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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 6, 1984)
/ 4 Pat Metheny visits Rudder Auditorium See page 10 3 more Ags meet NCAA standards See page 12 U.S. Hockey team eligibilty disputed See page 13 TKe Battalion Serving the University community Vol 78 No. 90 CJSPS 0453110 14 pages College Station, Texas Monday, February 6, 1984 / Cold snap keeping -OS sweeps busy By JAN PERRY Reporter I Legend says that the touch of a chimney sweep will bring good luck — |iot to mention a sooty hand — to all who greet him. E With winter’s freezing weather and wie tendency for people to have fires f in their home fireplaces, a lot of peo- ■learound Bryan and College Station K|ie shaking'the sooty hands of Mark ILoflus and Nick Pappas. I Loflus and Pappas are chimney ■weeps who incorporate modern ■leaning techniques with many of the ■•aditions of chimney sweeping. E One such tradition that they carry I On in their 1-year-old business — |hich they call Old London Chimney ■weeps — is the practice of wearing lack top hats while cleaning chim- eys. Chimney sweeps wear the top hats “half out of superstition and half out ol custom,” Pappas said. “It’s bad luck I lot to.” I As full-time firefighters for the Bryan Fire Department, Loflus and i Pappas, who are sweeps during their ' olf-duty hours, said they have a con- ■derable amount of experience in Healing with the hazards of unkept fireplaces. I The primary danger of dirty fire- ■places is the buildup of creosote, a |nighly flammable, tarlike substance khat coats the inside of the chimney land reduces the ef ficiency of the fire- fplace, Pappas said. ■ If creosote is allowed to build up too long, Pappas said, the chimney become unsafe, and the fireplace should not be used because of the Banger of a chimney fire. ■ “A chimney fire can be very fright- fening,” Loflus said. “It looks and Bunds like there is a rocket engine in ■your house.” A chimney fire burns at extremely ligh temperatures, about 3,()()() de uces Fahrenheit, Pappas said. At that Jgh temperature tfie mortar melts or flaming halls of creosote may be thrown onto the roof. I The damage to a fireplace after a chimney fire appears to be minimal; however, the structure is weakened and can endanger the entire house if used again without the necessary re pairs. While on the job, Pappas and Lof- tus do make minor repairs to chim neys if needed. They do not, however, try to repair the more serious damage that may require a professional mason. Pappas and Loflus, who clean ab out two or three chimneys a week, said they use the same cleaning techniques now as chimney sweeps used 100 years ago. Pappas, the smaller sweep, said he usually works inside the fireplace. He wears an old Army gas mask to filter the ash and soot out of the air while scrubbing the walls of the chimney. Extended exposure to the soot — like coal dust — may cause cancer, he said. Cleanliness is always their main priority. Pappas is careful to lay out larps on the floor and to use a vacuum with 900 cubic feet of air to pull most of the soot out of the air. While Pappas is scrubbing the low er portion of the chimney from below, Loflus usually is on the rooftop scrub bing from above. Loflus uses brushes and fiberglass poles that come in 5-foot sections to clean the creosote, bird droppings and nests out of the chimneys. Occa sionally, Loflus said, the two have been hired to remove dead raccoons or squirrels f rom chimneys. The entire chimney-sweeping pro cess, Pappas said, takes about 1-1W hours, depending on the size of the chimney and the degree of creosote buildup. Harry Davis, College Station fire marshal, said one way to reduce the build-up of creosote and the risks of chimney fire is to burn well-seasoned wood. He said green wood smokes too much, and creosote is transported in the smoke. Pappas also recommends a chim ney be cleaned after about a cord and a half of wood has been burned to prevent severe creosote buildup. The Photo by DEAN SAITO Mark Loftus, of Old London Chimney Sweeps, prepares to clean out a chimney in his traditional attire, a top hat. Gemayel appeals for renewed talks actual time may vary on the quality of the wood. For example, Loftus said, pine burns poorly because of the large sap content. If commercial paper logs are going to be used for color, Pappas said, a good, strong, hot fire should be built. Davis said there are about one or two chimney fires each year in College Station. He said the amount may in crease soon because of the number of new apartment complexes with fire places. There is some problem now, Davis said, in deciding who is responsible for the maintenance of the fireplaces. It has not been determined whether the apartment complex should be made responsible or if the tenant should be made responsible. If the decision is not made in the near future, Pappas said, some severe chimney fires may result. United Press,International BEIRUT — Prime Minister Chefik Wazzan resigned along with his gov ernment Sunday, but fighting intensi fied as Shiite Moslem militiamen seized control of the main road lead ing to the airport and the U.S. Marine base. Facing his greatest crisis, Christian President Amin Gemayel went on na tional radio and television to appeal to his Moslem opponents to meet with him in renewed peace talks aimed at averting all-out civil war. “Everything is open to