Word: snow
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...When the snow is melting and the sap is running in the maple trees, town-meeting time comes to New England. Gone are the uncomplicated days when every municipal decision, big or little, was threshed out at weekly meetings; but most towns of less than 5,000 population (and some larger towns, too) still hold yearly or twice-yearly meetings at which the citizens elect local officials, vote appropriations and taxes, and turn a watchful eye-and often a sharp tongue-on the town administration's performance. Some meetings held this month...
...protests pour in, the police present a series of rationalizations in answer. They carp on the old favorites of parked cars impeding snow clearance and blocking fire engines on the way to a night-time blaze. Now that snow has migrated north, the study fire engines must bear the bulk of the rather shaky argument. During the day the Fire Department has to battle through streets cluttered with parked and moving cars, and seems to fare pretty well. There is no reason why they could not do even better at night, when there are few drivers about...
...floor, six separate labs are insulated by aluminum-painted cork and cooled by chemical refrigerants that circulate from great tanks on the roof. The "Wet Snow" lab, warmest of the six, stays at one degree above freezing, while one man at a time works with snow shipped down by refrigerated trucks from Michigan and northern Wisconsin. The added body heat of a second scientist might melt away an expensive experiment...
...thing the experimenters want to know: Why does snow vary in weight all the way from one to 40 Ibs. a cu. ft.? They are measuring its tensile strength, learning which varieties can be packed into runways, which must be scraped away. And they are studying its reaction to bomb blasts...
...slant: How should vehicles be redesigned? Can camouflage be improved? What is the best way to destroy the ice under an advancing enemy? But some day, SIPRE's scientists hope to turn to more peaceful problems, for their work has practical value wherever man tries to live with snow, ice and frozen ground...