Convairiety, Volume 7, Number 8, Wednesday, April 21, 1954 Page: 5 of 8
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April 21, 1954
CONVAIRIETY
$
Page 5
DOLLAR STRETCHING
Self-Taught Sewing Authority
Offers Tips to Pomona Women
The present-day dollar may be worth less than 50 cents
for purchasing most commodities, but it’s worth about $10
for buying clothes when spent by Convair Pomona’s Janet
Tanner (Dept. 8)
Mrs. Tanner once “bought” a
$200 original suit for less than
$18, and it’s not uncommon for
her to add a $50 dress to her
wardrobe for $5 or less. Her se-
cret ? She makes all her own
clothes, by either duplicating fash-
ion magazine illustrations or ac-
tual garments she sees in stores,
creating her own patterns, or
adapting stock patterns to her
requirements.
A former professional sewing
teacher and sewing machine dis-
tributor, Mrs. Tanner is currently
teaching dressmaking to seven
Convair girls and is planning to
start another class in the near
of experience required to use it
correctly, or whether it is a style
that will be becoming to them.
This is indeed frustrating,” she
said. “But it can be avoided by
selecting simple patterns at first.
“Another common error is fail-
ure to correlate pattern and fab-
ric. Either selected without re-
gard to the requirements of the
other will usually result in a fin-
ished garment that doesn’t even
faintly resemble the dress that
was planned. Experience or quali-
fied advice are the solutions
here.”
Mrs. Tanner has developed
her own method of teaching,
and her courses, which include
“short cuts” and “tricks of the
trade,” are available free to all
Convair Pomona women (em-
ployees only). Dressmaking
classes last six weeks, the
tailoring course eight weeks.
Classes meet once a week. En-
rollment is limited to 10 stu-
dents for each class. A clinic
for women who know how to
sew, but who need special in-
struction, will be held the first
20 minutes of any meeting
when requested. For further in-
formation and details, phone
employee service at Pomona,
ext. 6280-81.
future. She’s doing it as a hobby
on her own time—the only cost to
students is for materials and
patterns.
“Sewing is no longer the tedi-
ous task that our grandmothers
dreaded,” she said. “With im-
proved materials and equipment
sewing is not only fun, it’s a
medium for self-expression.”
Although her early attempts at
sewing were, in her words,
“miserable failures,” Mrs. Tanner
decided to try again while her
husband was in the Air Force
during World War II. She pro-
gressed rapidly, and soon was
helping other wives at the base.
Her fame spread, and she made
several guest appearances on
radio and television shows. One
of these programs brought her
into contact with a representa-
tive of a sewing machine com-
pany, and a short time later she
became a distributor for the com-
pany. She was featured in news-
paper stories and her “success
story” occupies several pages in
the book, “Every Woman’s Guide
to Spare Time Income.”
Business was thriving and her
students numbered in the hun-
dreds when her husband was re-
called into the Air Force in 1951.
She sold her business and closed
her classes in order to be with
him.
Disappointments suffered by
women who have tried unsuccess-
fully to sew can usually be traced,
Mrs. Tanner said.
“Many women select a pattern
without thought as to the degree
IN PLAID—Employee Sugges-
tion boxes at Convair SD broke
out in a new dress of paint re-
cently, a fine Scotch plaid, in
keeping with Connie MacSave-it
theme.
Purchasing Agents
Meet in FW Plant
Sixty-nine members of the Fort
Worth Purchasing Agents Asso-
ciation held their regular monthly
meeting at Fort Worth Division
' April 2 and toured the plant as
the guest of H. C. Deckard, night
manager. Speakers included O. A.
Dworak, H. C. Jones, C. R. Schu-
ler, J. H. Deitzer, James Kin-
cannon and Deckard.
MEASURING — Janet Tanner
uses special device to measure
hem for Mary Jane Lening in
dressmaking class.
HOT SPOT—This is solar furnace at Convair San Diego, being used to test heat resistant
qualities of various materials in search for those best suited for aircraft and missiles of future. Sun's
rays, pin-pointed, can develop up to 8,500 degrees!
Convair Harnessing Sun s Rays in Tests
Of Materials Under High Temperatures
Convair engineers at San Diego are harnessing the sun
to aid research on various materials now used in Convair-
built aircraft and to help develop materials for the aircraft
of the future.