discussion with the opposition,” said Gemayel, appearing composed as he sat in a television studio with a green, red and white Lebanese Hag in the back ground. He dismissed calls for his own res ignation but pledged to work to im prove ties with Syria, which supports the Moslem militias fighting the gov ernment and has demanded abroga tion of a May 17 Lebanese-Israeli accord. Earlier, Gemayel immediately accepted the resignations of Wazzan and his Cabinet, which came in re sponse to appeals from Syrian-backed Moslem rebels. But they appeared to have little effect on the escalating bat tles. “We are aware of the situation and are reviewing it very carefully, said Marine Maj. Dennis Brooks. “We are on a very high stafce-nf alert, close to our bunkers and ready for anything.” Members of the 1,200-nian Marine peace-keeping contingent fought a brief small-arms clash in the after noon with Moslem militiamen, Brooks said. There were no reports of American casualties. The Lebanese army fought a fourth straight day of clashes in south Beirut with Shiite Moslem militiamen, who were backed by the artillery of allied Druze Moslem rebels based in the mountains overlooking the capital. An estimated 150 people have died and 561 wounded in the fighting since Thursday, according to figures compiled from the Red Cross, hospit als and other sources. No official gov ernment figures were available. The Lebanese army announced 20 soldiers and two officers have been killed and 197 others wounded. An official said 20 army soldiers were taken prisoner. “Some efforts should be made to end these bloody events where inno cent people are killed and homes are destroyed while all hope is lost,” Waz zan said in his resignation statement. Nabih Bern’s Shiite Moslem mili tia, Amal, seized positions on the main coastal road, controlling civilian ac cess to Lebanon’s only international airport and the American military compound there. Echoing a demand by the Druze Moslem militia leader Walid Jumb- latt, Berri called for Gemayel’s res ignation, saying there was “no solu tion until the downfall of Nero” — a reference to Gemayel. Former Moslem Prime Minister Rashid Karami, of the northern port of Tripoli, announced that he was calling on the 5,000 Lebanese soldiers based in north Lebanon to follow his command. Troops in the south appeared to be following the call as well since Lebanese soldiers gave up positions along the airport road without a fight. The army is commanded by Christ ians although a majority of its soldiers are Moslem. Adding to the tension in the coun try, an army official said Syrian troops began a siege of the central Christian town of Zahle, with 25,000 inhabi tants. The Syrians apparently plan to invade the town, he said. Wazzan submitted his decision in a meeting with Gemayel at the pres idential palace, on a bluff overlooking south Beirut’s Shiite Moslem slums where the army and Moslem militia men began an intense battle Thursday. Wazzan said illegal militias, right- wing Christians as well as Moslems, must join in negotiations to resolve the crisis. The 10-member Cabinet will appa rently stay on until Gemavel appoints a new government. Astronauts find missing Westar 6 By Ed Alanis Stall writer I Funeral services will be held today |i 3 p.rn. in Austin for Distinguished [Alumnus E.M. “Buck” Schiwetz, one Ipf the state’s best-known and best- Boved artists. B Schiwetz, 85, died Thursday in his Hometown of Cuero following a long Bllness. H Credited with capturing Texas Beenes as no other artist has, Schiwetz Hainted with a distinct style, all his W'vn. I Schiwetz graduated from Texas jH&Min 1921 with a bachelor’s degree fjii architecture. However, he never Hracticed that trade. Instead, he de- Hoted much of his life to drawing and Hainting Texas scenes. I Schiwetz has worked with many Heople at Texas A&M, including en- ■ironmental design graphics profes- tacted Westar 6 Sunday afternoon and was able to command the satellite to recharge its batteries. Although the satellite can never be raised to its proper stationary orbit 22,300 miles above Earth, the first re ports rai hopes for a successful post mortem on its $75 million fai. “We have a spacecraft that’s in the wrong orbit that’s completely healthy,” said Bill Ziegler, the project manager for Western Union, the owner of the satellite. Ziegler said the satellite might be nudged into an orbit high enough where it would have some limited use. He said his best guess to explain the satellite’s predicament was that Wes- tar’s rocket motor misfired and flamed out, laving the satellite in the wrong orbit. The Westar 6 failure was the first of two disappointments for the astro nauts in the first three days of an eight-day mission. The shiny white balln that was to have been used as the bulls-eye to re hearse a satellite repair mission burst soon after it was ejected from the shuttle’s cargo bay Sunday morning. Stewart told mission control the balloon popped with “a fairly violent explosion.” “It was just like somebody stuck a stick of dnamite in it and blew it up,” said Stewart. The balloon was launched in a canister containing a nitrogen gas bot tle for inflation. An explosive device failed to break the canister apart and the swelling balloon burst in the con tainer. Ground controllers canceled the rehearsal manuevers because of the lack of a suitable target and concern about a collision with the