212 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION 



Above all, however, does it seem to me to be important to submit 

 to a critical and comprehensive discussion the immense pile of ob- 

 servational data. This is all the more necessary because in recent 

 times the obtaining of accurate data, owing to the advent of the 

 electric car lines, is getting more and more difficult. Then, first, 

 shall we reap the real benefit of the time, labor, and cost spent in 

 the accumulation of observations. 



B'BTilii'i^, /amiarj' 26, igo2. 



{^Professors J . Elstcr and H. Geitel to the Carnegie Instittdion.'\ 



[Translation.] 



Professor L. A. Bauer has submitted to us for our consideration 

 the plan which he proposes for an International Magnetic Bureau 

 of the Carnegie Institution. 



With the earnest hope that this proposal may meet with your 

 approval, we beg leave to suggest that it would be in full harmony 

 with the proposed plan to combine with the organization of interna- 

 tional magnetic work also the inauguration of observations pertain- 

 ing to the electric condition of the earth and of the atmosphere, even 

 though this at present may be possible only to a limited extent. 



As the principal electric problems, we might name the determina- 

 tion of the strength of the earth's electric field and of the electric 

 conductivity of the atmosphere (the so-called dissipation of elec- 

 tricity), and the investigation of earth currents and the aurora. 



Since these matters have been investigated only within compara- 

 tively recent times, the methods of observation and of reduction and 

 the theoretical utilization of the results are as yet very imperfect. 

 Nevertheless, there is reason to hope that, even with the present 

 means, relationships between the electric phenomena of the atmos- 

 phere and the earth's magnetic phenomena can be disclosed. 



At comparatively small cost for instrumental means and without 

 adding very much to the work of the observer it would be possible, 

 in our opinion, to institute systematic measurements of the electric 

 intensity of the earth's field and of the conductivity of the atmos- 

 phere at a few magnetic observatories as widely distributed as possi- 

 ble. A few years' results at these places would then show whether 

 it would be desirable to increase the number of stations or expand 

 the work in other directions. 



WoLFENBUTTEi., January 26, igo2. 



