O~TOBER I TO O~TOBER 31 The University of Minnesota Calendar of Events CONCERTS: MINNEAPOLIS SYMPHONY EXHIBITIONS (Northrop Auditorium) (University Gallery, Northrop Auditorium) Oct. 21-Gala Opening Conc!'rt. 8:30 P. l\1. To Oct. 7-Territorial Ccntt>nnial Exhibition. O~t. 27-University Homecoming Concert. 8:30 1'. M. Oct. 19-Nov. 15-Tcchniques and Processes in Contemporary Print Making. CONCERTS: TWILIGHT CONCERTS (Northrop Auditorium) Oct. 30-Jacob Lateiner, pianist. 4:30 P.M. UNIVERSITY PRESS PUBLICATION DATES Oct. 21-"The Land Lies Open." Theodore C. Blegen. CONCERTS: UNIVERSITY ARTISTS COURSE Oct. 26---''Jews in Transition." Rabbi Albert I. Gordon. (Northrop Auditorium) Oct. 4---Ccntennial Concprt. Leo Kopp, Musical Director. 8:30 P.M. Oct. 16-Chicago Symphony. Victor de Sabat a, conductor. 8:30 1'. M. UNIVERSITY THEATRE LECTURES (Scott Hall Auditorium) (Murphy Auditorium) Oct. 14---Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., Author-educator. Sept. 30-0ct. 1-8:30 P. M.-"The Hasty Heart." Theatre Guild Production. SIGNIFICANT UNIVERSITY BROADCASTS Oct. 7, 8, Oct. 10-15-8:30 P.M., Oct. 16, 4:00 P. M.-"Eiectra" and "Charles II" (double billing). Kl,Ol\1. 1:00-1:50 I'. M. !\Irs. Alice F. Tyler, Colonial America. Nov. 4, 5, Nov. 7-12-8:30 P.M., Nov. 13, 4:00 P. M.-"Major Barbara" Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. 1:00-1:30 P.M. The American Scene. Every Thursday. 1 :45·2 :00 P.M. Dr. Roger W. Howell, l\h·ntal Health. Every Thursday. FOREIGN FILM SElUES 2:30-3:15 P.M. Afternoon Concert. Every Monday through Friday. (Northrop Auditorium, 4:00 and 8:00p.m.) 4:00-4:15 P. 111. Research Reports. Every Wednesday. 4:00-4:30 P.M. University Forum of the Air. Every Saturday. Oct. 5-"Storm in a Teacup." British film. 4:00-4:15 P.M. Dr. Philip Jordan, Anwrican Folklore. Every Friday. Oct. 19-"Eternal Return." French film with English subtitles. CO~VOCATIONS (Northrop Auditorium 11 a.m.) ATHLETIC EVENTS Oct. 6-Henry L. Scott, pianist-humorist. (Football Games at Home) Oct. 13-Martin Hall, educator-author-lecturer. Oct. 8-Northwestern, 2:00 P.M. Oct. 20-Hodding Carter, "Is the South that Bad?" Oct. 29-Purduc, 2:00 P.M. (Homecoming). Oct. 27-0rdway Tead, ''Education and Religion: Their Dynamic Relation." The Minnesotan is·published during the academic year by the Department of University Relations, University of Minnesota. Copies are mailed free of charge to University staff members. Subscription rates for those on the staff are $2.00 a year, 25c an individual copy. COPIES ARE ON SALE AT THE UNION BOOK STORE Photographs throughout this issue o/ The Minnesotan were taken by the University Photographic Laboratory. In Bheumy Biver Lab ... Ol' Man River Runs Indoors ITH the help of University ex­ Wperts, the most destructive river in the nation is paying back its debt to the land. Each year, tons of swirling water roll over the banks of the Mississippi. The cost of these floods in dollars runs into the uncounted millions. The cost in human suffering is, of course, inestimable. Under the direction of Dr. Lorenz G. Straub, experts in flowing waters at the St. Anthony Falls Hydraulic Laboratory have made an impressive start toward improvement of these costly problems-with the help of the Above is a model of the Mississippi near the St. Paul High Bridge. The Mississippi. water has just been shut off, and the engineers are measuring movement of The laboratory, constructed eleven the river bottom. The engineers are Saul Fidelman, left, and Franklin Ryder. years ago, stands on Hennepin Island just below St. Anthony Falls. En­ Problems of this sort are being pre­ the river bottom. Soundings were gineers can divert river water into sented constantly to the St. Anthony taken on the river to make sure that the lab's complex system of valves, Falls engineers. And consultant serv­ everything in the model was exactly tanks and channels at the rate of ice to small landowners is a special as it should be. Then the valves are 2,500 gallons a second. Once indoors, feature of the lab. c.pened, and the Mississippi goes to the water is sent flowing into con­ The engineers will inspect and work. crete, scale models of problems they measure that part of the river which After water has flowed through the happen to be working on at the time. is causing trouble. Then, a scale model for 24 hours, the valves are Then, after serving its experimental model is set up in the laboratory, and shut off, and the engineers examine purpose, the water is returned to the a proportional amount of water runs the movement of the coal dust. river below the falls. through the concrete imitation. After thorough study and measurement, the ALLS for help have come to the ACH year the University labora­ engineers