THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, SATURDAY, APRIL 19, 1947.
The wonderful world of tomorrow is beginning today Houses that can be moved: The
new
T times, seeing so much of the marvela that are in store for us, I feel the urge to become part of the miracles myself. I have counter my dollars. I have 2.000 left, just prefabricated anough to buy house for the days of leisure,
I have chosen the site; it will be in California, because the flowers blossom by the rond- sides.
On the appointed day the house will arrive in parts in a lorry, with six mon to assemble
it.
They will off-load the floor, the walls and the ceiling. A crane will drop the centre-part un to the foundation.
This "unit" is the heart of the house. Composed of part of the bathroom and the kitchen. It also includes the wall separa ling the two rooms, with com- plete electric Atments waterpipes inside its panels.
andl
It will be at once linked up with the main supplies.
END OF BANGING AND SQUEAKING
WHEN the "heart"
of the
house is in place, the other sections will be suitably disposed around it.
The work will be carried out without the banging of hammers or the squeaking of saws.
There will be neither brick- layers, painters, Nor uphol- sterers. The workmen will put in their places light paucis at- ting together like the parts of a machine.
The walls will dovetail one into the other, as an airplane's wings dovetail into the fuselage
motor-car
by
that is
ANDRE LABARTHE
Doctor of Physics and special scientific correspondent at the Bikini tests, who has been in the United States studying discoveries and inventions which are transforming the life and work of men and women.
Houses on the same principle on neighbouring sites can have the most varied aspects and out- lonks if disposcil and orientated differently,
Prefabriented houses have novel features, such as movable walls so that one side of the house can be opened towards the garden, or so that the size and shape of rooms can be altered.
It is thus possible to make one's self additional space or un additional bedroom.
The home of the future will probably be less like the neigh- bour's house than the one we live in today.
Rational architecture will make for greater variety and originality,
The renting of sites for short periods with frequent moves will be the logical outcome of the use of prefabricated houses,
Gone
will be the squabbles over party walls, living near factorles, trouble with peevish neighbours and the girl whose arpeggios on the harp annoy a whole neighbourhood,
CHILDREN NEAR THEIR SCHOOLS WHEN the children
are old enough to go to school, the family will establish itself suc- cessively near the primary and the secondary School, then as near as possible to the univer
Finally the roof and the ceiling will be put into position and firmly fixed together. A sity. lorry will then arrive with the movable furniture.
In ten hours my house will
have been built.
More than 50 companies in the U.S. are at present making prefabricated houses.
All the American countryside will be covered with them to
morrow.
IN
THE HOUSE THAT MAKES FOR VARIETY
some
coming
In this car of the future the ed in the body; doors are driver has an unobstructed bandleless, mudguards climi- view. Wheels are incorporat- Inated. Engine is at the rear.
It is, now possible to have heated floors, keeping slant temperature of 30 degs. centigrade. Children playing Those favouring a rear engine say on the floor would
risk that a higher engine will solve the problem of stability and that cooling taking cold.
Flat roofs can carry a layer can be effected if a current of air is aerodynamically directed towards of water which, by evaporation, the radiator in a suitable manner. would keep the house cool in
Some engineers still prefer the en- a con- gine in front as an engine in the rear means greater control dimculty at speed.
summer.
수
•
✡
not
The motor-car of tomorrow is already shaping. These, I gather, will be its chief features:-
used for the body will lighten Its (1) Metal and plastic materials weight.
(2) A smaller and lighter engine will use anti-knock viution type petrol.
(3)
Gear-changing will be auto-
For some years past American towns have taken to matie-by acceleration. renting sites.
*4) Wheels will be incorporated in the body.
It is better to have a house
(5) Doors-controlled by buttons, takes one likes, which one wherever one wants to go and not handles will slide open side- alters according to one's tastes
double the size of rooms or make them smaller,
ways or upwards.
WILL INCREASE SPACE
INSIDE
mudguards footboards will increase the
A man should not have to ELIMINATING adapt his life to the stone walls
of a more or less comfortable space inside.
a mass production house house whose outside appearance, borellom
easily can
take architectural style and "period" lodgings.
ornamentation count for more than comfort and health.
