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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 29, 1962)
Iceberg Makes Good Retreat A slow boat to China is one way to spend a summer, but floating on an ice island in the Arctic can be more interesting—and rewarding— according to an oceanography graduate student. Scientific research takes ocean ographers to the ends of the earth and for John W. Cooper, physical oceanographer, a five-month “voy age” on the U. S. Navy’s Arlis II has provided him with a wealth of materia] for his master’s thesis. Search for the new Arctic Re search Laboratory Ice Station was begun by the Navy in May and it Was formally located and “occu pied” on May 23, 19G1. Cooper, who began his graduate work here in 1960, joined Washington Uni versity’s “Project Husky” and was landed on the island June 10, 1961. Arlis II at that time was 3.5 miles long and 1.5 miles wide, about 80 feet thick, and located about 150 miles north of Point Barrow, Alaska. Ice islands are scarce and hard to come by, so to speak. The famous Air Force “T-3”—Fletch er’s Ice Island—publicized several years ago went aground off Point Barrow after traveling several thousands of miles from north of Greenland to its present site. What makes Arlis II unique in ATTENTION AGGIE SENIORS The Pictured Agents Have the COLLEGE MASTER P ■ . 1. y'-L.;! The COLLEGE PLAN for the COLLEGE MAN: • For College Men Only • Exclusive Benefits - Preferred Rates • Deposits Can Be Deferred Until You Are Out Of School FIDELITY UNION LIFE INSURANCE CO. See at Rm 6, Sparks Bldg No. Gate VI 6-4988 the endless white fastness of the Arctic is its range of rock-covered hillocks—some of which v/ere called the Hallelujah Hills by the scien tists aboard the island. Glacial in origin, the island prob ably acquired the boulders when the ice scraped down a fjord in centuries past. “It’s easy to understand why early Arctic explorers thought they were on a land island,” Cooper said. “The boulders on the island were on ice hills as high as 40 feet. Lichens grew in the gravel and mud of little streams that came from melting ice in the summer months.” As the ice station continued its clock-wise drifting around the North Pole (in five months it moved from six o’clock to eight o’clock) it traveled from 172 de grees west to 180 degrees west. During this time the nine scientists and four support men kept a busy routine of making scientific ob servations. Cooper’s job as general ocean ographer first involved digging a hole through the ice to take sam ples from the ocean. “It took us three weeks to dig a hole four feet wide and 20 feet deep near the edge of the island,” Cooper recalls. He took daily tem perature readings and salinity samples from the ocean water as well as core samples of the ocean floor. “We used a Phleger Corer, which worked similar to a cable-tool rig, to punch a one-inch tube five feet into the floor,” he said. “What it brought up was a grayish clay substance that will be analyzed for content. Through the same hole, a marine biologist dragged the bot tom of the Arctic for samples.” Was fishing any good? Cooper noted that during the entire time he was on the island, the biologist caught one live fish with a net. Others tried trawling off the ice island that moved as fast as one knot an hour (1.2 mph). Lack of fishing luck for the sci entists didn’t mean they didn’t have wild life to observe. Polar bears traversed the ice pack to the island that also attracted seal and occasionally an Arctic fox—one even became a pet. They also found musk ox horns. '.ipip:*? 1 .,;. / : tsiStt: : V i , - Vi •' ■> ... - m" , 1 ' jv J I mm i i j i Our future is in the hands of men not yet hired At Western Electric we play a vital role in helping meet the complex needs of America’s vast communications networks. And a career at Western Electric, the manufacturing arm of the nation-wide Bell Telephone System, offers young men the exciting opportunity to help us meet these important needs. Today, Western Electric equipment reduces thousands of miles to fractions of seconds. Even so, we know that our present communications systems will be inadequate tomorrow; and we are seeking ways to keep up with—and antici pate—the future. For instance, right now Western Electric engineers are working on various phases of solar cell manufacture, miniaturization, data transmission, futuristic telephones, electronic central offices, and computer-controlled production lines—to name just a few. To perfect the work now in progress and launch many new communications products, projects, procedures, and processes not yet in the mind of man — we need quality-minded engineers. If you feel that you can meet our standards, consider the opportunities offered by working with our company. In a few short years, you will be Western Electric. Challenging opportunities exist now at Western Electric for electrical, mechanical, industrial, and chemi cal engineers, as well as physical science, liberal arts, and business majors. All/qualified applicants will re ceive careful consideration for employment without regard to race, creed, color or national origin. For more information about Western Electric, write College Rela tions, Western Electric Company, Room 6206, 222 Broadway, New York 38, New York. And be sure to arrange for a Western Electric interview when our college representatives visit your campus. MANUFACTURING AND SUPPLY ' UNIT OF THE BELL SYSTEM Principal manufacturing locations at Chicago, III.; Kearny, N. J.; Baltimore, Md.; Indianapolis, Ind.; Allentown and Laureldale, Pa.; Winston-Salem, N. C.; Buffalo, N. Y.; North Andover, Mass.; Omaha, Neb.; Kansas City, Mo.; Columbus, Ohio; Oklahoma City, Okla. Engineering Research Center, Princeton, N. J. Teletype Corporation. Skokie. 