Ottawa Technical High School - Tech Talk Yearbook (Ottawa, Ontario Canada)

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eatr X ONE EVENING A FEW SHORT months ago,I was seated looking up inf to the sky. It was a fairly clear summer evening with only a few wispy clouds. As I watched, the clouds became smaller and smaller and at last drifted away altogether. Slowly the sky paled and darkened and then the sun set com' pletely in a blaze of glory, and all was still. The stage was set for one of Natures most stirring dramas: The entry of the stars. There was, however, one slight detail wrong with the set' ting,I was not outside and it was not late eveningg it was late morning, noon to be exact! I was at the Hayden Planetarium. On a recent visit to New York, I was privileged to see this wonderful spec' tacle. The projection planetarium, the amazing dumbellfshaped optical instruf ment, is beyond a doubt the finest and most versatile instrument for the teach- ing of astronomical science ever devel' oped. Before its invention the layman had much difficulty in understanding the fundamental concepts of astronomy. Now, however, these can be grasped easily and quickly. First let us examine the construction of this amazing projector, which is the most essential thing in the Theatre of the Stars. Its operation is on the prinf ciple of the old fashioned magic lantern. The pictures it projects, however, are those of the heavenly bodies, the small images of stars and larger images of sun, moon, and the planets. The projection screen is the theatre's great hemispherf ical ceiling,a curving shell of stainless steel painted white on the inside and fringed around the horizon with the skyline of New York. As the theatre is darkened and the clouds go away, the stars appear, each in its correct posi- tion,a total of about 9000, all that can of th By Ron IE S ever be seen by the keenest eye on a cler night. The audience completely forgets it is in a room, for the manfmade firmament above seems to have the im- mensity and endless sweep of the real heavens. Actually the projector is comf posed of over a hundred small separate projectors, all matched and fitted to' gether with exquisite accuracy. Thirty' two of these, sixteen in each end of the dumbell, project the images of the stars. In between these are the projectors which project the sun, moon, and plan- ets, placed so that each moves indivif dually at the proper relative speed. The entire machine is mounted so that it can turn on any one of several axes. It can turn so that the stars seem to be travelling to produce the eastward rotation of the earth during the night. With this motion, a day and a night can be made to pass in twelve minutes or f twentyffour hours can be compressed into three minutes. Similarly dilferent speeds have been provided for the mo- tions of the sun, moon, and planets, so that a year can be made to pass in three minutes, one minute or seven seconds. Another important motion of the ma' chine is the one which changes the latitude of the observer, so that the stars can be observed from any position on earth from pole to pole. These mo- tions are all controlled by switches on a console at which a lecturer stands. These controls are numerous and com- plicated and by means of them he can fade the stars, bring on clouds and pro' duce a dawn g or he can jump straight from midnight to midday. Other helps to the lecturer are the various extra projectors which throw reference lines, the celestial equator and other markings upon the dome. The value of such a machine to as' tronomy is twofold : first, you always have a clear night upon which to ob' serve, and secondly, the actions of the Continued an Page 66 II

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When I Was a Lad I Served a Term or A Day At School By Howard Roche The morning Jtartt at ten part eight: M y mother .fcre.zm.r, ' 'It'.t getting late. ' I gow my hreakfatt, grab my hooks, Who giret a darn how my hair look.f.' And nou' I 'fn on my tray at laet: I ho ri' my head. and face the hlaJt,' For once, I 're made it, I can Jay. -So Hart.: .1 typical Jchool day. In the rherniytry lah u 'e learn to pour Into ,mine H2504 Some FeS and Nal If thi.f gm-,r wrong, l'll Jurehf die. They Jay, Now halanre the equation. That requiret tome concentration, For S01 and NH3 Yield OPU and an old bran key. And Jo to En glllfh for a while- The cla.t.r in which we never .vnilef For ihif if anything hut fun With Byron, Keats and Tennyton. And then to Comp. my way I wend To find out where the clautet end. Befaute thit period 'J .fuch a hare I hare time to admire the jloor. But nou' ne go to Math. O Lord! It'.f there I realb' do get hored Caute Xplu: Y equal thirteen Z And the theorem: leave me .tirnpbf dead. Talbi ho.' the gloriout hell to lunchg Big juicy Jandwichet I can inunch. When thit it done, then I can hop Down to the nearett Cfwfoe Shop, At one hfteeift Geometry 'Tit here Innd it hard to Jee When the locut if a point hat an equation It'J Phyfiel non' that haflet me With motion, force, relocity Phyfical law are not too hard. Light travels-threefeet to each yard And then to Trig. I hlitjnlly go To hear another tale J woe Ahont the Upper School examt. And u hon he'J through we f eel like hanzt. IO What good this will he when-Oh damnation .' At latt the end it drawing near, fBoy, could I ure a cup of cheerj For Study it the period now Do I realb' need it?-and how! And now it'.f comet, -three thirtyfiveg I j?el Jo fresh, I 'd like to jioe. 'I'here'JjuJt one thing I forgot to mention: I mutt away to my detention. DETENTION ROOM The Ballad of lhe Lates Ojicers By Bruce Slraby Now at Tech you once are late You' ll Jee a funny thing: A nzan named Elton at the gate To whorn excuse you hring. And perchance, you're late three titnet, Then Swayze it the many He'll cron examine all your crimes, Your privilege: han. And .rhould you yet he unlucky enough To come four timex late or more, Our good Miner Hendry treat: you rough And realhl you'll he tore. Lo, thete are the nzen who will Jlap you do wn Hyou don't get to Jchool at the hell,' So until they .reek their Heauenbl Cro wn You .rhoulil try to avoid getting- In wrong with the latex oyjlcert.

