After Finding that Wooden Ships and Sail Could Not Compete with Iron Ships and Steam, American Shipbuilding Progressed Slowly Until the Turn of the Century Brought in the Practical Use of Fuel Oil and the Development of Better Engines. America's Background of Technical Knowlege has Made it the Greatest Marine Power in the World, but What Will be Done, Post War, With the Ships now in Being or Being Built?
Conventional Materials and Methods of Boat Building Are Yielding to the Newer Plastics. Advantages Offered in Boats Big and Small Include Resistance to Corrosion and Fungi, Easy Workability, and High Strengths. Paints, Plywoods, and Laminated Wood all Enter the Picture
Attention to Important Details Assures that Instruments, Machinery, and so on, Will Reach Their Destinations Undamaged, Mechanically or by Corrosion. Product Protection for Many Items is More Necessary Today than Ever Before. Many Problems Must be Studied and Solved
Despite Early Troubles, Welding Techniques Have Advanced to a Point Where they Will be Used in Many New Designs. Locked-up Welding Stresses, Usually Caused by Incorrect Procedures, Can Exert Explosive Rupturing Force. Now Such Stresses Can be Controlled
Radio Adds to Safety at Sea in Many Ways. Radio Buoys Mark Channels; Radar is in the Offing, Radio-Telephones Help to Conquer Weather Hazards, Automatic Alarms Pick Up Distress Signals and Warn of Fire. Other Marine Uses of Electronics are in Being or Projected
When Turbines Go to Sea, Lubrication Requirements are Complicated as Compared With Turbines on Land. Water Becomes a Major Problem by Intensifying Such Undesirable Features as Rust and Emulsification of the Lubricant. Can Petroleum Technology Keep Pace With Demands?
With the Post-War Era Now Upon Us, Americans Will Want to Go to See What is Left of Europe. To Many the Ocean Steamer is Too Slow But the Plans of the Big Transatlantic Airplane Companies Will Enable Anyone to Take a Vacation in Europe at a Surprisingly Small Cost
Design of Boilers for Ships of the Future May be Radically Affected by Present and Continuing Work of Chemists on Methods of Boiler Water Treatment. Proper Steaming Conditions Can Be Maintained Only if the Chemical Balance of the Boiler Water is Suited to the Installation
Rear-Engine Vehicles are Possibilities, but Most of the Radical Changes in Motor Cars are Still in the "Air Brush" Stage. Inroads of Foreign Cars are not Feared, and a New Drive is on to Popularize Small Cars. But the "Big Three" Will Probably Have the Last Word
Power of Devastation Lies in Disruption of the Atom by Methods Not Yet Completely Revealed. However, Research Progress, Reported Before the Entry of the United States into the War, Indicated the Paths Along Which Intensive Work Has Been Done Both Here and Abroad EDITOR'S NOTE: Admittedly, world security prevents publication of detailed information on the atomic bomb which rocked Japan early in August, and likewise rocked the scientific warld and the warld af the man an the street to its very foundations. The newspapers have done an adequate job of guessing about the principles of the atomic bomb and about the possibilities of atomic power in the future. The accompanying article, composed mainly of excerpts from issues of Scientific American, gives about all of the specific data available today and points the way to the future.