Work in the Pacific Ocean 



6oi 



Weather Chief christened the peak by the 

 fitting name of Mount Weather. Sub- 

 stantial buildings are being erected there, 

 equipped with telescopes, magnetic instru- 

 ments, bolometers, and every appliance 

 man's brain has yet devised to catch the 

 secrets of the sun, and here the meteor- 

 ologists will study the sun and try to 

 find out how it governs our rain and sun- 

 shine. Speculators in wheat and cotton 

 may find it to their profit to watch the 

 observations of the Mount Weather Ob- 

 servatory and thus perhaps anticipate dol- 



lar wheat and sixteen-cent or six-cent 

 cotton months ahead of the market. 



The plan of the Mount Weather Ob- 

 servatory is probably the most important 

 ever undertaken for the advancement 

 of meteorological science. The sun holds 

 the key to the weather. The Weather 

 Bureau will search for this key, and with 

 it, we hope, unlock the mysteries of cy- 

 clones, of droughts, and of torrential 

 floods, and thus foretell the years of 

 plenty and of famine. 



THE WORK IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN OF 



THE MAGNETIC SURVEY YACHT 



"GALILEE"* 



By L. a. Bauer 



Director, Department Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution 



IN 1905 the Department of Research 

 in Terrestrial Magnetism of the 

 Carnegie Institution of Washington 

 was authorized to undertake a magnetic 

 surve)' of the North Pacific Ocean, in 

 accordance with a plan submitted by 

 Messrs L. A. Bauer and G. W. Little- 

 hales, and the necessary funds were al- 

 lotted. 



Captain Creak, for many years Super- 

 intendent of the Compass Department of 

 the British Admiralty, now retired, said 

 some years ago : "The North Pacific 

 Ocean is, with the exception to the voy- 

 age of the Challenger, nearly a blank as 

 regards magnetic observations." Various 

 eminent authorities in terrestrial mag- 

 netism have expressed their opinion that 

 no material progress can be hoped for in 

 the unraveling of many of the vexing 

 questions that confront us in this most 

 elusive and enigmatical field of research 

 until we possess complete magnetic sur- 

 veys of the oceanic areas as well as of 

 the land areas. The area of the ocean 

 exceeds that of the land by nearly three 

 * An address before the Washington 



times, and, in conformity with general 

 experience, magnetic observations made 

 on oceanic islands or along the coasts are 

 almost invariably more or less affected by 

 local disturbing influences. It may there- 

 fore easily happen that some of our pres- 

 ent ocean charts of the lines of equal 

 magnetic variation, used by the mariner 

 to guide him over the trackless seas, do 

 not possess the accuracy required for 

 even purely commercial purposes. 



The reasons which actuated the au- 

 thorities of the Carnegie Institution in 

 undertaking the magnetic survey of the 

 oceans and unexplored regions to satisfy 

 both commercial and scientific require- 

 ments are thus made patent. Captain 

 Creak's remark also shows why the be- 

 ginning was made in the ocean so rapidly 

 developing just now in commercial im- 

 portance — the North Pacific Ocean. Here 

 the mariners' charts of the compass direc- 

 tion have had to be based, until a few 

 months ago, upon but a very small num- 

 ber of observations of the requisite com- 

 pleteness and accuracy. 

 Society of Engineers, May 21, 1907. 



