SCIENCE THE SPUTNIKS: FANTASIES AND FACTS

Two recent papers in the Proceedings of the American Institute of Radio Engineers suggest that the end of © by the newspapers. Sputnik 1 was not the simple plunge to earth presented The American scientists first observed that the radio transmitters of Sputnik 1 could be heard when it was near the

Tue NEWSLETTER other side of the earth, as was mentioned also by Radio measurements on the flaming corpse of Sputnik If. They measured a size which included. flaming particles being thrown Moscow.

off. Radar sets also gave the wrong size at the end because - After the transmitters failed, it was found that station WWYV in Washington could. be received faintly in Columbus the extremely hot air near Sputnik reflects radar waves. (Ohio) every night when the rocket passed nearby. The signals To explain this enormous, fictitious size they had to give Sputnik II an incredible weight, or it would have been stopped were being reflected from the rocket.

Five fragments were seen to drift slowly apart over several by the air long ago. days and to fall to earth one by one. These scientists did not Measurements at Jodrell Bank in Cheshire four months ago showed Sputnik II was very much the size the Russians said. have a powerful radar set, and so far their report is the only one mentioning a break-up of Sputnik 1 before it crashed. As for the sputnik weighing six tons which, we are told on the authority of a Hungarian youth paper, is shortly to So perhaps it should be treated with a little reserve, even orbit round the earth and moon, the matter was set out quite though no other explanation is evident.

It is the distinctive time signals and standard musical notes clearly in The Newsletter of February 15. broadcast by WWV which enabled the scientists to identify it. WWV is also silent for four minutes in each hour, and Confirmed on Moscow Radic a clear break is visible in the record at these times. The Soviets could now send a small and scientifically valueWWYV and its twin WWVH (Hawaii) on 20,000 megacycles less rocket to the moon, and no more. This was explicitly gave an easy means of tuning to Sputnik (20,005 megacycles) confirmed by Moscow Radio a few days later. where they could be picked up. Many shortwave receivers will A little consideration shows that to send a sputnik weighing only just separate them, and this led to the musical notes six tons into orbit needs a rocket about. seven or eight times of WWV being attributed to Sputnik. the weight of the rocket used to launch Sputnik II. So such a ’ The situation was made worse by the fact that, as the scien- rocket would weigh very roughly 4,000 tons at launching. tists showed, WWV was heard in unusual places because of To send six tons round the moon is equivalent to getting Sputnik passing by. this 4,000-ton rocket up to 2} miles a second—using a rocket weighing one or two million tons. * ¥ x There is room for much error in these calculations, but not ;

Tue flaming end of Sputnik IT has just produced a new nearly room enough to make anything but nonsense of talk about six-ton rockets to the moon with present-day fuels. crop of fantasies.

The Newsletter of February 15 (p. 49) gave the weight of No doubt careful observations were made on the light the Sputnik rocket motor—670lb.—as. broadcast by Radio from.the burning of Sputnik II. Analysis of the precise colours "of this light will tell anyone just what was burning, and roughly Moscow. It is therefore a little late in the day to be saying “how much of each kind of metal was in the alloy, just as it it may have been as much as four tons.

The trouble is that some people have misinterpreted has told us the composition of the sun and stars.

By PAUE SIMON” -industrial combine that can ROPERTY speculation has a very special place in capitalist society. An bring factories, plant, raw materials and labour power together and then produce, distribute and market a commodity is performing a complicated and socially necessary function, whatever surplus value might arise from the property relations in which the process takes place.

