Sewickley Herald

              The Sewickley Valley’s Home Weekly Newspaper
Voi. 50 No. 39
SEWICKLEY, PENNSYLVANIA, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1953
Price Ten Cents
Pittsburgh Coke And Chemical Company Installs Settling
Basin
Sewickley High School's Eighth Graders
Photo by Mahan and Wright
As part of its stream pollution control program, Pittsburgh Coke & Chemical Company installed this settling basin at its Neville Island Plant to remove 8,000 tons of sludge per year from water used to clean blast furnace gas. The purified water overflowing from the tank is discharged into the river.
Reach Tenth Grade Level In Test
Sewickley School Board Approves A Girls’ Drill
Team in the High School
Sewickley School Board, at its regular meeting Monday evening, heard that there were 1007 pupils in the Sewickley Public Schools as of September 30th; heard the gratifying results of the pupils in the eighth grade of Sewickley Junior High School, in the latest form of the Stanford Achievement tests given in a majority of the districts near the close of the 1952-53 school year under the supervision of Dr. Beattie ; approved the, use of the grade school basement for practice by the American Legion Drum and Bugle Corps; gave permission to the Women’s Industrial Exchange to use the pavilion for a rummage sale on October 28th; approved the formation of a Girls’ Drill Team in the high school ; allowed the use of a room in the high school for private instruction of the brass section of the band and approved, the application of the Board of Trade for the rental of the auditorium for a Playhouse play sometime during the first two weeks of December.
Dr. Iron’s memorandum to the board members included a chart which compared results of the eighth grade Stanford Achievement test given in April, 1953, in the Sewickley school, with results of the same test in the other schools in Allegheny County. The chart will be studied by the teachers to determine adjustment of the work in each subject to fit the need of the child. The graph was set up to show the middle 50% of tlie class, with the national median point of normal achievement at 8th grade, 8th month. The graph is of interest to parents as well as- teachers, and was a source of great pride to your reporter.
It is impossible to print die report in it’s entirety; but Sewickley eighth grade pupils had medians in the reading tests comparable to die national level of the 10th grade. In spelling and word meaning 75% were up to or above the national median. The results of the
j language usage test showed both Sewick-Iey and the County group to be far above the national median; in arithmetic, while above the national norm of 8.8 in computation and reasoning, Sewickley midpoint of 9.0 and 9.3, is below the county groups 9.5 and 9.6. The test result in science was very pleasing, the study skills test showed a good combination of high median and narrow range for Sewickley which indicates good training in the proper use of the tools of learning which is necessary in the broad fields of modern knowledge. Since 1he real value of any testing program lies in the i use made of the knowledge of mental ! capacity and achievement, die teacher j can “know where the pupils are” and I where they are capable of going, and I thus plan her classwork with a better understanding.
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Sampling Water From Neville Island Plant
Photo by Mnhnn and Wright
To help reduce stream pollution, Pittsburgh Coke & Chemical regularly tests tho water discharged from its Neville Island plant into the Ohio River. Any variations from the standards set up by the company are immediately investigated and corrected, Most of the discharged water is pure enough to drink without harm,
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Neville Island. Firm Spends Millions
SMOKE, SMELLS AND STREAM POLLUTION REDUCED
To most industries in the crowded metropolitan Pittsburgh area, the first step in being a good neighbor is principally a matter of abiding by city and county anti-smoko ordinances. But at the
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Neville Island plant of the Pittsburgh Coke & Chemical Company, it also means being a good housekeeper in matters of river pollution, chemical odors and even industrial noises.
In this battle against industrial annoyances, the company has spent well over a million dollars during the past five years on equipment which will lessen or eliminate them.
By the very diversity of its production,
the Pittsburgh Coke & Chemical Company faces a complex combination of industrial ' nuisance that seldom, if ever, bothers most manufacturers. As one of the most highly diversified industrial companies, Pittsburgh Coke produces goods as basic as pig iron, coke and cement and as specialized as chemical insecticides, a rainbow of dyestuffs for the textile industry, and coal chemicals needed to make such products as synthetic fabrics, pharmaceuticals, and plastics.
The broad range of manufacturing processes employed within this widely varied production pattern creates a unique and challenging array of industrial an-( Continued to Page 21)
Osborne Man Hurt In Crash
SUSTAINS CRACKED RIBS
AND SHOULDER IN WRECK
Austin J. Murdock, of 1408 Beaver Road, Osborne, is recovering ‘nieel/ in Presbyterian Hospital from three cracked ribs and a cracked bone in the shoulder sustained in a two-car collision at Louise and Semple Streets, in front of the Oakland Police Station, at about 9 a, m. on Wednesday morning, September 30th. Mr. Murdock was a passenger in a car driven by his son, *James II. Murdock, 1207 Beaver Road, Osborne, when a car driven by M, Lawrence. Layton, 6403 Bartlett Street, went through a stop sign, according to the Murdock family, and crashed into the side of the car.
Mr. Murdock, who is vice president, and treasurer of Sea Breeze Laboratories, Inc., at 122 Meyran Avenue, Oakland, was seated on the side of the car which Was struck. He was en roüto to the Sea Breeze plant when the accident occurred. Both drivers escaped injury in the crash.
Local Youth Indicted By Grand Jury On Morals Charge
Mature Woman Assaulted In Alley After Refusing Pick-Up In Car
Gerald Williams, 617 Little Way, Sewickley, star Negro halfback on the Sewickley High School football team, was indicted by the Allegheny County Grand Jury on Tuesday morning after withdrawing a guilty plea and electing to stand trial on a mor -Js charge preferred by a mature Negro woman, who was beaten and assaulted in Downing Alley, between Hill and Straight Street, shortly before 1 a.m. on Saturday, September 26th. .Williams, who will be 19 in November, was arrested by Ofiicers Joseph Villella and Rutledge Edger, Jr., who heard a commotion in the alley from his home at 818 Hill Street and went to investigate.
The officer found that the woman had Succeeded in beating off her attacker by hitting him on the head with a shoe and screaming, after he had slugged her, knocking her to the ground. The officer after helping the woman with packages which were strewn over the the street, noticed a car parked on the wrong side of Hill Street, near the intersection with Lake Street, but no one was in it at the time. He went to the police car, parked nearby and radioed the information on the car, including the license number, to Oar No. 1 as the woman told him it was the car her assailant had driven. When Officer Edger returned from radioing, the car was gone, so he again called Officer Villella, who intercepted the car at Broad and Beaver Streets and placed Williams under airest,
’he woman was taken to Sewickley i ley Hospital, where she was treated ( abrasions below the right eye ami, ised to come back the next clay for i X-ray examination of her injuries lianis was taken to the Sewiekloj jail held until 11 a. m. the next day, ;n he was given a hearing-by Justice he Peace William Evans. The victim ified that Williams had driven along : several times and asked her if she ited a ride home, but she repeatedly ised, Then, ns she Went up Lake ;et, he parked the car and followed, ce said.
Al the hearioc. Williams admitted hitting the woman, but denied tin: morals charge. He was held for court without bail and then was tak'U to iho office of the Assistant Chief of Count, Detectives, where he made a voluwtnrv Statement before Oonntv D t.'Ol've loseph Start and Lt. Lee S. Jones, On the basis of the statement, he was scheduled to enter a plea of guilty, but refused to sign the paper until his mother arrived with an attorney. At that, Lt. Jones took bis witnesses and other evidence before 'the Grand Jury, which returned a true bill.