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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 28, 1985)
^age 8BThe BattalionAVednesday, August 28,1985 — Binoculars bringing ^he world in closer for your inspection Associated Press Whether you want to read the quarterback’s lips or identify a bird a different color, binoculars will 3ut you closer to the action. Make ;ure to pick a pair with quality and eatures to suit your needs. Binoculars are either prismatic or aonprismatic. In the more precisely engineered and expensive prismatic ainoculars, entering light passes :hrough prisms that make the image reaching your eye seem more realis tic and sharp. The most common type uses a “Porro prism.” The cost lier and more compact roof-prism type, with prisms positioned differ ently, is sleeker and lighter. German-style prismatics have two- { >iece barrels with prisms easily misa- igned if the binoculars are treated roughly. The American-style one- piece body is sturdier. Nonprismatic binoculars are less expensive and more rugged, but they lack the magnification and 3-D effect you can get with a prismatic product. Opera and field glasses are usually nonprismatic. Be wary of glasses with bulging sides that im itate the shape of the prismatic glass. Binoculars usually bear two num bers on the body, appearing as 7 x 35 or 7 x 50 and so on. The first number gives the magnifying power. At 7 x, the subject being viewed ap pears seven times closer. Most binoc ulars magnify between six and 10 times. If you go higher and lack a tri pod, the slightest hand movement will cause an image to jump around. The second number is the diame ter in millimeters of the objective lens, the larger one in front that re ceives light. The bigger the lens, the more light it gathers and, to a de gree, the brighter the image reach ing your eye. As a guide for using binoculars at night, some makers’ product bro chures report relative brightness; others report the more useful twi light factor. Either way, the higher the number, the better the night vi sion. Models numbered 7 x 35 and 8 x 30 are the most versatile. Because they collect more light, a 7 x 50 or an 8 x 40 are good if you expect to use binoculars frequently at twilight or in dim light, although & 6 x 30 is a worthy compromise if less bulk and more portability are important. Another measure of binocular performance is the field of view, which is the width of the area you see from 1,000 yards or meters away and is defined as regular, semi-wide, wide field and extra-wide field. As the binocular’s magnification in creases, the field of view narrows. Binoculars fall into four price cat egories. Generally, the more you pay, the better the view. Top-of-the-line equipment in cludes models from Bausch & Lomb and Leitz and Zeiss. Because of the superior materials, exacting con ON THE SIDE OF ^TEXJ^S A&0AI Plantation Oaks Apartments 693-1011 Efficiencles-SZBO. 00 2 Bedroom-SSBO. 00 & up All bills paid except electricity — No utility deposit with city * Tennis & Basketball courts * Exercise Room w/Saunas Huge Apartments-Lots of Closet Space Shuttle Bus Crystal Clear Pool 1501 Harvey Rd. Across from the new Post Oak Mall MO.-Fr. 8-5 Sat. 10-5Sun.2-5 Professionally Managed by Lewis Roberts Co. Fantastic Prices & Locations i.\h:ki t ki6\i\ Join usWednesday nights for frozen margaritas! Only ONE DOLLAR from 9:00 pm until closing. The INTERURBAN 505 University Dr. "an aggie traditien" Father and daughter team keeping job of piano tuning a family tradition [ S struction, durability and lifetime guarantees that frequently come with these quality products, even standard-size, all-purpose binoculars are pricey. A Zeiss 8 x 30 B Dialyt, for exam ple, goes for $555. A Leitz Trinovid 7 x 35 B costs $459 and a Bausch & Lomb Classic 7 x 35 sells for $730, although discounts are common. In the next-best category, which includes Bushnell, Swift, Tasco, Ed mund Scientific, Fuji, Nikon, Canon, Minolta and Pentax, prices fall. By comparison, the Bushnell Explorer II 7 x 35 general-use model sells for $206. Quality is often good enough to make models from this group at tractive choices. Serviceable but less costly models are available at another level, which often includes economy models by manufacturers in the second-best group. Bushnell’s Sportsview 7 x 35, for example, sells for $75. In the $25 to $50 range, you may get your money’s worth if you’re going to use the glasses only occa sionally for less demanding tasks. All binoculars are now made abroad which means that differing standards of inspection apply. Bausch & Lomb and Bushnell, for example, test their Japanese-made binoculars after they arrive in this country while other brands are in spected in Japan by the Japan Tele scope Inspection Institute. Changing Times magazine sug gests that you read and compare provisions for protection and war ranties. Other ways to test for a suit able pair: — To compare brands, take a printed page and back up until you can barely read the print through the binoculars. Switch to another model. See how it compares in bringing the same size type into view from the same distance. — Sharply focus the binoculars on a distant, somewhat detailed object, then swing them to each edge of the field of view to see whether the image sharpness changes much. Loss of clarity should be