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Magicians of
Monmouth

Saturday Evening Post
by Shalett, S.

Aug. 23, 1952

pages. 34-35, 58, 62, 64, and 66 

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Miniaturization, Ruggedization and Reliability

 In almost everything it undertakes, SCEL is attempting to live up to its current watchword, summed up in typically awkward military phraseology as “Miniaturization, Ruggedization and Reliability.”  In plain English, that means the Signal Corps wants its equipment as small and light as possible, so it won’t break an infantryman’s back to lug it and so it will fit into an airplane for use in airborne warfare; it would like it sturdy enough to kick around or drop out of a plane without smashing; and the corps also wants it to work as long as possible under bad conditions.

 Already it has accomplished much along these lines.  Its new portable twelve-line telephone switchboard, for instance, weights only twenty-two pounds and is smaller than the average portable typewriter.  The older board which it replaced of a World War II four-channel-carrier telephone terminal has been cut from 550 to 177 pounds.  Both weight and size of the post-World War II walkie-talkie have been cut exactly in half, while the range has been increased from three to five miles.  More than four pounds have been sliced from the weight of the new field-telephone set that soldiers will carry, while the range has been increased 30 per cent.  Similar comparisons prevail all across the board, and these accomplishments make the Signal Corps engineers the darlings of the soldiers who have to tote the hardware.  It must be borne in  mind that equipment which does more work per unit and which takes less space affords impressive savings in manpower, in shipping space and in critical  materials.


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