balloon’s 200-pound ballast that was drifting on its own in orbit, too small to be tracked by radar. The radio contact with Westar 6 confirmed the satellite is among a pack of space debris circling the Earth in an orbit ranging up to several hun dred miles higher than Ghallenger. “There’s no hope of saving it, but it is exciting that we will be able to piece together the story of what happened,” said a spokesman for Hughes Air craft, the firm that built the satellite. Hartadi Asturi, project manager for the Indonesian Palapa satellite, said the first reports from Westar made him confident that the launch of his country’s relay station would succeed. T he Palapa launch originally was scheduled for Saturday but was de layed because of the Westar 6 problem. Asturi said engineers believed Wes- tar’s failure was caused by a problem with the satellite’s rocket motor that was to have fired 45 minutes after deployment Friday to start the satel lite on it climb to orbit. United Press International I CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Tracking teams Sunday finally found the errant Westar 6 satellite missing since its launch from Challenger two | days ago and its first reports transmit- lled from space boosted confidence for Monday’s deployment of a similar relay station. 1 That was good news for the astro nauts whose plans for a 17,500-mph game of space tag were spoiled by the explosion of their 6 VL'-foot target bal- t on. The bursting balloon meant space- Iltien Vance Brand, Robert “Hoot” Hibson, Bruce McGandless, Robert Hewart and Ronald McNair had to K)rgo rehearsing the manuevers for an important Apt il rendezvous with a |malfunctioning solar satellite. ■ But the astronauts and ground Bams were optimistic things would go Hoothly for Monday’s launch of the ■donesian Palapa satellite. |A California tracking station con- Services held today for Schiwetz sor Jim Earle. Earle is the creator of two years as art editor of the year- comic strip character “Slouch,” who book, then called The Longhorn. has appeared in the Battalion for Jerry Cooper, editor of the Texas more than 40 years. Aggie, says Schiwetz was quite a char- Schiwetz was the first recipient of acter during his days as a student. He the Texas Artist of the Year Award, lived in the attic of Gathwright Hall, established in 1977. Many of his Ciathwright Hall is no longer standing works have been published in book today, but it was located near Heaton form, including scenes from the Hall. Schiwetz had his illustrations Texas A&M campus drawn during printed in several campus publica- the 1976 centennial celebration, lions, and many of his works are pre- Schiwetz served as anist-in-residence sently on display in the MSC. for Texas A&M in 1976 and Buck Services will be at St. David’s Epis- Schiweu’ Aggieland—A Portfolio of copal Church in Austin today. Texas Eight Scenes from Texas A&M Uni- A&M President Frank Vandiver will versity was published by the Universi- deliver a eulogy, The Ross Volunteer ty press. Company will serve as pall-bearers Schiwetz came to A&M to study and Aggie Band buglers will play taps, electrical engineering, but it was soon Schiwetz is survived by his wife, discovered that his talents did not lie Ruby Lee Schiwetz, a daughter, Mrs. in this field. He then began studying Frank Nelson of San Antonio, a architecture, and won awards for his brother, David Schiwetz, and a grand- designs and sketches. He also served daughter. E.M. “Buck” Schiwetz satellite The Palapa is equipped with the same sort of rocket motor, called a payload assist module. The rockets have worked correctly on four nearly identical satellites launched on pre vious missions. “They think the failure on Westar was a random failure,” said Asturi. “There is no indication that there is a design problem.” Despite the rehearsal cancellation, the astronauts and ground crews still were able to use a large balloon frag ment to successfully test the naviga tion equipment that will be needed for the exacting maneuvers on the next flight to bring the shuttle within 100 yards of the broken Solar Max satellite. The astronauts also checked out the ship’s 50-foot mechanical arm that will be used during the free-flying “Buck Rogers” spacewalks scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday. In Today’s Battalion Local • Funeral services were field Sunday for a 22-year-old TAMU student killed in a Cessna plane crash. See story page 3. • The debate oyer whether seniors will take finals prob ably won’t be settled for two or three months. See story page • The Texas A&M women’s basketball team beat Rice Saturday 71-69. See story page 11. World • Secretary of State George Schultz talks with Brazilian leaders about debt, trade and n uclear energy. See story page 5. ‘84 football ticket prices to go up Football ticket prices at Texas A&M will increase 25 percent the athletic department announced Friday. Prices for home games this season for sideline bench seats will increase from $12 to $15. Armchair seats in Kyle Field will increase from $14 to $17.50 Athletic director Jackie Sherrill said the increases were made “in order to be competitive with what other schools in the Southwest Con ference and around the country are doing or have already done.” The Aggies are scheduled to play seven home games, the first against the University of Texas at El Paso on Sept. 1. I % i; I: I I I I I