Show Have You Any Ideas for ‘Secret Weapons’? Inventors’ Council Wants To Know Them Man About Town: Erie Johnston Chamber of Commerce chief has been cracked down over the Russian by bis superiors boosts They feel he was too pro As of today no postwar trade agreements between U S industry and One of Russia have been set up the biggest shipping deals however Is being readied without their help Paul McNutt’s receptionist at the WPB has become the hottest model on the Conover list She is The newsprint shortAnn BelL age may be over by Wood pulp is waiting for shipment Pals from Scandinavian ports of Steve Early hear that his sinus clagony (caused by Washington's imate) may force him to quit against his wishes Paulette Goddard and her groom Buz Meredith have asked the FBI to probe the writers who have landed divorce rumors in vaThe reason the rious columns planned new mag Pageant has been held up Is that it planned to ape Coronet and then decided not to After spending a mint too Overheard at the White House: "Clare Luce is the Aimee Semple McPherson of the Stork Club” John Edgar Hoover was so ill re- cently he thought he would die Many War Machines Were Developed by Civilian Amateurs Want to help finish winning the war? Well just settle down some night in that favorite easy chair light up the old pipe take out pencil and paper and figure out an easy way of generating an artificial fog —one that can be laid just where you want it and really do the business Sounds simple doesn't it? But the army would give a great deal for a Can tanks be equipped with practical solution to the problem of rollers to lessen covering advancing troops this wsy the effectiveness of minefields? It can ba done A number of methods have been tried out but most none as yet has furnished the is too big and but of the equipment solution cumbersome for effective action at complete When the soldiers and marines the front The army is still looking first on Pacific landing for a simple effective way of pro- beachesbegan In the (ace of heavy enemy viding this cover fire there were scores of suggestions And while It is looking for a way with be that Infantrymen equipped to create an artificial fog it is also shields This idea had to be dison the alert for any new methods carded the council says because the of dispeUing such a tog laid down shield if it were' weight of such by the enemy Here too a number to prove capable of stopping a milhave been suggested of methods projectile would be too great some have been tried with a degree itary a for infantryman to but the problem hasn't of success yet been really licked My Way” will gross 8 milThis is where the National InveProducer Leo McCarey will ntors' council cornea in It wag set get about two million dollars for his up within the framework of the debit in 1940 to Seo’y of War Stlmson is partment of commerce serve as a clearing house for Just mending now He went to the recently where a nurse re- such ideas that military men might Jesse find valuable mained In attendance Headed by Charles F Jones whose condition worried pals Kettering a past president of the Is better Engineers society of Automotive and composed of the nation's leadit and engineers Note of a Newspaper Man: ing scientists the between funnel as a serves York New and Daman Rnnyen a of the man in Ingenuity newspaper apparently disagree on American street the and proper military the hobby of some Americans who Ihe authorities enjoy telling quips on The council Is dedicated to the Mr Runyon in his column both withaccepted widely principle taste bad complained: "It is always lor people te sit around and make in the government and Is outside that all modern warfare largely odious remarks about any national tie af Inventive The ideas leaders of respectability and inte- a bat tank The same morning a keaivlly gunned and armored grity” the aircraft cathe auperbomber respectable New York newspaper rrier — all have bomb robot and the Matured a report (in a box) quoting The keen responsible for major changes a Washington columnist In strategy as well as tactics in the story dealt with the argument: "Who battles af this war Was the Strongest PresldentT” Civilian Csntribotlons Oae arguer said Lincoln— because he Another thing the council keeps split rails Another said Washington —because he tossed a dollar across Irmly in mind is the fact that many the Potomac But FDR was de- at the weapons of modern war or which go into clared the strongest "He threw the the key principles U S Treasury across both oceans!” them were the product of the civilthe mind — the submarine ian New that Is a pretty geed gag But torpedo the motor driven airplane engine It the internal combustion it is also pretty stale too most the of major Naturally was used often during the second Improvements on the weapons of campaign of Woodrow