6
t
Page 6/The Battalion/Tuesday, March 10, 1987
TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY
85 MEMBER
IN NOON
CONCERT
12:30 - 1:30 P.M.
MSC LOUNGE (FLAG ROOM)
Music to include works of Bach, Grainger,
Rossini, Nelhybel, Reed, and Sousa
LAST WEEK FOR
MAKEUP PICTURES
FOR THE 1986-87 AGGIELAND
MARCH 9 UNTIL MARCH 13
AT AR PHOTOGRAPHY
707 TEXAS AVE. SUITE 120B
8:00 A.M.-12:00 P.M.
AND 1:00 P.M.-5:00 P.M.
MONDAY THROUGH FRIDAY
Warped
by Scott McCii
SYMPHONIC BAND
THURSDAY MARCH 12TH
A&M only university to have
hydrogen research center
By Sherry Copeland
Reporter
Through the aid of a $600,000
grant and matching funds from six
major industries, Texas A&M stands
as the only university in the world to
have a hydrogen research center.
The University of Miami at Flor
ida has a hydrogen energy center,
but it is used primarily for promo
tions and symposiums on hydrogen
energy, whereas A&M’s research
center concentrates on research and
on educating others about the use of
hydrogen energy, says William Cra
ven, general manager of the center.
A&M was chosen by the National
Science Foundation as the appropri
ate place for the Hydrogen Research
Center because it is located in a prin
cipal oil state. Craven says, and be
cause A&M is well-known for its
dedicated interest in research.
Craven and Dr. John Bockris, di
rector of the center, wrote a propo
sal for the center, gained the sup
port of six companies, including
Exxon Corp. and Diamond Sham
rock Refining and Marketing Co.,
and received approval from the Na
tional Science Foundation to form
the center.
The center opened in 1983 with a
working budget of $300,000. In
1987, the operating budget for the
center expanded to $1.3 million, he
says, and an additional $1.3 million
was given to the center as “seed
money” from the state.
‘This is to allow the center to en
ter phase two of its operation, which
is the expansion of the center,” Cra
ven says.
This year, however, also marks
the end of the four-year science
foundation grant.
Craven says his primary function
is to promote and market the center.
“I have no chemistry or scientific
background other than the knowl
edge obtained by working with these
people in the center,” Craven says.
“When I have questions, they (center
personnel) are readily available to
answer them. A scientific back
ground isn’t really needed to under
stand and appreciate the whole con
cept of what the hydrogen economy
is about.”
The objective of the center, he
says, is to investigate the economic
production of hydrogen from water,
and its research focuses on its use in
present and future industrial appli
cations and as an energy medium in
terfacing with coal, nuclear and solar
sources.
Bockris, distinguished professor
of chemistry, was one of the first
persons to conceptualize a world
running on hydrogen gas, Craven
says. Oil, natural gas and coal are
stored solar energy and Bockris’
idea, Craven says, is to collect solar
light through solar panels made of
silicon and use the energy by con
verting it to electricity. The energy
then passes through water and splits
it into hydrogen and oxygen mole
cules; the hydrogen then ce.
used in the place of fossii
which are carbon-based, hes*i
"Carbon only goes out andji
es,” Craven says. “Using hwi
energy would eliminate pollm I
low storage of energy and |
transmission by gas pipeline:
long distances.”
When hydrogen burns. Ga
says, it recombines with thecrl
in the air and forms water agaij
“It’s the perfect renewabk|
Craven says. “No one would f
control over it (hydrogen eiiJ
but anyone with sunlight and J
would have access to it, Cravtri
The misconception about bi
gen is that it is more dangeroni
other fuels, he says, which
after the Hindenburg trage
1937.
Among the center's project:
experimental 1982 CnrysletJ
aron automobile that runsonaj
gasoline or hydrogen, Graven.;
Gasoline-powered automobile:'
ate smog and carbon dioxidtji
says, whereas hydrogen powert:,;
tomobiles emit only steam.
“I’ve been told that the only™
lern with the hydrogen powert:!:
is that it will add to the humid i
Houston,” Craven says.
Before this car could bee
reality nationwide, changes »l
have to be made in pipelines :
gas pumps and refineries even:
i Id
would be eliminated, he says.
Owners of adult stores
shrouded in secrecy
HARLINGEN (AP) — The own
ers of a chain of adult video stores
are behind a cloud of secrecy — in
cluding a corporation with owners
whom employees say they have
never seen, post office boxes for an
address and no listed telephones.
