119 



+ 0.001 inches. 



Since the Telecorder translates voltages into binary digital numbers 

 which are then punched into cards by the Summary Punch, it is possible to use 

 this combination of equipment to record automatically voltage readings on IBM 

 cards. An effort is now being made to determine the usefulness of direct tran- 

 scription to IBM cards of data originally recorded on magnetic tape. 



I would like to comment briefly on the use of instruments in survey oper- 

 ations. The inventor of a given instrument is usually interested in a particular 

 research problem and the instrument which he invents, while in his hands, oper- 

 ates with great precision. Such instruments are usually not satisfactory for use 

 in survey operations where they may be used by relatively unskilled people with 

 no real interest in the results. Consequently, if survey operations are to be 

 successful, instruments must be rugged, simple to use and operate, and capable 

 of producing reliable data in the hands of relatively unskilled operators. In 

 some cases even this may not be enough. For example in figure 5 simultaneous 

 wind force observations taken on two survey ships are plotted for two different 

 cruises. For these observations the two ships were always within fifteen miles 

 of each other and for at least 75% of the observations were within five miles of 

 each other. From figure 5 it can be seen that the wind nearly always blows hard- 

 er on one ship than on the other. 



USS REHOeOTH 



Fig. 6A. Simultaneous Sea State 

 Observations (Cruise NINE). 



Fig. 6B. Simultaneous Sea State 

 Observations (Cruise TEN). 



The anemometer is generally considered to be a rugged, reliable instru- 

 ment which is easy to operate. However, the spread in the data presented sug- 

 gests that careful attention must be given to wind force observations when cor- 

 relations are being sought between this environmental factor and other phenom- 

 ena. 



Figure 6 contains a similar plot of simultaneous sea state observations. 

 The maximum distance between ships was again fifteen miles and for most ob- 

 servations, within five miles. On Cruise 10 Ship A reported sea state 7 three 

 times when Ship B characterized the situation by sea state 3. This situation 

 seems to occur because of the difficulty in judging wave height and separating 

 wave and swell observations. It seems -apparent that concentrated attention 

 must be given to the development of instrumentation for more reliable charac- 

 terization of the surface of the ocean. 



