"Iron Age" Readers
Sirs:
". . . and try to give the film industry something comparable to the steel industry's august Iron Age," says TIME, Dec. 22.
Proud are we of "august." Sorry are we that you employed the restrictive words "steel industry's." "Metal products industries' " would have been far more accurate, for but 12.91% of our subscribers are iron and steel producers.
The great bulk of our subscribers make finished metal products -- locomotives, pins, automobiles, dish pans, ships, peanut roasters, plows, typewriters, machinery, T squares, metal beds, traveling cranes, can openers, furnaces. . . .
ARTHUR H. DIX
The Iron Age
New York City
Press-Evading Prince
Sirs:
I wish to call to your attention an error in a recent issue of TIME. You stated, under Great Britain caption, that Prince George was the youngest son of Britain's king. Not Prince George (b. 1902), but young, almost-unknown Prince John, is the latest regal son. Press-evading Prince John was born in 1905, is handsome, unmarried, keeps his name out of the newspapers (and print as a whole) even more studiously than does the Duke of Connaught. . . .
SAMUEL T. SCHROETTER JR.
Bristol, Va.
Prince John Charles Francis, born July 12,1905 died Jan. 18, 1919. Prince George Edward Alexander Edmund, born Dec. 20, 1902 is George V's youngest living son.
Most of delicate Prince John's 13 years were spent in the quiet of Wood Farm. Sandringham. There, with his old nurse he whiled away the days, drawing and gardening. -- ED.
Mask & Wig
Sirs:
. . . TIME showed continued partiality to the ill-named "big three" (neither biggest in size, athletics & endowment) by calling Princeton University's Triangle Club show "most ambitious of U. S. college musicomedies" in Dec. 29 issue of their popular news concentrate. All of the many thousands of University of Pennsylvania subscribers & readers both undergraduates & alumni sent messages by mentelepathy or letters with fervent "absurds!" "Why not attend a Mask & Wig show?" etc.
Pointed suggestions to request press tickets for next production and obtain a few statistics on the activities of much-beloved Mask & Wig Club also came in numbers. Steps taken to add to the great store of knowledge of TIMEditors by themselves will undoubtedly bring attention of many friends of the publication to Triangle's only superior, annual production of Benjamin Franklin-founded, first U. S. university.
A few facts about Mask & Wig . . . owns its own clubhouse in heart of Philadelphia . . . decorations and murals by Maxfield Parrish . . . only college production to play two solid weeks in metropolitan (Philadelphia) theatre . . . renowned for its dancing, chorus & solo . . . 1930 production John Faust, Ph.D. acclaimed by New York critics as most remarkable piece of satire in years . . . donators to alma mater of unit of dormitories bearing its name.
CLAUDE BARRERE
Yale Travel Bureau
New Haven, Conn.
Able and ambitious indeed is Mask & Wig. But professional alumni collaborate on its shows and it does not go on nationwide tour as does the Triangle Club, whose shows are entirely produced by amateur undergraduates. Like Harvard's Hasty Pudding Club, Mask & Wig has a strong social aspect. Not every performer in a Mask & Wig show becomes a Mask & Wigger. Other first-rate college musicomedy organizations: Chicago's Blackfriars, Wisconsin's Haresfoot. TIME will report Mask & Wig's 1931 production East Lynne Gone West when it appears in the spring. -- ED.
Boys' Books
Sirs:
Anyone who is interested in boys will find a treasure in Corey Takes the Scout Trail (Appleton, 1930) by Leonard K. Smith. . . .
M. ANDERSON
Grosse Ile, Mich.
Sirs:
We think Corey Takes the Scout Trail by Leonard K. Smith an excellent story for all boys from ten to 20.
It is highly praised by people connected with the scout movement. James West, Chief Scout Executive, recommends it "without qualifications." . . .
The Detroit Scout Signal for October says: "As a text book in scout technique and procedure, it cannot be surpassed. As a wholesome, inspiring story for boys, it is excellently told. As a demonstration of the wonderworking power of scouting in molding and developing character, it is to be highly commended."
However boys who are not scouts will enjoy it just as much.
MARY LOUISE DIDRIKSEN
HELEN C. LYTLE
Grosse Ile, Mich.
Sirs:
You will find enclosed reviews of two books (Rusty Ruston, The Jumping off Place) by Marian Kurd McNeely.
In an issue of TIME, in the part of the magazine which prints letters, I read that you would be glad to know of good books for juveniles (TIME, Oct. 6).
I feel sure you will agree that these two books are worthy of a word from you; and. at the same time will be of real aid to your readers. It is difficult to find good books of this sort for young people.
EDITH PIKE BISSELL
LOUISE M. HANCOCK
THEODORA R. ELLSWORTH
Dubuque, Iowa
Sirs:
Two extremely good books for children -- both boys and girls -- have been written by Mary Biddle Filler. They are called Reddy and Tin-Kid.
My own children enjoyed them enormously and I should be very glad if you would publish short book reviews of them in your magazine, so that other parents could learn of them. I shall look in the ensuing copies of TIME with interest, and hope very much to find the reviews.
