NAL'S Model Shop Aids in Bubble Chamber Planning
When one is building anything as complex and costly as a massive accelerator system such as that at NAL, it is only logical that conceptual models be developed first to provide opportunities for improvement before the final design is settled upon.
One of the earlier staff appointments at NAL was that of Jose Poces, an industrial designer who came to the Laboratory from the staff of Max O. Urbahn, the prominent New York architect who is a member of the DUSAF joint venture. Poces, now 32, has been with the NAL staff for more than two years. He is an alumnus of Pratt Institute in New York and resides in Wheaton.
Initially, Poces and his helpers produced models of the Main Accelerator Magnets and the Main Accelerator Tunnel in a small workshop in the basement of an office building at Oakbrook. That was when NAL's first operational office was located on the 10th floor of the Executive Plaza Building near the East-West Tollway in Oakbrook.
After the move to the NAL Village, the model shop, under Poces, was set up in three buildings on Shabbona Street not far from the office of Dr. Robert R. Wilson, NAL Director. There, models of the entire site were developed as were prototypes of the "footprint" area including the Linac, the Booster and part of the Main Ring.
At present, the model shop staff numbers seven, including Poces. It is under the supervision of Henry Hinterberger, Director of Technical Services. Today, the staff is, among other things, concerned with building models for the proposed 15-foot Bubble Chamber (the model is being placed in the pit of the Linac Laboratory building in the NAL Village). It also is working on a model for the central laboratory building. Poces helped to develop the NAL Exhibit Hall with the assistance of Mrs. Angela Gonzales, NAL Designer, and Geno Loro, of the DUSAF staff.
"We are a hard-working group, versatile in our craft, concerned with being a very competent prototype shop for the Laboratory," says Poces. "We are already beginning to switch our energies to work on prototypes of the experimental facilities' needs. A Laboratory such as this is in constant evolution and the continuing need for models and prototypes will be found to be economically efficient."
One member of Poces' staff is Velvie Lee Smith, who has invested much of his time in developing the topographic model of the NAL site which is located in the lobby-entrance of the Curia. Smith is a sensitive, creative man with patience and skill that he devotes to making certain that the precise details of every model represent actuality.
In a speech titled, "Youth and Democracy" which Smith gave in 1957 when he graduated as salutatorian from Melrose High School in Memphis, Tennessee, he said, "When all people join together for the common cause of freedom and democracy, victory shall be won." He ranked second in his class of about 180 students, with his best friend beating him to the highest honor by a mere fraction of a point.
Lee, as he is known at NAL, was elected to the National Honor Society and was active in school activities. Upon graduating from high school, he confessed he was bored with school and, instead of going on to college, Lee decided to move to Chicago to look for a job.
He joined the Service Department of Sears, Roebuck Company as a "Jack-of-all-trades" doing cabinet repair work, furniture refinishing and mechanical repairs. During the eleven years he was with Sears, Lee did return to school. He has taken courses in mathematics and English at Crane Junior College and is presently enrolled for the Fall semester in a drafting course at the American Institute of Drafting.
Two years ago, through mutual friends, he met Kennard Williams, NAL EEO Head, who urged Lee to apply for a position at the Laboratory. He has been in the NAL Model Shop since then, first as a Junior Modelmaker, and more recently as Modelmaker, working on the site map and the large model of the accelerator system which is in its special room at the Director's Complex, as well as a variety of other assignments.
Lee and his wife, Earlene, live in Broadview with their family of five active youngsters, ages 5-6-7-9-11, where Lee has been an Assistant Cub Master and Scout Committee Chairman, and where Earlene is kept busy just being a mother!
