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sulphur-free fuel available outside of natural gas fields;
electric heating was considered.
  The trend toward increasing applications for Monel
Metal blading is based upon the performance of hundreds
of thousands of blades installed in destroyer turbines built
during the world war. Although that blading was all drop
forged at a time when the technique of forging high nickel
alloys was in the early stages of development, the vast
majority of it is still in serviceable condition after 15 years.
Less than a dozen specific cases of individual blade failure
are on record and these are traceable to original forging
defects that would have been detected and rejected by in-
spection according to present knowledge and standards.
  Technical improvements at every step have been con-
sistently made in producing the modern Monel Metal blade
from original ingot to final assembly in the rotors and cas-
ings. The propane furnace for annealing blade sections be-
tween cold roll forming operations, and the latest combina-
tion of solder and flux seem to have eliminated the last
element of uncertainty from the turbine builders standpoint.
  The blades are assembled by various methods. The small-
est blades for the highest pressures are "end tightened," a
term referring to the shrouding attached to the outer ends
of the blades, convex on rotor segments and concave on
casing segments. These blades are assembled into segments
by cutting, milling, jigging and silver soldering.
  Where the blade sections are fitted in one shop and
shipped for final assembly elsewhere, each wheel is fitted
into a jig corresponding to a wheel or row of the turbine,
as shown in the partiaily filled jig in Figure 2. After the
remaining segments are fitted, the last one will be cut so
as exactly to close the wheel with the desired tolerance. The
segments wil then be removed from the jig and marked and
packed for shipment. Figure 4 shows how finished segments
are set into the turbine rotor. The serrations on one side of
the base of the blade segment fit into corresponding serra-
tions in the rotor forging and the small space remaining on
the opposite side of the segment is filled with soft Norway
Iron blocks driven in place to fill the serrations in blade
segments and forgings and to lock the wheel.
  Another method of construction is shown in Figure 3.
  In this method the individual blades are machined, milled
and drilled and small serrations imprinted in the lower end
by a hydraulic press or stamping die. The blades are slipped
into place one at a time and each blade followed by a
copper packing section cut to length. The blades and pack-
ing sections are driven up firmly as they are assembled in
the groove, as shown in Figure 3. When the row is com-
pleted the copper packing sections are caulked radially be-
tween the blades, using special caulking tools, and finally
the binding wire is attached by silver soldering in place.
  After the wheel is assembled, the two binding wires
shown are silver soldered in place. These binding wires are
cut at intervals to provide for expansion and the gaps
where the cut occurs are bridged by a junction wire which
passes through three blades at each side of the gap. This
junction wire is silver soldered to the blades at one side
of the gap and is a sliding fit through the blades at the
other side of the gap.
CRITICAL ANGLE
CURRENT ECONOMIC          As a result of the efforts of
PROBLEMS                  Dean Turneaure, the seniors in
                           the College of Engineering will
have an opportunity, during the second semester, to hear
a dozen of the leading men in the department of economics
discuss current economic problems. The schedule has been
cleared for Wednesday at 11 a. m. so that practically all
seniors will be able to elect this course. It will probably
be given in the auditorium of the Engineering Building, in
which case students not regularly enrolled in the course will
be able to attend the lectures.
  The course is opportune; at this time Congress is facing
the task of finding the legislative precipitant that will crys-
tallize out of our economic solution the new economic com-
pounds that will dominate future social and business life.
This Congress cannot complete the task; other Congresses
will modify and complete the legislation. The changes prom-
ise to be radical. It is a time, therefore, when citizens should
be informed upon economic matters. The men who are
graduated this year will, of course, be faced with their own
economic problems. They should not lose sight of the fact,
however, that their private problems are influenced strongly
by the handling of the general problems.
  The lectures probably will not present the solutions to
the problems. They will accomplish their purpose if they
succeed in presenting the problems clearly.
SPEED AND THE With the advent of 1935 the railroads
RAILROADS           whose lines traverse Wisconsin are in-
                     augurating very much improved time
schedules between major cities. This generally improved
public service is made possible by building and recondition-
ing equipment costing a great deal of money.
  It is apparent that carriers of all kinds are becoming more
formidable competitors daily, each faction building up its
organization to meet the requirements of the transportation
industry. Almost all of the money invested in the railroad
equipment is coming through receivership administrations.
Those of us who are unfamiliar with the economic struc-
tures of the railroads cannot conceive of the extent to which
they  have approached   insolvency.  The air-conditioned
coaches comfortably carry more and more passengers daily
all of which is gradually placing the railroads back into the
good graces as far as the riding public is concerned, but
their future financial trends are still obscure today. It is
improbable that the defaulted obligations will meet with
remedial action of any far-reaching nature within the near
future.
  All these developments lead one to all the more emphati-
cally maintain that the financial structure of so large and
intricate an industry needs a very widespread reorganiza-
tion, whereby the brokers' profits are the more relegated to
'he background and the public's money permitted to flow in
normal business channels.
January, 1935
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