can tell the farmer what University's hydraulic lab from tory helps to save thousands of C E can be done to solve his problem. as far away as India. Dr. Straub, at dollars, not only to farmers and At present, the engineers are con­ the request of the Indian government, builders on the Mississippi, but all cerned with the movement of the river is working on a dam to harness over the world. No problem is too bottom near the St. Paul High Bridge. the rampaging, destructive Godavari big or too small for these specialists The bottom soil is piling up under River. The huge project will rival to tackle. the bridge, and, in time, removal of anything of the sort we have in the A farmer, for instance, has a small this material will be an expensive United States. river on his land. Each spring he undertaking. The problem faced by Dr. Straub watches more and more of his valu­ In the model (see page one photo­ able farmland go racing downstream. graph), coal dust is used to simulate Continued on page 10 October 1949 1 4,000 Calls an Hour LMOST anyone with the memory tors, therefore, have had to memorize A of an elephant, the precision of the extension numbers for every per­ a machine, and the patience of Job son on campus with a telephone­ could become a telephone operator more than sixteen hundred numbers at the University swiJchboard, the on the Minneapolis campus alone. busiest in the midwest. It takes something more than a The switchboard on the third floor year, explains Miss Melcher, to train of the Administration building is a a girl for the University switch­ clearing house for all incoming and board. Most of the operators now outgoing University calls. This means, employed by the University have briefly, that about four thousand been on the job a good many years. calls every hour must be handled Miss Melcher has 20 years of service. with the least possible delay, and Myrtle Gable, who has the longest that's where the memory requirement service record, has been at the board comes in. for 28 years. Seated at the U Switchboard are, Adeline Melcher, the chief switch· NE of the constant sources of left to right, Martha Rhoden, Myrtle board operator, says that only 10 per Gable, Mary Knowlton, Ruth Ross- amusement-and amazement­ cent of perso~s calling the University 0 man and Nanie Amundsen. have the information the operator at the switchboard is the flood of needs to connect them with their calls from persons who expect Uni­ The University phone service Is party. Rarely do they give the opera· versity operators to be prepared to now operating to the limit of its tor an extension number. The opera· answer any and all questions on capacity. The new Mechanical-Aero­ foreign and domestic affairs, trends nautical engineering building took in public opinion, the latest methods the last of the available lines, and 200 of canning apples, and the Balkan new stations had to be added. These, powder keg. however, are the last additions which "How many students at the Uni­ can be made to the present switch­ versity wear glasses?" was the modest board. request of one woman. "I want to locate a hoy," explained HE board now accommodates another lady. "He has brown hair, T seven operators and functions at wears glasses, a red tie, and his name full strength during the day. In the is Bill." evening, as the calls become less The operators try to take this sort numerous, the staff is gradually cut. of thing in stride. Although many Twelve operators now run the times, especially when callers insist board 24 hours a day. They are on answers, this becomes difficult. Nanie Amundsen, Rhoda Benson, One day, when researchers sent up Emily Collier, Edith Corbett, Myrtle a balloon over the Twin Cities, the Gable, Margaret Knowlton, Martha switchboard was flooded with calls. Roden, Ruth Rossman, Florence Many thought it was a flying saucer. Sandness, Marie Steele, Mary True­ Chief Switchboard operator Adeline Others believed it was the beginning man, and Florence Wiggens. Melcher has the responsibility of of the end of the world. The opera­ Miss Melcher points out that there keeping the board running smoothly. tors said they didn't know, but were is really never a lull in the number Here she is engaged in compiling the Continued on page 14 directory. inclined to believe the latter. The Minnesotan 2 Past lmperfeet The University complained that the state's growing campus was being blocked on every side by unsightly Archives Needs Your Help railroad tracks. And besides, said U officials, the constant rumbling of ACK in 1908, the University They also heard the rumblings of trains shakes the buildings and puts B had completed some ambitious freight trains over the very spots on scientific instruments out of order.