And it’s all done with mirrors!
Utilizing the largest solar fur-
nace in the United States, engi-
neers are drawing power from a
10,000-degree F. heat source—the
sun’s surface. Sun rays are col-
lected by a 120-inch-diameter pol-
ished aluminum mirror formed
into a parabolic reflector which
focuses these rays on a point
smaller than a dime (5/16th of an
inch in diameter).
The resulting heat spot sur-
passes by far the hottest blow-
torch or electric furnace. Steel
bolts melt like butter and even
firebrick (used to line the most
powerful man-made furnaces) are
easily penetrated within a matter
of seconds.
This terrific heat is applied to
materials that one day may make
up airframes of jet or rocket air-
craft or guided missiles, mate-
rials that will prove more re-
sistant to heat or thermal shock
than any now known. It also
helps to improve current mate-
rials now in use on production
airplanes.
With ideal sky conditions the
furnace can develop an estimated
maximum of 8,500 degrees F. For
comparison, heat produced by an
oxyacetylene torch is around 5,800
degrees F. Iron melts at a mere
2,800 degrees and tungsten tops
the list of metals at 6,100 de-
grees. Graphite, long supreme
heat-resisting material, turns
from solid into vapor at about
6,000 degrees.
A bridge structure spanning the
mirror a short distance beyond
the focal spot supports the speci-
men holder. A motor-driven screw
makes it possible to move larger
test items through the heat cen-
ter. The bridge also supports an
aluminum cylindrical barrel used
Tanner, Barbara Fortner, Mary Jane Lening, Cecile Desforge. .
to shade parts of the mirror from
the specimen so that the amount
of solar radiation concentrated on
the specimen can be controlled to
within a degree or two. An ac-
curate clock mechanism, driven by
a synchronous motor, coordinates
movements of the mirror with
that of the sun, permitting ex-
periments of an hour’s duration.
A central opening 22 inches in
diameter permits easy observation
of the focal spot area from a
position on the ground behind the
mirror. A telescope mounted in
this opening permits viewing de-
tails of heating or melting magni-
fied about 20 times.
Heating is accomplished under
very pure conditions with the fur-
nace in an oxidizing atmosphere
without the interference from
electric or magnetic fields or
gases which often occur in other
types of furnaces.
While the furnace is available
to all Convair engineering groups
or related units for tests, it is
chiefly under the jurisdiction of
the thermodynamics group of
engineering under H. F. Dunhol-
ter, chief of thermodynamics.
The furnace is now being used
outside Building 51, Plant 1. How-
ever, to overcome sky haze and
clouds which greatly reduce the
efficiency of the furnace, Convair
is studying plans to move it atop
a mountain near San Diego.
★ ★ ★
Furnace's Hot Spot
Has Got Hotter as
It's Been Developed
While Convair has had the solar
furnace only about 18 months, it
has been aiding scientific research
for a number of years dating
back to a little known project of
World War II.
The 120-inch furnace was built
during this period for the AC
Spark Plug Division of General
Motors with the cooperation of
the Aluminum Company of Amer-
ica. Originally, 16 reflecting sec-
tors of quarter-inch sheet alumi-
num gave it a saucer-sized hot
spot of up to 2,000 degrees tem-
perature.
After the war, when it became
surplus, it was moved to Rock-
hurst College in Kansas City, Mo.,
and used in scientific studies by
its designer, Willi Conn. Having
reshaped the mirror to obtain a
smaller hot spot and much higher
temperature, he perfected the
technique of controlling and
measuring the extreme heat ac-
curately. Later Convair purchased
the furnace and further modified
it.
Demonstrating principle of
solar furnace is George Leesch
of Dept. 6 SD. Heat from tiny
reflector is sufficient to light his
cigarette!
Jack Hallman of Dept. 6 SD
adjusts "hot spot" where sun's
rays are centered in material
testing.
From underneath reflector, this
is how "hot spot" looks. Reflec-
tor is constructed so that sun's
rays concentrate here.
These are samples of various
materials that have been sub-
jected to heat treatment. Fire
brick (top of photo) shows effects
of melting.
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Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation. Convairiety, Volume 7, Number 8, Wednesday, April 21, 1954, periodical, April 21, 1954; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth777505/m1/5/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company, Fort Worth.