Word: coal
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Ever since the dawn of atomic power, scientists have dreamed of converting nuclear energy directly into electricity. The potential is clear from a simple statistic: a single pound of uranium 235 has the same fuel energy as 1,500 Ibs. of coal. But present atomic power plants must go through costly intermediate steps: nuclear fission produces heat, the heat is used to generate steam, the steam drives a turbine, the turbine generates the electricity...
...temperatures between 850° F. and 1,500° F., achieved an estimated 10% efficiency. Compared to the 40% efficiency of the biggest electric generators now in operation, this is not sensational. But future development may close the gap, make possible efficient direct generation of electricity from a coal fire, nuclear reactor or other heat source...
...settled for a modest increase that poses no threat to steel's position as one of the best-paying big businesses. Steelworker gross earnings averaged $2.88 an hour last year, 35? better than autoworkers and 75? better than the average for all manufacturing; among production workers only bituminous coal miners ($3.02 an hour) and flat-glass workers ($2.91) averaged more...
...business. On public sale fortnight ago went a sizable block of stock in one of the 300 nationalized companies inherited by the government after World War II: 300,000 shares of the big (1958 sales estimate: $178 million) Preussag mining combine, whose activities range from coal mining to oil refining. The government took the step with some misgivings: a 1958 poll seemed to indicate that 40% of all Germans had little knowledge of stock, and presumably little interest. The doubts were groundless. The shares were snapped up so fast that the Bonn government decided last week to allot an additional...
...year could subscribe. By tempting the purses of middle-class citizens, the government hopes both to keep them from socialism and to tap the $9.3 billion West Germans have locked up in small savings accounts. The next issue will probably be the giant Viag heavy-industry holding company (coal, aluminum, steel, copper, electric power). By next year the government hopes to get legal complications out of the way, sell Germany's famed Volkswagen company to small stockholders. Said Economics Minister Erhard: "The successful issue of People's Shares is a milestone in our economic history and marks...