Gemini 5 Trip Proved Value Of Fuel Cell Power
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By JOHN BARBOUR
NEW YORK (A*)—The Gemini 5 spacecraft
arted across the summer night like a small
xcited star—with a hot, 126-year-old idea in
ts tail.
Probably within the coming decade, that
dea will be providing power for more and
ore of traveling America.
The Gemini 5 power came from fuel cells
■flameless, smokeless, noiseless fuel cells.
id.
m
They produce electricity, with hardly a
p moving part. And the only exhaust is water,
eceivett It is a neat, simple and beautiful idea,
yards But it will be some time—if ever—before fuel
cells produce the power for your home. Still
fit’s nice to think about.
The compact package in the basement or
the hall closet—not so much as a loud whisper,
fueled by gas tanks delivered each month,
unaffected by storms or winds.
The fuel cells that powered Gemini 5
weighed less than an astronaut. Yet they
did the job of a ton of storage batteries.
The beauty of it is that it uses a natural
and highly efficient phenomenon: the oxida
tion of an element—actually the quiet burning
of hydrogen gas. It borrows the electrons
freed temporarily in this chemical reaction,
uses them as electricity, and returns them to
complete the reaction.
The silence, portability, smokelessness and
smoglessness of the fuel cells makes them
ideal for some uses—as low-weight power for
battlefield radar; for trucks that operate on
electricity indoors; for isolated, unmanned
stations like beacons or buoys.
Perhaps eventually, some fuel cell manu
facturers hope, the silent, smogless power
may operate America’s cars and trucks, for
fuel cells are by far more efficient than
internal combustion engines.
Ironically the fuel cell is an old idea. The
first one was made by Sir William Grove in
1839. By the end of the 19th century it was
being widely hailed as the power source that
would warm and run American homes within
a few years.
It still hasn’t happened.
But 20th century know-how and materials
are producing efficient fuel cells like the ones
on Gemini 5—and manufacturers expect to
begin testing their industrial and domestic
uses.
The Gemini fuel cells worked most simply
of all—by joining hydrogen and oxygen, using
the freed electrical energy, and in the end
producing water.
It’s a contradiction of the old maxim—
“neither a borrower, nor a lender be.”
The fuel cell does both—and profitably.
It has two stations—call them the borrow
ing and lending stations. Hydrogen gas
enters at the borrowing station where the
electrons orbiting the hydrogen atoms are
borrowed and put to work, traveling through
a wire as electricity. The denuded hydrogen
atom, or ion, heads for the lending station
where oxygen has been introduced. Hydrogen
and oxygen combine readily.
At the lending station, electrons that have
already done their electrical work for man are
fed back in to complete the chemical reaction
—the joining of hydrogen and oxygen to pro
duce water.
In later Gemini flights, the water produced
by the fuel cells will be filtered for drinking
purposes.
Whatever the future of fuel cells, in a
power-hungry world weary of noise and fumes,
it looks like a pretty idea.
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1 ! stl Volume 61
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COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1965
Number
nited Fund Drive
o Open Monday
In College Station
ist hi:
leconi
board;
Ihe The 10-day College Station
the a: United Chest campaign will open
Monday to raise $20,000 for 17
hellm agencies.
Ihe liifi Organizational ranks swelled
this week, causing drive leaders
.v to predict the usual successful
ie stk: response to the annual appeal,
he sti “The enthusiastic preparations
for the campaign point up dedica-
'd g® tion and accomplishment,” de
ed Sta; dared Chris H. Groneman, United
h” Chest president. “The communi-
leer a ty already senses the need for
vho mlthe $1,000 goal increase, up from
asw $19,000.”
he frfl Clark C. Munroe, campaign di-
ector, underlined Groneman’s
n
'ingtor,
les fro:
Ag Station
Gets Grants
For $15,250
Four research grants totaling
$15,250, one of them from the
Pennsalt Chemicals Corporation
in Bryan, have been made avail
able to the Texas Agricultural
Experiment Station.
Dr. R. E. Patterson, station
director, said two of the grants
come from the Morris Animal
Foundation in Denver, Colo. One
is $10,000 for studies on infecti
ous anemia in horses, with Dr.
R. W. Moore of the Texas A&M
College of Veterinary Medicine as
project supervisor.
The other Morris grant is $4,-
000 for research on internal para
sites in horses under direction of
| Dr. R. D. Turk of the veterinary
college.
The Pennsalt firm has provided
$500 for cotton insect control in
vestigations being conducted by
Dr. R. L. Hanna of the A&M En
tomology Department.
A $750 grant from Southwest
ern Humus, Inc., of Hereford is
for fertilizer studies on cotton.
H. J. Walker of the South Plains
Research and Extension Center at
Lubbock is supervising the study.
confidence by forecasting a rec
ord attendance for the kickoff
breakfast at 7 a.m. Monday in
the Ramada Inn.
Robert L. Smith Jr., is shap
ing the campus phase of the drive.
Key University officials will an
chor the push with department
heads responsible for solicita
tions in their areas.
