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A-12 THE SUNDAY STAR Washington, D. C., February 4,1962 NO ROBERT FROST, IT ——— ( Computer Writes Poetry, but Bad GLENDALE, Calif., Feb. 3 (AP).—RPC 4,000 is the latest terrifying example of what can happen when you don’t keep computing machines in their place. This one writes poems. What’s worse, it does such a lousy job of it they may sell. Sample: “That sweet mustache’s bill behind a clod did bump. “Lastly, its teeth were broad and plump.” Or: "Oh, panic not to this docile juice. "Finally, few of my jackets ■ did distrust the goose. “Ah, to rectify is black; to refute was nourishing. "Butterflies.” Not a Poet Laureate RPC 4.000. as you can see, may never be nominated poet laureate of the United States. But, as a matter of fact. RPC 4,000 is not being groomed to drive Robert Frost into the hardware business Its devel oper, the Librascope Division of General Precision, Inc., is simply trying to teach com puters not to be such snobs, so ordinary people can understand them. As it stands now, these 1 sophisticated contraptions) wouldn’t give the formula for hard-boiled eggs to an ordinary layman. But the gang at Librascope > would like to snare their pleas-' ant association with RPC 4.000. ■ So they’re trying to teach it to ■ understand, and to write, every day English. j If they can do this, businesses will be able to take advantage j of the enormous brainpower of! i such machines without having i i to hire mathematics professors;, as interpreters. |. Frank Bristow of Librascope ] explains the project like this: < “Our ultimate aim is to sit 1 1 Mother,Children Held 5 Hours by Kidnapers CHICAGO, Feb. 3.—(AP) A mother and her two teen age children told police today of a terror-stricken 5-hour or deal during which they were abducted from their home by two gunmen and held in a dingy flat. They were freed after $5,000 ransom was paid. "We sat frozen,” Mrs. Gloria i Chanenson, 42, told invest!- i gators. “I told the kids not to move. The tw'o men kept finger- j ing their guns ” Her daughter, Eileen Chanen- ; son, 18, said, "We were in dark ness, sitting on the edge of the bed afraid.” Lawrence Chanenson, 14, ' said, "It was like a bad dream.” Demanded $40,000 Mrs. Chanenson’s husband, Irving, said the family’s ordeal began Thursday night when he, V SWIM Hours: 2 P.M. till 10 P.M., Daily. 11 A.M. till | 10 P.M. Saturdays, Sun- 1 days and Holidays. Admission Rates ADULTS, 90c • MILITARY, 75c . STUDENTS (12 to 16) 75c CHILDREN (Under 12) 60c Sun Lamps and Hair Dryers Water and Room Temperature 85 Degrees OPEN ALL YEAR AROUND Play a tune with both hands after just one lesson an the one and only HAMMOND ORGAN will pay for 7 private lessons and free use of organ in your home for 7 weeks! No other fees, no extras. Even droyage is included in the price. Lessons given by a number of Campbell's pro fessional staff of organists at each location. PHONE DI. 7-8464 or drop by any location Va/nwreir* HIMMOHO ORGtNS | STEINWAY AIAHOS 1108 G Street N.W. 7 Corners Shopping Center, Virginia 7809 Old Georgetown Rd. Bethesda (at Arlington Rd.) Where First Quality Comes First SiniHh %g»aa Wb K" I down and converse with the computer by voice or by typing ; into the machine, using the same language we would in ordinary conversation. "We programmed an earlier machine with the basic roles of grammar, as taught in high school. Then we gave the machine lessons in simple sen tence structure. Then we gave it a little vocabulary. “The machine was told that if it was going to write a sen-! tence it should use a subject,' a verb and so forth. It was' given groups of nouns, verbs and other words to choose from. | It would pick the words at ran-1 dom, writing a sentence loosely keyed to a given subject. ■I answered a knock at the door. Mr. Chanenson, 43, said he ; was asked to sign for a pack- I ~ age. Then three other men walked in with guns. Mr. I Chanenson told police they were Negroes. All wore false mustaches and one wore a sur-1 ! gical mask covering the lower i part of his face. Mr. Chanenson said they de manded $40,000. Two