ThE mineR
Seventh Grade Press
Volume 1, Number 9
What does optical fiber do?
By Connor Brown
Optical fiber is tiny flexible strands of glass in a protective casing that runs underground. These flexible strands of glass can transmit digital signals by turning data signals into light waves. In The Miner Horizon Magazine, Spring 2013, an article by Janelle Ayteo explained the cable sends data by up to 400 GB per second. That is very fast, but there will be a governor to limit how fast data can travel. Speeds are limited by the Internet service provider and the agreement they have with their upstream provider, Ms. Ayteo wrote. The fiber optic light reaches the houses and business, called Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) that sends information to a WiFi router so other devices can connect to WiFi. Optical fiber makes it possible to have high
speed Internet. Fiber optic cable may only have about 30 years of life span. My uncle Jim taught me that each strand of glass is color coded and has to be connected by high voltage electricity to melt
the fibers into a cable and this reduces confusion during installation from connecting the wrong fiber types. The top Internet providers offer 100 Mb per second maximum. Some people believe
July 20, 2016 |
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E d ito r’s n ote
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he Seventh Grade Press is a series of stories written by seventh graders in Ms. Irene Ewing’s class at Sadie Halstead Middle School in Newport. Each student chose a topic of local historical importance, conducted research and interviews and went through a lengthy editing process. More than 80 students participated and each one will get a ‘by line’ in The Miner Newspapers. This is the ninth week of the project. Check back for the next several weeks for more on local history. See more on page 4B. If you find that you have something to add, interview candidates the class should talk to, or documents and artifacts you want registered in the local museum, contact the Seventh Grade Class at Sadie Halstead Middle School, in Newport. They have agreed to collect and catalog everything that comes in, and deliver to the museum for archiving.
that optical fiber has infinite possibilities and in a way it does. It will be interesting to see what happens in the future with fiber optics. So if you want to be connected at the speed of light, install fiber optics.
POVN and how it all started By Emily Martin
Before 1995, our little Newport world was a disaster, but then four brave souls stepped into the light of technology! Pend Oreille Valley Network was started in 1995, by Tom Walton and four of his friends. They started in the basement of what is now the John L. Scott Real Estate office and then moved into what is now Petticoat Junction building in 1996. Tom Walton was also the manager of the Big Wheel Pizza when he started. Eight years ago Melannie Jones, Tom Walton’s daughter, joined the
business as its new director. It is the longest lasting, family owned ISP (Internet service provider) in Washington. What a commitment! POVN started with dialup Internet access, then as years went on technology advanced and so did POVN! After dialup, they went to DSL, then wireless, and now to fiber optic. These are the ways people got Internet then and now. Fiber Internet can provide very high speeds to enable all your internet based services, whether you only use email or you’re watch-
Pend Oreille Baseball Teams By Nick Weber
“We win!” Those were fighting words to the Pend Oreille community baseball teams because they were so competitive. Almost every little community had their own baseball team, so did a lot of businesses, and these guys were
Baseball after work on summer evenings was the only thing to do. Whole families watched the games while the dads, brothers, cousins, and friends played in the games. great players. Baseball after work on summer evenings was the only thing to do. Whole families watched the games while the dads, brothers, cousins,
and friends played in the games. Girls couldn’t play back then because of the social norms. I learned from Mrs. McClenny, from the Pend Oreille County Historical Museum, that if somebody came to a business to get a job, and he said he was particularly good at playing a certain position that the team needed, he was certain to get the job. Everybody knew it. Baseball was that important. The teams weren’t just from the towns around the county, some of them were from businesses. Baseball was a very big sport and they had a lot of fans. Baseball teams used to play community against community. Sometimes people got in fights about which team won or lost because someone was bragging, or maybe just because someone was excited and the other guy didn’t like it. People went to each other’s community and played teams there in the evening because some of the baseball players would be at work. See baseball, 4B
ing streaming movies, talking to loved ones through a webcam, or playing an online game. With fiber connection you can use all of these at the same time. POVN is keeping up to date with the latest trends such as VOIP phone service, a phone that operates off the Internet connection. Web design, building and maintaining websites, is also something they are good at. Changing with technology POVN is always there for you and always will be. POVN, the best Internet provider around. (At least in my opinion.)
