29 



relative importance of developing new equipment compared to the more effective 

 use of existing devices. 



There are three points that I would like to emphasize in connection with 

 all problems of instrumentation. First, let us carefully consider the individual 

 job at hand before undertaking to develop a new device. I feel that even with 

 existing instruments many are either too accurate or too complicated for the 

 jobs for which they are actually used. Second, simplicity of construction and 

 operation must always be kept before us. Sinnplicity implies economy of mate- 

 rials and manpower and will reduce the caliber and number of personnel re- 

 quired for work at sea. Third, mechanical methods of data handling must be 

 developed to reduce the amount of manual labor currently demanded by practi- 

 cally all types of oceanographic observing systems before the records are in 

 usable form. This is an old story that I have told many times and will continue 

 to repeat until the instrument designers are conscious of the problem and will 

 engineer their systems so that the records are obtained in a readily usuable or 

 mechanically analyzable form. There are two related aspects to this problem 

 that must not be forgotten. These are, to provide analyzing equipment that is 

 capable of handling data from a variety of instruments and of a wide variety of 

 phenomena, and to improve nnethodsfor the storage and handling of such infor- 

 mation. 



We are living in an age of gadgets. By all means let us take advantage 

 of their help but do not let themi become our masters. Our knowledge of the 

 oceans is so fragmentary that the main problem is often to decide what to meas- 

 ure, not how to measure it. Instruments cannot take the place of brains and 

 can be of real assistance only when we tell them what to do. In the present 

 stage of development of oceanography it is essential that there be full coopera- 

 tion between the theoretical worker, the field investigator, the analyst and the 

 instrument designer. If such coordination is developed and we maintain a prop- 

 er distribution of effort between them, rapid progress will be assured. 



DISCUSSION: D.W. Pritchard 



Mr. von Arx has in a very excellent manner described some of the pos- 

 sible observational techniques for increasing our knowledge of oceanic circula- 

 tion. The concept of utilizing anchored or drifting buoys for collecting synoptic 

 data has been envisioned by a number of oceanographers, but von Arx has for 

 the first time brought together in a single paper much of the present thinking on 

 the subject. 



My brief contribution here is to suggest that many of the techniques dis- 

 cussed by von Arx might be advantageously pursued first through inshore and 

 estuarine studies. In the studies of deep oceanic circulation the problems of 

 suitable sensing elennents for the parameters to be measured, of suitable re- 

 cording or transmitting equipment and of suspension and anchoring of the equip- 

 ment, must all be solved before successful anchored buoy stations can be uti- 

 lized. In the relatively shallow water of estuaries and inshore areas some of 

 the problems become less acute and there is an opportunity to test component 

 parts of equipment which may later serve for deep water studies -- and at the 

 same time obtain valuable information concerning estuarine and inshore circu- 

 lation. 



Despite the fact that the studies of estuaries often involve relatively 

 small areas compared to the open ocean, the need for recording buoys in order to 

 obtain synoptic information remains about as acute as in the case of the open 

 sea because the time scale of transient changes is much more rapid in the estu- 



