Page 12 THE BATTALION
THURSDAY. OCTOBER 19. 1978
Kennedy gallery installs
computers for inventory
United Press International
NEW YORK — An art gallery is
the last place you’d expect to find
electronic computers, but New
York’s Kennedy Galleries has a most
sophisticated system.
The prestigious 104-year-old
Kennedy has put in a completely
computerized accounting and in
ventory control system because, in
contrast with the typical art gallery,
which is a small, intimate venture, it
inventories 25,000 works of art at
any given time. Its sales volume
runs between $10 million and $15
million a year, up from $1 million a
quarter century ago.
The Kennedy also uses the com
puterized equipment to put to
gether its handsomely illustrated
catalogues and its three art periodi
cals, the American Art Journal, the
Kennedy Quarterly and the Ken
nedy Monthly.
Kennedy’s record keeping and
global correspondence have com
pelled director Lawrence Fleis-
chman to install the most modern
automatic word processing ma
chines too.
There are two reasons for this, he
says. Interest in foreign countries in
American artists has mushroomed
astonishingly in the last few years
and as the leading dealer in tra
ditional American art, Kennedy is
beseiged with inquiries from all
over the world.
Also, unlike some of the more
snooty galleries, Kennedy has al
ways dealt in prints, which are mass
market items even if they’re of such
high quality that they are sold at
premium prices.
The Kennedy carries only the
works of American artists and, with
few exceptions, has been a citadel of
traditional and representational art.
Only in very recent years has it
begun to deal in the works of some
of the more prominent American
abstract and expressionist painters.
The gallery was founded by Her
mann Wunderlich and was called
Wunderlich’s until World War I.
The wave of anti-German sentiment
that hit America then caused Wun
derlich’s son and his partner, Ed
ward Kennedy, to change the name
of the business. But Rudolph Wun
derlich and his mother still are
partners along with Fleischman, a
famed art collector, originally from
Detroit.
In its early years, the Kennedy,
then a tiny store compared with its
present opulent West 57th Street
quarters, was a favorite browsing
place for such distinguished artists
as Whistler, Childe Hassam,
William Merritt Chase, Elihu Ved-
der and John Twachtman.
The observation deck on the 15th floor of the Oceanography
and Meteorology Building provides an excellent view of the
Where did you say that parking
parking situation on campus. Tours are conducted
Tuesday at 4 p.m. up to the observation deck
ibing
even nk Brc
Costs slow development
Radar prevents crashes
I put
HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL
MBA PROGRAM
An Admissions Representative from
Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration
will be on campus
Thursday, October 26, 1978
to meet with students interested in
the two-year MBA Program
Contact the
Career Planning and Placement Center
for more details and to sign up for
an information session.
Harvard Business School is committed to
the principle of equal educational opportunity
and evaluates candidates without regard to
race, sex, creed, national origin or handicap.
But the gallery was equally fa
mous for the other American artists
whose works it successfuly
popularized, especially Fredric
Remington and Charles Russell, the
great illustrators and painters of In
dian and frontier life.
Although in its early days it dealt
mostly in modestly priced originals
and prints, the Kennedy in recent
years has cashed in big on its overall
expertise in American art.
Although recognizing art as “big
business,” Fleischman feels invest
ment should not be the criterion in
buying paintings. “A painting
should be purchased because it is
good and, most important, because
the purchaser likes it.”
So strong are his feelings on this
topic, the Kennedy’s director re
fuses even to discuss investment
with a potential client.
United Press International
DETROIT — Radar, a sophisti
cated electronic device most
motorists associate with highway
speed traps, may play a major role
in preventing serious automobile
accidents.
Within five years, automotive en
gineers in the United States and
Germany say they hope to have
ready a sophisticated, vehicle-
mounted radar system that will stop
a car automatically from approach
ing dangerously close to other vehi
cles or roadway hazards.
Such a system, safety experts say,
could go a long way toward prevent
ing thousands of collisions that occur
as a result of poor visibility, slippery
road conditions and “tailgating”
drivers.
A radar device mounted on the
front of a car sends out electronic
waves that survey the road ahead. If
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the waves strike an object or
another vehicle, they beam back to
an on-board computer which mea
sures the distance and speed of the
object in comparison with the speed
of the car.
What happens then depends on
the system.
In some, the computer sets off an
alarm light or buzzer, warning the
driver that he is following too
closely behind another vehicle or
that a hazardous object lies ahead.
In other systems, the fuel supply
is interrupted, decelerating the car
until a safe distance is regained. In
critical situations, the brakes are
engaged automatically.