Wilson in the war come from expert technicians The quips and war debt issue barbs about Mrs Roosevelt are still or outstanding engineers thoroughTermers lyIn familiar with the particular field being swapped by which they lie But many of the and the President is often the butt of We do not 200000 ideas or Inventions that have devastating jokes been submitted to the council since recall hearing that they complained have come from the Mr Runyon probably will ad- its inception and file of the people mit that it Isn’t so bad to tell a Joke rank From farmers teachers factory ai It is to elect one workers business men youngsters In school and even a few women Geveraer Dewey Isn’t Immune have coma suggestions that have from the Jokesmiths these days proved of considerable assistance to The current quip has him suffering from fierce insomnia which "keeps him up ail night pacing up and The New down under his bed!” Dealers go Into spasms over that ne But it was funnier 20 years Jolson Al told after an when it age "I vernight trip from Boston didn’t sleep a wink” he groaned “One of Singer's drank Midgets tome coffee and paced up and down his upper berth 1” "Going lion Cel Carloe Remule who helped MacArthur and Quezon escape to Australia didn't know that persons addressing Congress must not do so in uniform He has been in his army An hour beuniform for years fore be spoke in the House the other was Informed that he civvies for the event His staff hastily borrowed ciOn the way to vilian apparel the Capitol he realized he was bis army sox He paled ”1 am wearing the wrong "Oh my goodaox I” he exclaimed His Girl ness wot’n I do?” Friday solved matters right there He wore on the Capitol steps her bobby soxt day Romulo must wear A New Yerker Just back from Argentina alleges that the majority of the people there arc not S or Moet of the do not said our informant people leaders even take the government and "If 1 openly quip: seriously thought my son would ever grow up to be President of Argentina I'd have sent him to school!” Ttse army la still looking for a simple metbed af generating fog to cover advancing troops armed forces And these inventive suggestions follow a definite pattern in volume with each new phase of the war or Induction of lew weapons by the enemy the For example when the submarine menace waa at Its height the council was receiving an average of 100 letters a day describing how torpedo nets could be used to keep the from blasting the sides of merchant ships Now that the submarine menace has been licked sucb suggestions are rare Right now suggestions for combatting the robot bombs are on the upswing Nermaa Lfttell of the Dept of Jesse Justice and Will Clayton Jones’ man regret that feuda cannot be carried beyond the grave The files of the patent office conis funcThe Demmy Nat’l Comm tain the graphic story of the of America and the achievetioning as smoothly as a ward at Dr Churchill has cooled Freud’s ments of the men who helped build but has this great country of ours In these an the King of Greece files are the "birth certificates” of warmed on the King of Italy White House attaches are blaming the hundreds of thousands of inveneach other for the recent Willkie tions that have placed America General O’Dwyer boner away out in front in scientific and comes a civilian about October and industrial achievement Every week for the Maywill start campaigning every day in fact these files grow bigger For Americans are still oralty venting even though most of their handle Ideas Some o f come from fronta and from Soldlesa the too suggestions at the fighting in army camps on duty in Italy wrote In with an Idea for equipping tanka to blow up enemy mlnea withHis to the out danger was equipping a heavy suggestion tank with a gigantic explosive absorbing roller to be pushed ahead of the vehicle as it waded through the mine field Lauren N ElAn army sergeant kina Jr figured out an improved design for a field kitchen tested It himself on maneuvers found out it worked and submitted his idea to the council Within 24 hours It had won of the army acceptance quartermaster corps and test models were constructed Along with the new type field kitchen Sergeant Elkins submitted an idea for a shipwhich ping esse for the kitchen broke down into two benches and a men table Another invention which has methods of ventilating the tanks to reduce the extreme heat under At which its crew must operate D C Washington unit that present a FEAR OF CASUALTIES takes in air through a be toll now can inside The in story use in many types enclosure is But the field for improving the com- regarding one of the greatest wor fort and fighting ability of the men ries of the Allied High Command in who man the tanks has by no means connection with the Normandy It wai vasion— namely casualties been exhausted feared