111., and Little Rock. Ark. Also Western Electric distri bution centers in 33 cities and installation headquarters in 16 cities. General headquarters: 195 Broadway, New York 7, N. Y. As the summer months cou- tinued with 24 hours of daylight, temperatures ranged from 20 de grees to as high as 45 degrees Fahrenheit. It was during this tirme the scientists found the August ‘“heat” somewhat perilous. The islamd de veloped a big crack and then broke in half, leaving the scientists’ camp but the Hallelujah Hills floated away. This left Arlis an island about 1.5 miles square. Toward the end of Cooper’s tour on Arlis II, the island had drifted to a point 600 miles northwest of Point Barrow and some 150 miles north of Russia’s Wrangell Island. “When the U.S.S.R. set off its 70 megaton hydrogen bomb, we were approximately 1,200 miles north of each other across the Pole,” Cooper recalls. “Because our geophones were in the ice, when the blast went off, we were able to hear the Arctic Ocean ring for two-and-a-half hours.” Cooper departed Arlis II in November and returned to A&M to continue his studies toward an M.S. degree in physical ocean ography. Cooper served in the Navy four years before earning a B.S. degree in physics from the College of William and Mary in 1956. He is the son of Vice-Adm. and Mrs. George R. Cooper (U.S.N., Ret.), Charles Town, W. Va. Aggietand To Accept Pics Editors of The Aggieland, ’62, will be accepting snapshots and other picture material for the yearbook at a meeting Thursday night from 7-10 in the Aggieland Office in the basement on the. YMCA Building. According to Editor Raleigh Coppedge, activity pictures, espe cially of the Sophomore Ball, are needed for the Aggieland. Pictures need be only of good quality, with no size require ments. A&M Engineers Set Spring Fete Friday The Student Engineering Coun cil will holds its annual Spring Awards Banquet Friday night at 7 in the Triangle Restaurant. Speaker for the banquet will be R. L. Hunt, director of the Century Council. Included in the awards program is the Outstanding Fac ulty Member Award presentation, an award for the outstanding stu dent article in the A&M Engineer. Membership keys will also be presented to student Engineering Council members at the banquet. The call of the marine toad, a deep, booming trill, is sometimes mistaken for a far-off tractor. THE MTTAETON Thursday, March 29, 1962 College Station, Texas Page 3 EVEN IN JAPAN Montoyas Gone, Memory Lingers By TOMMY HOLBEIN Battalion Managing Editor By now, Mr. and Mrs. Carlos Montoya are in London, England, starting a series of concert tours throughout Europe. But the two performances that Montoya rend ered before a packed Guion Hall last Thursday and Friday nights will be remembered for a long time. Several student flamenco en thusiasts will remember Montoya’s visit to A&M for another, more personal reason than bis perform ances; during their stay at the Memorial Student Center, the Mon toya’s door was almost constant ly open to students interested in flamenco guitar. “Perhaps some of the more class ical artists wouldn’t feel the same way, but among the student people we seem to have a tremendous following; for this reason, we pre fer the students,” said Mrs. Mon toya. With the phone constantly ring ing, as” students sought arrange ments for an appointment with the flemenco artist, the Montoyas found their stay “fun but hectic.” But it was not nearly as hectic as a recent tour of the four major cities in Japan. The couple was amazed at the number of Japan ese flamenco societies that had planned their spare time for them. “They almost managed to fill every waking moment, and it was marvelous to see the response from those people,” said Montoya. “They gave us tea parties, arrang ed radio and television interviews, and presented us with a giyand re ception everywhere.” Mrs. Montoya added, “I remem ber one situation where we were presented with a large fan; the names of all the members of that particular flamenco society were written on it, and there were flow ery, presentation speeches in Ja panese. These were translated for me into English, and I translated them into Spanish for Carlos. “Then, his response was in Span ish — I translated it into Eng lish and it was then translated back into Japanese,” she said. WE KEEP PRICES DOWN Coca-Cola Coffee J- W. Special Miracle Whip Pillsbury Flour 5 12 Btl. Ctrl. Plus Deposit Kraft Salad Dressing Lb. Box 55 45 49 39 € Shortening Bakente 3 li > ^ 49c Oranges Sweet Juicy Full Flavored 12 29c Conned Homs Agar Bologna Swift Premium or Jasmine 4-Lb. Can Piece Lb. 99 Veal Steak Tender Sirloin 2 29 69