64 



WORK OF THE CARNEGIE AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE SCIENTIFIC CRUISES 



Medical Work. — Ordinarily the physician's profes- 

 sional duties are not extensive and most of his time can 

 be devoted to other work. It is important, therefore, to 

 have a physician who is willing to assist with other 

 work, such as chemistry, biology, or various observa- 

 tions and computations. 



Radio Work. --About four hours a day are devoted to 

 sending and receiving messages, receiving news items, 

 weather reports, and time signals, and keeping the equip- 

 equipment in good condition. The radio operator should 

 be a man who is willing to spend part of his time in 

 computing or other work. 



Atmospheric Electricity. --One man devotes all his 

 time to this work and one day each week, when diurnal 

 observations are taken, a second man is required to al- 

 ternate with the regular observer during a twenty-four- 

 hour observing period. Assistance also is needed for 

 scaling graphs and checking computations. 



Meteorology. - -The various subjects under this 

 heading investigated at present are shown on page 62 

 but for the present purpose they may be grouped under 

 recording instrument work and pilot-balloon work. The 

 work consists merely in accumulating records from the 

 instruments and the pilot-balloon flights. No computa- 

 tions or interpretations are made. The balloon observa- 

 tions require three men for approximately one and one- 

 half hours and the rest of the work about three hours 

 daUy, making a total of about seven and one-half hours 

 per day. 



Were it considered necessary to do more with the 

 meteorological data, an additional worker probably 

 would be required. The computations and scaling of 

 records can be made at the shore laboratory, however, 

 even by a person not thoroughly familiar with the sub- 

 ject. It seems advisable, therefore, that on board the 

 meteorological work be carried only far enough to enable 

 the observers* to plan the routine intelligently and to 

 check up on the accuracy of the results. 



Oceanography. --Since practically every branch of 

 this subject utilizes to a greater or lesser extent, infor- 

 mation or material obtained from the oceanographic sta- 

 tions, and since the work on these stations requires 

 several men and a good deal of time, the oceanographic 

 investigations must be planned carefully and coordinated 

 so that a minimum amount of time and effort will be re- 

 quired for the collecting work. Since it is necessary for 

 several members of the scientific staff to participate in 

 the work on a station, the stations, therefore, should be 

 occupied according to a schedule or, when this is not 

 practicable, at a time agree on by all concerned. 



In order to give an idea of the nature of the work on 

 an oceanographic station, a discussion of the equipment 

 used and the procedure is given below. The hoisting 

 equipment consists of a 25-horsepower gasoline engine 

 which drives a 12 kilowatt, 110 volt, direct current gen- 

 erator. This generator operates a winch which is locat- 

 ed approximately in the center of the quarter-deck and 

 is equipped with four drums carrying wires as follows: 



1. 10,000 meters l/l6 inch steel piano wire 



2. 2,000 meters 6-mm aluminum bronze stranded 



wire 



3. 6,000 meters4-mm aluminum bronze stranded wire 



4. Not used 



The piano wire is used for taking bottom samples 

 and leads over a depth recorder (meter wheel) on a davit 



at the stern. The 6-mm aluminum bronze wire is used 

 for the Petterssen plankton pump and the 4-mm wire for 

 taking temperatures and water samples. Both bronze 

 wires lead to sheaves attached to the after mast above 

 the laboratory, thence over depth recorders to davits at 

 the rails on either side of the quarter-deck and some- 

 what forward of the winch. Of the rest of the equipment, 

 the following may be mentioned: Nansen water bottles, 

 Richter reversing thermometers, various kinds of bot- 

 tom samplers, Petterssen plankton pumps, and plankton 

 nets of various sizes. 



On the present cruise the ship is hove to at eight 

 o'clock every other morning for an oceanographic sta- 

 tion. The first apparatus lowered is the bottom sampler 

 which is attached to the piano wire. When this has 

 reached a depth of about 1000 meters, the 4-mm bronze 

 wire is reeled off and Nansen bottles attached to it so as 

 to reach the following depths: surface, 5, 25, 50, 75, 

 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, and 700 meters. Ten minutes 

 are allowed for the thermometers to reach the proper 

 temperatures, after which the bottles are reversed and 

 hauled in. As each bottle reaches the observer, it is de- 

 tached and placed in a rack. The thermometers are re- 

 moved from the bottle and placed in a rack in the control 

 room. Other Nansen bottles are then attached to the 

 wire and lowered to 700, 1000, and greater depths down 

 to 2500 or 5000 meters. Below 1000 meters the interval 

 between two bottles usually is 500 meters. As soon as a 

 Nansen bottle is placed in the rack, water is drawn from 

 it for oxygen determination, and two (citrate-of-magnesia) 

 bottles are filled for the other analyses. The thermom- 

 ters are not read until the mercury in the auxiliary ther- 

 mometers becomes stationary. 



While the bottom and water samples are being taken, 

 plankton samples are taken with the pump from the sur- 

 face, 50, and 100 meters. About twenty minutes are re- 

 quired for the weight operating the plankton pump to de- 

 scend. The restof the manipulation of the pumpalso con- 

 sumes time and often the other collecting work is finished 

 before the three plankton samples have been taken. 



Plankton samples also are taken with half-meter (or 

 sometimes meter) townets, which are lowered to the sur- 

 face, 50, and 100 meters, and allowed to remain for thirty 

 to sixty minutes anddrift with the boat. A vertical haul 

 from 150 meters to the surface is taken also. The plankton 

 nets are lowered from the bow and reeled in by hand. 



The following participate in the work on an oceano- 

 graphic station: 



Ault and Soule; temperatures, Nansen bottles, and 

 recording 



Seiwell; oxygen samples and net hauls 



Paul; plankton pump 



First officer; bottom samples 



Engineer; engine room 



Mechanic; winch 



Crew on Watch; (1 watch officer and 4 seamen), reel- 

 ing in nets, oiling and placing wires, helping manipu- 

 late plankton pump, etc. 



This makes a total of twelve men, four of whom are 

 scientists. The time required is from three and one- 

 half to five hours, the average being close to four hours. 

 This is equivalent to sixteen hours every two days for 

 the scientific staff or to one man per day. 



Physical Oceanography. --Of the work carried on at 

 present, the following may be included under this heading: 