they would be terriflcallj the council Another Invention high would Uke to put its hands on is In fact Prime Minister Churchill gas mask which would permit its wearer’s voice to who had hung back from a cross be heard clearly At present the new channel front for two years fearer the Allies might suffer losses com type masks are using a flexible diaphragm Others combine the fe- parable to the early daya of the lar atures of a lip microphone and a war when the cream of Britlsi untrained portable transmitter But the field manhood then relatively waa mowed down In Flanders fields for improvis still He frequently told FDR that he wai ement too as a prote- worried about losing the "seed’ Keenly needed of Britain ction to fliers' is a means of inflaThis worry gives an insight Intr ting carbon dioxide life rafts more speedily at high altitudes Fliers the sudden change between the typr forced to bail out in cold North A- of slow fighting during the first few tlantic areas at 30000 feet find that weeks in Normandy and the headtheir carbon dioxide supply has long onrush of today the early been burned to dry ice by temperAllied orders during atures ranging as low as 60 below In weeks in Normandy were to adthe rapid parachute descent the car- vance under a “curtain of steel” Ai bon dioxide doesn't have time to re- a result the greatest artillery barsume its gaseous state and shock of rage ever laid down in history wai the icy water if the life raft isn’t thrown at the Germans in advance Immediately available is often fatal of Allied infantry It was an artilin far' northern latitudes lery barrage so heavy that it wiped In its path Range finders too are important out almost everything factors in directing artillery fire at However it was slow It took enemy positions Delicate optical time to unload big guns on shallow struments they are subjected to beaches It also took time to batBut hard usage In the field and reflect ter down German positions A sudden temperature changes once these positions were battered method of providing more sturdy down and the rim of German deconstruction and at the same time fense waa broken the Allies found reducing the width without reduc- what General Elsenhower knew was ing the accuracy of operation is a the case— a complete military vacreal need Right now the council uum inside is particularly interested in homely In other words the Nasls had ideas that might aid in destroying staked everything oa holding the or removing obstacles to landing oprim bad ne defenses in the interior That Is the explanation for the headlong rash of AIn recent weeks llied forceo The Nails were gambling on their Atlantic wall a wall which could not stand np under Bradley’s "curtain of steel” NOTE — General Montgomery’s cautioua advances in Normandy reflected in part Churchprobably Howill’s worry over casualties ever he has been cautioua in other areas also Before the Battle of El Alamein when the British army had been pushed back and back acrosa the desert toward Cairo Montgomery queried hla chief Gen“What casualties eral Alexander: can I take?” Alexander with the fate of the Suez canal at stake replied: "One hundred per cent" Caution of course is no reflection aaved scores of livea is a simple signaling mirror which can be directed straight into the eyes of pilots searching for crews of sunken ships or airmen down at sea This mirror cheap light and easy to construct has been known to send a shaft of sunlight into the eyes of a pilot up Thli signalling mirror can be dito 10 miles away 36 times in a single rected into the eyes of pilots who minute And there is no trick to are searching for crews of sunken focusing it ships or airmen down at aea Value of Milkweed Floss erations that have proved so costly From the flosi of the common milkweed the researches of s in lives in the far PacificA and on simple civilian scientist filled one of the the beaches in Normandy most pressing of military needs at idea from a mechanic or a farmer that the outset of the war Supplies of might develop a technique of the the men lives would preserve kapok used in the heavy jackets of fliers and in life belts who must go out shead of the main had been shut off by the advancing landing parties and clear the way This scientist showed that Japanese Japs Clever Too milkweed floss could do the Job betThe council cited the report ter and that it could be used too from Saipan that men clad only In for insulating and soundproofing bathing suits and armed with rifles the and detonating charges had to swim Many of the ideas adopted to the obstacles off shore and blast council’s records show have served to speed up quick repairs in the them Individually from the path of field to get planes and guns back the oncoming troops into the battlelines faster than they The Japanese too have shown could have