Word: comets
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Duke of Edinburgh enjoyed his first ride in a jet aircraft: a 72-minute, 500-m.p.h. test flight over southern England and the Channel. The plane: British Overseas Airways' new Comet airliner, designed to launch commercial jet travel this spring between Britain and South Africa...
Ever since Halley's comet flickered across the television screens last year, the U.S. has been discussing organized graft and crime. Still, the U.S. may not quite understand how organized crime can become. Subjected to the American genius for systematic administration, the casual bribe and the brutal threat are sublimated (and made more dangerous) by standardization of services, fixing of prices, replacement of piecework by a regular wage, centralization of authority and cost accountancy. A case in point is that of James J. Moran...
...armed services use the lead-alloy Comet models ("accurate down to the thickness of the lacquer") to teach identification, demonstrate naval, land and air maneuvers on miniature battle grounds, and practice range-finding for gunners. Working from photos, blueprints or handmade models supplied by the armed forces, Comet's 50-man production line is ringed with the same security as many another defense plant. In an emergency, Comet's diemakers have turned out models of a weapon in 72 hours, from drawing board to finished product. At the time the first Walker Bulldog tanks rolled off the Cadillac...
...Comet was started as a die-casting shop in 1919 by the Slonim brothers' immigrant father. When the two sons came into the business during the mid-'30s, they parlayed their hobby of toy soldiers into a profitable sideline. Three days after Pearl Harbor, Comet got its first Government order, made 50,000 model warships for the Navy. In 1943, its peak year, it turned out more than $2,000,000 in models for the Government, everything from a ½-in. U.S. infantryman in full battle dress (price: $1.85 a dozen) to a complicated submarine with a finished...
During World War II, everything Comet made went to the Government; one-third of their $500,000-a-year output still does. But now Comet also sells military models to hobbyists. In addition, Comet makes models of hot-dog stands (for use by model-train enthusiasts), football players (for skull-practice sessions), and scale models of furniture and production lines (for laying out factory and office space...