Herzberg Principle — Palmer 
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lulu, and used Dr. Lyon’s density ratio. They 
estimated that the fall in head to 1925 implied 
that over 50 per cent of the amount of water 
originally stored underground had been re- 
moved. Though they did not use the term, 
either they or Dr. Lyon seem to have been the 
first to hit on the idea of "bottom storage." 
A report on the ground waters of the island 
of Lanai by Palmer (1924) includes a diagram- 
matic cross section of the water table in an 
ideal, symmetrical, homogeneous, permeable, 
and rainy island, showing the upward curve, 
but it does not have the corresponding down- 
ward curve of the base of the fresh water body. 
Apparently Brown’s first paper had been for- 
gotten. Wentworth (1925), in his larger report 
on Lanai, seems to have been misled by 
Palmer’s erroneous, incomplete cross section. 
Another great landmark was Brown’s larger 
paper, published in 1925 though also based 
on his 1919 field work and subsequent office 
and library work. It adds little for the present 
purpose, but it surely had a different and more 
extensive readership than did the earlier, 
shorter paper. It has formed the basis for 
subsequent work on ground waters in Hawaii 
and many other regions. It includes an an- 
notated bibliography of relevant papers. 
One important effect of it may be found 
published in the abstract of Palmer’s paper 
presented May 19, 1926, before the Hawaiian 
Academy of Science, namely the use of the 
"U-tube" analogy for illustrating the balance 
between salt and fresh water. 
A fuller paper resulted from the preceding, 
and was published in October 1926. So far 
as appears, it presents the first deductive ex- 
planation of the artesian conditions at Hono- 
lulu, by the use of three progressively more 
complex cross sections of ideal, oceanic is- 
lands. The first is a symmetrical, homogene- 
ous, permeable, but rainless island, in which 
sea water fills all the voids below sea level. 
The second adds an effective amount of rain 
that eventually supplies fresh water to a lens 
floating on denser sea water. In discussing 
this cross section the algebraic derivation of 
the Herzberg ratio, 40 : 1, is given. The third 
cross section adds an impermeable coastal 
capping that thickens the edge of the fresh- 
water lens so as to cause artesian conditions. 
Combined in this are the three essential fac- 
tors: (1) the permeable lava rock aquifer; 
(2) the impermeable coastal plain cap rock; 
and (3) the Herzberg principle. 
On Sept. 10, 1926, Palmer transmitted to 
the Honolulu Sewer and Water Commission 
his report on the Honolulu artesian system 
(1927). The ideas of the paper discussed just 
above were included and somewhat expanded. 
This report made several contributions. One 
was the explanation of the differences in the 
heads of the several isopiestic areas as a result 
of their being partly separated by deep valley 
fills that acted as inverted, underground dams. 
Another idea, thought to have been new then, 
was that of ascribing the gradation downward 
from fresh through brackish to salt water in 
the "contact zone” to mixing as a result of 
rise and fall of the contact zone in response 
to falling and rising artesian heads. With 
falling head, the contact zone would rise 
bringing saltier water where fresher water had 
been; and with rising head, the contact zone 
would drop and bring fresher water where 
saltier water had been. 
There was also the first, though inadequate, 
attempt to study the rate of change in the 
"transition zone," as we now prefer to call 
the "contact zone." Studies of the reduction 
of salinity in two wells by plugging parts of 
the bottoms, gave changes per foot of plug 
of 1.75 parts and of 25 parts of chloride per 
million parts of water. The slow rate of change 
in the first well was thought to be due to 
greater fluctuations of the depth to the transi- 
tion zone as a result of greater fluctuations of 
the artesian head, with more mixing as a 
result. 
From 1926 on there have been many appli- 
cations of the Herzberg principle, not only at 
various places in the Hawaiian Islands, but 
also on many Pacific islands, especially during 
World War II. There has also been application 
