OCR Text |
Show . j National News Summary "Seabees" The "Seabecs," fighting construction con-struction battalion of the Navy, will be developed as a specialized special-ized reserve force with its own training program, according to an announcement by the Navy. Their organization has been authorized au-thorized to join the organized Naval Reserve and plans call for enlarging its ranks. There are 5,500 "Seabees" still on active ac-tive duty and 247,000 on inactive inac-tive duty. They were organized base-building outfit capable of defending itself under enemy fire. Foreign Patents About 6,000 patents, held by 25 corporations, controlling stock interests which were seized as alien property, and now controlled con-trolled by the Government, are available for license by U. S. companies, according to the Justice Jus-tice Department. Most of the patents are German in origin and cover developments in drugs, dyestuffs, films, etc. Motor Vehicles There was a 65 per cent increase in-crease in the manufacture of passenger pas-senger cars during 1947 over 1946, according to the Automobile Automo-bile Manufacturers Association, which announced that a total of 3,550,000 passenger cars were made in 1947. This was six per cent below the record 1941-output. The output of 1,221,000 trucks was one-third higher than in 1946 and was a new yearly record. Bus production nearly ; doubled, totalling 19,000 in 1947. 1 A total of 264,000 passenger cars and 260,000 trucks was exported to foreign countries. While House Two ultra-violet ray floor lamps, installed recently In President Truman's office, have reduced the count of cold and influenza germs there by 62 per cent, according to White House officials. The lamps, installed in the Oval Room, where Mr. Truman, Tru-man, works and meets official with more ultra-violet ray lamps in the overhead indirect system. Radar Startling new improvements in radar have made it possible to chart the sped of a bullet while it is still in the barrel of a gun, according to Army Signal Corps scientists. The new development also makes it possible for soldiers sol-diers in the field to locate artillery artil-lery firing on them and to pick out a moving tank from the "clutter" "clut-ter" of other motionless objects on the radar screen. It can also nick un mnvlni? tmrmu VA Hospiial Patients World War II veterans receiving re-ceiving hospital care from the VA has increased from about 21,300 on V-J Day to 52.032, according ac-cording to VA reports. In addition, addi-tion, the hospitals care for 53,-400 53,-400 other former, soldiers, including in-cluding World War I, 47,416; I Spanish-American War, 2,881; (Civil War, 4; other wars, 138; regular peacetime establishment, 2,732; retired officers and enlisted en-listed men, 228. |