Facts & Figures

Autos. General Motors wound up its eight-day showing of its new models in Manhattan's Waldorf-Astoria (TIME, Jan. 24) with a total attendance of 320,000. The new models had gone over so well that one Detroit "new-used" car dealer said he had been offered $853 above the list price for a 1949 Chevrolet.

Food. Secretary of Agriculture Charles F. Brannan checked into the price of bread, which has risen slightly in the last year, while the price of wheat has dropped almost one-third. The reason, said Brannan, was the thick slice taken by bakers and retailers; they keep 9.7-c- of a 14.5-c- loaf, as against the farmer's 3-c-. The profit on bread of eight representative food chains, said Brannan, was 18.2% (before the war it was 5 to 10%).

Aircraft. Douglas Aircraft Co., Inc. plans to regroom and speed up the 13-year-old DC-3, the obsolescent workhorse of the airlines. To meet new competition, Douglas, which stopped building the plane four years ago, will increase the passenger seats of the "Threes" from 21 to 28. New engines will boost their cruising speed as much as 45 m.p.h. (to 234 m.p.h.). Other changes: a square-tipped wing, and built-in steps for quicker passenger loading.

Finance. When stockholders brought a bankruptcy suit against the Tucker Corp., President Preston Tucker won 60 days to produce financial backing from an unnamed "angel." Last week Tucker reported that the backer had backed out. But, he said, five others--including "an Eastern syndicate, a West Coast syndicate, two big companies and an internationally known banker"--were interested. Chicago's Federal Judge Michael L. Igoe said he didn't "have the least bit of confidence in [Tucker's] statements," but he gave him until March 3 to put up the cash or close down his shop.

Metals. Copper, zinc and lead may become even scarcer. The Munitions Board, which runs the U.S. stockpile of strategic materials, said it would step up its purchases of 68 critical items to bring the stockpile up to 39% of planned size. The $525 million authorized for purchases this fiscal year, said Board Chairman Donald F. Carpenter, had already been spent or contracted for, and Carpenter will ask Congress for another $310 million. The stockpile's eventual value: $3,693,000,000.

Television. Radio Corp. of America unveiled its long-expected 16-inch metal television tube (see cut). It is 18 1/2 lbs. lighter than those made of glass and with mass production will eventually reduce the price of 16-inch television table model sets to "about $400" from the present price of $495. To meet the new competition, Corning Glass Works announced that the price of its 16-inch glass tubes, in mass production, would be cut 24%.

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