Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 24, 1949)
If their work has been done right, Batt engravers JOE TREVINO, left, and HARDY ROSS, will see the image of a picture appear on the zinc plate in a few seconds. Once this stage is passed, the picture is well on its way toward appearing in the Battalion. The trickiest job of cartoon making is gouging out the blank spaces between the lines. JOE TREVINO shows the concentration necessary to do a good job with the modern router. Making the negative is the first step in transferring a picture into a photoengraved cut. Here HARDY ROSS checks the adjust ment on the copy camera before taking the picture. Cadet Commended By Local KK’s Fohn Rowe, Annex cadet of Bar ks T-325, is now in the run- Aggies and Veterans TRY YOUNGBLOODS FOR • Fried Chicken • Sea Food • Large Steaks • Barbecue • Sandwiches All at prices you can afford. QljlCK AND COURTEOUS SERVICE Youngblood & Sons Rock Building Midway Between Bryan and College PHONE 2-8038 ning for “most honest freshman” awards. Rowe, a petroleum engi neering student from Dallas, found a large sum of money at the An nex, and immediately turned it ill to the Campus Security office Monday evening. P. 0. Maxwell of the Campus Security force at the Annex com mended the youth and said that he hopes to find the owner soon. THE BATTALION Page 4 Thurs., Feb. 24,1949 Fly Boys .... Air Force Choice Of 421 Freshmen The U. S. Anny is still the choice of Aggies, but the U. S. Air Force is preferred over any separate army unit, according to a bulletin released by Sergeant J. C. Thomas of the Annex Military Science De partment. A poll of the Annex stu dents was made in the Military Science classes in connection with the Basic M.S. Cadet Deferment program, ho said. Six hundred and fifty-one fresh men chose the US Army, 421 the U.S. Air Force, while five men did not select either, as they are not citizens of the United States. The Air Force, however, held a wide majority by units, the ser geant said. Below is his list of preferences. Air Force Administration—181 Air Force Maintenance Engi neering—240 Infantry—87 Field Artillery—174 Signal Corps—28 Armored Cavalry—86 Corps of Engineers—73 Coast Artillery—32 Chemical Corps—24 Quartermaster Corps—36 Ordnance Dept.—15 Transportation Corps—60 Army Security Agency—38 None—5 Radio Club Erects Antenna, at Annex Have you been wondering what that contraption on the roof of the building across the street from the Military Science building is? That is the three element rotary beam antenna of the Annex Radio Club, erected by Bob Knellinger, Bob Champman, and Tex Kennedy. Membership in the club is still open to any interested Annex stu dent, staff, or faculty member. The February 16 meeting of the club was chiefly a forum on vari ous theoretical topics. The mem bers present discussed relative merits of various types of oscil lators. The club now has an automatic doe machine, which sends signals at variable speeds for code prac tice. The club is now firmly es tablished as a peranent fmeature and several of the unlicensed mem bers are on the way toward meet ing the requirements. Annex Band Stops Morning Practices Wednesday and Friday morning band rehearsals at the Annex have been discontinued, said Lt. Colonel Verne Adams, band director. Less than half of the band is free of classes at the 8 a.m. period on these days, and the practices would not benefit the band, he said. You Can Make A Better Buy In A Diamond FROM SANKEY PARK Your Jeweler 111 N. Main Bryan Nothing Slows Down Picture Production In Batt’s Photoengraving Laboratory - Not Even Marriage By ART HOWARD Nothing is sacred in the engrav ing business, as Hardy Ross, one of the Battalion’s engravers, dis covered at mid-term. Ross got married between semesters and re turned to school where he found a rush order for some pictures. He spent most of his honeymoon engraving them. These locally produced engrav ings are responsible for the bright er pages in your paper. f If you have been a Batt reader for more than a year, you realize that the paper runs at least six I times as many pictures now as in previous years.- It was slightly over one year ago that the Bat talion installed its own photoen graving lab. And the majority of the pic tures which have appeared in the Batt since then have been the han diwork of Joe Trevino and Hardy Ross. These two students ai*e the ones who stay up late to engrave pictures, called cuts, of last night’s basketball game or dance so that the readers will enjoy their paper more. These two men have probably done more than any writer to in crease the readability of the paper. Prior to mid-term of 1948, pic tures had to be sent to Austin for engraving, which usually took four or five days. By then the impact of the pictures was lost. Now it is a matter of three hours from the click of the camera to the finished cut. The early days were the hard ones. Photoengraving is a skilled job, and there is many a slip between the photograph and mounted cut ready for printing. One misstep on any of the dozen steps can mean a wasted hour. Joe Trevino was the first “ex perienced” man to answer the Batt’s call for help. Trevino had worked in a photoengraving lab in the Navy—he swept out one for a week while waiting for a ship. But with the slight knowledge gained from that and one of archi tecture prof Joe Meador’s lectures, Joe bulldozed his way into the job. His knowledge, however lim ited, was enough to impress Ro land Bing, director of Student Pub lications. In preparation for setting up the lab, Bing and Tom Puddy, Guion Hall manager and photo graphy expert, took a field trip through the Dallas Morning New’s engraving plant to learn the es sentials of this skilled trade. Arm ed with cans of potions and a few sheets of engraving zinc, they re turned to A&M, and Trevino was ready to start. Uncertain that cuts could be made within the budget, Bing in stalled only the minimum of equip ment. An old copy camera was borrowed for making negatives, and a plain hot plate was used to heat the zinc before engraving. Often it took four or five tries to make a picture come out because of the poor equipment and the in experience of the engravers. For the first two weeks their