You may also be interested to hear that the current events class in the seventh grade of the Wynnewood. Road School, where one of my children goes, brought in their items this morning, and practically everyone was procured from TIME.
MARTHA R. MOORHOUSE
Ardmore, Pa.
Sirs:
In your issue of Oct. 6 you published a letter of Mrs. Howard Butcher Jr.'s in regard to two "juveniles," Reddy and The Kid by Mary Biddle Filler. You state beneath this letter that if two people write in about a book you will review it.
I have read both of these with keen pleasure, as have my grown son and married daughter. My own father (a great-grandfather) had many "chortles" over each book. Some juveniles tickle all ages.
If Mrs. "E. F. B." "Adult," whose letter you published in issue of Nov. 10 would read Reddy and The Kid she might have as much fun as the rest of us!
MARGARET B. TATNALL
Ardmore, Pa.
TIME, Oct. 6, said: When a Subscriber encounters a juvenile of extraordinary merit, let her (him) submit it to two other Subscriber-Parents. If these Subscribers agree as to the merits, let them notify TIME; their report will be printed in this column. Let it be understood that no publisher or author shall have instigated any of these notices.
Hereafter let the names of all three critics be signed to such reports. -- ED.
Religious Books Sirs:
I feel pretty proud of the fact that I've been a subscriber to TIME for five years and have never had to write you a letter. Though it is lots of fun to read TIME'S "Letters."
I write to congratulate you in reviewing a semi-religious book, John Wesley by John D. Wade (TIME, Dec. 22). This is the first time I've ever been prompted to buy a book through one of your reviews.
As TIME keeps' a column "Religion," realizing an important news interest, why can not we have one of your characteristic reviews on a new religious publication? Most reviews in religious journals are mere publisher's blurbs. I for one would welcome your kind of criticism on a religious book more than once in five years.
T. J. BUCKTON
Pastor
Presbyterian Church
Red Wing, Minn.
P. S. I buy all my new records solely on your monthly review and find your selection suits me fine.
In the past five years TIME has reviewed also the following books touching on religion : The Crusades by Harold Lamb (March 17, 1930); Jesus by Shirley Jackson Case (Jan. 30, 1928); D. L. Moody: A Worker in Souls by Gamaliel Bradford (Jan. 16, 1928); Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Gather (Sept. 26, 1927); The Holy Lover (Wesley) by Marie C. Oemler (July 25, 1927); Col, Bob Ingersoll by Cameron Rogers (June 20, 1927). TIME'S Books department will continue alert for such books. -- ED.
Warm Swiss Guards Sirs:
A PECULIAR COINCIDENCE STOP TIME OF DECEMBER 29 FEATURING YOUR SUPERLATIVE ARTICLE SOULS STATES AND HELICOPTERS REACHED MY DESK BRIEF HOUR AFTER CABLE ADVICE FROM OUR PARIS OFFICE THAT A QUIET MAY AUTOMATIC OIL BURNER HAD BEEN SELECTED TO HEAT THE GENDARMERIE OF HIS HOLINESS' FAMOUS SWISS UARDS STOP MAY 1931 OFFER EVENTS WORTHY OF TIME'S REPORTORIAL ABILITY
EDWIN M. FLEISCHMANN
President
May Oil Burner Corp.
Baltimore, Mel.
Dialing
Sirs:
Will TIME, apparently all-wise in such matters, oblige by giving information regarding origin, development, present ownership and control, of the mechanism for dial telephoning now coming into general use -- or tell where such information can be obtained?
This query grows out of reading advertisement of Strowger Automatic Dial Systems in Dec. 22 issue of TIME and puzzlement as to whether Automatic Electric Inc. possibly developed the dial system, leasing its use to Bell System, or how it came about.
H. DEANE PHILLIPS
Chicago, Ill.
Efforts to perfect dial automatic switching began soon after Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876. Some 3,000 patents for machine-switching devices have been filed in the U. S. alone. Out of all these patents, two main systems have evolved, the step-by-step and the panel.* The telephone subscriber cannot tell the two systems apart; the dials and the act of dialing look identical. But in the step-by-step system the mechanical combination necessary to ring the desired number is built up directly, by separate impulses from the dial. In the panel system, a more complicated mechanism (in panels) receives, interprets and sets up the proper electrical impulses.
The step-by-step dialing system is based on Inventor Almon B. Strowger's patents of 1891. These patents were developed and exploited by Automatic Electric Inc., manufacturers of Strowger Automatic Dial Systems.
Bell Laboratories developed the panel dialing system, first installed it extensively in 1919. The Bell telephone companies (16 million telephones) also use a step-by-step system, through certain patent agreements with Automatic Electric Inc. By other reciprocal patent agreements, other manufacturers are enabled to make variants of the basic dialing systems, offering their wares to independent telephone companies (four million instruments). -- ED.
* There is a third, the rotary, used widely in Europe, not at all in the U. S.
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