Fashion in the olden days
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By Jurnee Hoover
Fashion has changed a lot during the years. In 1925 there were feathers on hats and a lot of silk. They had things that made their dresses push up which were called petticoats. They used bloomers for if they were bending down the bloomers were for protection so people couldn’t see their legs. The fancy shoes they wore were called slippers, and they weren’t very pretty, I mean, I wouldn’t ever wear them. Nowadays, in 2016, in spring and summer, girls wear shorts, sweats, Vans, flip-flops, crop tops, and tank tops.
Nowadays, in 2016, in spring and summer, girls wear shorts, sweats, Vans, flip-flops, crop tops, and tank tops. Girls don’t really wear hats like they did in 1925 or long dresses and fancy shoes on a daily basis like girls in 1925. A lot has changed in the years of 1925-2016! Back in 1925, the elegant, fancy dresses were around $25 and now they are almost $50, maybe even more. Back then, the shoes were $1.98 to $5 and now one pair of Vans, Converse, boots or anything are $30, to like approximately $80. The shoes now are a lot of money just for one pair and I think it’s ridiculous. But back in the days of the 1920s the shoes and dresses, the clothes were cheap compared to what we spend for the clothes, shoes, dresses nowadays. If you go to the mall with $100 you can get one hoodie and one pair of shoes and maybe a drink if you have enough or a little bottle of perfume. I honestly think that nowadays prices are too high. Fashion to me is not only the kind of clothes there is it is also how people wear the clothes. Fashion isn’t only clothes, makeup, jewelry, nails, hair, piercings, tattoos, accessories, and other beauty supplies.
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seventh grade press
| July 20, 2016
ThE mineR
Courtesy photo|U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
This deer, shot by the author’s great-grandpa George Gretner in Pend Oreille County, holds the Washington state record.
The Albeni Falls Dam spillway in the spring.
Three dams dot the Pend Oreille River By Keelen Mitcham
There are three dams located on the Pend Oreille River: Albeni Falls Dam, Box Canyon Dam, and Boundary Dam. They were all built between 1951 and 1967. They were built to produce electricity. The dams are all located on the Pend Oreille River, which flows north into the Columbia River in Canada. Albeni Falls Dam was built near the Washington border (in Idaho) by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from 1951 to 1955. It took $34 million and 61 million pounds of concrete to build. It was built under authorization of the Flood Control Act of 1950 in response to a major flood in the Columbia River basin in 1948. The dam was named after a pioneer, Albeni Poirier. The structure consists of generators and three Kaplan turbines, which are
turbines that let water flow through the top downwards which spins the blade and creates electricity by an electro-
There was a dispute between the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, Pend Oreille PUD, and Seattle City Light about who would get to build a dam in that location. magnet. The dam is made of two different parts, the spillway, which lets water through if there is too much water for the dam, and the powerhouse, which creates electricity. The dam produces 200
Proud of our history Proud of our community Making decisions with tomorrow in mind
million kilowatt hours of electricity annually. This is enough to supply power to 15,000 homes. It also saves the U.S. from buying about 5 million barrels of imported oil each year. Box Canyon Dam is located on the Pend Oreille River 90 miles north of Spokane, Wash. It was built from 1951 to 1956 by Pend Oreille Public Utility District, also known as Pend Oreille PUD, which was the first PUD in the nation to build a dam. The dam was built in a narrow channel on the river that was called Box Canyon. The structure has four Kaplan turbines and generators. It was built with room to add a fifth turbine. It produces 77 MW of electricity every year. Boundary Dam was completed in 1967 and is located two miles south of the Canadian border. There was a dispute between the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, Pend Oreille PUD, and Seattle City Light about who would get to build a dam in that location. It took several years to resolve, but eventually Seattle City Light was given
