The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-10-14
THE COAST SURVEY.
Acting superintendent Thorn's Overweening
Anxiety to Succeed Hilgard.

Anxiety to Succeed Hilgard.
Washington Special.
Since the President rendered the position of
Superintendent of the Coast Survey to Professor
Agassiz, the public has heard nothing of the
probable successor of Superintendent Hilgard.
The fact that Agassiz was a well-known natural
ist and had no reputation at all as a physicist
was commented on quite humorously by a swarm
Of scientists here, who are watching with a good
deal of interest every appointment or move
ment which affects scientific matters. They
knew that Professor Agassiz had too much self
respect to accept a position for which he was no
more fitted than would be a specialist in the
dead languages. What surprised them was that
the place should have been rendered to him.
The mere fact that it was, however, leads them
to regard with some anxiety the probability of
its being filled by somebody not possessing the
modesty of Professor Agassiz. The position of
Superintendent of the Coast Survey demands
the highest mathematician who can be obtained
for the paltry salary, and that salary will neces-
sarily restrict it to some physicist who is pecuni-
arily independent.
The recent rumor that the small Buffalo law
yer and politician, who is now in temporary
charge, aspires to the SUPERINTENDENT, is re-
ceived in scientific circles with incredulity.
1t is a fact, nevertheless, that acting Superin-
tendent Thorn has been laying the wires for his
own promotion. He has recently, it is said,
been brushing up on mathematics at George
town College in order to accomplish his pur-
pose. There is something exceedingly funny
in this, and the scientists are laughing at the
idea of a man beginning the rudiments of sur.
veying and trigonometry in order to fit himself
for a place which is the highest honor in mathe-
MATES.
A good story is told at Superintendent Thorn's
expense at the Survey Office. He was found con
templating an instrument known to the surveyor
as a base bar, and said to the workman who dis
covered him:
Il have been wondering what that thing is"
'Why, it's a base bar, for measuring base
lines, replied the astonished workman. half sus-
pectipg he was being guyed.
oh said Mr.. Thorn. ''of course; I thought
so" and moved away. An hour or two later the
same man found his chief again examining the
scientific implement. II am not quite certain, +"
he remarked, whether | yet understand what
this COMPOUNDED thing is for" And the base-bar
is certainly a curious-looking instrument to the
ignorant. 1t is a combination of rods Of differ
ent metals nicely adjusted to prevent contrac-
ton by cold or expansion by heat The whole
bundle is covered with canvas, and is about
twelve or fourteen feet long, being pointed down
at the ends with agate tips. In the middle it is
about eighteen inches thick, and the whole bar
looks something like a ships spar. With two of
these delicately- adjusted instruments a base-line
is run, say for q mile, which will not vary so
much as a hairs breadth, and from this base-iine
trlangulations are made across from ocean to
ocean. The importance of the instrument will
be better understood when it is known that a
single base-line served for a survey of all Europe,
and but three base lines, of a mile or more each,
one on the California and two on the Atlantic
coasts, form the base of all American surveys.
Mr.. Thorn now probably knows what a base bar
is, and will know more when he gets through
with his mathematics coach at Georgetown Col
lege.