The Birthday Chronicle
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Nation · Science
Keel Laid for First Atomic Submarine
At Groton the Navy begins a vessel that will never need to surface for air
GROTON, Conn., June 14 — Shipyard men laid the keel of the Nautilus today, the first vessel in the history of the United States Navy built to travel beneath the sea for weeks at a time without rising for air. The ceremony was brief. A crane swung the first steel plate into place before a crowd of yard workers and their families, and the band played the Navy hymn twice.
The Nautilus will be driven by a reactor rather than by diesel engines or batteries, a change naval engineers describe as the largest since the service abandoned sail. Officers expect the boat to run on nuclear power by the middle of the decade, and to remain submerged longer than any submarine now afloat.
The Navy's submarine fleet has grown steadily since the war, and the new boat is meant to answer a simple question the admirals have asked for years: how long can a ship stay hidden. Diesel boats must surface or snorkel to run their engines. A reactor needs no outside air at all.
Work on the hull is expected to occupy the yard for the better part of two years. Wages at the shipyard stand at about $1.60 an hour, and the help wanted sign has been out since spring.
The Day's Markets
- Dow Jones Industrials278.44
▲ 2.13 on the day
- S&P Composite27.11
▲ 0.18
- U.S. Steel52 ⅛
Unchanged
- Unemployment2.9%
Near a postwar low
Closing figures, Friday, June 13, 1952
Ten Dollars, Invested
$3,027
S&P 500 index, June 13, 1952 to November 6, 2026. Index price only, dividends not reinvested.
What Things Cost
- Gallon of gasoline20¢
- Median new home$9,050
- Loaf of bread16¢
- Gallon of milk96¢
- New automobile$1,700
- Movie ticket50¢
On This Day
Politics
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower returns from his NATO command in Europe and turns toward the Republican nomination. The convention opens in Chicago next month.
The World
The battleship Wisconsin continues to shell targets along the Korean coast while armistice talks at Panmunjom remain stalled over the exchange of prisoners.
Science & Health
Dr. Jonas Salk reports progress on a vaccine against poliomyelitis, the disease that has closed swimming pools and movie houses in a dozen states this summer.
At the Pictures
"Singin' in the Rain," with Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds, continues its run downtown. Tickets are fifty cents before six o'clock.
In Sports
Jersey Joe Walcott, at thirty-eight, still holds the heavyweight crown and is expected to meet Rocky Marciano in the fall.
Around the House
A new three-bedroom house in Levittown lists at $9,050, with $500 down and a thirty-year mortgage at four and a half per cent.
The Culture Desk
- Number One Song
- Blue Tango
- Leroy Anderson
- At the Pictures
- Singin' in the Rain
- Gene Kelly · Debbie Reynolds
- On Television
- I Love Lucy
- CBS, Monday nights
- Best Seller
- The Caine Mutiny
- Herman Wouk
- Sporting Page
- Jersey Joe Walcott
- Heavyweight champion