Mine-Detector Solves Maintenance Department's Pipe-Locating Puzzle

The secrets of lost pipes will no longer be secrets when the Maintainence department's new mine-detector pipe locator arrives Monday, according to Donald E. Robinson, foreman of University plumbers.

The new unit, a $200, bright-red version of the Gl mine-detector, was purchased because turn - of - the - century plumbers were illiterate and could not record where they had laid their pipes, Robinson said, "Now," he added, "every time a squirrel runs down a drain and clogs it up, the plumbers have to dig up half of Cambridge to find the trouble."

With the new electronic locator, Robinson claims all the problems of location are solved. When a leak or clogged pipe develops, a man with the detector walks over the suspected area systematically, listening to a buzzing sound through earphones attached to the detector's receiver. As he walks over a buried pipe the buzzing increases in intensity.