60th Year, No.136
LAWRENCE, KANSAS
Tuesday, May 7, 1963
That 'Thing' Is An Experiment In Architecture
By Dolores Orman
To some it may seem the hangar for a flying saucer. To others it may look like a likely addition to Ripley's Believe It or Not. For still others it defies description.
But one thing is certain there are very few people on KU's campus who know what that thing west of Marvin Hall really is.
That cone-shaped structure is a research project sponsored by the Masonite Corporation, is the answer provided by William Duncan, instructor of architecture who is director of the project.
DUNCAN SAID the purpose of the experiment has not yet been fully developed, but he said one of the purposes is to help indicate the uses of the shell-like Masonite structure.
The structure itself is composed of three non-regular hyperbolic paraboidal units on a tripod.
It was constructed in the spring of 1962 by students of the department of architecture and architectural engineering, and was then allowed to weather for a year.
"THE WEATHERING process was a test of the nature of the materials," said Duncan. "We let the structure be out in the elements to see if there were any detrimental effects."
He said none had been observed so far.
Load tests were begun on the structure yesterday, Duncan said. The tests amount to determining the amount of weight and wear the structure will withstand.
Weights added to the structure are stacks of concrete blocks and bricks.
"A UNIFORM LOAD test was conducted yesterday," Duncan said. "The test involved placing a load over every square foot of area of the structure."
Each of the blocks weighs 25 pounds, Duncan said. There are a total of 10 blocks in each stack. Yesterday the block stacks were placed in 82 different positions with a total of 820 blocks.
IN SOME POSITIONS blocks were not usable because of the shape and form of the area, Duncan explained.
A total of 144 brick were used.
A total of 144 brick were used.
"As of 5:30 p.m. yesterday the
structure was supporting $62_{1/2}$
pounds per square foot, a load three
times that for which it was built,"
he said.
In these areas stacks of bricks were substituted. Each stack was composed of 15 bricks, each weighing four pounds.
TODAY, HE SAID, concentrated load experiments would begin. The weights will be taken down and the concentrated load experiments will be conducted on each paraboloidial.
The failure of the structure may involve the tearing away of the adhesives that combine the halves of each paraboloidal unit or the tearing away of the structure from the wooden frame. Duncan said.
The paraboloidal membranes are composed of one-fourth inch thick strips of tempered Masonite, one-foot long. Duncan said.
HE SAID THE PIECES were laminated on a red mold through a vacuum process. He described the process as similar to letting the air out of a bag, thus drawing the sides together.
Weather
Generally fair tonight and tomorrow with little change in temperature is today's weather picture. The low tonight will be in the 60s. Tomorrow's high is expected to be in the 80s.
A PUZZLEMENT—The cone-shaped structure west of Marvin Hall has been stimulating the curiosity of KU students for the last few days. It is a research project being conducted by students in architecture and architectural engineering.
Social Workers Lauded For Work With Aged
A scholarship fund named for Esther E. Twente, professor of social work, was established last night at the Social Day Banquet.
Mary Louise Wylie, Kansas City graduate student, was given the National Association of Social Workers (Topeka chapter) Outstanding Student Award.
In her speech after the banquet, Miss Twente said, Man's creative urge may become stronger as he nears the end of his life.
Miss Twente and Mary Louise Wylie, Kansas City graduate student spoke on "New Designs of Community Work with the Aging: The Marion County Experience."
- The possible utilization of the potential of older people for the solution of some community problems that affect all age groups.
Miss Wylie spoke of "a community organization program for the aging which, instead of emphasizing meeting the needs of the aging through the resources of the community, substitutes as a goal 'meeting the needs of the community through the resources of the aging.'"
find what kind of local services and programs they preferred. Now, they plan most of their own meetings, involving activities from orchestral performances to rumage sales, Miss Twente said.
The Marion County project, one of seven Ford Foundation programs in the United States, is to determine what community services for and with elderly people can be developed, and how they can be organized in different communities.
Miss Twente said new designs of community social work concerning the aging which were indicated are:
Community concern for shut-in and invalid people has become more frequently expressed.
- Evidence of strong creative urges in many old people, requiring that social workers look for and recognize them, providing opportunities for their satisfaction.
- A method of helping the community develop its own potential meet its own needs, use its own resources to meet community difficulties.
- The need to apply social work methods in an integrated way.
- An obvious need in many old people for group experiences.
Community meetings for elderly people were planned in order to
Telstar Orbits, Cooper's 'Shot' Set for Relay
CAPE CANAVERAL - (UPI) America today successfully orbited a new Telstar communications satellite that may beam the first "live" intercontinental television pictures of a manned space flight next week.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced at 2:21 p.m. that the 175-pound Telstar-2 "is in orbit" and that "signals are being received fine."
