TYPHOONS TO ORDER

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 14 January 1928, Page 4

TYPHOONS TO ORDER

"CAVE OF THE WINDS" VAGARIES OF THE AIR Much information of use (o aviators; automobile designers, ordnance makers, builders and architects is being yielded from experiments being carried on in the "Caves of the Winds" at the bureau of standards of the Department of Commerce, at Washington, states the "Chris lian Science Monitor." Typhoons made to order and under measured control of any speed up to 180 miles per hour arc produced in the wind tunnels. In these streams of air are placed models of airships, airplanes, balloons, (intailed bombs, hydroplanes, automobiles, factory buildings, sky-scrapers, anything subject to air pressure from winds or which must pass through the air wit'i speod and efficiency. The experiments tell the. air pressure on buildings or bridges; how much a motor-car's power is used up in pushing the air aside; what wind pressure smokestacks must withstand at maximum local wind speed. The information gleaned permits the steady improvement of airplane parts with respect to stream lining and shows how much of a lift a given tilt will yield on various types of craft. An experimental smokestack 10ft. in diameter and 30ft. high has recently been built on tho roof of the west laboratory of tho bureau. Here pressures fctnd suctions arc measured so that designers and builders can mako their smokestacks and other cylindrical structures to withstand whatever wind speeds must b 3 provided for. An aluminium model of a factorybuilding, typical of thousands of factories which must be ablo to withstand wind pressure, may bo seen in tho giant wind tunnel, the, largest of the three tunnels at the bureau. Alexander Graham Bell's hydroplane! boat which later flew 70 miles an hour received its final touches on the basis of tests on models in the bureau's wind tunnel. Stream lining has received great help from research tests in the tunnels, A certain make of automobile was found to be using 30 horsepower supply to push, tho air aside. Wind pressures on skyscrapers, about which only conjucturo was previously possible, have been measured with groat care, and the results cm bodied in large solid graphic models. Fundamental information, which will aid the art of aerial navigation in perfecting its stream lines to reduce resistance and increase the lift efficiency, is also being obtained from the experiments. Thousands of airplane parte have been subjected to artificial winds

equivalent to air. forces in flight and at rest; and information has been furnished which has made possible design of planes of increasng efficiency.