been readied previously in adapting themselves ingenious But not all of the inventive and simple decoy devices to mechanical problems of the armed use in attempting to confuse or misforces have been solved Many new lead attacking forces Ideas still are urgently needed even One Japanese sniper had rigged in fields where considerable imup an "puppet show” to have been made since harass American provements landing forces the start of the war six dummies in trees He concealed a his and atFor example there is position surrounding crying need for some means of controlling tached them to his own station with fires in tanks until the personnel ropes When his shots attracted he have had time to evacuate At pres- American fire in his direction ent the council's records show that would jerk the cord let one of the carbon dioxide under pressure in s dummies fall from a tree Each time small metal container is being used the American troops were confident with some success But the carbon they had eliminated hla sniping post dioxide treatment doesn't serve to Then he'd wait hit chance and open fire again prevent the live ammunition from exploding within Some ideas along that line' dethe tank as the fire soars past the veloped by Yankee Ingenuity from burning point of TNT An improveclose experience from hunting and ment over this method would be fishing from work around farm widely welcomed if adapted to the machinery or from bench and lathe peculiar needs of the tank where the council believes might go a long interior space is so limited way In saving the lives of our fightTanks Need Improvements ing men and give them opportunity to develop tactics of surprise that The cramped quarters of the t-day tank make it a fertile field could come in handy in many a for improvements The operator's close encounter vision is extremely limited when TTie American people have reto the need for battle sponded tremendously the tank is “buttoned-upHe can see only ahead Performance of all sorts inventions for wartime of gyroscopic and other snd character the council believes compasses on the control pane) but there are still hundreds of wajs Instruments in which American could be stepped up Improvements can already have been made through be wpplied to the problems of a meideas submitted to the council in chanized war SAILOR’S OUTMODED UNIFORM Now that Adm Ernie (“Clothes Horse”) King has finally relented and will let naval officers shed their jackets under certain conditions in hot weather a lot of sailors wish he would also examine the uniform of the enlisted man Most enlisted men would whoop with joy if their present uniform was discarded What most people don’t realize ia that the tailor’ uniform was designed by the British about 200 years ago and la now just as outmoded as the sailing ship Take for Instance the broad collar worn over the shoulders It was for designed ships of the 1700s when sailors had to be deloused and a broad collar was to catch the tar oils used practicable in a sailor’s hair trousers Again the which flap around the ankles and nearly trip the wearer when he runs were designed for days when sailors killed their trousers up over their legs to scrub decks Today dungarees are provided for this sort of work Again the drop front trousers were designed for a day two centuries ago when tidiness was nothing like what it la today One thing which particularly gripes the enlisted man is the waist of his blouse which has to be slipped on and off over his head If a tailor Is dumped into the water and has to swim for any length of time it is almost Impossible to get this blouse off It is tight sticks to the body and you can’t very well swim and at the same time hold two arms above your head while you wriggle out of your middy Some of the boys wish that Admiral King would take off his new uniform designed for him by His Majesty’s tailor in London long enough to experiment with s In the water They think that despite a century’s delay he would then design for them a new uniform overnight CAPITAL CHAFF 8 Before every White House press conference scores of newsmen of 000 which some marked patents crowd against the velvet rope outturning points in the history of the side the President's office awaiting world The steam engine telephone the signal to enter When aecret electric light and airplane are only service men let the barriers down more obvious ones the rush is terrific s few of the Cracked one The others are broken down into 310 perspiring secret service man “It’s classifications under which there worse than a New York subway” tre some 50000 fl First new international magazine A patent gives the owner the to be published in liberated France right to make - use or sell Ia a French edition of "Free World” his Invention or discovery throughedited by members of the French States its