Lowe High School - Towers Yearbook (Windsor, Ontario Canada)

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The Windsor-Walkerville Technical School Year Book 23 history because so many of our books have historical backgrounds, and to enjoy these books, you must have a knowledge of the element¬ ary historical facts. Let us take some of our popular authors—Sa- batini, for example—can you un¬ derstand his books without having a good, working knowledge of the French Revolution? There is another phase of read¬ ing which 1 want you to consider. 1 would say that books and travel are the two greatest factors in broadening the mind. We must either read or travel, and many cannot afford to do the latter. If we are shut up in one little spot and do not learn anything of the customs, constitutions, religions of other people, are we not bound to think that our way is the only way, that everything outside of our own little sphere is terribly strange and crude? And as we learn to view the world as a whole, to see the tremendous problems and difficul¬ ties facing other nations, our own petty troubles and sorrows melt into nothingness. We realize that the world is vast, that our striv¬ ings and accomplishments can af¬ fect more than just, our little circle of acquaintances—we realize that our example may influence the world! -o- THE DETROIT-WINDSOR TUNNEL W’ith the ever increasing volume of traffic between Canada and the United States by way of the De¬ troit River, it has been found nec¬ essary to augment the ferry ser¬ vices by quicker and more efficient means. This is being accomplish¬ ed by the construction of a bridge and tunnel. It is interesting to know that the bridge, which is of the suspension type, will have the largest span of any bridge in the world, with the exception of the Hudson River bridge in New York, now also under construction. How¬ ever, it is the tunnel with which I will deal in more detail. In general design the tunnel is somewhat similar to the Holland Tunnel connecting New York and Jersey City under the Hudson Ri¬ ver. The tunnel will be of con- creie, reinforced by a steel cylin¬ der. Previously such tunnels have had cast iron segments as reinfor¬ cements, an example of which is the M. C. R. tunnel between Wind¬ sor and Detroit, but the cost of this type of construction is too high for a tunnel of this nature. In brief, the Detroit-Windsor tunnel will be in three sections; a land section, on either side of the river, and a river section. With the land sections there will be the necessary administration buildings. The tunnel of the land sections will be made by what is known as the shield process. A shaft is dug at the beginning of the tunnel and a cutting device erected in it. By means of hydraulic jacks a cutting edge is forced through the ground, and as the excavation goes on the actual tunnel is constructed of a steel shell and of concrete. The river section is made by digging a large trench across the river bed and sinking the tube into it. As the river section is so long, the work is divided up into several parts, each piece being placed in position separately and joined together to form a single unit later. The tube for the river section is being manufactured locally, and each piece is erected on land at Ojibway. Each piece is 31 feet in diameter and 248 feet long; the weight of steel for one being about 500 tons. The ends are covered in and the whole piece made water¬ tight. When weather conditions permit it is launched, and after some of the concreting is done to form a keel so as to give it stabi¬ lity, the piece is towed out into the river and sunk into a place in the trench. The remaining concrete is then poured, and other pieces are placed in a like manner and joined together until the river section is complete and linked up with the land sections.

