Electric Co., Ltd , is to raise some £6,500,000 by the issue of Ordinary shares and debenture stock. The application lists were due to open and close yesterday, July 16th. The issue has not come as a surprise to the City : the balance- sheet issued last February showed that bank facilities had been called upon to a considerable extent, and by the end of June borrowings had exceeded £i2m. The necessity for the extra capital is dictated by the steadily increasing business of the group, both in the field of defence work and in production of general industrial and domestic equipment. Lodge Plugs Appointment THE appointment of Mr. V. Martin-Jones as managing director -*- of Lodge Plugs, Ltd., is announced. Joining the company in 1938, from Armstrong Siddeley Motors, where he had been for 13 years, Mr. V. Martin-Jones was made responsible for Lodge technical sales. He was appointed to the Board as executive director as recently as November 1952, and his new appointment takes effect from June 23rd. He is 43 years of age, was educated at Wellingborough School, Northants, and lives at Dunchurch, Warwickshire. A New Sealant FROM Cellon, Ltd., Kingston-on-Thames, Surrey, comes a note on their new "Celloseel" jointing compound, which has been devised to overcome the problems arising from seepage through airframe joints of both hot kerosine and the highly pene trative ester lubricants. The new compound conforms to Specification D.T.D.369A and holds approval No. R.D. Mat. 4301 under Spec. D.T.D.900. This approval covers the use of the material as a corrosion-preventive jointing compound for use within joints, rivet holes, etc., and for application by wet assembly methods in construction and repair. It is available in 8 oz. tubes, one-pint tins, or one-gallon containers. Westland Apprentice Prize-giving AT the Westland Apprentice Association's annual dinner, held L recently, Mr. E. C. Wheeldon (managing director) presented the awards. Among those present were Mr. D. C. Collins (works director), Mr. D. L. Hollis-Williams (technical director), senior executives, and representatives of the apprentices of associated companies. Both Mr. Wheeldon and Mr. Collins stressed the importance of a high standard of practical and technical training as the only sound foundation upon which the industry could be competently maintained and expanded to meet the increasingly complex requirements of modern aviation developments. There were, and there always would be, many openings for those young men who took full advantage of the opportunities offered by a sound apprenticeship scheme and there were present many who by their successes made it apparent that they were fully aware of this fact. The Managing Director's Cup for the best apprentice of the year (1952) was awarded to J. W. C. Sandford, who entered his apprenticeship in July 1950. Assessment is based on all aspects of training, both practical and technical, together with sportsman ship, citizenship and Apprentice Association activities. Runners- up were J. S. G. Male, D. N. Redden and A. H. Tucker. Outward Bound Sea School courses were awarded to Peter Coomer (engineer apprentice) and Anthony J. Hazell (craft apprentice) for showing the greatest improvement and progress in their respective grades during 1952. Seven Higher National Certificates and 23 Ordinary National Certificates were presented and 95 apprentices received their City and Guilds or National Group Course Certificates. Mr. S. J. Lobb (apprentice supervisor), reviewing the year's activities, congratulated the Association's executive committee on the hard work done and excellent results achieved. IN BRIEF Short Brothers and Harland, Ltd., have recently established an auxiliary planning office at Rochester Airport, Kent, in order to handle certain contract planning work and to procure and progress local sub-contracts for the manufacture of tools. * * * Compressors and exhausters, ram pumps, valves, and air- operated starters for petrol or diesel engines are among the products illustrated in literature from Williams and James (Engineers), Ltd., Chequers Bridge, Gloucester. * * * A series of twenty filmstrips, covering the two final years in the Ordinary National Certificate course in electrical engineering, has been produced by the technical publications department of Mullard, Ltd., Century House, Shaftesbury Avenue, London, W.C.2. * * * Mr. Hugh McC. Jack, B.Sc, relinquished his executive duties as chief electrical engineer of the British Thomson-Houston Co., Ltd., on June 30th, but retains his' directorship. He will be succeeded by his chief assistant, Mr. G. S. C. Lucas, O.B.E., M.I.E.E. * * * Following the death last February of Mr. J. A. Peters, founder- director of Petbow, Ltd., generating-plant specialists, two new executive appointments have been made. Mr. R. C. Bird, who has been with the company since 1931, becomes managing director and Mr. H. G. Puttick (technicpl manager for the past two years) is appointed a technical director. * * * A new edition of Notes on Machining the Nimonic Series of Alloys has been issued, containing additional information on drilling and extended to cover the newer alloys, Nimonic 90 and 95. This publication provides general guidance based on practical experience; suggested speeds and feeds are given for each operation, together with diagrams of profiles and tool forms taken from actual machining operations. Copies are available from the Publications Department, Henry Wiggin and Co., Ltd., Thames House, Millbank, London, S.W.i. MINERAL SURVEYING FROM THE AIR IN Flight of April 24th we published photographs of a Percival Prince that had been fitted by the Hunting Group with a magnetometer, and certain other equipment, to enable it to be used for making an aerial survey for oil in East Africa. Some further information on the use of airborne magnetometers for locating mineral deposits is now available. • This type of instrument can do one thing, and one thing only. It measures the earth's magnetic field, and records variations in it as the aircraft flies along, normally at a constant height. Thus it can be used directly to locate deposits of magnetic ore. Magnetite is by far the most magnetic of the common ores, and can readily be identified, while pyrrhotite has fairly marked magnetic properties; but it is not possible to differentiate, from the readings alone, between a concentrated pyrrhotite and a dispersed magnetite deposit. With all other minerals, the information provided by the magnet ometer can be used only indirectly. As a general rule, nearly all igneous and metamorphic rocks contain sufficient magnetite im purities to affect the readings, whilst sedimentary formations usually do not. Thus a comparison of the magnetometer chart with a geological map (if available) of all or part of the area will often lead to useful conclusions as to the probable nature of the various strata. At the least, time will be saved by ruling out areas that are out of the question so far as a particular mineral are concerned. It is clear that the magnetometer method of exploration can also be employed on the ground, and for small, easily accessible areas of complex geology this is probably preferable. For larger areas, however, particularly if they are remote, an excellent case can be made out for aerial survey, which gives a broad picture unadul terated by local effects, and is claimed to be both quicker and cheaper for a given job. In conclusion, it may be stated that the airborne magnetometer technique has already been used with success in the location of a number of mineral deposits, amongst them petroleum, asbestos, titanium, bauxite (the commercial source of aluminium) and uranium, to name a few that are of particular interest to the aero nautical fraternity. Uranium and similar radio-active deposits, incidentally, can also be sought out by the airborne scintillometer. This device contains a crystal of activated sodium iodide, which has the property of emitting light-flashes when struck by gamma radiation; these flashes can be "counted" by means of a photo electric cell unit, and thus the intensity of the ground radiation can be determined, and hence the magnitude of the deposit.
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