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

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Tho Windaor-Walkcrville Technical School Year Book 25 You are all lucky that I fell asleep, because while I was asleep I dreamt that I was a {Treat orator, and was making a speech to an audience of all the greatest com¬ position teachers in the world, among whom was Mrs. McGiffin. Just then I awoke. Thinking of that name it came to my mind that 1 had a speech to learn, and then a wonderful thought occurred to me. It was to speak on the difli- culties 1 had in preparing an oral composition. 1 went upstairs to bed at live-thirty o’clock, making up my mind to get up early next morning. 1 woke up at fifteen minutes to six, and started to pre¬ pare my composition. Here it is as proof that. I did prepare it— eight hundred and twenty-five words of solid, brain-paralyzing material. DONALD MERETSKY -o- THE AMBASSADOR BRIDGE This superstructure rearing its stately towers in the air, and stretching its lengthy span across the river, adds a touch of architec¬ tural beauty on the Detroit River. Only after years of planning and plenty of worry did the work of pioneers in the agitation for a De- troit-Windsor bridge succeed, and in the autumn of 1927 actual con¬ struction of the massive founda¬ tions started. The following sum¬ mer saw Canada and United States linked together in peace, when the first cables were strung across the river to support the narrow cat- walk where daring men afterwards worked on the main cables. While the foundations were sinking to rest on bedrock, steel was being prepared, to be placed on the foundations to form the slender towers which support the main cables. The towers are light and slender, not like the massive construction of days gone by when people believed that the larger and heavier things were the stronger; but the modern engineer puts his brain to - work and these towers are so constructed that, although slender, they have tremendous strength. Unconsciously the work¬ men showed great heroism as they skipped from girder to girder at the top of these suspension towers, where a misstep would have meant a fearful plunge to the river below. While these towers were rising skyward the men behind the bridge did not wait for their completion before going on with the rest; no, they started preparing for the cables which were to rest on the peaks; and as these towers rose t he approaches and terminals were taking shape, and before the com¬ pletion of the cables the roadway on the Canadian approach was fin¬ ished. Thus last autumn the great cab¬ les suspended across the Detroit River were made and anchored in¬ to place. Each wire of these great cables was laid separately and each strand anchored. Upon comple¬ tion the strands were bound and cl amped together by steel bands. These will be sealed and made air¬ tight. This cable holds the full weight of the main span. On top of the towers the cables rest in a saddle which swings back and forth with the cables as it pulls and expands due to the varied weight of its load and the effect of summer and winter. At present travelling cranes are building up the lengthy span, now Windsor Public Library

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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.

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2fi The Wimtsor-Walkervillr TVchnii-al School Year Book the longest in the world. The bridge is built outward from each bank of the river and the span will join in the middle. After this is completed men will add to the steelwork, building back and forth until the steelwork is finished and the full weight is hung from the cables. On the roadway across this span there will be room for five lanes of traffic, and an eight foot sidewalk where you may go for a stroll on Sunday morning if you wish. There can be handled over five thousand cars an hour—a cap¬ acity that will meet the demands of the heaviest tourist traffic. There will also be transportation by bus for people without cars, from the metropolitan sections of both cities across the bridge. The summer of 1929 will bring to an end the worries of the men behind it, the difficulties of the en¬ gineers, and will bring true the dreams of thousands. The river will be covered with yachts and motor launches, music will float in (he air, gay colors will unfurl ev¬ erywhere, when the AMBASSA¬ DOR BRIDGE in all its splendour is first opened. Then two great sister countries will be joined in lasting interchange of friendly communication. By E. HERAGE, C3B. -o- PLAYLETTE OF T 3 B. Scene: Auto Mech. Room. To¬ bin and Padgett and Atkin are working on a car. C. McLaren is looking on and giving advice (as usual) but is not working. Gx ose is fooling around inside a car. He finds a key in the lock of the car and thinking it is a door key he opens the door, puts the key in the lock and turns it. Then he takes out the key. puts it in the car and shuts the door. Teacher: Jewell turn on the lights. Jewell: The door won’t open. Tobin: Why not yon down? C. McLaren: C’mou funny. Tobin: Use your muscles. I Door refuses to open) Grose (standing in back-ground turns as red as a danger sign) : I guess I must have locked it. Teacher: Where ' s the key? Grose: Inside the car in the transmission lock, f thought it belonged there. (Loud guffaws from rest of ToB). Padgett: Bring on the glass cutters. Atkin: C’mon Grose, you’re re¬ sponsible for this. Get busy. Teacher: Get under the car and push up the floor-boards. (Grose disappears under the cal¬ ami about 5 minutes later) Grose: Do you see me coming thru? C. McLaren (gazing into inferior of car): I can’t see you, blow your horn. (Grose snorts with rage. At last he gets the key and crawls out from under the car. Work goes on as usual.) Teacher: Grose, you are so dumb that you ought to be shot. Glass: Shoot him, shoot him, we’ll take the blame. Grose: Aw! can’t you take a joke, anyway it was Chuck Mc¬ Laren who told me to do it. McLaren: Tf I told you to jump into the river, would you? Grose: f dunno. P.S.—Grose is still undecided. We’re hoping he does it. C. M., T3B. -o- BOOK REVIEW The Friendly Stars Martha Evans Martin, the au¬ thor of this hook, is keenly inter¬ ested in the stars in themselves, not technically. Aside from this hook, shp has written an interest¬ ing one called “The Ways of the Planets.”