When seconds bulk large (because you must contact someone in
China or Chile immediately, or else ...) then all of you should know that the quickest way between two points is BY CABLE from any of Britain's 13,000 Postal Telegraph Offices.
via
is by CABLE Imperial
GPO
Post Office Cable & Wireless
Service's
77
40/-
per cent per annum COMPOUND
is the reversionary bonus declared for the five years 1949-53 by the Scottish Widows' Fund-a striking addition to the 'Unique Record'..
Other Recent Books
Jet : The Story of a Pioneer. By Sir Frank Whittle. (Frederick Muller. 16s.) THIS is not so much the history of the jet engine as the personal record of the inventor's tribulations. The use of the gas turbine and jet propulsion in aeroplanes was a revolu- tionary event in aircraft engineering and Britain can justly be proud of her part in it. For this, one man can claim the entire credit. Sir Frank Whittle is now as famous as his jet engine, but the tale of his efforts to design and build it is not altogether a simple success story. It was only to be expected that he should have had difficulty in convinc- ing others of the advantages of his invention, especially as he was a junior R.A.F. officer. But with the backing of a few friends and a little money he had by 1939 built an experi- mental engine at a fraction of the cost of a properly financed research project. When this engine actually fulfilled the designer's claims most of the doubters were converted, but then the story began to go wrong. The compulsion to have the jet engine ready in time to fight in the war meant putting it into production before its teething troubles were solved. A state of affairs ensued in which Whittle felt that he was being denied, the opportunity to rear his brain-child in his own way. In the end the development of the engine passed out of his hands. Here was the real tragedy—that a man of genius, should have been reduced to the frustration of seeing his energy and talents wasted.
C. P.
La Fontaine. The Man and His Work. By
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