Our Letter Bag

THERE can be few instances of a monthly magazine running a serial, however popular, over twenty‐two issues. Even the earlier stories of Charles Dickens, long though they are by comparison with many modern novels, can hardly have taken so long as nearly two years to reach their finale in the pages of ‘House‐hold Words’ nor did, we suppose, an eager public avidly devour ‘The Yellowplush Papers’ over so long a period. When we received MR. CLEAVER'S letter which appears in this issue we looked back through the files of AIRCRAFT ENGINEERING to refresh our memory as to when his original article appeared. In the end it was not a case of recalling to mind a well‐remembered fact so much as of making a fresh incursion into history. For to our astonishment we discovered that it did not appear, as we had thought, during 1946 but dated back to so long ago as June, 1945. Like the best cheese or, to adopt a more pleasing simile, a vintage wine, it was some time in coming to maturity. Indeed the comparison with a feuilleton breaks down on closer examination because there was a gap of three months before the next instalment appeared, in September, 1945, in the form of a letter from MR. MALLINSON and it was not in fact until January of the following year that the subject was reviewed by a further contribution —this time from Holland—pointing out a slight mistake made by MR. MALLINSON; his frank acknowledgment of which we published two months later. After another lull, there appeared in September a letter from M. JAUMOTTE of the University of Brussels questioning the basis of the structure on which MR. CLEAVER'S theories, as on the whole confirmed by MR. MALLINSON, had been built up. This produced firmly worded protests from both these gentlemen, supported from a fresh quarter by a letter from one whose name was already well‐known as a contributor, MR. KRZYWOBLOCKI, a Pole who had found sanctuary in the University of Illinois. Owing to the exigencies of space we were unable to make room for these contributions till December, when between them they filled two pages. There we thought the matter would rest but there was still one more letter to come, this time from M. EESTERMANS of Paris; adding still another to the number of nations that have interested themselves in the controversy.