OCEANOGRAPHY 1961 — PHASE 3 201 



Mr. Pelly. I take it from that that you have not been invited to 

 turn over your information. 



Dr. Blake. That is right ; except for the one instance I mentioned, 

 where Dr. Bates got me an invitation to ride aboard a carrier for a 

 week. To my personal Imowledge that is the only instance of an 

 attempt to get the geophysical industry some know-how on what the 

 problems of the Navy were. 



I also mentioned that the Hydrograpliic Office in particular, from 

 a few documents I have seen, does seem to be more aware of what is 

 available in the geophj^sical industry than the universities are. 



In particular, they are making use of some of our seismic equip- 

 ment, such as the ^onoprobe, developed by the Magnolia Research 

 Laboratories of the Standard Oil Co. of New York. 



They are using a number of La Coste gravitimeters at sea. I be- 

 lieve they have the use of some five instruments, and so on. 



However, I do believe that more could be done along tliese lines. 

 For example, I mentioned the magnetometer, which would be useful 

 for submarine identification work ; more sensitive and I believe more 

 reliable than the ones they are using at the present time. 



Mr. Pelly. Well, I am sure, as a result of your rather forthright 

 testimony, there will be some developments in better communication 

 in the future, because I think everybody has a common interest as a 

 matter of how to establish communication. 



Dr. Blake. I think this would be especially true if you gentlemen 

 are watching what is going on in the field of oceanography. 



Mr. Miller. You are familiar, of course, with the fact that the 

 interagency committee has set up an oceanographic data center, which 

 is just in the process of getting underway. We cannot expect too 

 much of it. It is to my way of thinldng in very competent hands. 



One of the things that this bill proposes, and one of the things that 

 I think the interagency committee has in mind, is the establishment 

 of an instrument calibration center. Do you think that this is an es- 

 sential in this field, that we do something in the line of standardization 

 and calibration ? You think this is a step forward ? 



Dr. Blake. I most certainly agree with you on that, that the 

 standardization of instruments, the common calibration of instru- 

 ments, is essential to meaningful progress in oceanography, especially 

 when so many different agencies are involved using different equip- 

 ments. 



If the work of one group in one area is to be coordinated with the 

 work of another in still another area, it must be done on the basis of 

 a common method of comparison of the data. In our own industry 

 this is a very important and serious problem. 



For example, in gravity surveys over the surface of the earth, it 

 is relatively easy to make a good gravity survey in a given area, let 

 us say of so many square miles, at a certain time, with a given instru- 

 ment, which will remain stable and well calibrated over that time. 

 At another time, with another instrument, perhaps with another con- 

 tractor, an adjacent area will have a gravity survey made. Now, 

 unless we have means for comparing the calibration of the instru- 

 ments in these two adjacent areas, we are not able to make any mean- 

 ingful tie between gravity obseiTations in the first area and the 

 second area. 



