242 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



THE POLICY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM. 



By the end of the present fiscal year of the Institution, October 31, 

 1918, the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism will have been in 

 existence nearly 15 years. A long enough period has thus elapsed 

 to afford a favorable opportunity for retrospect and for determining 

 as to how far the Department has been faithful to its trust, wherein 

 it may have failed possibly to meet the hopes of its friends, or what 

 justification there may be for fears that the existence of such a Depart- 

 ment may furnish an excuse to some countries not to make adequate 

 provision for the maintenance of their own magnetic establishments.* 



At the very outset the following announcements were made con- 

 cerning the policy and work of the proposed Department :t 



"The general aim of the work is to investigate such problems of world-wide 

 interest as relate to the magnetic and electric condition of the Earth and its 

 atmosphere, not specifically the subject of inquiry of any one country, but of 

 international concern and benefit. The prime purpose, therefore, of this 

 Department is not to supplant any existing organization, but rather to 

 supplement, in the most effective manner possible, the work now being done, 

 and to enter only upon such investigations as lie beyond the power and 

 scope of the countries and persons actively interested in terrestrial magnetism 

 and atmospheric electricity. 



"At first, principal stress will be laid upon the complete reduction, discussion, 

 and correlation of the existing observational data and upon early publication 

 of the results in suitable form, in order to exhibit the present state of our 

 knowledge. In this way will be revealed the gaps to be filled, and the direction 

 of future and supplementary investigations will be suggested. While, how- 

 ever, this will constitute at first the chief work of the Department, it is likewise 

 proposed to embrace favorable opportunity for supplementing by observation 

 the existing data, and to cooperate with others in the observing of such of 

 the Earth's magnetic and electric phenomena as are of momentary occurrence, 

 and the investigation of which is of great importance." 



The title of the Department, as at first proposed, was "International 

 Magnetic Bureau," which was changed by action of the Trustees of 

 the Institution to "Department of International Research in Terres- 

 trial Magnetism of the Carnegie Institution of Washington," when the 

 Department was definitely established on April 1, 1904. 



The project, previous to its being laid before the Institution, was 

 submitted by L. A. Bauer to certain leading investigators for their 

 counsel and criticism. It received the immediate support of these 

 gentlemen, and the project was then forwarded to the Institution 

 accompanied by letters of indorsement from the following eminent 

 persons : General L. Bassot, then president of the Bureau of Longitudes 

 of France; Professor W. von Bezold, the late director of the Prussian 



♦Such a fear is expressed in a "Preliminary Report on Terrestrial Magnetism," by Dr. Charles 

 Chree, published in the Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science for 

 1917. 



fSee Year Book of the Carnegie Institution of Washington for 1903, pp. 203-212, and the 

 Journal of Terrestrial Magnetism and Atmospheric Electricity for 1904, pp. 1-8. 



