atudent newspaper of Worcester Polytechnic Institute Tuesday, November 15, 1977
energy week
44o/o enrollment
atts under the. sun?
by Don Ct~IIJWII a cold, dismally grey Thursday l.lt.lt•v•,,..,,AI 10th, to be exact) the solar panels for hot water were Installed top of Stoddard C. A similar ironic twist coincidence provided WPI with itl key for that day's solar energy seminar - Mr. Peter Thorne. Mr. Thorne graduated from Yale with a In architecture in 1976. He did lllnJctiJntl design for Sun Works, a solar nel marketer, for about one year illnrn1Kfia1tf!lv following college. After this he went to work for the Mass. Solar Action Office, in June of '77, approx. month after the office was created. The Solar Action Office was formed by Secretary of Consumer Affairs, to "promote and encourage the use of solar in Massachusetts." It is funded by a U.S. government HUO grant ·~rnar.l!tm . The program provided for the dis...,,Jnll•n of a $400 subsidy to some 1,376 throughout Massachusetts the expressed purpose of installing domestic solar hot water heaters. Beyond lhll, the Solar Action Office intends to Inform and correct mistaken notions in pemment, business, and the general public about the value and feasibility of ID&ar power. To these ends. Mr. Thome ad· dr8lled the frfty-or-so people gathered In llnnecutt Hall on campus. The topic: The polltica of solar energy. He began by informing hfs audience of projected design and Installation op..-.unrT-. for domestic solar heating that create several thousand jobs. With activity (and sun power collectore their infancy), there are insufficient •rldJI.m. to protect the consumer from taken In by a poor-quality unit. At the
present time, the consumer has no recourse for processing solar complaints. Going further, Mr. Thorne spoke of insurance problems with solar, which have yet to be resolved. Two problems he touched on were owner rights and liabilities. If a solar panel system was poorly Installed -end the house was resold, who repairs any future water and/or storm damage? Or suppose the panels slide off your garage roof, and hit the Fuller brush man's (person' s?) car parked In your driveway? Who's responsible? Other problems are the roadblocks to home-builts: buildmg and plumbing codes. To smooth the path of independent experimenters, some legal points must be established. Peter Thorne alluded to the possibility of a " road-map" of plans for modifying the building codes; perhaps even some " solar amendments." He praised the do-it-yourselfers. citing that per cent of the solar manufacturing industry in Florida is comprised of groups of three people or
eo
IB$5.
Finally, in closing, he drove home the point that solar energy's strongest sales pitch is that it Is economic. A $2,000 solar hot-water heater, properly installed In a house here in Mass., will supply approx. 50 per cent of a home's hot-water needs. lf this seems overly optimistic on solar energy, think again. When a major oil company invests in solar equipment I Exxon Corp. Ia the parent company of Day-Star, the c:ornpeny which manufactures the panela Installed on Stoddard C.), and when a public utifity of the size of New England Electric ruShes a solar feasibility study in the Northeast, in order to put sun power in a bad liglit. irs time to look around. Big money is flowing, and that speaks for itaelf.
'here the;e's smoke
Friday, November 4th, etten minutes of
one, Prof Ken Scott left the TV studio in the beeement of Higgins Labs on his way to a c:lea. As he entered the building - length halfway, he quickly saw-and smelled-that it was filled with smoke. Security was alerted, and they called the Fire Department. The WOfcester Fire Department, eecurity, and eeveral profeuors and students checked the entire basement, with no results. The first cause was thought to be tar melting onto a balast in one of the florescent lights. Firemen opened the ceiling panels (left! but found nothing. The Stress Lab (above) was also checked, as were all the labs, yet, no cause for the acrid smoke was discovered. The Fire Department sounded all clear at 1:15, leaving a bewildered group of professors and students still seeking the phantom fire. (photos by David Titelbaum.l
Jntersession may fold lntersession 1979 may never be if the enrollment for this year's session does not Increase. According to Harriet Kay, coordinator of lntersession, only 44 per cem of the student body have registered for the January session. Thia figure is too small to justify the continuation of the program. "If they want this as an option they really have to come now and again," said Kay, " but it won't keep going for nobody." In past years, the number of registrants has comprised from 50 to 75 per cent of the
total student body, with each class contributing an equal numbef' of participants. Kay feels that If the period Is freed, there would be a demand by the student body to move the start of C-tarm. However, she counters that this will not be .the case. " If we don't havelntersession, we' ll have a blan)( lime; the terms won't be closer together," she explained. It 1!'1 still ponible to register for In· tersesslon with Kay !n the DIA on Washburn third.
