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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 27, 1955)
TWELVE MEDFORD (OREGON) MAIL TRIE UN 3 zA BVOCZTS-3ZA I i 4 t . 3 j4 f vr5 Stact 'Ol- 32! t i r ..mi i, HEATING QUALITIES SHOWN The graphs above show the relative heating qualities of fuels used in experiments in orchard heating, described in the accompanying article. Tem peratures are shown on the vertical axes of the graphs, times on the horizontal axes. The fuels used included slabwood and PRESTO-LOGS BURNED Shown here is the type of can heater used in the experiments in wood-burning to heat or chards, now under way. The five-gallon cans, with air holes punched around the bottom, contain four of the Presto-Logs, two of which are shown at right. They "are lighted with the use of igniting oil, and will burn for two hours without at tention, throwing out heat comparable to that put out by oil burners. PIMM! wm IIST IF 1 Can wood products be used to protect fruit orchards during the frost season? A series of experiments de signed to answer this question has been conducted here this winter, and is still continuing. While no startling conclusions can yet be drawn from the ex periments, the results show promise of success. The story of the experiments, which have taken place at the Southern Oregon Branch Exper iment station off Kings highway south of Medford, is a story of voluntary cooperation from hundreds of men and organiza tions, each contributing some thing to the project. NOW ACME HARDWARE helps you IMPROVE ar REPAIR your home on EASY CREDIT TERMS! NO CASH DOWN! UP TO 24 MONTHS TO PAY! SMALL MONTHLY PAYMENTS that fit YOUR budget! If you're a bit short of cash . . . take advantage of this CONVENIENT PAYMENT PLAN. Buy ANYTHING you pafeAffipayforitatc START NOW! It Costs LESS Than You Think ! 3 West Sixth Street Medford, Oregon . - A.M. On three nights so far this winter, fires have been lighted in the station's orchards to test the relative heating qualities of oil, which is now generally used for heating; slabwood, easily ob tainable from' local mills, and Presto-Logs, which are made of pressed sawdust. Preliminary results indicate that- orchards can be protected from frost by use of the, wood products. Whether this is prac tical or economical is yet to be definitely settled. The experiments were origin ated with three thoughts in mind: 1. Burning wood products throw off smoke which is far less thick and dirty than that from oil flames; 2. Use of wood products would create a good market for now-useless or marginal wood products - which are produced locally, and 3. Costs of using wood may turn out to be considerably less, both as to capital outlay for heaters and for actual operating expenses. Temperatures Recorded The burning trials were made on - nights when the tempera tures fell below freezing. Orch ards were spotted with thermo meters at regular intervals, and two balloons were raised over the orchard, equipped with ther mocouples to record tempera tures in the upper air. One segment of the orchard had regular, return-stack (or "smokeless") heaters. Another had slabwood bound in bundles, and a third location was heated with Presto-Logs, arranged four together in five-gallon cans. Lo cation patterns of all three were identical. ,. The wood fuels gave as 'good protection against frost as did the oil heaters, the researchers found. Several different meth ods of burning and arranging the heat sources were used. The slabwood and edgings were strapped into 50-pound bundles about 20 inches long, set on end on the ground and ignited with the aid of oil. The Presto-Logs were burned in the cans, after being started with oil. The cans had perforations in the bottom to provide a sud- ply of air. Heat Roughly Equiralent The slabs and pressed loes furnished heat roughly equiva lent to that . of an oil burner using about two gallons during X vVl fty pllj Sunday. February 27. 19S3 3 V 3V h 'it? mLmimJL a. FM . A.Af. edging bundles, the same materials in heaters, Presto-Logs in cans, and regular return-stack oil heaters. This experiment was conducted the night of Jan. 29. The solid lines show tem peratures outside the heated areas, the dotted lines the tem peratures in the heated sections. SLABWOOD, EDGINGS USED Slabwood and edgings also were used in the experiments. Some were tied in bundles, and others were placed in can heaters, as shown above. The ex periments are designed to eliminate oil as a heating agent and to make use of , local products. Results so far as incon clusive but promising. the two-hour burning periods, Some 4,000 acres of orchard in the Rogue valley are now heated for frost protection. In a typical season about 1,200,000 gallons of oil are needed, at a cost of some $175,000. Another 4,000 acres would be heated if costs were lower. Wood to do a comparable job of heating would total some 10, 000 