Mar 25 1963
From The Space Library
Three major U.S. television networks each broadcast seven-minute programs from Paris to New York via RELAY I communications satellite. (AP, Wash. Eve. Star, 3/25/63)
Large flaming meteor visible over eastern U.S. from New York to North Carolina about 10 p.m. EST. (AP, Wash. Post, 3/26/63)
NASA Administrator Webb wrote letters to the respective chairmen of the House and Senate space committees indicating that a mid-city location in Boston on land now owned by the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority might provide an alternate location for the proposed NASA Electronics Research Center. He pointed out that if authorization for the Center and its location in the Boston area were approved NASA was going to not only carefully consider the original possibility of obtaining 1,000 acres of land as near as possible to Harvard and MIT, but also the alternate location, utilizing air-rights with multi-story structures on a smaller area. (Texts, NASA Release 62-63)
Dr. Lyman J. Briggs (1874-1963), Director Emeritus of the Bureau of Standards and a former member of the NACA (1933-45), died in Washington, D.C. He began his government career in 1896 as a physicist in the Department of Agriculture, originating the centrifuge method of classifying soils, organizing the biophysical lab in 1906. He joined the Bureau of Standards in 1917 and became its Director in 1933; his early research resulted in improvement in the accuracy of large naval guns, the invention with Dr. Paul R. Heyl of the earth inductor compass (used by Lindbergh), and air viscosity experiments leading to improved propeller designs. NACA Report No. 207 by Briggs, G: F. Hall, and Hugh L. Dryden (on "Aerodynamic Characteristics of Airfoils at High Speeds,") issued in 1924 was considered a major contribution on airfoils at near supersonic speeds. In 1939, the White House named Dr. Briggs as chairman of the original Uranium Committee to study the military use of atomic energy, which led to the Manhattan Project and Hiroshima. For his work on the proximity fuse during World War II, he was awarded the Medal of Merit by President Truman. Dr. Briggs retired in 1945, but continued research including confirmation in 1959 that pitched baseballs could curve as much as 17 inches in 60 feet. (Wash. Eve. Star, 3/2/63, A5)
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