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Lubbock inventor patents brush
dirty beverage can tops
to clean
LUBBOCK, (AP) — Once in a
while someone invents something
that makes people say “I wish I’d
thought of that,” while the one who
did makes money.
Remember the pet rock?
Lubbock inventor Warren J.
Sandvick is hoping people by the
many thousands soon are wishing
they’d thought of the Eze Cleaner.
The 26-year-old inventor received
a patent in August for the unique
little brush. He carries the prototype
in his pocket.
The 19-line governmental legal-
ese description on Sandvick’s patent
describes the Eze Cleaner this way:
“A device for cleaning the top sur
face of beverage cans is formed from
a circular disc provided with sym
metrical openings and has a plurality
ofbrushes extending downwardly . .
In other words, it’s a brush de
signed for cleaning soda cans, and it
works. “Just two twists under the
faucet and — Boom! — that baby’s
clean,” Sandvick said.
Sandvick’s agent, American In-
Overcrowding
temporarily
closes prison
HUNTSVILLE (AP) — The
Texas Department of Corrections
is admitting new inmates Tues
day after being closed Monday
due to overcrowding, officials
said.
Prison officials announced Fri
day the 26-unit prison system
would be closed to new inmates
Monday after the prison popula
tion exceeded a court-mandated
95 percent capacity.
The inmate population at mid
night Thursday was 38,990, or
95.13 percent — 53 over the legal
limit. As of midnight Sunday, the
population was down to 38,927,
or 94.97 percent — 11 available
beds, prison spokesman Charles
Brown said.
Texas prisons had not been
closed due to overcrowding since
September 1987.
The Texas prison system, the
nation’s third largest behind Cali
fornia and New York, operated
under an open-and-shut cycle
early in 1987 that left the system
open only on Tuesdays and
Wednesdays because of over
crowding.
ventors Corp. of Westfield, Mass., is
seeking a manufacturer for the
brush, which Sandvick said he’d pre
fer to see mass produced in Lub
bock, or at least in West Texas.
“The manufacturer is going to be
the one that makes all the money,”
Sandvick said, predicting the item
would sell well.
American Inventors Corp. con
ducted Sandvick’s patenting process,
including an extensive patent search
and a marketability study for the Eze
Cleaner.
Sandvick, who earned an associate
degree in electronics technology
from South Plains College, worked
for a time as a computer technician
before deciding he’d rather have the
computers working for him.
He now is involved in establishing
Advanced Tele-Communications
Services in Lubbock. The service is a
telemarketing and survey operation.
It was invention’s mother, neces
sity, which led him to create the Eze
Cleaner.
Tired of using wet napkins to
clean soda can tops, Sandvick built
DALLAS (AP) — “Howdy, Folks!”
It’s that time again. Big Tex, the 52-
foot cowboy, is ready to boom out his
mechanical greeting to 3 million visi
tors to the 1988 State Fair of Texas.
Final preparations are being
made for Friday’s opening of the 17-
day extravaganza. Organizers of the
fair, which started in 1886, promise
something for everybody: from
corny dogs to cotton candy, jam
judging, pig races and a tribute to
Elvis.
“I want to get set up and get the
excitement going,” Stephanie Ellis
said as she prepared a dart-throwing
booth along the Midway.
Now retired, Ellis used to take va
cation to work at the fair, something
she’s been doing “for a long time.”
“It’ll be a rugged two weeks,” Ellis
said, but she’s looking forward to re
newing friendships among the
15,000 people who work at the fair.
“We’re kind of a big family for
two weeks, then no contact for a
year,” she said.
Three million visitors are ex
pected at the fair, which runs
through Oct. 23, spokesman Nancy
Wiley said.
the brush “out of necessity” and now
says it’s amazing to him that no one
thought of if before he did.
“Everybody complains about dirty
cans, but nobody does anything
about it,” he said. “I got tired of
drinking out of nasty cans.”
Dirt that collects on soda cans can
range from West Texas dust to
spilled colas, tiny metallic bits or
paint flecks rubbed off from the
cans, or any number of unidentifia
ble gunk, Sandvick said. He com
pared drinking from an unwashed
can to licking the floor.
“Even the ones that look clean are
dirty,” Sandvick said.
Sandvick’s brush is circular, with a
bristle pattern designed to clean the
top, inside rim and outer edge of the
average soda can. The bristles also
get into the narrow groove common
to the inside edge of soda can rims,
digging out the dirt there.
He thought up the idea almost
three years ago, and made the proto
type one year ago, but had to wait
until mid-August for his patent.
A 1984 study showed the fair had
a total economic impact of $127 mil
lion on Dallas, with the average fair-
goer spending six hours and $7.25
inside the 277-acre Fair Park, Wiley
said.
New this year is a multimedia mu
sical on the life and times of Elvis
Presley. “Elvis: A Musical Cele
bration,” will be playing at the Music
Hall. It features more than 30 songs
Elvis made famous.
In 1956, the King of rock’n’roll,
then 21, performed at the State Fair
of Texas. Fans screamed behind a
10-foot chicken wire fence in the
Cotton Bowl.
