The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 41, No. 14, Ed. 1 Friday, January 15, 1954 Page: 6 of 8
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Six
THE THRESHER
FRIDAY, JANUARY 15, 1954
■w
By J FRED DUCKETT
Something very disturbing has occurred in the Southwest
Conference during the past several weeks, namely the slow
dissolution of the A&M basketball team.
The Aggies at present face the rather unhappy dilemma
of having one of tlje most popular football coaches in the
school's history quitting so he
can make some money (now
why would he want to do that
when he has all those nice Ag-
gies to play with), while they
have a basketball coach, whom
nobody Ikies, and whose players
are deserting the team in protest
to his style of basketball which
has been good for one win in 13
games.
Coach John Floyd, a product
of Hank Iba's ball-control basket-
ball, was cheered by all in 1951
when Jewell McDowell, Walt Davis
and their crowd took the Aggies
to their first conference cham-
pionship since 1923. However,
since then, Aggie basketball
has gotten succeedingly• worse as
the members of that championship
club graduated. This year A&M
hasn't got the type of material to
play good ball-control basketball
or, for that matter, good S. W. C.
basketball.
Faced with a problem of this
sort, Coadh Floyd hasn't been able
to do much with his group. There
were some good players on the
team, but the defensive-minded,
seldom-shooting coaching has not
capitalized on the spuad's poten-
tial. Rodney Pirtle, probably A &
M's best player, has quit in pro-
test, as has1 Don Moon, Pirtle's
roommate, who was the Aggies'
best "little" man and long shot.
Pat McCrory, the Farmers'
other guard along with Moon,
never even took a shot at the
basket until after Moon and Pir-
tle had departed, then with tho
restrictions off he scored 13
against Texas last Tuesday and
very nearly led A & M to an
astounding upset.
However, no matter how out of
place is Coach Floyd's style,
whether he bothers to teacih of-
fense or not, the fact remains tihat
he hasn't got the players to stand
up to the likes of reserve-rich
Texas and talent-laden Rice. We
can only just hope that the Ag-
gies still have 5 men to play Rice
when the Owls meet them on Feb-
ruary 9.
The Thresher takes this time to
wish Aggie football coach Ray
George good luck in his business
ventures. The heavy-set ex-line-
man has been one of the best-
liked conference coaches and a
fine example to players and fans
(Continued on Page 8)
When you pause...make it count...have a Coke
Five litumral
Teams hi Finals
With but one week of play Re-
maining in the intramural basket-
ball program, the field of possible
teams to play in the playoffs as
champions of the three leagues has
dwindled to five.
In the East League, the East Hall
Rats are "in" as league champions.
However in the North and West Lea-
gues it's quite a different story. The
Hardwooders and Could Be's are
battling for first place in the North
League, while the Long Shots or
Gung Ho's will emerge as champs
of the West League.
In games played since January 5,
the Hardwooders downed the Shafft-
ed Seven 52-23, the Navy B-Ballers
defeated .the Sextant Heads 50-21,
the Long Shots edged the Rally Club,
30-22, the Gung Ho's beat West Hall
33-18, the Tower Tabbies romped
over the Navy Fleets 21-11, the
Hardwooders beat the Navy B-Ball-
ers 32-27, and the Could Be's edged
the Sextant Heads 28-23.
The top scorers in these games
were Carmon Stewart with 21 points,
Eddie Ray burn with 20, and Howard
Camp and Rollin Russell with 14
each.
In handball action Dan Hart,
(Continued on Page 8)
Deflated By lesigsstiess, AH
•rep Gene Te Owls, 78-S3
After their upset though not too
unexpected loss to SMU last week,
the Rice Owl basketballers rebound-
ed with a crushing 78-53 stomp of
hapless A&M, whose team seems
to be dropping by the wayside. Be-
fore the Rice game Rodney Pirtle,
probably the Aggies' best player,
quit the team following the whole-
sale desertion of most of the re-
serves.
Pirtle's departure left just nine
men on the A&M squad, and this
week it was announced that Don
Moon, huttling Aggie starting
guard has joined his roommate Pir-
tle on the sidelines. We hope A&M
still has five men by February 9
when the Owls travel to College
Station to play the Farmers in their
new gym.
However, on the Blue and Gray
side of the ledger, it was a dif-
ferent story last Saturday, as the
high-flying Owls showed' some of
the fire and finesse they demon-
strated on their victorious East-
ern tour in January.
