Attention, Inventors!

Tremendous technical advances have been made since World War II, but the nation's soldiers, sailors and airmen are still dissatisfied with much of their combat equipment. To spur on U.S. industrialists, scientists and ordinary basement inventors, the U.S. Department of Commerce last week issued its periodic list of new gadgets and gimmicks needed by the armed forces. Sample items:

P:A new, puttylike material for oxygen masks that can be molded to fit the individual airman's face -for men who cannot fit standard rubber oxygen masks.

P:A mechanical device for quickly laying barbed wire on a battlefield. Using present hand methods, it takes nine soldiers six hours to set up a double-apron entanglement 300 yards long and 10 feet wide.

P:New track for vehicles. Present steel-tank treads chew up paved roads.

P:A compound that will solidify spongy soil, ease construction of forward roads and airstrips.

P:A new technique for detecting land mines. Standard mine detectors find metallic mines only; in Korea, the best enemy mines were cased in wood.

P:A simple, lightweight carbon monoxide indicator to detect the deadly gas in aircraft cockpits and compartments.

P:A nonsonic method of determining the range and direction of enemy submarines. Sonar has a comparatively short range and is hard to use at high speed.

P:A noncorrosive chemical for melting snow and ice on arctic runways at temperatures as low as --65DEG F.

P:A"very critical" need is a device to cut the racket of turbojet and jet engines, a growing Air Force public-relations headache (TIME, Oct. 11).

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