XI 



METALS THAT BUILD NEW WORLDS 



MOST OF us are incapable of realizing the extent to which new 

 metals will transform tomorrow's world. We are in the habit 

 of looking to new mechanical devices and discoveries for por- 

 tents of the future. It is true that in the past such inventions 

 have revolutionized everyday living. But in tomorrow's world 

 nearly everything we touch, see, and use will have been pro- 

 foundly altered by the new light, powerful metals developed 

 in recent months for war use. These metals will make possible 

 the manufacture of a thousand aids, comforts, and safety de- 

 vices we do not know today. 



A glance at the war picture will reveal why some of them 

 were developed. 



A violent Nazi antiaircraft barrage tosses the Flying Fort- 

 ress about as it completes its bombing run over the target. 

 Suddenly a waist gunner is knocked several feet and slumps 

 to the floor. The bomber weathers the storm of bursting 

 shells; and a companion bends anxiously over the waist gun- 

 ner, who has regained consciousness and is trying to get up. 

 Examination shows that he merely had been stunned by a 

 piece of flak which dented, but did not pierce, a new steel 

 jacket he is wearing. This device is a sleeveless canvas jacket 

 with slits into which one hundred and twenty pounds of 

 tough steel plates are slipped. It can be removed instantly by 

 pulling a release cord. 



North American P-52 Mustangs roar across France, blazing 

 away at Nazi ground defenses and freight trains. At least 



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