ATOMIC PILE IN MINIATURE

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25931, 11 October 1949, Page 5

ATOMIC PILE IN MINIATURE

BRITISH INVENTION RADIO-ACTIVE ISOTOPE PRODUCTION (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 9 p.m.) LONDON. October 10. A portable atomic plant has been produced in London for the use of hospitals, universities and research centres, says the “Daily Telegraph.” The apparatus is known as ar “aspatron,” and is claimed to be the first of its kind in the world. The plant, which is described as an atomic pile in miniature, will produce radioactive isotopes. The aspatron uses uranium in the form of a pure oxide, arranged inside a double metallic wall. The equipment weighs 2cwt. and will cost about £5OO. Commercial production will be started as soon as possible. It is hoped to obtain export orders from Empire countries. The effective life of a radio-activa isotope for medical research ranges from as low as eight hours to two or three weeks. Radio-isotopes with an eight-hour effective life are in chief demand by doctors. At present. aircraft and cars are used to distribute isotopes from the Government atomic research station at Harwell. The portable apparatus if designed to overcome the time handicap and make isotopes available for the diagnosis of cancer and other maladies over a much wider field. SEAL SWIMS ENGLISH CHANNEL STUNT ORGANISED BY U.S. RADIO COMPANY LONDON, October 9. Sammy, a young Californian seal, , tipped a flipper ashore on a rock at Leathercotes Point, off Dover, to-day, and so completed the Channel “swim” in five hours four minutes. This was . about three times as fast as a normal Channel swimmer completes the crossing. Sammy slithered on to a rock, took a snack of fish that was offered, and rested for-half an hour. Then he was put into a large box and taken back to France by launch. Seventy-five reporters and cameramen and scores of onlookers crowded the pier at Cap Gris Nez to watch Sammy enter the water. Sammy’s swim was a United States radio stunt. It originated in the American National Broadcasting Company’s “Truth and Consequences.” Those taking part in the show must agree to perform whatever task is allotted them if they fail to answer questions correctly. Current penalties send people on long trips to do impossible jobs with their fares and expenses paid. For instance, people have been sent to Canada to sell ice cubes to Eskimos. Twenty-seven-year-old Burt Kennedy had to pay the penalty of going to Paris to train a channel swimmer. Kennedy was flown to Paris, not realising that the swimmer was a seal It followed Kennedy by aeroplane. The stunt has angered many Englishmen and brought sarcastic ridicule from the British newspapers. At a time when France is without a Government. Sammy pushed gloomy political predictions off the front pages of French newspapers. BRITISH COALMINES “ NATIONALISATION HAS SUCCEEDED ” (Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) , LONDON, October 9. 'Let there be» no mistake: the British miners are wedded to their Government and wedded to nationalisation, and they will struggle with all then- power to defend it,” said Mr James Bowman, vice-president of the British National Union of Mineworkers, addressing the Miners’ InternaJ'lonal Congress in Amsterdam. Mr Bowman said that never before in the history of the British miner had he enjoyed such good conditions as to-day. Whatever propaganda miners overseas might hear to the contrary, they could feel certain that the nationalisation of the mines in Britain had succeeded. The conference unanimously adopta , resol V tlon calling for an international conference to regulate coal proermo,? 1 ? prices and t 0 establish a general 40-hour week. CAR MANUFACTURING PROJECT NEW AUSTRALIAN COMPANY i MELBOURNE. October 10. . Tne launching of a new all-Austral-lan motor-car on the market within eight months is forecast by Mr L J Hartnett, managing-director of the newly-iormed Hartnett Motor Company Ltd. At the start the components will be supplied by British manufacturers and assembled by the distributors in each btate but the ultimate aim is fullscale manufacture in Australia. „ A prospectus is being lodged for a public issue of 400,000 ordinary 5s shares. It says that the London office an‘-i r I , proJec . t J s alreac >y established and lour prototype cars nave been tested for 240,000 miles. t„P- n a Sydney-Melbourne run a prototype car averaged 47 miles an hour with a petrol consumption of 52 miles 1 to the gallon. Initial orders have been received for 1000 cars. The retail I price is estimated at £A43O, plus tax market U the lo ’ vest P riced car on the It is understood that the design of the car is partly French. " Buckingham Palace Intruder. The “Daily Herald" says that Scotland Yard will hold an inquiry into the' rai.ure of an automatic burglar alarm i which should start a gramophone at Scotland Yard whenever an intruder enters Buckingham Palace. The alarm did not operate when a 26-year-old man, formerly under mental care, entered the palace early yesterday. The man was found in a spare bed in a > room occupied by a manservant. — London, October 10.