tons a season. An ample sup ply is available, since sawmills in the area daily produce about 1,000 tons of slabs and edgings and 1,000 tons of sawdust and shavings. Potential New Industry The Presto-Logs are now im ported, but if they prove sue cessful ,they could be manufac tured here under license, thus providing a small new industry for the valley. Protection from frost has long been one of the major problems of orchardists in the area. Re search on the methods began with the planting of the first orchards," more than 50 years ago. At first, straw, slabwood and practically anything else burnable, including manure, were used to heat the orchards, and in the cold days of early spring many residents of Med ford turned out to, help heat the orchards. . Later, oil came to be the standard heating agent, usually being burned in low, partly open pots. In recent years, as the population grew, 'complaints from residents about the smoke usually known as "smudge" grew to proportions where the orchardists have started looking for other methods. Return-Stack Heater One with promise is the re turn stack heater .which, sends the smoke back through the combustion chamber, ieburning it and eliminating most of the undesirable elements in the smoke. But these heaters are considerably more expensive than the regular pots, and buy ing enough for several acres re quires a major capital invest ment. It was the search for alterna tive methods, offering the pos sibility of less smoke, smaller cost and benefits to other local business, that motivated the cur rent experiments. Orchardists : know that heat ing is an absolute necessity for their business. Some years dam age would be small, but in the Medford area alone in 1954 i V ,i i jr A. At. damage totaled an estimated $5,000,000 despite widespread orchard heating. If lower-cost and unobjectionable methods can be found, heating . could be extended to "marginal" orch ards which need heat only once every few years, thus eliminat ing the chance of a freeze dis aster such as that last year. Some Other Acreage During the comine season. heating operations will be con ducted at the station with the wood products. In addition, there is a strong possibility that some commercial acreage will oe neatea with Presto-Logs this spring. The experiments are; strictly a cooperative endeavor. They are sponsored iointlv bv thp Forest Products laboratory at uregon Jstate college, Corvallis, the Jackson County Fruit Grow ers league and the Rogue Valley Traffic association. But many other agencies, companies and individuals have joined in to help. Some of these include the Medford weather bureau, the Southern Oregon Branch Experiment station where the tests are performed, the extension service, the South ern Oregon Conservation and lree Farm association and two of its members, Mogan and Ross Lumber companies, and others. Dr. John Higdon, horticultur ist at the experiment station, has been working actively on the project, which is under the overall direction of Stanley Cor- der, of the Forest Products lab oratory. A number of local orchardists, merchants and in terested individuals have aided with the work, as have several of the major oil companies. One of the problems remain ing to be solved is a method of water-proofing the Presto-Logs so they can be stored under damp conditions without going to pieces. But the maior . nroblem re mains the figuring of ways and means of doine the job. and figuring if costs will be low er-oueh tomake the use of the wood products feasible. In 1896 two Americans George Harbo and Frank Sam- uelson rowed across the At lantic ocean in an 18-foot open boat. They used only oars no sails, no' motor. Their 3.200- mile row took them 62 days. mIEEvITS 'iiSaday LW Ecpiipiiinieiflrt Spots istairt .. Copco. Um JmAks Fault-Locator Use Eliminates Trips By Checking Crews A "radar-like" piece of equip ment that spots trouble miles away is being used by Califor nia Oregon Power company to search out line trouble on its system in southern Oregon and northern California. Known as a line fault locator, the - equipment has been used successfully by Copco since about 1947. Using it, an operator can look at a small screen located in one of eight towns in this area, and can tell what may be wrong with a power line up to 50 or more mile3 away. Can Pinpoint Trouble For example, it is possible to tell if a line, 40 miles away, is grounded or open. Better yet, an experienced operator can pin point the site of the trouble within a comparatively few feet. Obviously, the saving in time, manpower and equipment, which this equipment makes possible, is extremely valuable to Copco. W. H. Fisher, electrical en gineer for the company, declares that location of one fault on transmission lines in mountain ous country pays for the equip ment by saving time and the cost of patrolling and sectionalizing. Before the equipment was