Companies working on the sys
tems say the technology is available,
but a few bugs must be worked out
and “cost efficiency” reduced signif
icantly before the systems can be
widely used.
One bug is the system’s inability
to tell the difference between a car
or bicycle and a harmless roadside
object when the radar-equipped ve
hicle is heading into a curve or, as a
result of some other maneuver, is
pointing away from the center of the
road.
“That’s a radar problem, not an
automotive problem,” said a
spokesman for General Motors
Corp., one of several U.S. firms
studying radar braking systems.
“Until there is some break-through
with the ability of radar to discrimi
nate between objects, there’s no
real need to develop the hardware.”
The National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration has shown a
keen interest in radar systems, pre
ferring one that will engage the
brakes automatically in situations
where a drive may not have time to
react.
However, an automatic braking
system could pose added hazards,
particularly in “false alarm” situa
tions that could lock the brakes and
send a car out of control. “The sys
tem needs refinement,” an NHTSA
spokesman said.
Progress has been slow. A GM
spokesman said the project is con
sidered at a “basic research” level
with final development years away.
However, two West German
firms have reported major advances
on a government-backed project to
develop a radar system that alerts
the driver and decelerates the car
but stops short of engaging the
brakes.
The firms, Robert Bosch Corp., of
Stuttgart, and AEG Telefiinl
have conducted road tests
far, the system works.
“We still have a lot of wort
in designing the device to fit
sign of the car,” a Bosch spoles
said. "When you’re testing a
cle, you are not concerned
cosmetics. ”
He said the device could ben
within five years if costs can It
duced. Earlier this year, it was
timated the Boseh-Telefunken
tern would cost about
Deutsche marks, or nearly
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Houston native
sics Nobel prize
phy:
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United Press International
HOUSTON — A Houston native
who almost didn’t gain admission to
Rice University in the early 1950s
has become the first graduate of that
school to be awarded the Nobel
prize in physics for his research on
microwaves in the universe.
Robert W. Wilson, 42, who was
graduated magna cum laude with
honors in physics in 1957, won the
international award for his research
which hypothesized the universe
was filled with microwaves of uni
form intensity, lending support to
the so-called “big-bang” theory of
the creation of the universe.
Wilson telephoned his parents at
dawn Tuesday to tell them of his ac-
hivement.
“It’s a pretty exciting day for us,”
said Wilson’s father, Ralph W. Wil
son.
The elder Wilson said the family
was overjoyed by the news of the
prize, but it was not totally unex
pected.
Wilson was graduated from
Lamar High School in 1953, but his
father recalled he was not a
“A” student.
“He wasn’t over-exertingbii
academically in public school
father said.
His sister, Mrs. WiIliad
Blodgett, said “he was too
building radios and working
cars.”
As a result, he was on thewi
list to gain admission to the
Rice Institute, a small private
lege in Houston.
“He barely got into Rice,
father said.
“I remember him well,”
Harold E. Rorschach, profa
physics. “He was a tall, lanjj
head who used to take the houi
we gave in 15 minutes, ant
everything correctly in a few
Everyone else would work
hour and fill up a (test) boof
ich year
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Battalion nyi
Classified
Mules laden with Blue Maguey pinas on their way to Cuervo’s La Rojena plant.
Since 1795we’ve gathered our
Blue Magueys for Cuervo Gold
1 Ee wav
the gentle way.
Its the old way. And still
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At Cuervo we know that there is only one way to make
Cuervo Gold perfect. The way we’ve been doing it for more
than 180 years.
ThaVs why people still nurture our fields of Blue
Maguey plants. And why mules are still used to bring
these precious plants to our distillery. Fbr tradition is still
the most important ingredient in Cuervo Gold.
This is what makes Cuervo Gold truly special. Neat,
on the rocks, with a splash of soda, in a perfect Sunrise or
Margarita, Cuervo Gold will bring you back to a time when
quality ruled the world.
Cuervo. The Gold standard since 1795.
CUERVO ESPECIAL® TEQUILA. 80 PROOF IMPORTED AND BOTTLED BY © 1978 HEUBLEIN, INC., HARTFORD, CONN.
Michel Plasson, Conductor and
Philippe Entremont, Guest Piano Soloist
Program
Le Corsaire (Overture), Opus 21- Berlioz
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 5 in
F-Major, Opus 103- Saint-Saens
Symphony in B flat Major, Opus 20- Chausson
La Valse- Ravel
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1978
8:15 Rudder Auditorium
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