The Valley Morning Star in Har
lingen tried to trace the ownership
after the stores were raided last week
by Cameron County authorities,
who seized material they described
as obscene.
The corporation lists its mailing
address as a post office box in Ir
ving, near Dallas, but no telephone
listing exists, the newspaper re
ported.
According to property tax re
cords, Adult Video in San Benito
and Dolar Video in Brownsville are
operated by Hot-Val Inc., which lists
its mailing address as a post office
box in Irving, a Dallas suburb, but
the newspaper said it was unable to
find a telephone listing.
to him,” said Kuglen, who said he
expected a building-supply store to
be constructed there.
“It hasn’t exactly increased the va
lue of the land. I still own next to it,”
he said.
Store employees said they do not
know who owns the stores.
The buildings in which the two
raided adult stores are located, and
the land on which the buildings sit,
belong to Louisiana Development
Inc., which lists its headquarters in
Lewisville, another Dallas suburb.
Again, no telephone listing could be
found, the newspaper said.
John Coil of Lewisville is listed in
the Secretary of State’s office in Aus
tin as president.
The newspaper reported, how
ever, that it could not locate Coil or
two others listed as officers.
Dr. Craig C. Kuglen, who has of
fices in Harlingen and Brownsville,
said he sold Coil land for the San Be
nito store without realizing an adult
video store would be built there.
“Hejust kind of popped into town
one day and said he wanted to buy
an acre of land,” Kuglen said. “So I
sold him an acre of land.”
“They could walk in the door and
we wouldn’t know them,” said Er
nesto Aguilar, an employee of the
Brownsville store.
R. Meza is listed as the president
of Hot-Val, Inc. on state sales tax re
cords. Addresses for the corporation
vary among government records.
Aguilar, 34, who was arrested on a
misdemeanor obscenity charge dur
ing raids on the San Benito and
Brownsville stores by the sheriffs
department, said the owners appar
ently pretend to be customers when
they make spot checks.
“Later, they might call you back
and tell you you’re doing something
wrong,” Aguilar said. “I marvel at
their ingenuity.”
Paychecks are mailed to employ
ees from somewhere in the Dallas
area, Aguilar said.
Construction on the adult video
store began the following day, Kug
len said.
“If he had told me what he was
going to do, I wouldn’t have sold it
New shipments of merchandise —
sexually explicit videos, magazines
and novelties — arrive automat
ically, with the owners somehow
knowing when to replenish depleted
stocks, he said.
New employees are hired by other
employees, said Aguilar, who has
worked for Dolar Video for about 18
months.
Receipts are deposited in local
banks, he said.
Mervyn Mosbacker Jr., chief fel
ony prosecutor for Cameron
County, said merchants of sexually
explicit materials often try to hide
their identities.
If the materials were determined
to be obscene, they could be pros
ecuted, he said.
“They protect themselves so they
won’t get charged with wholesaling
(obscene materials),” Mosbacker
said.
Gas line led
one of manf
in its history
AUSTIN (AP) — The m
Chevron pipeline that li
nearly 17,000 gallons of gasolij
and tainted Mineral Wells' wait
supply with a cancer-cauiiii
chemical Feb. 27 has broken''
least three other times sincei
state records show.
The previous leaks spill®
more than 31,000 gallons offc
sel fuel, regular, unleaded it
super-unleaded gasoline in tM
counties, causing an estin#
$25,000 in damage but nij
ported injuries, according I
Texas Railroad Commission f
cords.
The leaks prompted the c<4
mission to launch an investigaitf
of the pipeline, which stretdi
through 26 counties from Pj
Arthur on the Texas GulfCoi
to Eastland, west of Fort WorikJ
The investigation wastolw
Monday and probably will
two to three weeks to comp!
said Milt Fegenbush Jr., direc 1 '
of the commission’s I
Safety Division.
Jim Nuckols, a Chevron en 1
ronmental specialist sent to
eral Wells to help city officiali*!
ter the leak, said the companfl
not hiding anything.
The Dallas Morning AM
ported that since the Railr4
Commission began rej^
hazardous liquid pipelines in
tober 1985, Chevron has
worst record among the 19
panics that have reported lei
Nearly one in every fourpipelifT
spills investigated by the coi#*! ;
sion occurred on a Chevron lin f j' -
Commission records shot:
before the Mineral Wells If®
Chevron had 1 1 of the rep#!
46 spills. An estimated 182,91
gallons of petroleum prod
leaked from Chevron lines sii
May, causing an estimate
$32,850 in damage.