in stalled, it was necessary, when trouble developed, to send out crews through all kinds of wea ther. One crew would start from one end and one from the other. They would call in from time to time, sometimes hiking for miles just to reach a phone, un til the trouble was located. Then, it might be necessary to send back for more men and equip ment. Sometimes, especially in win ter weather, by the time one break had been found, another would occur. Like TV Set The things a fault finder ope rator can determine about trans mission line trouble, just by looking at a screen that looks much like a television set on the blink, are hard for the layman to believe. For example, on one occasion during a storm an operator at Grants Pass was watching his screen. He saw a sudden flash, immediately put the point of his pencil on it, and then did some rapid calculations. He called a crew, and told New Paint Company Here To Manufacture Products From Materials of This Area The formulation of a fire-re sistant roof coating from south ern Oregon minerals and the manufacture of this and other types of paints, will get under way within a week or 10 days at tie new locally-owned firm, Med cord Paint Manufacturing corporation, 906 North Riverside ave., officers have announced. Members of the firm have been carrying on research and experi mentation for some months on the roof coating. Named Asbes- tex, it is made from aluminum, ground asbestos, synthetic rub ber and several fire-proof chemi cals that when mixed, result in a roof coating which is the most fire-resistant possible to produce, Robert L. Taylor, the president, said. Local Minerals The Medford Paint corpora tion is affiliated with the Bow ers Chemical company near Grants Pass, which, Taylor said, owns large deposits of minerals from which are manufactured naint niements and oaint colors. These include iron oxides, raw and burnt umbers and siennas, ground asbestos, barium sul phate, antimony trioxide, chrom ium orange and chrome green, colored talcs and magnesum sili cates. This affiliation will enable the Medford firm to purchase naint moments and colors . at a discount and a part of the pro ceeds will be invested in the paint corporation. North of Grants Pass The ore deposits of the Bow ers Dlant and the manufacturing plant are located about 40 miles northwest of Grants Pass. D. W. Bowers, a chemist and geolo gist of nearly 50 years experi ence, claims that it would take him more than a thousand years years to market all of the chrome and paint pigments and colors he can manufacture from his ore deposits. Bowers and his sons. Calvin V. Bowers, an experienced mill wrisht. and E. L. Bowers. Ropup River, experienced salesman and : operator, are all investors in the paint corporation, and are mem- j bers of the board of Hirpctor The members of the board now are seekmg an experienced busi ness executive to join the cor poration as office manager to OPERATOR AT WORK A Copco employee is shown above, working with a line fault finder. The larger piece of equipment, at right, includes the oscilloscope, or screen, on which approxi mately 50 miles of power transmission lines can be checked for trouble. (Copco photo) LINE GROUNDED Shown above is a fault locator screen set up on the line between Dixonville and Days Creek, in Douglas county. On the line, across the face of the screen, Dixonville is located at the extreme left. The large up and down break in the white line shows that there is a grounded line between the two communities, about 1 miles from Days Creek. The smaller up and down break in the white line, nearer the right side of the screen, is a reflection of the impulse to the grounded line. (Copco photo). - . - them that a power line had torn loose from an insulator, and was swinging in the wind, coming in contact with another line. The trouble, be said, was on the line between Grants Pass and Cres cent City, Calif., and he told them exactly where be thought it was located. When the crew arrived on the scene, they found the trouble was exactly, what he said it would be, and it was within a quarter of a mile of where the operator had expected. -Saw Second Break On another, occasion, an ope rator had discovered trouble and a crew had been dispatched. The operator resumed watching the screen and saw another break develop behind the- crew. He called them by radio, they split the crew, and both breaks were complete the five-man board of directors. At a meeting of the present board last week they voted to, release for public sale $10,000 worth of their 6 per cent pre ferred shares of capital stock at $100 per share. The proceeds from this stock sale will be used in building a fire-proof addition to their building at 906 North Riverside ave., and in purchase of new machinery, the officers said. This will enable them even tually to give employment to a number of Medford men and women. DINE OUT