PAGE EIGHT
Radar Keeps Track
Of Migrating Swans
Because of the danger to private and commercial avia
tion, University radar observers are cooperating in track
ing the migration of some 60,000 whistling swans.
"The birds are leaving their winter grounds around
Chesapeake Bay and flying toward northern Canada where
they breed," according to Larry G. Davis, assistant profes
sor of ineteorology, who is directing the radar search here.
Cruise at Great Heights
Whistling swans cruise at such great heights that they
often pass unnoticed by the human eye, but these very
heights put them on a: collision course with planes. Last
year, for exainPle, a swan in the Chicago area crashed
through the windshield of a small plane. Since an adult
bird is 4 1 / 2 feet long and travels at a speed of some 50 miles
per hour, his. impact can be considerable.
Prior to that, 17 persons were lost when a Viscount
crashed over Cleveland, Ohio, after a swan sheared off the
aircraft's tail gear.
Also cooperating in the project, which was initiated by
William W. H. Gunn, of the Canadian Wildlife Service, are
the U.S. Weather Bureau's radar installations in Washing
ton, D.C., and Buffalo, N.Y. These are directed by Stuart G.
Bigler, a 1952 Penn State graduate. Observers in London,
•
Ontario, will track the birds through Canada.
Departure March 15
"Last year migration got underway about March 10,"
according to Davis, "but this spring's bad weather has de
layed it. An observer stationed at Chesapeake Bay 'alerted
us when the birds began their departure March 15. He is
also taking a count of them as they leave." -
En route to their destination, \the high-flying swans
make several stop-overs, the first 'of which is normally
Lake Erie. Another observer there is counting the, arrivals
to see how many made the journey safely and how long
they took.
Radar observers will try to pick out the exact flight
path, the altitude of the birds and their speed. Penn
State, which is operating on a three-shift, 24-hour-a-day
schedule, has a unique automatic tracking radar so watch
ers can look on and track individual birds.
In Canada Next Month
"Because of their late start, the birds are not expected
to reach Canada until early April," Davis said. "They
seemingly have some inherent sensitivity to the right kind
of weather in which to fly.
"They will wait until the winds are out of the south
east to pick up a tailwind to help them travel north. If the
weather is turning bad, they'll alight and wait for it to
clear."
The flight of the swans is in three sections, one fol
lowing the Atlantic Coast, another the Mississippi Valley,
and the third, the Pacific Coast.
"This gives them ample opportunity to come into con
tact with heavily travelled jet routes," Davis pointed out.
"If we can determine what kind of wrather stimulates the
birds to fly, and then clock their altitude, velocity and path,
we can alert pilots to impending hazards."
Comparatists To Hear
Gerard, Tshcumi in May
"New Frontiers For Com
paratists" will be the theme of
a special two-day conference
sponsored by the Department
o f Comparative Literature,
May 3 and 4.
The conference will cap a
series of spring events planned
by the department that will
feature lectures on Wednesday
and on Thursday, May 2.
Albert Gerard, international
ly-known specialist in African
literature, who is currently
serving as a visiting professor
at Penn State, will open the
pr)gram Wednesday with a
lecture on "Mannerisms to
Baroque: Shakespeare's 'Troi
lus and Cressida' and Lope de
Vega's Tuentevoejuna."
Gerard from Belgium
Author of more than 100
books and articles in the field
of literature, Gerard came to
Penn State from the University
of Liege, Belgium, where he
was a member of the faculty
and received his doctor of
philosophy degree.
He also served seven years
as professor and member of
the administrative commission
for the University of Elizabeth
ville, the Congo.
Tschumi from Switzerland
The May 3 lecture will fea
ture Raymond Tschumi, head
of the Department of English,
Hoch Schule, Et. Gallen's,
Switzerland.
The two-day conference, de
signed to study some of the
emerging and lesser known lit
eratures will feature Gerard;
George Anderson of the East-
West Center of the University of
Hawaii, discussing oriental• lit
erature; and Willard Trask,
lecturer in the humanities at
Juniata College, who will focus
on comparative literature and
the unwritten song.
Trask did the translation of
Auber ba c h's "Memesis," a
book of criticism. He is also
in the process of preparing a
12-volume translation of the
memoirs of Casanova.
MEMBERS OF Alpha Phi Omega, service fraternity, help
out the 1968 Easter Seal Campaign. From left to right are
Dick George, John Curtis, Bruce Benninger, and Ken
Walbert.
Phi Kappa Phi Issues
Over 361 invitations
The Honor Society of Phi
Kappa Phi has issued invi
tations to more than 300
juniors and seniors and 61
graduate students whose out
standing academic records
make them eligible for mem
bership.
These candidates consti
tute the top three per cent of
the junior and senior classes
in academic achievement, and
one and a half per cent of the
graduate students, who were
nominated by their major de
partments.
Giving to the U.S.O. is not an act of absolution.
It will not even y 4? your debt to the young
Americans around Me world who serve us in
the cause of freedom. Give not because of what
your gift will do for you, but what it will mean to
them.
Give because every U.S.O. club is a friendly
arm around a lonely shoulder, far from home.
Give because every visit of a traveling U.S.O.
IS HE ON
YOUR
CONSCIENCE?
WHY DID /ETNA SPEND ALMOST ONE MILLION DOLLARS
LAST YEAR IN SUPPORT OF HIGHWAY SAFETY?