minimal. — Go over the general appear ance of the binoculars. Avoid those that are scratched, dented, or that have internal rattling. — Point the eyepieces toward a bright light and look through the ob jective lenses. From 5-10 inches away, check the inside for chipped lenses and prisms, dirt or lens ce ment separations. Check to see that internal glass surfaces are fully coated with mag nesium fluoride to ensure brighter and better defined images; coated lenses will refiect a magenta hue Associated Press LAKE JACKSON — Family busi nesses are a fading institution. But the tradition of passing skills from generation to generation is alive and well in the Harvey household. Kenneth Harvey and his daugh ter, Karen, are piano tuners and re- furbishers. Their shop, located be hind their house, is filled with pianos or parts of pianos and on any given evening, you’re likely to find the Harveys tinkering with keys, strings and hammers. “This one here has real ivory and you can’t get that any more,” says Kenneth, 50, pointing to a set of ebony and ivory keys Karen pulled from a baby grand piano nearby. “So right now, she’s in the process of try ing to match them with ivories from other old pianos. That’s going to take her a long time.” Kenneth has tuned and repaired pianos for years, and his interest ap parently was infectious. Karen, 23, says she used to watch her father work and caught the bug. “I started out working with my dad about a year and a half ago,” she says. “I used to go out while he was working and talk with him. Of course, I didn’t understand it at first, but I’ve picked up quite a bit.” Since then, Karen has advanced to the point where she can handle a project on her own. The baby grand, a Bramback, must be completely overhauled, a task not to be taken lightly. But when she is done, Karen will have a musical instrument of un paralleled quality. Kenneth learned to tune and fix pianos from an old aquaintance, M.B. Kelley, with whom he used to get together and play the guitar. “The finest man I ever met,” Ken neth says. “I told him fixing pianos was something that I’d probably en joy. He said to me, ‘Any time you’re ready, youjust holler.’” aren’t. And it really depends on how says nas often it’s played. I’ve heard some that are played a lot and tuned a little.” Tuning a piano takes Kenneth two or three hours. Unlike its stringed relatives the guitar and fid dle, pianos may have as many as 200 strings and each must be kept at an exact tension. Today, with the skills Kelley taught him, Kenneth and Karen buy pianos from people who would otherwise ship their instruments to the dump. The hopeless cases are torn down for parts, some of which cannot be found in stores. But if a piano can be saved, the Harveys are faced with the challenge of bringing it back to life. “To me, taking an old piano that won’t even play and rebuilding it so that it can sing again, well, that’s something you can sit back and know you accomplished something.” Putting a piano back together is one thing. But making it sound as its manufacturers intended is another. Tuning requires an ear capable of differentiating subtle changes in pitch. What passes for “in tune” to the uninitiated, may sound painfully out-of-kilter to a trained ear. “A piano should be tuned at least Kenneth says many of the keys have multiple strings which must be exactly in tune with each other and with other notes. High notes have three strings for each key. Those in the middle have two. And the base notes strike a sin gle string. Once a set of strings is in tune with itself, the note must be matched with the rest of the piano. This is done by playing and listening care fully to an entire chord. If the strings are still out of tune, the lis tener will hear what musicians call “beats.” Striking a middle C, Kenneth C auses, listening for the telltale vi- ration that alerts him something is amiss. “There, you hear that, the way the sound seems to rise and fall?” he asks. “That means it’s not quite in tune.” Between their hobby and their jobs at Dow Chemical Co., Kenneth and Karen don’t have the time they need to get all the work done. Ken neth says they are at least six months behind in their refurbishing pro jects. “When I retire, then I’llbeableto do it full time,” Kenneth says. “Until then, though, it’s just a hobby.” Karen feels the same way. Sheen- joys working with her f ather but has to ration the amount of time she spends in the shop. “I’d like to continue learning about pianos but I don’t knowiflll ever reach the point where I’d quit my regular job,’ Karen says. “But its definitely enjoyable.” Karen plays the piano and sap she was the kind of cnild whohadto ask if she could take lessons. “I’ve always enjoyed playing,”sht says. “It’s a separate world when you play you’re all by yourself.” Kenneth says nis piano skills are rusty, so he sticks to tuning. Everyso joften, he’ll play one of his guitan- a classic Gretcfi or the battered gui tar he got as a child. Most of the time, he works with pianos, teaching his daughter and learning more about the craft himself. It’s important to Kenneth that his daughter learn what he knows,just as M.B. Kelley taught him. Keller died several years ago. “I guess I’m training my daughter for the same reason he trained me," Kenneth says. “He didn’t wanttodie and take it with him. 1 guess 