Nineteenth Annual meeting. 53 



atlantic vs. pacific elevations in kansas. 



BY H. V. HINCKLEY, B.S., M. AM.SOC.C. E., TOPEKA. 



[This article is substantially a reproduction of one read before the American Society of Civil Engineers, 



March 3, 188(5.] 



Our meteorological records, the study of our climatology, and our astronomical 

 observations and the general advancement of science, demand, in the interest of 

 accuracy, a more thorough knowledge of our elevations above the sea. An astrono- 

 mer about to observe the transit of Venus, asked of me the height of his point of 

 observation, saying that it was necessary for his calculations that he have the eleva- 

 tion stated above mean tide within a possible limit of error of five feet. I gave him 

 elevations from both oceans according to my own figures, ( the two heights differing 

 from each other less than three-quarters of an inch,) and stated to him that the 

 highest authority on elevations (Henry Gannett, Ch. Geographer of the U. S. Geolog. 

 Survey) would tell him that neither elevation was within tliirteen feet of correct. 

 My reason for this statement will appear near the close of this paper. 



The Government has been constantly at work on elevations throughout the coun- 

 try, especially sites of signal stations and meteorological observations. The height 

 of Pike's Peak has been determined several times by barometer and triangulation, 

 and later by check levels to settle a discrepancy of a very few feet, and to obtain, with 

 the greatest possible accuracy, the elevation of the signal station above mean tide; 

 and yet to this day, neither the Coast Survey, the Geological Survey, nor the Signal 

 Service, can tell from actual determination the difference between the mean tide 

 elevations of the two oceans on the United States coasts, or whether any such differ- 

 ence exists. The determinations of the greater part of the elevations in the United 

 States have been first by barometer, and afterward by railroad levels or other more 

 reliable authorities. The inaccuracy of the barometer, even when all known correc- 

 tions have been applied, and the careless and incorrect reports of elevations from 

 the profiles of the railroads, have caused much annoyance in the geographical de- 

 partment of the Geological and Geographical Survey at Washington. 



The "Lists of Elevations" collated by Mr. Gannett, and published in 1877 by the 

 U. S. Geological Survey, contains, on page 20, a reference to the A. T. <fe S. F. R. R. levels, 

 founded upon statements obtained from that road, and which reads as follows: "On 

 account of the character of the leveling between Topeka and Kinsley, this line is 

 valueless as a check." Corrections of 18 to 68 feet were made by Mr. Gannett upon 

 the elevations, furnished from the profiles of different parts of the road. 1 first no- 

 ticed this in 1882, and, believing that errors of such magnitude in location levels 

 could hardly have been embodied in the construction-work without being detected 

 by either leveler or locomotive, I determined to test the correctness of the levels upon 

 the A. T. <fe S. F. R. R. by carefully searching for breaks in datum planes, making the 

 proper corrections for all parts of the various lines, and obtaining such checks as 

 might be obtainable from intersecting roads and reliable benches, in order to determine 

 whether the discrepancies and necessary corrections reported back by the Govern- 

 ment were due to the general unreliability of the railroad levels, or to improper reports 

 to the Government officers of unadjusted elevations: and in order to avoid, if possi- 

 ble, a continued confusion and doubt as to elevations of prominent points, and, in 

 fact, of nearly every station along the Santa Fe line. 



Under authority from A. A. Robinson, Sec.,V. P. and Ch. Engr., I have compiled a 

 profile of the entire A.T. & S. F. system of roads, from the Missouri river to the Gulf 

 of California, at a cost of over a thousand dollars. This profile gives the corrected 

 elevation of every station on the line, being that of the top of rail at east end of depot 