It makes sense to reduce auto
accidents. Everybody bene
fits. Fewer mishaps mean
fewer claims. And fewerclaims
help lower automobile insur
ance rates.
More important, It's good cor
porate citizenship. /Etna Life
& Casualty is a leader in the
business. And we think it's up
to us to act like it.
We've made an honest effort
over the years.
ktna became one of the thir- Today, one out of every seven Our concern is people
teen founders of the National high school students in the
Safety Council in 1913. country who complete a driver
THE DAILY COLLEGIAN, UNIVERSITY PARK, PENNSYLVANIA
Phi Kappa Phi was found
ed in 1897. The Pennsylvania
State College chapter was one
of the three original chapters
which formed the national or
ganization. There are now 97
chapters, at least one in all
but six states and one in the
Philippines. The total mem
bership has grown to over
160,000, of whom about 10,000
are still active.
The new members will be
initiated in a ceremony pre
ceding the annual Phi Kappa
Phi banquet early in May.
show is a word from home that says "We care!"
Give because 3 1 / 2 million Americans need
the friendship and services that only V. 5.0.
provides.
Give to U.S.O. through your United Fund or
Community Chest. U.S.O. gets no government
funds, depends entirely on private contributions.
Someone you know needs U.S.O.
Later we helped organize the
Insurance Institute for High
way Safety.
And we were the first to de
sign a device to test driver
reaction time.
Each year /Etna engineering But our concern is people.
services help the drivers of
thousands of trucks, buses
and other commercial vehi
cles improve their safety ga l
records.
'Eine ies for Library'
If a library archivist were
asked to compile a list of "Pub.
lice Enemies," he would un
hesitatingly name two..
Number ,one is that group of
heirs who' unconcernedly dis
card as junk the papers and
collections assembled by their
forebears. &cone. comes those
well-meaning re:atives wh o
"clean up" or censor the
manuscripts of a deceased
loved one.
Charles W. Mann, chief of
special collections at the Uni
versity, has met both these
types in the course of building
up the library's holdings.
Only a Picture
"I vividly remember track
ing down the descendants of
President William McKinley's
press secretary," he said, "only
to find that all they had
bothered to save was an auto- 1
graphed picture of the Presi
dent. Any correspondence had
been tossed out."
Fortunately for both Mann's
peace of mind and the library's
acquisitions, many people do
hang onto materials, and they
can be induced to place valu
able documents in the library
for safe keeping.
"We are concentrating,"
Mann explained, "on building
up archives which relate to
Pennsylvania or Penn State fig
ures. I'm certain many inter
esting papers are still lying
around in dusty attics.
Less Competition
"Although University librar
ies and private col'..ectors com
pete strenuously for rare books
and literary material, there is
much less in-fighting in the
realm of historical material.
Indeed, Pennsylvania's we 11
known author-historian, S. K.
Stevens, maintains we don't
have enough archives to hold
'all the documents which need
o a t
.4. 0
eo4lNev
education course are being
trained on the first successful
classroom driving simulator—
the /Etna Drivotrainer System.
Our business may be selling
insurance.
LIFE 6 CASUALTY
Archivist Describes Two Types
to be preserved."
• While the bulk of archival
material at Penn State is of
interest mainly to scholars,
there are a number of collec
tions which throw fascinating
sidelights on history. , '
"Recently, fo r example,"
Mann .noted, "we were given
the papers, of Robert Jackson
by .his descendants in Clear
field. Jackson founded the Al
legheny Mountain He alt h
Farm, which later • became
Cresson Sanatorium.
Emerson, Thoreau
"In addition to his corres
pondence with such distin
guished figures as Thoreau and
Emerson, we discovered a note
book reporting the results of a
physical examination at the
Health Farm on Charles Sum
ner, the Massachusetts senator
and leader of the anti-slavery
forces.
"In 1856, Sumner was vio
lently caned on the Senate'floor
by a Southerner incensed by a
speech in which Sumner had
attacked the South and insulted
one of his cousins. Sumner
maintained the beating so af
fected his health that he was
un• ble to resume his seat for
four years. His opponents, how
ever, claimed he was malinger
ing.
"The results of Jackson's ex
amination," Mann pointed out,
"prove conclusively that Sum
ner was not faking, that Le was
lucky even to be alive."
Bernard Papers
Mann's model for a collection
guaranteed to keep any archi-
Which way?
When you live and provide a
service in the State College area,
you usually have to make a choice.
Which way to grow? Serve the
students or the townspeople.
Fashionable as one-way streets
are becoming, we take exception.
We feel we can serve both. With
the services that both want. And
deserve.
Maybe that's why we have so
many customers on both sides of
the street. Because we're not one-
Campus (ferias
FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 1968
vist happy is the papers of the
late Penn State sociologist,
Luther Bernard. Bernard never
threw anything away, and two
trucks were required to trans
port his papers to the library.
"Researchers have been go
ing through them for ten
years," Mann sL.id, "and they
are still turning up valuable
historical materials."
Modern homes, lacking the
capacious attics of yesteryear,
not to mention modern wives,
discourage this kind of collect
ing. But Mann as least hopes
to make people think twice be
fore they throw away what ap
pears to them to be nothing
but paper scrap.
Their "rubbish" could one
day rest in splendor in a li
brary's archives.
one ten east beaver avenue