1 feel the same way.” A i ye; 11 fror pat; chat Cirs that I B Jal run; in ; alio; shtfi ■ 7 Ind Iriv dr c; I W ' Its n huit ■ 15, Ir tB 0|)tl die lhai ivstt I P suei Ber- seat Bus driver: Overtime wage decision was a major victory for U.S. workers fold rea ing |riv :eni Associated Press — Check the alignment by observ ing a distant object with both lenses. Cover one lens with your hand, then quickly remove it. If you see two images before your eyes adapt to the change, the barrels are out of align ment. SAN ANTONIO — Bus driver Joseph Garcia was busy working his route the morning the LJ.S. Supreme Court announced a sweeping ruling on a lawsuit concerning overtime P ay ’ The court reversed its earlier de cision and held that public employ ees of state and local governments are entitled to overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act. “I was elated,” said Garcia, whose lawsuit led to the Feb. 19 ruling. “We were confident we would win.” That Garcia was doing his job when the ruling was released —driv ing his bus like he has every week for the past 17 years — seemed fitting for him. “I chose to have a very low profile on this,” he told The Associated Press in one of the few interviews he has granted. “I think the press tends to glorify the namesake. I don’t think it was a Garcia alone. It took many people — a labor of many, many hours to pull this thing off.” Garcia, one of 600 bus drivers for San Antonio’s VIA Metropolitan Transit System, found out from his fellow drivers that the high court had ruled in his favor. The decision, which has sweeping implications for public employees nationwide, marked the culmination of an eight-year fight by VIA work ers to secure overtime pay. Since the beginning, Garcia has kept a low profile in the case. He says he just allowed his union, the Amalgamated Transit Workers Union, to put his name on its lawsuit against VIA. “It was a random choice,” said Garcia, who was a union board member at the time. Now he is a vice president of ATWU. Garcia, 38, said he works little overtime these days and stands to gain little from the ruling. But many other drivers, who work backup shifts and handle charters, had been working 45 and 50 hours a week with no extra compensation, he said. “You’ve got workers in the city that weren’t getting overtime. It can’t do anything but better their lives. They’re going to be able to bring a little more bacon to the house,” he said. The American Public Transit As sociation estimates labor costs for mass transit nationwide will go up 5 percent because of the Supreme Court decision. The bottom line is that it will cost a little more for citizens to ride pub lic buses, said Scott Baker, assistant general manager for VIA. Garcia says he has no qualms about local governments having to pic pay overtime for all public employ- “We’re very happy that other peo ple benefitted from our lawsuit, he said. The legal skirmishes began in 1976, when the Supreme Court litional ruled that “traditional government services” were exempt from provi sions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The 1938 law calls for time-and- a-half compensation after 40 hours of work each week. After years of wrangling between the union, VIA officials and the De partment of Labor, the secretary of labor ruled that mass transit is not a “traditional government service.” Immediately, VIA officials sued the labor secretary and the union - filed a countersuit against the bus company. On Nov. 17, 1981, U.S. District Judge Joe Shannon ofSai Antonio ruled in favor of VIA. After the union filed an appeal the Supreme Court ordered Stian non to rehear the case and recoa sider. The judge upheld his earfo decision Feb. 14, 1983. The case was argued before tht U.S. Supreme Court March 18, 1984, and the high court reversediii 1976 ruling and decided in favorofl VIA workers on Feb. 19. VIAofli| cials appealed the decision, but tk Supreme Court refused to hearth case again. Garcia said he had no idea tht case would take so long to be tt solved. The ruling means another setof guidelines for VIA officials to foi low, said Baker, the bus companyoi ficial. The union and VIA officialshai worked out a pay agreement it which workers would get time-and a-half pay for certain working ar signments, Baker said. Despite th provisions, drivers could workraort than 40 hours a week, and not gel time-and-a-half compensation, he said. LA twt doi doi SI gat TEXAS ASM UNIVERSITY SYMPHONIC BAND Meet September 3rd at 12:30 PJVi. for information and Tryout Exercises —membership by audition each September —instrumentation set for 75 —activities include concerts and a spring trip —rehearsals twice a week —open to all students Begun in 1973, the Symphonic Band offers students at Texas A&M University the opportunity to play their instruments with others from across Texas and the nation. Rehearsing twice weekly, Tuesday and Thursday, from 12:30-1:45 p.m., the band allows stu dents to play in a group while concentrating on their major field of study. For additional information, call or visit: Phone: 845-3529 Bill J. Dean Director Symphonic Band E.V. Adams Band Bldg. College Station, Texas 77843 1985-1986 Concerts Include: Rudder Auditorium MSC Houston A&M Mothers Club Dallas A&M Mothers Club To dia rov ery to yoi Wh do dia. on tssi can fro cut mo vat ger ogr tor