No change made in price of gasoline in Denton

No changes have been made in the price of gasoline in Denton which has been 22 cents per gallon for several months, though from Galveston a raise of 2 per gallon was reported Saturday night. Gasoline had been 19 at Galveston and is selling at 17 in Fort Worth.

75 Years Ago

From May 1947

A veteran’s home: Box car solves housing problem

Because he was too tall to stand erectly in an 1890 box car he obtained at Lake Dallas, where it had been abandoned, Menno Wells, an ex-GI attending North Texas State College, now has a modern home at 1320 Neff St.

Beginning construction from an old box car which Mrs. Wells insisted must be made larger so that her husband would not have to walk in a stooped position, the couple secured scarce materials from three states and numerous towns. Total cost of the comfortable four-room house was $1,500.

Utilizing all means of saving money and materials, the Wells placed in the box car beams for floor joists and had a concrete floor poured in front of the box car. All work, except the plumbing, was done by them in their spare time over a period of six months, with Mrs. Wells painting and hammering along with her husband. A flat roof and extra-large windows were decided upon to conserve scarce materials, and a shower installed to save money on a bathtub. The ceiling was insulated with rock wood.

Other parts of the box car were used to build a kitchen cabinet and rods from the car served to hang the drapes in the Wells’ living room.

Attributing the surmounting of many of their obstacles to the aid of Mr. and Mrs. E.R. Jacobs of Denton. Wells related how the Jacobs rented them a room and helped in getting a FHA loan. And small, gray-haired Mrs. Jacobs declares that “if anyone would help the veterans just a little, they would be in a position to help themselves a great deal.” Jacobs is in the insurance business and Mrs. Jacobs is a housewife, and one-time biology teacher at North Texas State.

The Wells have recently completed the painting the walls to give it the finished appearance of smooth plaster, and Wells plans to weave rugs in an art class to cover the cement floors in living and bedroom. A quiet-spoken, modest pair, the Wells declare their home to be the answer to a permanent home which neither had during childhood.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Wells are skilled in woodwork, having met during the war at Dalhart plant which manufactured wooden parts for B-17 bombers. Twenty-one days after their marriage, Wells was sent overseas, serving in Europe and the Pacific for 26 months.

Wells constructed an extra-large back door to the house, “because someday this house will serve as our shop and we plan to build another home in front of it,” he said. The couple plan to make small pieces of furniture and novelty wooden items for sale in this section of the country.

In his “spare” time, Wells works at odd jobs earning money to pay for a pair of sliding doors for the bedroom closet and other improvements around the house.

50 Years Ago

From May 1972

Denton puffing hard on cigarettes

Compared with people in other sections of the country, how much are Denton County residents smoking these days?

To what extent, if any, has the ban on cigarette commercials by broadcast stations, in effect since January 1971, altered their consumption during the past year?

According to the various surveys and reports, the big decrease that was expected never materialized. People went on smoking just about as before.

Nationally, as a matter of fact, no less than 555 billion cigarettes were smoked in the past year. This was an increase of nearly three per cent over 1970, according to the Department of Agriculture.

These findings are echoed by the Tobacco Tax Council, an industry group. Its figures show that consumption rose four packs per capita in the year.

The conclusion reached is that the number of young people who have taken up smoking more than offsets the number of older people who have quit.

Cigarette sales in Denton County amounted to approximately 4,407,000 packs last year, according to a breakdown of regional totals reported by industry sources.

In terms of the local population over age 18, this was equal to 167 packs per person.

In the United States as a whole, by way of comparison, the average was 202 packs and in the West-South-Central States, 172.

Those are the figures for cigarettes sold through legitimate channels, involving the payment of federal and state taxes.

Smoking has become a more expensive habit, as a result. It cost residents of Denton County an estimated $3,943,000 in the past year, or approximately $78 per smoker.

25 Years Ago

From May 1997

Isotope-maker breaks ground

International Isotopes Inc. asked the city to build a road, and if they did, the company then would build an isotope-making plant. That road would link Loop 288 and Woodrow Lane, benefiting the isotope company by giving it access to those roadways.

The city of Denton said “yes” to the deal that would bring as many as 100 jobs to Denton.

Construction on the manufacturing plant began April 23, but not everybody is throwing a party.

The project’s critics say the isotope-maker has very little history, and that construction at the intersection poses a threat to the environment.

According to Jerry Drake, a candidate for City Council in District 3, the site of the isotope plant is an old city dump site.

“It’s a toxic heap,” he said. “If they cut into it, it will release toxins.” Those toxins could be a threat to the public, he said. Children, for example, play in the area.

Mr. Drake asked the council to do an environmental impact study of the site.

International Isotopes officials said they plan to build a biomedical complex on the 500 vacant acres, to be called the North Texas Research Park.

Move-in day for the isotope-maker is set for August, but full production could take as long as two years.

The product International Isotopes makes does release low-level radiation. According to company officials, however, radioisotopes emit less radiation than a chest X-ray.

Radioisotopes are used for medical diagnostics and therapeutic treatment of cancer and other diseases.

It’s big business for radiopharmaceutical companies — $1.4 billion a year.

International Isotopes, formerly known as Applied Isotope Products Corp., is a start-up company with roots in Austin.

The company wants to find a niche in the biomedical tracer field. Companies in that field help doctors find and locate diseased organs.

Company officials said International Isotopes will be the only independent commercial producer of radioisotopes.

Critics are correct in that there’s little information that’s public on the new company. That’s because it’s a private company, and private companies usually don’t have to reveal much about themselves.

That’s about to change, however, because the company soon will file an initial public offering with the Securities Exchange Commission. The purpose of the IPO is to raise money from the sale of company stock.

The key players in the company are Ira Lon Morgan, Jerry Watson, Tommy Thompson and Carl Seidel.

Dr. Morgan is well-known in academic circles. He has taught physics at the University of North Texas for the past 10 years. He now lives in Austin.

Dr. Watson joined the isotopes company in March. Prior to that, he worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. He designs and operates particle accelerators, similar to the one owned by International Isotopes.

Mr. Thompson, a mechanical engineer, worked for Coastal Power Company as executive vice president, prior to joining International Isotopes.

Mr. Seidel, a chemist, will be the company’s president on May 5. Prior to signing up with International, Mr. Siedel worked for DuPont Merck as associate director of technical affairs.

The beginning of the isotope-maker dates back to May 1994 when the supercollider/superconductor lost its federal funding.

Dr. Morgan was among a group of people who wanted to buy the collider’s equipment with public money but that fell through when the state decided to sell. That’s when a group of private investors from Dallas, Austin and Houston formed International Isotopes in November 1995 to buy the collider’s linear accelerator.

The company’s major hurdle was the steep price tag. The total cost of starting the company could be as high as $20 million, Dr. Morgan said.

Texas Bank is financing construction of the first building, Dr. Morgan said. City documents estimate the cost of the first building to be about $750,000.

The building, a 27,000-square-foot facility, will house the company’s corporate office, analytical laboratories and an area for the building and maintenance of supercollider/superconductor equipment.

— Compiled from the files of the Denton Record-Chronicle by Leslie Couture for the Denton Public Library