But already there is a house, designed by a celebrated archi-
Our windows are made of teel, Norman Bel Geddes, com- prising 27 units which can be small panes in frames because arranged in a number of ways our ancestors could not make
big shoots of glass.
to make for variety, just ng stones may be variously placed Though we can today get to make an ordinary stone whole walls of glass or trans- building differing from its parent plastic, we still fail to neighbours.
take advantage of the fact.
·
Motor manufacturers do not draw their inspiration for car design from the railway car- riage.
If the chosen site has a panoramic view, the house can be assembled to make a long, low building of which the prin- cipal rooms and the windows look out towards the distant Why, then, do we copy an- views.
cient castles?"
Gen MacArthur's view that Japan has learned its lesson and will now become’a foremost centre of American democracy"
Surprised Australía, which also took part in the war.
and
(6) Upholstery will be of Spun glass thread.
•
(7) Visibility will be better be- cause the front of the car will be in plastic transparent material similar
that in warplanes.
Ultra violet rays which brown the face will pass through the plastic material, but the same material will Intercept the infra-red rays of the suns which cause sun-stroke.
(0) An air-conditioning plant t front will keep temperature
the
even.
(0)
A low body will give greater stability on curves
(10) Verifcal ailerons, like those on plane rudders, will increase the car's power to hold the road,
cases will, have horizontal cylinders.
(11) The engine, which in many will be close to the driving wheels.
MIKĀRTU UNIVERSITY
AMERICAN DEMOCRACY IN
IZ KASY LESSONS
"GEE, WHY'S DAT GUY BOINED UP, BUD ?"
MAYBE HE DIDN'T GET HIS DIPLOMA.”
GRADUATION DAY
CHESTIURE ER AU Countries!
The lights will throw out a thin, flat beam which will light up the road without blinding others.
SMALLER WHEELS, EASIER HANDLING
CYNTHETIC rubber springs, work-
sortes
ing silently, will serve as shock Smaller wheels with make manoeuvring simpler.
Tyres will be bigger but with low air pressure, and will last for about 100,000 miles-made of u textile abre. resisting heat.
plastic
The car industry, is a great power in the United States. It is the queen of mass production.
Before the war it turned out about 3,500,000 tourist models' a year and 600,000 lorries.
t
Mechanised warfare gave it a ter- rifle impelus. From 1044-43 it turn- ed out 100,000 trucks.
The average age of a car is four years 11 months, and four years seven months for a heavyweight.
How do US. manufacturers reach these records?
In 1041, inst year of normal pro- duction, America had only 45 dif ferent models.
There were only 30 models of en- gines and 32 types of rear axle.
General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, who manufacture 90 per cent, of the them only 28 cars, have between models and 10 types of engines.
In Europe, to produce more, we must standardise. It is imperative.
To make, possible the car of to- morrow all the manufacturers must get together.
•
Trials made with berylilum, a cousin of aluminium and magnesium, offer one hope of cheaper cars.
Beryllium, a third lighter than aluminkum, is stronger than steel, but too fragile to take its place.
SCISSORS THAT CAN CUT STEEL
BUT scissors made of an alloy of
copper and beryllium can cut steel. The majority of metals wear. but copper and beryllium never wears out.
Sicel can
stand three million vibrations on the trial block before it crystallises and weakens. Copper and berylilum can stand one thou- sand million vibrations.
and
I:
Another alloy, beryllium-nickel, is still more astonishing than beryllium beryllium and copper. aluminium сан be combined the plane and car industries will disppse uf an ideal alloy for the manufacture of pistons.
When the problem of the alloy of beryllium and magnesium has been solved engineers will have the ideal product for building bodies,
Next Wook ROMANCE OF PLASTICS
Have These Heroes
-Been
T
By
Forgotten?
“CANDIDUS??
Wests
Dr Wests
Miracle
TOOTH PASTE
Outlasts natural bristles more than 2 to 1
• Cleans teeth 60% better
•
Waterproofed...anti-soggy
• Sealed in glass
•
Guaranteed for a year
Trade Inquiries to L. D. Saymour & Co., Inc.
43 Fronch Bank Bldg., Hongkong'
3. WOMEN +14 MEN
PRESS PROBE.
