Butte record., 1854-11-04
VISIBILITY OF DISTANT OBJECTS


mount in is visible at distrnce of five
hunired miles; as for instance in the
case Of reccnt ascpnt of Mount Hood
in @ egon, by the editor of the Oregon
ian, wh.rc he says that : Shasta Butte
in Cal, cnuld b. d stinc'ly seen from
that elevation though ) % milrs dista t" :"
New he makes out VI ,ult Hold to b.
$50 feet high, alb we the sea level as
| | suppose by his me ms OF obt aiming it.
and not so much above the plain But
with this elevation the mountain would
he entirely cnncesled by the conve kitty
OF the earth, at distance of I66 mites,
were there no atmospheric refraction !;
and making II rsquis g allowance for
tcrrestrioj rs.fraction, whose effect would
be to make the mountain appear n tiii>
case about thirteen miles nearer, it
would just bearly show it, he ID aboove
the horizon oi the ocen. that is it would
appear elevated .,b,ut eleven minutes of
IN are, which is about one third the
dlapeter ol the sin, owe the horiz n.
Also Shasta Butte i cqlled IS 600
feet high /; this would be visible in the
same way l5o mics. which added to
the other make 324 miles, the distance
that pnuntains would b. visible from
each bther in case there was nothing
intervening but the ocean. But in.c..se
there werr high lands Intervening, as
is certainly the fact in that region, it
would be s-nti-rly impossible to e eih-
er Of these mountains at any such dis
tance from each other Moreover |
cannot think that II unt Hood is more
han fourteen or ffleeen tnous nd feet
high Certainly the means taken by the
party in question to det rhine its h light
ared ccisivo of the elevation claimed for
it. Hence it must iollpw that the Or
egon editor nisiook some other peak for
Mt. Sh,sia The real Il stance h wev-
er, OF these mou ltains in an air line, Is
$50 mills, instead of $40 as be ju lged
5 iii i is utterly Impossible thai they
sh ,uld be visibl from ch other, on ac-
count Of the m ,un aims interv ming, if
there was 60 other cause. | think .lso,
that the atmosphere is never clear enough
to allow an obj CT to be seen on land at
distance OF $50 niles.
Shast Butte is 2lO miles iron Sacra-
mento, IN C. Straight line, and 40 from
Marysville, and could not possibly be
seen from either place. It is l56 miles
'om Marysvile Buttes, and may be
s'en from til the top of them, if no
mon tans interv ne; but not from their
b>s If It was $1,000 feet high it
NO Id ony appear on the verge of the
horiz,a Al S or rnento City. 1t must
b. 1900 feet o appear on the verge f
The hoizon MarysvilIe. I'ne inv sti-
cation of d math matlc,l formula f,r de-
t trnining these facts is simple. The
rule deduced from it is this j: the distance
at which an object would be concealed
BY tn convexitl of the earth varie, as
the sYnare root of the height AT the
distance OF one mile, en- obj ct must be
light inches high in order to be visible
20 IN eve at thu su-f,ec of the ocean
And Tor any other elevation, if tie
height IN f ct be increased by its half.
the square root of the sum will b.. the
distance in miles at which the object
would jnst appear on ths horizon Of the
sea This must be incr' ased by a
small amount on account of terrestrial
refracion which causes an object to ap-
pear nearer than the reality, or would
how it little abnve the horizon when
il should be just concealed by tht con-
vexity Of the earth
| suspect, also. that if Mount Hood
WIS Is, 800 feet high, the editor ,uld
not have reached its summit so easily.
The greitest height ever known 10 lave
been obtained by climbing was, l think,
that reached by Humboldt, in ascerd ng
Chimborazo, in June 1905, when he
found himself. after great distress, the
blood starting f ON his ewes, lips and
aums, and aim 81 to pill with cold, at
an elevation. bv the baro meter o le
500 feet and sti at :. considerable DIS
ance below the sunmit, which, howev :
er. he would have atte apted 10 re ch
but for a vast intervening CHI. su which
forbid it. The summit tlvation be
found to be 81 ,42l feet above the ocean.
81 a.a the highest mnunInin in Ameri-
ca, is %, 300 feet high, and he hi CHEST
mpuntain of Asia, is $4,000 feet.
The groa est hight ever attained by