Chicago eagle. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1889-19??, 1893-02-04
SECRETS OF THE SEA.
How the photographic Once Is Trying
TO Learn Them.

How the photographic Ohce Is iiyinS
TO Learn Them.
The setting afloat of messages in
bottles has been an expedient resorted
to by ship wrecked mariners for many
centuries. Often has writing thus
consigned to the waves been the
happy means of rescuing castaways
bringing succur to those whom hope
had well nigh forsaken. More fire.
auently such document, picked up
years later perhaps has relieved sus-
pense by making certain the fate of
missing voyagers. 1t seems odd that
this idea should have been recently
adopted by science for the practical
and unromantic purposeof finding out
about the surface currents of the
ocean.
This work is the newest that has
been undertaken by the photographic
Office of the United States navy.
Within the last two years it has dis
tributed tens of thousands of "bottle
papers" among the $500 shippers of
seagoing vessels from sailing craft to
Atlantic liners, who contribute re-
ports us voluntary observers in ex-
change for supplies Of pilot-charts,
&c. given by the government These
bottle papers are printed forms Which
the observers are requested to inclOse
in bottles and throw overheard after
marking upon each Of them the lati-
tude, longitude and date On each
paper is separate space in which the
person who may find the bottle is
asked to write the date and locality,
afterward forwarding the paper to
the nearest United States consul or
to the photographic office at Wash
ington. Directions as to these mat
ters are printed on the paper in sew
eral languages. Up to the present
time 261 of the bottle papers thus
scattered broadcast have been re-
turned, but thousands of them are
still aioat, and of these a consider
able percentage will he picked up
sooner or later, OF course, it is i'm
possible to know how many of those
placed in the hands of observers have
been duly bottled and launched.
The course taken by the bottles in
drifting tells the story of the ocean
currents ,and knowledge of these is
of the utmost importance to marin
ers. Chiefly it is valuable for enab-
ling vessels to select such routes
across the seas as Will make 1t posi-
BILE for them to take advantage of
fa Of aa NC md IN II n "a
orable ones. Columbus knew nothing
about the currents OF the Atlantic
and sc he made his way to the new
world by the path which the surface
drift laid out for him. Thus, after
being driven far to the southwark,
he finally broughtup at San Salvador.
Knowing where he started from and
the point at which he finally arrived,
photographers to-day can draw a
curved line on the map showing eX-
actly the course which he must have
followed. Just at this time such a
fact possesses no little interest. Only
few months ago the photographic
office was called upon to determine
the probable location Of Pacific mail
steamship which was lost in the
Pacific ocean. Her machinery having
broken down, as was reported by d
vessel which had signaled her, she had
drifted off and nothing had been heard
Of her for weeks. The Pacific Mail
Company, being unable to find hel
appealed to the experts at Washing
ton, who promptly pointed out the
exact spot where she would be discov
cred. And she was found there 60(
miles west Of where the owners haC
been looking for her. This was fig
ured out from known facts respecting
the direction and velocity of the cur
rents in that great waste of waters