RESEARCH AIDED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22196, 5 December 1946, Page 5

RESEARCH AIDED

ENEMY SERVICE AMERICA UP TO 10 YEARS SAVED WASHINGTON, Dec. 3. An estimate that German and Austrian scientists have saved the United States more than 750,000,000 dollars in basic research in rockets alone was made by the War Department in announcing that about 730 additional exports will be brought to the United States. The War Department said that former enemy brain power had advanced American research in several fields ranging from two to 10 years. The number put to work since September, 1945, had grown to 270. The total will be increased to about 1000 as soon as transportation arrangements are completed. Some have already sailed from Bremen. Voluntary Contracts The scientists and technicians include the former chief designer for the Messerschmitt aircraft works and the technical director of Nazis' Peenemunde rocket-proving ground. They came to the United States voluntarily. Those coming to the United States were carefully screened for reliability and were paid on a contract maximum of 3120 dollars annually, plus six dollars daily expense allowance. This is considerably less than the salaries paid to American civil service workers doing comparable work. Many have also been authorised to apply for American citizenship. The War Department says that its programme has been developed io a point where many scientists can shortly be released to private industry, research laboratories and educational institutions. The work of foreign scientists covers the field of electronics, supersonics, guided missiles, jet propulsion, fuels, lubricants, Diesel turbo-jet engines, optics, synthetics, applied physics and chemistry. Development of Rockets Dr. Rudolf Hermann, a leader in the development of the V-2. in a statement to the press, said the Germans were five years of peacetime development away from the completion of an actual ocean-crossing rocket. He added that most of such weapons were but dreams. An expenditure of tens of billions of dollars will be necessary before atomic energy can be developed for industrial use. declared Dr. Walter Zinn, director of the Argonne laboratory which was one of the two national laboratories working on peacetime development of atomic power. Dr Zinn, addressing 1000 atomic scientists and industrialists, said that metallurgists were endeavouring to find alloys and .compounds of uranium that would react better than pure uranium.