THIS WEEK! DONT Red Streak Cafe Rogue Valley Country Club Busy Bee Cafe Holiday Inn Coffee Shop Steak House Cafe Maury's Corner Eaton's, Dinner House Trailways Cafe Hotel Medford Lulu's Cafe El Rogue Cafe Other restaurants or cafes wishing to cooptrata and ba Included' en our future ads Call Med ford 2-8212. Ad paid by Milk Producers League and Jackson County Pomona Grange. repaired in short order. In tests conducted last week on the line between Medford and Grants Pass, an operator pin pointed trouble set up for the test within six 'one hundredths of a mile. A . fault finder consists , of a pulse generator, oscilloscope, and various other .. equipment. The pulse generator sends an im pulse along the line being tested, and when the Impulse runs into an. open or grounded line, or other trouble, the impulse is re flected backhand shows up on a line on the oscilloscope, or screen. The principal is much like that of radar, or sonar. Shows 50 Miles The screen shows aDDroxi- mately 50 miles of power lihe,! and can be changed to show five- mile sections of the line. The larger the change in the line The Asbestex paint, Taylor said, will withstand the severest weather and temperature changes without checking or blistering, and will adhere tena ciously to all grades of composi tion shingles and roll roofings, all kinds of builtup and metal roofs, or to concrete and block construction. This makes it ideal for all industrial buildings and roofs of schools and other pub lic buildings, he said. Heat Resistant Asbestex also is heat resistant, deflecting sun heat from walls and roofs, thus cooling interiors at least as much at 15 degrees, j Whether you choose a hamburger, plump and juicy . . . or golden brown, tender, fried chicken, you'll find it cooked at its delicious best at your favorite restaurant. For real enjoyment make a date with yourself and your family to eat out this week! FORGET TO ASK FOR Big Y Super Market Kim's Restaurant Top Notch Cafe Maid-Rite Sandwich Shop Al White's Rogue Restaurant Groceteria Hotel Jackson Brown's Cafe Winter Cafe Whistle Stop Cafe Tiny Pup Answers Medford Woman's Small-Home Need (Pietur on Pag 1) Mrs. Walter McMahan, . 243 Beatty st., has the answer for any home owner who desires a small dog for a small place. She has a six-weeks-old pup py, which weighs all of four ounces and will fit nicely into the palm of a person's hand or a teacup. ' Appropriately called "Little Bit," the dog stems from pedi greed parents, a chihuahua father and manchester mother, both small-breed dogs. Tiniest of Four Little Bit is by far the tiniest of four In the parents' first lit ter. However, she was not the smallest of the group at birth. One other was smaller, but sines then has surpassed Little Bit in growth. Tha tiny pup's quarter-pint size is a mystery to its masters. who have pampered her "just like a baby," including 2 a.m. feedings from a bottle the first few weeks. It was necessary to feed the dog separately other wise the larger animals would eat all its food. The dog now eats from a dish,-and has "a good appetite for its size." Is Cold-Blooded Being so tiny and thin-skinned leaves Littla Bit very cold-blooded, so she spends most of her time nestled under an oil heater or huddled with her three broth ers and sisters. When left alone to walk, she is somewhat shaky, lacking the strength of her hus kier relations. At the. present, Little Bit is 6V2 inches long and 5Vi inches in girth. It is doubtful that the pup will reach normal chihua hua size, about five to six pounds. ' However, Mrs. McMahan said all four babies "looked like mice" when born. Little Bit has at last grown to rat size. shown on the screen, the larger the trouble. If the change, or "pip" is above the line, it means an open circuit, and if it is below me line, 11 means a suon cir cuit. . : Squares, similar to those on graph paper, on the screen., al low the operator to determine the distance of the trouble from the site of the fault locator. - : Locators are set up in Rose- hnrrt fT-T-a n f o Pace ' PavA Tuni. tion, Prospect, Yreka, Copco, Klamath Falls, and Alturas, and they can be moved about in a truck if necessary. Fisher ex plains that no locators have been set up in Medford, because the Prospect and Copco units can "look into the Medford area." Taylor said." It is non-oxidizing, hon-combustible, water and cor rosion resistant and will not sup port mould or fungus growth?. This roof coating will reduce re placement costs 50 per cent, ac cording to the president. The new corporation's factory also will manufacture a line of fire-resistant paints and enamels for both outside and inside of homes, and industrial and other public buildings, thus materially assisting in the work of fire pre vention. . ' E. W. DeSpain is temporary secretary of the firm and Taylor also is temporary treasurer. "The Pick-Up That Never Lets You Down" AT NO EXTRA COST!