Dennis Goehring is chairman
of the group to contact commer
cial establishments. Others who
will take leading roles off cam
pus include Mrs. Eugenia God
frey, Taylor Reidel, Barney
Welch, John Sandstedt, M. C.
Hughes, Ran Boswell, Dr. T. O.
Walton Jr., Dick Haddix, Bill
Holt, W. B. Moon, Dick Hervey
and Bowie Blakeley.
Jack Bradshaw is chairman for
the federal agencies solicitations.
Jim Lindsey has charge of cam
paign coverage for the news
media.
In addition to Groneman, Uni
ted Chest officers are Paul B.
Crawford, first vice president;
W. A. Tarrow, second vice presi
dent, and John E. Oliver, trea
surer.
The Budget and Admissions
Committee which screens requests
of participating agencies works
under Crawford, chairman. Other
members are Mrs. Gus Biering,
W. K. Gibbs, Herb Shaffer, R. M.
Stevenson and Tarrow.
Horace Schaffer heads the
Local Charity Committee with
Roble Langston and Mrs. Charles
Richardson as members.
Hal Taylor, editor and head of
the Agricultural Information Of
fice, replaces Dr. Daniel Pfann-
stiel on the Board of Directors.
Pfannstiel has accepted a visit
ing professorship at the National
Agricultural Extension Center for
Advanced Study at the University
of Wisconsin.
Other directors include R. H.
Davis, Mrs. Charles Richardson,
Donald Huss, Charles Wooten,
John E. Oliver, Walter Parsons,
Groneman, Crawford, Langston,
Tarrow, Bradshaw, Munroe and
Lindsey.
RUDDERS MEET NEW PROF
President and Mrs. Earl Rudder welcome Dr. Richard
Bader of the Department of Oceanography to the faculty-
staff reception. The reception, held Tuesday night in the
Memorial Student Center, was in honor of the new faculty
and staff. The Rudders hosted the annual event.
Scientists Urge Appropriation
For Predicting Earthquakes
By RAYMOND J. CROWLEY
WASHINGTON UP) — A $137-
million effort to find ways of
predicting earthquakes was rec
ommended Tuesday night by a
panel of scientists named by the
government.
The research drive, extending
over 10 years, would aim at sav
ing lives and reducing property
damage.
The panel, headed by Frank
Press, geophysics professor at
Massachusetts Institute of Tech
nology, was convened after the
great Good Friday earthquake
in Alaska in 1964. This disturb
ance cost at least 114 lives, and
an estimated $300-million dam
age.
The panel, responding to a re
quest by Donald F. Homig, di-
He Should Be Dead
Heart Attack
11 Stoppages
Victim Suffers
But Survives
LAFAYETTE, La. <A>) — Ur-
sin Mouton, 60, should be dead.
But, Mouton, victim of a
severe heart attack, lives and
talks from his hospital bed.
His heart stopped at least 11
times during a crucial three-
hour period while two skilled
doctors fought to keep him alive.
The odds against recovery were
said to be one in several million.
The fight against death oc
curred in Lafayette General Hos
pital Sept. 7, but the news was
kept quiet until Tuesday.
The doctors talked freely of
the techniques used, but refused
to permit the use of their
names. One is a surgeon, the
other a specialists in internal
medicine.
Mouton was taken to the hos-
ipital after fainting at work. The
Burgeon recognized a coronary
thrombosis and called in his
colleague.
[ They found Mouton had no
-pulse, no heart sound, no blood
pressure, no respiration. Medi
cally speaking, he was dead.
The surgeon began to massage
the patient’s chest with his
hands, a technique that often
works in cardiac arrest cases.
This time it didn’t.
A tube was quickly inserted
into the windpipe to supply oxy
gen to Mouton’s lungs.
The doctors then made a
broad incision into the chest
where they could see that the
heart had stopped. Attempts
were made to start the heart by
massage, but these also failed.
A defibrillator — an electrical
instrument that emits varying
amounts of high voltage — was
put into use.
“The first attempt at the use
of the defibrillator was unsuc
cessful,” one doctor said. “When
we applied it a second time, the
heart, after massage, contracted
for several beats of irregular
contractions and then ceased. On
the fourth defibrillation and
masage, the heart began con
tracting.”
The doctors observed the heart
beating through the open chest
for a half hour, then closed the
incision. The tracheal tube was
removed from the windpipe —
and the heart stopped again.
“We assumed that it was be
cause of a vagal reflex,” one
doctor said. “The vagus nerve,
which affects the pacing of the
heart, had somehow been af
fected again.
“We had to open again.” Cut
ting through the sutures, they
found the heart was not work
ing.
The debrillator was used again
the heart began beating.
“I guess God willed the heart
to start beating again, I knew of
no reason — medical or other
wise — why it should have,” one
doctor said.
The heart hasn’t stopped since.
And Tuesday Mouton is reported
well on the road to recovery.
rector of the U.S. Office of
Science and Technology, issued
a report saying:
A research program which in
cluded the installations of suita
ble instruments along major geo
logical fault fracture systems in
the United States might, in 10
years or so, lead to a method for
predicting major earthquakes be
fore they occur. Since the cause
of earthquakes is unknown, the
search drive would be largely an
empirical one, using many meth
ods.