terriout the United and underground tories for a period of 17 years Archives of Patent Office Hold Story of American Greatness brain children will not see the light of day until the war is over The institution of patenting is provided for in article I section 8 of the constitution of the United States which states that congress shall have the power “to promote the progress of science and useful arts by securing for limited timet to author and Inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and To date the U S discoveries” patent office bas Issued nearly 2500 on courage Western Newspaper Union Released STATUS PRESENT PRESIDENTIAL OF RACE WASHINGTON— The Gallup pol claims Roosevelt leading by a smal margin These commercial polls generally in the past have noted presidents races about even until two or thre weeks before the real vote counting A magazine poll of the politica Press experts in the Washington corps indicates a rather stronger expectation of a Roosevelt victory This I think the populas reflects disbelief that anyone could eves the natural beat Mr Roosevelt notion that nearly always sports makes the champion the favorite concannot the public Generally ceive of a champ losing as he has never lost before Yet the the President to drop his and start a campaign one — and he will Septem- Inside unquotable re- ports of the congressmen from back home actually give Dewey an even or better chance to win as matters stand today Discard all Republican reports as these might be partisan Consider only those of Democratic legislators as to They have been so discouraging alarm and even embitter the Democratic political leaders who are urging partisan ber 23 of the fourth term The spearhead movement was the Hillman-CIand all political action committee the politicos can see its effectiveness If not splintered has been dulled The other unions and some CIO unions would not stand for it Wagering odds have dropped from 2 to 1 on Roosevelt to 9 to 5 ia the best racing circles Take Maryland which ahvaya has been listed as ai state Today there is a Democratic cloakroom saying possibly overdrawn but nevertheless significant that “Only Senator Tydings and his secretary think Maryland is going Democratic” These two claim the Roosevelt majority would be 25008 today but Roosevelt carried Maryland four years ago by 115000 I know a southern Democratic leader who thinks Dewey will wi and is making preparations accordiOthers insistently list Texas ngly Mississippi and Virginia as doubtful There are reports that the Roosevelt Bremerton speech in the newsreels received little or no applause generally while the campaign pictures of the Dewey family were well received (Democratic leaders are now taking care of this deficiency and within the past week Roosevelt applause again has appeared in the movie theaters FARM VOTE LOST reports agree the farm vote lost beyond redemption and the vote business for Roosevelt was damaged by the departure of little businessman Nelson and big businessman Wilson from WPB in favor of a TVA engineer Earlier a considerable portion ol the business vote and possibly al) the top financial vote would have gone to Roosevelt on the interpromise plus nationalism On the other band New England Is still classed as largely aldoubtful (by Republicans) though Dewey has gone s long toward satisfying the Winway kle dements there Probably Willkie expects to come out for as Dewey just before election he did on the eve of the election of in New York These developments as a whole decimay explain Mr Roosevelt's sion to make a labor speech in Philadelphia and follow with others After all 22304755 votes were cast against him four years age (27243466 for him) and all symptoms of sentiment suggest this opposition has been greatly enlarged These 22304755 are nearly as many as elected him 1935 in president (22821857) His totals in ’36 and ’4C ran 27000000 Now a many has been campaign won on Labor day only to be lost tv months later on Election day ink Willkie for Instance was stronger at this stage of the race four years ago than when die votes were cast for him I have seen Mr comRoosevelt situpletely turn over a campaign ation stacked mountain-higagainst him He has been more clever as a than in any other campaigner phase of his duties Yet nothing which bas developed so far In this campaign yet points to that outAll is come again date the Dewey campaign has by far the smarter Anyone who thinks this brief citatnot ion is objective reporting To been is merely deluding himself There exists in this country s silent strong opposition to Mr Roosevelt a resentful opposition which is not inmuch in political dulging debate which may not show itself at political meetings or in press reports I think the fourtb in doubt until these votes gravely art counted Republicans are sitting back waiting |