products resembled a coal yard at midnight. Now their work is much better than that from Austin. However, their work can only be as good as the photographer’s picture, Tre vino explained. If the picture is too dark or too light, it will not have enough contrast to print. About a week after the engrav ing started, Hardy Ross, recently returned from the army, made his appearance. Ross had had some ex perience in photoengraving while working as a photographer. Pool ing their knowledge, the two stu dents soon became experts in pho toengraving, while working at stu dent wages. The lab was first located in the basement of Guion Hall but was moved to Foster Hall before the recent Guion refacing job. The saddest part of moving for the en gravers was having to leave their proofs of pictures of beautiful Exams Announced For Civil Service Ratings P-2, P-5 Application forms for historian, intelligence specialist, foreign af fairs officer, and social science analyst examinations may be ob tained from any first- or second- class post office, the Civil Service Commission has announced. The applications will be received by the commission in Washington prior to March 15, 1949. Applicants for the examinations must meet educational and/or ex perience qualifications outlined in Announcement No. 157 for ratings of P-2 through P-5. Salaries for these ratings range from $3,727 to $6,235 a year. Applicants must be citizens be tween 18 and 62 years of age. Fed eral medical officers will examine persons who are offered appoint ments. • RECORDS • RADIOS School & Office Supplies ALL YOUR NEEDS HASWELL’S girls on the basement wall. They still decorate their lab with ruin ed plates, but have not been able to make proofs since Trevino left the gelatin proof roller in the sun. “Engraving has become much simpler since moving out of Guion,” Ross said. “The damp at mosphere and humidity changes affected the enamel on the plates, ruining many of our pictures.” One of the improvements which have been made in photoengraving equipment was the addition of a “router,” which is the suspended drill shown in the picture above. This router enables Trevino and Ross to produce “line” drawings. Line drawings are different from regular half-tones in that they are solid lines, while half-tones are composed of small dots. The line drawings give better contrast and are much more effec tive than half-tone pictures. The line cuts must be etched much deeper with acid than the half tones; and the router is used to gouge out the open spaces between the lines to prevent making smudges during printing. The Batt is not the only publi cation which benefits from the en graving lab; the Commentator, Engineer, and Agriculturist use home grown cuts. Several men have come in to help Trevino and Ross, but many of them have been unable to mas ter the intricate steps of photoen graving. A recent protege, Brad Holmes, has been working since mid-term and is now able to turn out pictures solo. Both Ross and Trevino feel that they could take up photoengraving as a trade without any trouble— and probably make a nice income. The standard price for photoen graving is ll cents per square inch. Last month these two men turn ed out 150 cuts averaging 20 square inches, a commercial value of $330. And that on a part-time job. However, their job can’t really be called part-time because they average 100 hours a month in the engraving lab. This month appears to be one of their best yet, and they are fast approaching the 200- picture mark. Taking pride in both the quality and quantity of their work, Trevi no and Ross have been running a contest to see who can turn out the most work. Trevino first claimed the record with 21 cuts on one weekend. Ross then captured it with 24, Trevino made it 31, and Concessions Keep Fish In Chips By FIG NEWTON Student concessions keep many Annex freshmen in the chips, so to speak. On the other hand, ac cording to a few prevalent gripes, especially among the candy con cessionaires, there is often a slight financial loss from day to day. A nickel less here and there subtracts from the profits. When interviewed, Stephen D. Hornaday of Wichita Falls stated that the veterans are not dishon est in their dealings with him. Hornaday is the only veteran can dy vendor, and since there are only four veteran barracks, he does not have as many customers as the cadet concessionaires. He averages a dollar a day profit which he invests in more stock. If you want to save money on a portrait to send your beloved, Bobby French is the man to see at the Annex. His is a coupon system. For two dollars he will sell you a coupon good for an 8x10 portrait at a Bryan studio. Orie Jones and John Howell be lieve they have the best Annex candy concession. Practically all they have to do is watch the show at the Rivoli with one eye, and their candy with the other. “But,” says Jones, “It won’t be long until ‘them days is gone for ever,’ because somebody is going to get a popcorn concession in the theater.” The freshmen have been asking Jones all along for peanuts and popcorn. The Jones-Howell firm, not too different from others, loses some money in its business venture. Music or Mayhem? Mayhem! You needn’t fear pianists too much but how about fire, flood? Insure your home! Billie Mitchell ’42 STATE FARM INSURANCE COMPANIES Phone 4-7269 • (Above Aggieland Pharmacy) AUTO — LIFE — FIRE Ross recently set'the top mark of 38, although he had Holmes help ing him. Last fall Trevino turned out every one of the pictures which appeared in the multipage pre registration issue. Neither of _ these men plan to go into the engraving business. Tre vino, who claims Edna as his home town, is studying architectural con struction and plans to start build ing houses when he gets out m mid-term. Ross, a ChE major from Pa cios, also intends to follow schooling instead of photoengr; ing. ' , The New CHARUE S FOOD MARKET COLLEGE STATION Free Delivery —Delivery Hours— 10 a.m. — 4 p.m. NORTH GATE Phones 4-1164 — 4-1165 —Store Hours— 7:30 a.m. — 6:30 p.m. SPECIALS FOR FRIDAY — SATURDAY - 25th & 26th T T TA T7 1 CJ T7 Missouri Daisy O „ UHILiliOjil PEK p OUND oVC (CIRCLE S) — Sugar Cured — 5 to 6 Lb. 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