SCIENTISTS PLANNED TO TRANSMIT the first television signals to the new moonlet at 10:30 p.m. today. The transmission was expected to consist of a video test pattern to determine how well the complex satellite could do its job.
The near-perfect shot also raised hopes that Telstar-2 may transmit to Europe "live" television pictures of the space flight of U.S. Astronaut L, Gordon Cooper Jr., now set for next Tuesday.
These television signals would be sent by land line from Cape anaveral to Andover, Maine, and flashed from there to the satellite seeding across the Atlantic between North America and Europe.
If all goes well, Telstar-2 will amplify the pictures and beam them back to ground stations in England and France where they will be transmitted into the homes of millions of viewers on the European continent.
TELSTAR-2 IS THE United States' third television-relay satellite. The first, Telstar-1, was launched in July of 1962 and is now dormant. The second, NASA's Relay was fired into orbit last Dec. 13. Telstar-1 flashed "live" scenes from baseball games and a presidential news conference to Europe after it went into orbit last year. European shows were transmitted to this country.
American Telephone and Telegraph spent $3 million to launch Telstar-2 as a private space venture.
THE NEW SATELLIE rode into space at 9:38 a.m. today in the nose of a 90-foot Delta rocket that marked its 17th consecutive success.
The slender white rocket climbed smoothly into the dawning sky. About one minute after launch its blazing exhaust touched off a brilliant white vapor trail high above earth.
Two minutes later it had disappeared into the fringes of space. Within three minutes, the Federal Space Agency announced that the booster stage had separated and the second stage ignited on time.
Police Have Lost Bicycles
Still looking for that bicycle you left in front of Watson Library last winter?
The KU Police Department and the Lawrence City Police just might have your two-wheeler. They have several wayward bikes on hand which have been found around the campus.
The worst of it is that these unclaimed bikes are destined to be sold at a public auction after the school term unless their owners save them.
According to Joe Skillman, chief of the campus police, many students whose bicycles have been stolen or are missing do not report their loss to the University police or the city authorities.
One reason for this Chief Skillman said, is that most students fail to register their bikes. He said this costs only 25 cents, and is actually compulsory under a Lawrence city ordinance.
Chief Skillman said students' bicycles can be registered at the KU Police and Traffic Office or the Lawrence City Police Station.
Rockefeller's '64 Hopes Hurt By Marriage, Dickson Says
By Roy Miller
Several "darkhorse" candidates have a better chance for the 1964 Republican presidential nomination as a result of Nelson Rockefeller's marriage to the former Mrs. Margaretta Murphy.
That statement was made by Jerry Dickson, a candidate for chairman of the National Federation Collegiate Young Republicans who spent last weekend in Washington, D.C., in connection with his candidacy.
Dickson is past chairman of the KU Young Republicans and outgoing student body president.
CONVERSATIONS WITH Congressmen from several states Dickson said, indicated to him the New York governor's marriage had improved the prestige of William Scranton, governor of Pennsylvania, and George Romney, governor of Michigan.
"Rockefeller's marriage is the big thing in Washington." Dickson said.
No one is discounting Rockefeller
as a possible presidential candidate, Dickson said.
"BUT THERE'S more to it than just marrying a divorcee. His family is unset about the marriage."
(John D. Rockefeller IV, an official in the Peace Corps, last week declined to comment on his uncle's marriage. The younger Rockefeller was at KU for a statewide Peace Corps convention.)
"Nobody's going to turn down the presidential nomination," Dickson said.
Dickson said he thought Romney's visit to Washington last week indicated that the Michigan governor was a strong presidential nominee possibility. Romney said in Washington last week he would not be a candidate.
"ONE COLLEGIATE chairman from one of these industrial states told me that if Goldwater (Barry
Dickson said his impression was that all of the Eastern industrial states were strongly behind Rockefeller.
U. S. Senator from Arizona) were nominated, a lot of the Eastern state's Republican candidates would be defeated." Dickson said.
Dickson said he also talked with a collegiate chairman from a Southern state, who said Goldwater could carry the South.
Of his own candidacy, Dickson said he thought he received some "favorable indications from several quarters."
He contacted persons in five Eastern states in connection with his candidacy.
"TM NOT strong in the East. That was the reason for my trip," he said. Dickson's opponent for the office is Ward White, a student at Cornell University from Russell, Kan.
Dickson plans to visit the Chicago area this weekend.
If elected to the national office, Dickson's tenure would run through the 1964 general election.
Dickson has not yet made public his own preference for the Republicans' presidential nominee.