In the case of property speculation, however, even the created change in the character of its setting. But now it most ardent bourgeois apologist would be hard put to begins life in earnest. it to discover any such socially necessary function. Our land is up for sale, ‘ripe for development’, and Joe I have. always understood that ‘profit’ or surplus value arises Smith buys it. Note: Joe Smith buys it, not your favourite not by selling something above its value, or buying below multiple. Today the big chain stores are less and less intervalue, but by buying labour power for less than the value ested in owning the land on which their stores are built.

labour creates. Joe Smith buys it, but Joe Smith is not Joe Soap, and does In the case of property I begin to wonder. Let me give nothing foolish and obvious like using his own money. an example. To begin at the beginning, most property development. starts. with land. Joe gets an overdraft There is, of course, land and land. The land we are conOh no, Joe Smith’s bank manager, fellow-Rotarian, fellowcerned with is not the land the farmer grows his crops on.

Mason, and fellow-golfer lets Joe have an overdraft, which Our land is much more complex. puts up the bank’s profit figures, oils the wheels of commerce It may start its life in capitalist society as part of the kitchen and greases or cements (whichever you prefer) fellowship all garden of a humble retainer in a Midlands village. Happy and _ peaceful, our bit of land might just sleep and sleep. round; --- — - ~ eee ee ae ao -- Joe, not- having a good enough handicap at golf, or possibly only being a-junior mernber of the lodge, cannot persuade Capitalism transforms the village his bank manager to let him have enough credit to actually pay Meanwhile, around it, capitalism transforms the village, a builder to build a shop.

builds factories (which need workers, who need houses) builds So another of Joe’s pals, the managing director of a national housing estates (which need shops) builds roads or widens firm of building contractors, agrees with Joe that: his firm existing streets, develops focal points of business activity and will put up the building required on credit. After all it is more produces the modern urban ‘multiple shopping position’. work for the firm. , Then our land might wake up and find that it is a highly Although Joe’s face does fit they will require a cut of the desirable, immensely valuable bit of Jand. Because Woolworths ultimate profit. After five gin-and-tonics and a gruelling fiveand Marks and Spencers, Burtons and John Colliers, Sainsburys course lunch the cut is agreed—fifty-fifty.

and the Co-op now occupy all the remaining plots, our land Work begins and soon our bit of land now has on it a is the only bit left. completed building. The gap in the row of shops is filled.

“Tf it did but know it, our land has changed hands many : Because of its position there are many groups keen to occupy times already, in each case corresponding to some socially “it

Tue NEWSLETTER Joe, however, is desperately unhappy. He is scared stiff of settling at anything but the maximum rental he can possibly get.

More gin-and-tonics, more gruelling lunches, sustain him . . through this difficult period and finally he gets what even he thinks is good, Enter the household name A household name takes out a 21-year lease at a rent of so much per_annum, with increases at seven and 14 years.

It is obvious to anyone with the least bit of confidence in the capitalist system that the household name will continue to pay that rent during the worst slump, to keep going for the next boom, and the rent revisions in seven and 14 years are a useful buffer against inflation.

But Joe is not out of the wood yet. By.no means. The bank ; manager only agreed to the overdraft for a short period—say 18 months—and he wants the money back.

The builder got his money to put the building up from his bank manager, with the same time limit. These sums together are a lot of money, and it would be nine or ten years before the rent would cover this, not even allowing for tax deductions, interest charges and so on.

But Joe can cope. His third friend is a managing director of a large national insurance company. This company has huge funds at its disposal.

Some of this money it ties up in cast-iron securities showing a low return, to give it a solid foundation. Some it ties up to show a high return, so that it can pay for the claims that it is forced to agree to.

After several gin-and-tonics and another awful luncheon, the insurance company finally agrees to buy the site, with the building on it, with the lease of the well-known company, for sums of money equal to, say, twelve times the annual rent, giving them a return of just under 8 per cent. on: their money.

This money pays off Jce’s bank overdraft, the builders’ bank overdraft, between a third and a half of what is left goes to the tax man, and of the remainder Joe gets his 50 per cent. and his builder pal gets his 50°per cent.

Joe’s cut might be only a few thousand pounds, but he did it, please note, with no money of his own involved.

After a few years Joe gets to know his way around, and can refine the process in the most beautiful and subtle ways, mostly to do with cutting out the only real intruder in the whole process—the tax collector.