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66 onah and the Arkw A Short Story by George Moreau JONAH TUGGED AT HIS BEARD angrily and strode up and down the whale. Mrs. Jonah paused for breath a moment, then eyed Jonah with antagf onism. Jonah waved his arms wildly beating the atmosphere with his gar- ments. He then began to speak in a high pitched. thin voice: I tell thee, woman, I will have no further words with thee. Thou hast done nothing but complain since taking up our abode in this lishy place. Yea,I have said unto thee many times that the housing shortage is acute. Did not Adam and Eve eat themselves out of home and home? And was not Daniel sleeping with the lions? Were we not lucky to secure this dwelling for only xn shekels a month? hits. Jonah looked up from her seat on the whales liver and spoke to the cage of the great whales ribs saying, Harken to him, how smoothly he over' looketh the xxv shekels which he paid for the key to this abominable floating domicile. Jonah scowled fiercely and tugged again at his beard. Thou speakest with the tongue of a tishfwife. If thou hadst harkened to me yesterday, thou wouldst have learned that this spacious abode was advertised in the Jericho Citizen as a housefboat. As thou well knowest we did enter it in the dead of the night. Thou mustest admit it seemed all right the night of our arrival-floors sound, walls sound, no signs of mice or rats! No rats, sneered Mrs. Jonah 5 any fool knoweth that rats desert a sinking ship, and this ship has done nothing but sink steadily since we got on . Yea, 'tis true that Smilin' Sam, the agent, did betray me with his smooth tongue. He spoke about water frontage, but said nothing of a sudden trip out to sea. Out to sea, mocked Mrs. Jonah, out to see nothing ! How can'st thou see without a clean window, or even a chink? There is no need to bring the hon- ourable Chinese into the discussion Fish, fish, fish, said Mrs. Jonah, Kish for breakfast, Esh for lunch and fish for supper ! How much longer must this diet continue ? Thou hast nothing to blubber about, Jonah retorted. Well, wife, I'm going up for a blow g art thou coming ? I might as well, as harken to thee spouting. Mr. and Mrs. Jonah ascended the main cornpanionway to the promenade deck of the sleeping whale. They pro- ceeded around the port side, and as they were rounding the stern Jonah stubbed his toe on a lin. Enjoy your trip ? en' quired Mrs. Jonah. Ye gods and little fishes , said Jonah looking up, what in heaven is that ? In awed silence they watched a huge craft aproaching. On the bow was written The Ark. When the Ark drew nearer, they could see animals looking out of the numerous port holes in pairs. It certainly looketh like the return of a hunting expedition , said Jonah 3 or maybe Bring-'emfback'alive Caesar returneth from darkest Africa. By now the Ark was right alongside the whale. Ahoy there, good ship Ark, ahoy l Ahoy thineselff' answered a long bearded man g who art thou ? I am Jonah, son of Jona, son of Jon, on of Jo, son of J .... Cease, J.J. g dost thou not recognize thine old classmate, Noah ? Holy mackerel, 'tis Noah as I live. How art thou, old war horse ? It is well with me, but whither goest thou in yonder strange craft ? 'Arken unto me, Noah my friend g I have had a whale of a time, but, confidentially, it stinkethf' Thou tellest me ! retorted Noah, getting a good whiff. Verily, who is yonder fair damsel by thy side ? A thousand pardons, Noah, meetest thou the missusf' Then Noah, putting his head down the hatch, hollered Ham, Shem, Jap' heth, cast a rope onto yonder whale and lower a plank ! The Jonahs climbed aboard. Jonah spoke first: Why keepest thou the gruesome twosomes ? Continued on Page 66 gimp' L fed M .- Q' ii I2