They'll Look Behind The Headlines
After the 17 members of the Royal Commission on the Press were named by Mr Attlee in the House of Commons, members shouted: "Who are thoy?" This is who they are, and what, if anything, are their recorded comments on the Press:-
:
ht
of
Chairman: Sir David Ross, age 69 Mr Reginald Holmes Wilson. 41. Director of provost of Oriel College, Oxford, f chariered accountant.
the Ministry expert on Aristotle, member of the Finance National Arbitration Tribunal since War Transport during the war. 1941, chairman of the Civil Service Arbitrauen Tribunal since 1942.
ECONOMIST
Mrs Barbara Frances Woolton,' 50, authoress-economist, Reader in So- clal Studies at London University. Father was a Cambridge tutor, mo thera Fellow, of Girton. Married e London taxi-driver in 1935,
Quote. "I have had no direct con- tact or association with the Fressi That was probably the reason I was view the chosen because I could question quito impartially."
Quote, "One cannot say what one Rey Melbourn Evans Aubrey, 01.likes when one's job depends upon born in the Rhondda Valley. General it; nor can one get equal access to secretary Baptist Union since 1925, the millions of newspaper readers and former Moderator of the Federal without money to own newspapers,"" Council of the Evangelical Free Lord Simon of Wythenshawe, Churches,
engineer, and trustee of the Man chester Guardian. Joined the Quote: Once referred to "The Man
clalist Party lost year after twles' of Nazareth whose place history representing Withington (Manches- could not be measured by Press culter) as a Liberal M.P. tings."
FIGHTER
of
107,
Quote: "I know very little about the Press, and shall start with a completely open mind."
tan, writer of Standia thought,
Member of the
Mr Nell Scobie Beaton, 67, son of a crofter. Once chairman of Scottish Mr George Malcolm Young. 63, Co-operative Wholesale Society, trustee of the National Portrait Gal- Member of the North Scotland lery since 1037, archaeologist, histor- Hydro-Electric Board,
Commmis- and Galleries. Quote: "The small shopkeeper willsion on Museums Volunteer
likes it Quete, on the Greek situation in' have to go whether he or not. The ght is between the 1945: It would have "served a good allied stores and the Co-operative end if it has warned a trustful pub- Movement and I am confident that lie not to believe everything it reads;- despite the power of the Press we still more, if it induces that same
officer who organised a small band of workers not only to supervise, but to undertake, the sanitary work of a camp crowd- cd with thousands of men. No
beyond equipment,
a
shall win.
public to demand a greater caution and a higher sense of responsibility general from its representatives in Portia-
Mr John Benstead, 50, few
secretary of the National Union of nallwaymen since 1942. Member of the Colonial Economie and Develop ment Council. Has been tipped as "Bevin of tomorrow."
HERE seems to be a ten- There was the
dency to try to forget those three years and eight months of Hongkong's reign of terror: the days of dread of the half starved civilians-the ordeal of prisoners of war and internees. And yet some memories will buckets criminally inadequate live forever in the minds of for the need. Cleaning up the those who shared the common results of dysentery and other
foul diseases. persecution and horrors.
Lady Violet Bonham-Carter, '00, Upon one occasion, taken by
and Asquith, Chairman of Liberal would be your mental outlook if the Japanese out on to the ronddaughter of the late Earl of Oxford you wore suddenly encaged to- to open up and clear a sewer party organisation, 1945-48. Governor day-by brutal and inhumane which must have been choked of BBC 1941-46. barbarians and would have to for months-even the guards exist suffering every indignity kept well clear-this man work- tenory dinner 1945; "We shall still and hardship until Christmas, ed waist-high in filth for several remain n free people so long as we 1950. Fortunately, when we days, did his job and probably retain the divine right of a free were thrown into our prisons, saved many lives-and through optimism and hope carried most it all, kept smiling!
Think for one moment what
in filth!
of us through those dark days. Three years and eight months There was something more," There were surgeons who however, which inspired and carried out major operations encouraged us the self-sacri- with razor blades and improvis
con- Quote: At News Chronicle
Press."
ment.".