All - Conference forward Don
Lance and pepper-pot guard Mon-
te Robicheaux appeared to have re-
covered from their illness, and both
turned in an excellent game. Ab
usual, Gene Schwinger, Rice's All-
America center candidate, was the
game's outstanding player, scoring
24 points, and putting a blanket on
both backboards.
The fast breaking Owls jumped
into the lead in the first quarter,
and never slowed down, as they in-
creased their lead each quarter,
leading 16-9 after the first, 39-23
at the intermission, and 55-37 after
three periods.
A feature of the Rice win, was
again the improving play of sopho-
more forward, Joe Durrenberger,
who was good for 12 points and was
a great aid to Schwinger on the
rebounds. James "Popeye" Beavers
also looked good as the Owl sec-
ond squad played out the last quar-
ter. The speedy senior dropped in
five points, and did a good job of
feeding Schwinger.
Only the long shots of Aggie
forward John Fortenberry kept
the Maroon in the game, as cen-
ter Ray Martin fouled1 out, guard
Joe Hardgrove injured an ankje,
and two more Aggies carved a
paralyzing four fouls.
This germanium refining
method keeps impurities
down to less than
5 parts in a billion
BOTTLED UNDER AUTHORITY OF THE COCA-COLA COMPANY IY
HOUSTON COCA-COLA BOTTLING COMPANY
"Coke" is a registered trade-mark. © 1954, THE COCA-COLA COMPANY
A new method of metal refining, currently in use
at the Western Electric plant at Allentown, results
in the production of germanium that is better than
99.9999995% pure — the highest degree of .purity
ever attained in a manufactured product.
The need for germanium of such exceptional purity
came about when research by Bell Telephone Lab-
oratories in the field of semi-conductors led to the
development of transistors, which are manufactured
by Western Electric.
The transistor is a tiny crystal device which can
amplify and oscillate. It reduces space require-
ments and power consumption to a minimum.
Germanium crystals of the size required in transis-
tors do not occur in nature; they are artificially
grown at Western Electric. At this stage in transis-
In this refining apparatus, at Western Electric's
Allentown, Pa. plant, germanium is passing through
multiple healing zones in tandem, producing a bar contain-
ing impurities f less than 5 parts in a billion for use in transistors.
Note heating coils on the horizontal quartz tube.
tor manufacture, other elements are introduced in
microscopic quantities to aid in controlling the flow
of electrons through the germanium. But before
these elements can be introduced, it is necessary to
start with germanium of exceptional purity, so that
the impurities will not interfere with the elements
that are deliberately added.
Various forms which germanium takes before being used in
transistors are shown in this photo. Bar at top is an ingot
of germanium after reduction from germanium dioxide.
Next is shown the germanium ingot after the zone refining
process used by Western Electric. Below the ingots are
shown 3 germanium crystals grown by machine, 6 slices cut
from these crystals, and several hundred germanium wafers
ready for assembly into transistors.
So Bell Telephone Laboratories devised an en-
tirely new method of purification, known as zone
refining, which was developed to a high-production
stage by Western Electric engineers.
In zone refining a bar of germanium is passed
through a heat zone so that a molten section trav-
erses the length of the bar carrying the impurities
with it and leaving behind a solidified section of
higher purity. By the use of multiple heating zones
in tandem, a number of molten sections traverse
the bar. Each reduces the impurity content thus
producing a bar which contains impurities in the
amount of less than five parts per billion.
Because of the importance of the transistor in elec-
tronics, the zone refining process —like so many
other Western Electric developments — has been
made available to companies licensed by Western
Electric to manufacture transistors.
This is one more example of creative engineering
by Western Electric men. Engineers of all skifls —
mechanical, electrical, chemical, industrial, metal-
lurgical, and civil — are needed to help us show the
way in fundamental manufacturing techniques.
&
A UNIT Of THE BILL SYSTEM SINCE 1882
Manufacturing plants in Chicago, ill. • Kearny, N. J. • Baltimore, Md. • Indianapolis, Ind. • Allentown & Laureldale, Pa. • Bur-
lington, Greensboro & Winston-Salem, N. C. • Buffalo, N. Y. • Haverhill & Lawrence, Mass. • Lincoln, Neb. • St. Paul & Duluth, Minn.
Distributing Centers in 29 cities and Installation headquarters in 15 cities. Company headquarters, 195 Broadway, New York City.
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The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 41, No. 14, Ed. 1 Friday, January 15, 1954, newspaper, January 15, 1954; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth230957/m1/6/?rotate=270: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.