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VOLUME 20. NUMBER 29
JULY 20, 1973
DURHAM. NORTH CAROLINA
Child safety will be dramatized before
millions of television viewers during the
next six months through a series of TV
announcements featuring Dr. Jay M.
Arena.
Presented as a public service by
Prudential Insurance Co., the series
comprises six one-minute spot
announcements which will be shown by
some 300 local TV stations throughout
the country.
,\t a reception Wednesday night at the
home of Dr. William G. Anlyan, vice
president for health affairs. Prudential
presented Arena with a $5,000 check for
Duke's Poison Control Center.
Arena established and is director of
the Poison Control Center. It was his
recognition as an expert on child safety
and poisoning that prompted Prudential
to ask him to be the central figure in the
public service announcements.
Arena was in private pediatrics
practice for many years in Durham. He is
a professor of pediatrics at Duke and is
University’s Glassblower
Plies a Brittle Occupation
ON LOCATION IN DURHAM—TV crew prepares for a shot at the back of the
home of Dr. Jay Arena. The filming was for part of a series of public service
announcements on child safety sponsored by Prudential Insurance Co. Not pictured
here but appearing in some of the series is Karen Prosser, Arena's granddaughter and
the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Art Prosser. Prosser used to be administrator of the Duke
emergency department. The child with Arena in this picture is Alan Rucker, son of Mr.
and Mrs. Jerry Rucker of Durham, and the dog is "Rebel," who belongs to Carmen
Falcone of the Duke athletic department.
Child Safety Expert Stars
On TV Spot Announcements
past president of the American Academy
of Pediatrics.
The films will be distributed on a
one-a-month basis and each will relate to
a specific safety topic—burn hazards,
poison prevention, animal safety,
automobile safety, first aid and wafer
safety.
"Inasmuch as an estimated 35 million
persons will see these films, we believe
Dr. Arena's safety messages will have an
important impact on alerting parents and
others to simple precautions that can play
a vital role in reducing needless and often
tragic child accidents," said Philip R.
Warth, Prudential's director of public
relations.
"While each of the six messages differs
in video content," Warth explained, "all
conclude with Dr. Arena telling his
audience, 'Although children are often
victims of fate . . . they should never be
victims of our neglect'."
Recent statistics show that more than
one-third of all childhood deaths are
caused by accidents.
The caveman squatted beside his fire,
chewing meat from a hindquarter of the
deer he had recently killed. When he
finished his meal, he wiped his greasy
fingers on his thigh and flipped the bone
into the glowing coals with a satisfied
grunt.
He stretched out for the evening.
The next morning, he awoke to feel
hunger again. As he began to rekindle his
campfire, he noticed little shining stones
beneath the wood ashes and his eyes
widened.
"Wake up, dear," he said to his wife,
giving the little woman an elbow in the
ribs. "I think I've just discovered glass."
Sound unreasonable? According to
Tom Henson, Duke University's research
glassblower, this is one of the theories
historians have which may explain how
prehistoric man became familiar with
glass. The bone which was tossed so
nonchalantly into the flames by the
caveman may have contained enough
soda to combine with the melted sand
beneath the fire and form glass as we
know it today.
Another theory is that early men
found glass hardened on the sides of
volcanoes after the molten lava cooled.
They chipped it from the rock and
fashioned tools and ornaments with it.
Through the ages, man began
manufacturing glass for himself and
refining his techniques. There are records
that the Egyptians of the Sixth Dynasty
practiced the art more than 5,000 years
ago and museums contain evidence of
their handiwork.
In the days of the alchemists,
glassmaking was included in the "Black
Arts," and at one time during the Middle
Ages, Venetian glassblowers risked death
for divulging secrets to anyone other than
their apprentices.
Today the forming of vessels from
glass is both an industry and an artform.
At Duke, research glassblower Henson is
the university's practitioner of the
ancient craft, and he uses many of the
same techniques which were discovered
thousands of years ago.
Henson is a native of Florence,
Alabama. As a young man after his
graduation from high school and a
three-year hitch in the army stationed in
hospitals in New Guinea and the
Philippines, he began serving an
apprenticeship to become a professional
glassblower at the TVA Research
Laboratories in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.
Today, after 27 years of workrhgwith
glass and 20 years in Durham, he is one of
600 master scientific glassblowers across
the United States who fashion
sophisticated equipment for all manner of
scientific inquiry.
Most of the work Henson does is for
faculty members and graduate students in
physics, chemistry, engineering, and the
biological sciences. Whether its
distillation or microwave apparatus,
vacuum systems or laser tubes, he is able
to construct most of the glass equipment
they require, but sometimes he finds it
necessary to explain why certain designs
for the exotic equipment they can think
up are not feasible.
"In this work you have to know a
great deal about your material," he said.
"Glass is a unique substance, and you
have to treat it right if you expect results.
It's necessary to know where the stresses
will be in glass after you change its shape
and allow it to cool. Otherwise, it will
crack before it ever gets used."
Also, Henson cautioned, glassworking
is a very delicate business. "You can't get
ahead of yourself," he said. "If you do,
you'll have trouble. You can't rework
glass like you can metal, and once a
(Continued on page 3)
m:
IN THE SHOP—Research glassblower Thomas Henson fire-polishes a piece of glassware
in his shop in the basement of the Physics Building. His craft is an ancient one, and
records indicate that the Egyptians of the Sixth Dynasty practiced it in the making of
jewelry more than 5,000 years ago. Today, glassblowing is an important adjunct of
much of the research which is conducted in chemistry, physics and the biological
sciences. (Photo by David Williamson)