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22 The Windsor-Walkerville Technical School Year Book to all future reading? For such should be its aim. Place a book of real literary merit into the hands of a young person, and it should leave its mark on his mind; it should form a contrast to the mod¬ ern trash” so often digested by our boys and girls: it should de¬ velop his taste for good books so that he will feel the shallowness of the poorer class. Nor do I advocate that all books on the list are suitable for all pu¬ pils. Remember that just as a child learns to walk before he learns to run, so pupils must mas¬ ter the easier books before they cope with the more difficult. I be¬ lieve the mistake is often made of attempting to read a book whose style is too heavy or whose think¬ ing is too profound for the reader’s mind to comprehend. Such read¬ ing is a hindrance rather than a help, as the pupil becomes prejudi¬ ced against this type of book at the start, and is more than likely to retreat to something of Zane Grey’s or of Ethel M. Dell ' s. For example, I should not advise a first- form student who has had little experience in reading to begin with Milton’s “Paradise Lost” or with Carlyle’s “Sartor Resartus.” Let him content himself with Tenny¬ son, or with the simple biography of some well-known nian. Briefly, I say, supplementary reading should develop the taste for good books, and when there are far more good books in the world than any one individual can possibly read, what is the need of dabbling with trash? As Ruskin says: “If you read this you cannot read that—what you lose today you cannot gain tomorrow. Will you go and gossip with your house¬ maid when you may talk with queens and kings—or jostle with the common crowd for entrance here and audience there, while all the while this eternal court is open to you?” Reading is not merely a light pastime—just as exercise develops the body, so reading should develop the mind and soul. And remember, to say that a book is popular is not to say that it is good; the taste of the majority is not what it should be: it is the sensational, the blood-heating that they desire—this style of writing serves the purpose of strong drink, it merely stimulates, it does not. nourish. A book is nothing which does not call forth the power of thought, whose author does not have a thorough understanding of the passions and aspirations of great men. And do not think that it matters how long you take to read a book. Do not read straight ahead — pause; ask yourself why the author said that particular thing: jot down any criticism you may make; try to estimate the value of the book as a whole and then compare your estimation with that of some real literary critic. Always have a dictionary at hand —you will be surprised how T quick¬ ly you can increase your vocabul¬ ary. Do I recommend fiction or non¬ fiction?—both; fiction to stimulate the imagination, non-fiction to in¬ crease the extent of the learning, and both to facilitate the expres¬ sion of thought. Are you fond of history? Many students are not, yet why should heroes of fiction, mere creations of the imagination, make more appeal to the reader than the great flesh-and-blood her¬ oes of the past? What could be more thrilling than the deeds of real, live people? If you do not like history, go to the juvenile de¬ partment of the library, get a book of history which contains many il¬ lustrations—some of these books are written more after the manner of a fairy-story than of history— and try to enjoy it with unpreju¬ diced mind. If you are once able to grasp the human element of history, to feel that these figures were, after all, merely poor, weak human beings with hopes and as¬ pirations as your own, I believe that events in history will become gripping, enthralling. I mention

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24 Tlit Windsor-Walkevville Technical School Year Book The ventilation of the tunnel will he carried out by huge fans at both ends. Air is forced down a pass¬ age below the roadway, and at in¬ tervals it passes up through parts into that part of the tunnel where we find the traffic. Exhaust air is carried out through a passage above the roadway. The air at the fans attains a speed of more than GO miles per hour. As an example, in spite of the heavy traffic, which no doubt will pass through the tunnel, the air will be purer than that on Woodward Avenue. This shows the efficiency of the fans. Part of the trench in the river is already dredged; work on the land section has begun, and the steel sections are being made. The tun¬ nel will be open to traffic sometime next year. NELLIE WEARNE. T2A. - o - MY STRUGGLES WITH AN ORAL COMPOSITION The topic 1 have chosen to speak on today—I have no topic—what I am going to do is to try to be ori¬ ginal by telling you how I prepared my oral composition. In the first place, 1 made up my mind to have my composition ready a week or so before the miserable day (not a rainy day), but the day I was to speak, but because I do so much homework, especially on shorthand and composition, it usu¬ ally turns out that I make my vain attempts the night before. Do you know, l stayed up until two o’clock last night doing this oral. That ' s why I was late for school this morning. To get back to the topic that 1 started with—what was it? —About aeroplanes, wasn’t it? Oh, 1 remember, I started to tell you the difficulty I had in getting up an oral composition. The other day I asked my brother for sug¬ gestions on the topic. He thought it would be a good idea to speak on the history of the W.W.T. In fifteen minutes I secured so much information that I decided to speak on that subject if Mr. Lowe would let me have the whole day in which to tell it. While 1 was looking for some other information, really 1 became so wrapped in thought that 1 nearly caught a cold. Another brillianl member of our household suggested that 1 speak on school spirit, but really I thought, it would be too dangerous. A week passed in this wav, and last night T found myself without u composition to give you. 1 was looking all over the house for material when I finally came across a book containing the life of Wm. Shakespeare. I finished reading the hook in two and one half hours, and then started to write a composition on it. When 1 had finished writing it, I found that 1 had six very interesting pages of material and I felt quite proud of myself, and went to read it to my sister, but I had not quite finished reading the first page, when, glancing in her direction, I saw that she was sawing wood. Really, I became so angry that 1 tore it into shreds. And then I had before me the task of writing another. Well, I looked and look¬ ed and looked, and at ten o’clock I still looked. The reasop that 1 still looked was that during the previous three hours that I looked, while looking, I came across some very interesting stories and was looking at them before 1 stopped looking. A—what was I looking for? That was the trouble, I for¬ got what 1 was looking for, and when the folks called me to go to lied at twelve o’clock, it came to my mind that I had a speech to prepare. Within the next hour I wrote about a great and wonderful man who did much for humanity, but 1 forgot his name, as I was half asleep when I wrote it. At one- thirty o’clock, all alone in the still night, I was trying to get a com¬ position, but 1 fell asleep on the job.