Authentic Science Fiction Monthly, No. 65 — page 119: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Some Scientific Applications of Photography by TREVOR HOLLOWAY HE AVERAGE PERSON, IF asked to list a few applications of photo- graphy, would probably think in terms of holiday and family snapshots, studio portraits or the cinema. In other words, the hobby or entertainment angles. There is much more in modern photography than its leisure-time applications! It is daily becoming more and more the handmaid of science and industry and is already responsible for many develop- ments relating to our health, comfort and convenience. The past ten years have seen remarkable advances in field of industrial radiography as a non-destructive method of detecting hidden faults in metal castings, welds and other engineering products. Indeed, without the assistance of radiography in World War II we might have lost the battle for air supremacy. Out- 118 wardly, a casting may appear to be a perfectly sound job of work, whereas in actual fact it may have one or more of a number of internal faults— gas cavities, sand or slag inclusions, shrinkage defects and so forth. The old method of in- specting trial castings by sec- tioning was far from satis- factory. Not only was it destructive and thereby ex- pensive, but it was quite possible for the line of section to miss a serious flaw. A radiograph obtained by use of X-rays or maybe gamma- rays reveals every flaw without in any way damaging the casting under inspection. An undetected flaw may ruin a firm’s reputation. Worse still, it may eventually result in tragic loss of life or injury to many people. It is a significant fact that Lloyd’s Register of Shipping specifies radiographic inspection as an comiclooks.corn