permission to build. They helped the community of Metaline Falls by improving roads, providing fire protection, and paying taxes to support the hospital and schools. They are now the area’s biggest employer. There were 1,300 men that worked on the construction of the dam. There are four turbines, which now are producing 1,024,000 kilowatts of energy each year. Electricity from Boundary Dam is sent as far away as Seattle. and provides half of the hydroelectricity used by the city of Seattle, one fourth of power used by the city today. Hydroelectricity is natural source of power, which saves millions of barrels of crude oil from being consumed each year. Pend Oreille County is very fortunate to have three hydroelectric dams, which helps to keep the cost of electricity for its residents at a low rate. Sources: www.nws.usace.army. mil www.historylink.org www.fwee.org Albeni Falls Visitor Center
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By Nicholas Deerwester
Hi there. There is a lot of very great hunting history in Pend Oreille County. My grandpa pulled the Washington State record deer out of Pend Oreille. We have the most big game hunting animals in all of Washington. That’s pretty cool if you ask me. Pictured is the deer that my great-grandpa George Gretner shot in Pend Oreille County, and he has held the record for 85 Years. To this day the record has not been broken. The Washington state Black Bear record was shot out of Cusick. The habitat in this county is so rich with food and protection for the animals that there are a lot of animals. That makes hunting seem easy. Even though hunting seems easy, there are some things that might be helpful to know. Let’s talk about whitetail deer. You should know what deer look like. Whitetail deer are a rich brown with a white tail, and their strongest defense is their sense of smell. Deer also have
BASEBALL: Uniforms cost $5.95
From Page 3B
PONDERAY
Hunting in Pend Oreille County
Some baseball players were grownups and some were young adults. One time a baseball player used a fake name and played in a Rathdrum game to keep his buddies team from losing. Only a few people know who he was and the team got away with it. He was one of the best players and if he used his real name he would’ve gotten caught. These baseball teams sometimes wore uniforms, and in Montgomery
Ward catalog a full uniform cost $5.95 and the baseball gloves were separated from the uniform so you had to buy them separate. In the 1930’s Montgomery Ward catalog, the baseball gloves cost in the range of 39 cents to $6.85, baseball bats ranged between 19 cents to $1.65, and baseballs cost in the range of 9 cents to $1.25. I would have liked to play back then. It was a great time to make friends when you talk about baseball. We sort of do the same now.
a pretty great hearing sense. So when you are hunting you would most likely try to stay quiet so the deer won’t hear you. Deer have a great sense of sight also. Camouflage clothing will help hunters not be seen as easily by the deer. You probably know deer eat grasses because you see them in grass fields, but a big part of the diet of Whitetail deer is eating tree buds, saplings, bark, and leaves. With a past history of great hunting in Pend Oreille County you should be able to look forward to going out to get your own trophy mount. The habitat here will feed them, the trees and bushes protect them and they grow big. When a hunter is hunting deer they must wear blaze orange so other hunters don’t think they are an animal. If you are walking in the woods and see a scrape on a tree (such as a tree rubbed with missing bark). It is most likely to be a breeding sign of a whitetail deer. Veteran huntsman and good sports follow the rules of hunting such as shooting time, not having a loaded weapon in a vehicle, shooting animals at the correct season, and using the correct firearm for the correct animal. You should never break the rules of hunting. Also Pend Oreille County has very great waterfowl hunting. Such as Mallards, Divers, and Canadian geese. That is not all of the waterfowl animals just the most common. Pend Oreille has very awesome hunting history in waterfowl. When you shoot a deer if you do not get a clean kill you should always try to track it down using either a blood trail, tracks, or even common sense on where you think it went. Overall you should never leave a wounded animal in the woods to die. Also when you hunt you can’t expect to get something immediately. It’s not like they wanna get killed. Some people don’t support hunting, but I do. My information came from my family.