TRAINING
OF COLONIAL STUDENTS
Britain's further education and vocational training scheme Mr R. C. K. Ensor, 60, chief lender-for the Colonies is proving its writer of the Daily Chronicle, 1012- 30. Now Oxford University historian worth, In the first nine months and lecturer. Member of Royal Com- nearly 1,600 candidates have ar- mission on Population.
rlved in Britain for vocational Mr Hubert Hull, 59, temporary training, and nearly 60 are in civil servant since 1939, barrister, the further education group. Assistant Procurator-General. Re-
Walking and, since 1041, The scheme is Britain's gift to men. and women of the Colonies, who went of character, cheerfulness under surroundings. A broken hut!
Eirwen Owen, 33, daughter of to Britain during the war to help. a Rhondda colliery engineman. War- work for victory and is intended ta adversity of men and women, A rough plank table in the time Deputy Regional Commissioner provide means by which they can de whose memories will be forever centre and almost no light. for Civil Defence for Wales. Develop now their potentialities and, cherished: The surgeons and The men who sat by the patients scribed nursing staff in the Bowen Road day and night watching every and other hospitals during those tremor in the poor emaciated
fice, devotion to, duty, nobility ed instruments, in impossible.
few, hectic weeks of actual bodica--and nursed them back warfare, operating, nursing; to life.
| with hardly a moment's respite,
day and night.
焱
✡
ns "a model
thinking efficiency,"
of quick later, make valuable contribution to
public cervice in their respective · Colonies.
PLAYWRIGHT ·
In all cases the cost of training itself to free, and in addition the
Mr J. B. Priestley, 63, Yorkshire- born author, playwright and broad- vocational training students recolve. caster. Datented as Independent Pro-grant of. £4.65. weekly, while further £280 THESE things happened in gretive candidate for Cambridge education candidates receiva Then came the long spell of Shamshuipo, Stanley, ton. Visited Russia in 1946.
University at the last General Elec- yearly in London and £265 yearly In the provinces where the east of Agony,
Argyle Street. Horoism-with. Quote, to a gathering of children lving In lower. Further, when the the shadow of death ever pre- at Central Hall. Westminster, this need exists, an expatriation grant of
in the Colonice. FROM the beginning, the help, sent. I could go on- Pro-year: "The Press. has brought trivia-£1 weekly le paid to the dependants Further education part of the Alderman Wright Robinson, 70, lessness and seeming hope- bably you will wonder what hasty to a fine art."
Lord
scheme is
is equipping the students with Mayor of Morichester, lessness became .apparent. created this line of thought?
professional or specialist qualifica Crowded like so many cattle During the week, an Investi- Started work in a rotten me som inns needed in mest Colonial ter- ritories, while vocational training into wrecked bullding or huts ture has been held, and in com-cialist chairman of the city's educa
Alon committee.
Mr Gilbert Granville Sharp 63 covers a large number of manual many without windows and mon with other members of the
trades and administrative. As a crude
tons. The subjects doors-with no cooking facili- community, I am gratified that Recorder of King's Lynn,
Олсе
nels studied
ties, no beds or bedding, prae- good work has received, its just Liberal. has fought three times as mechanical and electrical
Aurelly candidate against Mr
Estaing Shemblev.
include
COUTECS, carpentry,
reward. I am, however, per
and eabinot making, tically no food, the outlook was
Geoffrey Vickers, V.C. (won medicine, faw,
teaching
engineering enough to stifle unto death the turbed. and disappointed that.
'glorious examples of self- 1815), 62,
solicitor, legal adviser to and cordmerre spirit of the strongest—indeed
Apart from qualification of war in some cases, actually did so. their lives-I for one-have
sacrifice to which many owe National Coal Board. Member of
the London Passenger Transport service in Britain the candidate is Board Wartime director-generat in normally required to
to show that this It was then that the greatest of boen forgotten-not by those the Ministry of Economie Warfare.. service interrupted or prevented human qualities-the quality of who lived with them throughout Sir George Alexander Waters, 60, his starting trading.). In
particular mercy of the suffering aiding the ordeal, but by those whose editor of "The Scotsman. 1924-44. cases applications are also considered the suffering, was so wonder duty it was to ensure that
Quote, 1998: Journalists are un- from men with high war records who Fully exemplified in the unselfish honour was rendered where easy, for they see a growing dis-wah to qualify for a profession on position by authority to invade the ■ higher plane than the prowar-de- ministrations of the fow.
honour was due.
cupation.
rights of the Press.