Brussels, Belgium. Jerry B. Roach, ChE, was promoted to superintendent of maintenance at the Trenton, Michigan plant of Monsanto Company. William (Bozy) Smith, CE, has become administrative associate in charge of the Chicago office for the consulting and design engineering firm, Ralph Hahn and Associates of Springfield, Illinois.
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been named the Georgia Power Company's Thomson district manager. Mr. Ballard was listed in the 1967 edition of Outstanding Young Men of America and holds the certificate of merit from MART magazine as 1967 Creative Salesman of the Year. Frank R. "Randy" Bowen, IM, has been appointed vice president-warehouse operations of Bowen Supply, a
division of U.S. Industries, Inc. He and his family reside in Americus, Georgia. Howard L. Hall, Jr., IE, has been promoted to manager of systems and planning for A. H. Robins Company, Richmond, Virginia. Elmo A. Richardson, Jr., CE, has formed a new company with Hiram L. Tribble, '49 CE, Tribble & Richardson, Inc., consulting engineers, with offices at 2484 Ingleside Avenue, Macon, Georgia. Audrey K. Singletary, IM, has been named an assistant vice president and group manager of Saunders Leasing System, Inc. of Birmingham, Alabama. Frank R. Speer, IM, was selected as Man of the Year in the Thomas J. Eisk Agency by the Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company. The award is in recognition of his "able and conscientious service to his policy-
New Enterprise Protects Manufacturing Companies • T H R E E Georgia T e c h alumni—two of t h e m former members of the Institute's research staff—have found a way to get around one of the major handicaps of small manufacturing companies. I n fact, that's exactly why Bob Trammell, Jr., E E '56; Wes Stuckey, I E '57; and J e r r y Johnson, E E '57, decided to go into the manufacture of fire alarm annunciators and automatic telephone communicators for use in burglar a n d fire alarm systems. Trammell, formerly with the Electronics Division a t Tech, h a d already begun to redesign Adcor Electronics' product before h e bought enough stock in the company to take over the presidency. Stuckey, who was also a researcher for the Electronics Division, a n d J e r r y S. Johnson, formerly in the marketing department of the Georgia Power Company, were sufficiently convinced of the product's superiority to join him. Stuckey became vice president a n d treasurer in October, 1969, and Johnson took over the vice presidency for sales in February, 1970. Concentrating on the telephone communicator ( d i a l e r ) , Trammell first surveyed the field a n d then came u p with a design t h a t all three m e n described a s "better t h a n any on the market." Special features include: versatility—it works in conjunction with a n y alarm system; two independent channels allow u p to five telephone calls on each; a n anti-foul mechanism keeps the t a p e from sticking; a variable time delay allows setting the alarm to go off in zero to 60 seconds after being tripped; a n d a hidden abort mechanism enables it to be shut off when accidentally tripped. I n addition, according to the three Tech engineers, the system features a memory circuit which enables it to play both channels all t h e way through if tripped simultaneously. If channel one is tripped, the unit starts making the calls t h a t are programmed into it. If, during this time, channel two is tripped, the u n i t will March-April 1970
holders as well as his underwriting achievements." USAF Capt. Arthur W. Vogan, AE, was recently decorated with the Meritorious Service Medal. He is presently studying for his master's degree at Georgia Tech under the Air Force Institute of Technology education program. Edwin Wilinski, IM, has been named secretary of Fischback and Moore, Inc., one of the world's large electrical contracting companies. H e lives with his wife and three children at 56 Springdale Avenue, Massapequa, New York. N. "Brad" Bradford, Text, was promoted to special assistant to '60 drawtwist area supervisor of Hystron's Filament Plant of Hystron Fibers, Inc. Mr. Bradford and his family reside at 213 Yorkshire Drive, Spartanburg, South Carolina.
"remember" this a n d m a k e the calls on it after all calls have been m a d e on channel one. Trammell also has designed a programmer for use b y the dealer so t h a t tapes do n o t have t o b e shipped back to the factory each time the information on t h e m h a s to be changed. A separate head for each channel enables the erasure of a segment of the t a p e rather t h a n t h e entire tape. I n redesigning the Adcor product, T r a m m e l l also decided to change to a more expensive rechargeable high capacity nickel cadmium battery. T h e result is t h a t it can sustain a 20-day power failure a n d still have enough energy left to make ten calls. Since a ni-cad battery is non-rechargeable after the voltage drops to a certain level, a specially a d d e d circuit limits t h e a m o u n t of drainage on t h e battery. I n spite of all of the improvements a n d added features, the three m e n maintain t h a t the price of their product is competitive with others on the market. " I t ' s all in knowing where to p u t t h a t wire," Stuckey says, pointing to the anti-foul mechanism. Located at 349 Peachtree Hills Avenue in Atlanta, the firm employs seven production workers in addition to the three Tech engineers. Stuckey reports t h a t since they took over management, t h e company's capacity to produce h a s grown from 29 u n i t s a m o n t h with 12 employees to about 120 a month with seven. I n terms of money, this means from $4,000 to $24,000. " W i t h some equipment added," h e says, "we could b e producing $100,000 a month." T h i s would mean, however, t h a t they would have to increase the n u m b e r of production employees. Though they view the future optimistically, the three are proceeding according to a well-designed plan. T h e y have just finished a n extensive field test of t h e equipment in the Atlanta area—strengthening ties with Adcor's old customers a n d those of a subsidiary (SACO, Inc.) which they bought in October. "Dealer acceptance of the new improved product is much better t h a n our expectations. N o w we are beginning to branch out to establish a network of dealers in t h e Southeast," says Johnson, whose eyes are already on t h a t national market. LINDA TERRELL 41