$30 to $45
Soc Com asks fee hike by Maureen Higgins The WPI Social Commtttee has proposed that the social fee be raised to fifteen dollars a year, or seven·fifty per semester, starting C term of 1978. They believe that the end result would be a general upgrade, • and more variety of entertainment on campus. Specifically, how would this social fee increase be allocated7 To quota figures, three thousand would go to Thtt Peddler. Three hundred would go towards maintenance of the S.A.B. van, and another would be purchased, which would afford the campus a more accessible and reliable means of transportation. The GOHPEC budget would be doubled; included in this would be a stereo fOf the pub. The Spree
Day budgest would be aaproximately doubled also, and Intercession funds would also be increased, making it even more invaluable as an educational experience. Other possibilities would be live bands for Dance Night, and a HBO with a 6' screen in the pub Ito enable all of us forever-too· latera to see movies we missed over the last decade). Other additions would Include a permanent lighting board for the Pub, an updated and improved campus film series, and, also, more funds for Homecoming and J .P. weekends. The Social Committee believes that at least one facet of these allocations coUld be beneficial to every student, resident or commuter.
From railroads to chew-chew
P & W: highball to success by Don C.lt~wa A busy day, a pleasant dinner, and one heck of a talk would sum up last Tuesday's closed·session I.O.P. program on railroads, sponsored here at WPI by the Rockefeller foundation. With the help of Prof. Patrick Dunn of the WPI humanities department, approximately 10 students put the finishing touches on their railroad projects; giving a report on their findings on video tape. Such topics exposed were: the social and economic impact of Conrail in Eastern Connecticut by Rick Kiersted, examining the proposed development of Venezuelan National railroad by Felix Vargas, Silvia Metamora, and Armando Loreto, etc. This was followed by dinner at Higgins House. After dinner, the small group of some 30 teachers, accomplished students, and would·be railroad I.O.P.'ers retired to an ajolning room to hear the speaker. The guest lecturer, Mr. Orville R. Harrold, Is the general manager of the Providence and Worcester (P & WI Railroad. The P & W has one unique feature: it makes money. Mr. Harrold gave a brief background to the P & W R.R. saga. Incorporated In both Mass. and R.I. in 1844, the P & W leeeed itJ tracks to the New York-New Haven R.R. tn 1892, who were later acquired by the Penn Central in February of 1968. When the Penn Central went bankrupt in 1971, one Mr. Eider saw potential profit for the line, and applied to have the lease (no longer honored by Penn Central) returned to the P & W . The I.C.C. agreed, and the tittle line went out into a bear market, with no tratns, 35 miles of tracks, and a cobwebbed, pigeon-infested roundhouse. In the first phase of restoring the tracks to order, they found power transmission towers crossing the old tracks. P & W then did an unheard of thing· they asked the power company to move the towers. Reason· they're on company owned property. After the initial shock wore off, the power company settled with the ratlroad to the tune of $490,000. Further down the line was discovered an oil pipe line crossing beneath the track bed. With 8 straight face, they repeated the previous episode. A settlement of $9,000 paid each
year, was the final agreement there. ( later on, when the P & W acquired the Worcester- Gardiner branch, guess whose pipeline crossed the tracks7 Agsin. Another $9,000 yearly was allocated.) With that kind of money flowing in, some 6 year old trains were leased, and the flow of freight traffic on the tracks commenced once more. In this manner, by incredible ingenuity and an eager searching to exploit every possible opportunity, the railroad grew to its present 160 miles of track, 300 bo~tcars, several new engines. - and all owned free and clear. The bo~tcars themselves speak of another fairy tale come true. Due to a lack of good boxcars on the American linea, Congress appropriated monies to provide an incentive to those who build them. At this, Worcester County National has 300 bo~tcars financed and built. Now, when a bo~tcar is on a track, other than the ones of those who own the line the people whose line it Is on. pay rent to the boxcar owners. But Worcester County National, to receive this rent, had to have a legal. railroad insignia on the cars. And here P & W stepped in once more. In exchange for the use of their logo, P & W receives 7 Yl per cent of the rental revenues for the first ten years they are operational. From 10·15 years, the company receives 10 per cent of all monies accumulated. After 15 years, they split the profits 50-50 with Worcester County National bank. With the lifespan of the boxcars estimated at 40 years, this represents a tidy profit for 8 railroad whose only e~tpenditure on the 300 cars was the cost of painting them . Examples abound of the P & W achievements. and when Mr. Harrold left the small WPI group, tt was with a heady round of applause They had experienced a modern·day miracle in which Horatio Algejl lives again. In the words of " Rocky", the whole scheme was a one-ln-a-mJilion shot. The prize7 A solvent railroad. The Providence and Worcester line proved it could be done. How about It, Amtrack and i.nnratl?