Miami Hurricane, August 04, 1950

              The Miami
Hurricane
Volume XXV
University of Miami, Coral Gables, Fla., August 4,1950
No. 6
University Leads U. S. In Ocean Food Study
By ELEANOR STARKSTEIN
Hurricane Newa Editor
Photo by Baiar
DR. II. B. MOORE, WILLIAM SHOEMAKER. AND EVERETT JONES LOWER NET TO TRAP PLANKTON.
Journalism Prof Receives Orders For Active Duty
The first U-M faculty member to be called back to active duty through the reserves was James L. Julian, assistant professor of journalism.
Julian, a captain and commander of the 866th Ordinance Bomb Disposal Squadron, was alerted with his outfit on Wednesday, according to Major Emmet L. O’Conner, chief instructor in charge of the Army Ground Forces in the Miami area.
O’Conner said that he could not reveal when the unit would be called to active duty or where they would report when called, but he said that the 866th was one of the first two units alerted in this area.
Julian has been with the University since 1946, teaching various subjects in the journalism department. In addition to teaching, he worked for the publicity office, concentrating on releases to out-of-town papers and national journalism magazines.
During this summer Julian has been taking work on his Ph.D. degree at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa. He was doing his graduate work in the field of public relations.
Man-Made Hurricane Created In New U-M Testing Station
University of Miami scientists, getting ready for a searching look at plankton, Tuesday began a two-year study of the microscopic organisms which serve as food for all sea life.
Researchers from the University Marine lab are cooperating with the National' Geographic society in this study which will be on a year-round basis in the Atlantic between southern Florida and the Bahamas.
for human food. It is possible, and scientists say your plankton sandwich would taste something like a shrimp sandwich on rye. However, extracting the organisms on a scale large enough for human consumption would be an expensive operation.
The Megalopa will periodically spend 24 hours on station to get an around-the-clock check on the way the pastures move with precise regularity. The false echoes caused by this shift of minute creatures gave trouble to the Navy’s electronic sound-ranging instruments during World War II submurine hunting.
Doctors Smith and Moore are former college associates — both graduates of the Uni\fersity of London. Smith has been director of marine biology department at the U since 1940; Dr. Moore did research work at labs in England and in Bermuda.
A premature hurricane swung into the Greater Miami area Friday, but very few people knew about it. Only the men who made the wind knew what was going on.
The early-bird wind got a jump on nature’s breezes when the University unveiled its hurricane testing station. The station is set up in the remains of a large hanger at the former Richmond naval air station, the main portion of which was destroyed during the hurricane of 1945.
A 2,000-horsepower airplane engine was used Friday to agitate the wind into hurricane velocity. The wind lashed water against a small, concrete block structure to test the effects of wind and water on building materials.
Dr. H. Horton Sheldon, director of industrial engineering at the University, said that the new experiment station was the only one of its kind in the U.S.
“Air tunnels are not effective for conclusive tests,” he said. “In tunnels, winds are confined to a concentrated area at fixed speeds. Here we are able to create an actual miniature hurricane with gusts of varying velocities.”
Dr. Sheldon reported that gusts of 120 miles per hour were created during the tests.
He also expressed pleasure at the
Banquet Winds Up University Stay As Band Campers Receive Awards
Junior and senior high school students from 26 schools in Florida and students from three colleges ended their University-sponsored summer band camp yesterday.
Camp Director Fred McCall presented awards last night at a Studnet Club banquet for the 132 campers, their relatives, friends and special guests. Honors went to campers selected by votes of the staff and the campers. Fred Powell, Miami Edison high school, won the boys’ award and Dorothy Rahme, Fort Pierce high school, took the honors for the girls. All campers completing the course received a camp emblem and a certificate.
Dr. E. M. Miller, director of summer sessions, gave the principal address of the banquet, and Major J.
B. O’Neal, assistant camp director, was toastmaster.
McCall said Wednesday that this summer band camp “gave these boys and girls five weeks of music training and valuable experience in group social life. The result of their band work plus the recreation and social activities should certainly be worthwhile.”
According to McCall, the Sunday afternoon concerts, presented each of the five weeks that the camp was here, drew an average attendance of 500.
He said the campers, staff and the University in general “have formed one of the best groups with which I have ever worked.”
“The camp plans to be back at the University next summer on a much larger scale,” he added.
results of experiments that were designed to test certain types of windows against tremendous blasts of wind.
Dr. Sheldon said that aluminum and steel casement windows were tested at the station. The panes did not break, he reported, but there was a great deal of water seepage.
“Not too good,” he said, “in this type of climate.”
Future tests, he announced, will be made on various types of roofs, paints and other materials used in the construction of buildings. Still later, he went on, a building less sturdy than the CBS structure used on Friday will be set up and attempts will be made to create winds strong enough to blow it down.
U-M Officials Inspect ROTC
An on-the-spot investigation tour of University Air Force ROTC cadets was made this week by two top U-M administrative officials.
Dr. Charles Doren Tharp, dean of Liberal Arts, and Dr. H. Franklin Williams, vice-president and dean of the faculty, were flown to Robins Air Base, Macon, Georgia, July 21 to observe the cadets who are now undergoing a six-week training period.
During this period the future officers study operational, logistical and supply problems along with a physical education program which includes almost every sport.
Officials from 10 other colleges and universities of the seven southeastern states were also present for the formal review and tours of the encampment and base.
Dorm Registrations Up
Women’s dormitory registrations for the second summer session were increased by 15 over last year’s figure, according to Mrs. Lillian Slack of the women’s housing office.
Although figures were not available on the number of men students living on campus, the housing office indicated that there will be a proportionate increase over last year’s registration.
Although plankton was discovered about a century ago, little research has been done in the open ocean and not much is known about it. The marine lab’s boat, the Megalopa, will make regular probings of the sea’s depths and obtain samples of the creatures at various depths.
Dr. F. G. Walton Smith, head of the marine biology department, is director of the program, and Dr. Hilary B. Moore, top-ranking oceanographer on the lah’s staff, is associate director.
The U-M researchers were accompanied on last Tuesday’s field trip by reporters, newsreel and newspaper photographers. The University’s cabin cruiser, Betiska, escorted the laboratory ship to the Gulf Stream, where instruments were lowered to record currents, temperatures and depths.
“Plankton” is derived from the Greek word meaning “wandering.” These creatures are incapable of swimming against the current and as many as 100,000 may be contained in a single quart of sea water.
To sea life, large and small, plankton are indispensible. They provide forage for the smallest fish to a species of whale that reach a 70-ton maturity in a few years on this diet. When plankton pastures become too plentiful, they become poisonous, and the fish die.
The “red tide” that killed millions of fish along Florida’s west coast in recent years has been blamed on an overabundance off certain kinds of plankton in the water.
These “fodder meadows” avoid the light and rise to the surface only at night. As the plankton migrate from time to time, it draws the fish population with it.
There has also been speculation about tapping the plankton supply
Fillmore Featured On Radio Show
Henry Fillmore, music adviser and conductor at the U-M’s summer band camp, was a guest on the Bands of America radio show last week when three of his marches were presented.
Fillmore, often referred to as the dean of American bandmasters, directed his march “Americans We.” Two more of his compositions, “His Honor” and “Footlifter,” were directed by Paul Lavalle.
Lavalle introduced the composer-conductor-publisher as "one of America’s leading march writers.”
Fillmore is president of the Fillmore Music house in Cincinnati but maintains a year-round residence in Miami.
Plinto by Baiar
MOORE, SHOEMAKER AND JONES CHECK WATER TEMPERATURE.