Other events this year include pig
races at Porkchop Downs and new
categories for llamas and draft
horses. The horse show agenda also
includes competition for Palominos,
Arabians, Appaloosas, donkeys,
mules and miniature horses.
Then there are the 64 horses on
the fair’s 1914 Dentzel carousel.
They were carefully removed and
stored while the merry-go-round
was relocated to the far southeast
end of the Midway.
“I love my horses,” Dottie Bryant
“I would think the (beverage) in
dustry would come up with some
thing like this,” he said.
Sandvick said of the invention,
“My first one, but not my best one.”
Two or three other inventions are
on the way, he said, all of them con
sumer convenience devices. “They
do a job that is already being done,
but they do it so much better.”
The need to keep his as yet-unpa-
tented ideas secret prevented Sand
vick from futher discussion.
Building the prototype cost Sand
vick $10, he said. The round handle,
made of an eighth-inch thick slice of
PVC (polyvinyl-chloride), was hand
drilled with the numerous holes for
the bristles.
Sandvick spent four hours gluing
the bristle into the holes, he said. In
mass production the brush bristles
will be embedded by machine.
According to the results of the
American Inventors Corp. patent
search, Sandvick’s Eze Cleaner is the
simplest of the many of can cleaners
ever invented.
said as she touched up the brown
paint on a chestnut. “I’d love to have
one in my living room.”
Bryant has spent the past decade
caring for the carousel horses, which
are to be renovated next year.
T he carousel is the focus of a new
area of children’s rides and attrac
tions near the old roller coaster.
But they’re dwarfed by the 212.5-
foot Texas Star Ferris wheel and
other rides along the Midway, in
cluding the Wave Swinger trucked
in from Virginia by crew foreman
Randy Gladding.
“We move this 18 times a year,” he
said, replacing burned out bulbs
among the 2,864 red and white
lights that decorate the German-
made ride.
“She’s our pride and joy,” Glad
ding said with unconcealed affection
for the $900,000 machine made in
1978.
“I call her my wife,” he said.
“She’s a machine but she’s a female
since she acts up sometime,” he said.
He enjoys living on the road, but
looks forward to Dallas.
‘Big Tex’ gets ready to greet
visitors to state fair in Dallas
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(Continued from page 1)
tended A&M in the 1920s under a
rule that allowed relatives of profes
sors to attend A&M.
Locke probably was the only
woman to receive an A&M diploma
before the 1960s. She didn’t grad
uate with her class, however — she
had to pick up her diploma at the
registrar’s secretary’s apartment.
Although not many women were
walking around the campus before
1963, all one had to do to see a fe
male was open The Battalion.
Women’s pictures often were in
The Battalion, not for scholastic
achievment or awards, but as a
beauty queen, a band or class sweet
heart, and usually she was someone’s
sister or girlfriend.
By 1969 no limitations were
“The harm that will come with co-education exceeds
the good by 1,000 percent. Girls divert the attention of
boys. ”
— T.L. Smith
1898 opinion of women at A&M
placed on women applicants, other
than meeting A&M’s standard aca
demic qualifications.
In 1972, campus housing was
opened to women, and by 19/4 the
Corps of Cadets had allowed women
to join.
Andrea Abat, a construction sci
ence major, is the first senior woman
in the Aggie Band.
Abat said she was treated like any
other freshman when she joined the
band. “Sure, I was harassed, but so
was every one else,” she said. “It’s
tough, but it was worth it.”
She said she never felt any differ
ent from her buddies. “We pulled
each other through as equals,” she
said.
Only seven of the 300-member
band are women, but the A&M cam
pus as a whole has no shortage of
women students. It’s women profes
sors that the University is looking
for.
Sheppard, who has been associate
provost for a year, said she would
like to see more women in faculty
positions, especially in administra
tive roles.
“A&M has made tremendous pro
gress, but there are still some things
left to do,” she said.
In 1963, A&M employed five fe
male professors — four in the De
partment of English and one in the
Department of Education and Psy
chology.
In 1988, A&M has 1,728 profes
sors, 195 of whom are women.
Three women are department
heads and three are administrators.
T he College of Liberal Arts has
sixty-nine female professors — more
than any other college — while the
College ol Geosciences has the few
est, with six female faculty members.
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ON
OCTOBER 12
TO INTERVIEW GRADUATING BUSINESS
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ACCOUNTING
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Personal
I Pan Pepperoni
I Umit one
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eerved between 11am-4pm, Mon -Ffl el
perddpeflng Pine Hut* reeteurent* Oder
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| C1983 Pizza Hut. Inc.
-flute
Personal
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I Preeerd coupon vdien ordering^ One coupon *Ale e*
per perecn per vteit Permcnel Pens eerved •■US*# ■
between Item-4pm, Mon -Fit. etper»dpe«ng
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combination with any other Pizza Hut® oiler. 5- I
I minute guarantee apples 1130 AM to ICO PM »
to our two selections on orders ol 5 or less per ta-1
We or 3 or less per carryout customer.
B ©1983 Pizza Hut. Inc.
/A (S)[lDIISirQ@M ©IF muGmw
by Pat Pfeiffer
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October 7, 8, 13, 14, & 15 8:00 PM
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