THE EQUIPMENT 



While docked in San Francisco after our first year at sea, a 

 celebration was held aboard the Carnegie commemorating the 

 twenty-fifth anniversary of the Department of Terrestrial Mag- 

 netism. Following the ceremonies, the vessel was open for public 

 inspection for a period of several days. The popular interest 

 shown in the ship and its scientific equipment was keen — three 

 thousand visitors having made the rounds in two days. This 

 experience suggests that the reader of the following narrative may 

 also find of interest such a conducted tour. It will certainly 

 give a more concrete idea of what we set out to accomplish. 



Coming upon the quarter-deck from the pier one's attention 

 is drawn to the shiny three-ton bronze winch and its two reels 

 of aluminum-bronze wire. With this electrically driven "gold- 

 hoist," as the sailors call it, deep-sea soundings can be made, 

 water samples collected, and temperatures taken down to a depth 

 of three or four miles. From the winch the wires lead through 

 blocks, over meter-wheels to davits over-hanging the water. 

 One of the winch-heads was cut down to hold the steel piano-wire, 

 which was used later in the cruise for collecting samples of the 

 bottom, and for getting temperatures at depths greater than could 

 be reached with the bronze cable. Although this steel wire was 

 very long it weighed little, and was so far removed from the mag- 

 netic instruments as to have no observable effect on them. The 

 drums and heads of this winch were ingeniously constructed to 

 work independently, so that to save time several operations might 

 be under way simultaneously: for example, paying out on the 

 bottle-wire, and hauling in on the bottom-sample. Aluminum- 

 bronze wire had previously been used by the German Atlantic 

 Expedition of the Meteor, on which it had been shown superior 

 to any other cable for deep-sea purposes and fitted in admirably 

 with our non-magnetic requirements. 



Mounted over an outboard platform near the winch is the 



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