KU
SUMMER SESSION KANSAN
47th Year, No.10
Tuesday, July 14, 1959
LAWRENCE, KANSAS
Fire Again Strikes Mud Hut
Hyders Injured In Texas Crash; Condition Good
SHREVPORT, La—Dr. and Mrs.
Cllyde Hyder, who were injured
Thursday near here when their car
and a pulwood truck collided, were
reported Monday in good condition
in a hospital here.
According to Dr. Carson Reed, who was reached by telephone at the North Louisiana Sanatorium. Dr. Hvder, professor of English and editor of the University Press at KU, suffered a concussion and laceration of the scalp.
Another passenger in the car, the Hyders' daughter, Katherine, 13, was released with a sprained wrist. Mr. and Mrs. Hyder should be released within a "couple of weeks," Dr. Reed said. Mrs. Dwight Prentice of Lawrence, another passenger in the car, suffered a possible back injury.
KU Runs Out Of Vaccine
The accident occurred at the intersection of U.S. 84 and State Highway 11, just inside the Texas line Both vehicles involved in the collision were badly damaged.
"We do not know when exactly but we will get more in. It is difficult to obtain." Dr. Gross said.
Watkins Hospital does not have Salk vaccine available now, but expects to get some in soon, according to Dr. Maurice E. Gross, of the health service.
So far this year, no polio cases have been reported at the University or in Lawrence. Local doctors have been busy giving inoculations of the vaccine during the past weeks to prevent an epidemic similar to the one in Kansas City.
The epidemics in Kansas City and Des Moines have caused a rush on laboratories' stocks of the drug, it was reported.
An official at the Medical Arts Center in Lawrence said he felt sure most local doctors had a supply of the vaccine, but "we don't have any backlog at the present."
Storms Expected To Cover Kansas
TOPEKA — (UPI) Thunderstorms already started in the eastern part of the state were expected to spread over all of Kansas and continue today, the U.S. Weather Bureau said.
The weathermen said most of the state could expect locally warmer temperatures today and tonight, with highs today reaching the 90s.
Half-inch rains fell in a strip from McFarland south to Cottonwood Falls and Burlington. Scott City reported .70.
Cities reporting more than an inch of rain Sunday were Atwood 1.90 Hutchinson 2.86, Kingman 1.37 Kanopolis 1.31, Langley 4 inches LeRoy 1.15, Fredonia 1.51, and Thayer 1.96.
Conditions were unsettled over the state. There were locally heavy rains.
Extreme temperatures were 88 at Hutchinson and 77 at Forbes Air Force Base in suburban Topeka.
WHAT NOW?-Firemen climb to the roof over the laboratory in the southwest corner of the "Mud Hut" to check for additional signs of fire. The Lawrence Fire Department, using the single
pump truck pictured, extinguished the main fire and was looking for smouldering rafters and sections of the roof 30 minutes after arriving on the scene.
"Mud Hut." Swift is taking a close look at the apparatus which housed a solvent bath that burst into flames. Remains of the solvent container are shown on the floor underneath Swift.
NOT AGAIN!!!—Newell Rodewald, John Lohrenz, and Bill Swift (left to right), all graduate students in chemical engineering, look over the results of the latest experimental accident at the
By Ray Miller
The "Mud Hut," located behind Marvin Hall, was the scene of heavy damage for the second time within 10 weeks Saturday as the Research Foundation portion of the chemical engineering department continued to be plagued by experimental accidents.
The research laboratory, located in the southwest corner of the "Hut." caught fire when a solvent bath burst into flames at approximately 10:30 am Saturday.
Newell Rodewald, Lawrence graduate student in chemical engineering, said the accident occurred as Thomas Rogers, graduate research assistant, was removing a solvent bath from a piece of apparatus used to experiment on low-temperature viscosity measurements of menthane. Rogers was alone in the laboratory at the time of the accident.
Rodewald said the solvent vapors ignited, and Rogers dropped the vat. The vat contained from two to three gallons of iso-pentane, a component of gasoline.
Rogers was admitted to Watkins Memorial Hospital where he was treated for minor burns on the legs. He was not held at the hospital.
The fire then spread to other pieces of equipment, climbing to the ceiling where the ceiling boards, rafters and part of the roof ignited. The fire was confined to the laboratory.
University officials declined yesterday to make any estimate as to the amount of total damages.
"It will be some time before the total cost will be known," said Keith Lawton, director of physical plant. He explained that most of the fire damage was in the attic and that phone lines and electrical lines will have to be replaced. He said that no figure had been set for equipment damaged in the laboratory itself. Damage to the radio lab was mostly due to water and smoke, he added.
The Lawrence Fire Department arrived on the scene at 16:47 a.m. and had the fire under control approximately 30 minutes later. As in the case when a piece of apparatus blew up last May 8, injuring two, starting a small fire and blowing out windows, the fire department had trouble with a large crowd of spectators.
Station KANU, the KU FM radio station housed in the east side of the building, received a large amount of water damage. The station signed off the air after Phil Morgan, announcer on duty, smelled smoke and determined that the building was on fire. He turned in a second alarm shortly after the initial alarm had been turned in from the laboratory.
Fire fighters feared the fire might spread to explosive materials in the laboratory, explode, and injure spectators, who were gathered well in reach of any explosion.
Initial concern was expressed over the station's $20,000 record library by Dick Wright, music librarian. By yesterday, however, he said that most of the records seem to be undamaged, with only the record jackets being wet. He expressed more concern over several boxes of tapes and a bi-fi set used to audition records.
The tapes and record player were stored in a corner of the record room immediately beneath an air conditioning outlet. Heat from the outlet had charred the boxes of tapes and water had soaked the hi-fi. Wright said damage to the tapes will not be known until they, get a chance to play them.
Most of the water, according to station officials, was confined to the master control room. Damage to the equipment in the control room will not be determined until the station is cleaned up.
The radio station was off the air (Continued on Page 8)