of the gunmen left with the mother ; and two children, ordered them to lie down in the back of a station wagon belonging to Mr. Chanenson’s father, and drove them to a tenement hideout on the south side. One of the gunmen remained I behind. He and Mr. Chanenson j haggled for some six hours, un til dawn yesterday over the amount of ransom. “I said I haven’t got $40,000,” ■ said Mr. Chanenson, co-owner of a tire and supply company. Paid Them $5,000 The demand finally was scaled down to $5,000. Mr. Chanenson said he with drew the money from the bank, drove a few miles from his home as instructed, and deliv ered it in two paper bags to his contact. Soon after this, Mrs. Chan enson said, there was a phone call in the flat. Eventually, she noticed nb one was around and she and the children slipped out to the street. They took a cab home. They were un harmed. Mr. Chanenson did not re port the kidnaping to police until his family was safely ] home. The FBI said it had no jur isdiction in the case because the hostages were not harmed and the kidnapers did not cross state lines. LIBERAL 1 A W EARNINGS I PLUS y Current I MAXIMUM ( SAFETY A mpounded quarterly ■ plus /SM ,n sured WRy SAVINGS UP TO no,ooo V by an in,trume "fa | 'ty of she United States Government • M savings received by the 20th of the month earn dividends from the Ist. * Warnings will be paid on withdrawals up to the first of the month in which the with drawal is made. & FRANKLIN FEDERAL Savings and Loan Association I . • 804 15th Street N.W., Wash. 5., D. C. ’ <3 District 7-3633 77 • 2381 Rhode Island Ave. N.E., Wash. 18, D. C. la. 9 . 6157 ! “The newer RPC 4,000 (which I is about the size of an office ' desk) was programmed with sentence structure a little more . complex. And it was also giv- • en groups of rhyming words. L Then it could write a line end . ing in a word like stout, and at . the end of the next line it would • pick one of a dozen words that rhyme with stout.” Beatniks Impressed • I Librascope scored its first ' success in the field of mechani cal poetry with one of RPC j 4,000’s predecessors. “We had a verse typed out[ •by the machine,” Mr. Bristow i (said, “and one of the guys took' Radio Engineer Awards Slated The Washington Section of the Institute of Radio Engi neers will hold its annual Awards Banquet at 6:30 p.m. ’ Saturday at the Statler Hilton J Hotel. Six members of the section i will receive I. R. E. 1962 Fellow .given by I. R. E. to members.! I Distinguished Service Awards for exceptional service to the j : area group will be presented to j three other persons. Recipients of the 1962 Fellow Awards are: Philip J. Franklin, chief of the components laboratory, Diamond Ordnance Fuze Lab oratories, for pioneering con tributions to printed circuit i technology. Harris F. Hastings, sr., radio division, Naval Research Lab oratory, for contributions to ra dio instrumentation in the field of precision time and frequency ] measurement. Dr. R. Wayne Masters, man- i ager, Antenna Laboratory, Mel- I par, Inc., for contributions in the field of antennas and r-f transmission systems. Brockway McMillan, Assist ant Air Force Secretary for! Research and Development, for contributions while working at Bell Laboratories to informa theory, circuit theory and sys tems analysis. G. Franklin Montgomery, chief, Instrumentation Division, Bureau of Standards, for con tributions to electronic instru mentation. Sidney T. Smith, chief, Elec tronics Tubes Branch, Electron ics Division, Naval Research Laboratory, for contributions to electron tube technology. The Distinguished Service Awards will honor Mark H. Biser. a member of the board of CREI; P. DeForrest McKeel, assistant chief, System Staff Division. Bureau of Facilities and Material, Federal Aviation Agency, and H. Peter Meisinger, president, Versitron, Inc. i it down to Venice West, where > the beatniks hang out. He stood ( up and read it and they listened to it all. And then he told them : it was written by a machine and they almost flipped.” Thank you. And now for a final word from RPC 4.000: I “Ode to a Newt” "Ah, there plunders their, frayed floor’s twine, “So, because of frost, a figure I is fine.” Encore: “Lament for a Daughter” “Not for whimpering ice boxes could I truck. •! “Lastly, their sardines are jgentle yet awestruck.” 