The program calls for “a new
generation of instruments” for
monitoring earthquake faults in
California and Alaska, where
quakes have been relatively fre
quent.
Geological and geophysical sur
veys and mapping would also be
emphasized, along with labora
tory studies of rocks under pres
sure.
The panel recommended strong
ly that more attention be paid to
finding ways of constructing
quake-resistant buildings, bridg
es, dams and so on. At present,
there is insufficient knowledge of
exactly how the ground behaves
in an earthquake, and how struc
tures respond.
In no country in the world, the
report said, “is there a really
comprehensive, rational, earth
quake-resistant design code which
can insure a reasonable balance
between economics and safety.”
Students Take
Training Cruse
Seven graduate students and
four technicians at Texas A&M
are participating in a 10-day
training cruise aboard the Alami-
nos in the Campeche Gulf.
Bela James, a graduate oceano
graphy student, is chief scientist
for the cruise in the southwest
comer of the Gulf of Mexico
near the Yucatan Peninsula.
The group will take concen
trated biological samples via
large mid-water trawls and
dredges. The cruise is sched
uled to end October 10 at Gal
veston.
Johnny Cash Arrested
On Smuggling Charge
County, Western Singer
Still Set For Town Hall
A grim-faced Johnny Cash,
scheduled for a Town Hall ap
pearance here Nov. 24, posted
$1,500 bond in El Paso yesterday
and was freed after being
charged with smuggling and con
cealing illicit drugs the Associa
ted Press reported Tuesday.
The lanky troubador, one of
the kings of country and western
music, was arrested Monday
night at the El Paso Interna
tional Airport.
U. S. Customs officers said he
had 668 tablets of dexardrine, a
stimulant, and 475 tablets of
equanil, a tranquilizer, in his
possession. Officers said Cash
had apparently gotten the
drugs in Juarez, Mexico, just
across the Rio Grande from El
Paso.
His attorney, Woodrow Wilson
Bean, former El Paso country
judge, said Cash was leaving for
his Casitas Springs, Calif., home.
Cash 33, was wearing a gray
gabardine suit with a velvet col
lar and turned up velvet cuffs
when he appeared before U. S.
Commissioner Colbert Coldwell.
The commissioner said Cash
was not to leave the continental
United States until further no
tice, apparently referring to pos
sible grand jury action and a
subsequent trial.
Bean said he would be able to
have the singer in court in El
Paso in 24 hours.
Testimony at an arraignment
hearing earlier Tuesday brought
out that Cash had checks worth
some $12,000 on his person when
arrested.
Cash cursed a reporter and
threatened to kick a newsman’s
camera at that session. He also
waived a preliminary hearing
then.
Tuesday night he had no com
ment to newsmen.
Mrs. Betsy Fisher, Memorial
Student Center public relations
director, said late Tuesday that
Cash would probably be able to
honor his Nov. 24 committment.
The Cash performance is
scheduled for Thanksgiving Eve,
after the Bonfire preceding the
A&M-Texas game.
Fish Drill Team
Tryouts Scheduled
Tryouts for the Fish Drill
Team are scheduled for 5 p.m.
the rest of the week.
All freshman who are inter
ested in trying out for the crack
drill outfit are asked to meet in
the Duncan Dining Hall area.
Approximately 250 freshmen
reported to the first tryout Mon
day but the count dropped to 150
on Tuesday.
Team officials said that fish
who will be trying out will be
excused from intramurals.
Last year the Fish Drill Team
won top honors at the Louisiana
State meet and the Texas A&M
Invitational. The team also cap
tured numerous other awards
during the year.
Postmaster
Reveals Mail
Service Tips
College Station Postmaster Er
nest Gregg issued Tuesday sev
eral suggestions designed at im
proving local postal service to
Texas A&M students.
Gregg said that the most ur
gently-needed change is the inclu
sion of Zip Code on all outgoing
correspondence so that all in
coming mail will soon include the
Zip Code.
“The importance of notifying
your correspondent of the Zip
Code cannot be overemphasized,”
Gregg said, “because soon it will
be a must on your address.”
Area Zip Codes are 77840 for
all city delivery addresses, 77841
for main office box numbers,
7842 for South Station (Memorial
Student Center) boxes and 77-
843 for faculty exchange mail.
Gregg also urged students to
have persons writing them to use
only a name, box address and city
name. The addition of Memorial
Student Center Station or Texas
A&M University can cause a de
lay in the delivery of mail.
Gregg added that service of
misaddressed mail is consuming
several man-hours weekly and
can be kept to a minimum only
with the cooperation of all stu
dents.
Students receiving misaddress
ed mail should report it to postal
clerks immediately so that it can
be delivered to the proper address
at the earliest possible time.
TO TRY FOR REPEAT PERFORMANCE
The Brothers Four, who two years ago per
formed to a record audience, will try to re
peat their previous show as they are sched
uled for 8 p. m. Friday for a Town Hall show
in G. Rollie White Coliseum. Tickets are
now on sale at the Student Programs Office
at the Memorial Student Center. The Broth
ers Four will kickoff the first big weekend
on campus this semester.