1 ' r- , I'l j' If"■ t jfflC A r F. W I C J | ; Ry 1] i ; jlf I « ■ i| y priced newest 3-cycle, . 3-temp automatic MA IT—) WHIRLPOOL | GAS DRVER S'*-* r—A Over! 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And only ybX ' ( P i us local S aies tax) \ natural gas dries clothes so fast payable on your S as bill \ and thrifty> Model LJD ' 3S Washington Gas Light Company RESIDE NTIAL SALES DIVISION Man Gets Help For Private Aid Project in Peru Antonio Ventocilla has re ceived an offer from a volun | teer to join him on his private peace corps mission to Peru, j He, also has been offered a panel truck, two barrels of clothing and other odds and I ends. j Last Sunday s Star reported that Mr. Ventocilla, 36. of 1504 Park road, N.W., is taking his wife and five children this week to his late father’s 25,000-acre farm in the Andes, six hours! , by horse from the port of Hau-1 [cho. He hopes he can lead the Indians in the area to a better life. i Mr. Ventocilla said Richard jJ. Southcott, 36, a construction worker of 3605 Thirty-fourth street, N.W. volunteered to help i him on the farm. He will come to the farm in September, to be followed later by his wife and three children, he said. Mr. Ventocilla said William R. Simms of 4913 Sargeant | road N.E., has offered him a 1952 panel truck, and old plow and a surplus Army generator. He said he would buy shovels and picks with $lO contributed by two women and $43 by mem bers of the Housing Division of' PI A —I Rental-Purchase and Rental Plans I at Lowest Rates f A wide choice of Spinets and Consoles of excellent makes. You can have a piano in your home at low cost. Phone or visit any of our three stores for details. We are the Washington Area's largest Music Co. the Bureau of the Census, where he worked as an econom ist. He said he would paint the I names of the women and the Housing Division on the tools before giving them to the In dians. ■ Other contributions include | an old pedal-operated sewing machine, two pressure cookers, a meat grinder, a keg of nails ’ and many good wishes, Mr. ' Ventocilla said. Engineers Book i j Ballet Dancers Some news aspects of motion study will occupy the interest of the Washington Society of Engineers at its meeting at 8 p.m. Wednesday in Powell Au ditorium, 2170 Florida ave nue N.W. The meeting will feature a performance by the Washing ‘ ton Ballet Company. Miss Faye Atkinson, ballet i instructor and dancer, will dis . cuss the dance. Students of the Washington School of Bal [ let will demonstrate accom ; plishments of beginners, inter t mediate and advanced classes. •I A spokesman for the engi . neers’ group said the program ; was designed for wives of mem- 11 bers who are guests at the . | organization’s bimonthly meet ! i ings. KITTS 1330 G St. N.W. RE. 7-6212 2621 Mt. Vernon Ave. Alex., King 8-8686 4940 Fairmont Ave. Beth., OLiver 6-1675 ADVERTISEMENT. Will you spend 4<r to HEAR BETTER? Many who are deafened It tells'where to sit in a room would spend any amount to to hear best, what part of a be able to hear again. But if church is best for listening you’ll send the coupon in an and scores of other ideas. It’a envelope with a4c stamp on free, just send coupon: it, we'll send you a booklet J that’s crammed with useful j maico BKtronics me. o*pc • suggestions for using the hear- | N - 3,, ‘ | ing you now have. It s called I “How to Get the Most From I I Your Remaining Hearing,” | Add „„ I and was written by a prom- inent authority on hearing. _L.»-J— J SALE! ibm ELECTRIC TYPEWRITERS (MODEL A) STANDARDS jr* rc, 249 00 I / * ©a ~Ww I 1 EXE CUTIVES Hn&V R C9 325 00 rI $259 i5 ° ) These mochines have been dismantled, chemically) < cleaned, worn parts replaced, cog drives installed,) (new rubber installed, exterior plates refinished, re-j ( assembled and adjusted by experts and sold with a j ( new machine warranty. ) HOURS: Daily and Saturday 'til 6; Thursday 'til 9